Ziz

is a member of the Wandering Sea, part of the Guénon workshop.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 1 He is an antagonist appearing in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II.
==Profile==
===Background===
Ziz was once a citizen living under the rule of Alexander the Great, and a magus in the cult of Zagreus. Ziz knew that Iskandar pursuing the sea at the end of the world would only end in death. Upon Iskandar's death and the outbreak of the , all the war and bloodshed caused Ziz to determine that the cruelty of the world is too much. It is neither humanity's nor the gods' fault, and humanity's successors as Prime Species would also have those same problems, just as there were mass extinction events before humans.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 8: Fem's Casa (Lower) - Chapter 6
Ziz was one of the magi involved in the creation of Ergo, along with the Crudelis family of Atlas and Wuzhiqi. The god he provided for the project was Oceanus. He possesses the third claim to Ergo. He is the mentor of Bai Ruolong, who he created as a backup for his plans with Ergo.
About two thousand years ago Ziz established the Morganfarce family in Monaco to tend to land there so he could use it in the future for his plans.
Ziz having the third claim to Ergo behind Wuzhiqi and the Crudelis family means that something might happen to him before Ziz's turn comes.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 2 Nevertheless he has an opponent who he has been waiting years for, and so he wants to set up the board just in case for when his opponent arrives, hence his desire to obtain Akira Yakou. When asked who his opponent was Ziz showed a mask of Sun Wukong.
===Appearance===
Ziz looks like he's in his mid-twenties, but he is much older than that, resulting in a jarring mismatch between his youthful face and much older tone of voice. He has an unnaturally good-looking face, with large amber-colored eyes, a nose looking as if it had been sculpted, glowing lips, and gray hair cascading down to his neck. Because of his appearance, he is described as a gray wolf.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Interlude
Adventures Visual Promotional Image.png|Ziz in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Visual Key, illustrated by Mineji Sakamoto.
===Personality===
Ziz loves gambling. He chose to be a mage solely because that would raise the ceiling for what kinds of bets he can make. All the logic and the calculations are lost forever at the ends of the betting act. Winning or losing doesn't make a difference, because by the point you place something in the wagering scales, that means you don't mind losing it. You can build something up for thousands, even millions of years, but it only gains meaning when you throw it away.
Ziz laments the fall of the Age of Gods, but doesn't blame either the gods or humanity for it. He views it as the gods knowingly sacrificing themselves for the future generation, and it isn't anyone's fault. Likewise he sees the war and cruelty of humans not as their fault either, but as the cruel reality of the world itself.
The view of the moon makes him want to drink.
To Ziz, students are precious tools he dedicated the most time and effort to produce.
==Role==
===The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II===
====The Man Who Devoured God====
Disguised as an actor portraying Sun Wukong in a show reenacting his battle with Nezha, Ziz gave Gray and Lord El-Melloi II a flower with a secret note attached. The note claimed one of El-Melloi II's students had been kidnapped and he should seek out the "Consultant".The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 1: The Man Who Devoured God - Chapter 1 Though this later turns out to have been a lie, it was what got El-Melloi II in contact with Ergo. Ziz orchestrated their meeting because the old agreement didn't let him meet Ergo out of turn, but if he didn't intervene in any way, the game would end on Latio Crudelis Hiram's turn and that just wouldn't be any fun.
====The Devil of the Wandering Sea====
Several months ago Ziz made a bet with Akane Yakou: His student Bai Ruolong would kidnap her granddaughter Akira Yakou. If the Yakous got Akira back they could do whatever they wanted with Bai Ruolong; conversely, if Ruo succeeded then Ziz could do whatever he wanted with Akira. He proposed this bet instead of simply kidnapping Akira because consent is important in magecraft. Stealing the Divine Body wouldn't do anything to the Yakous' contract with their god, so mutual consent was a key factor. But more importantly, Ziz just loves gambling.
After the incident with Akira was resolved and Ergo and Bai Ruolong had the battle they wished for, Ziz appeared. As Akira didn't want to leave Ruo, that meant Ziz had won a bet he didn't actually want to win. Begrudgingly taking his prize, Ziz split the Yakou Divine Body in two, leaving half for the Yakou and half for him to feed to Ruo. A fair compromise for all, but not ideal for anyone. Ziz asked Ergo if he could remember him; Ergo couldn't but knew he hated him anyway, which Ziz found an ideal answer. After telling El-Melloi II to prepare Ergo and his students before going after Ergo's third god, Ziz then teleported away with both Bai Ruolong and Akira.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 6
====Legacy of the Alchemist====
After three hours of painful spiritual surgery, Ziz manages to remove 70% of Rhongomyniad's shadow from Bai Ruolong. It has been unbearably painful for Ruo. A seal on the level of Rhongomyniad Mythos is rare even for the standards of the Age of Gods, and without the surgery it would have taken over a century to dissipate on its own.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 4: Legacy of the Alchemist (Upper) - Intermission
Although Ruo questions if it was a good idea to let Ergo go, Ziz is confident that El-Melloi II will never be able to guess the identity of Ergo's third god and so he is in no hurry to rush right now, but he is looking forward to El-Melloi II discovering something significant.
Later, Flat Escardos calls El-Melloi II to say that he's having tea with Ziz in Monaco.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 5: Legacy of the Alchemist (Lower) - Epilogue
====Fem's Casa====
Following Flat's phone call, El-Melloi II flies to Monaco to confront Ziz. Once they meet, Ziz challenges him to a game at Van-Fem's casino. Ziz also tasks Bai Ruolong with capturing Shirou Emiya, who had recently defeated Van-Fem in a game, to learn how he did it.
Ziz has taken Melvin Weins and Ye Sizhen as his apprentices. When Ziz is shot with one of Kiritsugu Emiya's Origin Bullets by an unknown assailant, he is declared dead by Van-Fem and Melvin sends him away for burial at sea with Age of Gods Magecraft that Ziz taught him. Some time later a massive spell begins to converge on Monaco from the sea, which could only be Ziz's doing, and Van-Fem laments that if he were only 700 years younger he could have figured out what Ziz was up to.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 6: Fem's Casa (Upper) - Chapter 4
Ziz genuinely did not expect to die there, though he knew it was a possibility. It was no trick or part of his plan, he was really assassinated. His death was orchestrated by his descendant, Ithillid Morganfarce, because Ziz didn't even look at the Morganfarce family when he returned to them and just said he'd be using their land.
Having given up on humanity, Ziz's plan was to create a new, better planet and start over. To that end he cultivated a magical land in Monaco for 2,000 years through his descendants, the Morganfarce family, that could combine with his Reality Marble, Zagreus, and Oceanus inside Ergo to form a planet. Even a tiny planet would be fine for him.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 6: Fem's Casa (Upper) - Chapter 7
Ziz is able to activate his Reality Marble and begins his attempt to create a new world, but his Reality Marble is momentarily halted by Shirou countering with his own Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works. Gray and Ergo draw Caliburn from the ground inside Unlimited Blade Works and use it to cut Ziz in half, followed by Ergo shooting him with one of Kiritsugu Emiya's Origin Bullets. Having failed in his goals, as per the terms of failure in his contract with Zagreus, Bai Ruolong arrives to kill him. Ziz informs El-Melloi II that Wuzhiqi is in the Himalayas, and as he dies Van-Fem sends off his old friend by sending a flock of doves flying to the moon.
==Abilities==
As a mage of the Wandering Sea, Ziz uses Age of Gods magecraft. The god that Ziz (and by extension, his students) is contracted with to use his magecraft is Zagreus.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 7: Fem's Casa (Middle) - Chapter 3The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 7: Fem's Casa (Middle) - Chapter 4
Ziz is capable of teleportation by drawing a mark in the air, which calls up a powerful gust of wind. Although in the modern day teleportation is in the domain of Magic and as such impossible for normal magi to do, Ziz is a mage from the Wandering Sea and therefore from a different era, so it's just magecraft to him. He knows an ancient spiritual surgery which he used to cut the Yakou Divine Body in half. After three hours of surgery on Bai Ruolong, Ziz could remove 70% of the effects of Rhongomyniad Mythos's seal on him.
Ziz taught Ruo a special spell for emergencies; enabling his baguazhang to hit the Divine Arms' core.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 3 The Wandering Sea spell Ruo shot Ergo with sealed Sun Wukong completely, so Ergo couldn't load his Divine Core, but he could still use the Phantom Hands just fine.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 3
===Astral Infant===
Ziz has a Reality Marble, . It takes the form of his own body. He discarded his actual body long ago to use his Reality Marble as a body instead. The purpose of the Reality Marble is to combine with Zagreus, Oceanus inside Ergo, as well as the magical land in Monaco, and create a new planet.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 8: Fem's Casa (Lower) - Chapter 8
Astral Infant is a world of stagnation, rejecting hasty consumption that outspeeds production. When it is activated, Astral Infant causes Ziz's body to become made of light and he can create astral swordsmen also made of light to fight for him. The area around Ziz remains the same as before the Reality Marble was used, but everything beyond a certain radius is an empty, stagnating darkness resembling outer space. People and objects caught in the darkness are slowed down.
The terrain of Astral Infant was able to be pushed back by Shirou Emiya using his own Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, but Lord El-Melloi II deduced that in an extended battle Astral Infant would win out.
==References==
Category:Characters in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II
Category:Humans
Category:Wandering Sea magi
Category:Introduced in 2022
Category:Teachers
Category:Reality Marble users
Category:Reality Marbles
Category:Europeans