Nazh

The **Nazh** were a humanoid species from the planet Nazh. The species was politically independent and, according to Admiral Perry, "notoriously uninterested" in diplomacy with the Planetary Union.

## Biology

The Nazh were somewhat humanoid in appearance with gray, brown skin and black eyes. A small people, they stood at roughly chest level with human and Xelayan adult males and females. They were remarkably fast runners. As far as can be ascertained, the Nazh were hairless.

## Culture

The Nazh were politically independent, uninterested in membership in the Planetary Union. They seem not to have been well known by Union species, as senior officers of the USS *Orville* had to consult the Database to look them up.

The Nazh engaged in controversial activities involving abuses of the rights of other sentient species. For example, a group of Nazh enslaved the Okudum people in 2420 and forced them to mine dysonium by hand. The foreman of the operation, Ilis, mentioned to his "superiors on Nazh," which might refer to political leaders or simply to supervisors of a private enterprise.

Despite possessing faster-than-light speed travel technology, the Nazh where much less advanced than the Union. Chief Engineer John LaMarr stated that Nazh guns were less powerful than Union weapons, and could not penetrate Moclan body armor. One piece of military equipment was "the Juggernaut," a tank.

## Production

Artist David Cabeza modeled Nazh soldier uniforms and guns off of 19th century French and Spanish uniforms and guns, "like the ones the bad guys had in the old *Zorro* TV show." He started with three versions of the Nazh for the comic:

* Version 1 was, in Cabeza's estimation, 75 percent 19th century French military uniform and 25 percent science fiction, replete with epaulettes, scarf, and visor.
* Version 2 was 15 percent French and 85 percent science fiction with a computer eyepiece.
* Version 3 was a simplified take on Version 2, complete with a shorter rifle and lacking the epaulettes, visor, eyepiece, and most of the buttons.

Cabeza and writer David A. Goodman ultimately chose Version 3. Notes by Cabeza left on his designs included a rule that soldiers should *not* have earrings or pointy nails so as to keep them visually distinct from Ilis.

Cabeza posted schematics of the "Nazh Ship V.2" to his Twitter, the Nazh spaceship as seen in *Heroes, Pt. 1*. The ship is primarily painted red with some details in yellow and white. Surprisingly, the ship has three engines, as opposed to one large engine as is typical in Union vessels. At the far front are the windows of a bridge that Cabeza described as "cockpit style." Most curious of all is a huge mounted weapon at the top of the ship marked "rotating digging weapon."

## Trivia

* According to Cabeza's notes for Ilis, "Nazh people like golden jewelry."

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Episode 2.5x03: Heroes, Pt. 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 2.5x04: Heroes, Pt. 2
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 @kashinorei. "Nazh soldier. I tried to design a futuristic XVIIIth european soldier uniform, like the ones the bad guys had in the old Zorro TV show. A little bit of french/spanish uniform of that era here, also in the gun @DarkHorseComics
@DavidAGoodman". Twitter. Nov. 22, 2020.
4. ↑ @kashinorei. "#TheOrville Heroes, evolution of a design. Nazh soldier. We finally used V3 (more simplified) without monocle and with the long gun. Here you can see my idea was always to put on them some XIXth European army uniforms vibe on them. @DarkHorseComics
@DavidAGoodman". Twitter. Nov. 28, 2020.
5. ↑ @kashinorei. "Nazh Ship design from #TheOrville Heroes, part 1 @DarkHorseComics
@DavidAGoodman
#sethmacfarlane". Twitter. Nov. 22, 2020.
6. ↑ @kashinorei. "This buddy here is Ilis, Nazh species. Once designed, my wife did for me a quick head model (with our child’s used plasteline
Rolling on the floor laughing
) to help me as reference to draw #TheOrville #comics Heroes, both parts 1 & 2. @DarkHorseComics
@DavidAGoodman
#sethmacfarlane". Twitter. Nov. 12, 2020.