Serene Ziegler

Serene "Zee" Ziegler is a major supporting character and anti-hero of Descendants of Calamity. She served as Ezekiel Hollenfeuer's final love interest. She is the first openly homosexual and proud member of the LGBTQ identifying as a lesbian. Having the alias of Dauntless Caster, Serene anonymously participates in battles through practicing Witchcraft or casting spells. In some cases, manifesting an outcome of the event usually on her allies' favor. Having multiple personalities and personas, with Ezekiel and a few select sentinels of the Apricots of Humanity knowing her true self and nature, she is an enigmatic and deceptive strategist.
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== History ==
=== Origin ===
Serene originates from Leipzig, Germany under the Ziegler family, a wealthy and fortunate family. However before the birth of her younger sister, her parents performed psychological and social experiments on her in order to find out how to raise a daughter, the natures of a daughter and situational assessments. She would often be supported by her older brother, Cal. Serene is incredibly adaptive, independent and self-learning. She quickly learned how to read by the age of 3 and started to draw creative artworks by the age of 5. 
During her childhood, she would meet Ezekiel Hollenfeuer, whom she would quickly befriend. Commonly, she was met with issues about life and problems but Ezekiel openly listened which forged their bond. They continuously fought though, but that didn't nullify their friendship. By this time, Ezekiel was slowly falling in love, but chose to held back and suppress himself upon the knowledge of her sexuality. In addition, Erwin Hollenfeuer heavily had mixed opinions and resentment toward Serene knowing that multiple lesbians or bisexuals had severely affected Ezekiel's psychological life. During her early adolescence, she discovered crystals and their effects in spirituality. With this came witchcraft, which she studied and practiced. However a slip-up caused her to unintentionally possess magic which she wouldn't tell anyone about. She continued collecting crystals, some given by Ezekiel through his Kinetic Art, this significantly improved her mental health which developed her belief. 
Eventually, Serene fell in with the wrong people who manipulated her and hurt her. She was constantly harassed and also resented despite her efforts to keep the group together and further develop the bond, health and relationships. She even treated one of the members with anxiety but to no avail. In the end, it fell and it severely affected her mental health and she eventually fell into a hole of moral challenge. She then again fell with another group, which turned against her but upon her realization, she quickly falsified and faked a new member and manipulated every single one of them through psychological and spiritual tactics to eventually counter that. Afterwards, she deliberately caused the collapse of this group, eventually triumphant. This is where Serene realized her potential. During the Martial Law period, she participated in multiple humanitarian and relief groups. But, she also initiated Black Propaganda to calm people down, with other indirect practices such as hexes where she caused the mysterious deaths or illnesses of rebels in order to impose fear and keep peace. Ezekiel noticed her volatility and danger levels. But instead of leaving, he stayed loyal due to empathy and appreciation. This indirectly inspired Ezekiel to develop the Panzer persona. 
During her middle adolescence, Serene practiced more and more hobbies, eventually being known as a polymath for having different talents and expertise. In college, she befriended Zacharias Klinge, who she would influence severely. Not much had happened during her college life other than the fact that she completely mastered marksmanship and psychological strategy.
She then worked part-time as a volunteer for relief and humanitarian groups and organizations, with her experience from Martial Law. Eventually she was "bored" of life and eventually joined a corps in the military focusing on psychological operations and humanitarian aid.
=== Prequel ===
During this time, Zacharias under the influence of the new Panzer would slowly break down due to moral challenge. Serene notices this and eventually focuses on rehabilitating the two but to no avail. She let it slide upon realizing that Panzer is still human and still able to understand morality, but Zacharias completely bothers her. Zacharias eventually admits his feelings to Serene, but to be met with rejection which influences Zacharias' further breakdown. Disappointed and concerned, Serene watches Zacharias' lapses in judgement and actions and his reliability on influence. This affects Serene and gives her mild existential crises but eventually comes to the realization that she cannot fix a person that cannot be fixed. During this time, Panzer had been rejected for another time which led him to fall for Serene "just for fun and reason", but in reality he had already clung to Serene. 
However, Serene is unbothered due to the knowledge that Panzer would dispose and take care of people who like her. Serene clearly hates people crushing on her and somewhat uses, supports and prides in Panzer's decision to eliminate admirers of Serene. She eventually helps Panzer develop his second personality and supports his decisions to use his powers and knowledge to achieve actualization. This served as the transition between the prequel and Descendants of Calamity.
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== Appearance ==
Serene is a mildly short and leanly-built person. She is constantly overdressed with oversized clothing. She usually wears capelets, cape coats or trench coats as part of her uniform, otherwise she would wear jackets, sweaters or hoodies. She wears a black, rimmed witch's hat and circular frame glasses. She has long flowy hair and usually wears eyeliner. Her eyes also depend on the phase of the moon, they adapt based on the moon phase. 
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== Personality ==
Serene has multiple personalities. However her outsider personality, which Ezekiel calls as her "Zee persona" is usually a kind, sweet and fun person. She would constantly buy gifts, spend time and show affection toward friends. She considers almost all of her friends as siblings, in some cases, platonic love. She immediately rushes toward people who are sad, down or demotivated to prevent further negative effects due to them. She constantly promotes healthiness and fitness to prevent breakdowns of other friends after Zacharias' fall. In summation, "the Zee persona" is a very sweet and morally high person with high value toward other people. 
However, after Serene's experiences, she is aware of people's judgement, manipulation and evil. She resents those who are violating the laws of humanity or nature. She usually hides it effectively to prevent that revelation for her reputation. Due to her strategy, Serene can quickly prevent manipulation or morale loss in groups by motivating them in certain ways. As such, she can reverse-manipulate a manipulator due to her playful nature. Not much is known about her real personality due to her mysteriousness and enigmatic nature, apart from her volatility and reactive thinking to offenses.
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== Abilities and Skills ==
Serene is a witch and sorceress. Having the essential ability to use magic and witchcraft passively and offensively. Although she does have enough destructive power to alter or destroy reality, as she claims, she is hindered by her morality and empathy. At a very young age, she easily learns by herself and adapts to any situation through improvisation and strategy which suggests her intelligence. Like both Ezekiel and Lieutenant Germany, she can easily detect and prevent psychological tricks or manipulation. 
Casting - Serene physically attacks by summoning crescent-shaped slashes toward opponents to offend or to defend herself depending on the occasion.
Strong Intuition - Serene can see or feel the future as if the universe was speaking to her. Although it is similar to foresight, she doesn't fully see the future, only in some sort of predictions se feels. 
Hex Casting - Serene indirectly attacks by performing rituals or spells that hex her adversaries. They come in illnesses, typically biological manipulation and it depends on the severity of the hex. In some cases, teeth fall out, hairs fall, eyes deteriorate, body weakens and significant breakage of relationships. This is her most harmful power which she refuses to use unattended.
Healing - Through the use of Lunar magick, Serene can mentally heal. She can banish whatever is bothering her and meditate for a brighter imminence. With this, she can also develop her mentality and mindset in order to persevere. 
Manifestation - Serene can manifest events. She once manifested for Panzer's strength which was a spiritual reason for Ezekiel's transformation into a serial killer as she manifested for someone, in this case, Ezekiel, to eliminate and rid of her admirers. This is her aggressive method of taking action.
Banishing - Serene is able to eliminate or dispel unwanted conditions. Usually through the form of natural manipulation wherein she "communicates with the universe" to naturally dispel a cause or a condition. This is her passive method of taking action.
Natural Charisma - Serene is born with charisma. She can easily use it through fear, which is an ideal motivator according to her eyes. But also because of her extroversion and sainthood, she easily develops this charisma and becomes knowledgeable in her position. Sometimes, her eyes reflect her intentions of violence which makes her far more threatening.
Emotional Intelligence - Due to her psychology major, she can easily read people's emotions and intentions through simply reading their body language and immense eye contacts or death stares.
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