Marius Vulgare

Marius Vulgare is a vendor NPC in Plants vs. Zombies: Infinite Generation and the head of LEAF-Prime's thaumaturgy department. He serves as the primary quest-giver for most of the first campaign if the player is an Agios Phase user, and continues to provide relevant equipment throughout the player's journey.

In combat, Marius is one of several Riders who uses a Core Gundam II and the Mega Ulorder to don the Nepteight armor, an equipment set focused on concentrated arcane bombardment. He later completes a second armor pack known as the Sinspectre armor in secret, using it to become Armored Rider Sinspectre.

Initially distancing himself from active combat due to his job, Marius becomes embroiled in the war against PHASMA during The Dark Mirror campaign, along with many other commanders within LEAF-Prime.

Origins
Marius is an Enchant-mint, and is therefore based on the Lamiaceae family, also known as mints. His last name is derived from the Origanum vulgare, also known as oregano, for the plant's pink/purple flowers.

Marius's hat is based on the helmet and hood of Kamen Rider Sinspecter, which foreshadows his rise as a Rider in their likeness.

Personality
Marius initially appears as a quiet but wise and intelligent individual, befitting his role as the leader of LEAF's magicians. In reality, however, he is a more talkative person, but is too swamped in his lab and deskwork to make room for conversation. As such, he is known among LEAF agents for possessing a hot-blooded side in combat, but only in particularly dire situations.

Marius is later revealed in lore cards to have been secretly atoning for a disaster years ago when, while on a mission under his supervision in a nearby universe, a killsat analogous to the lunar magnet from Garden Warfare 2 successfully fired on the Earth due to a mishap on his end, dooming countless lives. It is because of this that he began arranging for the development of the Sinspectre armor, hoping to use his magical potential and existing research on emotional influence in arcana to create a system whose very existence and overwhelming strength would allow him to atone for that day.

Gameplay
Marius is normally found in his study at the LEAF-Prime Headquarters. Like the other commanders, Marius will sometimes leave his room for story-related events.

Vendor Inventory
Marius sells first-party armor sets for Agios Phase users, and also provides certain quests such as campaign steps and his personal arc, Rebirth Under a Spectre.

As an ally
Marius appears as an allied combatant in some stages. He is functionally identical to an Agios Phase using the Deprotonator subclass, with the exception of his ultimate ability being replaced with increased mobility and the ability to unleash slash-shaped outbursts from the Nepteight's backpack.

As a boss
Marius is also fought on one occasion, being forcibly mutated into Another Nepteight following his attempt to save the player character from a trap in PHASMA's headquarters through the Nepteight Anotherwatch. During this fight, he has the following attacks, shared with Another Nepteight's previous user: Defeating Marius destroys the Nepteight Anotherwatch for good, and unlocks the Nepteight Ridewatch for purchase from Marius.
 * Shoots from a rifle for light damage.
 * Uses the magic-infused bony tendrils on his back to mark a specific radius around him, which then explodes. This attack is more likely to be used the closer the player is to Another Nepteight.
 * Charges up a bolt of psychokinetic radiation that then explodes into a snare on impact, identical to the Axis Break used by Radioaugers. However, this snare is more fragile and thus easier to break out of.
 * Winds up a charged punch. Only used at point-blank range if the player remains in such a radius for more than two seconds, and has enough startup lag to be avoided at that range.

Core Gundam II
Like his colleague Adans, Marius uses a Core Gundam II, painted seafoam green to match the Nepteight armor. On its own, it carries a basic rifle and two sabers.

A Mega Ulorder is attached to the wrist, enabling its user to insert data cores and call down armor packs for the Core II.

Nepteight Armor
"Eyes up, commander! Soar for the cosmos!"

- Transformation announcement for the Neptune data core in the Mega Ulorder The Nepteight armor is one of the nine original armor configurations developed for the Core Gundam and Core Gundam II. It is a seafoam green, slightly fortified suit of powered armor parts that enables Marius to use magical attacks in combat, with a ring-shaped backpack that further boosts these capabilities.

The Nepteight armor also possesses very high mobility and tight air control, mostly due to its design being partially based on a solar sail meant for worker-class robots.

Sinspectre Armor
"Eyes up, commander! Pride, greed, lust, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth! Break, deadly sins!"

- Transformation announcement for the Sinspectre core in the Mega Ulorder The Sinspectre armor is a cyan/pastel-blue extra armor configuration for the Core Gundam II, created out of and partially powered by Marius's hidden desire to atone for the disaster he had a hand in causing years ago. Though losing some of the thickness of the Nepteight armor, the Sinspectre armor is much sleeker and greatly boosts the energy capacity of the Core II and the magical potential of Marius's powers beyond even the Nepteight's theoretical absolute maximum limit.

The Sinspectre armor is loaded with a unique rifle with single-shot, automatic, and flamethrower modes, and which can also be unfolded into a beam scythe. It is specifically attuned to Marius's powers and thus can be empowered to perform unique attacks. The backpack from the Nepteight armor is also retained, this time upgraded into a genuine flight pack on top of its original functions.