Heroes/Ziri

Skill Details
Ziri's white skill, Focus of Hatred, counters the following skills [list is incomplete]


 * Maya's blue skill, Poisonous Bonds: Maya will not be able to pull Ziri's allies together
 * Dante's white skill, Instrument of Fate
 * Artemis's white skill, Deadly Shower

Lore
The glyph adorning the grand hall of the ancestral home of the Ormans in intricate relief depicts a scorpion ready to strike. The Orman clan’s origins can be traced back to the era of the Forgotten Gods of the Adjalar oasis. Gods such as Akhreb Ummi. The Mother of Scorpions, patron of the deceived, The Requiter: she went by a great number of names. The most prominent trait of the kind and just goddess, however, was her merciless retribution for traitors.

The Ormans, having chosen Akhreb Ummi as their guardian centuries ago, honored her legacy for several centuries. Everyone knew the family worked hard and treated others with respect, yet violently punished those who betrayed them. Such an approach inspired respect and trust in people. The Orman family business soon became one of the most profitable in the oasis. The emperor noted their immense success, and before long the family was given an aristocratic title. Year by year, generation by generation, the Ormans multiplied their wealth, always striving for the pinnacle of power. Their faith in gods eventually gave way to a purely materialistic approach. Any trace of justice had been forgotten: the influential family was too busy discrediting and intimidating its rivals, cruelly disposing of the most resistant ones. A bas-relief in one their ancestral halls remained as the only reminder of Akhreb Ummi.

Only Ziri, daughter of Mensah Orman, remembered the patron of the deceived. A quiet child by nature, she would spend days in her room, playing with a scorpion carved out of smoky agate. The walls were also riddled with signs of the goddess. Ziri stood out among her relatives in general, regarded as a strange child, a lunatic even. She did not rejoice in wealth; the cruelty and stupidity of her cousins and her father’s greed appalled her. "How is it that the clan protected by Akhreb Ummi herself became the epitome of wickedness and injustice?" bewailed Ziri in her dim room, while in the courtyard her father executed yet another unfortunate for trumped-up charges.

But what was that?! A din had broken out on the street. She peeked out her window and realized that the peasants, fed up with the heinous deeds of the nobleman, had decided to do away with Mensah Orman and his family. "The poor might not have been treated fairly... but such an assault is a betrayal in itself," thought the child, curling up in a corner in fear. She could hear the peasants storming into the palace rooms, overcome with hatred, murdering the Ormans one by one and sparing not a single soul, not even the elderly and children. Cries of agony rose up from all over. Silently, with her lips alone, Ziri started to whisper a prayer. "O’ Akhreb Ummi, great Mother of Scorpions, save your faithful child..." — the noises of revenge kept growing louder as the peasants approached — "I, Ziri, swear upon my soul to become your sight and senses. I will not succumb to anger, but those who betray me will see no mercy." — the girl’s mind was paralyzed by fear, but she continued her prayer — "May your body protect me from pain, may your spirit help me tell Light from Darkness. Come, Akhreb Ummi!"

In mere moments, enraged peasants with bloody knives burst into the room. They had little difficulty claiming the life of the last heiress of the Orman family. The history of the great clan was no more... As the murderers turned to leave, they heard a noise behind their backs. The men turned back, and witness her: Ziri had transformed. Six strong, chitinous legs held the girl in a scorpion’s combat stance. No hatred warped her face, but her eyes burned with unrelenting conviction. Conviction, and a commitment to exact vengeance upon those who had betrayed their own promises and beliefs. Ziri’s heart beat violently, ready to burst out of her chest. Still, the girl knew she was doing the right thing. She was honoring the legacy of Akhreb Ummi. She was Akheb’s sight, body, and senses. She was Akhreb herself!

Today, striding through the halls of her familial estate, the honorable Guardian reminisces on days long past: the moment of her transformation, the miraculous survival of the family’s last child, the choice to follow the righteous path, and the acceptance letter into Emperor Ingvar's hero squad. Ziri knows she has made the right choice.

Зири