Overview
Griffin (格里芬) is the current headmaster of the Magic Academy and the greatest magician in the history of Roco Kingdom. His exact age is unknown, but he is described as extremely old, far older than any living person in the kingdom. Despite his advanced years, he remains a commanding presence, sharp of mind and formidable in ability. He is universally respected and treated as a "close friend across generations" by students, faculty, and kingdom officials alike.
Griffin's story is inseparable from that of Enzo, the orphaned child he rescued from the Magic Forest and raised as his own. The bond between them, and its eventual fracturing, forms one of the emotional pillars of the main story. Griffin carries the weight of that failure throughout the game, and his actions are consistently shaped by the desire to prevent anyone else from suffering as Enzo did.
Background
Little is known about Griffin's early life. He has been headmaster of the Magic Academy for longer than any living person can remember. Historical records in the Academy library reference his name in documents dating back several centuries, though he dismisses questions about his age with vague humor. Some NPCs speculate that he has discovered a form of natural longevity through his mastery of magic, while others believe he may simply be blessed by the kingdom's ambient magical energy.
What is clear is that Griffin has dedicated his entire life to the Academy and to the study of magic. He views the institution not merely as a school but as the kingdom's greatest safeguard against darkness. Under his leadership, the Academy has trained generations of magicians, maintained the kingdom's defensive wards, and served as a neutral ground where disputes are settled through scholarship rather than violence.
Griffin is originally a pacifist by philosophy. He believes that magic should be used to protect and to nurture, never to harm. This principle guided his leadership for centuries, but the events surrounding Enzo's fall and Nightmare's resurgence have forced him to compromise on this belief. By the time the player meets him, Griffin is a man who still holds pacifist ideals but recognizes that the threats facing the kingdom require a more pragmatic response.
Discovery of Enzo
During one of his periodic explorations of the Magic Forest, Griffin came across a small, malnourished child with striking crimson eyes. The child was approximately six years old and had been surviving in the forest entirely alone. Griffin immediately sensed the boy's extraordinary magical potential, a raw power so immense that it was barely contained within the child's small frame.
Rather than reporting the child to the kingdom's social authorities, Griffin made the deeply personal decision to raise the boy himself. He named the child Enzo and brought him back to the Academy, where he provided shelter, education, and the parental love the boy had never known. For years, this arrangement thrived. Enzo flourished under Griffin's guidance, growing into one of the most talented students the Academy had ever seen.
The Shelly Incident
Griffin's relationship with Enzo was irreparably damaged by the death of Shelly, Enzo's beloved teacher. The frontier mission that resulted in Shelly's death had been officially approved by Griffin. In Enzo's eyes, this made Griffin directly responsible for the loss of the most important person in his life.
What Enzo did not know, and what becomes clear only through late-game discoveries, is that Shelly had proactively requested the assignment. Through her work as a shadow detective, Shelly had gained foreknowledge, possibly through divination magic, that Enzo's future path would lead to darkness because of her presence. She believed that by removing herself from his life and confronting the frontier threat directly, she could alter the trajectory of his fate. She asked Griffin to approve the mission, and he agreed, trusting her judgment.
Griffin has never publicly revealed Shelly's true motivations. He bears Enzo's hatred silently, considering it a burden he deserves for having failed to protect someone under his care. This silent guilt defines much of Griffin's character during the game. He is protective to the point of being overprotective, cautious to the point of inaction, and haunted by the knowledge that his best intentions led to catastrophe.
Spirit Companions
Griffin's primary spirit companion is a powerful fire-type creature that has undergone multiple evolutions over the course of Griffin's long life. The evolution line reflects Griffin's own growth and the challenges he has faced.
Stage | Name (Chinese) | Name (English) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Base | 火羽 | Fire Wing | Griffin's original companion. A fiery avian spirit with moderate power and exceptional loyalty. This form accompanied Griffin for most of his early centuries at the Academy. |
Second Evolution | 烈火战神 | Blazing War God | An evolved form triggered during a crisis that forced Griffin to abandon his pacifist principles. The Blazing War God is a towering warrior-bird engulfed in white-hot flames, capable of devastating area attacks. |
Third Evolution | 天幕火羽 | Sky-Curtain Fire Wing | The ultimate form, achieved when Fire Wing's evolution awakened Griffin from his prolonged unconsciousness after the Nightmare's Avatar incident. Sky-Curtain Fire Wing generates walls of fire across the sky, creating defensive barriers and offensive zones simultaneously. |
Unconsciousness and Awakening
During the Nightmare's Avatar incident, Griffin confronted a physical manifestation of Nightmare's power in an attempt to protect the Academy and its students. The battle was extraordinarily taxing. Griffin managed to repel the Avatar, but the effort drained his magical reserves to a dangerous degree. He fell into a prolonged unconsciousness from which no conventional healing magic could revive him.
Griffin's unconscious state lasted for a significant portion of the mid-game chapters, during which the Academy operated without its headmaster. His absence created a power vacuum that Enzo's forces exploited aggressively, launching raids and corruption operations that would not have been possible under Griffin's watchful eye.
Griffin was finally awakened by the evolution of his companion spirit. Fire Wing's transformation into Sky-Curtain Fire Wing generated a surge of magical energy that reconnected with Griffin's depleted reserves, pulling him back to consciousness. The awakening scene is one of the game's most dramatic moments, with Griffin rising from his bed to find the Academy under siege and immediately taking command of its defense.
Notable Mentees
Over his centuries-long tenure as headmaster, Griffin has personally mentored many magicians who went on to become significant figures in the kingdom's history. The most notable include the following.
Mentee | Notable Achievement or Role |
|---|---|
Luo Ke | A distinguished graduate who became a leading magical researcher. Luo Ke's work on elemental harmony theory laid the foundation for modern spirit training techniques. |
Keliria | A talented healer-magician who established the kingdom's first field hospital network, providing magical medical care to frontier settlements. |
Philter | An alchemist and enchanter whose innovations in potion-making streamlined the Academy's curriculum and made advanced healing potions accessible to ordinary citizens. |
Kapu | A defensive magic specialist who designed the ward system that still protects the Academy's walls. Kapu's wards are considered some of the strongest in the kingdom. |
Longxing | A knight-magician to whom Griffin personally entrusted the Holy Dragon Knight Staff, one of the most powerful magical artifacts in the kingdom. This act of trust indicates extraordinary confidence in Longxing's character and ability. |
Role in Roco Kingdom: World
In Roco Kingdom: World, Griffin functions as both a mentor figure and a narrative anchor. He provides the player with guidance during the early chapters, assigns key missions, and offers strategic advice before major battles. His encyclopedic knowledge of the kingdom's history and magical systems makes him an invaluable resource for understanding the threats the player faces.
Griffin's relationship with the player mirrors his earlier relationship with Enzo, a parallel that the game explores intentionally. Both the player and Enzo are talented newcomers whom Griffin takes under his wing. The difference, as the story demonstrates, lies not in raw ability but in the support systems and choices that surround each of them.
During the final chapters, Griffin plays an active role in the campaign against Nightmare. Despite his advanced age and the lingering effects of his unconsciousness, he contributes his power to the final assault, demonstrating why he is considered the greatest magician in the kingdom's history.
Voice Actor
In Roco Kingdom: World, Griffin is voiced by Zhang Ruobing (张若冰). Zhang brings a gravelly warmth to the character, conveying both Griffin's immense wisdom and the deep sadness that underlies his gentle exterior. The performance has been praised by players for capturing the nuance of a man who is simultaneously one of the most powerful beings in the kingdom and one of its most emotionally burdened.
Trivia
Griffin is the only NPC in the game who has a unique interaction with every single starter spirit. If the player brings their starter to Griffin's office, he provides a personalized comment about the spirit's nature and potential.
His office at the Academy contains bookshelves that the player can interact with. Each bookshelf provides lore snippets, and together they form a fragmented history of the kingdom that predates any other in-game source.
Despite being described as a pacifist, Griffin has the highest implied combat power of any character in the game. NPCs frequently note that if Griffin ever fought at full strength, the outcome would not be in question.
The name "Griffin" (格里芬) is a direct reference to the mythological creature, a fitting choice for a character who bridges the mundane and the magical.
Griffin's prolonged unconsciousness is sometimes referred to by fans as the "nap arc," a lighthearted nickname for one of the story's most tense periods.