Professor Zogar Vastor

**Zogar Vastor** is an Archmage of the Griffon Kingdom, a Professor at White Griffon Academy, a former member of the Queens Corps, Spellbreaker, Forgemaster, and the Kingdom's 3rd best healer after Manohar and Marth, respectively. Though publicly regarded as the Eternal Loser, Wannabe Magus, or the god of nothing, Vastor is the only Highmaster of his generation, the unsung god of the battlefield of the Griffon Kingdom, and also **The Master**, the individual responsible for experimenting with Abominations and creating the Organization.

## Appearance

Vastor is described as a short man in his mid 60's, bald with a little bit of snow-white hair on the sides, with a waxed handlebar moustache, and a bit belly. He loses a lot of weight after becoming temporary Headmaster during the undead invasion, leaving him still quite round but not a living egg anymore.

After Vastor becomes a human-Abomination hybrid, black hair starts to grow again on the top of his bald head while the snow-white hair he has left on the sides starts to regain color, as does his waxed handlebar moustache. That along with becoming interim Headmaster slims him down quite a bit, though he still looks more like a loving grandpa than a fierce warrior.

## Personality

He is known for being incredibly envious of Marth and Manohar, having once been considered for the position of "god of healing" before being outshone by his peers. He also plays favorites in class, paying attention to those he considers "golden eggs" and shows preferential treatment to those from magical bloodlines, while dismissive of the "chaff", even downright contemptuous. He hates those who stand in the path of greatness of others out of petty reasons and is tired of seeing the mediocre thriving only because the Kingdom seems to abandon talented mages the moment that they don't serve their purpose any longer, just like it had happened to him.

There is no love between him and his ex-wife Vilya. He had always neglected his children to pursue his ambitions and once grown up, they did the same. In his old age, Vastor regrets many things and yearns for a second chance.

As his Highmaster role doesn't officially exist, Vastor is one of the few gods of the Kingdom whose feats don't receive any praise nor recognition, leading him to be consumed with envy. However, after becoming a human-Abomination hybrid, Vastor loses the trace of his smoldering rage and inferiority complex towards his colleagues. He brims with self-confidence and moves with a vitality that not even Rejuvenation magic can grant.

### The Master

As the Master, Vastor is a radical, considering humanity itself to be a disease that needs to be treated, tolerant of experimenting with Forbidden Magic on people. He believes in sacrifice for the greater good and disparages the "dregs of society" such as drunkards, homeless, thugs, addicts, and gamblers.

After losing his seat as the best healer of the Kingdom, after losing the love of his wife and children due to his attempts to best his competition that kept him away from home, Vastor initially gives up on life for his ideal, but eventually finds a new family in his Chosen.

The Master despises the Guardians for not sharing their knowledge, considering them akin to the nobles who forced their subjects to live abject lives just to feel better about themselves.

## Abilities

After becoming a human-Abomination hybrid, Vastor becomes capable of using Chaos magic and converts his spells into true magic. His black core gives him the same abilities of a non-Awakened Emperor Beast and some more. However, the more he loses control over his black core, the more flesh the Chaos devours. The moment the black dots cover his whole skin, Vastor would die. He is able to use the breathing techniques that his Chosen had learned through the millennia to make the Chaos subside before using healing magic to regrow new skin and lost bits. The black core gives him strength, but it also feeds upon anything containing light element, Vastor's body included.

After Awakening Vastor develops a breathing technique called **Beyonder's Eye**.

## Equipment

Vastor is one of the few in the Kingdom who wields an anti-Balkor wand, a golden wand that serves as the Kingdom's latest counter against Balkor's undead. In addition to the Highmaster armor, he also wields the Dominator Armor crafted for him by Bytra. Tezka gifts him a Yggdrasill Staff which allows him to adapt his Chosen's breathing techniques to his own condition.

## Coat of Arms

The Vastor household's insignia is a tower with two prancing lions at its sides.

## Background

Vastor was born a noble and powerful mage, achieving the rank of Archmage at age 25. He had never been tall nor handsome, but his talent for magic was the real deal and he had worked hard since a tender age while the rest of his peers fooled around. However shortly after he had reached the peak, the emergence of geniuses such as Duke Marth and Krishna Manohar overshadowed him and his achievements.

### Young Genius

As a youth, Zogar Vastor attended White Griffon Academy, enrolling in four specializations at the same time and graduating as the first of his year in each one of them. He became a Healer, a Warden, a Forgemaster, and even a Battle Mage. After graduating, he became a member of the Mage Association, then a Royal Forgemaster, and even a Spellbreaker. To learn any spell, he only needed to practice it twice before creating an improved version of the same spell that went beyond the expectations of its own maker. He had never been good-looking, but after he managed to slay an Emperor Beast at the age of eighteen, all the noble families of the Kingdom threw their daughters at his feet.

Vastor dated for a while Keal Griffon, one of the Royal Princesses and Meron's older sister, and Tryssa Myrok, Jirni's aunt, but dismissed both of them thinking that such an early marriage would only hinder his magical research. His talents made him an excellent candidate to become the god of healing and everyone expected him to become a Magus, but Vastor hit a wall that he was unable to overcome. His bright blue core made him a versatile mage, but without a violet core, he was incapable of crafting the most powerful pieces of equipment or of casting the strongest arrays recorded in the Kingdom's archives. Additionally, Vastor lacked creativity despite his unparalleled learning abilities. His genius allowed him to improve the spells of others, but all his original creations turned out mediocre at best. The passing of time only made his limits more evident and lowered the expectations that the Kingdom had for him.

Soon the Royals considered him a potential god of healing only for the lack of better candidates and discarded him as a potential Magus. Vastor's family forced him into marriage before his value in the eyes of the magical community decreased even further and when he achieved the title of Archmage at twenty-five, it garnered him more pity than admiration. Marriage didn't make him better, only more bitter. His wife Vilya didn't love him and the feeling was mutual. To Vastor, she was the embodiment of all the filthy social climbers with no magical talent nor use who clung to him out of need, not out of respect. When his children were born, he ignored them, considering them to be just more shackles that the ungrateful society of the Kingdom had bound him with.

At 30 years old, Vastor accepted his limits after drowning himself in comfort food and self-pity, and began studying Arthan's Madness in the hope that his ability to learn and improve other's creations might enable him to the crack the lost legacy of the Mad King. He believed that once he mastered the Madness, he would be able to set the foundations for new branches of light magic and become a Magus just like Menadion had after improving Silverwing's work. Unfortunately, the few fragments and blueprints of the Madness still available as well as his ignorance about the Forbidden Arts made it difficult to understand. To devote all the time that he could to Arthan's Madness, Vastor became a Professor at White Griffon Academy; improving the teaching textbooks was child's play to him and gave him the perfect cover to look for people who might make up for his shortcomings.

It was then that he met Duke Marth a student, who proved to be a genius surpassing him. Manohar even more so, surpassing all those before him. Though Manohar's endless talent was only matched by his rudeness, he became friends with Vastor. Being a true genius, Manohar became engrossed by the mystery of Arthan's Madness and managed to fill many of the gaps in the blueprints. Though Vastor's understanding of the light element wasn't as deep as Manohar's, he still managed to improve each of Manohar's discoveries beyond what the easily bored genius could think, becoming the leading figure of the Body Sculpting field and even learning how to shapeshift.

### Highmaster

Vastor was chosen to be a Highmaster, the secret weapon of the Griffon Kingdom, but there was no honor in being chosen as the only Highmaster of his generation. They had picked Vastor for the role only because they considered him expendable - Manohar and Marth were too precious to risk their lives in squabbles along the borders of the Kingdom. As a Highmaster, Vastor prevented countless wars by displaying the prowess of the Griffon Kingdom to their neighbors, slaughtering entire villages overnight and thanks to shapeshifting, taking down fortresses before their soldiers could even understand what was happening. All those feats reinforced the Kingdom's borders and damaged Vastor's mind. His superiors in the army and the Mage Association justified those murders as for the greater good, but it was Vastor who had to deal the blow and suffer the trauma.

Vastor gained the title god of the battlefield, previously held by First King Valeron, a title known to very few, only whispered in the most secret rooms of the Royals Court.

Vastor came to realize the "greater good" was nothing but a lie invented by mediocre men just to keep their privileged positions of power. Life in the academy reinforced his convictions every day - those from magical bloodlines and even commoners would give their all to achieve greatness, whereas nobles would take everything for granted and put minimal effort into their studies. He despised the Guardians for their inaction, and to learn more about them, he gathered their offspring and worked to restore their ancestral powers. Together, Vastor and the Eldritches progressed in restoring Arthan's Madness by leaps and bounds often with the unwitting help of Manohar, then Balkor, and then even Thrud.

### White Griffon Academy

Vastor is introduced during Lith's first day at White Griffon Academy as the Healer specialization class' teacher. He pays special attention to Quylla, Yurial, Friya, and Lith on the first day, giving Quylla a tonic that helps her growth. During the mock exam, Vastor intervenes when Quylla's prejudiced team members attempt to use violence against her, and he brutally beats them (as Quylla is one of his "golden eggs").

The 5th semester begins with Vastor teaching the remaining Healing specialization students how to Body Sculpt using slimes.

After Balkor's attack on the academies, Vastor sends Tezka to the Blood Desert to keep an eye on Balkor's family and kill them at the first opportunity to prevent the god of death from helping the Guardians against him and to avenge the dead students of the White Griffon, but during the time Tezka had spent there, the best that he had managed to do was to avoid getting caught.

### City of Othre

When Thrud Griffon is revealed to be the mastermind behind the incidents in Othre, Vastor along with Captain Kilian join Lith in the Spellbreaker assault on her hideout. Vastor disables the array protections and they manage to reach Manohar, but Thrud Warps them into her throne room, where they witness Arthan's Madness and the countless corpses of Thrud's clones used for the procedure. Vastor and Manohar engage Thrud while Kilian works to disable the barrier around the throne room to allow short distance Blinks.

Lith engages Thrud to buy time for the others, but Thrud critically wounds both Kilian and Vastor. Lith and Jirni stall long enough for Manohar to save Kilian and Vastor as the barrier is finally broken, allowing Spellbreaker reinforcements in. Thrud detonates her army of Carpenters before causing a massive explosion and escaping.

Following Othre, Vastor's research is able to overcome the slump during the past two years and he proceeds to experiment with creating monster-Abomination hybrids. The attempt goes awry as the monster spawn rate increases dramatically and draws the three Countries' attention, ruining his plan to raise Abominations disguised as monsters. Xenagrosh's troll double approaches the Master's lair and attempts to assimilate the original Xenagrosh. He subdues the clone, allowing Xenagrosh to consume her and become the first Eldritch to successfully evolve.

### Domestic Affairs

After visiting Kamila's sister Zinya and convincing her to accept treatment for her blindness, Lith contacts Vastor asking for his help. Vastor agrees and gives Lith reading materials on Body Sculpting while he prepares. Quylla tags along when he sets up a Warp Gate to the City of Xylita. Vastor becomes enraged upon discovering evidence of Fallmug's abuse and brings Zinya to White Griffon Academy. They carry out Zinya's operation successfully, and afterwards Vastor develops a friendship with Zinya due to her being humble and down-to-earth and accepting him not based on appearance.

Vastor helps testify about Zinya's condition when Fallmug's parents try to get custody of the children and has his accountant take care of all her possessions, letting her live off a trust fund. They exchange their communication runes and speak regularly. She calls him often not to ask for favors or talk about her rehabilitation, but to chat with him and make sure of his well-being. Vastor helps Zinya deal with the lawsuit against her in-laws for custody and manage her money, making him the happiest in years.

During the Laruel arc, Vastor is appointed temporary headmaster of the White Griffon while Headmaster Marth deals with the undead crisis. Despite it having been his dream to become Headmaster, he regrets it as he becomes responsible for handling Manohar, taking care of the academy paperwork, supervising the light department, and protecting the students.

Lith approaches Vastor, Quylla, and Marth to help cure Rena's triplet of the Strangler disease during her pregnancy. However, they are unable to succeed without harming Rena and concede. Near the end of Lith's army service, he revisits the Lost City of Huryole and is affected by a mysterious light presumed to be a life force slave device. Vastor and Marth visit him during quarantine. After several days, Manohar accompanies the other two Professors to escort Lith to the Banquet Hall where Sylpha announces his accomplishments to the gathered court and promotes him to Archmage.

After the undead invasion begins, Vastor rejoins the Queen's Corps. He becomes friends with Zinya and occasionally visits her in Lutia. During one of his visits he is confiding in her about the losses of his students and the destruction of their careers due to politics when they are suddenly ambushed by hordes of Night's undead. Vastor puts his life on the line to kill scores of them, allowing Zinya and the children to escape, though he suffers grave injuries. His Chosen attack and cripple Night, forcing Baba Yaga to intervene.

Vastor leaves a message for Marth informing him of his condition and leave of absence, as well as an apology for Zinya. Back in their hideout, Vastor (who is finally revealed to readers as the Master) reprimands the hybrid Eldritches for their reckless act of facing Baba Yaga without proper equipment while not having fully integrated their monster side with their Abomination half. Nandi finally joins the Organization and Vastor helps his two sides achieve greater harmony with his light magic prowess.

### Human-Abomination Hybrid

Vastor had never meant to use the Madness on himself. He had planned to leave it as a gift for the future generations, like Lith who he had warned about the horrors of war or Quylla to whom he had shown the limits of fake magic. He had hoped that at least one of them would follow in his footsteps and complete his work, but after seeing what Lith had managed to achieve as a hybrid, and after failing to protect Zinya, he changes his mind.

Having experienced his brush with death and tired of his body's limitations, Vastor decides to undergo the procedure in his modified Arthan's Madness. He absorbs a living mass of Abomination tissues he collects from each of his Chosen, altering its life force to be different from his, while using failed Abominations and captive human society rejects to sustain him during the process. Nandi helps supply him with endless world energy to pacify the Abomination tissues. In the struggle with his Abomination half, Vastor lets his clone experience his life. He wins the struggle and becomes the first human-Abomination hybrid as well as the first Awakened Abomination.

#### Balkor Copycat

Jirni requests Vastor's help to deal with Archmage Deirus and he accepts. He receives a card marked "Past" from a Balkor copycat along with several other White Griffon Professors, all of whom had supported Lith in the past. He becomes enraged when he hears about Zinya's parents Crefas and Kima Retta returning to Lutia along with Lith's disowned brother Meln, and investigates the latter's background. He requests Jirni to look into Orpal as well in return for participating in her personal squad. Tezka gifts him a staff made from Yggdrasill wood, granting him increased attunement to magic. After finding a card marked "Future" addressed to the entire Yehval household which he keeps a secret, Vastor confers with Jirni about Orpal's background as both she and his Abominations are unable to learn much.

Orpal returns with the Rettas who try to associate with Lith to pay off their debt but give away too much, allowing Jirni to expose their crimes and arrest them. She subsequently discredits Orpal's fake backstory and when the latter reveals his true colors to his family, kicks him out of the house. Vastor shares a brief word with Lith about children and urges him to have some of his own with the looming future conflicts. Vastor viciously subdues Orpal, leaving him with a promise of death one day.

In the aftermath of Count Lark's murder by the Balkor copycat, Jirni contacts Vastor about their personal project, and asks him to bring it to the Ernas mansion in preparation. As one of the foremost experts on Arthan's Madness in the Kingdom and someone who had also seen Thrud's meat puppets in Othre, Vastor works with Jirni, Balkor, and Manohar to develop meat puppets for each of her children and herself as insurance against anything Deirus might pull in his quest for revenge. Vastor takes a few death row inmates and uses Body Sculpting to kill their minds while leaving their bodies ready for use. Jirni quarantines her daughters to buy time for the project to be completed and make sure not even Orion can discern the copies from the original. .

Nandi summons Vastor to the undead city of Lightkeep for help in investigating the kidnappings of undead children. Vastor reintroduces himself to Lith as the Master and gives him instructions on how to use his device embedded inside the orc shaman's crystal and study the orc shaman's technique. deduces the "Ambrosia" that granted the kidnappers the abilities of their greater cousins is similar to his own work, and is derived from the condensation of several undead's life forces through Arthan's Madness. He informs Lith that the undead have attacked major cities in the Kingdom led by the Three Horsemen and that he has been called back to duty as Highmaster.

Vastor is sent to Vesta as its reinforcements and faces Night with her steed Moonlight (who is later revealed to be one of her Chosen while she assassinates Mirim Distar). Vastor's 50+ years of experience with light and darkness magic as well as the prowess his new form grants him allow him to easily decimate Night's army and incapacitate the Horseman.

Vastor spends more time with the Yehvals in Lutia, gifting Frey and Filia expensive toys. When Kamila breaks up with Lith following his confession about Solus, Vastor misunderstands the reason to be her inability to accept his new Tiamat nature, leading him to doubt his own chances with Zinya. He later breaks through to the deep violet. Vastor attends the Royal Gala, though doesn't bring an escort. When "Quylla" is assassinated at the end of the gala he attends her funeral along with Marth and Manohar.

Vastor, Orion, Manohar, and Balkor infiltrate Deirus' mansion with Jirni to obtain a confession for his crimes where they learn he has become a thrall and one of Night's Chosen. The gods subdue and torture Deirus leading Night to shatter her prism from a distance before he can reveal her location, killing the traitorous Archmage. Following Orion filing for divorce for Jirni's betrayal, Vastor visits Orion with Manohar and Marth. He apologizes for being involved in the deception and advises Orion to reconsider, but they are sent away.

The Balkor copycat orchestrates an attack on Lutia using numerous mercenary groups. Tezka occupies the invaders long enough for Vastor to arrive. He sends Aran and Leria to safety in the barn while he saves the Yehvals. Enraged at the copycat's physical torment of Zinya and the children, Vastor annihilates most of the mercenaries, forcing them to flee and scaring Zinya in the process due to the bloodshed.

Vastor has the Yehvals brought to his mansion in the Essagor Duchy to recover from the ordeal. Lith arrives shortly after. Vastor informs him how he had hid the "Future" card in order to lure out the copycat, and explains how alerting the Kingdom or Council of it would've made things worse. He brings Lith to his home where they meet with Kamila before visiting Zinya. Lith and Vastor apologize for endangering the lives of her and the children, but Zinya absolves them of any guilt and proposes to Vastor, thanking him for all he had done for them. Despite his reservations due to his double life as the Master, Vastor accepts and asks Lith to be his best man.

Vastor helps rebuild the Yehval's house and compensates anyone in Lutia who had their property damaged. After moving into the Vastor household, Zinya spends all her time helping Frey and Filia recover from the copycat's attack and enjoying the commodities of her new life as a soon-to-be noble dame. Vastor is summoned by the Royals along with all available Spellbreakers to deal with rising unrest in the Kingdom.

## Relationships

* Zinya Yehval: Vastor never planned on growing fond of Zinya, nor to put his life on the line along with decades of hard work just to save her life and her children's. However, she made him feel appreciated. While facing death against the undead, Vastor discovers that she really matters to him and becomes prepared to give his life for her. At first, he feels he is too old, too dirty, and too dangerous for her. He believes his deeds as the Master would endanger her.
* Master's Chosen: though they view each other as allies at first, the hybrid Eldritches slowly begin to view him as their friend, their confidant, and their only hope. With time, the lie becomes the truth, but they never respect the Master just for his power so much as for his undying will and determination.

## Trivia

* Vastor's appearance was inspired by The Penguin from *The Batman* (TV series).

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1785: The Day of Fate (Part 5)
2. ↑ Chapter 61: Error Of Judgment
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 915: Blood Ties (Part 1)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 1388: Awakened Chaos (Part 2)
5. ↑ Chapter 1581: Curse of Darkness (Part 1)
6. ↑ Chapter 56: A New Lesson
7. ↑ Chapter 472: Royal Pains (Part 4)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 1459: Royal Gala (Part 3)
9. ↑ Chapter 1194: Split Up (Part 2)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 1168: Chaos Force (Part 4)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Chapter 1114: A Mage Among Gods (Part 2)
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Chapter 1170: Shattered Dreams (Part 2)
13. ↑ Chapter 1271: Family and Gifts (Part 1)
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Chapter 1104: Mistakes and Failures (Part 2)
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Chapter 1272: Family and Gifts (Part 2)
16. ↑ Chapter 966: The Arisen (Part 2)
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Chapter 1169: Shattered Dreams (Part 1)
18. ↑ Chapter 1391: The Third God (Part 1)
19. ↑ Chapter 58: The Importance Of Status
20. ↑ Chapter 80: Results
21. ↑ Chapter 270: Body Sculpting (Part 2)
22. ↑ Chapter 503: Hollow Victory (Part 1)
23. ↑ Chapter 1533: Two Sides of the Same Pain (Part 1):
24. ↑ Chapter 470: Royal Pains (Part 2)
25. ↑ Chapter 479: Night's Aftermath (Part 1)
26. ↑ Chapter 489: Warg (Part 1)
27. ↑ Chapter 498: Troubling Guests (Part 2)
28. ↑ Chapter 505: The Day After (Part 1)
29. ↑ Chapter 594: Overlapping Images (Part 2)
30. ↑ Chapter 611: End of a Struggle (Part 1)
31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Chapter 1103: Mistakes and Failures (Part 1)
32. ↑ Chapter 799: Manohar's Wife (Part 1)
33. ↑ Chapter 916: Blood Ties (Part 2)
34. ↑ Chapter 962: The Enemy Within (Part 2)
35. ↑ Chapter 965: The Arisen (Part 1)
36. ↑ Chapter 1120: The Calm after the Storm (Part 2)
37. ↑ Chapter 1113: A Mage Among Gods (Part 1)
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Chapter 1171: New Horizons (Part 1)
39. ↑ Chapter 1195: The Devil You Know (Part 1)
40. ↑ Chapter 1267: Copycat (Part 1)
41. ↑ Chapter 1320: Second Awakening (Part 2)
42. ↑ Chapter 1342: Monsters Among Us (Part 2)
43. ↑ Chapter 1349: White Streaks (Part 1)
44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Chapter 1486: A Monster’s Plan (Part 2)
45. ↑ Chapter 1389: High-Master (Part 1)
46. ↑ Chapter 1392: The Third God (Part 2)
47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Chapter 1444: Master Plans (Part 2)
48. ↑ Chapter 1457: Royal Gala (Part 1)
49. ↑ Chapter 1478: Lost Magus (Part 4)
50. ↑ Chapter 1535: On the Other Side (Part 1)
51. ↑ Chapter 1583: The Pain of Loss (Part 1)
52. ↑ Chapter 1589: Give and Take (Part 1)
53. ↑ Chapter 1669: Fields and Ovens (Part 1)
54. ↑ Chapter 1636: Call of Duty (Part 2)
55. ↑ Legion on Discord