Gaspar (Chrono Trigger)

Template:Chrono Trigger Character

Gaspar, the Guru of Time, is a non playable character (NPC) in the Chrono Trigger video game.

Gaspar was one of the three Gurus of the magical Kingdom of Zeal in 12,000 B.C. While his colleagues Belthasar and Melchior were associated with the concepts of Reason and Life respectively, Gaspar's field of study was Time.

The golden age of Zeal came to an end when Queen Zeal sought to master a powerful and seemingly eternal source of energy that emanated from the ocean floor. That energy came from none other than the gigantic alien parasite Lavos, which had crashed into the interior of the planet 65,000,000 years ago and was constantly growing stronger. Under Lavos's influence, the Queen became cruel and power-mad, obsessed with building a palace on top of the energy flow to harness its power via the Mammon Machine.

Gaspar, together with the other two Gurus and the Queen's daughter Schala realised that Lavos could awaken if the Mammon Machine was brought so close to it and tried to make the Queen listen to reason. Eventually the situation became so bad that Melchior was imprisoned and the other two Gurus were forced to flee from the wrath of Zeal. Gaspar was rumoured to have escaped to an island, where he was said to be researching a device called the "Chrono Trigger", or "Time Egg".

The heroes of the game that the player controls freed Melchior and battled an awakened Lavos in the Ocean Palace. Lavos completely obliterated Crono, the protagonist of the game, but Schala managed to teleport the remaining party members to safety.

Then, the three Gurus arrived on the scene. Lavos used its power once more and created Time Gates under the Gurus, banishing each one to a different era. While Melchior was sent to 1000 A.D (the game's present time) and Belthasar was whisked away to 2300 A.D (the future after Lavos had destroyed and taken over the world), Gaspar himself landed in nothingness, at the only place where time no longer had any meaning: the very End of Time.

The End of Time is a pretty bleak and lonely place to live in, but Gaspar made the most of it. He has had company in the form of Spekkio, the self-proclaimed master of war. Furthermore, occasionally time travellers wind up at the End of Time by accident if four or more of them enter a single Time Gate at once.

Over time, Gaspar's appearance changed. He swapped his ceremonial robes for a brown overcoat with a bowler hat. His staff that he originally had suspiciously disappeared and was replaced by a cane. It may be possible that Gaspar's cane is his staff in disguise. In addition, he somehow created a small cobblestone square of sorts floating in the void at the End of Time, complete with fences, stairs, buckets, and a lamp-post, under which he is usually seen standing or sleeping. From that vantage point, Gaspar can gaze at any time period, partly bacause of his powers and partly because of where he is.

At some point early in the game, the party members Crono, Lucca, Marle, and Robo were trasported to the End of Time and met Gaspar, although they did not yet know who he was. Gaspar explained to them how they can't travel through time in groups of larger than three and introduced them to Spekkio, who taught them magic. From that point on, Gaspar provided a lot of useful information to the heroes, pointing them to the right direction to continue their quest.

When the heroes visited Zeal and Crono was killed, they learned that the Guru of Time had the power to change the past. They visited the "old man" at the End of Time and asked him if he knew of the Guru so that they can bring Crono back. Touched by this sign of friendship, Gaspar hesitated little before giving them his finest invention: the Chrono Trigger. He revealed that the Chrono Trigger had the potential to have a powerful effect on time, if the right conditions were met. The heroes managed to unlock the power of the Chrono Trigger to travel to the moment where Crono died and replaced his body with a replica doll, preventing him from ever getting killed.

When the heroes thanked Gaspar for the service he offered them, he thanked them in turn and finally requested (possibly jokingly) that if they really wanted to thank him, they could make him a member of their team. Gaspar is not a playable character, of course, but some players of the game think he may have been once due to the above quote (see Chrono Trigger for more information).

After Crono's return, Gaspar further helped the team by offering them his glimpses of different eras, effectively giving them hints to optional quests.

Gaspar's name, as those of the other two Gurus, is a reference to the Three Wise Men or Magi who according to the Christian Gospel gave gifts to the newborn Jesus. An analogy can be made in that each of the Gurus gave valuable items to Crono and his team, Gaspar's being the Chrono Trigger.