Apocalypse

Born in Egypt during the First Dynasty (around 3000 BC).

Born gray-skinned (although Apocalypse's skin color is sometimes depicted with different human pigment variations) and blue-lipped with natural facial markings, in the settlement of Akkaba, he was abandoned as an infant, but found by a band of desert nomads called the Sandstormers, whose leader, Baal, sees the child's potential power, decides to raise him as his own, and names him En Sabah Nur. He is taught the philosophy that the tribe lives and dies by: survival of the fittest. Nur and Baal are the only Sandstormers to survive on the day that General Ozymandias and his army destroy the Sandstormers tribe, as they find refuge in a sacred cave before it collapsed. Baal eventually dies from lack of nourishment after weeks of deprivation, but before he does, he admits to Nur that he had believed him to be a savior foretold in ancient prophecies who is destined to overthrow the pharaoh Rama-Tut. The young Nur vows to take revenge on the pharaoh and claim his destiny. He hides himself as a slave in Tut's city, where he has visions of Egyptian gods who reveal his great destiny.

The pharaoh Rama-Tut, in actuality an earlier incarnation of Kang the Conqueror who had come back in time to locate the young Apocalypse and take him under his wing, tries to convince Nur to join him, but the young mutant savagely attacks the pharaoh only to be taken down by the conqueror's futuristic weapon. Nur survives, and tries to rescue Nephri, Ozymandias' sister, who had become attracted to the mysterious slave, but Nur is ultimately rejected by Nephri for his inhuman appearance, and she turns to her brother for protection in her panic. Heartbroken by this final rejection, En Sabah Nur's prodigious mutant abilities fully emerge in his enraged state, and he renames himself Apocalypse. Rama-Tut flees the former slave's rampage, while Nur uses his advanced technology to enslave and transform his former tormentor, Ozymandias, into a blind seer made of living stone, who would forever chronicle Apocalypse's future destinies. Fifty years later, Nur revisits Nephri, now an elderly Egyptian Queen on her deathbed, and mocks the loss of her beauty and vitality, in contrast to his own unchanged appearance, despite the passage of time.

