Zarallion

"My brothers...I am sorry that this happened to you all. You did not...any way, ever, under are circumstance...deserve this. You would have bested anyone in combat, but you were simply ambushed and outsmarted. I'm going to make those bitches pay someday. I promise you. I will make it slow and painful. I will make sure of it, for all of you. Rest for now."
~Zarallion addressing his fallen Roughrider brethren."

Zarallion is a main character in part one and two of the Plague War, a point of view beginning Page Four Hundred Seventy Nine of part one, a prominent point of view character throughout part two, as well as an antagonist in the Plague War.

Gender: Male

Status: Alive

Affiliation: The Necromancer, as well as the Roughriders.

Close friends: The Roughriders, especially Rixi.

Eye color: Brown.

Skin color: Black.

Age: Unknown.

First encountered in Page Forty Five, under the chapter Part Four, Vaxk, as a rough man met by Yew, he serves under the Necromancer, and is later revealed to be one of the serving and founding members of the Council of Seven Powers, in which he serves as the leader of the Roughriders. He is often referred to as the strongest of them, to which this is a fact, not rumor.

Zarallion is the most prominent of the Roughriders, though Rixi is also a center of the story in some ways. Zarallion's storyline strives off of the interactions he has between fellow Council member Yew, Rixi, the other Roughriders, John Kraver and Queen Emperika, post-the Bitterly Risen chapter.

Made to disembark to Mosstwig Forest by the Necromancer's orders, leading the Roughriders, Zarallion is made to take Yew along, to which he is weary. He's a rude man, and has no issue saying up front that Yew will end up getting himself killed. the Roughriders are often times more light-hearted and jovial than Zarallion himself is, but they accept him as a leader, to his physical strength. And although he is not the sharpest tool in the shed, he knows his way around leading, as well. At least with the Roughriders. With others, he is not very open at all, and always rude.

Zarallion can immediately be identified by his use of obscene and vulgar language and slang. He spices his sentences up by cursing, which he finds no wrong in. He is often ragged on by Yew and Emperika for this later after they meet and depart together, post-burrow, but he sees no wrong in it at all. It is who he is, and Zarallion's prime function is to be who he is. And who he is has never served him wrong in the past, so he sees no reason as to why he should change. Least of all for two people that he one, doesn't know, and two, doesn't like. He is who he is, and uses this language extremely regularly, to the point to where it is considered more than commonplace for those who are around him.

Later on, after the majority of the Roughriders were slain during the ambush from the Gaiden Burrow folk, Zarallion is infuriated. And, despite it being reckless, storms off into the forest to confront whoever did such an unthinkable act to his friends.

He finds himself in the Gaiden Burrow itself. He slays multiple of the members before being confronted by Blake and her little sister Katarina. Blake holds John Kraver hostage, and, once asked to stand down, Zarallion laughs, saying he values Kraver's life none, and that he will kill them either way. As a result of this, Blake ends up having her little sister Katarina use a smoke grenade to cover their escape, and gives John Kraver a clean, untimely death by way of slicing his throat open and letting him fall to the ground and die.

Once Yew and the risen Queen Emperika arrive in the Gaiden Burrow, it is revealed that the Burrow Gaiden people disappeared without a trace. Yew looks around, but finds no trace of anything. This angers Zarallion. Even though he did not care about Kraver, he lost a member of the Necromancer's service. But he is more concerned about the fact that he lost many friends as a result of those little girls ambushing them.

Yew convinces Zarallion to bury John Kraver, to which Zarallion also says a few words. Once back at the camp, he, Yew and the risen Queen Emperika bury the Roughriders who were slain. Zarallion gives a heartfelt speech to them that opens up a lot of inner turmoil in him. And now that Rixi is gone, he is even more angry.

The party disembarks to the Necromancer's hold, hoping that both Rixi and the little girl Rivea will be there. But in the back of his mind, Zarallion always knows his true purpose now: That he will find those who inhabited the Gaiden Burrow...and end them, slowly and painfully. Every last one of them.

Appearance:

A rarity in the world, Zarallion is black-skinned. He is a man of large stature, who shrugs off brains for brawn. He wields a gigantic battle axe, often wielded in one hand, and often carries it with only one hand.

Relationships:

Rixi: Zarallion is shown to have a protective relationship with Rixi. During one of his point of view chapters, it is revealed that he and Rixi do not share a sexual relationship, but that it is above the normal friendship of two friends. They value each other and love each other as more than friends and more than simple comrades, either. Once Rixi goes missing, Zarallion is angered and wishes to find her no matter what. And once he finds out she was alive after the Gaiden Burrow people ambushed the Roughriders, though paralyzed, he is relieved.

The Roughriders: His relationship with the Roughriders is sincere. They are his comrades and friends, and he shows internal anger and sorrow at the loss of them all, as shown during his speech. He thinks about his fallen comrades regularly, and questions morality and why he got to stay and they didn't. He knows he has to live for them.

John Kraver: Zarallion was rough to John Kraver, just as he is with everyone else he comes into contact with that aren't a part of the Roughriders. John Kraver was scared of him, as seen through the eyes of Rivea's point of view chapter where the two of them meet, and John Kraver and Zarallion share a few interactions. Despite this, and despite John Kraver's position as leader of the Hole, it is later shown during the attack on the Gaiden Burrow that Zarallion valued his life none.

Yew: Yew and Zarallion have a complex relationship. Yew is never given a point of view chapter beyond the chapter Vaxh, which serves as naught but an introduction chapter, so all of the accounts of Yew are through the eyes of other point of view characters, namely Zarallion, Rixi, the risen Emperika, and Rivea. Zarallion and Yew pick on each other back and forth, and Zarallion becomes very surprised to know that Yew could use Magick. He knew he was in the Council of the Seven Powers for some reason, but now truly knew. This gives him a newfound respect for Yew, but not much, and they still bicker back and forth a lot. They disagree on much, as Yew has more morals leading him than Zarallion. Yew once questions if Zarallion even has a moral compass, to which Zarallion tells him that the only one he needs is his axe and someone's head.

Queen Emperika, post-risen: Zarallion and Emperika have very few interactions, though they seem to not mind each other. Zarallion remarks quite a bit of how ugly she was and how she wasn't what he'd picture a Queen to be.

Rivea: Zarallion sees something in Rivea that she may not even see in herself. She's a tough little girl, and he can read her thoughts like a book. He knows the disdain she has for all of them, including the Necromancer. And once Zarallion finds out that Rivea and Rixi were left alone together while Rixi was thought to be paralyzed, then disappeared together, Zarallion questions the intelligence of that choice to Yew and the risen Queen Emperika, showing much worry over that.