Zar'Rioi

Comic

* Chapter 19

## **Zar'Rioi, The Prowler**

Zar'Rioi is brown-skinned kharr with long pinkish hair and dark tattoos under his eyes. He wears long ripped cape, his arms and belly are bandaged. He also often covers his mouth with bandages. His kharr abilities allows him to transform his hands into scorpion pincers and grow 1.5 meters long scorpion tail. His venom causes a lot of pain for a short time, but isn't really dangerous overall and can't kill (at least not in a single sting). Zar knows some basic sand magic tricks (like sand barrier) and often uses these to surprise his opponents.

Although he doesn't look particularly dangerous Zar'Rioi is incredibly skilled assassin. He can analyze his surroundings and come up with a plan before most people can pull their weapon out and make split-second decisions. His uncanny reflexes granted him a career in Khaak'Raff mercenary guild until Far'Hron took over the organization. After leaving the guild Zar followed his childhood dream of being a guide for hire.

Zar is a dreamer-type person. It's hard (but not impossible) for him to feel attached to someone or something other than his own personal goals and he doesn't have many friends because of this. He is confident in his skills and that is enough for him, but for those few people he trusts he will do whatever he can. Because of his neutral approach to live and his great combat capabilities there are only two things he is afraid of. First of them being the Sand Worms and second his old friend who ended up becoming his worst enemy - Wor'Saru.

## **Story**

Old and powerful mercenary guild Khaak'Raff has their headquarters in a mountain range east from Sift'u'Maru. Over centuries many legends were told about them, and about their infamous assassins, but one old tale stands out. The story about a 13 years old boy joining Khaak'Raff ranks. It is said that long ago guild send a mercenary to collect debt from old blacksmith Kurh'Rioi who preferred to spend all he earned on booze. Upon entering shithole known as Kurh's home the mercenary found the debtor dead and his son with green blood on his claws, preparing to leave.

Not knowing what to do, mercenary took young Zar'Rioi back to Khaak'Raff, where the boy surprised everyone. His reaction speed wasn't just above average. It was almost abnormal. He clearly had a great talent, and after proper training Zar'Rioi became one of the best assassins Shraa'Kharr ever saw. He travelled through the desert many times, made many friends and foes, would do whatever he wanted and life was beautiful, at least until old Far'Hron became their leader the guild began to fall and he kept most of money for himself. For years everyone quietly accepted downfall until one day Zar'Rioi, one of the elite assassins, gave Far'Hron a choice - he and others will be paid as much as they deserve or he will quit. Far'Hron laughed in his face and Zar'Rioi left without a word.

As he grew older killing was no longer as "fun" as it used to be, and not even worth the effort anymore. Zar used his knowledge about the desert to become a guide while his fighting skill were still useful if he needed to protect his client. For some time he peacefully guided kharr and humans to many places around Shraa'Kharr until suddenly his old comrades found him and drawn out their claws. Far'Hron convinced everyone that Zar'Rioi was a traitor and promised big reward for his head. Assassin after assassin chased the guide on the desert but none of them never came back, until the point nobody wanted to challenge him anymore.

Some members of Khaak'Raff slowly understood that maybe fighting Zar'Rioi wasn't the best idea. Some understood that they need better leader than Far'Hron. And some understood that Zar was right since the beginning.

## **In-game**

Zar'Rioi offers unique mechanic of executing enemies below health threshold and a targeted dash which resets on takedowns. This allows him for quick engage, burst and safe escape. No mage nor archer is safe while facing skilled Zar'Rioi player.

Abilities
Taking any damage or being hit by hard crowd control effect cleanses him from remaining shield and grants unstoppable for 1 second
 Eviscerate
Enemies below 5 health are instead execuded
Killing an enemy resets the cooldown of this ability
 Scornful Stab
After attacking the stabbed enemy 3 times within 4 seconds, the enemy takes 6 additional damage
6 (activated)

## **Trivia**

* Zar'Rioi is the only character with two different titles. In game he is called The Prowler, but on his character page in the comic his title is Desert Guide. That is because in the comic Dayini sees him as just a guide.
* Original draft of his kit included Sand Barrier as regular ability and Eviscerate as an instant blink to the closest enemy with low cooldown. It was really unfun to play and got scrapped before 1.0 release.
* The very first idea for a character that later turned into current Zar'Rioi was "arachnoid mummy assassin".
* Zar'Rioi is great guitar player.
* His first kill was his own father.
* One of his life goals is to travel south and see clouds.
* Zar'Rioi is homosexual, and years ago has fallen in love with Wor'Saru, who not only did not returned his feelings but got disgusted by Zar's "disability". Afterwards Zar refused to kill him 2 times and blinded him instead, only killing him in self-defence at the end of 3rd volume of the comic.