Njohrr

"Perhaps the right son did survive. Yield now…and take your place in our clan."

―Njohrr to Dek (from Predator: Badlands)

Njohrr^[2] was the leader of a Yautja Clan.^[3] He had two sons, Kwei and Dek.

His younger son Dek ended up being a runt and the weakest of the clan, which made him hated by Njohrr, who ordered Kwei to kill Dek.^[4]

Personality and traits[]

Njohrr was an elderly Yautja, which was reflected in his facial features; his scaly skin was wrinkled, he had spines coming out of his eyebrows and the top of his skull, and he had a double crest. He also wore the characteristic dreadlocks of his species, though his came out of the sides, unlike his children who had them come out of the top of their skulls; his dreadlocks were also white to indicate his age, unlike most other Yautja.^[5] Like his oldest son Kwei, he was a large and sinewy Yautja, and he also had yellow eyes. Lastly, Njohrr had a peculiar white beard on his chin.

Although an experienced and highly respected warrior in his clan, he was gruff and ruthless, a trait that meant not even his own family was safe from him. He felt a deep contempt for everything he considered weak, and believed that a weak Yautja could only honor his clan by dying.^[6] This way of thinking made it so he lacked any and all respect for his youngest son Dek,^[7] whom he saw as a shame to the clan.^[8]

He was shown to be immensely prideful, bordering on perfectionism, and refused to acknowledge his shortcomings, as he refused to acknowledge Dek's accomplishments in surviving and prevailing his first hunt to be a full-blooded hunter, since it would mean he had to accept the fact that he killed his eldest son for nothing due to poor judgement as a leader, which implied he was insecure about his position as Clan Leader and secretly terrified of being replaced, as Dek replacing Njohrr would likely cause the rest of his clansmen to overthrow him due to his abusive tendencies, Darwinistic attitude and willingness to kill his own kin for petty reasons, all of which were severe crimes in the Yautja Honor Code and were punishable by death. When Dek formally defeated him in mortal combat, he offered to allow him into the clan as a blooded warrior with some string-pulling while implicitly begging for his life in the process, showing that for all his talks about Darwinism, he was a coward at heart. In his final moments, he ultimately showed himself to be a selfish, egotistical, bloodthirsty, sadistic warlord more interested in personal glory than his species' standards of honor, and a terrible father who couldn't comprehend his youngest son's weakness, being karmically impaled through the hand, having an arm sliced off and ensnared with the same laser chain device he used to torture Dek, before dying a shameful and undignified death at the hands of Bud (the child of the very Kalisk that even Njohrr himself feared, whose death Dek believed would allow him to reclaim his honor) biting his head off, with his cloaking device being stolen by Dek as a final insult.

Biography[]

Youth and Growth[]

Njohrr's past is largely unknown, but it is known that he was born on Yautja Prime and came from a long line of great hunters, and was raised to continue that legacy. At some point, he achieved the rank of Blooded after his first hunt. He managed to survive the hunts he led over the years until he grew old and became a warrior of legendary reputation, eventually gaining the rank of Clan Leader in honor of his prowess and leading his own clan.

At some point, Njohrr mated with a female Yautja with whom he fathered a litter, but one of the offspring was born smaller and weaker than the rest: Dek.

Disappointed with Dek[]

As his sons grew, they gained skill, but while his eldest son Kwei made his first hunt and became a promising hunter, Dek remained an Un-blooded Yautja who was smaller and weaker than the rest of his clan. Njohrr saw this as a personal insult, leading him to sever all ties with Dek and consider him the runt of the clan; his hatred of Dek was shared by the rest of his clan too, since he was the leader.

Considering Dek weak, useless and incapable of hunting, Njohrr ordered Kwei to kill him in his sleep, but his eldest son disobeyed him; Kwei loved Dek and wanted to help him prove himself to Njohrr.

At some point, Njohrr gave Dek a seemingly easy mission: acquire a valuable power core from a ship that crashed on a moon of Pelkonen IV 10,000 years ago, a mission he predicted Dek would fail. Dek indeed did fail the mission because the power core was lost, and Kwei brought him back to their disappointed father in his ship; Njohrr angrily reprimanded his son for his failure, and when Dek attempted to speak, Njohrr held him by the throat and called him a runt whose every breath made him an embarrassment to the clan, before ordering him to leave.

Hunting his sons[]

As Dek and Kwei prepared to embark on their journey to the planet Genna so Dek could earn the respect of both the clan and his father by killing a Kalisk, a seemingly unkillable creature feared even by Njohrr himself, Njohrr personally followed their trail to a wasteland on Yautja Prime, where he discovered that Dek was still alive.

As Njohrr arrived on a hoverbike and approached his sons, Dek used his Wristblades to slash his hand, shedding blood as a gesture of respect for his father while announcing that he greeted Njohrr with honor. However, Njohrr was not interested in speaking to the "runt," instead focusing his attention on Kwei as he angrily demanded to know why he hadn't killed his brother yet. When Kwei attempted to argue that Dek deserved a chance at a hunt, Njohrr stated that his youngest son was the clan's weak spot - something that must be culled. In response, Kwei claimed that Dek would bring home the Kalisk as a trophy, but his father chuckled in seeming amusement and called him foolish and Dek the runt of the clan, saying that Kwei should've killed his brother in his sleep.

After again ordering Kwei to kill Dek, he captured his youngest son with a laser chain device, believing that his youngest son could only honor the clan by dying; his oldest son seemingly yielded to his wishes, pulling out his Plasma Sword to behead his brother. Dek begged his father for mercy, and before carrying out the order, Kwei also looked at him as if pleading for mercy, but Njohrr simply remained silent.^[9]

However, Kwei had a change of heart; while he shared his father's beliefs that Dek was a weakling, he genuinely loved his brother, so he swung his sword at the device restraining him and activated Dek's shoulder-mounted Plasmacaster grappling hook, which pulled him into the ship, where Kwei locked his brother in despite his attempts to escape; when Njohrr activated his own Plasmacaster and trained the targeting system on him, Kwei used an energy shield to block the attack and save his brother, who could only watch as his brother and father engaged in a brutal duel, where Kwei managed to disable his father's Plasmacaster and disarm him of his sword, although Njohrr used his Wrist Gauntlet to block a blow and stole Kwei's own sword, before activating his Cloak to gain an advantage over his son when Kwei tried punching him. As Dek frantically banged on the ship's windows, Njohrr continued attacking Kwei, slashing his chest twice with his Plasma Sword; Kwei seemingly sensed his father through the cloak and attempted a blow, but Njohrr effortlessly impaled him through the hand with his wristblades and de-cloaked, slicing his arm off with his sword as Dek called Kwei's name and continued banging on the ship. Despite missing an arm and being badly wounded, Kwei swung his wristblades at his father, who used his Bio-mask to block the blow before slashing his favored son across the face and knocked him to the ground; Kwei still refused to surrender, defiantly crawling towards his severed arm as Njohrr ominously followed him, claiming that forgiving weakness meant showing weakness. Dek continued banging on the door of the ship, frantically screaming for Kwei to get his sword back as Kwei first eyed the dropped blade, and then the wrist gauntlet on his severed arm. Unfortunately, Njohrr swung his Plasma Sword down on Kwei, mortally wounding him with a stab to the back; Dek screamed Kwei's name yet again as Njohrr dragged Kwei to his knees, but Kwei managed to recover his arm, using the wrist gauntlet to manually start his ship so Dek could escape. A cackling Njohrr then grabbed Kwei's head and prepared to decapitate him, but a defiant Kwei simply told his brother to bring the Kalisk home before he was beheaded, with Dek screaming his name a final time in anguish, as Njohrr held up his severed head to mock him.

Final confrontation with Dek and Demise[]

After Dek succeeded in his hunt against the Kalisk, he returned home with a fully repaired Thia and a now-grown Bud, with Njohrr leaving his stronghold and approaching his son while his clansmen watched from the upper levels, now no longer wielding his Plasmacaster, which implied he discarded it after it became useless due to Kwei disabling it in the fight earlier. When Njohrr wondered if his son was here for revenge, Dek, clearly not expecting his father's approval anymore, clarified that he was here for his cloak, throwing the severed head of Tessa at his father's feet; confused, Njohrr questioned what it was, and Dek stated that it was his trophy for completing his hunt. Too prideful to accept a weakling like Dek could be a great hunter and unable to accept that he killed his eldest son for nothing, Njhorr denied the request, stating that both his sons disgraced his clan, and called for two of his bodyguards to get rid of his son with a Plasma Sword and Combistick, although Dek killed them rather effortlessly with his Wristblades while also stealing one of the guard's Combisticks.

Pulling out his own plasma sword, Njohrr and Dek engaged in a brutal duel where Dek managed to stab his father in the leg with one end of his Combistick, although Njohrr slashed it away with his sword and activated his cloak to ambush his son. After being knocked away, Dek used his wrist gauntlet to activate his ship's exhaust to kick up sand and debris, which he used to detect his father through the cloak, allowing him to repeatedly wound him with his weapons before finally using his wristblades to stab him through the right hand and his Combistick to sever his arm, disabling his cloak; a seemingly terrified Njohrr reached for the laser device on his belt, but failed to find it since Dek had stolen it in the struggle, using it to force his father to his knees before he non-lethally impaled his father in the head with his Combistick, removing Njohrr's mask to reveal his face.

Heavily wounded, Njhorr acknowledged that he was wrong about Dek, stating that perhaps the right son had survived, and implicitly begged his son for mercy, offering to formally induct him into the clan if he yielded. Disgusted with how much of a coward his father really was, Dek refused, claiming that, with Thia and Bud, he had found his own clan, which infuriated his father; rather than bloody his hands himself, Dek had Bud bite Njohrr's head off and swallow it, killing the Elder Yautja, avenging Kwei's murder, and ridding his clan of its Elder-turned Bad Blood. To further add insult to injury, Dek took out the cloaking device from Njohrr's wrist gauntlet before equipping it himself, finally earning the reward his father denied him out of spite and ensuring it wouldn't be abused by another Bad Blood, which Thia congratulated him for, claiming that he was finally "Dek of the Yautja" before Dek also stole his father's sword.

Immediately after, the rest of the clan on the balcony armed themselves, spotting a massive Scout Ship in the distance; when Thia asked if the ship was friendly, Dek pulled out his sword and revealed it was his mother.