Women find something irresistable about him: the short beard just seems to invite stroking like a cat's fur, the cat's eyes lend an exotic thrill. Zahar suffers from both the Blessing and Curse of Venus-- and is Carefree to boot. (This can lead to a horrifying +12 bonus to attract women who are bad for him.) Most men can't see what the point is, and tend to be bothered by the way he can lounge in positions that look hideously uncomfortable and cause sympathic twinges in the spine-- if not by the way women seem unable to keep their eyes off him!

He possesses a great variety of skills, including a great deal of understanding of all the courtly arts; his command of faerie lore is impressive, and he is well equipped to debate matters ranging from the legends and the occult to Christian theology and Greek philosophy. He seems to ken strongly both humans and animals, and has the Magic and Sight of his father's heritage. He has fluent command of Greek and Latin as well as Rumanian. Those who spend a great deal of time with him will slowly come to realise that his grip on reality borders on the insane: he has no difficulty believing multiple, contradictory things simultaneously, considers certain aspects of formal logic (including the reductio ad absurdum) to be flawed tools at best, and insists that time is a nonlinear phenomenon, with various chunks of the world possessing multiple histories. He deals with such debate in a calm, pleasant-natured manner, and is unfailingly polite to those who do not believe or understand his perspective.

Zahar's spells tend to be of the living world and make free use of faerie magic; his opponents often find themselves attempting to cope with terrible hangovers, sudden corpulence, or even an apparent spate of bad luck. Until the development of the Aristeia, the magi tended to travel on a cloud rendered to a consistency of pillows by his spell, The Billow of Eiderdown; his spells The Avian Form and The Aquatic Form are examples of faerie magic providing adaptation to flight and underwater travel respectively, though the result is different for each subject, with some acquiring wings or a merman's tail, while others become pale or almost transparent like an alven or asrai. To complete the suite of spells for travelers, he has ones for translation and mapping as well. He has a side interest in illusions, and usually disguises his inhuman traits when among mortals.

Zahar is of medium height, and usually dresses in greens and browns, ostensibly for their stealth in forests, rather than to complement his coloration. He is of swarthy Rumanian stock, and speaks in a mellifluous soft baritone; he tends to be extremely polite, and often uses such phrases as "unaesthetic" for describing zombies and torture chambers. He is fond of extremely subtle puns. With his Gentle Gift and a small glamour, he can go freely among mundanes without more than a moderate discomfort when in churches.

Opinions

• House Bjornaer: "They are wise to seek understanding of the world from eyes other than human; their mislike of the Good Neighbors is poorly founded."
• House Bonisagus: "Those who seek to advance knowledge are valuable; those who seek to quantify that which cannot be quantified are wasting their time."
• House Criamon: "Explorers of a dangerous realm; they are among the few in the Order who understand that wielding power changes the wielder."
• House Díedne: "A pity they are gone; it would be interesting to see their pespective on the magicks of nature."
• House Flambeau: "Dangerously unstable, but occasionally useful to point in a particular direction while running in the other."
• House Guernicus: "I welcome them when they enforce the rules to keep the Order healthy, and shun them when they seek to shoehorn the Order into their particular mold."
• House Jerbiton: "Connoisseurs of the beauty of the mortal world, they make pleasant company. Some are beginning to grasp the true importance of the Promethean fire in mortal souls, a magic far deeper and more powerful than any that Bonisagus or Merinita ever taught."
• House Mercere: "More valauble than House Guernicus in maintaining the stability of the Order."
• House Merinita: "A storehouse of great wisdom and great folly."
• House Ex Miscellanea: "A group without which the Order would have long since perished: a place of safety for wielders of magic who otherwise might come into conflict with the Order or each other, and a repository of much unusual knowledge. Look to them to see new Houses emerging."
• House Tremere: "A dangerous group, seeking to make the world subordinate to their hierarchy."
• House Tytalus: "The greatest challenge they face is that of cooperation."
• House Verditius: "Some are crafters and creators building good and useful things, some of which may be legends in their own right given time; some are greedy children gobbling vis to put in their toys."
• Peasants: "Innocent folk used as pawns in larger games."
• Nobles: "Mortals with greater responsibilities than most; upon occasion, a source of heroes."
• Magi: "Far too many of them attempt to use magic as the solution to every problem."
• The Church: "Pawns of the Dominion in the Game of Souls. Its members may occasionally rise above their indoctrination and espouse the cause of peace, rather than overrunning the world."
• The Dominion: "A terrible power that seeks to destroy the universe. The world is composed of paths as well as places, and if no one causes the Christian power to change its ways, the world will be reduced to a single path, hanging by a thread. Perhaps if we can remind it of Christ's message of peace, it will be possible to avert this disaster."
• Demons: "Creatures to be destroyed at any opportunity; it is most suspicious that they turn up in greater throngs when the Dominion is nearby. Dangerous as they are, the Dominion is more dangerous: demons would merely corrupt the universe, while the Dominion would destroy it."
• Enigmatic Wisdom: "The Enigma is, in its own way, a place that one can navigate through; House Criamon has dedicated itself to learning the art of journeying in that pecuilar realm of Twilight. It is well done to learn some of this, that you will not be lost when you find yourself there; it is dangerous to study it obsessively, lest you find yourself there sooner than you expected."
• Cosmology: "There are two Great Games being played in the world at the moment: the Game of Stories and the Game of Souls. Each one requires interaction with humanity, touched by Promethean fire, to advance. The Game of Stories is played by our Good Neighbors, the power magi call Faerie, and seeks to gather wonders and cherish them forever; the Game of Souls is played between the Dominion and the Infernal, and seeks to capture souls in a pointless competition. It is the realm of Magic where humanity shines its brightest."