Personality

Zidane is a soft spoken, gentle individual who's quite introverted, quiet and cautious. He's a little self-conscious and worried about the unknown circumstances which brought him back to life but his concerns he hides under a facade of calmness. Don't let this facade misguide you however, for still waters often run deep and in the case of Zidane it comes from his gut. The elf relies heavily on his intuition and sixth sense to solve problems and overcome obstacles. What he lacks in knowledge he makes up with his strong emotional intelligence but on occasion such a strength can become his weakness too. He's emotionally driven and often overthinks, which further leads to feelings of intense anxiety, including his claustrophobia being a common trigger for his anxiety. Being stuck inside a sarcophagus for several weeks alone in darkness will do that to a guy.

But he’s not limited to paralyzing effects of fear when he’s anxious. When he’s overwhelmed he sometimes experiences physical outbursts: punching, throwing, kicking and the like. He dislikes this part of himself and tries his best to keep it in control since on a very rare occasion it may trigger an ancient curse he’s under, the wrath of his people that was locked inside his soul and seeks any opportunity to break free. He feels intense guilt about it since he does not want to be a vessel for unpredictable distribution of destruction.



To soothe himself and calm down he uses several activities to occupy himself with as a distraction such as: reading books, observing bugs and lizards, gardening and, surprisingly enough, sun bathing. Despite having a weakness to sunlight as a dark elf Zidane is actually quite fond of the warmth that sunlight provides, it’s comforting and even oddly sacred to him.

Backstory

Zidane comes from an ancient, advanced civilization of dark elves that is said to have collapsed and its inhabitants, supposedly, died out. The history of it is lost to time and nobody knows if the reason for it’s collapse was a natural disaster, a battle between gods or a war on the surface. Therefore, the exact reason of Zidane’s death is also uncertain.

For hundreds of years he layed in the tomb of buried soldiers and mages until archeologists opened it up, seeking for what is left of the Underdark history. As soon as that tomb was opened, Zidane woke up. Due to how old the building was, the ceiling above his sarcophagus partially fell in and he couldn’t get out for several weeks. Eventually one night, he managed to break out and he left the dusty crypt behind, unaware that he entered into a much different world than it used to be. However, as much as he would want to, he can’t remember anything of his old world and so is not fully able to compare.



Following his instinct, he wanders the world and settles in a coastal trade town. Communicating was quite hard to figure out since he needed to learn a completely foreign new language that was common among people in this new world. He did odd jobs, most of them involved transportation, brute strength, those that didn't involve much explanation or talking. Most times his accommodations were taverns until he eventually stumbled upon a library. It’s owner has been years gone and nobody cared to do any upkeep in the library. Something spoke to him in that library and Zidane decided to stay. He was lucky to find dusty dictionaries translated from his mother language to the local language, thanks to that he was able to properly learn to speak. Ever since, he’s been running the library and anticipating for an opportunity to seek more knowledge about himself and his own people. He holds unto a strong belief that he can’t be the last surviving dark elf in the world, there must be more. Not all is lost while he’s… as alive as the definition allows.