Brooder Nebel

 Father Brooder Nebel  was the ninth, or perhaps tenth, and final known host of Edward Tamaron. Nebel was a native of Earth-13151518, and an active televangelist; it would be the power of his television show that would allow Tamaron to conquer the Earth. Once Tamaron used Nebel to take over the planet, he proceeded to destroy it, annihilating the ecosystem with pollution, and rendering more than 90% of the world's life extinct. That which survived became mutants, and began to endlessly prowl the land in tortuous agony. The total destruction of Earth-13151518 resulted in it becoming a breeding ground for a number of unearthly presences, including the Shiqquwts. By bargaining with these creatures, Tamaron managed to leave the ruined Earth (after he had sated his joy of destroying it) and step out into an unknown fate. It was during his various points of contact with the Shiqquwts that he would discover his ultimate fate in regards to the nature of the Multiverse.

Running the Show
Brooder Nebel was, to his knowledge, and to the knowledge of his audience, born in the Midwest as a simple Christian farm boy. His parents taught him to only be good, and to love God, and he decided when he grew up to spread this message to the world. He thus started Father Nebel's Love of God Half Hour, a mid-budget televangelism show, wherein he preached the Word of God to thousands across America.

Nebel was actually born in Sweden, and was the child of parents who happened to be con artists. They raised him in the ways of lying, and told him that the best way to get what one wanted in life was through sex, money, or religion. Nebel was interested only in money, and he had no true taste for sex, and so he chose religion to make his way in life. Through donations to his church, he ended up becoming rather wealthy, being able to afford an upscale office and apartment in the States. His show had good ratings from many evangelical and right-wing churches in the U.S., and he offered a number of services, including exorcisms. Though he was honestly an atheist, he did have some genuine religious experiences during the performance of these latter actions. It was his contact with actual demons—servants or representatives from a race of beings native to Universe-13151518 called the Shiqquwts—that he attained a magical aura, making him viable as a host for Edward Tamaron.

The Tamaron Entity arrived on Earth-13151518 in 1986, emerging over Saint Paul, Minnesota, where Nebel's office was located. Injured from his journey, he spared no time in assaulting Nebel, and attempted to steal his body. Nebel, in his terror, suddenly and truly converted, but was only a Christian for a handful of seconds, before his soul was destroyed. Tamaron was now in possession of his body, and also, by effect, his TV show. Tamaron was still greatly injured from his fall, however, and therefore took a good amount of time recovering before he was capable of learning the nature of his new host. During this time he felt a certain degree of anxiety over how much energy it took him to possess new hosts. This anxiety followed him for the rest of his time as Nebel, at least until he came in contact with the Shiqquwts and learned of his fate—he truly believed that unless he found an immortal host, his astral self would be dispersed, and he would follow the souls of those he had possessed in the past into nonexistence and total death.

After several weeks of recovery, Tamaron at last learned that his host was the leader of a Christian television show. He went into a brief shock, having suddenly been reminded of his father, who had been a corrupt priest like Nebel. Having a sudden fear that he had become his father, Tamaron ordered his new lackeys from the show to put it on hold for several months. During this time, he spent even more time healing, using what little magic he could conjure up to try to repair his ailing mind. As he did, he thought about his father, and, in the process of thinking therapeutically, he realized he could use this role to banish his father's “ghost” forever. He could use the Half Hour to create a new cult—or better yet, drive people towards sin and evil. Perhaps cults were not the best way towards world domination, he considered. But then, now that he was no longer on Earth-20181 or Earth-Alpha—perhaps world domination wasn't the best outlook either.

In any case, he would begin his corruption of his audience immediately. Once the show started up again, with the excuse having been made that Nebel had suffered a long illness, Tamaron began to offer a number of personal services to his followers. Many of these involved “blessings”, which were actually spells planting seeds of psychosis in those he visited, in lengthy tours around the country.

Most of these “blessing” sessions were performed as experiments—to see if Tamaron could derive joy from inspiring “evil”. However, they all pointed towards a bigger picture, one of a complete psychotic meltdown with logical roots in Tamaron's mind. It could be that this new meltdown—one of complete abandon and violence—was a chronal echo of that which he experienced as Krankor. For indeed, he did begin to feel happiness from turning devout Christians or common people into murderers and terrorists with these sessions.

Over time (though not much time), Tamaron's anxieties and pressures began to filter outward into yet another pinnacle of rage. His reawakened hatred of his father blended with his continued desire to go home to Earth-Alpha, which had not been granted even after countless decades and conflicts. Similarly, his anger had been building behind the complacency and calmness he had had as Hippolyte Jason. Slowly he began to become possessed with a nearly mindless bloodlust, which would begin to burn hotter as he pushed closer to destiny.

A Spell Gone Awry
The descriptions of the exact nature of Tamaron's experiments on “his” show's audience are few and far between, aside from the “blessings”. It is known that the popularity of the show grew over time, extending past the simply pious or desperate. While crime rates rose due to his influence, so too did conversions to his particular brand of Evangelical Christianity. The fusion of both trends was Tamaron's little joke—his way of making a mockery of his father's faith.

But it also served the purpose of creating more culture-energy for Tamaron to feed on. As belief in Brooder Nebel's powers became stronger, they in fact did, on the mystic level. Occasionally Tamaron would be so bold as to demonstrate full-on miracles on live TV—actual shows of real magic. This only served to make him a sensation, though he wanted to avoid the fame held by Brocelyn Brant, and so he became famous for being secretive as well as miraculous.

During this time, a vision of himself as a great experimenter in the ways of magic began to dominate Tamaron's life. He had not had much time to work without disturbance in recent days, and so began to tinker with magic and how it worked in this particular universe. It was in 1994 that this era of experimentation was interrupted by an incident that changed Tamaron's incredibly lengthy life forever.

It all began when an elderly woman named Lee Ann (whose name briefly reminded Tamaron of his former lover Lia) approached Nebel, wanting an exorcism for a demon that she believed lived in her body. After briefly thinking against the notion, he decided it would amuse him to implant a demon into her, where there was none before. Using a meager summoning, not knowing what he would call forth, he did so, and told her to keep in touch—if anything because he wanted to see the results.

Tamaron didn't know that his miniscule spell had actually called forth an unearthly legion called the Shiqquwts, otherwise known as the Abomination. These strange creatures took over Lee Ann's body, making her into a host, just as Tamaron had done for Nebel. Slowly, in the guise of Lee Ann, they began to stalk Tamaron, unsettling him; however, they eventually revealed themselves to him, explaining their situation, and what they wanted with him.

Tamaron at once understood how powerful these demons truly were and had a brief flare of pride over having been the one to call them forth. He was similarly pleased when they told him they desired to bargain with him—they wanted to rid this Earth of human life, so that they could use it as a breeding ground. They believed he could be the one to bring about this destruction—if he could do it, they would grant his heartfelt wish and return him to Earth-Alpha. He was hesitant to agree, but the demons suddenly instilled him with a psychic vision. In this vision, they explained that as part of his destiny, he was the First Enemy of the Multiverse—one of the beings that would rule or destroy all of existence.

In the legends of the ancients, there were Three Enemies of the Multiverse: one called the Sorcerer, one called the End, and one called the Emperor. Though there were many who used the word “Sorcerer” to describe themselves, Tamaron had taken the name as his full title when he aligned himself with the King of Time, back in his first life. Now, by accruing power over his endless life, Tamaron had secured his place in history as the most powerful magic user to ever live. He was destined to rule entire galaxies and destroy countless lives and worlds. His place as this spectacular being was preordained by spells cast in the distant past, by himself, via time travel. It was only a matter of time before he came to his true potential as this entity.

Tamaron was in shock. If what the demons told him was correct—and he had little reason to doubt them—his continued survival all this time had been preordained. The struggles of those trying to stop his ends were all in vain, for he would continue to live until he enslaved or obliterated everything. With this newfound thrill of power, even more of his already-dwindling sanity was leeched away, being replaced instead with a sense of godhood.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">For this reason, and for some of the reasons enunciated above, Tamaron took on a nihilistic outlook, which coupled dangerously with his recent love of experimentation. He realized that since this world was merely an alternate tangent to his homeworld of Earth-Alpha, its people, and their lives, were meaningless. He could potentially kill everyone on the planet, or else force them to worship him as a god, with no consequences. Any power that challenged him in his destruction would be easily destroyed. He contemplated making Earth-13151518 into his throne-world for his intended conquest of the Multiverse, but decided against it; the impurities of that Earth made it unworthy. Instead, he decided he would serve the Shiqquwts and return to Earth-Alpha—so that he could begin his fuller campaign there.

A Detour
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">The Shiqquwts ended up killing Lee Ann, but continued to keep in touch with Tamaron. They reminded him of a deed he had committed on this Earth long ago—the murder of Cyrus Sincodemius, his old Master. During an astral duel, Tamaron had trapped Sincodemius' soul within a tree, which now had been corrupted into a monster, uncreatively named the Evil Tree. The Evil Tree was something of an urban legend, having actually murdered several people over the centuries. Realizing that Sincodemius' magical power was trapped within the Tree, Tamaron went to go drain it, knowing that even now, nearly a century after the murder chronologically took place, the power in the Tree would be tremendous.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">When Tamaron tracked down the Tree outside of Boston, he found that Sincodemius' corpse was missing—not even the bones remained. While it was likely that they would have been destroyed or put away over time, the fact that there were no discerning remains disturbed Tamaron for some reason. Nevertheless, he found that Sincodemius' energies had animated the Tree and made it duel him. With basic magic, Tamaron was able to restrain the Tree and suck away its power. Whether this resulted in the dispersal of Sincodemius' soul or not remains unknown.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">With the draining of magic from the Evil Tree, the Tree became inanimate—and Tamaron became nearly omnipotent. Though he had initially and briefly wondered if the Tree had lost power over the decades, it had actually gained energy from killing its victims. Sincodemius had accumulated centuries worth of magical power and suddenly all of that power was Tamaron's. He had visions of unique individuals, items, and locations all around the Earth, including the House of Usher, Blood Mountain in Washington, the Mu Cube in an ancient temple, constructed by a race similar to that which built Earth-20181's Wal-un-Porga, and a mystically-endowed Turkish serial killer named Mikail Aydinlatici. He also sensed the grave site of Jeremiah Inclosure, who had once held one of his soul shards. During this vision, which seemingly synchronized him with a sort of absolute awareness of the Earth, he determined several critical pressure points that could be broken to destroy the planet.

Conquest
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Armed with Sincodemius' power, and possibly some additional backing from the Shiqquwts, Tamaron abandoned all pretenses of being Brooder Nebel and transported himself via magic to Washington DC. Here he turned himself invisible and managed to sneak inside the White House. Once within, he began to enact a total massacre of everyone inside, moving too swiftly for proper security measures to be taken. Firing deadly ectoplasmic bolts from his hands, he breached a conference room where the President and Vice President were located. Before any reactions could be taken he used a bolt to strike down the President, who was an individual he did not recognize from any of the Earths he had previously visited.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Following this he made short work of the other officials in the room, leaving only a few staffers alive. He telepathically took control of them and forced them to rig up a national broadcast from the Oval Office. Once this was in readiness, all TV signals across the country were replaced with his image—he revealed the corpses of the nation's leaders and ordered all remaining members of the executive branch to give away their locations at once. To force them into doing so, he activated the nuclear football codes, which he had once possessed on Earth-20181 as President Brant. It was a gamble, as the codes could have been different between Earths, but it worked, and he was able to order the launch of a nuclear missile towards Boston. The city was completely destroyed, killing hundreds of thousands.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Fearing the power of this madman, the remaining executives surrendered their locations—and Tamaron replied by nuking them. Millions of Americans were struck down in under an hour. From their escaping souls, Tamaron only became more powerful.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">He continued by revealing to the American public what he had just done, and he commanded an official unanimous vote across the nation declaring him the new ruler of the United States. The vote was merely a formality, as Tamaron's telepathic influence was able to locate the primary military leaders of the nation's army; he painfully wiped their minds and made them into extensions of his will. He forced them to give executive orders to become his military police: taking down the enormous masses which would doubtlessly be flocking to assassinate him in retaliation for his crimes. When an army of protesting citizens assailed the White House, the military attacked and routed them. Local news outlets were allowed to broadcast footage of the conflict, to show the the authority of the new “President”.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">In ensuing days, more strikes were made that were effectively just random massacres. Tamaron didn't even wait for an “official” victory—he compelled the same news stations to show him entering the Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom in the National Archives, and burning the original copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, to show that the concept of freedom in America was gone forever.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">The “war” against Tamaron effectively ended with the public submitting to his will. The final blows he struck were once more in the form of public broadcasts: millions watched as his military operatives destroyed both the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court buildings, reducing them to rubble with tanks. Tamaron, or more specifically Brooder Nebel, was “proclaimed” Leader of the United States by the mainstream news, shortly before military operations removed the freedom of the press by force. The White House was painted black, and a formal throne was installed in the former Oval Office.

Destruction
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">The Shiqquwts encouraged Tamaron, claiming that what he had done had opened apertures between their present location and Earth-13151518. Already manifestations of their presence were appearing around the world, aiding in the destruction. However, humanity would need to be completely eliminated for them to be able to grant the sorcerer's wish. To that end, Tamaron decided to openly declare war on the world.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">The main focus of his power was in the form of the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal. Without warning, Tamaron ordered multiple missiles to be aimed at each of the world's capitols—these were fired without resistance. London, Paris, Moscow, and dozens of other cities were turned into irradiated wastelands. Most of the world's governments fell apart immediately; the remainder hung on and declared war on the United States. However, Tamaron was ready. The deaths of what now amounted to billions caused power to flow into him, and he enhanced his armies with this power—when the nation's shores were invaded, the attackers were often easily defeated. Any victories made by “the enemy” were rewarded only with more nuclear strikes against that enemy's home nation. Soon it became clear that Brooder Nebel was the ruler of Earth, as well as of America.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">After short months of war, the world was in ruins. The entire planet was heavily irradiated and scarred, and the great works of mankind had been destroyed. More than two thirds of the world's population was dead, and many others were sick and dying. By this point it was only a matter of finishing them all off.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">However, Tamaron's influence on the world was fading—even though the untold murders had greatly empowered him, using that power had weakened him. Yet he still had enough left to influence a surviving group of scientists to begin producing machines that would do his work for him. So was born The Factory, a facility that converted prisoners, rebels, and even loyal soldiers into remote-controlled drones through both chemical and mechanical means. These new Drone Soldiers were good for physical labor as well as suppression, and with them he began to build the Second Factory, a device which would strip away whatever remained of the health of the planet's ecosystem.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">The Second Factory was a massive device meant only to release pollution and toxins into the air—but it was build beneath the jet stream, meaning that suddenly a band of poisons encircled the Earth. Poison rains came down all over the world, melting the ice caps and devastating the weather. It was estimated, by the enslaved science team (before they also perished), that 96% of all animal life was rendered extinct. Earth became completely inhospitable.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Tamaron, of course, survived via his magic, and the mechanisms of the Drone Soldiers kept them alive. However, their remaining organic tissues began to become corrupted by the radiation and toxins. Sometimes they were completely stripped down to their raw cybernetics, but others became mutated. The resultant mutants were eventually the only life left on Earth—fighting each other constantly and pointlessly for dominance, or left to potentially eternal existences wandering the dead wastelands.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Tamaron had completely decimated Earth-13151518. What was more, he cared nothing for the massive loss and suffering that had taken place to get to that point. He had embraced his role as one of the ultimate destroyers.

The End?
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Edward Tamaron's remaining activities are vague. While waiting for the Shiqquwts to install themselves on Earth, he used his newfound power to scry across the dimensions. At one point he found a world apparently called Earth-Beta-3, where another man had used similar tactics as he—at least in terms of employing both cyborgs and mutants—to take over his version of America. His reaction to the significance of this is not recorded, and it is stated that he saw “many other things” besides it, which are not named.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Eventually, however, the Shiqquwts had made Earth-13151518 into their nest-world, and told Tamaron his wish could be granted. The remaining process was simple. A gateway was opened between worlds, and Tamaron entered it, leaving behind this Earth for something else.

Personality and Traits
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">When he first incarnated in Brooder Nebel, Tamaron was anxious and weakened, and for the first few weeks of running Nebel's TV series, he reflected this openly. He had much to be confused about, which had roots in his injuries sustained on Earth-20181; he was primarily concerned over the fact that he had now assumed the role of a priest, which had been the occupation of his abusive father. The fact that Earth-13151518 was also the place of the final betrayal committed against Tamaron by Cyrus Sincodemius probably complicated matters. However, as he came to prominence via the TV show, he began to return to a sense of intense joy derived from the power of popularity that he wielded. It reminded him of his days as a cult leader, though he never formally established a cult during his days as Nebel.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">When the Shiqquwts revealed to Tamaron his destiny as the First Enemy of the Multiverse, whatever remaining morality and calmness in his being was erased. He began to legitimately believe he was invincible, and was only pushed closer to this notion once he absorbed Sincodemius' power from the Evil Tree. With his newfound confidence, and with the power of the Tree, Tamaron became nearly omnipotent, and was easily able to conquer the United States and devastate the world. It is significant that he was able to do this with literally no remorse, for even his previous incarnations had some doubts about committing certain crimes—the power he controlled, and the destiny he saw himself as part of, enabled him to view the inhabitants of Earth-13151518 as little more than automatons that he could crush like old toys. Indeed, it is very likely that this outlook consumed his view of life itself, as he often applied his fantasies to his visions of returning to his homeworld of Earth-Alpha.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Tamaron was also able to successfully bargain with demons, something he always had difficulty with in the past. Ska, Gekkos, Ythogtha, and others had betrayed and slain or nearly slain him before, but the Shiqquwts and Tamaron never had great conflict with each other; Brooder Nebel therefore represented, to Tamaron, another sort of victory, which bound to his conquests in a way that only served to fan his flames of pride all the more.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">After destroying the world, Tamaron became strangely reflective, perhaps in response to his heightened senses bringing him new sights from around the Multiverse. In some ways this sort of lull reflected the calmness he experienced as Doctor Jason. This reflectiveness followed him as he left Earth-13151518 behind, into his nameless fate.

Trivia

 * <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Assuming that Tamaron's life as Doctor Ghibourkei is canon, Nebel would be his second host of Swedish descent. Whether or not Frank Jenkins has or had any angst against Swedes remains a mystery; such a thing is not addressed in the Author's Notes.
 * <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> The name “Brooder Nebel” means “Brother Fog” in German, whereas “Shiqquwts” is a term used to refer to the Biblical Abomination. This forms a complicated reference to the 1986 Bret McCormick horror film The Abomination . In the film, Brother Fogg is a lying televangelist who apparently accidentally implants a tumor in a woman named Sarah Lee; Sarah's son is possessed by the tumor, which begins to grow into the many-mouthed flesh-eating Abomination—the parallels between the film and Tamaron's life as Nebel are obvious.
 * <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> The events of Tamaron's existence on Earth-13151518 also reflect the 1986 horror film  Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants, which was made in tandem with The Abomination  by a friend of Bret McCormick named Matt Devlen. In Ozone , the destruction of the Earth's ozone layer results in the populace of Texas being turned into mutant zombies—this mirrors how Tamaron's ecological devastation turns the surviving humans of Earth-13151518 into mindless zombies.

Appearances

 * <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">The Life of Mocata, Volume IV