Mastermind

"We have only one freshwater source on the island, and it's become rather contaminated with ash over the last few years, so I invented this magnificent contraption to provide safe water for the entire tribe..."

— Mastermind to Starflight about one of his inventions, The Dark Secret

Mastermind is an adult male NightWing who was introduced in The Dark Secret. Before the events of the NightWing Exodus, he lived on the NightWing island and served as the head scientist for his tribe. He currently resides in the Rainforest Kingdom, where he is imprisoned for his crimes against the RainWings. He is the father of Starflight and was Farsight's partner until her death.

Description

Mastermind has black scales and curious, bloodshot eyes. The silver scale patterns on the underside of his wing membranes spray outward, like a splash of water, similar to Starflight's. He is whip-thin, and his snout is pockmarked with small scars.

Personality

Mastermind is highly intelligent. He is passionately devoted to science and appears to care greatly about Starflight. Like his son, he has a tendency to use a wide and complex vocabulary. He gets nervous in difficult situations, such as when Battlewinner left her lava pool before her armor was complete, leading to her death. Mastermind was loyal to his tribe and was willing to follow the queen's orders. However, Mastermind did not have any intentions to torture the RainWings — he intended to create a defense to RainWing venom, and expand dragon knowledge for the purpose of science, as well as following the queen's orders. However, he seemed to believe that RainWings were inferior, barely considering them dragons, which explained his lack of remorse in their imprisonment and kidnapping. He is somewhat similar to Starflight and Cricket, as both are devoted to science. Unlike them, however, he seems to lack the critical thinking skills to question his orders and lacks both the moral compass and empathy that restraints him from experimenting on living creatures. Despite being willing to experiment on the RainWings, he was quite friendly when he met Starflight showing that he cares about his son. He uses large vocabulary, so elaborate to the extent that other dragons sometimes cannot understand him. He is obsessive about keeping others from touching his things.

Biography

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Dark Secret

When Morrowseer and Starflight were hunting, Starflight remarked disgustedly that he would not have developed the correct antibodies to protect against the dangerous effects of eating rotting NightWing food. Morrowseer then commented that he now knew who the dragonet's father was, based on Starflight's so-called 'speaking style.' Morrowseer then took him to visit Mastermind. Mastermind was in the middle of a 'crisis' when they arrived, the crisis being constructing venom-proof armor, and told them to leave because Princess Greatness had threatened to shut his research down. Morrowseer informed Mastermind that Starflight was his son, at which point he calmed down and first examined Starflight, overjoyed to have found his son. He then began talking about how the certain traits they shared (such as their jawline and the water spray silver-scale pattern on their wings) were genetically dominant, then showed Starflight some of the experiments he was working on, including desalinization (the process of making salt water drinkable) and volcanology. Starflight was awed by it all, and wanted to work with his father. Mastermind then showed them his current project: RainWing venom and its capabilities. In order to study the venom, seventeen RainWings, three of which did not survive, were brought from their homes to the Night Kingdom against their will, and were then imprisoned so that Mastermind could safely conduct his experiments on them. He was working on Orchid at the time. He wanted to learn more about RainWing venom, such as what materials it affected and what it did not. Mastermind had learned that it only affected organic matter, and would quickly kill anything if the venom got into either the eyes or the bloodstream. He then began the construction of armor to resist the venom, but could not finish it due to being unable to find a suitable material as the eyepiece. However, he was so caught up in his research it never occurred to him that he was torturing the captive RainWings. This caused Starflight to decide that his father was sociopathic. He wanted nothing to do with Mastermind and his venom experiments and tried to avoid him. Mastermind was also secretly working on lava-heated armor that would enable Queen Battlewinner to leave her pool of lava without freezing to death. This way, she would be able to lead the attack on the rainforest. Starflight saw it, but did not assume who it was for, and why. However, the armor never achieved completion before the eruption of the volcano, which destroyed everything on the NightWing island. The armor was presumably destroyed during the eruption. After Viper died, Starflight wanted to go dreamvisit his friends to warn them that Sunny might be captured, however at that moment, Mastermind invited Starflight to come see the library and help him research SandWing venom antidotes. Starflight reluctantly followed Mastermind to the library, and later when Mastermind was called to a council meeting, Starflight followed him there to listen in on what was going on. Before the volcano exploded, rendering the NightWing island uninhabitable, Mastermind was among the evacuating dragons. He was bringing with him a bundle of scrolls, much like Starflight had tried to do so in the underground cave. He voiced his worries about the RainWings hating him for what he has done to their tribe to Starflight and Tsunami. Starflight sensed his father wanted to hear an assuring lie. Instead, he told his father to apologize to the Queen and take whatever punishment she gives him, and Mastermind escaped through the rainforest tunnel with the rest of the NightWings. His labs and research were all destroyed in the eruption; only the scrolls that he brought with him were saved.

The Brightest Night
Two RainWings brought Mastermind to Queen Glory. She ordered him to be tied up until she could decide what to do with him. As of the epilogue, he was awaiting to stand trial for his crimes against the RainWings.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising

In the prologue, Secretkeeper accidentally ran into Farsight and Mastermind while trying to get to the Rainforest tunnel to see her daughter, Moonwatcher, hatch. Secretkeeper feared that Mastermind somehow knew about Moon's egg, judging by the expression on his face. Mastermind seemed impressed when Secretkeeper yelled at Farsight about her having two living children, after Farsight was trying to calm her about her "broken" egg.

Winter Turning
When Glory and the RainWing healers were talking about prisons, it was brought up that the RainWings do not have such things. Mastermind was mentioned to have been submerged in quicksand, since the RainWings did not have prison cells and do not want to kill him. The RainWings had to haul him out every few hours so he did not sink to his death.

Talons of Power
When Darkstalker created a prison, he mentioned that Glory could put Mastermind in there instead of leaving him in quicksand.

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Winglets

Prisoners
Mastermind yelled at Strongwings when he was his assistant, telling him to never come back again because Strongwings ruined Mastermind's lab somehow by knocking over a bottle of "uh, something" into a vat of "something else."

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Field Guides

A Guide to the Dragon World

Mastermind was mentioned in the RainWing chapter of the guide where Glory stated that Starflight theorized that Mastermind did something to the monkeys in the Rainforest Kingdom to make them scream. He was later mentioned by Kinkajou in her story about Silver to have mentioned calculus while Kinkajou was imprisoned on the NightWing island. In the NightWing chapter, Mastermind was interviewed by Glory and Deathbringer where he shared about how life was like for the NightWings on the island along with the historical achievements of the NightWings.

Relationships

Farsight

Farsight was Mastermind's partner. They seemed to like each other, but otherwise, the nature of their relationship is unknown.

Starflight

When Mastermind first met Starflight, he was overjoyed and happy, finding out that they have a lot in common. Starflight was also very enthusiastic, and Mastermind thought he would be a great lab assistant. However, when he showed his son the RainWing experiments, Starflight lost all interest, being disgusted by his father. However, Mastermind did not seem to notice. It is unknown what their relationship is currently, or if Mastermind is now aware of his son's true feelings toward him. He is proud of Starflight.

Strongwings

Strongwings was once Mastermind's lab assistant. Mastermind immensely disliked him because he was big and clumsy, knocking things over and not being on time for work. Strongwings did not wish to be the lab assistant but his parents forced him to.

Family tree

Unknown

Farsight

Mastermind

Fierceteeth

Starflight

Unnamed

    = Possible timeline

Quotes

"No, no! [...] I must not be interrupted! This experiment is at a critical juncture! And Greatness says I might be shut down at any moment! Everyone please leave!"

― to Morrowseer, Starflight and Fatespeaker

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"Three moons. [...] What a handsome dragonet. He does look like me; I knew he would. As I suspected, his jawline is genetically dominant. [...] Ah, and yes, see the way the star scales on our wings spray outward, like a splash of water? Whereas Morrowseer's, for instance, curl inward, more like a snail shell. All theories at this point, of course."

― to Morrowseer, about Starflight

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"But I have a son! I, of all dragons! Let's see Strongwings laugh now! Just wait until everyone sees my handsome offspring. [...] So strong and healthy! You can be the assistant I've been looking for. What are you interested in, son?"

― to Starflight

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"Fantastic! [...] I have lots of scrolls. How about desalinization? Know anything about it?"

― to Starflight

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"Very good. [...] We have only one freshwater source on the island, and it's become rather contaminated with ash over the last few years, so I invented this magnificent contraption to provide safe water for the entire tribe..."

― to Starflight

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"Here is where I do all my volcanology. [...] I'm testing for materials that can withstand eruptions, and working on scale models of barriers, and outlining possible implementation systems. No wonder I need an assistant, right?"

― to Starflight

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"Not going very well, as you can see! [...] Queen Battlewinner isn't pleased about that. Of course, she has her own ideas about where I should be focusing my attention. Come, come!"

― to Starflight

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"Mastermind was our science teacher, and the tribe's resident genius, if you can believe all the hype about him. I say, if he's such a genius, he should be able to explain stuff in a way that dragons can actually understand. Instead he showed up once a week, blathered on for hours using the biggest, most made-up words possible, and then slithered back to his lab, leaving all of us even dumber than we were before."

― Fierceteeth about Mastermind

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"I'm sorry. [...] It was... I was just... for science..."

― to the RainWings when they confront him for capturing RainWings and experimenting on them

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"YOU'VE RUINED IT! THE WHOLE THING! OUR ENTIRE TRIBE COULD BE WIPED OUT BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY!"

― to Strongwings

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"DON'T COME BACK OR I'LL DISSECT YOU ALIVE!"

― to Strongwings

Gallery

• 
  Mastermind from The Dark Secret (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes
• 
  Mastermind and Starflight from the Japanese release of The Dark Secret, by Lē Yamamura
• 
  Reference by Sands of Lost Time

• Art by Mike Holmes, from the Wings of Fire Graphic Novels
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References

cs:Velmozek de:Mastermind fi:Älypää fr:Legénie nl:Meesterbrein pl:Mędrzec ru:Гений