Ra's Al Ghul's History
Ra?s al Ghul was born 700 years ago in a tribe of nomads in one of the Arabian deserts. When Ra?s was young, he became fascinated with science, but due to his nomad tribe, he was unable to study. Ra?s decided to leave his tribe and move to the city where he could study science. He became a physician and then quickly married the love of his life, Sora. Later, Ra?s discovered the secret lair of the Lazarus Pit. When a sadistic prince was dying (Ra?s did not know he was sadistic) Ra's tried to save him by putting him in the Lazarus Pit. When he emerged from the Lazarus Pit, it caused him to go completely insane and the prince would proceed to strangle Sora and killed her in the process.
Later, the King would convict Ra?s for doing something to his son and sentences him to a slow and torturing death in a cage with his wife?s corpse. Ra?s was eventually set free by a son of an old woman; he tries to save the dying woman but was unsuccessful.
Ra?s was devastated with what had happened to him and his wife. He decides to take the son of the old woman and they went to the tribe that Ra?s was born from. At the tribe, Ra?s asked his uncle, who was the leader of the tribe, to help him and guaranteed the fall of the King. His uncle would agree and they began plotting against the King. Ra?s was extremely knowledgeable with germ theory of disease. His knowledge on it was far more advanced then anyone of that time. With that knowledge, Ra?s would contaminate some fabrics and sent it to the prince. The prince became sick and the king would seek Ra?s for a cure. Ra?s denied him and killed both the king and prince. He sends the tribe into the kingdom and they proceed to kill everyone inside it. Right afterward, Ra?s would declare himself the ?Demon's Head?. Ra?s also has a daughter named Talia. He met a woman that was mixed Chinese and Arab at Woodstock, after that Talia was born.
Rise of the League of Assassins
Ra?s began to travel the world. Ra?s, his uncle, and that boy were all using the Lazarus Pits to continue living. While in London, Ra?s catches the boy writing about the Lazarus Pits and about his whole life in their language. Ra?s engages in a fight with him to stop him from writing any more and kills him in the end. Ra?s became weak after the battle and had to get to the Lazarus Pits to help revive him. When he returns to London, he discovers that his uncle had stolen all his historical records. Ra?s continues his journey and eventually becomes a master martial artist, and also became a great fencer. He also gains a mass amount of wealth through time and starts creating organizations to rid the world of crime; his first was called The Demon. The League of Assassins is a branch organization of The Demon.
Ra?s is an eco-terrorist and his purpose with the League of Assassins is to eliminate all evil in the world. He concludes that the only way to do so is to destroy all of humanity and start all over. This gives him run-ins with the superhero community, especially Batman. Ra?s has had many plans over the years that tried to destroy the world. One includes his organization unleashing a virus called Elbola into Gotham City. He had also allied with Bane and also thought of Bane as a possible heir, however, Talia disliked Bane?s brutish criminal personality. Ra?s has also beaten the entire JLA before when he discovered Batman?s notes on how to take down every single hero. He is defeated but was able to get Batman kicked out of the JLA.
War with Batman
When Talia began falling in love with Batman, Ra's began to consider Batman as a possible heir for his organization. Ra's decides that he must find out the identity of Batman and was able to deduce only a rich man would be able to buy the equipment Batman uses. He learns that it is Bruce Wayne and was able to locate the Batcave. Ra?s went to the Batcave seeking Batman?s help to save his daughter and Robin who were kidnapped by a mysterious stranger. After Batman realizes that it was all an elaborate plan by Ra?s, Ra?s then proceeds to tell Batman that he passed the test. Ra?s then offers Batman to become the new heir but is denied by Batman stating that his plan is genocide and will not be a part of it. After Batman?s decline to join Ra?s, he made Batman his mortal enemy for life for defending a corrupt world.
Another Daughter
While Ra?s was traveling in Russia during the 18th century, Ra?s had another child by the name of Nyssa Raatko. Her mother told her romantic stories about her father and it made Nyssa determined to find her father. She eventually was able to locate his headquarters in North Africa. Ra?s is impressed with everything about her and especially since she was able to locate him, he offers her a high position in his organization which she accepts. Ra?s would reveal the Lazarus Pits to Nyssa, which later she would be able to make the Pits reusable. Eventually, Nyssa began to disagree with Ra?s ideals and decides to leave the organization. Ra?s thought that she would someday return with children to take over his organization, but she declined and Ra?s would disown her. During World War II, Ra?s had allied himself with the Nazis, while Nyssa and her family had been taken into a concentration camp. Ra?s has abandoned her in the camp where she was tortured and her whole family was killed.
After her father abandoned her at the concentration camp, she began plotting against him. Nyssa would later befriend her half-sister, Talia, but actually kidnaps her and brainwashes her. Nyssa planned to assassinate Superman to destroy all hope in the world, but is stopped by Batman. However, Nyssa was able to badly wound her father. As Ra?s laid there dying, he reveals that this was all a part of his plan. Since his daughters both did not like his ideals and what he has done, he showed them that he is correct with his death. It worked since Talia and Nyssa now became the head of The Demons and the League of Assassins. Talia tells Batman that she no longer loves him, and Nyssa finishes Ra?s by stabbing him in the heart. They declared war on Batman, and later Batman would have Ra?s body cremated so he does not return.
Return
Talia takes her son, Damian, to Australia to be told about Ra's' history by his servant White Ghost. However the Ghost attempts to use Damian's body as a host for Ra's' return. This plan was stopped by Batman who defeated the Ghost. White Ghost meets his end when he accidentally fell into a Lazarus pit. Ra's' had recently come back to life in a new body. However, his host betrayed him and poisoned himself with radiation, and he needed a new body. He had chosen Damian, but Damian had refused and was going to inform his father of Ra's' return. Ra's is also trying to take back control of the League of Assassins from the Sensei.
He kidnapped Robin and Damian and intends to force Batman into choosing which one will be his new host.
In the end, Ra's al Ghul has no choice but to accept the offer from his son, White Ghost. Ra's is now reborn in a somewhat inferior body. He soon arrives in Gotham and tells Batman he is setting up his base of operations there.
Batman quickly discovers where Ra's al Ghul is. They fight with Batman telling him it is "over forever". In disguise, Batman transfers him to Arkham Asylum under the identity of "Terry Gene Kase". He tells Arkham that he has multiple personality disorder. His files say he's claimed to be Superman, Jesus, and even the "billionaire leader of a cabal of international assassins". He is being kept heavily sedated. It is Batman's hopes that he will rot there for decades.
Recently, Ra's was able to escape Arkham, though the exact specifics remain unknown. Returning to take control as the Demon's Head he steered clear of Gotham, until rumors of the Detective's death reached him after Final Crisis. Using his contacts he began spying on members of the " Bat Family" and superhero community, whose action's validate the rumor's to him. Wanting both to have absolute proof, and also attempting to push Dick Grayson along the same path as Bruce, he sends a group of ninja's to the manor to bring Dick to him.
Not at all to his surprise, Dick manages to defeat all of his henchmen, and after a brief conversation the two reach an accord. Ra's waits for Dick to arrive at his base for their meeting, showing that their are none of his Acolytes for over a 25 mile radius, just as Dick failed to bring any of his Superhero cohorts. Ra's confronts Dick about both his choices during the events of his resurrection, and the recent loss of Bruce.
As Dick gets angry and is about to leave, Ra's tosses him one of a pair of blades used by himself and the Detective in a previous duel. He proceeds to duel Dick, both raging about his own feelings on Bruce's loss, and pushing Dick closer towards taking up the mantle of his father, and forging a new Detective. Dick is able to defeat Ra's, to his apparent pleasure, and Ra's offers him the blade used as a keep-sake, explaining their history. When Dick refuses, and tells Ra's to keep it as a reminder that they will cross path's again, Ra's feels his plan is complete. He has one of his minions deliver the sword to the cave, having it waiting for Dick, the new Detective, upon his return.
In addition to Dick, Ra's also makes contact with Tim Drake who is now using the identity of Red Robin as he travels through Europe searching for proof that Bruce is alive and lost in time. Ra's offers Tim the resources of the League of Assassins in his quest, as well as a team of assassins to assist and eliminate any threat to Tim's life and Tim accepts, finding the proof that he's looking for in the Iraq desert. However Ra's has come under attack from a rival organisation called the Council of Spiders and his people are being assassinated, and Tim nearly dies in one of these attacks before being brought to a League facility in Istanbul called the Cradle.
Ra's makes Tim the leader of an effort to eliminante the Council of Spiders and Tim complies only to gain access to Ra's database and destroy all of the League's bases across the world, causing Ra's to declare revenge on Tim, vowing to destroy Bruce Wayne's legacy just as Tim has destroyed his own. Now established in Gotham, Ra's phones Tim to tell him that he has sent assassins to kill Dick and Damian, Stephanie Brown, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oracle, Vicky Vale, Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox and Julie Madison, but Tim has his friends from both the Batman family and Teen Titans to defend all of Ra's targets before confronting Ra's at his Gotham base.
Ra's engages Tim in a brutal duel but Tim reveals he never intended to win the fight, realising that Ra's secondary goal was to transfer all of Bruce Wayne's financial interests to himself by threatening Hush, and using those funds to restore his League of Assassins. Tim says that all he needed was to buy himself time for Lucius Fox to transfer controlling interest of Wayne Enterprises to Tim as Bruce's named heir and thereby protect Bruce's legacy, since Lucius had suspected Hush's goal was to bankrupt Wayne Enterprises. Calling Tim the 'Detective', a title he has only ever bestowed on Bruce, Ra's kicks Tim out of the penthouse window before retreating to an unknown location where he talks with an unknown woman, stating that Tim surpassed every one of his expectations and that he would 'produce a worthy heir', indicating that he considers Tim the equal of Bruce Wayne.
Road Home: Ra's Al Ghul
During the events of Road Home, Ra's Al Ghul turned out to be the mastermind behind all of the attacks on Vicki Vale's life! From a series of events, Vicki Vale collected information on all of the members of the Bat-Family! What she didn't have was evidence to prove that different citizens (for example Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Barbara Gordon) were different heroes (or used to be heroes) in Gotham City. When Ra's found out that Vicki was going to expose Batman's identity, he quickly got a team of assassins, mercenaries, and Ninjas to kill Vicki Vale. Ra's didn't want to draw battle with Bruce's friends and family, Ra's just wanted to protect the kingdom (or legacy) that Bruce Wayne has created over the years. When all of his soldiers failed to kill Vicki Vale, Ra's Al Ghul decided to combat Vicki Vale himself! Insider (Bruce Wayne) jumped in between them and revealed to Vicki Vale that he was Batman (Insider at the time) all along. Ra's Al Ghul dropped the charges on Vicki Vale's life, and told Bruce Wayne that the next time they meet, they will be enemies.
