Vandal Savage

Vandal's more rugged, modern look.

Vandal Savage is the main antagonist of the Universes Collide, acting as an unseen antagonist throughout the first four seasons and a secondary antagonist in the fifth. Currently, alongside Darkseid, Lex Luthor, and Morgoth Bauglir, he is a central main antagonist of WUC overall, having formed The Light and used his numerous alliances to garner an endless pool of resources and manpower for a future takeover of Planet Earth.

Savage is an immortal dictator, whose reign

has always been characteristically decided by iron and blood. History recognises him through a litany of surnames, from Genghis Khan to Tamerlane to Augustus Caesar.

Savage's gift of eternal life stemmed from a fateful night during the Ice Age, when a radioactive meteorite slammed near his tribe's village. While the other Cro-Magnons were stricken by fear and superstition of the foreboding spacial visitor, Savage approach the comet. He was ambushed by Neanderthals who wounded him,. But the comet;'s radioactive chemicals bestow him his powers including his healing factor which enabled him to survive and his superstrength which enabled him to defeat the Neanderthals. He also found himself adorned with vivid visions of humanity's future, their advancement of technologies, and coming dominance of the Earth.

Using these premonitions to his advantage, Savage abandoned his tribe and simply disappeared. As centuries passed and humanity grew more intelligent and aware of their surroundings and place on this Earth, Savage guided them along, remaining an ever-present force in human history. Some could argue that Savage has been nothing but beneficial for humanity and Earth as a whole, having creating the Greek and Roman civilizations respectively under different surnames, and thus providing the basis for Western civilisation and ethics. Savage provided Chinese alchemists the necessary formulas for creating gunpowder, a revolutionary discovery that changed warfare forever and allowed particular nations to reign dominant over others. As Columbus, Savage discovered the future American territories, though had to comply with expected Spanish traditions and did ruthlessly slaughter and take captive many poor natives.

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n more modern times, Savage has fallen more and more into the grasp of evil, viewing humanity as incapable of using the gifts of their intellectuals properly, as evidenced by their consistent punishing of them. Galileo was placed under house arrest, Europe's Dark Ages ensured religion would prevail over reason, and far more examples only increased Vandal's anger with the human condition. In response, after concluding his time under the identity of famous American industrialist Rockerfeller, Vandal began amassing power and wealth so he could one day conquer the Earth as himself, universally leading all nations and eventually uniting them all into one unified superstate that would go on to rule universes.

To achieve this goal, Savage, instead of being a warlord, began aligning himself with dictators to use their resources for his own ends. After participating in the October Revolution, Savage built a secret society of loyalists within Lenin's inner circle, a prominent member being Joseph Stalin, who became indoctrinated by Savage's ideologies of autocratic rule and no oversight on government authorities. Under Savage's command, Stalin exiled Trotsky and ruled the Communist Party of Russia after Lenin's passing. Savage wanted humanity to begin forcibly evolving through mass tragedies, and so began experimenting with Stalin, adopting a completely Social Darwinist doctrine of 'evolution through genocide', surmising that the near extermination of a populace would result in the small fractions of survivors becoming a combat-hardened survivalist sub-species of humans that had extra speed, agility, and superhuman strength. Thus, he directed Stalin into murdering his own people by orchestrating the deaths of many important family members, turning the already mentally unstable dictator into an absolute murderous madman.

From there, Savage needed to initiate little more guidance, as Stalin performed exactly as expected, wiping out political opponents and slaughtering his people in Gulags and other horrendous tortures and cleansings. However, this didn't seem enough, and that disappointed Savage profusely. After leaving the forming Soviet Union in Stalin's hands, Savage travelled across Europe, first making a pitstop in Italy under the identity of an Italian aristocrat and nationalist, disappointed at the Treaty of Versallies, which denied the Italians the promised territories of Austria-Hungary. Using the boiling rage of Italians, Savage recruited the most prolific among them, Benito Mussolini, and selected him as Savage's proxy and leader of the growing party. Mussolini created a name for this new movement, 'Fascists', along with the wood and axe symbol. Vandal grew a natural liking to it, cementing his trust in Mussolini. From there, Vandal oversaw as his prised pupil rose to power, creating militias of terror and fear, repressing any political dissent and overthrowing the monarchy in 1922.

While Mussolini didn't embark on destructive genocides, Savage wasn't bothered by this. He believed that this theoretic sub-species of humanity could also be formed through living in a very harsh and strict environment that disallowed them to engage in natural expression. The absence of being able to naturally engage in the human condition would thus lead into anger, anger that would transform each individual man and woman into mindless drones, ruled by the emotions they are never able to outwardly express, and thus creating a race of subservient minions that could be molded into Savage's ideal homosapien.

Leaving Italy, Savage would arrive in Germany, where a growing Fascist movement inspired by Mussolini was engaging in conflict with the same party Savage fostered, the Communists. Nevertheless, under the guise of a disgruntled German citizen angry with World War One's backfires onto German economical capability and resources, Savage discovered Adolf Hitler, his greatest disciple. Hitler's prolific speeches and oratory skills gathered gargantuan crowds of nationalists to see his very event, and Savage used this to his advantage. He directed Hitler to create a new extremist party, one that would advocate for racial purity, national supremacy, and unquestionable governmental power. Thus, the NSDAP was born. Using a mixture of fear and propaganda to recruit citizens, the Nazis began forming paramilitaries that would outdo even the official German Government's soldiers, and many defected to Hitler's cause. Now, Savage had two dictators implementing one theory of his, and another using his alternative method of controlling the human condition.

However, as time passed and the Nazis, Soviets, and Fascist Italians fully ironed out, they began initiating military aggression to conquer their neighbours. After the Tripartite Pact was formed with Japan, another civilization Savage had heavily influenced into an Ultranationalist Ethno-State, World War Two began with the invasion of Poland.

It was here that history, for once, actually defied Savage. Instead of complying to his iron will like normal, historical events played out in favor of the Allies. After rebuking Savage's advice pridefully and invading the Soviet Union, doom was in sight for the Axis. Italy fell first, followed by the capitulation of the Nazi Reich in Berlin, and finally, the nuclear age was initiated with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, pacifying Japan and concluding the war.

However, being an immortal villain of endless intellect and experience, Savage would recover from these losses sooner or later. In 1952, Savage first made contact with Grigori Rasputin, a mystic drunk in Russia that Vandal mistakenly disregarded as a foolish rube that simply egged his way into Russian politics at the time. Actually, Rasputin was an agent for several malevolent deities of unimaginable power, The Ogdru Jahad. These Chaos Gods sought to destroy Earth and morph the Multiverse into a hellish realm of destruction, and Rasputin was their primary means of achieving objectives. While not completely on board with the Ogdru's overall plan, Vandal did form an alliance with Grigori. They both pooled resources and followers into creating a sizeable paramilitary, with bases and spy networks established worldwide. While Rasputin seemed totally devoted on the Jahad's freedom, Vandal used this wealth of resources to manipulate the Cold War into action by leaking Atomic secrets to Soviet commanders through several proxies whom were spying in the Pentagon. This would prove a VERY smart move, as this distracted world powers long enough for Savage to continue his plans in peace, uninterrupted by any nosy world governments. While the formation of the United Nations and NATO proved a wretch in Savage's plans, they were only temporary roadblocks.

Savage would have relocated his base of operations in the Arabian Desert after complications with Rasputin over their paramilitary's ultimate objective. Rasputin sought to dedicate all available resources and men into unearthing relics, and, having the mysterious Nazi assassin Kroenen on his side, moved a majority of the soldiers into his camp. Savage sought to seat Earth itself at the centre of the cosmos, with an enlightened and powerful race of humans commanding it. Taking those that supported his ideology, Savage left the alliance, disbanding it.

At the Arabian Desert, a terrain he was familiar with on his many conquests, Savage met Ra's Al Ghul, a fellow immortal, though instead of natural biological longevity, he used a magical pool called the Lazarus Pits. Ra's led a secretive faction called the League of Assassins, a power-broking terrorist organization that had caused Earth much misery. Savage formed an alliance with Ra's subsequently. This became the foundation for The Light, a council of supervillains that would act as Vandal's associates and tools for his plans's betterment.

Fast forward many decades, and it's 2061. Humankind has evolved and been made aware of alien life existent beyond Earth. Savage has continued business as usual. In the time between meeting Ra's and 2062, Savage's only major dealing was with Darkseid, the Lord of Apokolips and a New God. Vandal used his advanced supercomputers to intercept a fleet that Darkseid was personally leading to subjugate Earth, convincing the New God into a mutually beneficial military agreement, that would result in Earth and Apokolips both owning half the Omniverse each. Darkseid agreed, impressed by this human's valour, bravery, and oratory prowess, and departed back for his homeworld.

Since then, The Light has expanded greatly, garnering seven new members that work in tandem with one another to achieve their own ends. Lex Luthor, Hiram Burrows, Henry Wu, Liquid Snake, Orm Marius, Albert Wesker, and Lord Cutler Beckett. These supervillains all have access to a wealth of resources and manpower, which were crucial during Luthor's incursion and betrayal of the Hero Academy. The Light blackmailed several US senators into granting Lex the technology necessary to tame Doomsday, making the Krpytonian beast a very useful tool for the Light.

Despite Luthor's capture, he was freed during a prison break in Arkham Asylum and thusly returned back into the Light's ranks. Luthor referred the Joker as the proxy necessary to attract worldwide attention and garner his own supervillain league, though these villains would be muscular and brawny thugs more than manipulators and power-players, which is exactly what Savage wanted. Joker formed the Injustice League thereafter. Meanwhile, Savage caught wind of a biologically enhanced mercenary that traded blood for money, called Deathstroke. Personally contacting Deathstroke, Savage arranged a meeting at an abandoned shipping dock, where after some short banter, the two proceeded to fight, until Deathstroke narrowly came out victorious. Savage's healing factor saved him from any permanent wounds, and this made Deathstroke worthy of entering The Light, albeit as an enforcer.

Since then, Savage has been a prominent antagonistic force throughout WUC. He's orchestrated alliances with the Galactic Empire, Mordor, and the Covenant, among many others. Along with Lex Luthor, Savage can be considered a spider-web, from which many points of evil throughout the Omniverse converge onto him. It's hotly debated whether Savage retains any sense of his original goals for humanity to prosper, which were more noble, or simply carries a more brutal, genocidal psyche with him after history had so violently defied him during the 20th century. The emergence of heroes has proven a great problem for Savage, as they have indirectly been ruining many of his plans. However, Savage remains an ever-present force of nature, unstoppable in every regard, and having lieutenants of all shapes, sizes, and unique powersets. He is inevitability going to conquer the Earth and Omniverse. It's not a matter of how, it's a matter of when.