Zero (Final Fantasy XIV)

"Zero" is a character in Final Fantasy XIV, introduced as a reluctant antagonist in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker as the reaper avatar of Zenos Galvus, before being expanded upon and named in patch 6.2 as a supporting character. She is a resident from the Thirteenth, a Memoriate who was rendered a voidsent after the Flood of Darkness consumed her world. Her real name is unknown, with the name "Zero" being given to her by Y'shtola Rhul.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
"Zero" was born in the Thirteenth during a war that came to be known as the Contramemoria. While still being carried in her mother's womb, her mother came in contact with the Darkness that was consuming the world, with the unborn child being influenced by it, being born half-Hyur, half-voidsent. Due to her voidsent side, she stopped ageing when she was a young adult. She eventually learned how to wield her power as a Memoriate, able to seal Eidolons away in crystals known as Memoria. After her mother died, Zero carried on her mission alone and fought to protect innocents. One time, she encountered two men seemingly on a same mission as her. They invited her to join them, but she refused, having grown distrusting others due to Memoriates succumbing to the corruption of Darkness and only fighting for gain. She carried on alone until one defeat at the hands of villainous Memoriates left her desperate for help and cursing her lack of strength. While she was lying in the snow immediately after this defeat, her world's aetheric balance was finally completely consumed by Darkness and transformed into the void. She was swept away into the Rift and was spared from being wholly transformed into a voidsent and was able to return to her world after some unknown time.
Having been born the way she did, she maintained a greater control over herself compared to other voidsent, whose astral nature rendered them aether-starved, causing them to perpetually hunger for aether. The Contramemoria eventually culminated with the Flood of Darkness, which consumed the Thirteenth and turned all who came in contact with it into voidsent. The excess Darkness transformed her more into a voidsent than Hyur, though she was strong enough to remain sentient and kept the power to use Memoria, leaving her as the sole surviving Memoriate. The voidsent Memoriate crafted a domain of her own, one resembling the ruins of a village. Other voidsent, usually weaker ones and those fleeing cruel masters, came to reside in the village as well. As more and more voidsent came to reside in her domain, she became its de facto leader due to being the strongest voidsent among them, despite having no strong desire to rule.
=== Zenos's avatar ===
Thousands of years later, when the disgraced Garlean prince Zenos Galvus of the Source took up the discipline of the Reaper, he reached into the void and forged a pact with the voidsent, using her as his avatar. Zenos's unusual strength allowed him to force a lopsided pact, taking of her power without offering anything in return, as well as further twisting the voidsent's appearance with excess Darkness. The voidsent hated this but could not resist Zenos. During the Final Days of the Source, Zenos's sole purpose was to seek "singular bliss" through mortal combat with his only "friend", the Warrior of Light. He used the powers granted by his pact with the voidsent to combat fell beasts spawned by the Final Days and attempted to attack the Scions of the Seventh Dawn members with the voidsent while inhabiting the body of the Warrior of Light. His activities culminated in one-on-one duel against the Warrior at the edge of the universe, where Zenos used the voidsent to attack the Warrior of Light while he fought them himself, enshrouding himself to burn through the last of his life in a battle to the death. The duel ended in Zenos's death, and the voidsent was freed from her forced pact, returning to the void, finding herself back in a world she deemed "bereft of saviors". However, the effects of the pact with Zenos lingered, with her appearance remaining twisted.
=== Meeting the Warrior of Light ===
Some time later, the voidsent was captured and placed in the dungeon of the Fell Court of Troia, the domain of Beatrice. While kept under lock and key until the mistress of the Court would direct them to bring the captured voidsent to her, a guard attempted to consume the voidsent but was eaten in return. At that time the Warrior of Light, Y'shtola Rhul, Estinien Varlineau, and the great wyrm Vrtra, using his guise of his Au Ra simulacrum Varshahn, entered the void in search of Vrtra's long lost sister, Azdaja. After defeating the lady of the Court as well as the interloper Scarmiglione, the group looked to find information regarding Azdaja's whereabouts. The residents of the Court directed the group towards the "clever voidsent" they had captured, whom the Warrior recognized as Zenos's former avatar, though they noted that she did not desire a fight. Upon approaching the voidsent, Hydaelyn's crystal of Light, carried by the Warrior, reacted to her, purging the excess Darkness from the voidsent with its Light and restoring her to a more Hyur-like form.
The voidsent explained how she came to be there, and questioned the Warrior of Light about them being a "friend", as the concept of friend introduced to her during her time as Zenos's avatar intrigued her. The party asked for information, which she agreed to satiate on the condition of receiving aether, as it was long the currency of choice in the void. Realizing that the group had no name for the voidsent, who did nothing to introduce herself, Y'shtola named her "Zero", which the voidsent took to mean "nothing", while Y'shtola took it to mean "a beginning". Zero accepted the name and explained the laws of the Thirteenth to them. 
Just when Y'shtola was about to give some of her aether to Zero, the group was ambushed by the reincarnated Scarmiglione. Zero initially did not help, as the party had yet to pay for her services, even refusing to inform them of a method to stop the quickly reincarnating minions of Scarmiglione. Y'shtola convinced Zero that she was indebted to the party for having accepted the name offered to her and Zero joined the party's efforts in fighting the minions and Scarmiglione, using her powers as Memoriate to seal the other voidsent in Memoria.
As part of another bargain, Zero escorted the party to her domain on the back of a flying voidsent and accompanied the Warrior of Light to gather more information on Golbez from the denizens of her domain. Zero explained that one of the resident voidsent used to serve under one of Golbez's Archfiends. They were looking for Farfarello and Ciriatto, two cowardly voidsent who often stayed together to feed off each other to stave off their hunger. The two only found Ciriatto, who acted uncharacteristically like Farfarello, including having memories of their companion. Zero and the Warrior of Light deduced that, at Farfarello's request, Ciriatto had consumed their companion entirely and Farfarello's soul and memories had been imbued into them. Ciriatto explained Farfarello hated the way voidsent lived and serving Barbariccia especially, and initially sought refuge in Zero's domain. However, Farfarello had sensed Barbariccia's approach and out of desperation and fear begged Ciriatto to devour them. 
Zero witnessed Barbariccia's domain appear near Zero's, and met with the rest of the group in the plaza, where Barbariccia appeared and invited the group to face her at her domain. Zero agreed to another bargain, a portion of Varshawn's prodigious aether as a member of the first brood in exchange for her help to combat the Archfiend and her minions. On their way to Barbariccia's domain, the group was accosted by her flying minions, and began to fight them off, with the Warrior of Light going ahead to fight the Archfiend herself. Zero, meanwhile, sealed any defeated and weakened voidsent in Memoria. After the Warrior of Light defeated Barbariccia, Zero dealt the finishing blow to the Archfiend, sealing her in Memoria. Zero, exhausted from exerting and depleting herself of aether, fell unconscious. The party brought Zero back to her domain and her abode, and decided to take her to the Source to recover.
The party brought Zero to Radz-at-Han so she could more easily recover due to the rich ambient aether, which saved the party the trouble of having to share their own aether. Upon waking up, Zero was confused, believing herself to be in an inn before the Flood of Darkness. Upon properly awakening, Zero encountered Nidhana and was surprised at the unfamiliar Matanga. After recovering from the initial shock, the Warrior of Light gave Zero a tour of the city, where she interacted with children and asked them the definition of a "friend". Zero began acclimating to the customs of mortals. She still maintained the voidsent code of transactionality, and made it clear that if Varshahn and the Warrior of Light wished to continue employing her, she would continue to ask to be paid, and that, given that their goal would inevitably lead to a conflict with Golbez, the price would not be cheap. She was amazed that the Warrior of Light and their party wanted to help the Thirteenth.
=== Return to Garlemald ===
After the party's return to the void was diverted by what Vrtra sensed to be Azdaja's presence in the Source, Zero accompanied the party to the north, where she was introduced to the Leveilleur siblings, with Alisaie taking an instant liking to Zero due to their shared distaste for Zenos. 
While the rest searched for an engineer to repair a magitek snowcraft needed for their journey, she remained at Tertium as a guard and to help hand out food to the needy. She and Jullus conversed with the latter handing her an Azim Steppe style dumpling, a Buuz, to eat. Although yet to regain her sense of taste, Zero nevertheless expressed surprise at being able to feel a sensation in her mouth. 
When Jullus received reports of a missing unit transporting supplies to Camp Broken Glass, Zero volunteered to find them. After arriving at the area, she was overwhelmed by the sheer number of voidsent present, but rescued by the timely arrival of the Warrior of Light and the Leveilleur siblings. Together, they fought off the threat and returned to Tertium, where an exhausted Zero took some time to recover. After recovering, Zero joined the others in investigating Lapis Manalis, where they discovered that one of Golbez's archfiends, Cagnazzo, had lured them into Garlemald with Azdaja's eye. They defeated him and returned to Radz-at-Han. 
After Rubicante takes advantage of the party's absence to destroy the portal into the Void at Alzadaal's Legacy, Zero joined the Warrior of Light after they defeated him at Mount Ordeals, and learnt more about Golbez's motives. She stated to Rubicante that, while she did not fully understand about their need to reclaim their mortality via conquering the Source, it was wrong to condemn others in order to save themselves, and that not everything needed to be a transaction, something which she learnt in the Source. She also stated that she would follow the ways of her new companions than be a hunger-maddened beast. 
After Rubicante's passing, the party returned to Radz-at-Han, with Zero having decided to stop her requests for payment each time her aid is needed. Conversing with Vrtra, she agreed to accompany them once a method back into the Thirteenth was found, to try and understand why she said the things to the late Archfiend, as well as the fire that began burning in her chest when her life was saved in Garlemald. 
=== War against Golbez ===
Zero asked the Warrior and Varshahn to join her at Mehryde's Meyhane, as she needed to "replenish her aether". She had gained a reputation to be able to hork down extremely spicy food without feeling much of anything. This time the Warrior chose a spice for her next meal, which was too hot for other patrons, but she managed easily, and the Warrior just barely.
After the meal, they delivered Estinien food and conversed, until Y'shtola arrived with Urianger. Y'shtola had found a way to open a new gate to the Thirteenth. The gate was to be opened in Mare Lamentorum by using the Tower of Babil to send a wave of aether to Zodiark's former prison. Y'shtola believed that since the Source and the reflections were geographically similar, a voidgate from Source's moon should allow them to reach Thirteenth's moon directly. First they needed a sufficient aether to open the gate. For that, Urianger had a solution: harvest aether from the Island of Haam near Sharlayan, the very aether the Forum intended to use to fuel the starship Ragnarok to carry out the exodus. Access to the island had been restricted, and Urianger suggested they pay visit to the Students of Baldesion to obtain the Forum's permission.
Zero accompanied the Warrior, Urianger and Varshahn to Sharlayan and met Krile, though she told her not to mind her, as she was merely accompanying them. As they briefed Krile, she agreed to help them to get the Forum's permission to access the island of Haam. Urianger then led them into Labyrinthos to speak with people, who had been working on Ragnarok's propulsion system, in order find a suitable way to transfer aether to Garlemald. Eventually, Kokkol Dankol agreed to help them, having built the aether tanks meant to be used in Ragnarok. Krile also succeeded in convincing the Forum, and the Forum's only request was that the heroes cull any monsters on the island. Zero was surprised that the Forum agreed on so easy bargain, with Fourchenault Leveilleur and Scholarc Montichaigne caliming they owed the Scions for saving the world from the Final Days.
Acquiring a boat and also Thancred Waters to journey to the island, Urianger advised Zero to ask from Thancred about the matters she desired answers for. After clearing the island, Kokkol and couple of scientists arrived to collect the aether and he asked the heroes to stand watch. Thancred commented that the Warrior probably would've handled this matter without him, but Zero was not so sure. She asked why Thancred what drove him to come here if that is how he believed. Thancred claimed it was faith and trust into his friends. The word trust resonated within Zero, as she had not heard about trust in so long, but remembering that trust was luxury during Contramemoria, as everyone only looked after their own gain, and thus she wouldn't know how to trust. Thancred advised her to stay close to the Warrior, and she would learn in no time.
Zero traveled to Garlemald with the group and attempted to secure the Garleans' agreement to use the Tower of Babil. This proved difficult due to the Garleans' mistrust and resentment of dependency on the Ilsabard Contingent and remaining nationalistic pride. Zero saw Jullus swaying the most stubborn Garlean magistrates and believed this was a demonstration of trust. Zero and Jullus shared a conversation about trust and Zero's past. Zero reflected on her unwillingness to put her trust in others, having witnessed many betrayals. However, her time in the Source had taught her what trust meant and what a friend was.
Zero and the group traveled to Mare Lamentorum to check on Y'shtola's progress opening the Void Gate. Zero volunteered to help the Loporrits modify their defensive robots to better fight voidsent, though she appeared overzealous in her demonstration of power. After completing all the preparations, she departed with the Warrior of Light, Y'shtola, and Estinien, declaring she would be back before long.
Arriving on the Thirteenth's moon, Zero was drawn to the chasm, within which the party found Azdaja. With no way of directly breaking the seal, the party searched for Golbez. They came across a memorial with a Memoriate crystal. The Warrior of Light's vision of the past showed that the fallen Memoriate was a person from Zero's past, mystifying Zero. Golbez revealed himself and Zero recognized him as one of the Memoriates offering her a place in their group. Zero, alongside the visitors to the moon, were helpless to prevent Golbez from transforming Azdaja into a voidsent. Zero helped hold off Golbez's minions while the Warrior of Light defeated Golbez. Their actions proved to be in vain, as Golbez had enough time to summon a powerful voidsent using Zodiark's lingering aether and Azdaja's body. Zero found that this voidsent, named Zeromus, was too powerful and her attacks could not harm it. She was forced to retreat to the Source with her allies.
Returning to Vrtra's palace, Zero offered Vrtra some hope, noting that voidsent souls still existed after being devoured, and defeating the devouring voidsent would free the souls trapped within. All Vrtra would need to do was call out to her with all his might. After discussing how to deal with Zeromus with the group, Zero headed off to train with Estinien.
=== Light in the Darkness ===
Y'shtola returned with aether transmitters made by Garlond Ironworks. She theorized that with them, the Light from the Flood in the First could be channeled to the Crystal Tower, and then through the rift to the Thirteenth. It was up to the Warrior to deliver the transmitters to the First. Zero desired to see the First herself by using a spirit vessel and Y'shtola offered hers. The Warrior traveled to the Crystarium, first meeting with Beq Lugg to help with Zero's soul transfer, and then with Ryne to address the matter of channeling the Light.
When Zero received her temporal body, she met with Ryne. She offered to show Zero around the Crystarium and Zero was amazed how the Scions had managed to restore the sky. After the tour, the three were eager to head to Nabaath Areng, but Lyna caught up with them first to address a matter of possible consequences of their actions. Zero realized that using the very Light that nearly brought ruin to the First could spell fear and uncertainty with citizens of Norvrandt, and Lyna asked the Warrior to consider this, even though she knew they would never use the Light for ill. Lyna suggested they first visit Eulmore to discuss the matter with mayor Chai-Nuzz and then with the Night's Blessed in Rak'Tika Greatwood.
In Eulmore, Chai-Nuzz was willing to accept the Scions' plan, but suggested they talk with the citizens themselves. No one objected, since the Warrior of Darkness and the Oracle of Light were asking, as the citizens of Eulmore were in debt to them for rescuing them from Vauthry's tyranny.
In Slitherbough, they talked with Runar, who also gave his approval, since while they worship the Darkness, they do not force their beliefs on anyone. Zero was intrigued about the Night's Blessed, and Runar directed her to the traditional soul-cleansing ritual. In the end, Zero felt the ritual had boosted her will.
Finally heading to Amh Araeng to the site where Minfilia had halted the Flood of Light, they were joined by miners from Twine. After setting up the transmitters, Zero looked at the Flood. Remembering Jullus's words from her last visit to Garlemald, Zero drew Light from the Flood into herself, believing she could become stronger. However, after drawing some Light, she collapsed. Ryne applied to her the same procedure she did when she saved the Warrior from being consumed by excessive Light. Zero recovered, and claimed she took the Light because she now believed, through her friends, that saving the Thirteenth was possible, and maybe with this Light she could do something. Ryne offered to help her, as she, too, was once uncertain of herself, until her friends showed her the way, seeing Zero as a kindred spirit. With additional encouragement from the Warrior, Zero drew more Light from the Flood and Ryne gave her support, allowing Zero to carry Light without side effects. The transmitters directed Light to the Crystal Tower, and Warrior and Zero were ready to return to the Source and take the fight to Golbez and Zeromus.
After Zero returned to her own body, she, the Warrior, Y'shtola, and Vrtra traveled to Mare Lamentorum and entered the voidgate once more along with Estinien. They set up the transmitters, and Beq Luqq used the Crystal Tower to channel the Light to the Thirteenth. The Light punched a hole into the veil of Darkness, allowing the heroes to enter the Lunar Subterrane.
A memoria crystal appeared and transferred the heroes into a memory, where Durante and his friend attempted to save their home, Baron, during Contramemoria. A dark memoriate had corrupted Durante's friend, forcing the two friends to fight each other. Despite the power he used, the friend had defeated Durante. Durante had grasped the last of his strength to slice off his friend's helmet, and struck him, turning his essence into memoria. Durante had taken the friend's helmet. The heroes realized that the Golbez they had fought was not the original, but Durante who had assumed his identity to honor his memory.
Golbez appeared and revealed that after he killed the original Golbez, he swore to save the world. The Ascian Igeyorhm had appeared, claiming that the source of Contramemoria was a servant of Light on the moon, who had given the means for memoriates to trap eidolons, and had urged Golbez to kill the servant, the Watcher of Zodiark's shard on the Thirteenth. Golbez had done as he was told, but after he killed the Watcher, he had unknowingly destroyed the last shred of Light on the Thirteenth, unleashing the Flood of Darkness. Since that day, he had toiled to find a way to save the world. Azdaja's arrival had been one part, but it was not until Zodiark was destroyed that he finally had the aether necessary to break the veil between worlds.
Zero understood that she and Golbez shared the same goal but with different means. She asked him to try a different way, but he refused, claiming that her power could not overcome Zeromus's. The heroes followed him, and despite being wounded, he brought out shades of his archfiends. Zero and others held them and Golbez off to allow the Warrior to challenge Zeromus. Golbez claimed that Zeromus would devour the Warrior, but Zero and others held on to their faith for the Warrior, who had overcome insurmountable odds time and again and always held on to hope, with Zero affirming their belief in the Warrior.
Golbez was defeated, but he still refused to allow them to stop Zeromus. Zero pointed out that there was no true salvation in flooding the Source with voidsent, as it would not save the Thirteenth. Showing Golbez the Light she had gathered from the First, Zero convinced him that their world could be saved.
Zero, Y'shtola, Estinien, Vrtra, and Golbez joined the Warrior in defeating Zeromus for good. Golbez claimed that since the being was a voidsent, the only way to stop Zeromus was to seal it in memoria. Zero told Vrtra that they were going to disperse it again to allow him to call to Azdaja. As Zero struck Zeromus, a mass of Darkness fell down on her, knocking her out and breaking her scythe. She heard her friends call to her, and drawing the Light within her, Zero's attire transformed from Darkness-aspected Reaper-like into Light-aspected Paladin-like, and she called out to Golbez to make amends by granting her his strength. With Golbez's magic and Zero's Light, Zeromus was dispersed, and Vrtra called out Azdaja, who heard her brother, but Zeromus was not about to let her go. Zero struck against Zeromus and sealed its essence into memoria. Azdaja was saved, and Vrtra gave her his eye to grant her corporeal form. Golbez began to walk away; even though he now believed that saving the Thirteenth was possible, he claimed he did not deserve to be alongside them, as he was the villain in this story. Zero believed that Golbez deserved a second chance, and gave him the same offer he had given her once before. Golbez accepted.
Outside the crater, the Warrior, Y'shtola, Estinien, Vrtra, and Azdaja prepared to return home. Zero thanked them all, but Golbez had refused to join them. Zero intended to remain on Thirteenth to labor in its restoration. Y'shtola summoned a nixxie for Zero to use as link between them and advised her to explain Golbez the true nature's of Light and Darkness. Zero gave the Warrior Zeromus's memoria crystal, and told them to give it to Ryne to use its Darkness to help restore the First. The Warrior and Zero bid farewell, but promised to see each other again.
== Characteristics ==
=== Appearance ===
As Zenos's avatar, Zero's appearance is a modified version of the standard Reaper avatar, lacking the sharpened teeth that a Reaper avatar normally has. The form is noticeably larger, and wears armor with glowing red arm pieces instead of the reaper cloak. There is a second set of humanoid hands covering Zero's eyes. Due to the excess dark-aspected aether Zenos imbued, Zero's avatar form emits a red mist around itself.
Zero's human form is that of a young Hyur woman. Her skin is pale-gray due to living in a world without light for thousands of years. She has short, dark hair and gray eyes. She wears violet-tinted black clothes with some light body and shoulder armor and a three-pointed brimmed feathered hat. She carries her scythe on her back, the weapon glowing light cyan when Zero prepares for battle. During the Contramemoria, Zero wears an altered version of the Troian Top of Scouting, Troian Breeches of Scouting, and Troian Sabatons of Fending. In battle, she wields a Crystarium Sword, and Augmented Cryptlurker's Kite Shield.
After absorbing a portion of Light from the First and unleashing its power during the final battle against Zeromus, her outfit changes to a suit of silver and white armor with a black leather top. Her scythe is replaced with a sword and the Moonward Kite shield.
=== Personality ===
Prior to becoming a Voidsent, Zero was an honorable warrior. She tried to fight for just causes and to protect people she cared about. However, she was a loner. Having seen or heard of Memoriates becoming corrupted, using and betraying allies, Zero was very mistrustful of others. 
When Zero was bound to Zenos as his voidsent avatar, she did not show much of a personality, save obeying Zenos and granting him her power. She would later remark that being part of Zenos's covenant was akin to a curse, as there was no equity between them, with the prince taking her strength for his hunt for the Warrior of Light. Zero would even state that Zenos was practically a voidsent in nature if not in form, as people were but tools to him, stepping stone for him to gain power. Ever since, any mentioning of Zenos, especially her forced association with him, angers Zero.
After being returned to her more Hyur-like form, Zero shows a humorless, almost depressed, straight-to-the-point, dour, and fatalistic demeanor. Having witnessed her world being consumed by the Flood of Darkness and her people twisted into voidsent, herself included, Zero sees little reason or motive to be happy. Her only concern is survival. She does not even consider the point of having a name, beside "voidsent", but relented after the party named her "Zero". She does not understand the concept of a 'friend', because she has spent her life in a world where every relationship was built on either strength or gain, and her only contact beyond that was with Zenos, whose use of the term and worldview was highly unusual to say the least. Despite the lack of normal interpersonal interaction, Zero does get to know the voidsent around her domain enough to know when they are acting strangely. As Zero spends more time in the Source and around the Warrior of Light and their friends, Zero gains a sense of empathy and tries to restore hope in them when they are feeling down.
Zero is a transactional being, much like the rest of the voidsent. If one wants her help, they have to pay her. The flipside is if someone does her a favor, she will feel indebted. When she is reluctant to aid the heroes against Scarmiglione because they have not paid her in aether, Y'shtola posits she owes them for giving her a name. Despite not having asked for the name, Zero accepts it nonetheless and joins them in the battle. Zero is wise when it comes to collecting payment. When she agrees to help fight Barbariccia, she waits to collect her payment, as paying it in part or in whole before the battle would hurt her own odds of survival and may leave her unable to collect the full payment later. She protects her clients from the voidsent of her domain, if only to guarantee nothing will happen to the payment she is to receive. As she spends time in the Source and observing its people's way of life, she learns to appreciate it and believes this is a better way of living. Eventually, she starts learning that not every interaction need be a transaction and she starts taking action on motives other than gaining aether, even if she cannot explain what the motive is. Zero eventually learns how to put her trust in others again, thanks largely in part due to the Scion's actions. Zero also gains the belief that saving one world should not come at the expense of dooming another.
Though Zero is aloof and stoic, and subscribes to the voidsent culture of 'deals', underneath that surface, she does retain some empathy. She allows the weaker, outcast voidsent to remain in her domain, and does not care about power or having minions. When brought to the Source, she takes time to adjust to a vibrant world. She gets scared by Nidhana, thinking her some sort of monster, and takes a bit to understand the concept of "food" and "friends". She considers herself a "stranger in a strange land". Despite seeing a world full of life and color, and being told of the Scions' efforts to save the First, a world that suffered a near similar fate to the Thirteenth, Zero maintains her fatalistic viewpoint of her home world, having no desire to save it. However, for a moment, Zero did appear to show a measure of hope that her world could be saved. Due to having lived in the void for millennia, Zero finds many normal things on the Source, such as the day-night cycle, to be interesting.
=== Abilities ===
As a Memoriate, Zero is capable of sealing creatures like voidsent and Eidolons into Memoria crystals, at the expense of her own aether. As part voidsent, Zero is perpetually aether-starved, requiring the consumption of ambient and living aether to survive, while also being able to consume aether by absorption, not needing to eat food. Zero wields a scythe with skill, sharing much of her combat style with Garlean Reapers.
== Gameplay ==
Fought as an enemy named Zenos's Avatar, Zero is encountered in the solo duty part of the quest. Zenos will summon her with the action , after which she will appear periodically as an untargetable enemy to unleash mechanics.
Initially she will cast , which will generate an AoE circle around her position. While she does this, Zenos will cast multiple conal AoEs from his position with . Zero will reappear later to cast , nine circle AoE attacks that go off sequentially and cover the entire arena. She will reappear as Zenos begins casting multiple s, with her simultaneously casting , a doughnut AoE with a safe spot near her. Zero will reappear once more after Zenos casts , inflicting the player character with the enfeeblement. While under these effects Zero will cast , a spell that will cause if seen when the cast is completed, while Zenos casts Star Beyond Stars again. If the player is petrified, they will be unable to avoid Zenos's .
Following this a second phase begins. While the player continues fighting Zenos, Zero will again cast Nine Nights, then disappear and reappear to cast Star Beyond Stars herself. Zero will again cast Mortal Coil during Zenos's Exaflare and once more Zero will cast Dead Gaze while the player is under the effects of Thin Ice and Zenos casts Star Beyond Stars. This pattern will repeat indefinitely. Her role in the fight will end once Zenos's health is depleted for the first time and she enshrouds him. 
Zero also appears as ally, during the solo instance duty as part of the quest. Zero will accompany the player character during the quest .
Zero is a Duty Support member in the dungeons , , and . Her job is Memoriate, which functions like a Reaper.
Zero is a temporary playable character in the instanced quest fight of . She has the melee and AoE combo skills of the Reaper class and Bloodbath to replenish her HP, alongside a unique attack called Engravement, which functions as her version of the Dragoon's Spineshatter Dive skill. She lacks an Avatar and cannot Enshroud, but due to her hybrid Voidsent nature, she can cast Communio without requirements.
Near the end of the second part of the battle, Zero must be protected from adds for her to use her Limit Break, called Scryption, her version of The End.
The minion is redeemable from an item code bundled with the Dawntrail: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack.
== Gallery ==
File:Zero attacking Scions.png|Zero being summoned to attack the Scions in Garlemald.
File:Zero in Troia.png|Zero in the dungeons of Troia.
File:Voidsent Avatar Zero concept art.jpg|Concept art of Zero as Zenos's voidsent avatar.
File:Enshrouded Zenos concept art.jpg|Concept art of Zero enshrouding Zenos.
File:Zero from Final Fantasy XIV concept art by Ayumi Namae.jpg|Concept art of Zero's true form by Ayumi Namae.
== Behind the scenes ==
Zero's general appearance is based on that of the titular D from the Vampire Hunter D novel series, designed and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. 
Zero was designed by Ayumi Namae, with her concept being based on the idea of "genderless" character with beautiful androgynous features, which she based on material featuring androgynous actors and characters collected over the years. The initial design order from the scenario team was "A voidsent from the Thirteenth, the World of Darkness (design line of the Void Ark) / Job: Reaper (scythe-wielder)/ Androgynous character with short hair / Image color: black to purple", which they narrowed down after trial and error, attempting to differentiate Zero's attire from existing Reaper gear and drops from the Void Ark dungeon, while still keeping in theme.
The game's producer-director, Naoki Yoshida, requested Zero's "traveller's hat", which led Namae and the design team to implement unique ear cuffs and chains in order to create an accent on the face separate from the more standard hat, whose design was more imitable by player equipment. This ear decoration in turn influenced the rest of the design, leading to the unique accents that result in the distinction between Zero's outfit and that of other Reaper and Ark designs. While being implemented by the 3D team Namae was in constant communication with them; with the 3D implementation of Zero being the most communication she had for an NPC Namae designed, with the 3D team trying to ensure everything was to spec.
Zero's enemy-turned-friend relationship with Golbez, and changing jobs from a darkness-based one to Paladin, are evocative of Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV.
== Citations ==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Hyur
Category:Reapers
de:Zero (FFXIV)
Category:Voidsents
Category:Paladins