Ziel

Ziel of the Wasteland
General information
Path	Path of the Dawn Oath
Rank	Damaged Archlord
Faction	Northstrider Dawnwing Sect Wasteland
First Appearance	Ghostwater
Family

Ziel of the Wasteland was born on the Iceflower Continent, where he was a rising young genius in sacred arts, especially scripting. He quickly advanced to Archlord and became Master of the Dawnwing Sect. He is brilliant with scripts. Some years before the Cradle series begins, Stormcaller Cultists kill his disciples and viciously injure him, reducing his power to Underlord. His challenge in the series is to regain his mangled spirit and restore his motivation. The first book to showcase him is Ghostwater, book 5.

Affiliations

"One of the youngest Archlords ever,
an elite among elites, reduced to
the level of a mere Underlord.”

-Uncrowned, ch 14

Before he was viciously injured, Ziel was affiliated with the Dawnwing Sect on the Iceflower Continent, his birthplace. Within the series, he is Ziel of the Wasteland, under the Beast King's protection in the Wastelands, on the border of the Blackflame Empire — Ziel sought the Beast King for healing. Beginning with book 5, Ghostwater, he develops a reluctant friendship with Wei Shi Lindon Arelius and company. He is also affiliated with Northstrider, who heard of him through the Beast King and invited him to compete in the Uncrowned Competition. (Uncrowned, ch 14). Eventually he signs a contract with Eithan Arelius for one year, in exchange for Eithan’s healing services, which includes going to Sacred Valley in Akura Territory to evacuate people before the Dreadgod arrives.

“I present to you Ziel of the Wastelands, chosen of Northstrider, Uncrowned of the Uncrowned King tournament, former leader of the Dawnwing Sect, and representative of the Akura clan and the Sage of Twin Stars. Let his words be as the voice of heaven to you.” Ziel groaned as he realized she was going to make him speak. He was not needed for this. She could tell them all about the Dreadgod, and only if they resisted would he need to strongarm them into listening. But he was here now. He might as well do what he could. (Bloodline, ch 9)

Appearance

Ziel is 35 years old (in book 7, Uncrowned), but he looks only 18, having had his Archlord body re-forged in soulfire thrice. He always feels weary, due to his mutilated spirit. He has bloodshot, half-lidded eyes and a weary expression. Ziel wears a dusty grey cloak with a faded indistinguishable emblem — maybe a lotus flower or a web. He has shoulder-length, slightly curly, shaggy black hair.
For his goldsign, Ziel has two upward-curving emerald green horns. They’re luminous green at the base and they run up the gradient to the points, which are dark green. “His Goldsign was so condensed as to look completely real.”
Ziel carries a powerful two-handed warhammer. It’s often kept in his void space. Because of his weakened state he has to drag it around: its haft is as long as he is tall, its head the width of his body.

His Injury

Years before the series began, one of the Dreadgods, the Weeping Dragon, passed over Ziel’s location on Iceflower. Soon afterwards, Ziel and his Dawnwing Sect disciples were attacked by the Dreadgod’s followers, the Stormcallers. Ziel fought and lost to the Stormcaller Sage. His soul was deliberately torn apart and stitched together wrong, leaving him to helplessly watch all his students die. He was near death and weakened to the level of a Truegold or an Underlord. (While there is usually a clear distinction between the two, Ziel has qualified for both the Ghostwater (Pocket World) visit and the Uncrowned King Tournament — twice — so his power level is unclear). He has been seeking healing ever since the Sage mangled his spirit. He’d also like revenge for his dead disciples and himself.

His Restoration

He just wanted his own spirit to stop hurting.

-Wintersteel ch 14

After he was injured, Ziel went to the Beast King of the Wastelands for healing. The treatment helped alleviate the pain a little. Later, at the time of the Uncrowned King Tournament, Monarch Emriss Silentborn gave Ziel a healing elixir, which also helped. Finally, in exchange for one year of service, Eithan Arelius offered Ziel a way to restore his splintered spirit. Ziel accepted the bargain and Eithan treated him several times with rare elixirs and a restoration technique using lightning madra — the Pure Storm Baptism, created by Tiberian Arelius. With this treatment, healing occurs when Ziel sleeps with sparks of lightning madra playing through his spirit and over his body. This is logical, because it was lightning the Stormcaller’s Sage used to rip his spirit to shreds. (See books 8-10).

Pure Storm Baptism — A Lightning-Based Treatment

Tiberian Arelius had been known for his spiritual attacks, and in fact
the Sage of Calling Storms had abused some of the Arelius Monarch’s
research to damage Ziel’s soul in the first place.

-Wintersteel ch 14

Finally in Reaper, book 10, Ziel seems to have almost gotten completely back onto his feet. Eithan — who isn’t just Eithan anymore — tells him he’s a strong candidate for advancing to Sage.

His Path

Ziel’s goldsign is two green horns on his head. He is on the Path of the Dawn Oath. Its the Path used by brilliant soulsmiths and scriptors.
The Path of the Dawn Oath has only two techniques, but the Oathsign technique is endlessly versatile. It involves Forging runes out of madra so they float in rings in midair, effectively creating scripts that have one of many different effects. The strength of the Path is its flexibility, the weakness is the precision and years of training that it required to master.

Two Main Techniques:

1. Oathsign: the name of their scripting techniques in combat technique (his cornerstone technique)
2. Stone Anchor: enforcer technique that binds the user to the ground and make them solid as a boulder.

Excerpt: “The Path of the Dawn Oath had only two techniques, and Ziel used them both. The Stone Anchor, his full-body Enforcer technique, ran through him like iron bars reinforcing his skeleton. It bound him to the ground, so that with stable footing he could stand as though nailed in place. But the cornerstone of his Path was the Oathsign technique. He Forged eleven green, shining runes in a circle that hung in the air in front of him. This circle hardened force aura into a solid barrier that stopped physical impacts.” (Wintersteel)

A genius with scripts, he can forge runes on the fly that magnify his strength, act as platforms, boost his war-hammer, and he can create many different boundary fields among other things. He can maintain several scripts simultaneously, as he did in Sacred Valley to protect the Kazan clan from bloodspawn in the wake of The Bleeding Phoenix (see book 9, Bloodline).

Experienced Sect Leader

Zeil was once Master of the Dawnwing Sect and has experience in guiding young sacred artists. For example, he offered a script tablet to help Linden, which might reflect elements of Ziel’s own Dawn Oath path. Excerpt: Ziel paced down the shelves until he found the tablet he wanted. The Script Lord, Archlord on the Path of Whispering Wind: the Creation of the Seven Principles. Ziel nodded to it. “For you. Try it.” —Ghostwater, book 5

A few years later, Ziel reluctantly found himself teaching young Coppers and Irons in Lindon's Twin Star Sect. See excerpt, Reaper:

Ziel. He kept trying to rest, but wherever he went, the Sect of Twin Stars found him. They always found him. Someone had given Ziel the title “Master of the Training Hall,” and any students who needed specialized training hunted him down. Ziel tried his best to scare them off, but he was prevented from outright refusing by the oath he’d made to Eithan in return for the Pure Storm Baptism. The sect quickly figured out that he didn’t mean all the harsh things he said, and that became part of his charm. Pretty soon they sought his advice on everything from scripting to advancement to technique training to roommate squabbles. (Reaper)