Akazoo Vapith

Lord of the Stalfos

### Musical Theme

Lord  **Akazoo Vapith** (pronounced *Auk-a-zoo)* was a Hyrulean general who served with distinction during during the Gerudo Wars but later betrayed the kingdom for the Gohma. He was the third owner of the Eye of Truth.

## Appearance

Akazoo is a male Hylian with long brown hair, slight facial hair, and blue eyes. As he goes increasingly mad under the influence of the Eye of Truth, he begins painting his face with Sheikah warpaint in a warped image of a smile. After using the Malmord to achieve immortality, the right side of his face is severely damaged by Oraiya Zelda IV, exposing his skull and revealing that his eye socket now glows with unholy green light. Before his first death, Akazoo conceals this injury under heavy amounts of Sheikah war paint.

Akazoo wears a set of Ironclad Elite plate mail with a hooded purple cloak, and utilizes a halberd and sword in combat. After his death and resurrection, he retains his armor but wields a large scythe.

## Power and Abilities

Akazoo has mastered many dark arts of necromancy he has learned through the Eye of Truth, and is able to raise the dead of Hyrule as his servants. In addition, the ritual he and Azrily performed to survive the Gohma consumption of Hyrule seems to have left them immortal in a sense - they exist as a form of living Stalfos. Akazoo, no longer bound by mortality, is able to survive grievous injuries, but his body does not heal and continues to decay, slowly reducing him to the skeletal form of other Stalfos.

## Personality

Akazoo, even early in life, displays a vain and disturbed personality obsessed with immortality and personal ambition. The only two individuals he seems close to are General Kazakk, his superior officer with whom he shares a friendly rivalry, and Azrily, a Sheikah operative with whom he develops a friendship. Akazoo grew obsessed with marrying Princess Oraiya Zelda IV once the Gerudo Wars were over, desiring the power of a King of Hyrule. After the war, despite his heroic service, Akazoo is enraged when Oraiya is betrothed to Kazakk, coming to despise them both over the following decades, and he is made increasingly irrelevant in court despite offering numerous suggestions to improve the Kingdom. He begins working with Azrily to undermine the Kingdom from within, eventually discovering a horrible truth concealed by the First Sages. During this time he also discovers Dethl's influence through the Eye of Truth, and is able to, in a sense, replicate the Druthulidi's means of propagation to create the Stalfos. Akazoo develops a plan to reveal the Sages' lie by working with the Gohma to free Sulkaris. While Sulkaris is distracting the First Sages and their followers, Akazoo intends to raise an army of undead to stand against both the forces of the First Sages and Sulkaris and prevent any of them from seizing the Triforce, unknowingly serving Dethl's interests all along.

## History

### Gerudo Wars

In 99 AG, when trade from Ordona Province suddenly stops, a young Commander Akazoo, leader of the Kingdom's Ironclad Elites, accompanies Princess Mahrala Zelda III and General Kazakk to Nal Ordona to investigate the problem. There he discovers a small army of Gerudo and Darknuts trying to take over the town from the Ordonians. The Hylian army works with them to drive the invaders away.

During the battle, the ranks of the invaders are suddenly bolstered by a group of Stalfos raising from the corpses of killed Gerudo, though by working with the Ordonians, the Hylians are able to emerge victorious.

After the battle, Akazoo inspects the dead (for good) Stalfos, excited to know that immortality is not a legend and actually exists. Kazakk tries to dissuade Akazoo from this, considering the Stalfos to be evil abominations and undeath to be damnation.

Immediately after that, Princess Zelda recalls the entire army to Hyrule Prime, having been warned by the assassin Azrily that Lord Agahnim, head of the Sheikah Cadre, has been abusing his authority by officially declaring war against the Gerudo.

Returning to Hyrule Castle, Princess Zelda then fortifies Hyrule Castle as Gerudo armies under the command of Ganondorf march upon the capital in preparation for an assault. Akazoo helps defend the city against the invading Gerudo, though Ganondorf's forces prove too powerful. After Princess Zelda is killed in a duel with Ganondorf, the rest of the garrison surrenders to the Gerudo.

During the Darknut occupation of Hyrule Castle Town, Akazoo asks the eccentric girl Agitha, who proclaims herself Princess of the Insect Kingdom, to use her house as a hiding place for himself and his men. Agitha accepts on the condition he obeys her commands. Akazoo agrees but says once he marries Zelda she will have to obey him. Agitha grins, tells Akazoo that he will still have to listen to her Queen - a Gohma Queen.

A year after the city's fall, Akazoo leads the imprisoned Hylian garrison to aid Impa in a revolt against Agahnim. After Agahnim is killed, the Eye of Truth, which he has been using to control Hylian soldiers, falls into the possession of Akazoo.

Akazoo then accompanies General Kazakk in the invasion of Ashinon and Ontheon to capture Ganondorf and rescue the young Princess Zelda from Vaati's clutches.

### Second Golden Age

Following the end of the war, Akazoo adopts the orphaned Agitha, raises her and through her starts to make contact with the Gohma. He is rewarded with a title and high-echelon military rank for his service in the Gerudo Wars, becoming one of Hyrule's noble Lords.

Slowly over time, the Eye of Truth drives Akazoo insane. In 103 AG, Princess Oraiya Zelda IV chooses to marry General Kazakk instead of Akazoo, causing him to feel cheated out and denied the glory he earned in the Gerudo Wars.

Akazoo begins working against the Kingdom and Royal family in secret, Akazoo begins using his friend Azrily to acquire secrets from the Sheikah Cadre which may be useful to him.

At some point the two discover the secret hidden by the First Sages and plan to release Sulkaris with the aid of the Gohma. Akazoo orders Agitha to contact the Gohma and proposes to help them in freeing Sulkaris.

Unknown to Agitha and the Gohma, Akazoo plans to create an army which can withstand both the first Sages and Sulkaris -an army of the dead.

With what he learns from hidden Sheikah knowledge and from the Eye of Truth, he discovers the process by which Dethl hollows out its victims into Devoured and attempts to use a similar process to raise and command the dead.

### The Return of Sulkaris

In 126 AG, when Princess Zelda IV and her daughter are on vacation at Malkariko, Akazoo sets his plan to betray the Kingdom into motion. He commissions the Keaton robber baron Halthor to steal the Goronu, the artifact used by Ganondorf to raise the Stalfos in the Gerudo Wars; has Azrily steal the Malmord, an ancient Sheikah pocket prison; and summons Agitha to inform the Gohma that the time to move is now. Agitha warns them the Gohma won't spare their lives even though they have aided them, so Akazoo plans to use the Malmord for a ritual that shall allow them to survive.

When the Gohma storm into Malkariko and overwhelm the garrison, Akazoo enters the room where the Princesses are residing. Princess Zelda IV asks him about the garrison's well-being, but Akazoo reveals to her how much he loathes her and her husband, and how much she has become a joke. The Princess suddenly pulls out a knife and stabs Akazoo at the face, but Akazoo is utterly unconcerned, removing the knife along with part of his face and uses it to stab Zelda herself.

Discovering Princess Zelda V hiding under the table, Akazoo chases her down while declaring the Kingdom of Hyrule has fallen into complacency. She attempts to run away, but finds her exit blocked by Azrily, who imprisons her inside the Malmord.

Akazoo then leaves Agitha and Mido in charge of the Gohma while he and Azrily to Halthor's hideout in the Vigjaro Glade to barter the captured Princess for the Goronu. However, when the negotiations are still underway, King Kazakk, Link and the Hylian army bring the fight to them.

Labeled a traitor by his former friend, Akazoo explains that he has discovered a conspiracy by the First Sages, and aided in releasing Sulkaris in preparation for a oncoming war against the Firstborn. Of course Kazakk is not convinced, so Akazoo forcibly takes the Goronu from Halthor's hands and uses it to reanimate the Hylian dead buried under Vigjaro Glade's estate. Amid the fighting, Kazakk breaches the manor and engages Akazoo in a duel, but is nearly killed if not for an intervention by Link. Kazakk charges Akazoo through a window and impales him, and the two continue their battle outside, ending in Akazoo being decapitated by the Hylian King. With Akazoo dead, his Stalfos collapse back into inert bones.

However, as the result of the ritual he performed with the Malmord a few months ago, Akazoo manages to evade going to Termina and stay in Hyrule even after his initial death. His severed head is recovered by Azrily.

### Hyrule in Chaos

In 137 AG, Akazoo's necromantic spells work and he raises from the dead. Dethl is again able to suggest and influence Akazoo. His insanity growing, Akazoo wishes to confront the source of his madness and is drawn to Dethl in the Shadow Temple, now a giant monster that has grown from the headless corpse of Bongo. Rather than rebel against Dethl, Akazoo instead chooses to embrace the madness and releases Bongo-Bongo from the temple.

### A Tale of Two Swords

In 140 AG Akazoo receives a letter from Princess Zelda, who offers to surrender to him south of Lon Lon Ranch. However, the meeting ends up being a trap - instead of Zelda, the Stalfos only find Ganondorf's Gerudo, Nardu's Lizalfos and Hylia's Wizzrobes waiting for them - all of them having been deceived by Zelda. Taking advantage of the fighting, Zelda and her allies utterly crush all four armies. Both Dethl and Akazoo are destroyed in battle, as well as most of the Stalfos.

## Hero Ability

**Death Influence**: Drains Stamina from friendly troops in order to reduce enemy combat effectiveness.

## Quotes

* *Sanity is for the weak I say.*
* *We now live in a society where all are brought down to the lowest level by each other, a society where reward is reprimanded out of jealousy, out of a sense of false entitlement. And yet, we live in a society of celebrities where those such as you are worshiped as an idol! As a god! Such hypocrisy! No little girl, I am giving these people what they crave. I am bringing them a world where all are truly nothing, and they never have to worry about defeat, about losing, about others rising above them in triumph. The people will they themselves never amount to anything, and all they will have to look up to is their self appointed false idol to grant them solace, me. But first, I need your gift...*

## Trivia

-Akazoo's laugh in the Hyrule Historia mission Seeds of Conspiracy is a sample of Vincent Price's introduction from the Michael Jackson song *Thriller*.