Zenos yae Galvus (FFXIV)

## Zenos yae Galvus

Mental illness.

## Personality

Zenos is the prince of the Garlean Empire and the man who’s crushed countless rebellions, standing at the absolute pinnacle of mankind due to his many enhancements. However, as is typical of those with lives that should be flawless, Zenos’ circumstances have not given him a shred of happiness. He cares not for pleasure, nor attention, nor love, nor the approval of his family. To Zenos, even the people who raised him amount to no more than a common stranger passing his window by. His nihilism is strange in the sense that, while he believes in no greater purposes, no reason for living, he finds comfort in the idea that people are intended to find their own meaning as they live.

That’s where the good ends and the horrible begins. Zenos’ childish cruelty is a shockwave that cuts all who displease him to pieces. While he’s not a mindless killing machine, he’s long since disregarded the concept of bonding with others, dehumanizing them until he sees his peers as little more than beasts to be hunted. The only pleasure other people grant him is a brief thrill as he chases them down and takes their life. Friends, enemies, family, his own men– none are spared.

However, should he come across someone who brings light back into his soul, someone who excites him and makes his days worth living, he abruptly becomes one of the most expressive people on the planet. Whether or not they hate him, Zenos considers interesting adversaries his dearest friends. He’ll excitedly pursue them to the ends of the earth, obsessing and disregarding everything aside from them until he’s satisfied, even developing manic protective tendencies in the interest of ensuring their survival.

## Abilities

Zenos is a freak of nature, experimented upon throughout his life with augmentations that make him faster, stronger, and more resilient than any man should be. Think Nemesis from Resident Evil. You can slow him down, sure, but you won’t stop him unless you get creative or hit him as hard as you possibly can. Even then, there’s no guarantee he’ll stay down. People fear him for a damn good reason.

He’s a master of swordsmanship and is capable of empowering his blows with magic in order to increase their effectiveness. His marksmanship isn’t half bad either, since his first weapon was the *Gunblade*, giving him adequate time to learn the ins and outs of **sniping a motherfucker from across the room.**

Lastly, the gemstone embedded in his forehead is actually a third eye, enhancing his perception and making him sensitive to changes in the environment. This heightens his accuracy.

## Weaknesses

With great strength comes no emotional range. Zenos is horrendously lonely, and doesn’t know how to make friends, leading to a crippling, unending depressive spiral that makes it difficult for him to get out of bed in the morning. His sole motivation in life is seeking someone worthy of his blade. His lack of ambition despite his high authority leads to Zenos self-sabotaging, having no consistent political allegiance, and scorning what few allies he does make. He’s an ouroboros of misery that’s constantly left spinning its wheels.

Likewise, Zenos’ sensitivity can be used against him, as attacking his third eye is the perfect way to debilitate him. It can be cracked through simple blunt force. Inflicting enough damage to it will make him stop fighting altogether.

Offering him something of interest is an easy way to get him under your thumb, as he will gladly take any deals or alliances that will make his life less drab. It doesn’t matter if he has to pay with his soul. He’ll do so without hesitation or fear for his mortality.

Zenos prefers to let people live so they can return stronger, or be hunted like animals when the urge strikes.

Although he is classified as a swordmaster, he utilizes one universal sword technique for every blade he picks up, which makes it easy to crack his style if someone has an affinity for deconstructing their opponents. This will force Zenos to improvise, which will put him at a disadvantage.

His desire for attention frequently overrides his bloodlust, and he’ll refuse to do someone harm unless their full attention is on him. This only applies if he has a shred of interest in his opponent, though, which is convenient for avoiding an annoying blonde bastard kicking their door in when they’re preoccupied.

Lastly, similar to Estinien, Zenos loses much of his effectiveness as a combatant when forced away from his armor and weapons. Granted, he fares better than the Elezen unarmed, but it’s still a painful debuff to suffer.

## Backstory

From a young age, Zenos was tutored in every field one would need to ascend the throne. Literacy, combat, political negotiations– but notably he was left without anyone to teach him how to interact with others outside of a business sense. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father was absent due to his busy life. “Training” the young prince involved physical abuse from his sword mentor, until one day, he managed to kill his tutor and steal his interest in bladeworks like some kind of parasite assimilating elements of the important people in his life. From that day, he lived for the front lines, acting as the sword of the empire in search of anyone who could make his life worth living.

During his exploits, many tried to assassinate him, and many more attempted to coax military secrets from the bloody prince. All efforts failed due to his unnatural resistance to alcohol and drugs. Seducing him didn’t work either, given his sexuality is firmly in the camp of “impress me first”. This led to frustration on the part of the rebellions he so effortlessly crushed.

Fruitless battle after fruitless battle, his reputation became that of a hellish beast who was only a fraction as kind as his predecessors. This destroyed his already tenuous relationship with his father, and eventually resulted in a violent and abrupt patricide.

## Trivia

* Zenos’ third eye gives him frequent migraines, but he’s too brick fucking stupid to notice when he’s in pain anymore.
* He enjoys videos of dogs running into screen doors.
* Although he’s a naturally affectionate person, he has no idea how to show affection outside of violence, which is a horrible combination of lethal faux pas.