#zorian kazinski

[spacefairynayu]

Your Zorian takes are extremely good

Love me some witch zorian

Witch Zorian lives rent free in my head and I hope he never leaves.

I am obsessed with the fact that, on paper, Zorian is perfectly set up to become a villian but falls ass backwards into being a deuteragonist with a classical hero and ends up being the one to both save the world and the hero.

[readsquirrel]

Post series Mother of Learning Zorian is the kind of normal-looking teenage boy who looks so precisely normal that it starts to be uncanny. He’s the kind of exacting facsimile that doesn’t give purchase to suspicion, that in itself becoming unsettling. A little prickly, a little friendly, and somehow always knowing what you’re about to say before you say it.

Imagine then, being one of his classmates, eating a polite and casual but somehow disquieting meal opposite this eerily average standup of a teenage boy. Then suddenly Zach, the charming rich slacker who as far as you know has only rarely interacted with Zorian up until summer break, wanders in. Casually, Zach tosses his arm around Zorian’s shoulders and uses his other hand to grab Zorian’s wrist, just below where he’s holding an apple with one bite out of it. Zach pulls whole hand up, and takes one bite of the apple, then a second. Then he releases Zorian’s wrist, looks up at you, his classmate, and winks before walking off.

Zorian continues eating his apple as if nothing happened.

That’s the kind of weird experiences the rest of their class is gonna have to deal with in the near term.

[mage-witha-glock]

Zach canonically thinks Zorian is scarier than him and believes most would see it so (He said this on the hill in Cyoria when first pulling Daimen into the loop.... so to speak. (the metaphorical loop))

Sure Zach is more in-your-face powerful but Zach thinks that Zorian is the one to truly fear, even fears Zorian a little himself. And I think this is why (based on what we see in the books, especially in his pov chapter)

Reason no.1: His artifice. Zorian makes golems that are seen as the pinnacle of golem-making by government officials and Quatach-Ichl himself. Mrva is nigh indestructable and can walk through reality warping attacks. His defense cubes make him practically untouchable. He created a wraith well, by studying soul wells and by mind-raping Sudomir. He even managed to magically upgrade bullets. Zach is canonically very impressed with this, and Zorian admits that he's flattered that Zach thought that he could kill Quatach-Ichl through the use of artifice and cunning.

Reason no.2: His mind magic. Of course, this. This is Zorian's speciality and his range is... unnnerving. There is practically no mind magic that he cannot do. He is equal to many aranean matriarchs and was able to beat Quatach-Ichl in a 1v1. It's Zach that suggests that Zorian could win a 1v1 mind battle with Quatach-Ichl, and he fully believed that Zorian would be capable of creating fake minds. Which again, probably flattered Zorian, although he admits himself that he couldn't do it, not even once.

Reason no.3: The scope of his abilities. Not in the sense of variety, although that too. It's more that Zach doesn't know where Zorian's limit is. He was convinced that Zorian is able to defeat Quatach-Ichl (and was proven correct), he believed that Zorian was able to kill the lich. He even believed that Zorian could create a convincing fake mind. He was proven right that Zorian could tamper with his head even under mind blank, which was one of Zach's first thoughts in the fake world, but even Zorian admits that fake minds are impossible. Zach was fairly confident that Zorian could produce a couple or more fake minds ("the guy was just that scary").

Reason no.4: His pragmatism, in combat and otherwise. Zorian cut Sudomir's arms off, he has little to no qualms with the darker side of magic. Zach is slightly unnerved by this, especially Zorian's willingness to do blood magic.

And of course, reason no.5: His intelligence. Zorian is probably (definitely) the smartest guy Zach knows. Zach knows that Zorian is quick on his feet and intelligent, when he found out that Zorian bypassed mind blank, this admiration of his friend's intelligence probably (grudgingly) multiplied by tenfold. No one has managed a spell like the manifold resonance(? Name?) yet. And it's implications are terrifying.

Not only does Zach think others would find Zorian scarier, he himself is a little afraid of Zorian. He even says this early on in the story. And that speaks volumes.

[dantegotitwrong]

theres a scene in mother of learning, the first time we see zorian's simulacrum spell in action, when

The simulacrum frowned, a little annoyed at the response. He didn’t answer with words. Instead he forced a connection to Zorian’s mind and blasted him with a few choice memories. The nerve-wracking wait before the platform’s descent. The terrifying sight of the grey hunter jumping out of the cave and seemingly towards him. The feeling of frustration and powerlessness as he watched the battle without being able to meaningfully contribute anything. Zorian gasped and took a step back, caught off-guard by this sudden pseudo-attack, and gave him a shocked look. “Very different,” the simulacrum said, and then deliberately collapsed his own ectoplasmic body and dissolved into smoke. His job was done, anyway.

and this is pretty good look at zorian's character and how he thinks about his purpose. he just deleted himself because a) he wanted to prove a (somewhat petty) point, and b) felt his "job" was done. so that was it - spite and duty were the only things keeping him around.

[merdochk]

and if you wanna cry, make sure that they never see it

or even better yet, block it out and never feel it

zorian as a preview of my fav song - boys will be bugs by cavetown. this song means a lot to me, and i think it’s so relatable for zorian :(

[braininatankwithalaptop]

My headcannon for how Zorian approaches problems post-timeloop

[inthefightgarden]

so umm i just finished mother of learning in like 5 days, and my brain is now full of wriggling squiggling worms. i'm also just starting a re-read with the audiobook and it is already giving me even more questions and ideas! so here i am to share my wormy burden ^_^

anyway, here's something chapter 1 started me thinking about...

do you think zorian's mother knows about their bloodline? (also her name is cikan. i had to look it up, so saying it here incase anyone else needed reminding)

we know that cikan really hated being associated with zorian's grandmother, but she was still immersed in witch culture at least somewhat in her home life. we don't really know how old she was when she first started to reject those practices, so it's hard to judge how much she would have learned before she went out of her way to avoid it, and we also just don't have enough context about the witches' traditions for raising their kids to make guesses about her knowlege level.

we do see later on in the series (what comes to mind is the confrontation in koth) that cikan doesn't have much knowlege about magic as zorian knows it (eg. what you can expect from certain spells used for travel), but given that the witches are an separate spellcasting tradition from the ikosians that doesn't necessarily tell us loads about what she might have picked up from her mother.

also, knowing you have a bloodline is pretty important information to have, so even with the antagonism you'd think zorian's grandmother would've at least made sure cikan knew about that... if SHE knew, anyway, cause that's also not something we can really take for granted is it? there are a few ways i can picture it being

option 1. most of what we see in the series is not typical from an empathy bloodline. archmage zorian is an outlier and should not be counted. and even daimen, the more "normal" natural mind mage is still a whole magical prodigy, which isn't exactly baseline for most people with empathy either. so yeah... zorian's grandmother may not have known that she had a empathy in her family in the first place.

option 2. we do hear (i don't remember when or who from. maybe one of the teachers? was it ilsa? idk) that empathy is a pretty common form of natural magical ability, and it's kind of a mild plot twist that it's a bloodline thing if i remember correctly. so even if zorian's grandmother knew about an empath in her family history she might not have known that meant it could pass down.

option 3. part of the reason in world that empathy isn't usually thought of as a bloodline thing (again, if i'm remembering right) is because it's so comparatively common, so it's entirely possible that empathy bloodlines (and possibly to a lesser extent bloodlines in general) are just quite common for witches to the extent that it's not really something that needs to be said explicitly, or at least wouldn't have been if cikan hadn't done so much to assimilate with the dominant culture and distance herself from witch tradition and knowlege

BUT, those options are thinking about the reasons cikan might NOT know about their bloodline... so again, does she know? even if she doesn't think of it as a bloodline she might be aware that her family has a history of empathy. so now for some thoughts on what the situation might be if she IS aware of the family history.

(note. i'm pretty damn sure cikan herself isn't an empath. zorian would be able to tell if she was "open", and she just doesn't have that understanding of how other people feel. but if you think otherwise, or just want to think about a "what if", i'd love to hear about it ^-^)

(oh and same goes for kiri and fortov)

cikan might know that there's a family history, but not really know what that means in practise. as i mentioned earlier she doesn't seem very knowlegable on magic, so she might not have any clue about the signs and how it typically presents.

she also might be in denial about the possibility that her kids inherited something like that from her, given what we've seen of how she thinks about her heritage. or she might have focused any concern about the possibility onto kirielle, who seems to be where much of her trauma goes, and not considered that the boys might get it. especially considering the witches' beliefs about sex and magical lineage.

but she also might know or suspect that zorian and/or daimen is an empath. which if nothing else is certainly the option with the most potential drama.

personally, i doubt she knows that daimen is an empath. he put a lot of work into hiding it, and i feel like it would probably affect how he sees him. given how much baggage she has about her witch heritage i just can't see that knowlege not somewhat tainting her golden boy, you know? like i know she's fine with him being a mage and really proud of his prodigy status, but i just can't envision her seeing empathy the same way, and i think it would come through in a slightly colder attitude to daimen. especially given the cultural stigma against mind magic when she's worked so hard to become socially acceptable.

but i'm just not sure whether she knows about zorian or not! on the one hand i could totally see her just being oblivious, in denial, not having the right context, whatever, but I can also kind of see the way she treats him (specifically in relation to him socialising and stuff), through the lense of knowing he's an empath.

like he straight up told her as a child that crowds caused him physical pain. he had tp stop going to church because it made him actually pass out! that is some pretty intense stuff to just ignore... we're never told that he saw a doctor or anything about this via his parents (as far as i remember, please let me know if i'm missimg something!) so did she have some idea about what was going on or was it just plain neglect?

and if she did have some understanding of the situation, how did that affect her behaviour? did she think if she ignored it he'd just adjust and never find out? did she just not want it to be associated with her family history if/when he did find out? did she think that if she forced him into triggering situations he'd eventually realise? or that he'd learn to control it subconciously? or did it just not matter how he felt as long as he was still functional when it came to his political use? did she hide it more out of personal shame, or a legitimate conviction that she was protecting him like with kiri?

like i said, i'm not sure what my headcannon is, but the topic fascinates me. as you can probably tell from how long and rambly this got. sorry ^_^'

but yeah, i'd love to hear what other people think!

[couldtheycatchkira]

[ttobi-aakira]

The fact Tavian is a popular jock type and then it's revealed she has absolutely no friends will never not be funny to me. She has the swagger of a much kinder woman

[balbeska]

🌬🌬

[theshadytree123]

You know, sometimes I think about what a time-travel fix-it of Mother of Learning would look like. Maybe the angels figure out Zach and Zorian had cheated the contact and ends up killing one or both of them as punishment. Maybe something goes wrong and Zorian actually ends up dying so his BFF/love-of-his-life could live.

Would it make a lot of plot points and growth these characters have had weird and sort of shallow? Probably.

Would I still laugh my *ss off as I watch one or both of them wake up and lose their f*cking minds as they realize they’re stuck in a time loop again? Absolutely.

[spacefairynayu]

I can’t stop thinking about how Zorian is of mixed ethnicity and how that adds so many unexplored layers to his befriending of the indigenous minorities within Eldemar(ie. a morlock, shapeshifters, the aranea) AND layers to his mother’s rejection of her heritage.

Especially to his mother’s rejection of her heritage.

Witches are explicitly indigenous to Altazia, and yes part of the negative perception of them comes from the fact that many witches have done terrible things, but the villager’s treatment of Cikan and her mother also easily parallels plain racism. Cikan’s reaction to this being to completely abandon her heritage screams of a choice to assimilate into the majority culture to avoid discrimination. Her insistence on raising Kirielle as ‘the perfect lady’ by Eldemar’s standards is an almost obsessive attempt to erase any trace of her ethnic background and present both Kirielle and herself as ‘proper’ Eldemarian/Ikosian women. She says she’s doing it for Kirielle’s sake, and partially it is(albeit while heavily projecting), but it’s mostly to reinforce the family’s image, her image, as 100% Eldemarian/Ikosian.

Not to imply that abandoning one culture to embrace another is inherently a bad thing, Cikan is very clearly happier living as an Ikosian woman than an Altazian one. This probably was the correct decision for her. The problem is that she is taking the choice to embrace or reject their heritage away from her children(as well as doing the exact same thing that she hated her mother for, attempting to force a certain way of living onto them that made them miserable).

And then there’s Zorian. The Kazinski child who resembles a witch the most. He’s anti-social and withdrawn, he fiercely holds on to grudges and memories of every slight(and holds to memories of kindness just as tightly), he parleys with non-humans and ‘undesirables’, and to top it all off he inherited the bloodline ability that his witch ancestors cultivated and passed down to a degree that likely hasn’t been seen in generations.

Zorian embodies everything that Cikan has tried to erase from their family history. He’s a walking symbol of their Altazian ancestry.

All this to say that I feel it was a massive waste for Nobody to not explore Zorian’s heritage, his relation to it, and his family’s relation to it, as well as how that in turn affects his relation to/perception of Eldemar and it’s politics.

[cal-cium-the-nerd]

Ibery, about Fortov: I can fix him

Zorian: No, you really can't

[mage-witha-glock]

You know what just hit me? The Zach Noveda and Percy Jackson parallels

Both of them are really smart, but people see them as dumb

(Also it's their respective best friends that acknowledge their intelligence the most)

Their best friends (Annabeth/Zorian) are the brain and they are the brawn, but they have plenty of brain themselves

They are both easy going and laidback but god forbid you piss them off

Can hold a grudge, especially against a person that has betrayed them

Pretty overpowered

Really adaptable in a fight, but also in general

Can solo big monsters

Have a big pet that is a monster (Mrs O'Leary/Princess)

They are both quite impulsive

Are both one man armies

They are both described as really attractive and charismatic

[dantegotitwrong]

Zorian assured him that he had no intention of spreading this around, picked up the stack of books and papers the man had given him and then left. Instead of exiting the academy immediately, though, he took the extended route that saw him passing next to the headmaster’s office a couple of times. It turned out that, yes, all approaches to the headmaster’s office had cephalic rats lurking in the walls. It seemed that Zenomir’s theory was very much correct. Well. That was one mystery solved! It had been a while since he had solved one of those without raising at least one new question in return. Somehow, it made him feel like he was finally getting close to a solution for all this.

this kid is so starved for hope

[merdochk]

i was playing in valorant and my friend said ”zorian should have sheriff like yours”