Zorian Kazinski

Zorian Kazinski, the time looping mage protagonist. A bookish scholar with average mana reserves who is thrown into a time loop filled with strange, seemingly impossible magic, and has to rely on his innate mind magic and skill at learning to survive.

### Personality

Zorian is studious, moral (though not rule-bound), and hard working. He is also an introvert, but sometimes he enjoys the company of other people whom he likes and respects. He reads fiction in his spare time for entertainment. He used to get angry fairly easily (especially when people mentioned his brother, Daimen), but his time in the loop has worked to increase his control over his emotions. The cessation of the negative impacts of his innate empathy has also contributed to his improving social awareness.

### Personal history

In his younger years, Zorian had run-ins with local law enforcement. It's also been mentioned that nosy neighbors have gotten him in trouble during past escapades. He sometimes dreams of “talking birds, floating pyramids, three-eyed wolves”. He's mentioned that he's had "bad experiences" with alcohol which is why he doesn't drink. He has also had extremely bad experiences with priests which, combined with his study of historical treatises on the gods, is why he isn't religious (that, and he thinks poorly of the gods). His initial (pre-loop) choice of electives were engineering, mineral alchemy, and advanced mathematics. He spent about 8.5 years in the time loop (not counting time dilation chambers, also known as "Black Rooms") and over a decade in total .

### Family history

Zorian's family is engaged in some type of trade that appears to have made the family reasonably affluent in their local area. It's been mentioned that they have had contractual disputes with farmers so it is presumed that they are involved in either agriculture, horticulture or goods that are dependent on these industries. They live in Cirin, which Zorian calls a "glorified village in the middle of nowhere".

With the exception of his sister, Zorian doesn't get along with any of his family. He describes himself as the black sheep of the family, but lately, his parents have been paying more attention to him because his brother Fortov is failing at school and they need a spare heir in case something happens to his other brother Daimen.

It's been implied that his older brothers treated him poorly, especially Daimen who practiced restricted magic on him. He resents Daimen a lot and gets upset when people talk about him (although less so as time goes on). His parents lecture him a lot about various subjects.

#### Known family

* Cikan Kazinski (Zorian's mother)
* Andir Kazinski (Zorian's father)
* Kirielle Kazinski (Zorian's younger sister)
* Fortov Kazinski (Zorian's older brother)
* Daimen Kazinski (Zorian's eldest brother)
* Unnamed Witch Grandma (Zorian's maternal grandmother)

### Magical abilities

Zorian started out being competent for his age, most notably reasonably skilled at mana shaping and the scholarly side of magic. As time has progressed, his skills have increased almost exponentially. Zorian does not believe this is due to inherent skill on his part, but rather due to the effects of living in the time loop, as the confluence of resources and opportunity offered by the loop work to increase his abilities far beyond what he would normally learn within 8.5 years outside the time loop and are bringing out his maximum level of potential. Listed below are some of his abilities both of the magical and non-magical nature.

#### Natural magical abilities

Zorian is psychic, or, as the aranea call it, "Open". This gives him empathy (which lets him have some sense of other people's emotions) and makes it difficult for him to be in crowded places (although this is no longer a problem after proper training). While this is not an issue for all empaths, it has particularly impacted Zorian's development as the negative effects of his ability were quite severe compared to what is likely the norm for psychic individuals. Because he is psychic, it's possible for him to learn mind magic from the aranea, which he has done in a number of restarts. Below is a list of his mental powers.

##### Empathy

The ability to sense the emotions of a non-shielded mind. He had this ability from the start, but had no control over it, until training from the aranea allowed him to refine, focus, and disable the ability when needed.

##### Danger Sense

Several times when someone has attempted to murder him he's gotten a sudden intuition to avoid such danger. It is unclear if this is due to Zorian's inherent affinity for precognition or divination or if it's a result of his passive empathic ability.

##### Telepathy

The ability to communicate silently between minds. This ability in a responsive form was innate, but initiating contact with other telepathic minds, and more recently a two-way telepathic bond between him and a non-"Open" individual, were taught to him by the Cyorian aranean web and the Luminous Advocates aranean web respectively.

##### Intrusion detection

Because he is "Open", Zorian is capable of detecting foreign minds should they invade his own. While other mages are also capable of this, Zorian's sensitivity and resistance are far stronger than that of an ordinary 'closed' mage.

##### Mental defense

Initially, Zorian protected himself with the "mind shield" spell but more recently, thanks to Mind Like Fire, he has developed a very formidable non-structured psychic mental shield that even his aranea teachers find hard to get past. However, it does not give total protection, as it is vulnerable to dispels, just as the mind shield spell is.

##### Mind sense

Zorian is able to sense minds around him. He can get some basic information about each mind – how complex their thoughts are, their species, their gender, and other rudimentary information. This was initially taught to him by the Cyorian aranea.

##### Mind reading

He is able to read the thoughts of sentient beings, on a surface level. He has reached proficiency in such arts and can now casually scroll through a human's surface thoughts as displayed in his interactions with Rea Sashal. However, this has only come about recently as his past attempts to do so were less successful, succeeding only in spooking away pigeons.

##### Suggestion

The ability to subtly encourage a being to behave in a certain manner, not strictly against their will but not with it. This may be displayed by making them trust someone they otherwise wouldn't, making them look away from the user if the user is in a compromising position, or perhaps feel fear towards the user they would not normally be inclined to feel. The ability has sub-properties of emotional amplification and emotional dampening. This ability was first demonstrated by him coercing pigeons to eat from his hands while waiting for Kael at the train station. In one restart he used this ability to coerce a pair of thunder lizards to attack each other instead of helping the invaders.

##### Domination

The ability to usurp another's will. Other than as pigeon practice and compelling members of the Cult of the Dragon Below to fall asleep when captured, this powerful but morally ambiguous mind art is not used as frequently by Zorian. However, as time has progressed, he has become far more willing to use it in combat or if there is no viable alternative.

##### Puppeteering

The ability to usurp a body from its owner for the user's purposes. This ability was first displayed by Zorian when he was caught by Red Robe, causing Red Robe to drop his spell rod. The difference between puppeteering and domination is that while they are both overt, puppeteering involves direct manipulation and control of a puppet's body, whereas domination targets the mind to force an individual to obey their master's commands.

##### Illusion

The ability to manipulate what an opponent is sensing. This has not been much displayed by Zorian but it is assumed he is somewhat proficient in it as he has used it on occasion to walk past sentries and guard posts. It has been displayed by the aranea of Cyoria to real-time edit themselves out of the senses of the guards to the dungeon when conversing with Zorian and Kael. Zorian also used it on an invader when trying to access the portal to Sudomir's mansion, allowing him to slip past the guard.

##### Memory manipulation

The ability to read a target's long-term memories, edit them, fabricate them, or delete them. As of Chapter 86 Zorian is probably considered a competent practitioner of this ability by aranean standards but exceptionally skilled by human standards. The development of this skill was vital for both reading the memory packet the Cyorian Matriarch gave him and for ensuring the perfect recall of every memory Zorian's needed to record in regards to his now broad experience and magical abilities. While it would potentially also work to restore Zach's missing memories, Zach would not allow Zorian to enter his mind.

##### Mental combat

Zorian is highly proficient at mental combat. Zach suggests and is later proven correct that Zorian might be able to beat Quatach-Ichl in mental combat. Zorian is also already able to invade the minds of the high ranking Dragon Below cultists who have had the most powerful mental defences of any human and can rival many aranea in mental combat.

##### Mental modification and enhancement

Zorian has now begun to experiment, translate and evolve the so-called high level aranean mind arts of mental modification and enhancement. These involve a mind mage purposely modifying their own mind to increase both their mental prowess and the functions of their mind. Basic uses of this ability can help to filter out distractions or automatically highlight things that are perceived by the senses. High levels can build complex mental calculators or create multi-threaded awarenesses allowing a user to literally think about more than one thing at a time simultaneously. Hypothetically this might allow a mage to cast multiple spells simultaneously or allow a user to speak to one person while using other mental senses at the same time to full efficiency while also holding a second telepathic conversation all at the same time. Zorian has now used these principles to build an interface that allows him to share constant awareness with his simulacrums at the same time and to synchronise their actions and memories, but it only works when they are engaging in essentially the same activity. It is unclear if these abilities could be imposed on a subject other than the mind magic user.

#### Alchemy and potion making

Zorian already started with some experience in potion making from his witch grandmother. He is also interested in and knowledgeable about alchemy. When without magical abilities he was quickly able to make a huge amount of money by making potions, selling them, and buying more expensive ingredients, and was able to make a rare soul restoration potion. While Zorian is not a master alchemist he would certainly be considered a proficient journeyman at the least and would be considered a master at the refinement of building materials for golem construction. He has some proficiency in creating salves and ointments and at least basic proficiency in creating transformation and enhancement potions.

#### Spell formulas

Zorian has always been interested in spell formula and originally wished to someday make a living of it. Over time he has become highly skilled in this field which allows him to take commissions and make various items for himself. He has demonstrated the ability to make spell formulas that make casting spells he knows faster and more efficient. He can also create a variety of golems (including war golems), alchemical bombs and mobile warding devices.

#### Divination

Zorian is very good at divination and as a natural mind mage has a natural affinity for many aspects of this magical discipline as he can often directly interpret the results of divination in his mind without using any external interface - whether through devices or spellwork. Zorian first began with library divination (from his time working at the library) and other basic skills that are useful for police work (thanks to having a detective as a teacher). However, his time in the loop has now given Zorian a wealth of divination ability especially in regards to scouting, information gathering and circumvention of magical countermeasures. Zorian can now unravel the specifics of complex spells and defences and deconstruct the mechanics of how devices such as ward scanners work. He also has an arsenal of Soul Analysis divination spells.

#### Warding

Zorian has shown significant skill at warding and sought out a number of warding experts during various restarts. He learned a few techniques on how to bypass wards from Aldwin Rofoltin's journals. He can ward against teleportation, magic, scrying, fire, and sound. He can create of a mobile warding stone for combat, ward his dwelling well enough to attract attention from the Mage Guild and is skilled enough at bypassing wards to break into high security vaults.

#### Golem making

Zorian has engaged in golem making. His first golems were crude wooden affairs, and slightly less crude dolls for Kirielle. Later, Zorian has demonstrated that he could make more combat capable steel golems which were far vulnerable to being torn apart. After that he worked with Edwin to design better quality steel golems which were less jury-rigged and were immensely resistant to damage but vulnerable to being buried. Since then he has refined the designs by hiring experts to improve them, and his golems are now high level. Quatach-Ichl has noted his golems are good enough that he is considering commissioning some. Zorian has also created a custom golem housing for his simulacrums which allows him to maintain a simulacrum at about half mana rate of an ectoplasmic one.

* See also: Zorian's golems

#### Shaping skills

At the beginning of the loops, Zorian exhibited above-average shaping skills in all the basic disciplines. As the loops have gone on his shaping skills have reached levels that are considered extremely advanced and archmage level in some cases across a variety of magical disciplines.

#### Spellwork

Zorian has a vast knowledge of spells and has accrued a considerable level experience with combat spells e.g. magic missile, shield, flamethrower. Bellow is a list of his most common spell types.

##### Magic missile

Shoots bolts of kinetic force at enemies. It's possible to shoot more than one at a time or even swarms of missiles, make a missile do piercing or bludgeoning damage and/or made them home in on the target. A perfectly cast Magic Missile is invisible. People's magical capacity is often measured by how many magic missiles they can cast at one time. Zorian can cast spell reflexively and is one of his preferred spells due to its low mana cost and versatility. In the beginning, he could only cast 8 missiles before running out but recently it has risen to 20. By later stages (chapter 46) he can cast 35 in a row due to improvements in efficiency. According to the author's comments, he can cast more than 60 at the time the story ends (taking the same amount of mana as 40 average-efficiency ones). His skill with this spell is now so profound that he is capable of perfectly casting his magic missiles, thus rendering them invisible. He learned this spell originally from Zach but has since far surpassed him in his skill with this particular spell.

##### Shield

Zorian can create a shield of force around him to protect himself from damage. Later on, he acquires a number of variants such as a version designed to stop fire spells and an aegis to provide him with comprehensive full body protection. His shields are still vulnerable to shield piercing attacks like force lances. He later hires experts to design improved versions that offered far more sophisticated shielding. His current combat shield is a far more advanced design incorporating the basic concepts of diffusing force over a wide area and more advanced features such as ensuring that even if the shield is penetrated only a small hexagon shaped area collapses which allow Zorian to rotate vulnerable areas away from an attacker.

##### Invisibility

Learned from Tinami Aope, this spell creates an optical cloak that prevents others from seeing him. It can be broken by casting a spell, fighting, or running. It is implied that Zorian has learned more sophisticated versions of this ability, but he is rarely shown using it after the first arc.

##### Teleportation

Initially taught by Ilsa Zileti, this allows him to rapidly move from one area to another, with the limitation that wards could stop teleportation. He later designed and found a number of improvements, like a teleport beacon/recall spell from Gurey that could punch through interference that he improved later, a short distance teleport, and (from the aranea treasure storage) a version that could cut through weaker wards. He later learned the gate spell, and can now gate to any place where his simulacrum or another gate user he can communicate with, with their help. Xvim vastly improved his general dimensional magic skills and taught Zorian a trick using the gate spell that allows him to circumvent teleportation countermeasures.

##### Fireball

A highly destructive and dangerous spell which creates a wave of fire around it. Taiven teaches it to him, and Xvim and Alanic help him refine and improve it later on. He kills a frog monster with it later.

##### Dispel magic

A variety of spells that disrupt magic. Zorian later learns mass versions and a dispel wave versions of dispel magic which can dispel in an area or dispel everything in front of him.

##### Combat spells

Zorian has a variety of spells with some combat function that are not repeatedly used. Taiven's defensive and offensive spells using fire, force, electricity and coldness, pocket meteor and the force lance. As the story progresses Zorian amasses a wealth of combat experience from many experts (Xvim, Alanic, Zach, people he fought or paid off) and is an extremely competent combat mage. However his magical endurance is still a weakness that he cannot truly overcome.

##### Utility spells

A variety of spells Zorian has learnt that serve a utility function. Rain shield, dust shield, alteration of matter spells, illusion spells, divination spells (including library divinations), scrying spells, animation spells, obfuscation spells.

#### Soul magic

Zorian gained a basic soul invisibility spell from Kael, and later Alanic helped Zorian develop a soul sense and the ability to cast soul ritual magic, like the tracking spell for the marker. Raynie taught him to analyze his own soul, Silverlake helped him make a soul perception potion to let him see other's souls so he could cast soul magic on them. Knowledge ripped from the minds of Sudomir, other Dragon Cultists and others allowed Zorian to become reasonably competent in the use of soul magic.

Zorian can heal his own soul faster than normal and resist soul magic attacks much more competently. He knows his soul more intimately than many necromancers, because of the damage he sustained from a fight with Quatach-Ichl. His knowledge of soul magic has allowed him to develop a telepathic ability to talk to his simulacrums across continents, using their soul as a link to each other.

However, his soul magic skills are mostly of the defensive sort, and he is very far from being able to become a lich.

### Other skills and abilities

Zorian has demonstrated a variety of other useful skills and abilities some of which are listed below.

* **Good memory** - Zorian posses a good memory which has been very useful to him throughout the time loops. He has now magically augmented his memory to ensure that critical knowledge will never be forgotten and to store large journals and magical tomes.
* **Understanding of locks** - Zorian has a solid working knowledge of how locks operate and can be circumvented. This means he can unlock locks magically with his shaping skills or mechanically with lockpicks.
* **Scholarly** - He is knowledgeable about a number of subjects both magical and mundane including astronomy, history and geography.
* **Combat prowess** - When magicless, using sleep potions Zorian was able to defeat a number of trained guards and has fought and won numerous battles with powerful magical opponents.
* **Polyglot** - Zorian started the time loop speaking three languages - common Ikosian, High Ikosian and the Khusky tongue local to his village. He has now gained some proficiency with Koth dialects, aranean telepatic language, Xlotic, Aranhal Ikosian and other Ikosian variants.

### Teachers of note

Zorian has had a variety of important teachers who have helped him reach his current level. The most significant have been:

* Zach Noveda - taught Zorian basic combat spells, as well as advanced ones (much later).
* Ilsa Zileti - taught Zorian alteration and basic dimensionalism
* Xvim Chao - taught Zorian Basic through to Advanced Shaping skills, dimensionalism (including advanced teleportation, teleportation countermeasures, and Gate spell), mana sensing.
* Spear of Resolve - teaches Zorian the basic skills needed to learn natural mind magic
* Enthusiastic Seeker of Novelty - teaches Zorian the fundamentals of basic mind magic and telepathy.
* Mind Like Fire - teaches Zorian telepathic combat, both defence and offence.
* Nora Boole - taught Zorian basic through to advanced spell formula.
* Alanic Zosk - teaches Zorian personal soul sense, soul wards, basic soul magic rituals and combat magic - especially fire-related combat magic
* Silverlake - taught Zorian (and Zach) the fundamentals of pocket dimension creation and gave him a potion that gave him soul perception.
* Quatach-Ichl - taught Zorian (and Zach) advanced pocket dimension creation, and in a later restart, tracking magic and search spells, and still later, detection and crude manipulation of divine magic.

## Gallery

by pocketsleuth"Zorian Character Design" by Rizaki717"Zorian and his teacher" by lonsheep"Zorian and the Lich King" by lonsheepZorian's first experience with Xvim Chao
by Rizaki717by pocketsleuthZorian firing a combat magic staff
by Rizaki717by pocketsleuthKazinski Family
by artofjenby hippothebrave on redditby hippothebrave on redditOfficial art of Zorian by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarterOfficial art of Zorian by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarterOfficial art of Zorian by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarterOfficial art of Zorian from the Arc 1 book cover
## Trivia

Zorian is a real name, though mostly used as a surname. In the story, Zorian tells tales about "Sumrak" which are based on his own adventures, there might be a word play here. "Kazinski" apparently contains the suffix "-ski" used to form some Slavic surnames. Several similar surnames are used in the real world, for example, Kaczynski.

## Notes

1. ↑ In chapter 86 it was mentioned that by that time the chapter takes place, he spent nearly 8 years in the time loop (not counting time dilation chambers, also known as "Black Rooms"). He remained in the loop for 6 more iterations.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 5
2. ↑ chapter 15
3. ↑ chapter 93
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 chapter 2
5. ↑ chapter 42
6. ↑ chapter 13
7. ↑ chapter 32
8. ↑ chapter 37
9. ↑ chapter 46
10. ↑ chapter 83
11. ↑ chapter 74
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 chapter 38
13. ↑ Author's off-topic comment on a worldbuilding post
14. ↑ Comment on Immortals (Worldbuilding page)
15. ↑ chapter 8
16. ↑ chapter 85
17. ↑ chapter 87
18. ↑ chapter 89

## Navigation

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