It was the astrologers of Ashur who gave him the power. At the cusp of the New Year when Capricorn was high and the winter solstice festivals began, the astrologers sought out a young princeling of the King of Babel in the land of Shinar. They had come to find him.
The astrologers taught him how to read the signs of the gods. And they told him of a Great King who would shape the future. If he wanted to rule all the world, they said, he only had to defeat that king. To that end, he had to go into the mountains in the west, seek the unholiest of places, and once there, sacrifice a child on the altar of a strange god.
He took a cur of one of his concubines whom he had seized in war. Dressed as a rogue with a squire and a sword for hire, he sought out the place for many moons. He followed the instructions given to him by the sages. He found the unholy mountain. There, he entered a forgotten temple built within a chimney at the mouth of a lost valley. Inside, he discovered a deserted altar covered in strange runes. There he spilt the boy’s blood upon the altar.
Chanting the incantation of power in the first tongue, he opened the portal and crossed over to Gehenna. There he saw the Great Ziggurat upon the shoulder of Zardkuh. He fought foe upon foe through the city of New Babylon.
Impressed by his skill, power, and zeal, the Dragon Lord granted him the right to an audience. Standing before the Dragon Lord, he retold the story of the great king. He asked the Dragon Lord to grant him a boon to help him defeat that king and rule all the world. In return, he and all of his subjects would worship the Dragon Lord until the ending of his kingdom.
Pleased, the Dragon Lord promised him the world as his kingdom, if he would but set his foot against a babe born in the land of Ur. For the blood of that nation’s male children, the Dragon offered him dominion over the world.
Nimrod swore to find the infant, stretch out his arm, and destroy the seed of the Dragon’s enemy. Thus, he became the servant of the Dragon Lord.
Sent back to the world by the Dragon Lord, he returned to Babel. Through clever intrigue, he assassinated his brother Samass and blamed it on their rival, the King of the Amorites. He renamed his city Babylon, and made it the capital of his kingdom.
The Dragon Lord was as good as his promise, and his armies covered Mesopotamia as his kingdom flourished. The Tigris and Euphrates ran red with blood, and gold swelled his treasuries. With abandon, he built his concubines a garden to sweeten their ardor, and he set his sights on heaven itself. And he ordered the construction of a tower from which he could challenge the gods. Those were the days of my glory. days I will soon relive again.
To conceal the murder of his brother, his armies secretly descended upon the Amorites to avenge the assassination. He sent emissaries ahead to the Amorites to parlay. They convinced the nobles that their success was owed to none but their god Ashur. Wise in their own eyes, they fell for his flattery. Feeling no need to honor tradition or the old gods, they gave over their allegiance to none but King Og.
Nimrod laughed even now at their gullibility. Og was a fool who listened only to the astrologers of Ashur. And those same astrologers served none other than Nimrod. He called the astrologers of Ashur and ordered them to betray their King or answer to him for giving him the secret of the Great King.
The astrologers accused Og’s loyal subjects of treason and praised his enemies. Thinking he was surrounded by enemies, Og assassinated his friends and exiled his allies. Taking advantage of the now defenseless king, Nimrod boldly revealed his armies. Awed by the might of Nimrod, King Og called forth a champion to battle the young conqueror rather than risk open battle. But he was betrayed. Instead of defending the king from Nimrod, the champion of the Amorites challenged the king for his throne. Alone and beleaguered, the King took his own life in despair. In this way, the Amorites fell into Nimrod’s trap.
Nimrod put the traitor to death and added the strength of the Amorites to his own. Next he attacked Erech, Calneh, Uruk, and many others. Those who worshipped him became his subjects, and those who did not perished. His army took the women they desired, and the rest he enslaved. Each city he conquered added to his power and soon he turned his sight on Akkad. In those days the Akkadian empire had grown weak at the hand of King Sharka. He defeated the king and conquered that realm.
Now he had the strength to repay his debt to the Dragon Lord. He turned his wrath to the south and with the full might of Babylon, he fell upon the great kingdom of Ur. He put King Ibbi-Sin to death and ended the line of Ur-Nammu. Slaughtering all who resisted, he put to sword every male child without speech. Though the cur escaped, his ferocity and ruthlessness pleased the Dragon Lord, and he rose in favor with the prince of Gehenna.
He had changed the world. He had brought war to Earth. Where before men had lived their lives, cherished their wives and delighted in their children, his power ordered the lives of his slaves. He delighted in their torment. Inwardly he basked in his achievements and gloated in his success.