Rupert Vardemus's History
Season 2
Ryan Clarke used Rupert Vardemus' appearance as a disguised form from This Year Will Be Different to Screw Endgame, until he revealed his true form to the Keeper. However, he remained undetected at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted until It Will All Be Painfully Clear Soon Enough.
In There's A Place Where The Lost Things Go, Emma finds the real Professor Vardemus. He had been locked inside a locker in the gym while his mind was trapped in a simulation where his memory was erased. After the simulation ended, he woke up and watched over the Salvatore School students with Emma Tig until they all woke up.
In Life Was So Much Easier When I Only Cared About Myself, Rafael and Landon talk with Rupert through astral projection crystal. He tells them about a magical plate, the "plat en argent" that—when blood is applied—will reveal who the blood that Rafael found belongs to.
Season 4
In The Story of My Life, he teaches a class at Whitmore College. The lecture covers one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world–the Great Pyramid of Giza. He poses the class a question about their purpose, whether to bury the kings of Egypt or if they're for some unknown higher purpose. Moreover, by whom were they constructed? A student mocks him, suggesting aliens. Though to think supernatural forces or alien life do not exist in some form or fashion is both shortsighted and deeply narcissistic and wonders if anyone believes. One of the students in the dark classroom stands, telling him she believes. Rupert recognizes the voice of Hope Mikaelson.
Back in his office, Hope brings him the sarcophagus. As he begins examining it, he's astounded. Hope questions if he knows what it is, but he doesn't, exactly. He explains that certain elements, the writing, for example, is not visible to the naked eye, but scrawled in blood in multiple languages, speaking of the gods; but the gods of a dozen different cultures and maybe more. Hope doesn't believe him, and he counters her point with that vampires don't exist, at least as far as most people are concerned. Myths are but one discovery away from becoming their reality. At first glance, he'd assumed it was a forgery, but based on his preliminary analysis points to the sarcophagus being ancient. Rupert questions why Hope has brought him the sarcophagus as opposed to Dr. Saltzman, but she only tells him that they had a fight and she's taking the semester off. As he performs a thermal sweep, he discovers a body within it and is surprised to learn from Hope that it's Lizzie. Rupert now knows something is wrong with Hope as she bares her true face to him, revealing her vampiric nature.
In his storage room of various artifacts, he's looking for something to help Hope, though she demands for him to hurry up. She has places to go and people to kill. She's tried everything to destroy the sarcophagus, and nothing has worked. Rupert suggests freeing Lizzie as she's a siphon witch and could easily siphon off any magic that protects it. She refuses too, explaining that she killed Lizzie and now she's technically in transition. She's placed her under a sleeping spell and waiting for her to starve and die. Rupert flips the conversation back to her, wondering how becoming a tribrid has made her so cruel. Threatening him again, she explains that her humanity is off. Having found what he's been searching for, he explains that the Pentelic marble should be able to absorb the sarcophagus' powers, as it was said to centuries ago in ancient Greece. He hands her a jar and she opens it. Their minds are transported into another world, a chambre de chasse. Angered, she threatens to kill Rupert. He retorts that should she get free, then hopefully he and Lizzie will be long gone and rushes out of one of the many doors, leaving Hope trapped.
Rupert races back to his office, away from Hope, discovering Jen in his office, admiring the sarcophagus. She explains that she loved his lecture and wants to talk more. With time against him, he warns her that if knowledge of the supernatural world is what she seeks, then she must help him to open the sarcophagus. Jen manages to open the sarcophagus, revealing Lizzie. Rupert believes himself too late, but Lizzie bursts awake and uses the sword in Rupert's hand to slice open his neck for her to drink from, completing her transition into a hybrid. Rupert falls to the floor, bleeding out.
Eventually, Lizzie returns to his office and offers him her blood, healing his wounds. Grabbing his throat, he thanks Lizzie, but assumes there's a reason for her saving his life. Lizzie needs his help because as much as she wants to kill Hope, she can't.
Back in the storage room, Lizzie demonstrates her attack on Hope, though each time she's forced to stop, never making contact with her. Professor Vardemus attempts to attack Hope, too, but Lizzie stops him. It's bad enough that she can't kill her, but now she assumes she's protecting her too. Rupert inquires exactly how she became a vampire, but in that moment, Hope is freed from the chambre de chasse.
Lizzie is surprised that Hope escaped. Hope admits that her showing up with the hint was just the help she needed. Lizzie made herself her problem and all she needed to do was find the key with her name. Hope uses the motus spell to take the Red Oak stake from Lizzie's hand, but Lizzie casts incendia and incinerates the stake before Hope can use it against her. Professor Vardemus however believes that Lizzie will do anything Hope says and demonstrates his. Lizzie reveals that she used the blood of whatever vampire donated their blood to the school's first-aid kits. Unfortunately for her, it was Hope's blood, meaning she's sire bound to her.
Back in his office, they discover that Jen and the sarcophagus are gone. As Hope and Lizzie continue to argue, Professor Vardemus reminds them that they cannot let an immensely powerful artifact that may have ties to the gods loose into the world. Hope vamps out to find the sarcophagus as she doesn't want it being used against herself. Lizzie agrees, as Hope used it against her. With Hope gone, Professor Vardemus questions if her emotions are heightened, too. He employs her, because she's a good person, to consider his thoughts. Hope is in a very dark place, and she's going after an innocent student.
In The Only Way Out is Through, Hope has taken the liberty of inviting Professor Vardemus to the school to help fight the gods.
Rupert has come with a new device, a Manticulum of his own design. He explains that it uses algorithmic magic to calculate probabilities. MG specifically wonders how it will help them fight the gods, but Hope explains that, on its own, it can't. She intends to use Wade and run it like a super-accurate D&D campaign while the manticulum will tell them the outcome of any attack or defense. All they need to do is encode their powers into the device.
Kaleb reviews Wade's scores of his and MG's powers. He believes that he's been done dirty by Wade, but he assures him that it's only preliminary guesses, such as that MG's only slightly faster than Kaleb. They'll need to run some tests to confirm the stats. Wade also notes that, given his dragon powers, he has a plus-20 to defense and a plus-40 for offense. In a straight fight, he could definitely beat MG, provided that he catches him. Next on the roster is Ethan; he has the teleportation and intangibility of a Pukwudgie, though believes the invisibility comes from another monster. Professor Vardemus asks for a demonstration, though Ethan still cannot control his powers and cannot teleport across the room. Cleo is up next, though Wade's stat sheet is out of date, given her new circumstances. She tells them she's basically human and though she's not as impressive without using her magic, she still wants to fight. Professor Vardemus commends her courage. Ben would also like to help, though he's forbidden from fighting against his family due to his father's curse. He offers that he can tell them what they would do in a fight and that he should play the side of the enemy in this game. Hope is the last one remaining to test, though she declines. She's had Wade draw up a new, humanity-off, stat sheet. He explains that she's basically the perfect fighter. Hop has incredible magical power levels, unencumbered by morality, with no discernible weaknesses. Her humanity, however, appears to her, noting that she's seeing people who aren't really there.
Professor Vardemus summons a battlefield for their practice session while Hope's humanity continues to appear to her. Rupert explains that vampires can move across the board in one turn and the speed of the gods varies. He has four hidden figures covered in sheets. He took the liberty of creating some automatons for the purposes of their game, using magic to sculpt them. The four automatons are Aurora, Jen, Ken, the father of an entire family of gods, and Lizzie. While Alaric is sure that Lizzie wouldn't fight against them, Rupert explains that to be sure of victory, they must plan for the worst-case scenario. Lizzie is a wild card. Wade comments that he's scored her loyalty to the gods pretty low, and believes that she can still be flipped back to their side. For the game, the two sides will alternate turns, with the Manticulum declaring success or failure of the moves based on the scores they've fed it. Rupert offers to Hope to draw to see who makes the first move. Her humanity appears, offering for her to take the left handed one. Hope, however, goes right and wins the first move.
Alaric and the others proceed with their simulation. Alaric believes that if they could talk to Lizzie, they can flip her back to their side. He believes their first move is getting her to safety. Her humanity tells her that she should listen, and though she believes they would be wasting their first strike, she goes with it. MG vamps to Lizzie though the manticulum calculates that Aurora would attack and kill him. His death turns Lizzie back to their side and she attacks and kills Aurora in a rage. Ben explains that Ken would attack Lizzie and she'd die. With her death, their probability of success drops to zero percent and they lose. Rupert finds this situation fascinating. As soon as Lizzie died, there was simply no move they could make that would lead to victory. He presumes there's a reason she is invaluable to winning. Hope now believes they have to save Lizzie first and wants to run the simulation again.
Rupert and the others run through several more simulations, each time they fail against the gods. Hope's humanity tells her she's going about it all wrong because they've already lost before they made the first move. Analyzing their enemies, Hope realizes the problem is that they're going first. They're facing them all at once and they should be forcing the gods to fight them. Hope declines the first move and Ben sends in Aurora to attack Hope first. Hope creates a barrier that throws Aurora off her feet. Hope sends in Kaleb, using his dragon fire. Aurora is killed and Hope has MG vamp to Lizzie. Ben has Ken attack MG, but Wade reads from the manticulum that he's just fast enough to save Lizzie.
Hope has rejoined the others with Ken, the last remaining on the field. Alaric thinks this is the point that Hope steps in, but Hope would rather send in her pawns first. Hope sends in Kaleb though Ben states that Ken would strike with lightning. Wade concludes that he dies. MG attacks next, though, again Wade explains that he dies. Ben advances Ken to Hope, who sends in Cleo. She too dies. Hope steps up to face Ken, though when pressed about the outcome, Rupert states that the manticulum calculates that she will still lose.
Running through another simulation, Hope has everyone attack Ken. Wade reads off the probability; they all die, but they do real damage against him. She moves in to attack next, though Rupert tells her that she's still not enough and he defeats her. Hope's humanity questions if she needs her help and she barks back, telling her to shut up. The others look at her, questioning the outburst. Hope wants more cannon fodder, questioning how many students there's at the school. Kaleb, however, is finished with the simulations. She's been running them into the buzz saw all day like they're expendable, citing that she only cares about herself. He declares this version of her isn't worth dying for and walks out with the others.
Rupert joins Alaric who asks about Lizzie during their last meeting. Rupert explains that she seemed lost, that recent events left her adrift since all the people she counted on the most to help her suddenly weren't there for her. Alaric thinks that this should have been their fight to begin with. They're still all kids dealing with more than they should. Rupert has a different take. Every generation makes a mess of it and has to pray the next generation can break the pattern, save the world. He knows that these students are extraordinary and if anyone can find their way, they can, including Lizzie. Hope comes out the door. She knows what they have to do next. This time, she wants to run the simulation again, except with her humanity.
Wade has adjusted the stats, though doesn't see how this is much of a battle upgrade, though Rupert believes much remains to be seen. Listening to her humanity, Hope wouldn't send everyone in to weaken him. She'd put herself in danger first because she can take it. She can hold the line for as long as she can, giving them the best chance. She attacks Ken alone. Wade tells her that she does damage to Ken, but he's still standing. Ben believes that his father would call down lightning. Rupert tells her that she's wounded and her life force is down to 70%. Hope continues to attack, drawing his fire, distracting him. Ben's father keeps striking and she's hit again. Her life force drops to 40%. Hope moves into close-quarter combat, inside the reach of his lightning. Wade tells her that her blows do damage, but she's too weak to block his attacks, dropping her down to 30%. Wade tells her that she has to get out of there, but Hope refuses to run. Her vision begins to blur at 20%, but she gets back up. Rupert tells her she has one move left. Kaleb, Jed, MG, Ethan, and Cleo come to her side, taking the next hits for her.
Wade tells them that they score another hit on Ken, but he's confused about what's changed. Rupert believes that Hope is giving them all courage, a belief they can win. Ben believes his father will retreat and ultimately they win, attacking as one. Her humanity tells her that they can win, all she has to do is just turn it back on. She wants her to let her out before she loses control. Hope closes off her humanity once again. All of this isn't real, it's just a stupid game. They're all pathetic and just little boys role-playing war. She calls them all disposable and that they mean nothing to her. She addresses her humanity, calling her a liar and a martyr. The others look on, confused about who she's talking to. Her powers continue to grow unstable, enough that she tells them that they need to do something because she's about to kill them all. She pleads with someone to take her out and Alaric breaks her neck.
Back in Alaric's office, Rupert has repaired the Therapy Box, as well as having added a few settings; an upgrade. Rupert has heard of Cleo that she's quite skilled at magic. Cleo believes that those days are behind her. Taking her hand, she examines it, finding it curious that she experiences pain when trying to do magic. Most of the time, when a witch loses her connection to magic, it's all or nothing. People often associate pain with something going wrong, however, in reality, pain is merely a signal that something is changing. After providing her with a knowing look, he pats her hand and leaves as Kaleb walks in.
