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whyfearthedarkJUST THE FACTS, MA'AM
Name: Nuada Silverlance
Aliases: *koffkoff*
Age and/or birthday: Fandom has it he's everywhere between 4000-8000 years old, or (lol) roughly the equivalent of 40 human years. It's so difficult to tell, innit?
Fandom/Media/OC?: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Programmed Possession: Two thirds of the golden crown what rules the golden army.
Arrival date: 2013-02-06 (that's Year, Month, Date to you non-europeans)
I am...:Imagine if Geronimo had gotten access to the key to a nuclear bomb. Yeah. Old school fairy/elf prince/Necessarily Evil Anti-Villain.
BODY OF EVIDENCE
Describe your character physically.
Physical stats et.c:
Height: 6'1"
Weight: whothehellknows
Distinctive features:
Nuada is pale to the point of ashy white, but 'pure as the driven snow' couldn't be farther from the truth. His skin is waxy, his face covered in the royal scarring of his clan - two swirls at either temple, partially covered by his hairline, several vertical lines on his forehead, and most prominently, a curved line cutting across his nose from cheekbone to cheekbone.
His eyes are ringed with dark circles, added to by his brow. His lips are dark to the point of actually being black - but whether it's a tattoo or some sort of external manifestation to his internal corruption, no one knows.
Nuada's eyes are yellow. And by yellow, we don't mean purple prose-y, Victorian fairy, pretty-yellow-like-daffodils-in-spring. They are dark and vivid, and rimmed with an orange-y, brown-y redness that extends nearly to each corner of the eye. There's nothing pretty about them (unless you find that sort of thing exotic ;3), but they are striking, like the rest of him.
His hair is, to put it bluntly, weird. It's stark white to begin with, gradually yellowed towards the tips, but it also moves in mysterious ways. It looks gossamer light, but seems heavy. It's vaguely curled when wet, straight as a pin when dry. Whatever it is, it isn't human hair.
His body is covered in scars. Actual, raised, white battle scars. Where the ritual scars on his face look like grooves in the skin, his battle scars are gnarly and as varied as you'd expect from a war veteran from ancient times.
What does your character wear? Nuada dresses impeccably, in vaguely Asian-European clothing that is both gorgeous and ever so slightly intimidating. Never a thread out of order, etc.
That covers what they look like. What do they sound like? Nuada has a softness to his voice that I've always seen as an unexpected quality. He has a very male tone and timbre and register and all that jazz, but he is so soft-spoken 90% of the time. The only time he raises his voice, it's to crowd control - and by that I mean, speak to a roomful of people. Even when he means business, he's a quiet little guy. I think that's rather telling, actually. It's something you see very often in corporate/political/office contexts, but you don't tend to think about it: it's often the quietest man or woman in the room that holds the power.
Running down the list of the five senses.... smell? Mmmmmmmagic! :D No, but seriously. Nuada is an elf, a fairy warrior. Make of that what you will. On any given day he'll be clean and well put together, but he also sees no problem in traversing the city via its sewers every now and then. Have fun with that.
Touch & Taste. Uh, okay there. First, let us look at Nuada's blood. It isn't human blood, and doesn't at all look like it. When he bleeds, it looks like blood, but it is darker than it ever should be. When his heart bleeds (literally, not metaphorically), it looks like melted candle-wax soaking through his clothes. Indeed, when his particular brand of elf dies, they go into an immediate rigor mortis, transforming into a waxy, sandy stone-like statue. It is brittle, and crumbles very easily. As for taste, I think I'll leave veto rights to any would-be samplers of his blood (or other parts)--
Seeing as Paul happened to sample Nuada's blood after the big fight with Etrigan (2013), we now have a verdict: not-salty weirdness, basically. :)
The fine, fine details: He's really, really old. Aaaand that's as much as you'll get, because he's not about to tell you about his anatomy, don't you know anything about self-preservation?
PB differences?Not as of yet, no. NUADA LOST HIS ARM TO ETRIGAN'S CHOMPER OMNOMNOM.
Nuada: - one (1) left arm.
BENEATH LE SURFACE
A history of me: On Christmas Eve, 1955, Hellboy's guardian tells him a bedtime story. It goes like this:
It is said that at the dawn of time, Man, Beast and all magical beings lived together under Aiglin, the Father Tree. But Man had been created with a hole in his heart: a hole that no possession, power or knowledge could fill, and in his infinite greed, Man dreamt of expanding his dominion over the entire earth.
The blood of many an elf, ogre and goblin were spilt in the war on Man, and King Balor, the one-armed king of the elf land, watched the slaughter with dread and despair. But one day, the Master of the goblin blacksmiths offered to build the king a golden mechanical army of seventy times seventy soldiers that would never know hunger, and could not be stopped.
Prince Nuada begged his father to agree. 'Build me this army,' the king said.
And so, a magical crown was forged, that would allow those of royal blood to command the Golden Army, if unchallenged. 'I am King Balor, leader of the Golden Army. Is there anyone who disputes my right?' And in his throne room, no one challenged his word.
So the world was changed, and the next time the humans marched, they felt the earth tremble beneath their feet, and saw the sky darkened by monstrous shapes. The Golden Army had no remorse, felt no loyalty, no pain; and King Balor's heart grew heavy with regret, so he called a truce, and divided the crown in three pieces: one for the humans, and two for himself. In exchange the humans would stay in their cities, and the magical beings would own the forest. This truce would be honored by their sons and the sons of their sons until the end of time.
But Prince Nuada did not believe in the promises of Man. It is said he went into exile, vowing to return when his people needed him most.
So the Golden Army lay dormant, locked inside the earth, waiting. And there it is to this day, awaiting the day the crown is made whole again. Silent, still and indestructible.
The movie cuts to present day, showing the real-life Nuada (as opposed to the fairy tale ditto) practicing his sword/spear fighting skills underground, in an offshoot to the New York subway. Soon a very big, very ugly-looking humanoid enters, whom Nuada addresses as Mister Wink. Mr Wink is a troll who's seen better days, having had one of his tusks broken, one of his eyes damaged and fused shut, and one of his hands chopped off (replaced by a mechanical, eject-able hand attached to his wrist by a very long chain)--
(My headcanon says Mr Wink and Nuada fought together during the war, and that they each view each other as brothers-in-arms. Mr Wink is often referred to as Nuada's companion, which isn't too misleading: Wink is Nuada's sole confidante, his co-conspirator in the things yet to come. He is Nuada's only friend and ally, and the only one who shares his moral outlook on their mission. There will be difficult decisions along the way. Lives will be lost and/or made examples of. They will have to risk everything. It will be worth it, if it saves the world from destruction.
Furthermore, I have Thoughts regarding what Nuada got up to during his many, many, many years of exile. I imagine he stayed on the sidelines, watching human society across the world from a distance while constantly weighing the course of human history and exploitation according to his own inner calipers. He made a point of learning the lingua franca of the day and age (Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, and most recently English) to better understand the goings-on outside of the increasingly diminishing fairy realm. He learned goblin crafts, such as iron- and clockwork, having been fascinated with their skills since seeing the Golden Army for the first time. He also made a point of keeping himself updated on everything to do with human society and culture, along the lines of knowing one's enemy. However, during his exile he has preferred the company of other fairy folk, such as trolls, goblins and ogres. Some time ago - twenty, thirty, fifty years - he came to live in New York City, making his presence felt if not outright known around the troll market under the Brooklyn Bridge.)
Nuada has procured goods (tooth fairies and a facehugger-esque tentacle'd critter, both kept in two containers bearing the royal seal which is only used in war), and together they set off in the night to wage war upon humankind: they are going to steal the first piece of Balor's golden crown from the humans. On the night of September 26, in what turns into a massacre, Nuada unleashes a host of tooth fairies and facehuggers on a poor, unsuspecting high end auction at Blackwood's of New York, on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Out of the seventy people at the auction, they leave no survivors.
Their next move is to take the remaining pieces of the crown, kept by King Balor himself and Nuada's twin sister, Nuala. The prince enters the high council, as is his right even after his long exile. There is one condition: that no arms be brought into the hall. Nuala persuades her brother to release his weapon. Knowing he'll have words with his father and that they are unlikely to see eye to eye, he is prepared to fight. After a short exchange in Gaelic, he is deemed a traitor and condemned to death. He's left with no choice but to take what he wants by force. He asks his sister if she is at peace with her king's verdict, and she replies that she is. "Then," Nuada says, "Death it is." He disarms one of the attacking royal guard, kills/incapacitates the entire royal guard and his own father, taking the second piece from his dead, petrified body.
Seeing her brother's treason Nuala flees with the third and last piece of the crown. Nuada sends Wink to retrieve her, using any means necessary to get the final piece. Unfortunately for Wink, Hellboy and his team have stumbled upon the princess and, seeing Wink as a threat, Hellboy barely misses a beat when disposing of him. Wink's mechanical hand gets caught in a grinding wheel...thing at the troll market, and he's crushed like so much waste. Hearing of this, Nuada is enraged, and goes up to the surface to confront Hellboy.
In the ensuing battle with the BPRD team, he unleashes the last of the forest gods on them, taunting Hellboy to kill or save it. He argues that Hellboy doesn't belong with the human race, that he has more in common with the fae and would do well to join them. He could be a king if only he made the right choice - the humans will turn against him, Nuada says. It is only a matter of time.
Hellboy kills the last surviving forest god, Nuada vanishes from the scene; the princess escapes, seeking refuge with the BPRD, but only because her brother lets her go.
And thus, Nuada fades from existence in the Hellboy universe, and fades into Taxon carrying two pieces of a very pretty but frustratingly useless crown.
Who matters? The single most important relationship in Nuada's life right up to when he enters Taxon, has got to be his friendship/companionship with Wink, the one-eyed troll. The things we know about Wink from the movie can be summed up like so:
* he's (literally) the only one on Nuada's side
* he's loyal (but not, perhaps, the most observant of folks. give him a break, he's only got one eye)
* he's reluctant to be out and about in the human world ("And remember, Mister Wink: don't be shy.")
In a similar fashion, since there isn't much actually said about Wink and Nuada, you have to extrapolate from what you're shown on-screen. When Nuada hears of Wink's demise, he seems genuinely shocked. Not just that, he doesn't seem immediately angered or vindictive, he just looks horrified (and gives a trembling gasp). Rather like I imagine a guy like him would look if he'd just lost his only friend in the entire world.
A close runner-up is Nuada's bond with his sister Nuala. He loves her, always has, but war and time and whatever else it is that drives him to such extremes has tarnished his affection towards her. He treats her like a pet.
Nuada loves his father as well, which might be a bit difficult to grasp as he kills the old man. But, as is the theme of so many a slice of folklore, the father must die so that the son can take over. He doesn't necessarily want to kill his father. I think it's apparent that he regrets it the moment it's done (he very nearly whimpers/sobs, for peaches' sake, and says "I have always loved you, father" - and he doesn't look victorious when he takes the crown piece, but he actually looks torn). He's faced with only two options at that point: be executed, or kill the king, effectively taking the throne. He chooses to live, and fight.
As for Taxon residents, he's a mixed bag of impressions:
Selina Kyle is a nuisance, but little else.
Jason Blood is amusing. Him and his underhanded threats and posturing, daww.
Long is a gentlebeing with excellent taste in tea. He's useful.
Glitch's zipper, more than Glitch himself, is a source of delightful intrigue. Makes him wonder what would be a suitable price to get a peek inside.
Metody, the nameless bone creatures, rather, are to be treated with respect. Also, the skull-dog creature is both endearing, exasperating and vile.
Sherlock Holmes talks too much, but every now and then he says something just clever enough.
Horst Brauer is a moron (sorry, Horst, I wub yew).
Remus Lupin is intriguing, and somewhat disarming, and ever so alluring (the wolf more than the man, of course), but as if he'd ever admit that. Stupid wizard hexed him.
Madeline Pryor, the Witch. She's useful.And polite. Both good qualities.
Personality & Psychology: If Nuada was a human lord and war veteran who had once sided with his people against a horrifyingly destructive force, consequently gone into exile until a time when his gut feelings about the current truce came true, and then come back to use whatever means necessary to overcome evil, well... Then he would have been a hero, by most of Hollywood's standards. In fact, his character isn't so different from your generic good guy/hero stereotype. He's a good man, scarred by his experiences in a seeming endless war. He cares deeply about his family (and in fact his entire race) and time and again he shows remorse when you least expect it. He's a mask of harsh lines and ambiguous emotion, a bona fide warrior...and then all of a sudden a glimpse of something shows through. He knows he has to make tough calls, hard decisions that would normally qualify as high treason, but he makes these decisions because no one else will. In that sense, he is a hero type. But he isn't a human fighting alien invaders or foreign religious fanatics - he is the non-human threat, ready to wage war on an unsuspecting population. What's worse, he is ready to go so far as to commit genocide. That is his goal. If push comes to shove, he'll kill every human man, woman and child on the planet - to save it.
In my mind, that old proverb about good intentions paving the road to Hell sums him up to a 't'. The only thing he really wants is to save the earth, and he's grown increasingly frustrated with his father's laissez-faire approach, and he isn't satisfied with what the humans themselves are doing to save their planet (it's hinted that he's aware of Greenpeace and the like, but unimpressed). He's run out of options, and finds himself forced to take a stand: the human greed knows no bounds, and the magical folk lead a marginalized existence underground and out of sight. He feels compelled to right the wrongs of humanity once and for all. That in itself isn't a problem. It's his belief that the ends justify the means (at any cost) that takes him down such a dark road.
In the movie, one of the themes is the balance between darkness and light, and how the two can never really be separated. Nuada is a literally battle scarred, very bitter elf who will wage war if necessary. His twin sister Nuala is his polar opposite. She is quiet, open, a pacifist who only wants to maintain the truce between the fairy world and the humans. She is light, even in appearance. As bright as her eyes are, as deep is the darkness around Nuada's. He's ruthless when needed, she would never raise a hand against another. They're yin and yang, never truly apart even when separated from each other. If he bleeds, so does she, and vice versa. If one dies, the other dies as well. This bond goes so deep as to the one being aware of the other's emotions, spirits, even their general location. Nuada tells his sister at one point that their father has attempted to shield her heart from him - but he knows her too well to let that stop him reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.
Despite the oppressive vibes you get from that scene - Nuada is terribly imposing, even belittling to his sister and she is obviously terrified of him - he loves her more than anything. I reckon that, as they were children, they were the only friends either one of them had. They were the best of friends, sharing everything, and both of them dreaming of an eternal peace under the Father Tree. When they grew older, the war with the humans tainted Nuada. The more he fought, the more disillusioned he became of the concept of peace between the races, the more bitter and mocking of his childhood visions of the future. Nuala remained the soft, graceful, beautiful one, who through the force of their bond silently and without complaint bore every scar Nuada took in battle.
When Nuala sides with their father regarding the truce, Nuada makes the difficult choice to extricate himself from the equation. It is obvious to him that he and his sister are not so alike as they once thought. He leaves her behind, because he knows in his heart it is the right thing to do. He'll need to grow stronger, faster, better. He'll need to be prepared for the day when the humans once more push too far.
More than anything, I feel, he is a guardian. He can be benevolent and graceful, even loving, but there is a time and place for everything. Nearly the entire span of the movie, there's no time for leniency or grace, or even love. He is on a mission, and he won't let anyone compromise it, not even his own flesh and blood.
Guillermo del Toro says Nuada is the last warrior of his kind, and while the humans are pushing and pushing the fairy world to the very outskirts of society, the prince essentially says 'No more'. He and his sister are two sides of one coin. They represent one person who is divided by the two sides of their conscience, says Anna Walton who played Nuala. To see how he manages without his other half, as it were, will be interesting, to say the least.
(Both actors who portrayed Nuada and Nuala have commented on there being an incestuous relationship between them. This isn't too overt on screen, but it is there in the Very Wrong vibes you get when Nuada breaks into the BPRD to persuade his sister to give him the last piece of the crown. I'm not particularly a fan of incest!fiction, though it does have its place in fandom. I can and will hint the bejeebus out of stuff if we ever get a Nuala, but that's it.)
Skills, Powers, Weaknesses, and et cetera: (+ His mother's tongue is ancient Gaelic, but he's studied several languages since then, to keep on top of who rules the human world, and how (HI THERE MISTER LONG, SIR))
+ Immortal elf warrior. Need I elaborate further? Yes. Yes, I do. See the minuses down below.
+ Impervious to fire and heat
+ Really ridiculous acrobatics/martial arts skills.
+ Blades. He can handle any bladed weapon he can get his hands on, preferring daggers and short katana-like blades - and if anyone could make slaughter a beautiful thing (morbid thought, that), he would be the guy. He has a small curved sword that can morph itself into a spear. Its tip can break off and lodge in someone, and every attempt at removing it will cause it to elongate, inflicting more damage. Said tip regenerates on the blade itself. I don't even know. Fairy/goblin magic?
+ Clockworks - with the right tools and materials, he can make the most exquisitely beautiful, horrendously dangerous little trinkets/containers/thingamabobs.
+ The ability to appear and disappear at will. I wouldn't go so far as calling it teleporting (wrong genre), but Nuada can fade from one place in an instant, and appear somewhere else just as easily. He is an elf, one of the fae, and he walks a different path.
(+ His sister has the ability to touch people and 'know their hearts'. If they share innate abilities, that would suggest that Nuada also has this ability. But as he isn't a touchy feely kind of guy, and he never pulls that stunt, I'm just gonna parenthesize the heck out of this one)
- His sister bleeds, he bleeds. Any wound inflicted on her is inflicted on him as well. If anyone should app Nuala, this will actually mean something.
(Yes I know he's ridiculously overpowered and seemingly indestructible. The only way Hellboy and his posse 'won' the final showdown was because Nuala sacrificed herself, thus killing her brother. Boy don' quit. However)
- He can be injured. He's just as susceptible to physical injury as anyone else - he's just so fast and so limber and so thoroughly trained that he can evade almost every blow. But he isn't perfect. He isn't immune to pain or most of the elements (most notably not fire). He could be shot or stabbed or drowned, and he would very likely die a horrible death as consequence. In Hellboy, there's a distinction between immortality and death. Immortal creatures can and do die - but should they live a peaceful life and not get caught up in Hellboy's rampage, they can and do live forever. HB immortals don't ever die of old age, but they can die - given the right amount of force.
Non-canon weaknesses:
Since I love the fact the movie draws heavily from European folklore (with a bit of Asian flair), going so far as to base Nuada around a Celtic mythological figure called Nuadha the Silver-handed, I am very keen on giving him some traditional fairy folk weaknesses.
- An unbroken circle of salt (around your house, around yourself) will keep him from entering/coming near you. He can't cross a line of salt, period.
- Cold iron binds and repels him.
- The sound of bells (not just church bells) is physically painful.
Sexytiems: Nuada finds your dual-gendered social structures so very amusing.Not that his own elf society seems to be any less static in the movie, but it's not as if we can base an entire magical folk society on the protocol in a king's hall, right? He is very much pan, just not very interested. Furthermore he is very, very much a dominant guy. Call him an alpha or a dom or whatever. Your silly little human categories are so limiting.
Sex has its place, but it's mostly just messy and cumbersome and there's always moral outcries of this or that one feeling used, blah blah blah.
Yes, he'll treat you as a pet, or a pastime, or just an uninspiring receptacle of whatever it is you call it these days - fleeting intrigue? For him to consider you an equal, now, that would take a great deal indeed.
Addendum: Should he find you interesting or attractive or desirable enough, he will dominate you. He will have youwhether you want it or not, and he'll make you come back for more. Dub-con, anyone? >_>
Best way to meet this character: Nuada can be found literally anywhere in Taxon, painstakingly mapping and/or studying the city and its inhabitants. He's also busy procuring items (though to what ends, that's his business and no one elses), so chances are he's in any of the shops, or at the bazaarbreaking Extra!urchins' wrists looking for bargains.
PERMISSIONS
THE MIND: Yes they can, and thoughts are always designated with italics, unless otherwise noted. He doesn't have any blocks, but what with his pointy bitty earses he might just feel a little something prickling when someone goes a-snooping.
THE BODY: Oh yes. Body, home, property, it's all good. Just plot with me first for maximum effect etc :D
FUNKY STUFF: Sure and sure, and yeah, no worries. But I do love plotting, so please do feel free to ping me about stuff.
PRIVACY: Threadhopping, yes, threadjacking...not so much. Ask first. Regarding unlocked/locked posts, go nuts! And Nuada won't hide his position/marker on the map. AS IF HE WOULD HIDE FROM YOU, YOU INBRED INGRATES. ...ahem.
SURPRISE!: Spider senses: tingling! Nah, it is possible to catch him unawares, just a bit difficult. He's on high alert most of the time, but poke me and we'll figure something out.
MISCELLANEOUS
Name: Nuada Silverlance
Aliases: *koffkoff*
Age and/or birthday: Fandom has it he's everywhere between 4000-8000 years old, or (lol) roughly the equivalent of 40 human years. It's so difficult to tell, innit?
Fandom/Media/OC?: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Programmed Possession: Two thirds of the golden crown what rules the golden army.
Arrival date: 2013-02-06 (that's Year, Month, Date to you non-europeans)
I am...:
BODY OF EVIDENCE
Describe your character physically.
Physical stats et.c:
Height: 6'1"
Weight: whothehellknows
Distinctive features:
Nuada is pale to the point of ashy white, but 'pure as the driven snow' couldn't be farther from the truth. His skin is waxy, his face covered in the royal scarring of his clan - two swirls at either temple, partially covered by his hairline, several vertical lines on his forehead, and most prominently, a curved line cutting across his nose from cheekbone to cheekbone.
His eyes are ringed with dark circles, added to by his brow. His lips are dark to the point of actually being black - but whether it's a tattoo or some sort of external manifestation to his internal corruption, no one knows.
Nuada's eyes are yellow. And by yellow, we don't mean purple prose-y, Victorian fairy, pretty-yellow-like-daffodils-in-spring. They are dark and vivid, and rimmed with an orange-y, brown-y redness that extends nearly to each corner of the eye. There's nothing pretty about them (unless you find that sort of thing exotic ;3), but they are striking, like the rest of him.
His hair is, to put it bluntly, weird. It's stark white to begin with, gradually yellowed towards the tips, but it also moves in mysterious ways. It looks gossamer light, but seems heavy. It's vaguely curled when wet, straight as a pin when dry. Whatever it is, it isn't human hair.
His body is covered in scars. Actual, raised, white battle scars. Where the ritual scars on his face look like grooves in the skin, his battle scars are gnarly and as varied as you'd expect from a war veteran from ancient times.
What does your character wear? Nuada dresses impeccably, in vaguely Asian-European clothing that is both gorgeous and ever so slightly intimidating. Never a thread out of order, etc.
That covers what they look like. What do they sound like? Nuada has a softness to his voice that I've always seen as an unexpected quality. He has a very male tone and timbre and register and all that jazz, but he is so soft-spoken 90% of the time. The only time he raises his voice, it's to crowd control - and by that I mean, speak to a roomful of people. Even when he means business, he's a quiet little guy. I think that's rather telling, actually. It's something you see very often in corporate/political/office contexts, but you don't tend to think about it: it's often the quietest man or woman in the room that holds the power.
Running down the list of the five senses.... smell? Mmmmmmmagic! :D No, but seriously. Nuada is an elf, a fairy warrior. Make of that what you will. On any given day he'll be clean and well put together, but he also sees no problem in traversing the city via its sewers every now and then. Have fun with that.
Touch & Taste. Uh, okay there. First, let us look at Nuada's blood. It isn't human blood, and doesn't at all look like it. When he bleeds, it looks like blood, but it is darker than it ever should be. When his heart bleeds (literally, not metaphorically), it looks like melted candle-wax soaking through his clothes. Indeed, when his particular brand of elf dies, they go into an immediate rigor mortis, transforming into a waxy, sandy stone-like statue. It is brittle, and crumbles very easily. As for taste, I think I'll leave veto rights to any would-be samplers of his blood (or other parts)--
Seeing as Paul happened to sample Nuada's blood after the big fight with Etrigan (2013), we now have a verdict: not-salty weirdness, basically. :)
The fine, fine details: He's really, really old. Aaaand that's as much as you'll get, because he's not about to tell you about his anatomy, don't you know anything about self-preservation?
PB differences?
Nuada: - one (1) left arm.
BENEATH LE SURFACE
A history of me: On Christmas Eve, 1955, Hellboy's guardian tells him a bedtime story. It goes like this:
It is said that at the dawn of time, Man, Beast and all magical beings lived together under Aiglin, the Father Tree. But Man had been created with a hole in his heart: a hole that no possession, power or knowledge could fill, and in his infinite greed, Man dreamt of expanding his dominion over the entire earth.
The blood of many an elf, ogre and goblin were spilt in the war on Man, and King Balor, the one-armed king of the elf land, watched the slaughter with dread and despair. But one day, the Master of the goblin blacksmiths offered to build the king a golden mechanical army of seventy times seventy soldiers that would never know hunger, and could not be stopped.
Prince Nuada begged his father to agree. 'Build me this army,' the king said.
And so, a magical crown was forged, that would allow those of royal blood to command the Golden Army, if unchallenged. 'I am King Balor, leader of the Golden Army. Is there anyone who disputes my right?' And in his throne room, no one challenged his word.
So the world was changed, and the next time the humans marched, they felt the earth tremble beneath their feet, and saw the sky darkened by monstrous shapes. The Golden Army had no remorse, felt no loyalty, no pain; and King Balor's heart grew heavy with regret, so he called a truce, and divided the crown in three pieces: one for the humans, and two for himself. In exchange the humans would stay in their cities, and the magical beings would own the forest. This truce would be honored by their sons and the sons of their sons until the end of time.
But Prince Nuada did not believe in the promises of Man. It is said he went into exile, vowing to return when his people needed him most.
So the Golden Army lay dormant, locked inside the earth, waiting. And there it is to this day, awaiting the day the crown is made whole again. Silent, still and indestructible.
The movie cuts to present day, showing the real-life Nuada (as opposed to the fairy tale ditto) practicing his sword/spear fighting skills underground, in an offshoot to the New York subway. Soon a very big, very ugly-looking humanoid enters, whom Nuada addresses as Mister Wink. Mr Wink is a troll who's seen better days, having had one of his tusks broken, one of his eyes damaged and fused shut, and one of his hands chopped off (replaced by a mechanical, eject-able hand attached to his wrist by a very long chain)--
(My headcanon says Mr Wink and Nuada fought together during the war, and that they each view each other as brothers-in-arms. Mr Wink is often referred to as Nuada's companion, which isn't too misleading: Wink is Nuada's sole confidante, his co-conspirator in the things yet to come. He is Nuada's only friend and ally, and the only one who shares his moral outlook on their mission. There will be difficult decisions along the way. Lives will be lost and/or made examples of. They will have to risk everything. It will be worth it, if it saves the world from destruction.
Furthermore, I have Thoughts regarding what Nuada got up to during his many, many, many years of exile. I imagine he stayed on the sidelines, watching human society across the world from a distance while constantly weighing the course of human history and exploitation according to his own inner calipers. He made a point of learning the lingua franca of the day and age (Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, and most recently English) to better understand the goings-on outside of the increasingly diminishing fairy realm. He learned goblin crafts, such as iron- and clockwork, having been fascinated with their skills since seeing the Golden Army for the first time. He also made a point of keeping himself updated on everything to do with human society and culture, along the lines of knowing one's enemy. However, during his exile he has preferred the company of other fairy folk, such as trolls, goblins and ogres. Some time ago - twenty, thirty, fifty years - he came to live in New York City, making his presence felt if not outright known around the troll market under the Brooklyn Bridge.)
Nuada has procured goods (tooth fairies and a facehugger-esque tentacle'd critter, both kept in two containers bearing the royal seal which is only used in war), and together they set off in the night to wage war upon humankind: they are going to steal the first piece of Balor's golden crown from the humans. On the night of September 26, in what turns into a massacre, Nuada unleashes a host of tooth fairies and facehuggers on a poor, unsuspecting high end auction at Blackwood's of New York, on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Out of the seventy people at the auction, they leave no survivors.
Their next move is to take the remaining pieces of the crown, kept by King Balor himself and Nuada's twin sister, Nuala. The prince enters the high council, as is his right even after his long exile. There is one condition: that no arms be brought into the hall. Nuala persuades her brother to release his weapon. Knowing he'll have words with his father and that they are unlikely to see eye to eye, he is prepared to fight. After a short exchange in Gaelic, he is deemed a traitor and condemned to death. He's left with no choice but to take what he wants by force. He asks his sister if she is at peace with her king's verdict, and she replies that she is. "Then," Nuada says, "Death it is." He disarms one of the attacking royal guard, kills/incapacitates the entire royal guard and his own father, taking the second piece from his dead, petrified body.
Seeing her brother's treason Nuala flees with the third and last piece of the crown. Nuada sends Wink to retrieve her, using any means necessary to get the final piece. Unfortunately for Wink, Hellboy and his team have stumbled upon the princess and, seeing Wink as a threat, Hellboy barely misses a beat when disposing of him. Wink's mechanical hand gets caught in a grinding wheel...thing at the troll market, and he's crushed like so much waste. Hearing of this, Nuada is enraged, and goes up to the surface to confront Hellboy.
In the ensuing battle with the BPRD team, he unleashes the last of the forest gods on them, taunting Hellboy to kill or save it. He argues that Hellboy doesn't belong with the human race, that he has more in common with the fae and would do well to join them. He could be a king if only he made the right choice - the humans will turn against him, Nuada says. It is only a matter of time.
Hellboy kills the last surviving forest god, Nuada vanishes from the scene; the princess escapes, seeking refuge with the BPRD, but only because her brother lets her go.
And thus, Nuada fades from existence in the Hellboy universe, and fades into Taxon carrying two pieces of a very pretty but frustratingly useless crown.
Who matters? The single most important relationship in Nuada's life right up to when he enters Taxon, has got to be his friendship/companionship with Wink, the one-eyed troll. The things we know about Wink from the movie can be summed up like so:
* he's (literally) the only one on Nuada's side
* he's loyal (but not, perhaps, the most observant of folks. give him a break, he's only got one eye)
* he's reluctant to be out and about in the human world ("And remember, Mister Wink: don't be shy.")
In a similar fashion, since there isn't much actually said about Wink and Nuada, you have to extrapolate from what you're shown on-screen. When Nuada hears of Wink's demise, he seems genuinely shocked. Not just that, he doesn't seem immediately angered or vindictive, he just looks horrified (and gives a trembling gasp). Rather like I imagine a guy like him would look if he'd just lost his only friend in the entire world.
A close runner-up is Nuada's bond with his sister Nuala. He loves her, always has, but war and time and whatever else it is that drives him to such extremes has tarnished his affection towards her. He treats her like a pet.
Nuada loves his father as well, which might be a bit difficult to grasp as he kills the old man. But, as is the theme of so many a slice of folklore, the father must die so that the son can take over. He doesn't necessarily want to kill his father. I think it's apparent that he regrets it the moment it's done (he very nearly whimpers/sobs, for peaches' sake, and says "I have always loved you, father" - and he doesn't look victorious when he takes the crown piece, but he actually looks torn). He's faced with only two options at that point: be executed, or kill the king, effectively taking the throne. He chooses to live, and fight.
As for Taxon residents, he's a mixed bag of impressions:
Selina Kyle is a nuisance, but little else.
Jason Blood is amusing. Him and his underhanded threats and posturing, daww.
Long is a gentlebeing with excellent taste in tea. He's useful.
Glitch's zipper, more than Glitch himself, is a source of delightful intrigue. Makes him wonder what would be a suitable price to get a peek inside.
Metody, the nameless bone creatures, rather, are to be treated with respect. Also, the skull-dog creature is both endearing, exasperating and vile.
Sherlock Holmes talks too much, but every now and then he says something just clever enough.
Horst Brauer is a moron (sorry, Horst, I wub yew).
Remus Lupin is intriguing, and somewhat disarming, and ever so alluring (the wolf more than the man, of course), but as if he'd ever admit that. Stupid wizard hexed him.
Madeline Pryor, the Witch. She's useful.
Personality & Psychology: If Nuada was a human lord and war veteran who had once sided with his people against a horrifyingly destructive force, consequently gone into exile until a time when his gut feelings about the current truce came true, and then come back to use whatever means necessary to overcome evil, well... Then he would have been a hero, by most of Hollywood's standards. In fact, his character isn't so different from your generic good guy/hero stereotype. He's a good man, scarred by his experiences in a seeming endless war. He cares deeply about his family (and in fact his entire race) and time and again he shows remorse when you least expect it. He's a mask of harsh lines and ambiguous emotion, a bona fide warrior...and then all of a sudden a glimpse of something shows through. He knows he has to make tough calls, hard decisions that would normally qualify as high treason, but he makes these decisions because no one else will. In that sense, he is a hero type. But he isn't a human fighting alien invaders or foreign religious fanatics - he is the non-human threat, ready to wage war on an unsuspecting population. What's worse, he is ready to go so far as to commit genocide. That is his goal. If push comes to shove, he'll kill every human man, woman and child on the planet - to save it.
In my mind, that old proverb about good intentions paving the road to Hell sums him up to a 't'. The only thing he really wants is to save the earth, and he's grown increasingly frustrated with his father's laissez-faire approach, and he isn't satisfied with what the humans themselves are doing to save their planet (it's hinted that he's aware of Greenpeace and the like, but unimpressed). He's run out of options, and finds himself forced to take a stand: the human greed knows no bounds, and the magical folk lead a marginalized existence underground and out of sight. He feels compelled to right the wrongs of humanity once and for all. That in itself isn't a problem. It's his belief that the ends justify the means (at any cost) that takes him down such a dark road.
In the movie, one of the themes is the balance between darkness and light, and how the two can never really be separated. Nuada is a literally battle scarred, very bitter elf who will wage war if necessary. His twin sister Nuala is his polar opposite. She is quiet, open, a pacifist who only wants to maintain the truce between the fairy world and the humans. She is light, even in appearance. As bright as her eyes are, as deep is the darkness around Nuada's. He's ruthless when needed, she would never raise a hand against another. They're yin and yang, never truly apart even when separated from each other. If he bleeds, so does she, and vice versa. If one dies, the other dies as well. This bond goes so deep as to the one being aware of the other's emotions, spirits, even their general location. Nuada tells his sister at one point that their father has attempted to shield her heart from him - but he knows her too well to let that stop him reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.
Despite the oppressive vibes you get from that scene - Nuada is terribly imposing, even belittling to his sister and she is obviously terrified of him - he loves her more than anything. I reckon that, as they were children, they were the only friends either one of them had. They were the best of friends, sharing everything, and both of them dreaming of an eternal peace under the Father Tree. When they grew older, the war with the humans tainted Nuada. The more he fought, the more disillusioned he became of the concept of peace between the races, the more bitter and mocking of his childhood visions of the future. Nuala remained the soft, graceful, beautiful one, who through the force of their bond silently and without complaint bore every scar Nuada took in battle.
When Nuala sides with their father regarding the truce, Nuada makes the difficult choice to extricate himself from the equation. It is obvious to him that he and his sister are not so alike as they once thought. He leaves her behind, because he knows in his heart it is the right thing to do. He'll need to grow stronger, faster, better. He'll need to be prepared for the day when the humans once more push too far.
More than anything, I feel, he is a guardian. He can be benevolent and graceful, even loving, but there is a time and place for everything. Nearly the entire span of the movie, there's no time for leniency or grace, or even love. He is on a mission, and he won't let anyone compromise it, not even his own flesh and blood.
Guillermo del Toro says Nuada is the last warrior of his kind, and while the humans are pushing and pushing the fairy world to the very outskirts of society, the prince essentially says 'No more'. He and his sister are two sides of one coin. They represent one person who is divided by the two sides of their conscience, says Anna Walton who played Nuala. To see how he manages without his other half, as it were, will be interesting, to say the least.
(Both actors who portrayed Nuada and Nuala have commented on there being an incestuous relationship between them. This isn't too overt on screen, but it is there in the Very Wrong vibes you get when Nuada breaks into the BPRD to persuade his sister to give him the last piece of the crown. I'm not particularly a fan of incest!fiction, though it does have its place in fandom. I can and will hint the bejeebus out of stuff if we ever get a Nuala, but that's it.)
Skills, Powers, Weaknesses, and et cetera: (+ His mother's tongue is ancient Gaelic, but he's studied several languages since then, to keep on top of who rules the human world, and how (HI THERE MISTER LONG, SIR))
+ Immortal elf warrior. Need I elaborate further? Yes. Yes, I do. See the minuses down below.
+ Impervious to fire and heat
+ Really ridiculous acrobatics/martial arts skills.
+ Blades. He can handle any bladed weapon he can get his hands on, preferring daggers and short katana-like blades - and if anyone could make slaughter a beautiful thing (morbid thought, that), he would be the guy. He has a small curved sword that can morph itself into a spear. Its tip can break off and lodge in someone, and every attempt at removing it will cause it to elongate, inflicting more damage. Said tip regenerates on the blade itself. I don't even know. Fairy/goblin magic?
+ Clockworks - with the right tools and materials, he can make the most exquisitely beautiful, horrendously dangerous little trinkets/containers/thingamabobs.
+ The ability to appear and disappear at will. I wouldn't go so far as calling it teleporting (wrong genre), but Nuada can fade from one place in an instant, and appear somewhere else just as easily. He is an elf, one of the fae, and he walks a different path.
(+ His sister has the ability to touch people and 'know their hearts'. If they share innate abilities, that would suggest that Nuada also has this ability. But as he isn't a touchy feely kind of guy, and he never pulls that stunt, I'm just gonna parenthesize the heck out of this one)
- His sister bleeds, he bleeds. Any wound inflicted on her is inflicted on him as well. If anyone should app Nuala, this will actually mean something.
(Yes I know he's ridiculously overpowered and seemingly indestructible. The only way Hellboy and his posse 'won' the final showdown was because Nuala sacrificed herself, thus killing her brother. Boy don' quit. However)
- He can be injured. He's just as susceptible to physical injury as anyone else - he's just so fast and so limber and so thoroughly trained that he can evade almost every blow. But he isn't perfect. He isn't immune to pain or most of the elements (most notably not fire). He could be shot or stabbed or drowned, and he would very likely die a horrible death as consequence. In Hellboy, there's a distinction between immortality and death. Immortal creatures can and do die - but should they live a peaceful life and not get caught up in Hellboy's rampage, they can and do live forever. HB immortals don't ever die of old age, but they can die - given the right amount of force.
Non-canon weaknesses:
Since I love the fact the movie draws heavily from European folklore (with a bit of Asian flair), going so far as to base Nuada around a Celtic mythological figure called Nuadha the Silver-handed, I am very keen on giving him some traditional fairy folk weaknesses.
- An unbroken circle of salt (around your house, around yourself) will keep him from entering/coming near you. He can't cross a line of salt, period.
- Cold iron binds and repels him.
- The sound of bells (not just church bells) is physically painful.
Sexytiems: Nuada finds your dual-gendered social structures so very amusing.
Sex has its place, but it's mostly just messy and cumbersome and there's always moral outcries of this or that one feeling used, blah blah blah.
Yes, he'll treat you as a pet, or a pastime, or just an uninspiring receptacle of whatever it is you call it these days - fleeting intrigue? For him to consider you an equal, now, that would take a great deal indeed.
Addendum: Should he find you interesting or attractive or desirable enough, he will dominate you. He will have you
Best way to meet this character: Nuada can be found literally anywhere in Taxon, painstakingly mapping and/or studying the city and its inhabitants. He's also busy procuring items (though to what ends, that's his business and no one elses), so chances are he's in any of the shops, or at the bazaar
PERMISSIONS
THE MIND: Yes they can, and thoughts are always designated with italics, unless otherwise noted. He doesn't have any blocks, but what with his pointy bitty earses he might just feel a little something prickling when someone goes a-snooping.
THE BODY: Oh yes. Body, home, property, it's all good. Just plot with me first for maximum effect etc :D
FUNKY STUFF: Sure and sure, and yeah, no worries. But I do love plotting, so please do feel free to ping me about stuff.
PRIVACY: Threadhopping, yes, threadjacking...not so much. Ask first. Regarding unlocked/locked posts, go nuts! And Nuada won't hide his position/marker on the map. AS IF HE WOULD HIDE FROM YOU, YOU INBRED INGRATES. ...ahem.
SURPRISE!: Spider senses: tingling! Nah, it is possible to catch him unawares, just a bit difficult. He's on high alert most of the time, but poke me and we'll figure something out.
MISCELLANEOUS
