I’m 75% certain that Tobias West is Taxiarch Nergal. There seems to be a lot of misdirection within the Briefing short stories.
In The Acts of Taxiarch Nergal, it appears that the narrative events took place in ancient times were humanity may have had a pre-industrial society, but this is just window dressing by the Disciples of Anu and the events actually take place from 2010-2040.
What we know of West’s military career and political leanings slightly aligns with that of Nergal. There’s also the suggestion that Tobias West may have passed away prior to the events at Fort Freiheit. He could be seen as a martyr or used as a symbol by the New Jericho leadership.
I’m not sure if Nergal would create such organization like New Jericho or earlier Vanadium Inc. Their goal was clear - to eradicate Pandora Virus and all kind of mutations. Nergal is a mutant himself living for many thousand years now, also leading Disciples of Anu and converting nonbelievers. This doesn’t connect for me.
There is the possibility the Nergal is long lived mutant. I’m of the mindset the West came before Nergal. Perhaps he attempted suicide after getting infected, but instead was “rescued” by the Disciples Anu, then became Nergal. The correct answer is usually the obvious so you’re probably right. Still I’m holding out for a twist reveal.
What makes you think he’s been living for so long ? If I remember correctly it is said that he is in a flying machine, then crashes and sees the misery he has brought to the land.
I strongly belive he is a Chinese Genral whose plane was shot down and realized how badly he hurted US citizen’s life. (I think there was a war between the US and China before the first mist : China won).
Nergal was mentioned in one of the Anu stories, where main character of the story was deciding who he should join. It was happening after second mist. And in one of the havens he saw all faction representatives. One of Anu representatives was Nergal himself and they talked for a while. Nergal convinced main character do join Disciples of Anu. And of course Nergal was one of main characters of the “Deeds of Texriarh(or something like that) Nergal” about ancient mesopotamian creature. So he should be quite old right now.
It is said that he was a loyal soldier of a great empire sent to persecute the people of a foreign country. (China is a great empire, the US are a foreign country)
“on this journey, his vehicle was ripped from the sky by a storm” (I don’t know what flies but a plane)
Now on foot and having to travel through the land he burned down, he realized his mistakes and started looking for expiation but there were many false prophets at the time (christians, muslims, jews etc…)
Now those are the words that got me thinking he was a Chinese general before the mist because I thought “The Flood” was actually a mystic term used by those DOA psychos.
But I’m mistaking hahaha.
Re-reading it, it then talks about a flooded city and a high building. It also talks about Wormwood falling on Earth, so here is my new opinion :
Nergal is from the ancient Race and was one of those send to eradicate humans. Then came Noe’s cataclysm (Flood, lightnings sent by the Gods) and Wormwood. During the events which followed (war between pro humans and conservatives among the Ancients), Nergal tried to kill himself and ended up facing an instance of the virus we don’t know about.
