Zira Gale

The Dawn Eternal

Zira Gale in her panoply of war.

Iron Talon (Former)

Once a member of the Order of the Valkyries, Zira was a valued member of her sisterhood.  Though she loved her sisters dearly, the wonders and charms of the outside world intrigued her in its entirety.  More than anything, she longed to explore and learn as much as she could.  However, her requests were met with denial.  So, from there, Zira took it upon herself to gather her war gear and escape into the dark of night.  Eventually, she stumbled across an unexpected friend, Ruby Mygerion, and found herself swept up into the fray of the ongoing Alliance-Separatist Civil War.

## Appearance

Zira is exceptionally beautiful in all aspects of her appearance. She has long auburn hair, held back from her face by her headdress. Typically, she wears her battle suit and gear, always accompanied by her Flowing Cape of Aetheria, which she can ravel and unravel at will. At first glance, it is clear that she is toned, strong, and tan. Her face is regal and sharp, giving off a distinguished resilience vibe. Her eyes burn with an intense amber glow, full of experience and understanding, for they have seen many things in their extended lifetime.

## Personality

Zira has the heart of a warrior, brave and loyal.  She yearns to conquer any obstacle, and to understand as much as she can, especially in regards to life outside of Aetheria. Having a natural love for combat, she loves being on the front lines with her comrades, valuing loyalty, courage, and honor. As well as adoring combat, Zira loves to face every challenge that comes her way. She is extremely courageous, fearing nothing that crosses her path. However, with her knowledge and experience in life, she knows which challenges to avoid, though they may be hard to resist. Overall, the Valkyrie warrior is outgoing and charismatic, typically positive and understanding.  She gives good advice and cares for her friends. Zira is tactical and always ready to do what is necessary to win a fight, though that can get her into trouble at times.

## Items

**Feathered Crown of Dawn:** A shimmering halo of energy surrounds the target's head, bound by the winged crown.  This halo is able to be thrown like a chakram, the chakram can in turn expand and restrain a target.

**Runic Sunblade of Unwavering Light:** A longsword blade that looks as though it is constantly reflecting rays of sunlight off of it’s surface.  In normal combat, the glowing golden blade of the weapon is equal to a refined Skysteel sword. Against evil creatures, its enchantment against Negative Energy Plane (Void) creatures or undead creatures, the sword deals unbelievable amounts of damage, capable of instantly dispelling and cleansing upon contact.  Typically, against traditional soft fleshy or armored targets it simply inflicts burning damage.

The blade runs off a canister of Solar Energy stored inside its hilt. The canister of energy acts as a pseudo "energy meter" for Zira. She is able to use the energy from this canister to create light and heat attacks, heating her sword to the point where it will vaporise flesh upon contact.

**Valkyrie Skinsuit:** A body tight suit typically worn as under armor, used for insulation and limited protection.  Valkyrie Skinsuits are durable enough to be impenetrable by traditional human crafted steel blades.  Zira Gale’s skin suit is a shade and texture of dark crimson.

**Valkyrie Warplate:** Highly durable piece of armor within the Valkyrie Armory.  Capable of withstanding large levels of punishment.  Located on Zira’s torso, shoulders, legs, and shins. Her warplate is a reflective gold color, adorned with a sacred Sol crest at the center of her breast plate.

**Shield of Sanctus:** The ultimate weapon of defense was hand crafted by the god Merid. The Shield of Sanctus is a golden-bronze, highly angular protective shield; adorned with a blazing star.  It is a legendary God-Tier Artifact of the sacred Valkyrie Warrior vaults, granted to only the champion of the Valkyries.  The shield stores kinetic energy, and disperses magical or projected energy.  This stored energy can build up as more attacks that are blocked.  Power bashing releases all of the stored energy.

The strength of the concussive energy released depends on how charged the shield is.  The more consecutive and powerful the hits are taken by this shield are adds to the charge stored within the plating of the shield.  The shield will gain a brilliant golden aura when charged. (The shield stores and reflects all but the ultimate forms of punishment, nuclear blasts, sunder, etc.  It will not store a nuclear blast, or other more powerful blasts or attacks, simply disperse around its material, leaving the shield relatively unharmed.  However, the user is likely deceased after such a blow.)

**Bracelets of Blinding Strike:** Golden vambraces that grant the wearer heightened reaction time, allowing the wearer to attack more swiftly and more often, allowing the wearer to match moderate speedsters. Each bracelet has a canister of solar energy stored inside of them, allowing Zira to take them out and replace the used up canister of solar energy from her Sunblade.

These bracelets also act as miniature shields, capable of deflecting energy, weapon strikes, and projectiles. When crossed they harmonize to form a kinetic field, providing a substantial amount of protection for when Sanctus is not present.

**Flowing Cape of Aetheria:** A long and elegant draping, used to signify one's social stature. This cape has stored up energy, but not a lot of it.  It can be used to heal someone if wrapped around an individual like a cocoon for extended periods of time.

## Powers

**Divine Empowerment:** Granted with an affinity for the Light, Zira was favored by divines of the Sun and Light aspects.

**Superhuman Strength:** Zira Gale has demonstrated her incredible degree of strength many times. Physically, she is one of the strongest of the Orphans of Infamy, a group known for its physically strong Supers. She easily knocked out an entire group of elite Aftershock operatives by herself, and has caused damage to some of the most hardy of Supers through sheer physical strength alone.

**Superhuman Durability:** Zira possesses a high resistance to damage and magical attacks, especially heat-based powers, thanks to her Valkyrie heritage. She is one of, if not *the* most durable member of the Orphans of Infamy. She has withstood considerable bludgeoning damage in the form of hand to hand combat with superhuman opponents.

**Superhuman Speed:** She is able to think, react and move at superhuman speeds.

**Superhuman Reflexes:** Zira Gale's reflexes are far beyond the limitations of the finest human athletes. She has been able to react to a barrage of gunfire from multiple opponents at once unharmed.

**Superhuman Agility:** Zira Gale's agility is far beyond that of even an Olympic level athlete, as is her balance and coordination. She if effortlessly able to pull off acrobatic techniques on the field of combat, and fights with a degree of finesse that most Supers could only hope to achieve.

**Superhuman Stamina:** Zira Gale can last a great deal of time in any fight and with virtually anyone. She doesn't tire out, as her body produces no lactic acids in her muscles.

**Enhanced Healing Factor:** Zira is constantly renewing herself, allowing her to quickly heal mild to moderate injuries at an amazing rate. Her normal regenerative abilities allow her to recover from injury within minutes. She possesses an incredible immunity from poisons, toxins, as well as disease.

**Solar Flare:** The wielder swings the blade vigorously above her head whilst uttering the command words, "Solar Flare!".  The Sunblade then sheds a bright white-gold radiance that is like that of the very sun.  The radiance begins shining in a 10-foot radius around the sword wielder and extends outward rapidly, engulfing everything in a blinding, unrelenting light and heat, blinding those the wielder desires, and causing severe burn damage to those within a 10-foot radius.  When the wielder stops swinging, the radiance fades to a dim glow that persists for another minute before disappearing entirely. This ability will drain the Solar Energy stored inside Zira's sword if used for too long. At minimum, a sinle use of this ability will use up a 5th of the solar energy stored inside the Sunblade, giving it limited use.

* **Solar Flare: Morning Star:** Zira lifts the blade above her head, shouting the command words, "Solar Flare: Morning Star!". The blade then expels all of its stored Solar Energy at once, creating a massive field of immense heat and light, as hot as the surface of the sun itself. Anything within the field of heat is vaporized instantaneously, except for Zira herself. This attack will use up all of the Sunblade's stored solar energy, meaning that it will simply function as a regular blade once this move has been performed. Due to the sword needing a 30 second cooldown session from the immense heat emitted by the attack, Zira cannot use more solar energy from a renewed solar canister for 30 seconds. This attack is the most powerful in Zira's arsenal.

## Innate Abilities

**Empathy:** Her heritage apparently grants her increased insight. For example, Zira can often detects others emotions, easily realizing the fact that Bastion had discovered Chance's true nature without him giving an obvious or outward hints. She can even detect one's moral alignment or sense an evil presence within the area.

**Illusionary Resistance:** Zira's vast mental power allows her to see through minor illusions, and even some more powerful illusion spells.

**Charisma:** One of Zira's defining attributes is her amazing charisma. She is a very charming and helpful individual who will seek to be sure that justice is delivered.

**Animal Empathy:** Ability to communicate with all forms of animals and her presence alone can bring a raging beast to a calm standstill. She is also able to directly command wild animals when needed.

**Enhanced Senses:** Her eyesight, hearing, taste, touch and smell are far beyond that of a regular human, allowing her to quickly and effectively prepare or react to an ambush or attack.

**Enhanced Vision:** She also possess the "Hunter’s Eye" which allows her to always hit her mark. She can see to far greater distances than any normal human.

**Expert** **Hand-to-Hand and Armed Combat:** Zira is one of the finest warriors ever born among the Valkyries of Asgard. She is a master of armed and unarmed combat, proficient with nearly every weapon ever made and the exotic martial arts styles of the Valkyries.

**Wisdom of Mímir:** Zira possesses great wisdom and intelligence, thought to be passed down to her by the God of Wisdom, Mimir.

**Multilingualism:** Zira has exhibited heightened proficiency with languages, being able to speak her native Asgardian, Ancient and Modern Greek, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Hindi, and many more. Plus, through precise muscle control, she can mimic other people's voices for short conversations (on the telephone).

**Master Tactician and Strategist:** Zira is an accomplished strategist and tactician, trained in the arts of leadership, persuasion and diplomacy, and possesses a great deal of courage as well. She is a gifted leader.

**Occultism:** Zira possesses knowledge and understanding of magic.

## Unique Stat

Resilliance: 10/10

**Expert Bowplay:** Zira has shown to be extremely profficient with her bow and arrow, setting up several surprise attacks for enemies, or hitting them with absolute accuracy. According to Mugetsu, who is a master bow wielder himself, he could "Take some tips" from ZIra for using his bow,

**Lassoing:** Zira always keeps a lasso on hand as a backup or last-resort weapon, or as a tool to bound opponents. She is very proficient at using it, being able to Agilent enemies or use it to grapple onto buildings to stop herself from falling.

**Throwing:** Zira is an expert at using her tiara as a boomerang.

## Trivia

* In a poll that pit Zira against Lucille Gremory in an arm wrestle, Zira came out on top with 4 votes.