Ziya Niano

Ziya Niano is a revenant barbarian, the wife of Xiao Kai, and adventurer working for the House of the Rising Sun.

## Appearance

Ziya has pale-gray skin with faint goliath markings, red eyes, and long, scraggly black hair streaked with white at the front.

When she rages, her eyes glow black and black liquid bleeds from her eyes, and her face elongated and stretches like rubber.

## Personality

Despite her intimidating and frightening appearance, Ziya is quite upbeat and friendly, if endearingly awkward. In spite of her ferocity in combat, she is quite gentle and kind and always has a sense of empathy when dealing with others. She is collected and does not get flustered easily.

Ziya is protective of people in general, not limited to those she considers close to her, shown when she defends Holland Saxonbury from Dario Blackmore despite knowing the woman for only half an hour and experiencing her animosity.

Ziya can be quite theatrical, as she reveals that she uses her magic to enhance her screams, make her eyes bleed, and bend her face while raging. She also uses it to crack her joints in unusual positions.

Ziya has an interest in gardening, which she introduced to Verin Gallus and Giorno DiGuiseppi.

## Biography

Ziya Niano was an orphan left at the doorstep of Marin Niano, half-orc woman who worked for the Acid Snakes. She raised her among the other Snakes. Ziya learned to fight from Marin's wife, Korahak of Rivermaw, who was a barbarian warrior from one of the tribes in the Snowspine Mountains. As a teenager, Ziya picked up work for the Acid Snakes with Vilya Zyomin, her close friend and brief romantic partner.

Marin was killed during a job. Korahak decided to move back up to the Snowspine Mountains and rejoin the Rivermaw tribe, but Ziya decided to stay in Lycia.

On one job, Ziya, along with her entire team, was infected by bug-like parasites that caused them to go mad. Vilya chose to kill the infected to stop the parasites from spreading. Though Vilya stabbed Ziya, Ziya survived and was able to drag herself to the neighboring safehouse, which was controlled by the Holy Watchers, the holy sector of the Lycian Blood Hunter Orders. Ziya was healed by Cesario Agrupin, one of the clerics there.

Ziya figured that Vilya would have been executed for the decision she had made. Since there was nothing left for her in the Acid Snakes, and they all thought she was dead anyway, Ziya began doing some work for the Holy Watchers. She met Xiao Kai while out on a job that took her to the House of the Rising Sun. In 1603, Ziya began adventuring with Kai, Demetrius Beck, Verin Gallus-Beck, and Averford Gallus.

In 1606, following Kyle Strickler's trial and the capture of Demetrius, Verin, and their ward Giorno DiGuiseppi by Theodosia Marquette, Ziya participated in the mission to rescue them.

In 1608 PS, Ziya, Kai, Demetrius, Verin, and Averford hunted down Vivian Marquette's experimental monsters. During the fight against the final creation, Ziya was killed. Her friends brought her to Vilya Zyomin, now an Arcadian mercenary and revenant, and friend of Demetrius. No one knew of their own connection. Zyomin transferred some of her undead energy into Ziya, allowing her to return as a revenant as well. This was possible due to an excess of magic stored in Zyomin after the necromancer that raised her from the dead overshot their magic trying to fix a grievous injury to her head. Zyomin, who had previously been a spellcaster, lost her ability to cast spells and Ziya gained part of them instead.

## Abilities

### General Abilities

* Swordsmanship: Ziya is a skilled swordswoman
* Rage: Ziya can use her rage to enhance her attacks.
* Magic: Ziya possesses magic of darkness and shadows that she received in a transfer of necrotic energy from Vilya Zyomin, which she primarily uses to enhance her raging by inducing fear.
* Flesh Consumption: As a revenant, Ziya is able to consume mortal flesh and gain the same benefits from it as one would from eating food.
* Ageless: As a revenant, Ziya cannot age and is immune to magical aging