Zachi-el

Zachi-el, the Lacerator 3426

Designated 3426 in the Serpent Legion, he was raised only to fight and obey the orders of his cruel masters. Surviving against terrible odds with only his wits, willpower, and strength at arms, he would earn the title of Zachi-el and was feared as the Lacerator amongst his enemies. Zachi-el was never the most powerful or feared of the Serpent Legion, but showed an incredible willpower to fight through impossible odds. In the aftermath of the war, would learn the true nature of Kel Rayma and the actions committed in his name and this child from nowhere would one day be the downfall of the most feared warlord in The Northern Half.

Physical Description

Body Features

Zachi-el has suffered numerous injuries over the many battles he has survived. Scars from stabs, burns, and slashes dot his skin and a large continuous scar that extends down the back of his head, down the spine, across his arms, and to his heels from a ritual that removed and replaced his entire skeleton. His notable injuries are the loss of his left arm, which he chose to sever at the elbow in a desperate duel with a powerful champion, and the loss of both of his eyes at two separate occasions. His eyes were replaced with magical prosethetics that offer excellent vision and his arm with a prosthetic relic made out of engraved bone.

Facial Features

A vertical scar runs over his right eye and a horizontal scar extends from next to his left eye to the bridge of his nose. Zachi-el's right cheek is scarred from burns that extend down to his neck.

Identifying Characteristics

Glowing blue artificial eyes

Special abilities

Zachi-el has no talent for magic and never developed any skills with it.

Specialized Equipment

Bereavement

Mental characteristics

Personal history

As an infant, he was voluntarily given up by his parents to agents of Kel Rayma that were quietly gathering recruits for the secret legion. He was designated as 3426 and grew up with the bare minimum of necessities and affection. The legionaires around him were raised not to hurt each other or their leaders, but were only taught about the principles of combat and war. The legionaires had to define and determine their own standards of camaraderie and friendliness. Like the rest of the legionaires around him, he would kill for the first time at the age of 8. His first real combat was at age 12, sent with a dozen other children with knives to kill a small group of bandits in the night. Though they faced only 4 men and were ambushing them, many of the children died. The 13 boys had known each other their whole lives and only 5 lived to return that night. 3426 passed a damaged mirror on his way out and would remember his bloody and distraught face in the mirror for years afterward.
Kel Rayma would step out into the public and declare war when 3426 was 14 years old. In that time, many more legionaires would reach fighting age and take to the field, now looking up to their seniors. 3426 would participate in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, such as the Sacking of the Perfect Spire, the Aavaral Bloodletting, the Battle of Severed Wings, the Fall of the Unbreakable Gates, and the Red Tundra campaign. He was also part of some its worst atrocities, like the Demeran Executions and Pyre of Mesera. During the Fall of the Unbreakable Gates, at age 17, he would lose his squad leader and become isolated behind enemy lines. 3426 would then lose his right eye to an enemy patrol and fought by himself through the city, earning the nickname of Lacerator after fighting so ferociously that he severed multiple limbs in combat with whoever found him. When the city was taken, would be recognized by his commander and Kel Rayma overheard. The Mad Warlord deigned to give him the title of "Zachi-el" meaning "the one who cuts/severs" for his actions spreading fear in the enemy ranks.

Sexuality

Zachi-el is numb to emotions of affection and attraction due to deep-seated self hatred and his belief that he is so messed up and inherently separate from everyone else around him, that the idea of love and attraction directed at him doesn't even apply to him.

Education

Raised in the Serpent Legion, Zachi-el was taught only enough to understand orders and fight adequately. After his surrender at Aaral Duraz, he was taught many things that he would need in normal society. He showed an interest in morality and everything related to it as such things weren't taught in the legion.

Employment

As part of the Serpent Legion, Zachi-el grew up training and fighting in grueling conditions. He developed frightening combat skills and was made into a leader by necessity as his predecessors died in battle. After the war, he joined a task force that sought out the remaining legionaires to secure their surrender, ensure they couldn't be gathered by Kel Rayma, and tried to hunt down The Mad Warlord and his associates. After rescuing Azakaylith, he was given a position by his side as personal champion and the closest thing to a friend. He was then asked to become a teacher to prospective nobles and knights to prepare them for the possiblity of Kel Rayma's return and the kind of warfare and tactics he would likely employ.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Zachi-el survived some of the bloodiest battles of the war and earned titles of fear and recognition. He would wield the sword Bereavement in the Battle of Aaral Duraz and go on to unlock its true potential in the years afterward.

Mental Trauma

Suffered years of abuse and trauma from a young age and was forced to kill at the age of 8 to desensitize him to death. Fought and killed for years as a child soldier, watching his comrades die in some of the bloodiest battles in the Northern Half, and participated in infamous massacres. He developed survivor's guilt after the deaths of his mentors and peers in terrible circumstances. Raised to view himself as less than human and would later learn that he all he had done was horrific and vile in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Intellectual Characteristics

Though denied a normal education and upbringing, a life of military discipline and the necessities of battle would instill a well-honed pragmatism that benefitted Zachi-el's understanding of the world. He has displayed an eagerness for knowledge and is always open to new ideas as long as they show merit.

Morality & Philosophy

Like many of the other Serpent Legionaires, Zachi-el believed that he wasn't a person, only a number in the legion, and couldn't be accepted anywhere else. He fought for himself and his comrades and they developed their own standards that prioritized the safety of the junior legionaires with their seniors doing their best to mentor and protect them for the mutual survival of as many as possible. They would all do their best survive unless ordered to certain death by their leader. As numbers in the legion, they were also inherantly enemies with everyone outside of it and they wouldn't recieve mercy. To this end, nothing was off limits against those who would harm them or their juniors. Zachi-el followed this idea until he was the most senior legionaire left in his group, as all his predecessors were killed over the course of the war. He felt inadequate as a leader and prioritized the survival of his subordinates above all else, having unresolved grief and regret from the loss of his peers and mentors over the years.
At the conclusion of the Battle of Aaral Duraz, Zachi-el keenly felt the betrayal of his leaders and Kel Rayma and began to reevaluate his ideals. Those watching over him also decided to try and rehabilitate the members of the legion and make further cooperation smoother. This had the unintended effect of causing Zachi-el to realize that he was actually a human, had done horrific things without remorse for years, and that he always had a choice. Zachi-el would ask about many things under the guise of curiosity that he actually had done and concluded that he was an abhorrent monster and horrible person. One of the survivors closest to Zachi-el committed suicide after being unable to reconcile the reality of their actions.
This weight would have eventually crushed Zachi-el, but when he was offered to help pursue Kel Rayma in revenge for all that had been done, he discovered a fortress where many children that were too young to fight were executed for being unneeded by Kel Rayma's orders. Though Zachi-el was resigned to die for what he had done, he resolved to kill Kel Rayma for being the cause of all the pain and death he had known.
After saving Azakaylith, there was a possiblity for a safe place for the remaining Serpent Legionaires within his kingdom. Zachi-el helped secure a future for his brothers in whatever way he could, especially the ones that hadn't killed or fought as he hoped to spare them the pain he had experienced.

Taboos

After the disbanding of the Serpent Legion and learning how many things terrible things he had done, Zachi-el was especially horrified with having killed children previously. He resolved to never hurt one again, to protect any child that he could, and to prevent children from becoming  murderers like him.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Lacking a healthy upbringing, Zachi-el's outlook is twisted and bleak. The only things he seeks is to avenge the fallen legionaires who died for Kel Rayma's ambitions by killing the Mad Warlord, to serve Azakaylith's goal of protecting and providing for the remaining legionaires, and doesn't want to see anyone end up like himself. He has no hope for a future beyond that and believes that his death in service of any of these things is inherently justified.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Having grown up in such harsh conditions, seeing so much death, and being parted from so many he knew, Zachi-el is very reluctant to make friends and is always ready to isolate himself from others. Any outside the Serpent Legion that do become close to him have to be able to understand his damaged nature. He struggles to understand emotions outside of the negative ones he's very familiar with.

Virtues & Personality perks

Zachi-el is insanely loyal and absurdly determined to complete any objective given by those he trusts.

Vices & Personality flaws

Zachi-el struggles with his own identity after the disbanding of the Serpent Legion, as he believed he wasn't human and was confronted with the reality and morality of his actions. If he wasn't human, then he could continue to kill everyone else as they were something other than him and he could die anytime as he believed his fate was before. If he really is human, then he always had a choice and is a horrible evil monster still deserving of death. This leds to him being all-too-willing to die for anything outside of himself, as he views nearly everyone as worth more than him. He also doesn't understand the concern others have for him, believing he deserves what ever comes his way.

Social

Reign

The Battle of Aaral Duraz was kept shrouded in secrecy, but the unparalled leadership and skill of its defending captain was a rumor that made its way out and the tantalizing mystery kept scholars and military leaders investigating into it for years. After Zachi-el's willing cooperation with the nations that opposed Kel Rayma, his identity and participation in the war was kept under wraps.

Contacts & Relations

While pursuing the Mad Warlord in the aftermath of the war, Zachi-el would meet with a legionaire that he had met previously that had been elevated to Kel Rayma's personal retinue. This legionaire was actually named Azakaylith Vynatari and was the son of a royal family. He had been kidnapped and raised by Kel Rayma to make use of the powers passed down in their family and to spite their generational opposition to him. Zachi-el was tasked with negotiating his surrender and return to his family and he managed to do so with a deeply personal appeal. The legionaires were told they did not have a name, home, or family outside of the legion and died believing they didn't belong anywhere else, but Azakaylith not only had a name, but a family that was desperately searching for him. Caught between his loyalty to Kel Rayma and the sincerity of Zachi-el, Azakaylith chose to surrender and go with him. This earned Zachi-el the eternal favor of the royal heir and his family and was made the champion of Azakaylith afterward. Azakaylith would continue to rely on Zachi-el as an advisor in matters of concerning the remnants of the Serpent Legion and military matters. Azakaylith regrets that he cannot offer a similiar salvation for Zachi-el, but tries to provide for him all the same. 

After his surrender to Kel Rayma's enemies and learning the true scope of the war and it's consequences, Zachi-el swore bloody vengeance on Kel Rayma for what he had to all the legionaires. He was especially incensed after finding a hidden fortress that housed many prospective legionaires too young to possibly fight. They were all executed as unneeded assets that would only complicate Kel Rayma's next steps. Zachi-el screamed and raged when he found their bodies in the fortress and decided that Kel Rayma was an even bigger monster than himself that needed to die.

Family Ties

Zachi-el never knew his parents and was raised believing that they didn't want him so badly, they never even named him.

Speech

Zachi-el does not mince words, unless he needs to.

Current Location

The Northern Half

Species

Human

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Zachi-el, Lacerator, Dire Captain of Aaral Duraz

Sex

Male

Eyes

Formerly grey, replaced with artificial blue eyes

Quotes & Catchphrases

"There's nowhere else I belong. Killing is the only thing I can do."