Zaheer

"air"

- It's the dawning of a new age. The end of the White Lotus, and soon, the end of the Avatar.

Zaheer is a fugitive criminal who escaped the custody of the Order of the White Lotus in 171 AG after becoming an airbender. He believes strongly in the foundation of a new world order without the Order of the White Lotus or the Avatar.

Imprisonment
In 158 AG, Zaheer, along with Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li, attempted to kidnap a young Avatar Korra, but were defeated by Tonraq, Chief Sokka, Fire Lord Zuko, and Tenzin. The four criminals were placed into separate prisons specifically designed to neutralize their abilities. While imprisoned, Zaheer and his allies were interrogated as to their motive for kidnapping the Avatar, but never gave an answer.

Escape from prison
At some point following Harmonic Convergence, Zaheer discovered he had become an airbender. Two weeks after Harmonic Convergence ended, he took advantage of his newfound abilities and waited until his guards came to bring him his bowl of rice to attempt his escape. As the metal covering of his cell door was opened, he was ordered to face the wall with his hands upon his head. As his food was being placed in his cell through an opening in the bars, Zaheer recited one of Laghima's poem verses. After he explained the meaning of the writing, he used his airbending to pull the guard against the cell bars, swiftly running forward and restraining him, thereby preventing the others from attacking lest they killed that guard. He grabbed the keys attached to the guard's waist, unlocked his cell, and used his airbending to defeat and jail all of the other guards before escaping. He cautioned them to ration the bowl of rice they had brought him, as the next shift change was three weeks away, and announced the dawn of a new age, where there would be no Order of the White Lotus or Avatar. Using his airbending skills, he swiftly made his way down the mountain, seeking to free his incarcerated allies.

Releasing his friends


Zaheer managed to disguise himself as a White Lotus member and took a boat to Ghazan's prison. There, he fought off White Lotus sentries and supplied his friend with a few rocks to help him escape. After Ghazan freed himself from his cell and the remaining guards were taken care of, the two friends heartily greeted each other. Upon asked how he became an airbender, Zaheer explained that he believed it was a gift, bestowed upon him after Harmonic Convergence, to indicate that their path was the righteous one. Afterward, the duo journeyed to the volcano in which Ming-Hua's prison was located, intent on freeing her. Once they were within range of the waterbender's cage, Zaheer sliced the barrel of water that Ghazan had thrown in the air in half, enabling Ming-Hua to utilize it to escape. After the threesome took care of the remaining sentries, Zaheer announced that they would head to the Northern Water Tribe next in order to break out P'Li, his girlfriend.

As they neared P'Li's prison, Zaheer created a snow storm to mask their approach. Zaheer personally fought Tonraq and was able to dodge all the chief's attacks before briefly knocking down with an air blast. During the fight, Ming-Hua was able to free P'Li, who used her combustion abilities to defeat Zaheer's foe. As the four criminals made a clean getaway, Zaheer and P'Li took the opportunity to hug and kiss each other, the airbender saying he always believed they would reunite.

Tracking the Avatar


Following the escape, Zaheer shaved his head and made his way to Air Temple Island under the pseudonym, "Yorru". He explained to Ikki and Meelo that he had heard about the island being a place for new airbenders to go and that he discovered his abilities two weeks ago, demonstrating them by creating a small tornado in his hand. While in a training session with Meelo at the airbending gates, Zaheer upstaged two other airbenders by passing through them with ease, shocking everyone present and earning compliments from Meelo, which Zaheer returned by saying that a student was only as good as his master.

At that moment, Kya walked up to the group to announce that Tenzin had arrived at the Northern Air Temple and that they would be leaving to join him the next day. Zaheer asked if the Avatar was with him, to which a confused Kya answered that Korra had separated from Tenzin. He took the news as "unfortunate", saying he was "looking forward to meeting her".



As night fell, Zaheer wandered into Tenzin's study, where he found a locket containing a poem written by Guru Laghima. He was soon found by Ikki, who stated that no one but her father was allowed in the study. Zaheer apologized, stating he could not sleep, and when asked by the young airbender what he was reading, he explained that it was one of Laghima's poems. At that moment, Kya arrived and encouraged her niece to go off to bed. When questioned by the waterbender about his knowledge of airbending history, he replied that he simply admired the culture. Kya continued to question him about his great abilities and background, which he answered by saying he was from a village up north she probably never heard of. However, he soon found his identity guessed by her, and the two began to duel. Zaheer grabbed an airbender staff and shattered ice bullets fired by Kya before beginning his escape, but was pulled down by two tentacles fired by her. He escaped an attempt to freeze him in place and briefly knocked Kya down with a blast of air before two firebending White Lotus sentries arrived on scene. Zaheer fought off the attacks, airbent the staff over to him, and used it to fire a large air blast that knocked out the sentries. Kya got up and tried to counter with spirals of water, but the airbender dodged and launched an air bullet from his staff, knocking out his last combatant. Declaring he had other plans away from the Northern Air Temple, Zaheer flew away on the staff.



Zaheer later rejoined his gang and was criticized for causing a scene, resulting in the Metalbending Police Force hunting for them. Ghazan asked if he wanted to try and attack President Raiko. Zaheer declined, stating that they would deal with Raiko another time and should instead escape the city. To that end, they captured a truck driver and coerced him into smuggling them out of the city. The driver, however, was stopped a security checkpoint and was run off when the on-duty officer caught him lying. As one of the police officers turned the handle of the vehicle, Zaheer, from behind the door, blasted the truck doors open and told his associates to leave the area. With that, Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan made their getaway across the bridge while taking out many police cars. Once far from the city, Zaheer began meditating and determined that the Avatar was with the Metal Clan in Zaofu.

Personality
Zaheer is said to be something of a warrior-poet, and such has been shown that while he can be aggressive and unafraid to harm others, he is also deeply passionate in regards to philosophy and seeing the deeper truth behind the message. Zaheer is shown to be extremely clever and innovative, able to use his understanding of Air Nomad philosophy and culture to quickly develop his airbending skills to an extensive degree. But despite his antagonistic side towards his foes, he is shown to be very much in love with his girlfriend P'li, kissing her passionately after thirteen years apart, and telling her he never doubted that they'd see each other again. He also appears to hold others in high regard, mainly Guru Laghima, who he believes to be the wisest airbender of all.

Abilities


Even before Zaheer obtained airbending abilities, the Order of the White Lotus deemed him dangerous enough to be kept in a secret, secluded prison, similar to other dangerous benders, and had to turn his back to the cell doors with his hands behind his head.

Despite only having airbending abilities for a short time and being self-taught, Zaheer already possesses high proficiency in the art, creating large air currents capable of knocking people off balance, as well as increase his agility to evade attacks, enabling him to take on multiple benders at a time. He is also capable of using a glider in combat and as a means of transportation. He can even best several White Lotus sentries on his own along with master waterbenders Kya and Tonraq.

Zaheer is also well-versed in Air Nomad philosophy and history, mainly teachings of the legendary airbender, Laghima, and able to effectively utilize Air Nomad maneuvers, seamlessly maneuvering through the airbending gates.

He is intelligent and patient, capable of masterminding his own and his cohorts' breakouts in four separate prisons, duping the Order of the White Lotus guards and amassing his colleagues' unique abilities back into action by supplying them with their respective bendable substances.

Trivia

 * Zaheer is a common name in Asia and the Middle East that is inspired by the Islamic concept of Quran interpretation, which can be divided into its "apparent meaning" or zahir (ظاهر‎, pronounced za-heer) and its "inner meaning" or batin (باطن, pronounced ba-teen). Prior to Zaheer's escape from his prison, he explained to a White Lotus sentry a similar concept in interpreting the poetry of Guru Laghima, with zahir relating to "what you see" and batin relating to the "truth within the myth".
 * Zaheer is one of three known adults to use a glider, the others being Tenzin and Roku's airbending master.