Nomad


 * This article is about the NPC. For the music track, see Nomad (music track).

Nomad is the host of the Soul Wars minigame and an immensely powerful magician. When players first arrive on the island, they will encounter Nomad and his imp minion Zimberfizz. Nomad will offer players a free tour of the battlefield along with a short explanation, or a book that explains fighting in Soul Wars.

Nomad built the Soul Obelisk and used it to gain immense power from souls by chanelling their energy into a throne of his making in secret. It is believed he did this to prepare to usurp his former master, the evil Mahjarrat Lucien, but it has been confirmed that Nomad has nothing to do with Mahjarrat-quest series. However, Zimberfizz soon found out he was up to something suspicious and recruited an adventurer to check out Nomad's tent. It turned out to house an immense temple and Nomad is seen conversing with a group of elite dark knights before easily killing them.

He warns the adventurer not to go any farther, but they do anyway and, in the end, confront Nomad on his throne. A battle breaks out in which Nomad initially has the upper hand with extremely powerful attacks, but he is eventually defeated by the adventurer. He says "You... you have doomed this world." and falls to the ground. The adventurer and Zimberfizz then examine the body to conclude that Nomad is dead, after which the imp takes over the role of Soul Wars host. However, as they leave, Nomad, seemingly unharmed at all, stands up and teleports to an unknown location. After the eighteenth Ritual of Rejuvenation, Lucien is terminated by a trio of Dragonkin, leaving Nomad's further goals a mystery.

With a combat level of 200 and devastating attacks, he has the highest combat level of any quest boss in the game, although Tokhaar-Hok is arguably harder. He may be refought as a class A boss in the Dominion Tower (after Nomad's Requiem) or twice consecutively in a special match.

Trivia

 * It was joked on the fourth day of Cryptic Clue Fest IV, that Nomad is actually a scheming dwarf called Honeydew inside a mechanical suit and that he built the Soul Obelisk with an iron pickaxe. This is a reference to a famous player with the same name, Honeydew.
 * A bug existed that allowed Nomad to be killed without retaliating or using any of his special attacks by using a spirit kyatt. This allowed many low-levelled players that would not have been able to defeat Nomad normally to complete the quest. This has since been fixed.
 * Some medium-level Quest Cape owners were disappointed upon release, as Nomad is very difficult to beat even with high combat stats. This has sparked some debate among the forums. Although there has been some complaint, Jagex has mentioned that they will not weaken Nomad. Here is the developer's response: "Too hard? Nomad is too easy! I wanted him to be much harder! Nomad himself will give you all the hints you need to defeat him while you battle him, so pay close attention to what is happening during the fight!" 
 * With a combat level of 699, Nomad's was the highest levelled quest monster in the game. His level has since been reduced to a mere 200 due to the Evolution of Combat.
 * During the fight, when Nomad is reduced to 1/4 of his maximum life points, he will heal himself to half again. (From 22500 to 45000).
 * There used to be a glitch where Nomad would become stuck between two pillars in the dominion tower if a player's timing was right. This caused Nomad to be unable to retaliate, making the fight much easier. This was patched on 30 April 2012.
 * Before the graphical update in association with the quest Nomad's Requiem, he looked exactly like an elite dark mage - this supports the idea that Nomad's master was Lucien (considering he had an army of Elite Dark warriors, mages and rangers). The idea of Nomad's master being Lucien was confirmed by Mod Mark in the Official RuneScape Lore Q&A Livestream from 4 November 2012.
 * Nomad has a damage cap of 750 when fighting him with magic, however he does not have a damage cap against ranged or melee attacks.
 * After the release of the Evolution of Combat, many attacks of Nomad became bugged:
 * His flame vortices would instantly kill.
 * His normal attacks would hit less as a player's health depleted. At 10 HP, his maximum hit was 1.
 * Soul Blast would always miss.
 * Disintegrate would never kill the player, and no longer based the damage on one's maximum health.
 * He would repeat "Pathetic!" constantly.
 * His chat-head closely resembles Darth Vader in episode 6 of Star Wars when his helmet is removed