Vander was a large, muscular middle-aged man with grey eyes, dark hair, and a neatly trimmed, graying beard. He was generally seen wearing blue trousers, leather boots, a brown leather jacket over a white undershirt, and a leather pauldron on his upper right arm to cover up the scar he got from Silco when Vander tried to drown him.Vander is implied to have been a brutal man in his younger years. A flashback reveals an incident between him and Silco, where Vander tried to viciously drown the latter in Zaun’s polluted river, despite carrying a knife with him. After leading a failed uprising against Piltover's regime that saw a tragic loss of life, Vander was forced to bear the message to Vi and Powder that their parents had lost their lives in the fighting. After witnessing the grief this bore upon the two children, Vander turned pacifist, dropping his weapons and carrying the girls away to raise them as their father. At the time of Arcane's first act, Vander was the surrogate father of Vi, Powder, Mylo, and Claggor. A caring man, Vander was always willing to protect those who needed his help. He was seen as a protector by many, and he cared for the Lanes and the people in them. He governed the Lanes through paternal authority, relying on people's gratitude and genuine respect for him to maintain order. Even though he had turned pacifist, he defied his dogma in Episode 3, fighting and seemingly dying to save Vi's life. "Nobody wins in war"