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 airbender who escaped the custody of the Order of the White Lotus in 171 AG. He believes strongly in the foundation of a new world order without the Order of the White Lotus or the Avatar.

Escape from prison
At some point following Harmonic Convergence, Zaheer discovered he had become an airbender. Two weeks after Harmonic Convergence had ended, he took advantage of his newfound abilities and waited until his prison guards' shift change to attempt his escape. Upon being handed his food by a guard, Zaheer recited one of Laghima's poem verses before using his airbending to pull the guard against the cell bars, swiftly running forward and restraining him, thereby preventing the others from attacking lest they wished to kill that guard. He grabbed the keys attached to the main guard's waist, unlocked his cell, and used his airbending to defeat and jail all of the other guards before escaping, noting that the next shift change would not occur for another three weeks and advised them to ration the food if they were to survive.

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 a few rocks to help his friend escape. After Ghazan freed himself from his cell, they defeated all of the guards on the island. The two later worked together to help break out Ming-Hua, their waterbender, from her holding cell. Together, they discussed that they would all head to the Northern Water Tribe to break out the firebender P'Li, Zaheer's girlfriend.

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. Even without bending, Zaheer is quite agile.

Despite only having airbending abilities for a short time, Zaheer possesses high proficiency in the art, creating large air currents capable of knocking people off balance. He is also able to use airbending to increase his agility in evading attacks from his enemies. He was skilled enough at airbending to singlehandedly liberate Ghazan from his prison, even when it was guarded by numerous skilled benders. His agility also enabled him, along with Ghazan, to free Ming-Hua from her prison. Zaheer is also well-versed in Air Nomad philosophy and history, mainly teachings of the legendary airbender, Laghima, who lived the final forty years of his life untethered from the ground. His extensive knowledge of the culture further improved his discipline and focus in airbending.

He is also very intelligent to mastermind 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 elements that the prison went to great measures to keep out of their hands.

Trivia

 * Zaheer is a common name in Asia that is inspired by Islamic concept in interpreting the Quran, which can be divided into its "apparent meaning" or zahir (ظاهر‎, pronounced za-hir) and its "inner meaning" or batin (باطن, pronounced ba-tin). 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, i.e., zahir as "what you see" and batin as "truth within the myth".