Born to a unique warrior race Zanths, nomads, with no known land of heritage. The Zanths are led by a single family, selected many centuries ago when the Second Lord Harkinian was deemed to be the strongest and therefore the most worthy to replace the late First Lord of the Zanths. The selection was made through a “Trial by Combat” following the death of the First Lord to illness. Zanths earn respect and status through displays of strength, skill and power so a “Trail by Combat” was deemed as the most suitable method to deduce which Zanth was best suited to the position of leader. Harkinian’s exceptional skills in combat were attributed to his peculiar visual prowess, a Dōjutsu never before seen by the Zanth race, that later came to be worshipped by them due to the immense power it had bestowed upon its wielder. The nature of its power earned it the nickname the “Eye of Truth” and a depiction of it was eventually used to form the Zanth crest.
“Eye of Truth Sigil”
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Following Harkinian’s passing, the Zanths continued to be ruled by Harkinian’s descendants, his bloodline considered completely pure, produced the finest combatants the race had ever seen. The latest in the long line of descent, a set of twins, a girl and a boy, Aella and her brother Kaze had proven to be quite the prodigies, even amongst their many exceptional progenitors. Mastering their races art forms and being capable of performing them to a standard that many veterans would struggle to attain by the end of their active lifetime. They were seen by the entire race as the crowning jewels of the Zanths, both considered suitable candidates to be the next to lead the race. Their outstanding natural abilities and aptitude for the races arts were revered by all before they had even began their formal training. As a result of this however, the two children, forced by the expectations of their people and family, were put under immense pressure to try and bring out one siblings power over the other in order to determine which of the two would become the latest Lord or Lady of the Zanths. In most cases of monarchy, the oldest of two twins would be the one to take over leadership, however in the case of Zanths, leadership has always been delegated to the strongest candidate. As a result of this, the twins were separated at the age of six and trained independently of one another in the hopes that one of the children’s skills and power would eventually surpass that of the other sibling. Even by their races standards The two’s childhoods were isolated and their training considered brutal and harrowing to say the least.
The men and women of the Zanths are trained to fight as equals from from a very young age, the training is rigorous and consumes the majority of a child’s life from the age of six through to their twenty first birthday. They master the art of stealth and partake in extensive combat training, mastering many forms of weaponry during this time. By the end of their training they are awarded with one of two titles “Warrior” or “Assassin”. Warriors are strong members of the race that perform exceptionally well in frontal attacks and combat due to their brute strength and resilience, they are taught to embrace fear, pain does not phase them and have been likened to monsters on the battlefield, an unstoppable force. Assassins on the other hand are better suited to stealthily acts, graceful with almost dance like actions specialising in silent kills, they blend into shadows and somehow can remain completely unseen while hiding in plain site, they have the ability to conceal a weapon in its entirety on their person, undetectable even when searched, it is said that there isn’t a single person that has ever survived an encounter with a Zanth Assassin, they are renowned for their lethality.
The head family is the only exception to the rule. The members are trained to be elite in both the Warrior and Assassin fields and are awarded the title of “Abyss Walkers” encompassing both the power of a Warrior and the dexterity of an Assassin their abilities are unparalleled in both fields. Both Aella and Kaze were forced, day after day to train for many long gruesome hours. Training only stopped briefly to eat and for five and a half hours of sleep, they’d be beaten horrendously as punishment if they tried to rest outside of this time no matter how battered and broken their bodies became during the grim training regime as unscheduled rest was time spent not training and that was deemed unacceptable. Continuously made to fight opponents that far surpassed their own abilities in order to try to bring out the best of their individual skills. The two children spent almost the entirety of their time growing up suffering humiliating defeats, most of which were spectated which further exacerbated the embarrassment. They would often gain severe injuries during this training process that they had to learn to deal with despite the pain inflicted, they were taught as per their people’s customs, to fight, no matter the injury, if there was breath within their bodies, they were expected to continue. Both Kaze and Aella wanted nothing more than to be like other children, to have that bond that normal siblings shared, those children’s lives seemed so much simpler than their own. As Aella grew older, rather than grow accustomed to her life as it was she began to struggle with its concept even more. The more she thought about the regimented and gruelling way in which she was being made to live her life, the more she began to resent her position and with it her people. Why had she and her brother been chosen? Their people had put them both in this situation, forced to compete with each other, to outdo one another in order to find the next leader for their race, this, coupled with the pressure to live up the to the people’s expectations of Harkinian’s bloodline had forced her family into this predicament. She eventually grew to hate them all for this fact, the people, her family, the mentors, a hate that began to twist her ideals, and so began the decay of Aella’s mind.
In order to deal with the constant unbearable pressure, the continual pain humiliation and isolation, Aella's mind began to alter to protect itself. She became her own friend to combat her loneliness, sometimes she would spend her entire five and a half hour time slot in which she was supposed to be sleeping talking to herself, her only form of social interaction she preferred conversations with herself over the barrage of strict instruction and scrutiny that she was constantly under from her mentors and the spectators. In order to gain some form of positivity and enjoyment from her situation, her mind began to take pain and turn it into pleasure, her own minds attempt to combat the darkness that was consuming it, she became deranged. On the inside her mind had warped, she slowly lost the ability to express feelings, but this soon grew into an inability to feel any emotion at all. Nobody within her race knew of this, as this side of her was kept hidden away behind the analytical killing machine that they had created. By the time of her twenty first birthday, Aella had surpassed all expectations, surpassed every milestone, and broken every limit that had been set within her society, but so had her brother. Despite the people’s attempt to differentiate between the twins by individual means of training, the twins had accomplished the unthinkable. Their skills were deemed truly parallel to none amongst the race, but, this being the case, how would the Zanths decide on a leader now?
Aella and Kaze’s twenty first birthday, in which, as per Zanth custom their Name Day Ceremony was to take place. A Zanths Name Day Ceremony is when a Zanth completes their training and has their title of Warrior or Assassin bestowed upon them or in the case of the head family their title encompassing all Zanth arts of Abyss Walker. This day is deemed the most important day of a Zanths life as it marks and recognises the end of a Zanths training and the beginning of their service to the Zanth race. For Aella and Kaze however their Name Day Ceremony was not to be the usual joyous occasion in which it was supposed to be. A decision had been made. It was decided that upon the twins twenty first birthday, before they were awarded their titles they were to compete in a “Trail by Combat”. A custom used long ago in the appointment of the Second Lord of the Zanths. The twins were to fight to the death.
The day arrived and preparations were being made, ready for what was to be one of the races most historic events.The two candidates were sent for, to be bought down to the arena in which the siblings were to fight, but there was a problem.
Aella was gone. Left without a trace. She used her races own stealth arts against them to transform herself, concealing her identity from all, masking her iconic long blonde hair and covering her face. She fled. leaving behind her brother and only asset, her name. Despite her deranged mentality she yearned for a bond with her brother, she couldn’t bring herself to fight him, so she ran in order to save them both. Becoming nameless she adopted the nickname given to her peoples race as an alias. From this day forth she would be known as,
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