Ziel. Path of the Dawn Oath practitioner. Former Archlord of the Dawnwing Sect, Iceflower Continent. Spirit damaged by the Sage of Calling Storms.
Goldsign: Green horns
Stage: Effective Truegold (damaged Archlord) Path: Path of the Dawn Oath (Force / Script) Goldsign: Green horns Faction: Beast King (current), Dawnwing Sect (former, destroyed) Weapon: Hammer
The former Lord of the Dawnwing Sect, once among the youngest Archlords in living memory. His spirit was mutilated by the Sage of Calling Storms after his sect’s destruction, reducing him to effective Truegold despite retaining an Archlord’s body and residual power. He can one-shot a Diamondscale Sea Drake with his hammer but cannot sustain combat before his techniques crackle and fail. The records note a consistent pattern: his actions contradict his words. He claims not to care, then teaches a stranger technique theory and directs him to the best dream tablets.
Stage: Effective Truegold (damaged Archlord, recovering)
Path: Path of the Dawn Oath (Force / Script)
Techniques: Stone Anchor (Enforcer), Oathsign (Forger)
Goldsign: Green horns
Affiliation:
A damaged Archlord under contract to
Stage: Recovering (Pure Storm Baptism complete)
Path: Path of the Dawn Oath (Force / Script)
Techniques: Stone Anchor (Enforcer), Oathsign (Forger)
Goldsign: Green horns
Affiliation:
Recovering from the Pure Storm Baptism, with sparks playing along his madra channels as the treatment stabilizes his shattered spirit. Years of spiritual pain gave him exceptional willpower endurance, an asset that would prove more valuable than raw power.
Stage: Sage (Shield Icon) Path: Path of the Dawn Oath (Force / Script) Techniques: Stone Anchor, Oathsign, Grand Oath Array (Divine Treasure) Authority: Shield Icon (Endure, Hold on, Protect) Goldsign: Green horns Weapon: Hammer, Grand Oath Array
The Shield Sage. His Archlord revelation was “I will give my life for the sect,” and when the Sage of Calling Storms came for him again, that oath held. The Shield Icon manifested as a massive steel shield across the sky, and three workings answered his call: Endure, Hold on, Protect. The Grand Oath Array, a Divine Treasure built by
Stage: Monarch (Sage + Herald) Path: Path of the Dawn Oath (Force / Script) Authority: Shield Icon Goldsign: Green horns, jade-filled scars Weapon: Hammer
A Monarch who advanced to Herald through sheer physical violence against a Remnant that embodied everything he had been: rage covered in old scars, slumped and staring at nothing. The jade that filled his wounds afterward is a physical record of what was done to him and what he chose to do about it. He killed the Weeping Dragon. He killed the Sage of Calling Storms. He ascended as a Reaper and asked his first Abidan supervisor for a monster to fight.
Ghostwater
Ziel is listed among the six factions’ Truegold representatives sent to the Ghostwater facility: Akura (Harmony), Redmoon Hall (Yan Shoumei), Gold Dragons (Ekeri), Wasteland (Ziel), Tidewalker sect, and Ninecloud Court. He represents the Beast King’s faction. On the island surface, Yan Shoumei’s Blood Shadow pulls back rather than fight near him, knowing his reputation. [GW Ch.2-3]
Inside the collapsing Ghostwater facility, Ziel one-shot kills a Diamondscale Sea Drake with his hammer, the head exploding under a titanic hammer-blow. His Forger technique, a green script-circle, shields him from the blood spray.
Ziel’s damaged spirit becomes apparent when his techniques crackle and fade mid-use. His madra system has been sliced apart and stitched together wrong, leaving him at effective Truegold despite the body and skill of a former Archlord. He barely drinks from the Spirit Well, knowing it cannot help. Despite claiming the sacred arts are a pointless climb, he teaches
Ziel exits Ghostwater via gatekey to the Beast King’s location. The Beast King reveals his former title: Lord of the Dawnwing Sect. The sect’s emblem, spread wings on his gray cloak, is faded but still visible. When told an Underlord might be involved in the surface conflict, Ziel’s response is characteristically flat: “Then maybe I’ll die.” The Spirit Well water offered no restoration. He brought back a single bottle from a well that could have filled dozens, having already stopped trying. [GW Ch.14]
After Yerin finishes a fight, Ziel stands at the tree line, leaning on his hammer with an expression like he’d died two days before. “Looking to pick off the winner?” Yerin asks. His answer, delivered as though it took a week of effort: “…no.” Later, when a gold dragon Underlady threatens Yerin and Mercy, Ziel steps from the trees as the Beast King’s witness. When she demands to know who he is, he answers: “Underlady, believe me when I say that I am no one at all.” She recognizes him anyway: “No. I will not bow to you. Nor even to your master.” [GW Ch.16]
Uncrowned
Ziel appears at the Uncrowned King Tournament as a green-horned man in a tattered gray cloak, haggard, trying to melt into the floor. He is eligible despite his damaged spirit and competes as part of the Beast King’s faction team. During the first trial, he runs on green circles of force and smashes the enemy base with a script-enhanced Forged fist. [UC Ch.9-10]
The full scope of Ziel’s tragedy becomes clear. The Dawnwing Sect, on the Iceflower Continent, was destroyed when the Weeping Dragon awakened. The Stormcaller cult looted the ruins. Their leader, the Sage of Calling Storms, defeated Ziel in a duel and mutilated his spirit: cutting it apart, stitching it together wrong, poisoning his body. The damage undid most of his soulfire enhancements and left holding anything in soulspace as “a mouthful of needles.” Years of treatment from the Beast King countered much of the poison, but not the spiritual damage. Ziel was thirty-five years old, one of the youngest Archlords ever, reduced to barely functional Underlord. When he encounters a Stormcaller in the tournament wearing the crown of his sect’s destroyers, the one thing that can still move him ignites. He kills the Stormcaller with his hammer. [UC Ch.14]
As a tournament prize, Ziel receives a restoration pill: inch-wide, glossy cream and pink, refined by Herald Chryleia from fruits and flowers worldwide with a drop of Emriss Silentborn’s own sap. The pill loosens knotted madra channels over time but cannot restore his former power. Full Archlord restoration would require direct intervention of multiple Monarchs. His hands tremble receiving it. “Something would go wrong. It always did.” [UC Ch.18]
Wintersteel
The Path of the Dawn Oath is detailed for the first time. A flexible force Path designed for Soulsmiths and skilled scriptors, and a variation of the Path Eithan once offered Lindon. Ziel has only two core techniques, but their versatility through scripted rune circles makes them far more dangerous than their simplicity suggests. In his match against Therian Nills of the Stormcaller cult, Ziel’s rage ignites at the sight of a Stormcaller and he batters Therian around the entire arena. [WS Ch.4]
Ziel faces Brother Aekin of the Abyssal Palace in Round 5 of the tournament, and the fight reveals everything about who he was and what was taken from him. In the first match, his spirit fails mid-combat and Aekin crushes him. Between matches, the records show his motivation: “He just wanted his own spirit to stop hurting.” The Forest Sage had given up on training him, though Ziel gave up on himself first. The Sage of Calling Storms had abused Tiberian Arelius’s research to create the very injury Tiberian’s Pure Storm Baptism could cure.
In the second match, something changes. Ziel deploys six simultaneous script-circles: one choking Aekin’s energy, two on weapons to lighten them, two around himself to strengthen, one on a house-sized pendulum to multiply its force. He dominates. His spirit was fresh torture, but he felt alive. The crowd chants his name. “He should never have forgotten who he was.” His spirit fails at the killing blow again. The loss stands. But Northstrider tells him: “Welcome to the tournament.”
Ziel keeps Eithan’s contract. His cloudship arrives at the team’s gathering point as a blank stone fort on a cloud, no customization, drifting alongside but never quite locking in. Emerald horns glistening, cloak flapping, he raises one hand in greeting. [WS Ch.27]
Bloodline
Ziel joins the team at Windfall, the floating island home they name through hours of discussion. His contribution to the naming debate: “Eh.” He plucks an orus fruit from the sacred tree without asking. “How is it?” He shrugged. [BL Ch.4]
A Foundation-stage child named Maret crawls onto his cloud, grabs his hair, climbs onto his head, and holds his green horns like riding a bull, rocking back and forth. The parents are horrified. Ziel is too lazy to remove him. He realizes he has taken responsibility for another clan of people. “What a stupid decision.” [BL Ch.9]
Eithan performs the next stage of the Pure Storm Baptism. Lightning madra plays through Ziel’s spirit and body during the recovery process. [BL Ch.20]
Reaper
Sparks play along Ziel’s madra channels as the Pure Storm Baptism continues to stabilize his spirit. The recovery is ongoing but visible. [RP Ch.3]
Dreadgod
The Path of the Dawn Oath’s lineage becomes clear: it descends from the Rune Queen Emala’s Path of the Last Oath. Because the Paths are related, Ziel can find and learn from pieces of Emala’s Grand Oath Array, a capability that will prove essential. [DG Ch.6]
Ziel’s scripting expertise is on full display in the Grand Oath Array modification. Stone Anchor, his Enforcer technique, runs like iron bars reinforcing the skeleton, binding his feet to the ground immovably and increasing his weight. It prevents him from being launched by his own attacks, which at Archlord power is a real concern. [DG Ch.12]
Ziel helps create the Ghostwind Hall pocket world alongside
Waybound
Under
Lindon gives Ziel the Grand Oath Array: a Divine Treasure consisting of a silver moon orbited by script rings, built from Northstrider’s prototype Abidan artifact combined with the Rune Queen Emala’s madra samples. It manipulates time through scripted rune circles. Ziel accepts it wearing his gray Dawnwing cloak, the faded spread-wing emblem still visible. He cannot become a Sage inside Ghostwind Hall’s pocket world, but he can prepare: peak Archlord plus study of the Paths of Heaven.
When asked about his Icon, he says it is “embarrassing” and will not elaborate. “I hate how casually you’ve handed me the keys to manipulate existence itself.” And then, quieter: “Thanks, by the way. For dragging me.” [WB Ch.3]
In Ghostwind Hall, a loop of Forged silver runes spins around Ziel as he tests the Grand Oath Array. An apple rots to mush under accelerated time, but the array fails before reaching dust. Improvement over the previous day. “Almost.” He saves
Ziel arrives at the battlefield where the Sage of Calling Storms commands Stormcaller forces. His Archlord revelation, the truth that earned him soulfire, resurfaces: “I will give my life for the sect.” He hits the Sage at meteoric speed, crushes him repeatedly with hammer and force scripts. The Sage regenerates every time, taunting him about his past, calling him “my Dawnwing student” with a tormentor’s pride.
The Shield Icon manifests as a massive steel shield across the sky. Three workings answer his call: “Endure” absorbs attacks, “Hold on” makes an ally invulnerable, “Protect” provides ongoing defense. The Sage pierces Ziel through the gut with a storm lance (familiar pain), but the Icon holds.
Ziel and
During the assault on the Weeping Dragon, the Dreadgod targets Yerin, Mercy, and Ziel as they approach from the east. Ziel faces the Dragon’s breath head-on, shielding with everything he has, screaming at the sky: “COME ON! TRY IT! HIT ME!” When Lindon forces the breath upward, Ziel sees his dense core of black-and-white power beneath the Dragon’s head. “Lindon had given them a chance. Now he was going to kill a Dreadgod.” [WB Ch.18]
Ziel kills the Weeping Dragon. He catches a deflected shot of Penance and falls toward the Dragon. “How many lives is it worth to take down a Dreadgod? It was worth at least one.” The authority command is not a working of the Shield Icon. It is something rawer: “KILL!” The Grand Oath Array sacrifices its own structure for the final technique. Ziel had been ready for years.
Clinging to the falling Dreadgod’s body, he screams into its dying flesh: “I killed you! Me!”
When offered a weapon crafted from the Weeping Dragon’s remains, Ziel refuses. He requests a Wandering Titan shield instead. [WB Ch.20]
Ziel advances to Herald through a forced process, brutal and fast. His Remnant emerges as a hulking jade creature, largely humanoid, with dull green horns larger and sharper than his own and slab-muscle hands. It is covered in spiderweb scars from where it was taken apart and stitched together long ago. It radiates overwhelming force, then slumps on the ground staring at nothing.
Ziel expected it would just sit there. It does not. The instant it sees him, fire lights in its eyes and it attacks with overwhelming rage. He fights back with pure physical strength, hammer one-handed, no Enforcer technique. Pieces torn from the Remnant fill in his wounds, and jade fills the scars that remain. “This was his own pain. His own bitterness. He couldn’t be rid of it, but he could face it, and he could move forward.”
As a Sage who has merged with his Herald, Ziel is a Monarch. His assessment of the jade-filled scars: “Could have been worse.” [WB Ch.28]
In the final battle against the remaining Dreadgods, Ziel Forges a binding circle that focuses vital aura for hundreds of miles, restricting the Wandering Titan by every aspect of aura. His barriers, reinforced by the Shield Icon, hold the line while the team coordinates the kill. His assessment of
Ziel ascends from Cradle and is assigned to manage a world’s Worldline: appointing leadership, soothing colonists, writing rules, hearing disputes. His first question to his supervisor: “Do you have a monster I can fight?” [WB Ch.35]
Powers & Abilities
Path Techniques
Stone Anchor (Enforcer)
Full-body Enforcer technique that runs like iron bars reinforcing the skeleton. Binds feet to the ground immovably and increases weight, preventing the practitioner from being launched by their own attacks. [WS Ch.4, DG Ch.12]
Oathsign (Forger)
Forges green shining rune circles of hardened force aura in midair, instantly deployable. Multiple simultaneous circles demonstrated (six at peak performance). Applications include: choking enemy energy, lightening weapons, strengthening the caster, multiplying applied force, and launching the caster. The versatility of scripted applications makes the Path far more dangerous than its two-technique simplicity suggests. [WS Ch.4, WS Ch.14]
Authority
Shield Icon
Manifests as a massive steel shield across the sky. Three workings: “Endure” (absorbs attacks), “Hold on” (makes an ally invulnerable), “Protect” (ongoing defense). A guardian archetype born from his Archlord revelation: “I will give my life for the sect.” [WB Ch.13]
“KILL!”
A raw authority command used to kill the Weeping Dragon. Not a working of the Shield Icon but something more primal. [WB Ch.19]
Weapons & Equipment
Hammer
Ziel’s primary weapon throughout the series. Capable of one-shotting a Diamondscale Sea Drake at effective Truegold power. [GW Ch.11]
Archlord Shield
Tournament Round 2 prize. An elaborate steel castle wall design, too heavy for his damaged soulspace (requires Stone Anchor to carry both shield and hammer). [WS Ch.14]
Grand Oath Array
A Divine Treasure: a silver moon orbited by script rings that manipulates time. Built by
Relationships
Wei Shi Lindon
Relationship: Ally, teammate
Ziel and Lindon first share a Spirit Well inside the collapsing Ghostwater facility. Ziel teaches him technique theory, directs him to dream tablets, and offers genuine wisdom despite his nihilism. Lindon later drags him into the team, equips him with the Grand Oath Array, and persistently refuses to let Ziel give up. Ziel’s rare moment of gratitude: “Thanks, by the way. For dragging me.” [GW Ch.11-12, WB Ch.3]
Eithan Arelius
Relationship: Healer, contractor
Eithan offers the Pure Storm Baptism, a spiritual restoration developed by Tiberian Arelius, with terms almost too generous to believe: healing performed first, one year of service only if successful. Ziel initially refuses, convinced there must be a trap. He accepts eventually. The Baptism restores his spirit over the course of several books. [WS Ch.14, BL Ch.9]
Yerin
Relationship: Combat partner
Yerin punches the Sage of Calling Storms’ head clean off when he threatens Ziel during the Shield Icon manifestation. Together they kill the Sage, ending Ziel’s nemesis arc. Yerin’s finishing contribution: her Reaper’s Sword. Ziel’s finishing contribution: his hammer and the words “No one else will suffer at your hands.” [WB Ch.13, WB Ch.15]
Quotes
By Ziel
“The prize is an illusion. The mountain has no peak. You keep climbing and climbing until you fall off and break yourself at the bottom.” — Ziel [GW Ch.12]
“Just make sure you have something else to keep you going. Sacred arts are not enough to live for.” — Ziel [GW Ch.12]
“Then maybe I’ll die.” — Ziel [GW Ch.14]
“Underlady, believe me when I say that I am no one at all.” — Ziel [GW Ch.16]
“I hate how casually you’ve handed me the keys to manipulate existence itself.” — Ziel [WB Ch.3]
“I am happy.” — Ziel [WB Ch.11]
“I want you to know who killed you.” — Ziel [WB Ch.15]
“I killed you! Me!” — Ziel, clinging to the Weeping Dragon [WB Ch.19]
“Advance to Archlord, he’s a Sage. Advance to Sage, he’s a Dreadgod. Advance to Monarch, he’s off to kill a Dreadgod on his own.” — Ziel, on Lindon [WB Ch.29]
About Ziel
“Really brings down the mood, doesn’t he?” —
[GW Ch.12] Dross
“Welcome to the tournament.” —
[WS Ch.14] Northstrider
Trivia
- Despite claiming not to care about advancement, Ziel teaches
Lindon
- A Foundation-stage child named Maret climbed onto Ziel’s head and held his green horns like riding a bull. Ziel was too lazy to remove him. [BL Ch.9]
- Ziel was thirty-five years old during the Uncrowned King Tournament, barely eligible for the age requirement. He had been one of the youngest Archlords in living memory. [UC Ch.14]
- Ziel’s Remnant bore the same spiderweb scars as his damaged spirit: taken apart and stitched together long ago. After merging, the jade that filled his wounds mirrored the damage, making his suffering permanently visible. [WB Ch.28]
- When offered a weapon from the Weeping Dragon’s remains, Ziel refused and requested a Wandering Titan shield instead. The Dragon destroyed his sect. He wanted nothing from it. [WB Ch.20]