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Mordekai the Summoner was one of Mental's servants who was used in the arts of spell-casting and magic. He serves as the secondary antagonist and the final boss of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam: Xbox, Serious Sam HD, Serious Sam VR, and Serious Sam Classics: Revolution.
Biography[]
Mordekai was one of Mental's most faithful and trustworthy servants, having served him for over 3000 years.[1] He served him so well indeed, that Mental missed him very much and resurrected him after he died in a bizarre accident involving the Necronomicon, 20,000 pounds of ectoplasm and a mispronounced Latin proverb. However, as Mordekai had been dead for some time, Mental was quite late in the resurrection progress, leaving him slightly brain damaged.[1]
Mordekai appeared to have some control over Mental's forces, as after Sam killed him, any enemies that he spawned died as well.
Appearances[]
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter[]
Serious Sam encounters Mordekai in the garden of the Church of Sacred Blood as soon as he enters. Here, Mordekai is revealed to be the one guarding the Holy Grail. He battles Sam using his staff to teleport Mental's troops in to stop Sam from obtaining the Grail. After a big fight, Sam is able to finish off Mordekai and the rest of Mental's forces and acquire the Grail to activate the Sirian backup spaceship.
Behavior and skills[]
Mordekai's only attack is to teleport in, fire several magic blasts that will spawn enemies when it hits the ground, and then disappear. A few seconds, he will reappear and repeat this action. At first, the enemies spawned by Mordekai will be weak or lightweight troops, such as Beheaded Kamikazes, Kleer Skeletons, or Zorg Mercenaries and Commanders but as his health decreases, he will start spawning in stronger enemies, including but not limited to Fiendian Reptiloid Demons, Lava Golems, or Major Bio-mechanoids.
Tactics[]
- The key to this fight is to balance the fight so that an equal amount of time is spent attacking Mordekai and killing the enemies he spawns. This is very important in the later portions of the fight, as he will start spawning powerful enemies, such as Fiendian Reptiloid Demons or Sirian Werebulls. Being overwhelmed by enemies can cost the player the fight in the later stages, but at the same time, focusing on enemies too much is a waste of ammo because Mordekai will keep spawning enemies as long as he is still alive.
- In general, the cannon is the best weapon to use when fighting him. Charged shots do a large amount of damage per hit and can quickly reach him at long or medium range, while spamming uncharged shots is very effective when he is right next to the player. This is made even more effective in Serious Sam HD, where the cannon can be fired much more quickly. The cannon is also very useful against the powerful enemies he spawns throughout the battle.
- In the area with the little fortification, just before entering the courtyard of the cathedral, there are re-spawning objects, including power-ups. Take Serious Speed, then Serious Damage and immediately run towards the entrance of the cathedral. When Mordekai is summoned, if the player is fast enough, the effect of the serious damage will still be active for some time; use this opportunity to fire with the SBC Cannon or XL2 Lasergun; this way, the player can easily deplete about 1/5 of Mordekai's health rapidly, or with the MK III Grenade Launcher and/or RAPTOR Sniper Rifle, even 1/2 of his health, before he starts spawning enemies.
- In Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, the secret weapons XL4-P 'Ghostbuster' Beam Gun (obtained from Alley of the Sphinxes) and CDF-ST-005 Plasmathrower (obtained from The Citadel) are also useful for this tactic. If the player is fast enough, using the plasmathrower, they can easily kill Mordekai with 11 alternate fire shots with serious damage still active before he manages to summon a single enemy. If he doesn't die, at least 75% or even 96% of his health will be lost in the process. However, the weapons can only be brought into the level if obtained from their respective levels, meaning the player can't do a "clean start" playthrough of The Grand Cathedral (i.e. selecting it from the Custom Level menu) as the ghostbuster and plasmathrower will not be retained otherwise.
- In the HD and VR re-releases of the game, the player can simply rapidly spam cannonballs or grenades at Mordekai with serious damage active and quickly defeat him before he even summons a single enemy.
- The RAPTOR Sniper Rifle is also decent against Mordekai, as it still deals decent damage to him when zoomed in.
- After an item in his arena has been picked up, it will reappear in a different location. If the player sees a respawned item in a different location while fighting, they should immediately note its location for later.
- The serious speed power-ups are very useful, as they let the player dodge the large amount of projectiles the enemies will be firing.
- When the 'pink secret' has been enabled, go to the rightmost jump pad and look to the right of the pad. There will be a small hole with an Extra Large Health in it. Crouch to walk into the hole and grab the health because the 100 extra health will be very useful during the later stages of the fight.
- The jump pads can be useful for as a temporary escape from enemy attacks if the player is cornered. Walking up on one will bounce the player slightly up, which will give them enough air to dodge any incoming attacks and bounce them far enough that they can start moving to the other side of the arena.
- If the player has a Serious Bomb, it can come in handy for dealing with the enemies Mordekai summons if the player is being overwhelmed by them.
Relationships[]
Mental[]
Mordekai was greatly devoted to serving Mental, and became known as one of his trustworthy and reliable servants. After Mordekai died, Mental missed him dearly, so he resurrected him again, although the outcome of the resurrection process didn't end up as well as Mental had hoped it would.
Powers and abilities[]
- Skilled Magical Powers: Mordekai was noted as one of the most powerful sorcerers who ever lived in the known universe, and had incredible magical abilities. Mental was impressed with Mordekai's skills and automatically assigned him to train his minions in the art of spell-casting and employing magic for truly 'evilish' purposes.[1]
- Teleportation: Mordekai had the ability to teleport. He would teleport frequently around the arena when he fought Sam.
- Incredible Durability and Endurance: Mordekai was very tough, and required heavy firepower to take down. He wasn't as durable as other servants seen in Mental's army, however, such as Lord Achriman or Ugh-Zan III.
- Electrokinesis: Mordekai was able to produce lightning, as seen when several trees were destroyed with powerful lightning bolts.[2] For some reason, he didn't use this ability during the fight against Sam.
Appearance[]
Mordekai was a large, floating hooded humanoid creature who stood approximately 45 feet tall. His entire body was shrouded in a grey cloak, which made it impossible to determine what he actually looked like. He had no legs, and he had glowing red eyes that could be seen under the hood of his cloal. In his hand, he held a large wooden staff with a jewel (red in the classic version, black in HD) on top.
Related achievements[]
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter[]
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| Deliver the final blow to Mordekai with the knife. |
Serious Sam Classics: Revolution[]
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| Kill the boss and complete the Medieval episode. |
Quotes[]
During the fight with Mordekai, he will say one of the following quotes in Latin, which are taken directly from The Second Encounter's sound files.
- Quote03.wav: O tempora o mores
- Quote05.wav: Carpe diem
- Quote07.wav: Alea iacta est
- Quote08.wav: Status quo
- Quote10.wav: Tempus fugit
- Quote11.wav: Post scriptum
- Quote14.wav: Lupus in fabula
- Quote15.wav: Coitus interruptus
- Quote16.wav: Hic, haec, huc
Behind the scenes[]
- Mordekai was meant to have a melee attack in the earlier versions of The Second Encounter. His attack animation can be seen in the Serious Editor.
- Based on official concept art, Mordekai's initial appearance was highly different in which he had torn arm sleeves, a non-decaled robe, and an entirely different staff.
- In Serious Sam HD, Mordekai has an unused texture with him wearing a red outfit and having green eyes.
Trivia[]
- Occasionally throughout the boss battle, Mordekai can be heard speaking what appears to be Latin, though NETRICSA says that most of the Latin is utter gibberish due to him being brain damaged.
- "Mordekai" is a variation of "Mordecai", which is a name of Hebrew origin. The name means "follower of Marduk", a god god from ancient Mesopotamia.
- Mordecai is also one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible.
- Mordekai's classic staff appears in Serious Sam 3: BFE's model files, but is unused in that game.
- According to NETRICSA in Serious Sam's Bogus Detour, the Lava Golem was created by Mordekai.
- Mordekai has the longest death animation of any enemy in the game; when he has been killed, he will wail and scream in agony for a few seconds, and then finally explode.
- If Mordekai is killed in the classic and Xbox releases of the game and there is a Beheaded Kamikaze alive, the latter will not explode. Instead, he will die normally, although his death animations are reused from other Beheaded soldiers.
- In the Fusion version of Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and the console-based Serious Sam Collection release, an oversight in development caused Mordekai to have a 50% resistance to "piercing" projectiles, which are from the A-24 Devastator, which is normally only usable in Serious Sam 3, but can be used in Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter via mods. Because of this, he takes full damage from cannonballs unlike in previous releases, thus making him even easier to defeat. Just 9 uncharged cannonballs with serious damage active will kill him.
- This can be exploited for speedruns.
- To fix this in the moddable version of the game, the player must open the Serious Editor and modify Mordekai's entity parameters file to add a 50% weapon damage filter involving the cannon.
- Mordekai's boss theme is an instrumental rearrangement of "Enlightening the World" by Undercode from their album of the same name.
- The name of the achievement for killing Mordekai in Revolution is a reference to the name of the Medieval episode of Serious Sam: Xbox. The same goes for the achievement names for killing other bosses and the Xbox episodes they appear in.
Gallery[]
List of appearances[]
- Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (First appearance)
- Serious Sam: Xbox (non-canonical appearance)
- Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
- Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter (non-canonical appearance)
- Serious Sam's Bogus Detour (non-canonical appearance) (Mentioned)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 NETRICSA description
- ↑ Serious Sam: The Second Encounter level: The Grand Cathedral (Mordekai appears cutscene)