Nomad



Nomad is a non-player character who wanders around the Soul Wars minigame area. When players first arrive on the island, they will encounter Nomad and his imp familiar, Zimberfizz. Nomad will offer players a tour of the battlefield along with a short explanation, or a book that explains fighting in the Soul Wars minigame.

Nomad built the Soul Obelisk. There is speculation that he might be a Mahjarrat in disguise. He also appears to suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder, one minute being collected and calm, the next being maniacal and chaos craving. He has a combat level of 699 one of the highest in the game and is the highest levelled quest monster in the game.

As a possible Mahjarrat
There is speculation that Nomad might be the Zamorakian Mahjarrat Bilrach in disguise. Along with the fact that he practices necromancy, Jagex has issued a number of clues that point to this conclusion. The first of these came in issue 41 of Postbag from the Hedge (dated 5 August 2009), in which Zimberfizz says that souls devoured by the Jagex Obby "don't go to some fancy planet, up into the sky or into Guthix's back pocket, I can tell ya. Nomad knows where they go, I can see it on his mug. Sometimes he slips away and, when he comes back, his fingernails glow and he's got sparkles in his eyebrows, like he's been near summat magic. Zimberfizz don't miss a trick. As fer your soul, matey-o, I'd keep a grip on it. Nomad gets the dead-eye whenever I mention the souls, as if he's got some evil scheme in his noggin."

In the same issue, a hint from the Chaos Elemental was titled "Hardens South", an anagram of "use shorthand". Translating the marks underneath it using Teeline Shorthand yields: "Uv b wd abt Sl Ws. Nmd is tb frd.", meaning "You've been warned about Soul Wars. Nomad is to be feared."

On 21 December 2009, a hidden update changed Nomad's appearance to make him look more Mahjarrat-like, with pale skin and what appears to be a scarf wrapped around part of his face.

In the Nomad's Requiem quest he is shown to be level 699. This puts him at the 3rd most powerful monster on RuneScape, and the most powerful quest monster that must be beaten. Also, at the beginning of the quest, a cutscene is shown in which Nomad faces off against a trio of Elite dark warriors. Elite dark warriors are in the service of Surok Magis, and by extension the Mahjarrat Lucien, so it would make sense for them to be 'assassins' sent to kill him, if indeed Nomad is Bilrach in disguise. Also, Nomad's powerful attacks further hint that he is a Mahjarrat, because few monsters are as difficult to defeat as Nomad is in the quest, and Mahjarrat are known for their prowess in combat.

Rewards
Nomad may reward players by exchanging Zeal points with:


 * Experience in Slayer or any Combat skill except Summoning. This amount varies upon your level in that skill. Saving 100 zeals and spending them all at once will give a bonus to the experience received.
 * Charms
 * Other - Bringing Slayer monsters back from the dead as pets.

Nomad's Requiem
In the quest Nomad's Requiem, he is level 699 and has many attack styles. He must be killed as he is the boss battle of the quest. He normally uses melee which can deal high 20s and low 30s. He sometimes makes 3 clones of himself, all attacking you at once (the clones hit constant 4-5s). If he does that, you have to attack all the clones until you find the real Nomad (the clones disappear when you hit the real Nomad). '''The most dangerous attack of his is the one which will OFTEN hit as high as your maximum HP - 1. '''(having a Divine Spirit Shield equiped seems to reduce this damage, as well as reducing his 75 damage attack.). Before doing this attack he teleports you a few squares away from him then casts constant ice barrages. After that he stores energy in his hand before unleashing a very powerful attack which looks like a lightning bolt. Since it takes pretty long for him to charge the attack, you will have time to restore your hitpoints back to maximum with Saradomin brews or Rocktails. After hitting your hp-1 he will stop attacking you for few seconds, giving you time to restore your hitpoints and restocking your food, potions, etc from a Beast of Burden (like a pack yak). He will also heal himself to half of his hitpoints when he reaches 1/4 of his HP, though he will only do this once. When he has low HP left, he will attack you with melee constantly, as fast as Throwing knives. Also, Vengeance does not work on him.

Trivia

 * After the player shows Zimberfizz Nomad's body, he can be seen teleporting out of his lair, showing that he's still alive.
 * Nomad's dying words are, "You haved doomed the fate of this world" this could be speculation for his return/sequel quest, or Nomad thought that only he can stop his "Masters" wrath.
 * His chathead resembles the cover of the album The Sickness by heavy metal band Disturbed, or the real face of Darth Vader as he appeared in [[wikipedia:Return of the Jedi|Return of the Jedi, with his bald head, pale face, and strange eyes.
 * His face and clothing is also very similar to Darth Malak from Knights of The Old Republic
 * On the 10 January 2010, Jagex issued a hint via their Twitter feed, which said: "Next week in #RuneScape: Why did Nomad get updated last week?!"
 * Before the graphical update in association with the quest Nomad's Requiem, he looked similar to an Elite dark mage.
 * During the last cutscene of the Nomads Requiem quest, as the player and Zimberfizz are walking away, he gets up and teleports away which could hint at a possible sequel.