Zobek

was a founding member of the Brotherhood of Light and one of the Lords of Shadow in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow who aids Gabriel on his quest. He encourages Gabriel to find the God Mask and use it to bring back his dead wife, Marie. Zobek also serves as the narrator of the game (except for the downloadable chapters).
At the end of the game, he is revealed to be the third Lord of Shadow and master of the Necromancers, the Dark Lord of the Dead. He is one of the the main antagonists of the Lords of Shadow series, along with Satan. Zobek returns in the sequel, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, as both an ally and enemy.
As the Dark Lord of the Dead and sometimes ally of Dracula, Zobek is to be considered as the Lords of Shadow equivalent of the traditional character of Death.
==History==
Zobek was one of the three founders of the Brotherhood of Light. When the three founders of the Brotherhood ascended to Heaven and left their dark sides behind with their bodies creating the Lords of Shadow, Zobek became the "Lord of the Dead".
The Lords of Shadow formed an uneasy truce between themselves; Zobek, however, became resentful of this and wanted to gain power over the others. He probed the depths of Hell and the abyss for knowledge of how to acquire such power.
There he unknowingly became possessed by Satan, who provided him with knowledge of the dark arts and planted the idea to manipulate Gabriel Belmont into his mind, using the Devil Mask to force him to kill his wife Marie, sending him on a ultimately tragic path.
Zobek cast the spell which separated the Earth from the Heavens, knowing his counterpart in Heaven would be forced to contact the Order on Earth. He then posed as Gabriel's ally and spurred him into finding the God Mask to resurrect Marie. Later, he again influenced Gabriel into unknowingly killing Claudia, so that in the end he could use the Black Knight Golem's Dark Gauntlet to kill him if he became too powerful.
After Gabriel gained the final piece of the mask from the Necromancer, Zobek revealed himself as the true Lord of the Necromancers and the remaining Lord of Shadow. In the guise of his original human self, the Dark Lord of the Dead was able to walk among mankind as a member of the Brotherhood. Gabriel was shocked to see Zobek as the last Lord of Shadow; as the latter admitted the truth, he also confessed that through Gabriel's quest, he was pulling his strings, making him collect the God Mask's pieces for him so that he could gain its power. He even revealed to Gabriel that he himself (under Zobek's control) had killed Marie. As Gabriel fell into despair, the Dark Lord of the Dead electrocuted him, killing him slowly and painfully.
The Dark Lord of the Dead then walked up to Gabriel's body and took the God Mask from him. He laughed triumphantly, but just as he was about to use the mask, he heard a voice in his head. The voice belonged to Satan, the Devil himself. Satan was the reason that Zobek had such powerful knowledge - and now that he was of no further use to him, Satan proceeded to burn him alive as he exited his host's body. After Gabriel defeated Satan, Zobek somehow escaped, leaving only his Devil Mask behind.
===Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate===
It was evidenced that Zobek had gone into hiding shortly after the events of Lords of Shadow and sought Trevor Belmont's Combat Cross for unknown reasons, as a Necromancer serving Zobek impeded Simon Belmont's progress, having been promised by Zobek the return of his soul if he successfully delivered the Combat Cross to him. The Necromancer proved no match for Belmont, however, and he was swiftly killed.
===Lords of Shadow epilogue===
In 2057, Zobek, alive and well, finds Gabriel hiding out in a church as a vampire calling himself "Dracul", meaning "the Dragon" or "the Demon", as the words are synonymous (in modern Romanian only). Zobek tries to coax Gabriel into helping him stop Satan's return, lest he take revenge on both of them. The two begin to fight and Gabriel falls from his tower into a street full of people. Out in the streets, Zobek reveals that he knows what Gabriel yearns for: an end to his current existence as neither dead nor living. He offers to free Dracula of his immortality in return for his help. Gabriel then vanishes, leaving Zobek to walk off into the night, promising his "old friend" that it would soon all be over.
===Lords of Shadow 2===
Shortly after, Zobek's Lieutenant retrieves Dracula after saving him from one of Satan's soldiers and gives him a human family to feed on.
After Dracula brutally murders the family and regains his strength and appearance, Zobek greets him (at which point the Prince of Darkness is then seen with an expression of possible remorse for his cruel act while opening the door to the room in which the family lie dead, likely to awaken "undead" - although this is never revealed in Lords of Shadow 2). He begins to convince Dracula to aid him in combating the return of Satan and his Acolytes by once again offering him the eternal rest he longs with the legendary Vampire Killer, having found the fragments in the Underworld and reforged the weapon ages ago.
With their deal set, he sends Dracula to the first location of the Acolyte: the Bioquimek Corporation. He advises Dracula to avoid foes he cannot fight, such as the Golgoth Guard, and later, after entering a strange large room where scientists are preparing a fatal gas, Zobek becomes aware that he's being sensed by a powerful presence, Raisa Volkova.
After Raisa releases the gas, turning the scientists into demented monsters and fights Dracula in fierce battle, he transports them both back to his tower to interrogate Raisa. Once there, Zobek realizes that he cannot read her mind due to it being shrouded in chaos. Dracula proposes that he be sent back to the corporation in order to retrieve the antidote and cure her. While Zobek agrees to the plan, he is unable to transport him once more, fearing that he will be drawing suspicion to himself, forcing Dracula to venture back to the facility on foot. Dracula, with the antidote now in hand, injects Raisa with it, only for him and Zobek to learn too late that she is the Acolyte that they were looking for at the corporation.
After she chants a spell, Raisa blows the the roof off of the facility and assumes her true demon form. Zobek, aware that her power will attract attention, casts a confusion spell to keep Raisa from giving away their location to the other Acolytes while Dracula fights the demon spawn. Once Raisa is defeated, Dracula disappears. Zobek searches for him but his search is unsuccessful and he then repairs his facility.
Finally encountering the Prince of Darkness, thankfully unharmed, a skeptic Zobek questions him on his whereabouts, with Dracula merely replying that he was attending to his own "affairs". With no time to question him further, he sends him to look for a powerful being at the cathedral where he first awoke, believing it to be another Acolyte looking for Dracula. However, that "being" turns out to be –much to his and Dracula's surprise– Dracula's distant descendant: Victor Belmont, current leader of the Brotherhood of Light. Regardless, the latter still lures out the second Acolyte, Nergal Meslamstea, at the cost of his own life, to a powerful weapons corporation. With two of the Acolytes dead at last, Zobek congratulates Dracula on his victory.
However, Zobek informs Dracula that he has pinpointed the third and final Acolyte, Guido Szandor, leader of the Church of Satan and the most powerful of the Acolytes, in the Basilica. He sends both his lieutenant and Dracula to the Basilica to stop Guido from summoning Satan and fulfill their deal. However, upon them reaching the Basilica and the Acolyte, Dracula's memories have been restored and reunited with his son Alucard, who had disguised himself as the lieutenant. Zobek reads their minds and soon realizes the terrible truth behind Dracula's return; he has become the victim of a conspiracy, masterminded by Alucard with the ultimate goal of killing both him and Satan. After Guido disappears when he received a message from Satan, an enraged Zobek appears. He arms himself with the Vampire Killer and takes his true form, Death.
Dracula and Zobek finally have their long awaited and brutal battle. However, despite his great necromantic power and skill, Zobek is beaten back into his human form with the Vampire Lord closing in. Making one last stand with the Vampire Killer against his nemesis, their fight nonetheless ends with Dracula impaling the Lord of the Dead with the Void Sword, freezing and shattering his body to pieces, all the while laughing. With Zobek dead for good, the Vampire Killer is left behind along with Dracula, finally achieving his long awaited goal of vengeance: the death of the man responsible for ruining his life.
==Powers and abilities==
While little of Zobek's abilities as a human were shown, it was certain that he was considerably capable in combat and magic, as he was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Light and considered to be among the finest Brotherhood warriors ever. His skills in battle and combative magic allowed him to –alongside Carmilla and Cornell– fight against the massively powerful Forgotten One, who was the sovereign of the elemental plane of Darkness on equal grounds, although they were not powerful enough to destroy him. Zobek was highly capable in casting arcane spells, as he and the other founders were able to reopen the portal to the Plane of Darkness in the summoning chamber in the heart of Bernhard Castle, and upon managing to force the demon back to his realm, they also created a unique and immensely powerful spell that was bound to the life of the founders and worked even though their dark sides controlled their bodies. Only after two of the Lords of Shadow were killed did the seal weaken enough for the Forgotten One to escape. As the Lord of the Dead, Zobek retained the impressive combat prowess and physical abilities that his light side has. He was able to hold back the Ice Titan's hand to protect Gabriel and leap to its shoulder, as well as survive the fall to the ground. He also displayed incredible strength in Wygol Abbey, where he and Gabriel took turns holding up the stone roof as it nearly crushed them.
As the Lord of the Necromancers, he is considered the most powerful Lord of Shadow and he governs over death and magic. Due to this, Zobek has control over all magical spells and items, allowing him to forcibly attach the Dark Gauntlet into Gabriel's arm; and when faced by Gabriel, he was able to use the Gauntlet to stop Gabriel from harming him. His dominion over death allowed him to make a deal with deceased humans, giving them their powers in exchange for their soul. And in addition to having absolute control over the Necromancers, he can also apparently return their souls if he desires, as he promised a Necromancer he would return his soul if he were to bring Trevor's Combat Cross to him.
Zobek also possessed very potent magical powers and his research for more power allowed him to gather a large amount of magical knowledge. He was able to use magic to travel the Abyss and kill demons, granting him more strength. While possessed by Satan, his knowledge and power of the Dark Arts were expanded to "unimagined heights". This signifies that he is privy to powers previously held by Satan, evidenced by his control of the Black Knight's Gauntlet. With the knowledge and power Satan gave him, Zobek's magic grew so powerful that he was able to cast a spell strong enough to weaken the connection between Heaven and Earth, and was also able to trap the souls of all deceased humans in Limbo.
Although he lost the vast amount of knowledge and power he gained from Satan's possession, Zobek remains a very powerful and skilled sorcerer with knowledge of many spells due to having learned them over the centuries of his long life. As shown in Lords of Shadow 2, he displayed the knowledge and ability to effectively cast a spell of teleportation via opening portals, which he used to teleport Gabriel to locations to begin his missions and sometimes back to their lair, and even a spell of confusion that emits a protective barrier of blue energy that can prevent anyone from leaving and block out signals emitted from using vast amounts of power, which he used to hide their presence while Dracula fought Raisa Volkova and proved potent enough to hide their presence long enough for Dracula to defeat her and prevent her from leaving despite her vast power, although he expressed considerable difficulty maintaining it. He also taught spells to regenerate and create barriers to his Lieutenant. He could use magic to perform interdimensional travels and repair objects of incredible power broken to pieces while also restoring them to their full power, as he traveled to the Plane of Darkness and found the pieces of the Vampire Killer and rebuilt the weapon with all of its immortal killing power intact. He could craft objects of vast power using magic, as he created the armor and Masamune blade his Lieutenant wielded. For offense, Zobek can also use magic to fire shockwaves and orbs of green energy. A shockwave of said energy was strong enough to easily send a weakened Dracula crashing through glass and plummeting to the ground when they fought in the church. He can magically emit a green stream of electricity strong enough to nearly kill Gabriel despite his extreme durability and endurance, needing the aid of the spirits to recover. Zobek can also use magic to levitate himself off the ground, as he does when searching for Dracula and later while maintaining a spell of confusion to block any signal emitted by Raisa Volkova's power. His claims to be able to see what is happening in the Bioquimek Corporation indicates he is capable of using magic to astral project himself to a location, although it apparently emits a rather large amount of magical energy, as Zobek said it would be traced back to him in mere minutes. He may have used a spell to be able to look into the Corporation without needing to project himself so as to be able to provide telepathic guidance to Dracula for him to overcome what obstacle laid in his way.
He also possesses powerful telepathic powers that have a very long range, as he is known to be able to read the minds of others, as Dracula stated that he found Alucard's trap for Zobek to be futile, as in Dracula's weakened state, Zobek can easily see through the charade and overpower him due to the Crissaegrim severely weakening him. The only known way to repel Zobek's telepathy is for someone to use a magical object to block his mind-reading powers, or if said individual were to feel nothing but chaos or confusion. He can even do this from a good distance away, as he quickly found out the truth between Dracula's incapacitation once the latter regained his memories and Alucard had removed the armor's protection. He can also telepathically contact and commune with Dracula even from vast distances to guide him in his missions, even able to do this in magically protected locations. His telepathic powers appear to be quite subtle as well, as he was able to give instructions to Dracula without being sensed in the Bioquimek Corporation; and only when Dracula was in close proximity to Raisa Volkova was he sensed, and even that took seconds. His ability to detect the presence of magic and powerful beings was quite strong, as he was able to detect that the Bioquimek Corporation was magically protected and Dracula had awakened from miles away. Later, he also showed the ability to use his senses to locate the presence of his target by tracing their power, as he deduced that an Acolyte was operating in the Bioquimek Corporation from following the spectral traces left by their activities and later used the same method to trace Nergal Meslamstea to his location.
Like his fellow Lords of Shadow, Zobek is immortal, evident by his return centuries later. Though he later meets his end at the hands of Dracula.
Like all other Lords of Shadow, Zobek has a true form that is Death itself, and with it has a slew of formidable powers and abilities that made him able to hold off Dracula with all his powers. In that form, Zobek has extreme durability, able to take several blows from Dracula's weapons, and wields a long, whip-like scythe forged from bones and metal with extreme proficiency, capable of performing many unblockable attacks. He also has the ability to emit green lightning that can stun Dracula in place so Zobek can freely attack him and summon legions of the dead. He seems to be able to use magic to bind the summon to the statues-turned-corpses, as they will continue to spawn unless the statues are destroyed. When he attempts to recover after being beaten back to his human form, Zobek can cover himself with a protective cage made of the scythe of his true form that cannot be frozen and must be bypassed using Mist Form. He displays strong recovery rate, as he can quickly recover and re-assume his true form if not beaten.
==Personality==
It is unknown what Zobek was before his ascent into Heaven and the birth of his dark side, other than being a devoted follower of God, but Zobek is an ambitious, master planner with a desire for more power and a treacherous deceiver, hiding behind the charade of being a friend and mentor to Gabriel. Despite being a pawn to Satan, he was able to fool Gabriel with the sophisticated plan into retrieving the pieces of the God Mask, under the belief that it could resurrect his wife Marie, while appearing to aid and care about the two.
Zobek had a clear dislike for the other Lords of Shadow, despising the truce they formed to divide the power of the God Mask pieces among themselves, believing they should have combined the power.
Zobek also seems to revel in the defeat of his enemies, as he laughed triumphantly after revealing himself for who he really was, killing Gabriel and taking the God Mask. Despite being the catalyst that made Gabriel into what he is now, even Zobek did not foresee the great darkness within Gabriel and stating God Himself has seen what Gabriel truly was, calling him a "cold-blooded murderer. Beyond redemption, beyond hope", even giving Gabriel the legendary and infamous title "The Prince of Darkness", the title Gabriel would be known by in the future as Dracula.
Despite all this, he is a clear enemy to Satan, whom he viewed as one of his greatest enemies, the other being Dracula himself. Zobek was aware that Satan's Acolytes were preparing for his return and would seek revenge against him and Gabriel. To counteract Satan, he sought the aid of Gabriel, now known as Dracula, despite his past treacheries against him, because he knew he was no match for Satan by himself. Knowing how Gabriel seeks to truly die and finally rest in peace, he offers to free him of his immortality if he aids him.
During Lords of Shadow 2, Zobek remains as intelligent, manipulative and ruthless as ever. Also, during their mission against Satan, despite their hostile disposition toward each other and their bad history, both Zobek and Dracula respected each other for their own abilities and powers and are capable of civilly conversing with each other and working together cooperatively against their shared enemy, once more acting as a guide, adviser and "task giver" to the Prince of Darkness.
Given his immortality and wandering among the living in modern times, he seems to have adapted to the modern era, as he is seen wearing modern day clothing, becoming a revered, wealthy, influential businessman and even smoking cigarettes.
==Battle quotes==
*I'll exterminate the filthy lineage of the Belmonts!
*I'll take you to the limit of pain!
*I'll savor your death, traitor!
*I'll destroy your body and cause your soul to yield!
*I'll force your soul to serve me!
*You've never been a match for me!
*Your soul will kneel before me!
*Your efforts are pathetic!
*That creature you call a son will follow you in death.
*Chamberlains, let the banquet begin!
*Come, my children. Come eat.
*Take his flesh; I'll take his soul.
==Enemy Data==
==Trivia==
===Actors===
*David Cox has mentioned on Twitter that some of Zobek's facial features were modeled after Patrick Stewart himself, while others were based on Christopher Lee and Sean Connery.https://twitter.com/CastlevaniaLoS
*Before Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen was MercurySteam's first choice to voice Zobek. McKellen wasn't available at that time, but suggested Stewart to voice Zobek.The Art of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Titan Books).
*Mugihito, Zobek's Japanese voice actor in the first Lords of Shadow, has dubbed Patrick Stewart in several of his films and series, notably in Star Trek.
===Zobek===
*As Zobek reveals his true identity and his scheme to Gabriel, Gabriel curses him in anguish, calling Zobek a liar. Zobek responds to this with "Search your soul, Gabriel. You knew it to be true." This dialogue is a direct reference to the well-known scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, where Darth Vader reveals to Luke that he is his father, using a similar line after Luke denies it. The only difference in the line is that Zobek says "soul" instead of "feelings".
*While unconfirmed, Zobek's name appears to be derived from the Egyptian god, Sobek, a crocodile-headed protective deity. This might be due to legends of how Sobek healed Osiris from death, just as Zobek can return others to life to become his necromancer followers.
*Like Brauner under Carmilla, Zobek has his own Lieutenant.
*It is unknown what became of Zobek's heavenly counterpart after his death at the hands of Satan, given that he was able to revive himself. Conceivably, his angelic half is still alive until the 21st century, when he was killed by Dracula.
*Zobek's title as "Lord of the Dead" and "Lord of the Necromancers", along with his vast power and initial friendship with Gabriel, who would later become Dracula, denotes him as the Death character of the Lords of Shadow universe, who in other Castlevania games serves as Dracula's ally and second-in-command.
**In a Facebook post by David Cox, several facts were revealed about the Lords of Shadow series. Cox further confirmed Zobek is in fact the Lords of Shadow amalgamation of both the dark priest Shaft and Death from previous installments.Mercury Steam Producer Reveals Top 10 Secrets About Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 « GamingBolt.com: Video Game News, Reviews, Previews and Blog
**As he is a version of Death in disguise as a duplicitous ally of the protagonist, Zobek is also remarkably similar to Zead from Curse of Darkness, even having the same initial despite being named after a god whose name normally begins with an S.
*Zobek's appearance when wearing the Devil Mask mostly resembles Shaft (long fingernails, pale greenish skin, hooded robe), except his face then is not shown at that time. His true form in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is akin to Death from the original series.
*In Zobek's description on the Main Character page, Zobek claims to have inherited his Brotherhood of Light attire from a distant ancestor who was a founding member of the Order. Combined with the knowledge that the founding members became the Lords of Shadow, the conclusion that Zobek is the Lord of the Dead (or at least connected to him) can be made before ever encountering him in the Land of the Dead.
*When Zobek returns in Lords of Shadow 2, his eyes are completely black, save for white irises, indicating that either he is putting less effort into appearing human in front of Gabriel, or he was weakened by his death and resurrection, and can't appear fully human anymore.
*He is the only member of the Lords of Shadow not to be killed by Gabriel as a human, instead killed by him as a vampire.
*He is the only member of the Lords of Shadow whose name doesn't begin with a "C", although like the others, there is at least one hard consonant "C/K" sound in his name. He is also the only one without fangs in his true form. It is possible that his true body in the first game had fangs, but it was never seen without the Devil Mask on.
*Zobek was killed in two exactly opposite ways; instead of being burned alive by Satan, in the third game, Zobek is killed by Dracula with his Void Sword, where he was frozen and shattered.
*One of the city memorials found in the game regards Zobek to be 102 years old, despite the fact that his true age remains unknown. It's quite possible that this could be his physical age and not his real one.
*Although it is never confirmed what Zobek intended to use Trevor's Combat Cross for, the events of the second game hint he may have been attempting to use it to create a second Vampire Killer, prior to obtaining the original.
*Zobek is the only incarnation of Death to have wielded the Vampire Killer to a certain extent.
*He may have found inspiration in the Vampire Killer when Zobek created his scythe, due to its whip-like nature.
==See also==
*Death
*Shaft
*Necromancer (Lords of Shadow)
==References==
==External links==
*Zobek at the Pure Evil Wiki
*Zobek at the Villains Wiki
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Category:Antagonists
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Category:Death
Category:Deceased Characters
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Category:Lords of Shadow Characters
Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Bosses
Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Characters