Wow, did I just say that?
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Lord Neruman is a character exclusive to the comic series. Known as the Lord of Shadows, Neruman serves as a major antagonist for a good bit of the Season 4 comics properly known as the Neruman Story Arc.
Appearance
Personality
Neruman has a very dominant and controlling personality. He is so fearsome that even the Wizards of the Black Circle cower before him. He expects perfection and is harsh towards his subjects who fail him regardless of how close they are to him. Neruman is also cunning, intelligent, and manipulative, as he is especially skilled in observing people. He always seems to take notice in a person's weaknesses and will use what he has learned to exploit their innermost fears to make them suffer or subject them to seductive lies in order to use them. As a result, Neruman has become a very obvious sadist; revelling in the suffering of his enemies especially now that it can grant him power and bring him closer to obtaining his former body.
Pre-Series
Centuries ago, Neruman, as a member of the Fortress of Light Council, began dabbling in the dark arts in pursuit of complete immortality. Despite being revered as a brilliant scholar amongst his peers, many of them nonetheless began to oppose him and, just as he was about to complete his most powerful spell, Neruman's dark practices were discovered by the Council, who thusly threw him into exile; stripping him of his status.
Despite seemingly losing everything, Neruman continued to hone his dark craft and came closer to perfecting his perfect immortality spell; most likely fleeing into the Dark Dimension threw a hidden portal within the depths of the Fortress of Light right under his former colleagues' noses. Unfortunately, instead of making him young and ageless, part of the spell had failed, rendering Neruman as nothing more than a shadow after ravaging his body.
He eventually reunites with his old cohort, Balazar, who likewise turned his back on the Fortress of Light Council, and put him to work with another slave of his own an antidote. All the while, Neruman sends out his shadows to wreak havoc on countless realms within the Magic Dimension to regain his magical strength through all the negativity they collect, so that he may one day return to the Fortress of Light and exact revenge on his former colleagues before plunging the rest of the Dimension in total darkness.
Comics
Season 4
Neruman plotting to destroy the magic on Earth.
Neruman makes his debut in Bad Dreams, where it is revealed that he was the one who freed the remnants of the Wizards of the Black Circle from their imprisonment in the Omega Dimension, making them swear their allegiance to him in the process. He ordered them to set the Frutti Music Bar ablaze and steal Morgana's Necklace which, in doing so, left the former Earth Fairy High Queen powerless and weak. To prevent his enemies, the Winx, from sabotaging his plans, Neruman sought to annihilate them by luring them into a new bar where he had his shadows attack them. Unfortunately, his shadows and shadow monsters were eventually defeated.
After defeating all the monsters, the Winx looked into the past using their Tracix wings and saw that Neruman now plans to destroy all forms of magic on Earth to make himself invincible. He then becomes the newest foe the Winx have to keep an eye on.
Neruman's lair.
The following issue starts off with a shot of Neruman in his lair, waiting for a potion from his minions. As two of his slaves work on the potion, the oldest one reveals to the younger one that Neruman was once a member of the Fortress of Light Council who was later banished upon being outed for his dabbling in the dark arts in pursuit of immortality.
After recounting Neruman's past, the two creatures complete the potion and hand it to the wizard in question, who pours it into his shadow and, after soaking in the potion, Neruman takes off his gloves to see if it worked. Unfortunately, the potion did nothing and Neruman becomes so enraged that he threatens to feed his slaves to his shadows. Just then, two of Neruman's shadows arrive and boast over how much negative energy they have collected from a planet called Iberian thanks to a huge flood that had occurred. He commands for his shadows to merge with his and, once they have done so, Neruman begins to feel better. He then realizes that he needs to accumulate a large amount of negative energy if he wishes to make a full recovery and so he sounds out masses of his shadows to a planet called Earth, as he believes that humans are weak and easily prone to suffering.
Neruman is not seen or heard of again until Issue 87, where he is first mentioned by a group of Councilmen during Gregory's evaluation. After refusing to take him in as a pupil, the third of the Councilmen explains that a powerful wizard known as the Lord of Shadows could easily exploit Gregory's insecurities and temper as he has the ability to feed on the negative emotions of those around him. The Winx oversee Gregory's evaluation and Bloom begins to suspect that Neruman may have been the one responsible for the shadows that had attacked her in the shipyard.
One of Neruman's shadows leading Gregory astray.
During Gregory's rampage in Gardenia, one of Neruman's shadows whispers dark thoughts into his ear, causing the destructive teen to believe that the Fortress of Light wizards refused to teach him out of fear. He further begins to believe himself to be superior to the Fortress of Light Council and the Winx and heads off on his own to show them his capabilities. The shadow soon returns to its master's lair and merges into his shadow, giving Neruman all of the anger it gathered from Gregory. As Neruman revels in all of the negative energy, his eldest slave proposes that his master make Gregory into an ally. However, Neruman has a different plan in mind: making Gregory into his newest pawn. He then has his slave send the Wizards of the Black Circle after Gregory to test his magic.
Neruman coaxing Gregory to his side.
After Gregory's encounter with Wizards, Neruman terrorizes the emotionally exhausted teen with an illusion of Cindy, who is angry with Gregory being unable to protect her. Gregory chases the Cindy illusion until she phases into a shadow on the wall, leaving Gregory to beg for her to come back. Neruman then emerges from the shadow and dismisses Gregory's worries by claiming that Cindy never would have gotten hurt by the Wizards had it not been for the Winx intervening. After being asked why he is so fascinated with him, Neruman reveals that he wishes to train Gregory into destroying his enemies: the Fortress of Light wizards for their refusal to train him and the Winx for stealing Cindy away. Gregory succumbs to Neruman's words and asks when his training will begin, to which Neruman claims that it will start once he wakes up. After that, he must follow his shadow as it shows him the way to darkness. He does so and ends up in a construction site in the outskirts of Gardenia, where he is trained by the Wizards for a week.
In Issue 95, Neruman is first mentioned by Morgana and the Winx as they discuss her recent nightmares is being possible premonitions of a world ruled by him and his shadows. To make matter worse for them, all of Neruman's shadows and the Wizards of the Black Circle have cleared out of Gardenia, almost as if they were never there in the first place, which makes it all the harder for them to retrieve Morgana's stolen necklace. With enough persuading, Morgana and Klaus ease Roxy and the Winx's worries as best they can and send the seven fairies out to Gardenia Stadium to catch a concert. However, their fun is cut short by a surprise attack from the Wizards!
Neruman, now with Stella under his control!
Oddly enough, the Wizards are easily defeated and the Winx manage to get their hands on Morgana's necklace! However, when Stella picks it up, she hears voices; voices that tell her to wear the necklace. The Sun Fairy soon gives in to the voices and puts on the necklace, though, in doing so, Stella becomes Neruman's newest pawn! With Stella now under his control, Neruman has the Sun Fairy attack her friends and flee with the Wizards, who only pretended to go down easily.
The next day, the Winx inform Morgana of what happened and she realizes that the necklace that Stella now wears is not hers, but a sinister copy created with Neruman's evil essence. She then suspects that Neruman had the Wizards lay last night's trap for Stella and reveals to the Winx that the world in her dreams was not the Land of Dreams, but Solaria. She then realizes that Neruman's current plan must be to eradicate the Second Sun of Solaria so that he may plunge the Magic Dimension into total darkness. With Stella under his possession, Neruman could lead the Wizards into the chamber where the Second Sun is being kept and have them corrupt the magical sun. In fact, as they discuss the situation, Neruman has Stella lead the disguised Wizards of the Black Circle into the Chamber of the Second Sun.
Neruman losing control over Stella's mind as the fake necklace is destroyed.
Once the coast is clear, the Wizards discard their disguises and focus their dark magic into Solaria's Second Sun per Neruman's orders. Stella tries to break free of Neruman's control over her but is unable to so long as the fake necklace continues to be worn around her neck. That is when the Winx arrive to stop the Wizards from fully corrupting Solaria's Second Sun and, in order to fight them off, Neruman commands Stella to once again attack her friends; leaving the Winx unable to fight properly as they do not want to risk harming Stella. Unfortunately for Neruman, Bloom has just the solution to their problem: launching her most precise and destructive attack to destroy the fake necklace and free Stella. With the necklace destroyed, the Winx are able to strike the Wizards down and protect Solaria's Second Sun.
Before they are captured, the Wizards plead for Neruman to teleport them out of the Chamber. However, Neruman has become fed up with their constant failures and refuses to; deserting them and leaving them at the mercy of the Winx. Gantlos is able to stop the Winx from thrusting them back into Omega by shouting about how they hold valuable information and Ogron soon tells the Winx that they handed off Morgana's stole necklace to Balazar, a former Fortress of Light Councilmen who escaped his punishment to stay loyal to the Lord of Shadows. Ogron further explains how Balazar has been helping Neruman regain his former body as well as force upon a portal to the Dark Dimension.
Armed with all the information they need (more or less), Bloom traps the Wizards in her Dragon Wing and the Winx proceed to search for Balazar, Neruman's right-hand man.
With time running out, the Winx rush to find Neruman's location as they try to keep up with all of their duties. Unfortunately, the stress from trying to stop Neruman is causing them to neglect their friends and boyfriends or mess up important meetings. Luckily, Tecna is able to complete her Searchix and the Winx track one of the shadow monsters Neruman sent to spy on them to the Fortress of Light.
The Dark Dimension portal!
There, the Winx and the Fortress Templars find the portal to the Dark Dimension hidden behind a fake door. Balazar's invisibility is also disrupted and the Winx manage to catch him and Morgana's real necklace. However, thanks to Balazar, Morgana's necklace does not have enough magic to reclose the portal, leaving the Winx with no other option but to defeat Neruman once and for all.
Inside the Dark Dimension, the Winx are able to locate Neruman's lair and storm it, only to find the Lord of Shadows sitting patiently in his throne. Neruman applauds the Winx for their admirable courage and promptly engulfs them into a blast of shadows as he taunts them for being foolish enough to storm his lair without considering the risks. It turns out that Neruman had forced all the Winx (excluding Flora) into a deep, nightmarish sleep. Bloom is the first to snap out of it through sheer force of willpower and Flora's words, especially after realizing that the Oritel and Marion that were in her dreams were frauds.
Neruman ambushing the Winx.
With the two fairies awake but too weak to properly fight back, Neruman boasts over how easy it is for him to keep the rest of the Winx under his thumb; subjecting them all to nightmares that plague their hearts. Specifically, Tecna's emotional detachment, Musa's fear of rejection from Riven, Stella's fear of abandonment at the hands of her friends and Aisha's guilt over Nabu's death.
As he boasts, Flora tries to snap her friends out of their nightmares but to no avail. She then demands that Neruman free her friends until Neruman reveals his reasons for keeping Flora awake: her insecurities. Because Flora is the most insecure out of all the Winx, Neruman wishes to use her easily exploitable fears to fuel him alongside the Winx's nightmares. Flora tries to ignore Neruman's claims and attack but her Autumn Wind spell proves to be too weak and Neruman is able to knock both her and Bloom down to the floor with ease. Now that they are too weak to pose as suitable threats to him, Neruman calls upon his shadows and has them fade into him to absorb all the Winx's suffering.
Neruman regaining his former body.
The suffering collected by his shadows fills him to the point of causing his former body to return to him and Neruman is confident that he now has enough magic to exact his revenge on everyone who has wronged him. Even Bloom believes it until Flora assures her that they cannot lose hope yet. As it turns out, Flora's words were able to reach the rest of the Winx and free them from Neruman's nightmares, but Neruman still believes that he is too powerful to be stopped. The Winx then gather together and join all of their magic into Bloom's Dragon's Flame; launching a giant wave of fire from Bloom's Heart of the Dragon spell. The wave proves to be too big for Neruman to dodge and he quickly realizes that he would be unable to block the spell due to its overwhelming amount of positive energy. This forces Neruman to take the full brunt of the attack, causing him to face his demise.
With Neruman gone, his shadows disperse and the Dark Dimension is no longer a universal threat to the Magic Dimension.
Magical Abilities
Trivia
- His magical ability to manipulate shadows and illusions is similar to that of Darcy's powers.
- He is the second known person to act against the Fortress of Light Council while being a Councilman himself, though, chronologically, he is the first.
- Neruman possesses many similarities to another one of the Winx's old enemies: Darkar.
- Both have the ability to manipulate shadows and shadow monsters.
- Both have taken control of a member of the Winx.
- Darkar had corrupted Bloom and turned her into Dark Bloom.
- Neruman took control of Stella's mind in Issue 95 by using of an evil copy of Morgana's necklace that he created.
- Both can absorb magic in some way, shape or form.
- Darkar passively sucks the magic of nearby magical creatures if they set foot near his fortress.
- Neruman's possesses an overwhelming amount of negative energy, which he can use to absorb or whittle away at a creature with positive magic.
- Both have freed the Winx's past enemies to use as their loyal servants: with Darkar freeing the Trix and Neruman freeing what remained of the Wizards of the Black Circle. This also draws similarities to other villains such as Valtor, Tritannus and Brafilius (who all freed and worked with the Trix).
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