Nimue Inwudu (Prime Earth)

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As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page.

Madame Xanadu is a powerful sorceress and soothsayer. She was a founding member of the Demon Knights and Justice League Dark.

Origin

Nimue was born half-sister of Arthur Pendragon and as such was a princess of Camelot. Nimue was taught how to wield magic by the great wizard Merlin and while learning fell in love with the wizard's scribe Jason of Norwich. Years past and Camelot came under attack, Arthur being killed in the process. Nimue and several other apprentices were ordered to travel with Arthur's corpse to Avalon (an afterlife).^[6] Unable to give up on life Nimue jumped from the ship travelling to Avalon at the last moment and became a nomad. She travelled across the land as an outcast due to her sorcery, she soon discovered that her near death experience had stopped her from aging.^[6]

Across her travels she reencountered Jason who had survived due to Merlin trapping the Demon Etrigan inside him. Etrigan began getting jealous of Nimue and Jason's love so to stop his rampage Inwudu decided to become his lover to stop his onslaught and to control him.^[6]

Hell on Earth

Xanadu began receiving visions of Etrigan scorching a young child, deciding to investigate the visions Xanadu travelled to Death Valley where the visions were coming from. Upon arrival a nuclear explosion went of wiping out the surrounding area and creating a hellish landscape.^[7] After the explosion all the people in Death Valley began transforming into Demons and attacking Xanadu. Eventually Etrigan arrived on the scene with Jason shadowing him and the girl from the visions. After defeating all the demons Etrigan killed the little girl because she annoyed him.^[8] Merlin then revealed that he was the little girl in disguise who'd escaped Hell. He told the trio that Belial, Merlin's father, had overthrown Lucifer and became the new King of Hell. He had made Merlin make the nuke so that as the hell-fire spread so did his own power as he seeked to take over Earth. Belial's brother Ruskoff arrived but was quickly defeated by Etrigan.^[9]

The group then travelled to the portal to confront Belial, they faced many perils on the way such as giant mutated animals and more demons.^[10] Upon arriving at the portal the group was attacked by Belial's other brother Suge. Etrigan was able to beat his uncle as Xanadu and Blood fought off hordes of Demons. Xanadu and Merlin then began closing the portal when Belial came through with an enslaved Lucifer. Lucifer then began fighting Etrigan as Belial completed the ritual, finally taking over the world.^[11] Merlin then sacrificed himself to give Etrigan all of his power along with Excalibur. With this he killed Lucifer and began fighting his father while Xanadu fought off the horde. Eventually Etrigan killed his father with the help of Blood crowning the Demon King of Hell. After this everything returned to normal with Jason deciding to travel with Xanadu.^[12]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Decelerated Aging: Madame Xanadu has been around since at least the 6th century, unaging due to her experience with Avalon.^[6]
• Magic: Madame Xanadu is an ancient sorceress with a host of magical abilities.
  • Animal Transmutation: Xanadu can turn people into animals.^[7]
  • Eldritch Blast^[13]
  • Power Amplification: Xanadu used a spell to amplify the healing abilities of the Rod of Asclepius.
  • Elemental Magic
    • Electrokinesis: Xanadu was able to create a lightning bolt so powerful it hurt the full power Belial.^[12]
    • Hydrokinesis^[4]
    • Pyrokinesis
  • Energy Construct Creation^[6]
  • Magic Shield Creation: Xanadu can create magical shields over any amount of area, however the larger the shield the quicker it drains her of her magic.^[13]
  • Clairvoyance: Xanadu used her clairvoyance to see the events that took place during the Enchantress separation from June Moone .
  • Precognition: Xanadu has visions of future events that have not yet come to pass.^[14]
  • Telekinesis: Xanadu was able to lift a demon and crush it with her mind.^[11]
  • Teleportation: Xanadu can teleport to various locations by creating portals.
  • Astral Projection^[15]

Abilities

• Driving: She can drive a motorcycle.^[7]
• Multilingualism: Xanadu can speak Greek.^[16]
• Occultism: Due to being an ancient sorceress Xanadu has a rich understanding of magical lore.
• Tarot Card Reading: Xanadu frequently uses tarot cards to interpret the visions she foresees.
• Immortality: Due to her special race, she has lived for hundreds of years and even helped Merlin to maintain youth.
• Portal Creation: Xanadu can create portals to travel great distances. This portals are apparently extremely hard to mantain for long and tire her pretty quickly.^[17]
  

Equipment

• Tarot Cards
  • Flight

• Xanadu was created by David Michelinie and Val Mayerik, first appearing in Doorway to Nightmare #1. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Xanadu first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Stormwatch (Volume 3) #1 by Paul Cornell and Diogenes Neves.
• This character or object is an adaptation of Nimue, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
• During The New 52, Doctor Destiny/John Dee was Madame Xanadu's son. However, this was erased by the Rebirth, which reverted Dee's history back to his Pre-Flashpoint counterpart, which turned Dee once again into Ethel Cripps' son.

• 144 Appearances of Nimue Inwudu (Prime Earth)
• 47 Images featuring Nimue Inwudu (Prime Earth)
• 14 Quotations by or about Nimue Inwudu (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: Nimue Inwudu (Prime Earth)

Footnotes