Zuhayr Rizal

Details

Zu is very pale for someone from Xaila. This is because he's only partly Xaila but also because he rarely spends time outside. His skin burns easily, so when he does go out he prefers to wear robes that cover most of his skin. He is however, very muscular. He has a broad chest and has well developed upper body strength. It's clear that he does train a lot to keep it up. Zuzu has his mothers pitchblack hair and darkbrown eyes, but seems to have more of the sturdy frame and pale skin from his father from Ravaryn. He always seems to have dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep.

He doesn't have any scars whatsoever and his skin is quite pure as well. Perhaps some sunburn could be found now and then when he didn't properly prep himself to go outside, but that's about it. He usually wears a small face chain that covers his face in the shape of an 'x'. Symbolizing that he does not want to be touched. He usually wears a lot of gold as well to match the Xaila aesthetic, but beside that his clothing is very simple. He doesn't like flashy colors and is usually seen wearing more dull colors as it makes him feel safer. He doesn't stand like to stand out in a crowd and believes that having ordinary clothing could help him with that.

Zuzu is a generally good natured kid. He is however, quite shy and reserved. He doesn't like people at all due to his social anxiety and will always try to keep his distance from others. He is a bit awkward in conversations and will try to avoid them. He rarely makes eye contact and is often seen staring at the floor with hanging shoulders, especially in public. He has a keen eye for the people around him at all time and is extremely alert due to his bad history. It always seems as if he has always seen everything around him. He gets overwhelmed easily and hates busy places. Sensory overload might be the best way to describe it. Zuhayr prefers his time alone and as he has never had a friend or such he also doesn't know if he would even like that. Most people that he has met have already gotten a bad reputation in his books because he knows how much time he would have left with them. He thinks that keepings his distance from people around him would be better then having to say goodbye when eventual doom strikes. He knows its coming, so he knows it can't be avoided.

Zu isn't particularly paranoid from death. He is just very afraid of it. As he has experienced hundreds of ways a person could die due to his magic, he is honestly horrified by it all. He is extremely careful of everything, as he just knows everything could go wrong. He is easily scared, but curiously he isn't a crybaby. It seems that the horrors of his magic has drained the tears from him and he no longer really sheds any. He is always eerily prepared for whatever dooms happens and therefore doesn't seem surprised when it does happen. It's rare for him to actually panic over a distressful situation as he is aware nothing can be done when fate has decided for them. He is a bit of a pessimist but would prefer it... The other way around. He tries to see the world in a better light, but it's hard when all he can see is how it will end. He wants to be able to enjoy the journey, life itself, and not be tied down by its destination.

He is a very calm person when he is alone with someone. He is collected and organized and always seems to know what to say. He's clearly booksmart and knows a lot about literature and legends. He can passionately talk about things for hours on ends. He has a very easy voice to listen to, so he is a great storyteller. He is very friendly and always wants to help people, but rarely gets the chance for it. He has severe social anxiety and interacting with people sometimes fills him with overwhelming fear. He has gotten better at it, but random things that happen that he can't predict still get the better of him.

He's insecure about his own capabilities, magic and looks. His low self image is usually handled with humour as he doesn't know how to deal with it otherwise. Due to what happened to his little brother he sometimes gets the urge to feel responsible for people and be a bit overprotective. That is, if he's comfortable with them. He's very gentle and even behind the anxiety is he rather shy. He's flustered easily. If he gets even more comfortable with people he might get more outgoing, but that isn't certain as of now.

Zuhayr was blessed with the gift of divination from his fathers side. However, there seems a hint of his mothers legacy in his magic as well, because simply put all Zu can do is predict someone's death.

It could be either a when, where or even a how. But every time when his magic is triggered he can see a part of it. This can be images, a scent, sometimes even a clear date, from time to time can even see the entire scene of what will happen. He can't control what he sees and when he even gets his visions. His magic is completely passively triggered and with no mentor to teach him more about divination, since he didn't want one, he never got to control it. This means that he gets visions of people dying almost at random, since all he needs is a simple touch. The drawback is quite simple. Since he can't turn it off almost every touch triggers a vision. This is emotionally extremely draining as he constantly sees how people die over and over, getting constant reminders of the doom that awaits for them. He also noticed that, the more people he touches on a day and therefore the more visions he receives, the intenser his nightmares are. Because at the end of the day its impossible to read his own death. The mental strain of it all comes down to him having horrific nightmares of how he dies, usually the same ways as he had viewed that day. In his dreams it feels lifelike, as if it is his future. The more visions, the more extreme his dreams get to the point of actual physical pain.

All in all is there no turning off mode as of now. His magic is always passively there. And any physical touch triggers it. This has caused him to avoid physical touch completely. But even then its almost impossible to avoid touch. Bumping into someone can give him horrific images as well. Knowing what it leads up to has made him paranoid and has strained his personality quite a lot. In his own eyes there is nothing positive about his magic.

If he would actually try to perfect his magic, he would be able to turn it somewhat off. It isn't clear if his divination could actually expend from here out. His visions are very active and intense for him, so maybe he could get some more distance from it and get less strain from it.

It all started even before he was even born. Both his parents, Zayna Zinyra and Jorgen Rizal, being part of a sorcerer family each, yet both not having any of its magic. They were seen as outcasts and married of to one another in some cheap attempt to strengthen the bond between the Zinyra and Rizals. But their wedding wasn't anything grand, because they weren't anything grand. They were normal, boring people with normal, everyday jobs. They just had a fancy last name and that's all that was to it.

Zuhayr Zinyra was born on just an average day, 20th of the storm moon under the gaze of the stag. He was born into a simple life, being mostly part of a middle class family. Since his parents were just working people he was often with his grandparents. His grandpa, Rayiz, who was a necromancer, was quite fond of the boy when he was just a baby. This changed, however, as he suddenly started to cry a lot. It was rather strange as he had always been a very happy baby. He would rarely cry, was always smiling. But just like that, as if a switch had been turned on, his mood changed drastically. He would already start screaming and crying whenever someone would move towards him. No-one suspected that something was wrong with him, they just thought he was a difficult toddler with some emotional issues and let it be.

He got a baby brother when he was 5. And when he held him for the first time, he told his parents that he saw the face of a man he didn't know. His parents didn't quite understand what he meant by it. However, every time when he held onto his brother his words would get distressed and he couldn't stop talking about this 'man' that he saw. That was until a couple of weeks later. A far off uncle from his dads side of the family came over to see the baby. When Zu saw him, he started screaming, crying, panicking. He pleaded to his parents, saying how this was the man and they had to safe his brother from him. But it was too late. It had just been an accident. But a new-born baby can not survive a drop like that. And from that day on it became clear. Zuhayr inherited the magic of divination from his fathers side of the family.

His name was changed to Zuhayr Rizal after that. It had been requested from his family in Ravaryn that he would come over and be with them. His father refused at first, but he didn't have much choice. He was moved over to Ishgard to live with his grandparents there. He honestly was terrified in Ravaryn. He would get classes in regards to his magic, but it would never end well. He would scream and cry constantly. Refusing to even try and do what was requested of him. And maybe that would have pissed off his family, that was until they actually realised what was going on. Refusing to be touched, jumping away from people and avoiding any physical contact; his magic was triggered by touch alone. That much was clear. And the more time they spent with him, the clearer it became. He could only see the death of the people he touched. He would either see images, scenes, a date, feel the death, see the place of death or even see the state the person would be in when they died. He saw horrific scenes, traumatizing scenes. And it was odd, because he couldn't divine anything else. His magic was clearly extremely powerful, he could divine for hours on end, but at what cost and for what if he could only see one event in someone's life?

He was forced to use his magic when he got a bit older, this was when the nightmares started. He would dream of his own future. His dreams being like his visions. He could feel himself dying like how others died in his sleep. He could feel their despair, their pain, their suffering as if it was his own. Every night he would wake up crying, panicked, shaking. It didn't get better, he never got used to the dreams. He started to show physical symptoms of his insomnia, started to show rapid deterioration to his emotional stability and even developed severe anxiety and ptsd. He was never mistreated by his family, they were even supportive of him, but it was purely because of his magic that he got so traumatized. Seeing so much gruesome scenes from a young aged really scarred him for life.

So when he turned 13 he was sent back to Al-Qahil. He was so happy to be back home with his parents and they were just as delighted to have him back. However, due to the overuse of his magic he was a changed child. He was quiet and would mostly spend time alone in his room. He got a private tutor for some basic classes so he could at least get an education. Beside that he would rarely be seen. He would never attend family get togethers or even go outside. He became a bit of a shut in, never leaving his safe space. He became a ghost to the family.

When he turned 18 it was mandatory for him to participate in the proving. It came as quite a surprise when the sorcerer appeared back in public. Where people expected a scrawny and sick looking man, he was actually quite strongly build, just being rather pale. He avoided eye contact with everyone as his mother prepared him for the fight. He was eerily calm as he entered the ring. He was up against a woman and his moves weren't even that great. But one swing of his axe was enough to sever her leg. For some it could be seen as an accident, but he wasn't moved by it. He had bumped into her on the way here and had seen it all before him. He was supposed to win here... And she would die later when her wound would get infected. He didn't tell her, he couldn't, so he left the fight victorious without ever seeing her again.

Just like predicted she died a couple of days later to an infection. He felt extremely guilty about it, but at the same time he saw it coming. He mourned over her death and he wanted to attend her funeral. However, due to his isolation and his general anxiety he was simply too scared to ask them. He still regrets it to this day that he didn't attend it.

His parents sat him down a couple of weeks after this and asked him what he wanted to do with his life. He had a talent for divination, that much was for sure, as he had never been wrong nor failed to predict a death. He immediately shut those thoughts down as he had a panic attack over it. The months after this it was expected of him to find something in life to do. He couldn't just sit around all day. His parents were very caring, however, and told him to take his time to make a choice.

He had already started to write about certain futures he had predicted. It worked as some sort of therapy to write about them. He would never mention names or weave bigger stories leading up to the climax of death. He eventually started to write out more and more tales, some about love, other about adventure. Some even based on mythology and stories. The only real people who read his work were his parents. They eventually started to bring out the stories as short written works, anonymously. It took off a bit, but it wasn't very popular beyond Al-Qahil.

So that's what he decided to do. Write poetry and stories. It didn't take off the first few years, but when he turned 25 some of his work had made it to Ravaryn and even Lemuria. His stories about romance were popular in Lemuria while his more harsh stories seem to catch on in Ravaryn. Popularity in Xaila though remained rather low, however. He didn't care that much, though, as he could work from home writing up his own fantasies in the comfort of his own safe bubble.

And that's how his stable life has been going now. He stays indoors most of the time, writes, does some training to remain fit... And keeps on. Still feeling the strain of the overuse of his magic he is scared of going outside. However, he wants too, and he's been trying to. Slowly, one step at a time.

- Both his mother and father are just humans but both are part of a sorcerer family, so their marriage wasn't anything grand or something to write home about.
- Was born as Zuhayr Zinyra, only later receiving the last name Rizal since he was blessed by their magic.
- His parents aren't particularly rich. He is somewhat high middle class only due to being part of both the Zinyra and Rizal family.
- When his writing took off he actually started to make more coin than both his parents combined. His writing is famous in Ravaryn and Lemuria, but only under his pen name; Lulu Riz. (Derived from his dead brothers name Lubayd > Lulu and his last name Rizal)
- Even though he lived in Al-Qahil almost his entire life, he actually doesn't know like anything about it and would get lost easily in the city.
- Adding onto that, he's awful with directions and can't read a map.
- His magic doesn't work on animals so he is a true animal lover person.
- He has several pet lizards that help him with his anxiety.
- He is actually extremely strong and trains a lot to keep up his strength.
- He's a writer that works in different categories. He's an author of books, articles, observations etc... But he's also a poet and a playwright. As its a bit of everything he just simply calls himself a writer.
- He would love to be a part time language teacher/tutor, but due to his social anxiety it hasn't really worked out.
- Always wears a face chain that goes over his face in an x mark as a simple and elegant way of saying 'do not touch'.