fuukuii-blog

[fuukuii-blog]

Man should fight for the joy of it. To live, to eat, to breed—lesser beasts snap and howl at one another for this. Only man has the wisdom and the clarity to embrace violence for its own sake. For we who are born into this merciless, meaningless world, have but one candle of life to burn.

Let us embrace violence together!

Give me something to remember!

I have no interest in beasts who only howl.

It is a delicate dance...

Are you worthy of my blade?

I pray this battle doesn't disappoint me.

I tower above the gods!

What an unexpectedly exciting hunt.

Truly an exhilarating battle...!

The hunter has indeed become the hunted.

You will entertain me.

May we meet again.

You have promise.

Forgive me.

Very well.

I do not take orders.

I must prepare for the hunt.

My hunt takes me elsewhere.

Our hunt continues.

I have a plan.

Show me a spectacle.

'Twas a marvelous dance.

It seems I underestimated you.

I won't do it again.

That one is mine.

I will dispense with your prey.

I tire of this rabble.

Let the hunt begin.

I will withdraw for now.

Something has changed...

Patience is paramount.

I am ready.

Pathetic...

I've changed my mind.

The time is now.

Shall we finish off our prey?

So this is what it feels like to be the prey...!

Reclaim your honor.

Mayhap I shall test my blade.

Follow my lead.

Come!

Away!

I am loathe to expend effort on the unworthy. Come earn the honor.

Finally you prove yourself worthy prey for the hunt!

Only man has the wisdom and clarity to embrace violence for its own sake.

Before the Resonant the gods shall be made to kneel!

Oh... My. Have I said too much?

Together, we could while away the quiet hours, as friend and confidant... if you would accept me.

Come. 'Twas plain from the first how this would end.

This battle shall echo in eternity!

There is only joy. Transcendent joy that I have never known.

It fills you even now, doesn't it? The hunger. To bite down on my jugular, to feel the warmth fill your mouth and run over even as you drink deep. Good, good! This is the beast I have longed to face!

That I should lose again... How disappointing. Never have I understood those around me. Understood their obsessions. Besieged by their banality, the world was a mire of tedium and trivialities. But in these fleeting moments, there is...a spark. Blinding, brilliant... Gone...too soon... What of you, my mirror? Born into this world, bestowed name, bid to seek out strife and adventure... Was this life a gift...or a burden? Did you find...fulfillment? I...

You mean to return. To the world, where you are hailed as a hero. Hear me then. Not as a hero, but as simply… you. As I learned in Ala Mhigo, you are a formidable foe. Stronger than any I have ever faced. Against you, I need bring my all to bear. I need burn through the candle of my life. This is the sole pleasure I know, and it is the sole pleasure I have to share. And so I come before you. To issue challenge and offer singular bliss. If you wish to walk away, I will not stop you. You value life. You do not burn yours save for reasons you deem worthy. Reasons such as those which brought you here. The salvation of a world and its people. The motives of a hero true. But there is more to you than that. You know this to be true. As surely as you know the thrill of pushing your body and soul to their limits. Of confronting ever-mightier foes, dancing ever closer to the precipice wondering if this will be the one to finally, finally… fill the void. Such pleasures, you seek for their own sake, and no other reason. Is this not so… adventurer?

Would you be "happier" had I a "good reason"? If my motives met with your approval, would you no longer resent the outcome? If so, then perhaps a beast's skin would suit you better.

The gods themselves will be my meal. Your dear companions my dessert. Upon this world I'll feast, and death shall follow in my wake. All your hate, all your rage, you will render unto me.

While I await you, I shall drink a sea of souls and gorge myself upon the darkened moon. Then you shall come to me, all roiling rage and rancor... And the stars shall bear witness to our final contest.

It has been too, too long, my friend...and insufferably dull in your absence. When you return to me, you will share everything. Every blow will be a story unto itself. Every triumph. Every kill. Rest assured we shall have a fitting stage for our reunion. Oh, yes. To reprise that transcendent moment, I will set this world ablaze. And we shall dance before the pyre.

Meaningless? Men die that others may live. Those who survive are stronger for it. Not that you could ever understand. To have stood upon this great stage of fools...to have played my part to perfection... Oh, this...this moment...let it be enshrined in eternity. My heart...beating out of time... So clear, so vivid, so real... So real. Farewell, my first friend. My enemy.

[fuukuii-blog]

Zenos was born to imperial crown prince Varis yae Galvus and his wife Carosa wir Galvus. He is the great-grandson of Emperor Solus zos Galvus, as well as great-nephew of Titus, and first cousin once removed of Nerva.

Zenos was brought up being taught all that an imperial heir was expected to learn, including book studies with tutors as well as combat. He spent little time with his father, Varis yae Galvus, and his mother Carosa sickened and died shortly after he was born. Varis and Zenos often went months without seeing each another, and to the youth his tutors and servants were little more than automatons. A bright but joyless child, he had little time or inclination for innocence or playfulness.

An Ilsabardan swordsman tutored Zenos as part of his education, from whom he learned the Unyielding Blade technique. The swordsman actually sought the life of Zenos's father, as his family was being held hostage to ensure he would train Zenos. The swordsman attempted to kill the boy, when Zenos—using the Unyielding Blade technique along with a crystal to force himself to release aether to properly employ it—bested him and killed the man. This experience left Zenos bleak, wishing for someone worthy of his mettle to come into his life.

Zenos was the Legatus of the XIIth Imperial Legion. Zenos is callous and bloodthirsty, and relishes in the thrill of battle, both striving to become as strong as possible and to find a rival who can match his prowess.

After Gaius's "demise" at the Praetorium, Zenos was named viceroy of Ala Mhigo. He named his spy, Yotsuyu, as Doma's acting viceroy so that her hatred towards her own people could break them. Zenos learned of the Echo from Gaius's reports, and recruited Aulus mal Asina due to being intrigued by his theories of a means for Garleans to use magick like the other races. During the (decoy) Griffin's speech to Ala Mhigan refugees at the Sunken Temple of Qarn, the firebrand described Zenos as "a beast not a fraction as merciful" as Gaius.

A footsoldier approached the viceroy on his throne in Ala Mhigo, informing that Baelsar's Wall had fallen to the Eorzean Alliance, asking whether they should divert some men to repairing the damage from the battle between Shinryu and Omega. The soldier retreated in fear when Zenos failed to reply.

After being welcomed to Ala Mhigo Castle with the Garlean anthem played in his honor, Zenos learned of Grynewaht pyr Arvina's failure, which had led to losing a new series of Magitek automatons in an ambush orchestrated by Raubahn Aldynn and the Ala Mhigan Resistance. Zenos requested Grynewaht's removal from his legion for cowardice and executed Grynewaht's commanding officer for his incompetence. He listened to the plan Fordola rem Lupis formulated to bypass the barriers concealing Rhalgr's Reach and slaughter the rebels. Zenos oversaw the attack, overpowering Lyse Hext, critically wounding Y'shtola Rhul, and defeating the Warrior of Light with ease. Losing one of his swords while defeating the Warrior, Zenos left disappointed in his opponent as the Alliance arrived to aid the rebels.

Word reached Zenos of the Confederacy's attack on Isari. He traveled to Doma Castle and received the Kojin sword, Ame-no-Habakiri, which Yotsuyu had taken from the Red Kojin she had killed for abandoning their posts when they were needed in Isari. Zenos used the blade to overpower the Warrior of Light and Yugiri Mistwalker when they attempted to assassinate him. Zenos discarded his helmet upon finding it damaged by the Warrior. Sparing the Warrior in hopes of a more pleasurable fight in the future, Zenos took his leave after the amassed Namai villages, Alisaie Leveilleur, and Gosetsu Everfall stopped him from killing Yugiri. Threatening Yotsuyu to not fail him again in subduing the rebels, Zenos returned to Ala Mhigo where he acquired Shinryu to ready himself for another battle with the Warrior of Light.

When news reached Zenos of Doma's liberation, he killed the messenger while musing over his next fight with the Warrior of Light. Fordola arrived with a captive Krile Maya Baldesion, and Zenos awarded her with one of his men's gunblades and sent her to Aulus. Following her loss of Castellum Velodyna (and unintentionally causing the summoning of the Ananta primal Lakshmi), Fordola expected to be executed for her failure. Zenos instead spared her when she admitted she desired to grow stronger, and had Aulus turn her into a Resonant, a Garlean supersoldier imbued with an artificial version of the Echo.

When the Scions of the Seventh Dawn stormed Castrum Abania, Fordola delivered Zenos's message for them to come to Ala Mhigo Castle for the "royal hunt" he had readied for them. When the Warrior of Light reached the Hall of the Griffin, Zenos engaged the hero. Excited that the Warrior had met his expectations, Zenos took the fight to the Royal Menagerie where he freed Shinryu and used his Resonant powers to take control of the primal by merging onto its chest. After an epic battle in the sky, Shinryu was defeated, and Zenos crashed into the menagerie. Elated over his defeat and of fulfilling the role he had been raised to play, Zenos used Ame-no-Habakiri to end his life.

In reality he used his resonant abilities to avoid death, trapped in an unfamiliar body.

Following the Warrior's victory over Emet-Selch in the First, the real Zenos arrived in the imperial palace in Garlemald, slaughtering his way to the throne room. He defeated Elidibus, much to the Ascian's surprise, and regained his own body, along with the truth about Zodiark and Hydaelyn being primals.

Zenos is arrogant, contemptuous, selfish, and callous. Having been raised as the heir apparent, he disregards the importance of human life. Drunk on power as the crown prince and viceroy of both Ala Mhigo and Doma, Zenos cares little for his job of governing the provinces. Since Zenos never found challenge in battle, he treats his conquered subjects as prey to hunt and partakes in battles for the thrill of the kill. His purpose in war is to collect swords. Alphinaud admits Zenos is a peerless warrior and an accomplished general, the crushing of the Doman rebellion standing as proof of that. What Zenos loathes most is an opponent who does not provide enough "sport" in battle or cowards who flee or otherwise do not participate in battle.

Though Zenos views enemy and ally alike with contempt, he acknowledges the uses and strengths of his servants and allies. This includes Yotsuyu goe Brutus's hatred for her people to break the natives of Doma, Aulus mal Asina's scientific theory that would give Garleans the means to wield magicks, Fordola rem Lupis's desire to uplift her people to be accepted by the Garleans and to achieve the power to make all those who mocked her pay, and Asahi sas Brutus's zealous devotion to him. Nonetheless, despite most of them being loyal, they are expendable to Zenos. He has little tolerance for incompetence and will execute subordinates for even the slightest display of perceived cowardice or failure—even a messenger who had nothing to do with Yotsuyu's failure—but will spare the lives of those he still has use for. Zenos later accepts the services of the rogue Ascian Fandaniel in his renewed effort to hunt the Warrior of Light down. While he finds the eccentric Ascian useful, Zenos appears disinterested in him, more so on his desire on restarting the Final Days.

Zenos searches for means to augment his body, which already surpasses human limit due to experimentation the Empire conducted on him. He defies Garlean doctrine and subdues the primal Shinryu for his own use, claiming to care little about his nation and its cowardly creeds regarding the eikons. After reclaiming his body from Elidibus and wounding his father, Zenos proclaims his disinterest in ruling the Empire: his only goal is to hunt down the Warrior of Light.

Zenos feels a connection for the Warrior of Light's progress. He calls them as both his first "friend" and his enemy. This shows another side of Zenos, one that is lonely and possibly fatalistic. Having felt little value in the world outside of drowning in the power bestowed upon him or the blood of his enemies, Zenos can find a kindred spirit in the one who can finally best him. His newly forged motivation to face the Warrior of Light drives him to remove all obstacles and distractions, his birthright of the throne being among them.

Zenos has expressed that ideals such as duty, honor, and morality are mere tools of convenience and that justice was but a means to an end, using the Empire's conquests as proof. He does not care about leading others, stating it's each individual's own responsibility to determine their purpose in life. Zenos has no qualms taking what he wants or hurting people to get it. Zenos is abusive.