William Vangeance
Squad captain / Plot-pivotal figureBlack Clover

- Also known as
- The masked captain; host of the elf Patolli
- Rank
- Magic Knight Captain
- Team
- Golden Dawn
- Clan
- House Vangeance
- Occupation
- Captain of the Golden Dawn; candidate for Wizard King
- Japanese voice
- Daisuke Ono
- English voice
- Ian Sinclair
- Affiliation
- Golden Dawn (captain)
- First appearance
- Royal Capital arc
- Series
- Black Clover
Who is William Vangeance?
Captain of the Golden Dawn and Julius's chosen successor, William is a masked, soft-spoken noble revered as the kingdom's most talented mage. His World Tree magic heals allies and reshapes entire battlefields. Once a mistreated peasant child, he shares his body and his history with another soul, a secret bound up with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the elves' long-held vengeance against humanity.
Appearance
A tall, elegant man with long wavy hair of deep blue-violet that reaches his lower back, and a white mask that covers most of his face, leaving only the mouth and one eye area exposed. The mask is his constant public feature; beneath it, a large dark red birthmark spreads across half his face, the mark that defined his childhood. He wears the Golden Dawn's ornate white and gold captain's cloak with a high collar, and moves with measured, aristocratic calm. When his elf-derived power surfaces, pointed ears and glowing markings appear.
Personality
Gracious, gentle and almost priestly in bearing, William speaks softly and treats subordinates of every background with the same courtesy, which is why the Golden Dawn is fiercely loyal to him. He carries deep survivor's guilt and a quiet conviction that he owes the world something for the kindness once shown to him. That gratitude becomes a vulnerability: he is susceptible to anyone who offers him purpose or belonging. He hides half his face and rather more of his heart, keeping even close friends at a polite distance. His ideals are sincere, yet he is capable of terrible decisions when convinced they will spare others suffering, and he accepts the consequences without excuse.
Background
Born to a commoner mother and a noble father who refused to acknowledge him, William grew up in poverty, shunned because of the large birthmark covering half his face. Villagers treated the mark as a curse. When the Vangeance line needed an heir he was taken into the noble house, but the household's cruelty was little better than the village's. Alone and despairing, he encountered Julius Novachrono, who saw only his talent, gave him kindness and encouraged him toward the Magic Knights. Unknown to William, the soul of the elf Patolli had shared his body since birth, surfacing when he suffered. Rising quickly through the ranks, he became captain of the Golden Dawn and one of the kingdom's most respected mages.
Role in Black Clover
Golden Dawn and Rising Stars
Introduced as the captain of the kingdom's finest squad, William recruits Yuno and shows unusual warmth toward talented commoners. Julius openly names him a leading candidate to become the next Wizard King, and his masked serenity marks him as the most admired captain in the realm.
Royal Knights Selection Exam
He oversees the tournament that selects the Royal Knights alongside the other captains, evaluating candidates with quiet fairness. Behind the ceremony, the strain of his double existence grows as events push the Eye of the Midnight Sun's plan toward its conclusion.
Elf Reincarnation
The truth emerges: the elf Patolli has shared William's body all his life, and their partnership underlies the Midnight Sun's scheme. The reincarnation ritual is completed and the elves return en masse, leaving William to reckon with what his gratitude and grief helped set in motion.
Resolution of the Elf Conflict
As the plot's true architect is exposed, William works to undo the damage, lending his enormous magic to sustain and shield others while the elves' rage is finally soothed. He accepts responsibility publicly rather than hiding behind the mask or his rank.
Spade Kingdom Threat
With the kingdom rebuilding, William stands among the captains defending it. The Dark Triad's assault targets the strongest mages available, and his capture alongside Yami transforms the conflict into a rescue operation that mobilises every squad.
Abilities and techniques
World Tree Magic
William grows enormous trees of mana whose trunks, branches and roots reshape the battlefield, crushing enemies, sheltering allies and spanning huge distances. The scale of the constructs marks him as one of the most powerful creation mages in the kingdom.
Restorative Roots
His trees can draw mana from willing allies and redistribute it, healing wounds and reviving exhausted knights across a wide area. This makes him a strategic force multiplier who can keep an entire front line standing through a long engagement.
Tree of Qliphoth
A vast ritual tree that connects worlds and channels an enormous flow of magic, central to the elves' reincarnation plan. Casting it demands staggering reserves and represents the darkest application of his creation magic.
Mana Sensing and Mana Zone
He reads mana with exceptional precision, identifying individuals and intentions at long range, and dominates the ambient mana of an area to make his spells faster and more efficient than an opponent's within it.
Shared Body with Patolli
The elf soul within him surfaces to take control, wielding potent light magic and elf techniques. The arrangement grants both personalities access to extraordinary power at the cost of William's memory gaps and self-control.
Relationships
- Julius Novachrono
- Mentor and Wizard King
- Julius found him at his lowest, valued his talent over his appearance and set him on the path to captaincy. William's devotion to him is profound, which makes his role in the Midnight Sun's plan all the more agonising.
- Patolli
- Elf soul sharing his body
- The two have coexisted since birth, each aware of the other's sorrow. Their bond of mutual pity and shared loneliness drives the conspiracy against the kingdom and is eventually confronted rather than simply severed.
- Yami Sukehiro
- Friend and rival captain
- Yami is the one person who speaks to him without deference and sees past the mask. Their friendship persists through the revelations about him, and their simultaneous abduction unites the squads.
- Yuno
- Subordinate he recruited
- William personally brought Yuno into the Golden Dawn and encourages his growth without regard to the boy's commoner upbringing, mirroring the chance Julius once gave him.
Notable moments
- He is publicly named by Julius as a leading candidate to become the next Wizard King.
- He recruits Yuno into the Golden Dawn despite the squad's noble reputation.
- The mask comes off and the birthmark that shaped his childhood is finally seen.
- The elf Patolli's lifelong presence within him is revealed to the Magic Knights.
- His abduction alongside Yami forces the squads into a unified rescue effort.
Trivia
- His mask is worn to hide a birthmark that covers roughly half his face.
- He is voiced by Daisuke Ono in Japanese and Ian Sinclair in the English dub.
- He was born to a commoner mother before being taken in as a noble house's heir.
- His World Tree magic is one of the few abilities that can heal and reinforce an entire army at once.

