Shiv Zaya

**Shiv Zaya** is an Orc chef who is a competitor in the centennial Battle Chef Brigade tournament, wishing to gain entry into the organization. She like many others, have come to Brigade Town to compete against chefs from around the continent. Full of fervor and aided by her crimson falcon, she'll soon find that the competition will be harder than first thought.

## Appearance

Shiv is a thin orc woman who has a blue-green skin tone, standing at about the same height as Mina. She has sharp, downward leaning eyes that give her a look of seriousness or fierceness. Her hair is a cotton candy pink color and is kept in a thick ponytail, with large thick bangs coming down one side of her face.

Her outfit consists of a black scaled corset like shirt, with a salmon-pink and white sleeveless half overcoat. She wears salmon-pink and yellow skintight pants, held up by a silver belt with a red upside down triangle in the center. She wears high black boots that her pants tuck into, along with black arm bands that go up to her elbows. She has various red triangle tattoos: One above her left eye, and two on either side of her neck pointing downwards. On her left ear she has gold hoop earrings.

## Personality

Shiv is a fiery chef who seems to have a great admiration of her ancestors, as can be seen in a victory quote against her. She seems to respect food greatly, and has high standards for what she puts out in competition. That being said, she also has a disdain for nepotism and will ruthlessly accuse those she believes of using it, as seen in her interactions with Kirin, who's family and lineage descend from Brigade Chefs, and Weiz, when she calls him some very unfriendly names due to his upper-class snobbery.

However despite this supposedly strong moral compass, she is quick to anger, often refuses to take the blame for her actions, and hypocritical. This can best be seen when she attempts to attack Kirin within the city confines after believing that she cheated in their match by influencing the judges (presumably Instructor Maradain as she claims that Kirin influenced the Academy that Maradain is a part of), therefore causing her to lose. This gets her expelled, and at some point Instructor Razel states that it was actually Shiv that was coasting off of her ancestor's (a Grand Matriarch orc) prestige as a great-grand daughter.

She seems to have a love of birds, as she keeps a crimson falcon with her, and takes time out of her day to preen and care for it. Thus making it as fierce, and as jerkish as she is.

## Powers and Abilities

Not much is known about Shiv's fighting style due to her standoff-ish behaviour and secretive demenour. Meaning that she does not share any insight into her skills or abilities. She does however, make use of two very large skewers, which presumably implies that she has the strength to dual wield both at once. Her class is also listed as 'shaman', and when combined with the fact that she has a crimson falcon, seems to mean that she is proficient with animal handling to help her hunt.

It is unknown what her real element is. The darkness element does exist, and it is very possibly her element due to her frequent use of poison. However, the item she hands off to Mina is an ice bracelet, which implies that she at least uses the element in combat, or even has the element.

## Cuisine

Shiv thinks of her cuisine very highly, believing it to be superior to the likes of Mina Han's. According to Kamin, she is known for her usage of "unorthodox ingredients". Which by that, he means straight up poison. An ingredient that can consistently be found in all of her dishes. The three dishes she has demonstrated so far are inspired by Indian and Turkish cuisine and rely heavily on spices or generally strong flavours.

## History

Shiv enters the centennial tournament for the Brigade along side other hopefuls such as Mina Han, and is one of the first few that can be challenged. Sometime during the contest, she has a match with Kirin that ends with her losing, and lashing out to attacking her. In defending her friend, Mina is expelled alongside Shiv for fighting within the Capital.

Later on, she returns with the other disqualified or expelled chefs under C-Squad, and will be faced here if she has not been challenged before. It is not known what happened to her afterwards, but presumably she was expelled once more for some unknown reason, since as a chef, Shiv is quite impressive and it would've been hard for her to net five losses total as per the new rules. However, it should be known that due to her constant use of poison in her dishes, there is a non-zero chance that she was simply disqualified. Especially since most judges do not appreciate having fed to them.

## Trivia

* Shiv is one of the best characters to beat early on, due to her frost bracelet being able to slow down anything hit with it with an ice attack. This makes fighting faster, more powerful, enemies such as the Armarock or the Lupir much easier. Even moreso when the bracelet is stacked with Mina's Double Knives upgrade.
* In the very early development cycle of Battle Chef Brigade, she was the only chef that could be played against, and was set to a very easy difficulty to show off the game.
* Fans have speculated that she may be Drow-Elf due to her appearance.

Shiv and her crimson falcon, as seen early in the game.