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thDO I SMELL THE PEN FROM THAT OC POST...
thank you so much!! as promised,, I am about to absolutely lose it about my boy Zaro because I haven’t done it yet on this blog
so here goes!
warning: this is gonna be a long post!! i’m gonna be tagging it with #long post, #long reads, and #infodump in regards to the post size so if you want to go past or blacklist those tags feel free!!
I would like to introduce you to the one and only Zaro, my most treasured villain OC and my pride and joy
is he dramatic enough to actually canonically do this? absolutely.
first I’ll ramble about the creation of this boy because unlike a lot of my OCs a lot went into his creation! he was actually named by an old friend of mine whilst we were in like... year 5 of primary school (so we would have been 9 or 10 i think) and i designed him to be your typically scary evil villain, as a 9 year old would. little did young me know how much i would come to love him...
originally, his design was a black dragon with eyeburning pure blue wings, blue emo hair, and scars absolutely everywhere. and, of course, i gave him red eyes. this turned out to be a fatal flaw, because despite him now being heterochromatic, i am too attached to the red eyes to make at least one eye anything other than red. i just thought... well i gotta make him look edgy and evil! so i did.
he started out with a very basic backstory: he is jealous of the protagonist because she’s part of a prophecy and he’s not.
and so my boy was made...
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but over the years, Zaro began to evolve. I took off his blue hair for starters and gave him some neat basic lightning horns instead of just a spike. he started to lose his scars because he had no reason to have them other than for edgy points.
I started to work on his personality, and he started to change from just ‘big evil’ to having some other character traits. he was still your big bad evil boy, but now he had charisma and a sense of abstract and dark humour. he had some wit and tact but was impulsive.
his backstory got some modifications, too. he got a brother who he has a love-hate relationship with, and a dad who he refuses to speak about. he was the one that was always avoided by others, because he’s just dang scary sitting there and watching things go on around him like a cat watching a mouse
his foundation was there! finally i began to craft the story. simple enough - Zaro learns about the prophecy, gets crazy jealous, and starts to go after every single fire dragon fitting the description of ‘fire dragon’. any and all fire dragons were in danger. he killed without mercy
but as the years went by since his creation, i started to think more and more about Zaro the more I drew him. he got a few redesigns which quite frankly he needed, but this time there was more to it than just making him look evil. and he got a lot more added to his personality...
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so, how did he get to where he is now with his first and second book design?
the first thing i did was pulled some weight from his frame, which you can definitely see in the picture of him at the start of this. and this actually had a reason in both design and backstory. for design purposes, it is meant to portray fragility, both physically and mentally. because Zaro has never been a character that uses or relies on strength. he’s strangely spindly for the most dangerous dragon in Murquah, and others underestimate him. they see his fragility as weakness. and that is very important to his character.
over time i also desaturated the colours on his wings into a mix of duller blue and purple with some star speckles to connect him to another important character, the devil themself, No Star. also, it looked waaay better.
i also tried changing his eyes to a cold, bright cyan. but as mentioned earlier, i was too attached to the red eyes. however, i had an idea, and instead of keeping them red i decided to make Zaro heterochromatic. believe it or not, this was a design choice that was more deliberate than just me refusing to let go of the red, though... that was definitely also true
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next i need to delve into his backstory...
to explain the next two categories as well as to elaborate a little on his design, i need to share his backstory, which has... changed so much since he was first created. so buckle in, here’s his new and updated life story! this is gonna be long so feel free to skip but some things in the next categories might not make sense so just be prepared!
Zaro was born into a faction of dragons on Murquah named after his father, Night Whisper (who i will refer to as NW). he was raised by his mother for a few years until she had a daughter. they were extremely close growing up, he and his sister. she was everything that he knew and loved, because their father was extremely negligent. he was never there for his kids and acted as though they were just more basic members of the faction and nothing more than disposable. and to make matters worse, their mother left a few years after Zaro’s sister was born, never to return to NW or her children. Zaro had his sister and only his sister, who as they grew up was always there to support Zaro with his growing mental health issues, and she always kept to herself.
Zaro, however, started to help when his sister started to show distress. a very certain kind of distress. Zaro had no idea what it was until finally it came out, and he was told, that his sibling felt a disconnect to their agab. Zaro had no idea what to think but he tried to be there throughout it all. he learned that his sibling’s distress was caused by being constantly called by female pronouns, and by a female name, and by being seen as female by everyone. they expressed that in their head, they were just as much of a male as Zaro, and that they knew they weren’t the girl everyone thought they were. and so Zaro that day learned that no, this wasn’t his sister. this was his brother now, and his brother’s name was Bolt. Zaro struggled at first to break his habits but out of love and out of only ever having Bolt to rely on, he took to it after time without flaw, and accepted his brother completely as the guy he was, even if he was trans.
Zaro around about this time also met a dragon named Tempest. the two hit it off pretty quickly and bonded over not being treated well by their dads. NW at this point had taken to shaming and insulting Zaro and Bolt, disrespecting them and pushing them down, making them feel powerless and worthless. so Tempest was welcome as someone else to care about and to care for him. they fell slowly but surely in love. she announced one day that she was pregnant and he was absolutely thrilled to be a father. Zaro’s life was getting better. his father was an ever-present shadow over his shoulder but he at least now had two things to live and work for
as a punishment for falling in love and an attempt to isolate him from his partner, NW appointed Zaro as the teacher of an orphan cruelly named Crocodile Mouth. Croc was shy and lacking self-esteem and, seeing this new challenge only as a punishment (which he was justified in believing), he started to grow cruel. he desperately clung to the new control over something, ANYTHING, that he’d been given, and whenever Croc would oppose that or show any kind of misunderstanding, he took it as a complete disregard of Zaro’s power over him, and he would grow more and more agitated. Zaro was beginning to crack under his father’s pressure and his desperate reach for control and authority.
but things kept getting worse. one day, early in the morning, his brother brought him out to the border. this would be the last day they spent together as true brothers, without any bad blood. Zaro thought it to be just one of their regular outings, until Bolt solemnly told him that it was over and he was leaving. Bolt expressed that the abuse from their father was getting too much and that in order to do the right thing for himself he had to leave and find his way away from the faction and his father. Zaro opposed this, terrified that his newfound grasp on life was slipping, and he got upset with Bolt to the point where their final interaction was a terrible argument. Bolt bitterly said goodbye and left in a flurry of anger and bitterness, leaving Zaro without his brother, the only family member he ever loved and felt loved by.
this sparked within Zaro something new. not only was his mental illness now going completely unspoken of, but his constant rejection and family issues started him believing that his family was bad, and he was too. he started to tell himself constantly that he wasn’t good enough to be good. he started to believe that he was going to follow in their footsteps and his time to be cruel was coming, despite it already having started. so he started to get worse. he started to become even more cruel, especially to poor Croc. not once did he ever direct it at Tempest, though
his children were born and he was offered a new spark of joy. he began to treat his interactions with his two sons, Darmith and Davreth, as a blessing and the only happiness alongside Tempest in his life. but his cruelty to others only grew. Tempest feared for the wellbeing of her children, scared that they would learn his ways, and after consideration and watching her former sweetheart hurt others, she left and took her sons with her
this was Zaro’s breaking point. he was completely alone, and he couldn’t see why. he didn’t understand what he’d done that was so unjustified that she left. in his mind he found reasons and excuses for his cruelty to Croc and others, so he couldn’t understand at all why she would leave, and why Bolt would leave, and why everyone was hurting him. and so he decided he was taking full control. nobody was ever going to hurt him again. that night, he attacked his father, killing him violently and leaving him with three final words: “Kill the tradition.”
he took over Night Whisper as a faction, punishing those who tried to leave with death and starting to grow it into a group that followed him loyally regardless of anything at all. he controlled them, he had all the power he’d been robbed of his entire life. they were his. this hunger for power led him to establish the fighting arena where he’d pit prisoners against each other, a reminder that he is in control always, and that his will was the way it would go, and that his way was the right way to ensure nobody in NW would ever go through his plight or put him through his plight ever again.
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now that’s out of the way, i can explain his new personality!
as a result of his upbringing, he has been made to always feel powerless. this led him to crave control and power, which he actively seeks out and strives for. this eventually twisted into a larger need for control than just with his feelings. he can’t let go and accept change or the random events in life. this has also led him to be quite manipulative.
he sees the worst in others and himself. this has brought him his suspicious nature and cynicism, which sometimes keeps him safe and other times turns away those he might have grown close to.
he often hides this with aggression or humour, which is most of what others see and perceive of him. some of this is entirely genuine and other times it’s him coping. his humour is mostly dark and abstract, and he can be quite genuinely funny at times.
he’s charismatic and despite his cruelty, dragons often feel compelled to follow him or be in his presence. whether this is due to some unseen natural force, his almost otherworldy presence, or something else entirely is unknown, and varies from dragon to dragon.
Zaro is also very erratic. he often acts without thinking and from his heart, which can be both a blessing and a curse. this is symbolized by his red eye.
mentally, Zaro can be hard to predict or decipher. he suffers from PTSD and schizophrenia which can often lead to his thoughts and actions being spontaneous or disorganised. due to having nobody to talk to about or help with his mental illnesses, some of his symptoms are quite severe a lot of the time. Zaro has no idea he has either of these illnesses and assumes that it’s just a part of his personality that cannot be changed.
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his role in book one and two of Seeking Revenge
so, Zaro is the main villain of the first four books. he’s first portrayed as the BBEG, as we are introduced mainly to his arena, and also because the first book is narrated by one of his victims. he pushes them too hard and one day one of them escapes.
Zaro is horrified and enraged, because not only has his champion pit fighter escaped, who he took pride in controlling, but he starts to think that she’s the one prophesied to end his reign, and he is not a fan of that idea whatsoever. so he spends book one trying to kill her and declaring war. he ends the book realising she wasn’t the prophesied dragon, but he ends her life regardless, losing his own in the process. kind of. he dies, everyone is certain of it, but at the very end of the book his eyes open once again.
in book two, he becomes more erratic and desperate, because he doesn’t know who the fire dragon destined to take him down is. any fire dragon he sees is immediately killed. the war continues until suddenly Blaze’s daughter, who Zaro didn’t know of, steps into the war with his huge army (who wouldn’t follow a dragon who came back from the dead?) and fights against him. but she’s weaker than her mother and crumbles easily, and the war continues. he also in this time finds love again and has a daughter. during this time he also kills one of his sons, Davreth, who is leading the opposing side.
Zaro is satisfied now, sure that his job has been completed, so he settles back into the war. however, whilst making a speech, he is seemingly assassinated and his body is taken, and the war rages on, this time under his daughter’s reluctant and scared command.
whilst he is absent, he undergoes some character development...
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so what changes?
Zaro starts to learn more about the opposing side’s war efforts, and also takes his time away from the war to think clearly for once. the more he thinks the colder he gets, thinking over everything he’s been through and continues to go through.
in addition to this, his appearance has changed. his body has been ruined. he has lost his red eye and his face is in tatters, scarred severely. his body is equally as injured and he’s missing an entire wing. he realises, after a flashback to what occurred after he was taken, that Bolt did this.
when he reemerges into the war, he is a colder and more calculated dragon, terrifyingly so. there’s nothing remaining of his recklessness.
this is symbolised by his remaining eye, the icy cold blue one. his red one is gone, showing the change from erratic to calculated. his wounds also symbolise that he’s letting go of his desperate need for Bolt and reassurance, since up until this point he’s been trying to find it again.
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in book three...
the war’s severity grows as Zaro makes a thrilling return, taking back over from his daughter. he loves her with all his heart but struggles to give her the attention she needs and she starts to come out less and less with time. he starts to take more extreme measures and in his hunger for power he summons the banished god Nightborn to aid in his fight. this leads, however, to this death of his beloved, and this pushes him to his next extreme. he no longer needs to take control of the other army. no, he needs to kill them all. (after his wife’s death i also plan for him to get a male lover since Zaro is indeed bi. they’ll have build up throughout the three books)
this gets worse and worse until the end of book three. his other son takes action, fuelled by hatred for his father and grief over Blaze’s daughter and his brother, and he challenges Zaro to a duel atop Murquah’s volcano. here, Zaro meets his demise
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a finishing note
Zaro is very important to me, and to the story. he is one of the four portrayals of PTSD and its effects. he shows the more violent and negative outcome of trauma. he not only chooses not to change, but he feels that he can’t, due to everything he’s been through. this is the direct opposite to the first protagonist, who also has PTSD but handles it differently and has different outcomes. his trauma doesn’t excuse any of his actions of course.
Zaro, reacts with rage and hatred, which he is absolutely allowed to feel. he embraces it and comes to rely on the bad feelings to feel good, never opening up and instead letting everything fester. his portrayal is about how trauma can send people down the wrong path and change them negatively, especially without help. he refuses any help, it’s hard to explain, it moreso shows itself through his story. he’s going to be similar to killers in real life whose unfortunate childhoods and lack of help sent them spiraling
it’s also similar to my experiences with the angry and violent feelings that PTSD can bring. of the four portrayals of PTSD, Zaro’s is the most one with the most negative outcome. there is another portrayal very similar to his through his son that follows a very similar process but ends more positively (though still tragic)
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so there we go, it’s done. I have successfully rambled and explained one of my OCs as the ask indicated, and I’ve had a blast doing it. I genuinely want to thank you for sending in the pen, I love my OCs more than I love myself tbh so rambling about them or receiving asks about them brings me so much genuine joy
whether you read it all or skimmed through or avoided it completely, thank you for your time and seriously i appreciate it. thank you, i hope you’re well <3
