Zoraal Ja (Final Fantasy XIV)

Zoraal Ja is a character in Final Fantasy XIV introduced in the expansion Dawntrail. He is a Mamool Ja, son of Gulool Ja Ja, and eldest sibling of Wuk Lamat and Koana. He is the First Promise of Tuliyollal, and one of the contestants to the throne of Tuliyollal in Tural.
== History ==
===Before Dawntrail===
Zoraal Ja is the trueborn son of Gulool Ja Ja. His birth was considered a miracle, since it was believed two-headed Mamool Ja cannot sire children. He came to be known as "The Resilient Son". As the trueborn son of the ruler of Tuliyollal, Zoraal Ja felt immense pressure to find acceptance. He had two adopted siblings, the Xb'raal Wuk Lamat and the Hhetsarro Koana, but he never got along with either of them.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail===
Gulool Ja Ja selected his three children, as well as the champion of Mamook, Bakool Ja Ja, as participants for the rite of succession for the throne of Tuliyollal. Wuk Lamat was adamant Zoraal Ja cannot win and recruited the Warrior of Light to help her. Zoraal Ja intended to lead Tuliyollal's armies into a campaign of conquest should he win, seeing the opportunity with the collapse of the Garlean Empire. While the contestants were encouraged to recruit help from across the world, Zoraal Ja only had one companion: the palace seer Sareel Ja.
As the rite of succession began, Zoraal Ja completed three of the rites with relative ease. He even captured a golden alpaca and recruited an artisan for the Moblins and put Bakool Ja Ja to his place when he tried to steal the artisan.
After Zoraal Ja climbed Worqor Zormor and completed the fourth rite, Bakool Ja Ja released Valigarmanda. While Wuk Lamat's and Koana's companions were willing to take care of the monster, Sareel Ja convinced Zoraal Ja to ignore the danger and take an advantage. Zoraal Ja decided to join his siblings, but asserted this did not change his ambitions, he just could not allow Valigarmanda to wreak havoc, and he also wanted to take measure of the tural vidraal that even Gulool Ja Ja was unable to defeat. With the combined might of the companions, Valigarmanda was defeated for good, and this deed awarded Zoraal Ja, Wuk Lamat and Koana with a keystone.
Continuing the contest, Zoraal Ja was paired with Bakool Ja Ja to replicate xibruq pibil, a dish Gulool Ja Ja inspired when he ended the conflict between the Xbr'aal and Mamool Ja in Yak T'el. While Wuk Lamat and Koana succeeded with flying colors, Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja failed since their dish was missing a key ingredient. Krile Maya Baldesion (who had accompanied Wuk Lamat and the Warrior of Light) sensed Zoraal Ja's anger with the Echo, which was pitch black, harboring dark thoughts against his siblings. Despite this setback, Zoraal Ja proceeded to the next feat in Mamook, which was to fight an illusion of Gulool Ja Ja when he was at his prime. He fought the illusion alone and was summarily defeated. The elector of Mamook, Zereel Ja, reprimanded Zoraal Ja for not relying on his companion. Zoraal Ja then tried to take the keystone by force, attacking the elector directly. As result, Zereel Ja disqualified Zoraal Ja.
After Wuk Lamat won the rite and became the new Dawnservant along with Koana, Zoraal Ja and Sareel Ja ambushed Ketenramm and stole leftover keystones he had in his possession, allowing Zoraal Ja to locate the gate to the golden city. While Sareel Ja was most eager to open the gate, Zoraal Ja killed him and mockingly called him a useless tool, similarly like Sareel Ja had said earlier. He heard a voice calling out from the other side of the gate, offering him power to take over the world on one condition. Zoraal Ja accepted and the gate opened.
Zoraal Ja entered into another reflection of the Source and discovered the kingdom of Alexandria. The voice who called out was that of Sphene, the Endless Queen of Alexandria. Sphene required a source of living aether to maintain the existence of the Endless, the people of Alexandria, who were created as facsimiles from their memories extracted from their souls. The souls themselves were stored within electrope storage and distributed among the living by soul regulators. Zoraal Ja was augmented with a regulator and was made as the King of Resolve of Alexandria, while Sphene was named as the Queen of Reason, inspired by the heads Resolve and Reason of his father, Gulool Ja Ja.
By utilizing interdimensional fusion, Zoraal Ja attacked Yyasulani in Xak Tural, and a portion of it became part of Alexandria, covered within a dome, where lightning energy was abundant. Due to time disparity between reflections, thirty years had passed within a matter of days inside the dome. At some point in this time, Zoraal Ja sired a son, Gulool Ja, but he abandoned him.
Zoraal Ja launched an assault on Tuliyollal with flying ships and automated soldiers and proceeded to Sunperch to challenge his father. He was surprised that Gulool Ja Ja still lived, even though his head of Reason had already passed away; to him, it had been thirty years since he saw his father although it had only been days for Gulool Ja Ja. Gulool Ja Ja ordered Wuk Lamat and her companions to not intervene, while he fought his son. Gulool Ja Ja dealt a mortal blow to Zoraal Ja, but thanks to his soul regulator, Zoraal Ja was revived and the regulator empowered him, allowing him to best his father and deal him a mortal wound. Unable to defeat Zoraal Ja now, the others watched in horror. Zoraal Ja halted the attack and challenged Wuk Lamat to lay siege to his kingdom and prove she had what it took to be the Dawnservant. He retreated, but left a portion of his fleet over Tuliyollal to resume the attack when ordered, should Wuk Lamat fail to meet the challenge.
Wuk Lamat rallied her people to strike against Zoraal Ja's new kingdom. To assist with the attack, Krile brought in G'raha Tia and Y'shtola to help. Railroad engineers at Shaaloani came up with the idea to turn their train into bomb to blast the way open into the dome, since Y'shtola determined touching the dome would be fatal. Wuk Lamat approved the plan, as a strike like that would serve as message to Zoraal Ja. The people of Tuliyollal worked days to reinforce the train with defenses and load it with ceruleum. The plan was successful, and the train punched a hole into dome's outer defenses, allowing Wuk Lamat, the Warrior, Krile, G'raha, Alisaie and Erenville to enter the dome. Inside they met Queen Sphene, who asked for their help to deal with Zoraal Ja, as his desire for personal power was against her own desire to ensure the happiness of her people. Although wary of the Queen, they agreed this might offer a chance to get close to Zoraal Ja.
Zoraal Ja summoned Sphene, after he noticed she had been collaborating with Wuk Lamat. Sphene hoped that he and Wuk Lamat would be able to settle their grudge peacefully without bloodshed, but Zoraal Ja reminded her, that it was she who required the souls from Tuliyollal and he is providing them.
Later, Zoraal Ja proceeded to Vanguard to resume the assault on Tuliyollal. Wuk Lamat and her allies proceeded to face him there. Wuk Lamat demanded they settle this one-on-one, and that she would stop him since Sphene asked it from her. Zoraal Ja called Wuk Lamat gullible, as it was Sphene who desired to invade Tuliyollal and the Source as a whole. Wuk Lamat didn't believe until Sphene arrived and confirmed it, claiming she needs a source of living aether to maintain her people's happiness. Wuk Lamat tried to reason with her, until Zoraal Ja showed them, that Sphene wasn't really alive; he cut her down, showing that she was using an automated soldier as a host, revealing herself as an Endless. Zoraal Ja then ordered the attack on Tuliyollal to resume, but Wuk Lamat, smiling, pointed out that she isn't the only Dawnservant. While she was dealing with the matters in the dome, Koana had been overseeing Tuliyollal's defenses, even forming an alliance with Radz-at-Han. And so, when Zoraal Ja's invasion resumed, it was defeated by the united people of Tuliyollal, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Vrtra and his brood, who destroyed Zoraal Ja's fleet. When Zoraal Ja's commanding officer reported the invasion failed, Zoraal Ja was disappointed that his technologically superior forces were defeated. Wuk Lamat declared it's over. But this only sent Zoraal Ja over the edge. He grabbed his son, Gulool Ja, and threatened to kill him. Having already bonded with the child, Wuk Lamat couldn't let him get hurt. Zoraal Ja then ordered his army to slaughter his own people and collect their souls, all for personal power. Sphene declared him mad, but there was nothing she could do, all military matters were under Zoraal Ja's authority. Zoraal ja escaped back to the Everkeep, once again rejecting his own son.
Wuk Lamat and her allies proceeded to save the people of Alexandria and then deal with Zoraal Ja. He had retreated to the eleventh level of the Everkeep, but the direct path had been disabled by him. Instead the heroes had to use Origenics as the means of following him. As they fought their way to the eleventh level, they were joined by Alphinaud, Y'shtola and Estinien, after they had ensured Tuliyollal is safe. The heroes entered Zoraal Ja's throne room, where they discovered him of absorbing massive amounts of souls to empower himself, much like the way voidsent empower themselves by devouring each other, but in Zoraal Ja's case it came with a terrible price. He was delirious, and declared himself as the superior ruler with the power he now controlled. The heroes fought him, and in the middle his form transformed into a monstrous form that had two heads, and overall alien like body. Even with this power, the heroes defeated him. As he laid on the ground dying, he still didn't show any regret of his actions, but lamented that he just wasn't able to meet the expectations of succeeding Gulool Ja Ja, feeling that he spurned him, which was the reason he treated his own son the way he did. His final declaration was that his own father left him with nothing, but Wuk Lamat called him a fool, because Gulool Ja Ja had actually left him with the best of things, that he rejected: family.
However, despite all the evil and immoral things Zoraal Ja did, he did do one redeeming thing. In the event of his passing, he had ordered that Gulool Ja will become the next King. This showed that despite rejecting his son, he did care about him to a degree.
== Characteristics ==
=== Appearance ===
Zoraal Ja is a single-headed male Mamool Ja. He is adorned with golden filigree and colorful ropes as well as feathers. Uniquely, he is a Hoobigo Mamool Ja with the azure scales of a Boonewa. Compared to the average Mamool Ja, he is slightly more muscular and larger in comparison.
Following his conquest of Alexandria thirty years later, Zoraal Ja had doubled in size, slightly bigger than Bakool Ja Ja but remains shorter than his father. His scales have lost their hue with purple lines with clear indention in his skin. He is covered in black and purple electrope armor with a helmet vaguely shaped after his original crown. Like most citizens in Alexandria, he wears a soul regulator on the left side of his head.
His final mutation transformed him into a dark blue monstrosity as large as his father and wielding four swords, two in his hand and two floating behind him. Influenced by his desire to surpass his father, Zoraal developed a second stump left of his head consisting of four skin flaps in lieu of a proper head, visually displaying his loss of reason.
=== Personality ===
At first, Zoraal Ja appears stoic, reserved, taciturn and focused on protecting his homeland, with Alisaie observing that Zoraal Ja possess a warrior's reticence, giving the impression of a hardened soldier. Though Zoraal Ja is praised for his talents and feats of strength, creating a sense of loyalty by those who serve under him, he keeps everyone at arm's length, family included. When meeting with Wuk Lamat during the trials, he barely acknowledged her, saddening Wuk Lamat that her elder brother treats her like a stranger. Even in their youth, Zoraal Ja would never share any of his inner and personal thoughts with his adoptive siblings, with Koana stating that Zoraal Ja's thoughts were always a mystery to him. Wuk Lamat also added that even in the most casual of settings, such as sharing a meal with his siblings and father, Zoraal Ja would never be the one to initiate a conversation, as he would only speak when spoken to. Nonetheless, many of the people in Tural do not doubt that Zoraal Ja loves his homeland and people greatly but at the same time, the people of Tural find him too intimidating, or even terrifying, to even approach.
Though he performed the feats, Zoraal Ja, similar to Bakool Ja Ja initially, had little interest in the actual intents his father put in the feats, in what they were actually meant for the claimants: for them to understand and appreciate the myriad cultures of Tural. Zoraal Ja only appeared interested in the feats whenever his father accomplished something with strength, such as defeating and imprisoning Valigarmanda. Overall, Zoraal Ja only took part in the feats to prove himself superior to the other candidates, caring little for the cultures he had to interact with. Even joining forces with Wuk Lamat, Koana and their companions against a released Valigarmanda wasn't done out of true altruism or for the safety of his people, instead doing do so as a means to test his strength against a foe even his father couldn't kill. 
In truth, Zoraal Ja is ruthlessly ambitious in ensuring he becomes the next Dawnservant and in enforcing his vision of peace, whatever the cost. He seeks to bring all of the world under his control through war to show the people the folly of war, so that they would grow tired of it and long for everlasting peace. He even scorns the expansionists who support his bid for the throne, mocking their view of war as a opportunity to claim new lands for themselves. Most of all, Zoraal Ja desires to surpass his father no matter what, trusting no one but himself to make it so. Zoraal Ja's ambition is motivated to justify all the expectations that had been placed upon him all his life, from his family to the people. This led him to become obsessed with becoming the next Dawnservant while forgoing anything that Zoraal Ja considered distracting, such as friendship, ultimately leaving him isolated and cold. His talents and the praise he received gave Zoraal Ja a swollen ego and a strong sense of pride, seeing others as tools for his ambitions because of how quickly they threw themselves at his feet and viewing challenges with cold disdain. This becomes a factor in his downfall as he never expected the Warrior of Light and Wuk Lamat to rally the Turali people to fight his superior Alexandrian forces and lead them to victory, being inspired to weather any hardship. In this, Zoraal Ja showed how little he knew about the inner strength of his own people and that he doesn't truly care about becoming Dawnservant for their sake, only wanting to claim the throne for himself, believing it to be his destiny, fully revealing himself as a power mad tyrant.
His fixation on cultivating strength to prove himself the miracle he was said to be not only gives Zoraal Ja his overwhelming ambition but an unwillingness to see eye to eye with others, making it near impossible to compromise with him. Tragically, this makes Zoraal Ja the worst candidate to become Dawnservant and the only one the Warrior of Light was told to prevent a chance at the throne, as even the vainglorious Bakool Ja Ja is more capable of compromise and admitting to error. His collaborator, Sphene, slowly grows to despise Zoraal Ja due to his obsession on growing his own strength at the cost of everything else, which led to Zoraal Ja neglecting her people of Alexandria. Even the Alexandrian citizens quickly grew to dislike Zoraal Ja's rule as he focused on building his military might, he canceled any of the grand events that the citizens enjoyed, such as The Arcadion battle arena, and were not in favor of Zoraal Ja's war against Tural. Both of which led Zoraal Ja to be heavily unpopular but the citizens largely kept such criticisms to themselves out of fear or for Queen Sphene's sake. 
It's also been noted that Zoraal Ja bears a crippling lack of forethought in his plans for conquest. Instead of realizing the logistics and understanding his own limits, Zoraal Ja fully believes his own strength and the might of his forces would be enough to conquer Tural and the rest of the world. Wuk Lamat points out the obvious flaws in such plans as Tural doesn't possess ships to enact his conquest, due to Tural having no deep water ports and being surrounded by reefs, nor does he have any actual strategies to ensure his conquest succeeds. Further, during his reign as King of Alexandria, his fixation on proving himself Wuk Lamat's better rather than pressing the attack allowed the Turali to regroup and mount a resistance. In addition, Zoraal Ja's disinterest in actually leading his own soldiers resulted in them being largely demoralized and disorganized. Naturally, once his forces are routed, Zoraal Ja is quick to blame his failure on others, claiming them to be useless and resorting to harvesting the souls of his own citizens to replenish his forces. 
Being disqualified as a claimant sends him over the edge as he again tries to prove himself the only one worthy of the throne, leading him to enact decisions that enter into being immoral and treacherous. His worst acts to become Dawnservant include invading his homeland, murdering his father in cold blood, attempting to usurp Wuk Lamat and, when he becomes cornered, using his own son, Gulool Ja, as a shield to ensure his own escape, coldly discarding him once he had served his purpose. These acts quickly turn Zoraal Ja from being the respected and admired First Promise to being a hated patricidal traitor in the eyes of the Turali. Wuk Lamat and the others finally accept that Zoraal Ja was beyond saving as his refusal to abandon his cause would mean that all of his efforts would be for nothing and that he had failed to meet the expectations placed upon him, leading the heroes to defeat Zoraal Ja before he could bring any more conflict to Tural or the world. 
The others acknowledge in hindsight that Zoraal Ja's prestigious position and talents created the enormous pressure on him to succeed and be worthy of his illustrious father's name. Being Gulool Ja Ja's blood heir and the First Promise only intensified this pressure, as did the envy of his siblings for his many talents. Wuk Lamat and Koana wonder if Zoraal Ja could have been dissuaded from his bloody path had they realized what he had been experiencing and helped share his burden, but it is unknown if Zoraal Ja was ever willing to reveal such insecurities to them. 
When brought low by the Warrior and Wuk Lamat, Zoraal Ja shows no regret over his actions, only admitting that he was a "lost man" who walked the "path of ruin" and lamenting in failing to meet the expectations placed upon him. When confronted by his son in his final moments, Zoraal Ja does not presume to call him his own, only admitting that he could not be a father to him after feeling spurned by his own. In Zoraal Ja's mind, his father left him with nothing, no legacy to follow. Wuk Lamat admonishes Zoraal Ja, stating his father left him a family, the very thing he rejected, but Zoraal Ja still didn't seem swayed before expiring. However, before Zoraal Ja died, he left his position as king of Alexandria to his son and did address Wuk Lamat by her affectionate nickname of Lamaty'i, which suggests that a sliver of him did care for his family but as Estinien observed, Zoraal Ja's desire to surpass his father, surpassed everything else.
==Gameplay==
During the main scenario of Dawntrail, Zoraal Ja is a Duty Support NPC for , serving as a Viper.
He is the boss encounter of and its Extreme mode.
==Etymology==
Zoraal Ja is named after Percipient Zoraal Ja from Final Fantasy XI, a Mamool Ja warrior marked as a Notorious Monster by the Empire of Aht Urhgan. 
==Citations==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Antagonists
Category:Mamool Ja