Ziggurat of Infinite Suffering first encountered the Circle while she was spying on an agent of The Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water in a rather unusual fashion. Creating a distraught ghost by the name of Anna, she forced the ghost to possess her body, allowing her to observe her surroundings while still being undetectable. Shortly before the agent was confronted by the Circle Ziggurat ejected the ghost, reclaiming her body and presumably returning to her master to report (suspected to be The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears).
She reappeared before the Circle in Nexus in an effort to kidnap Arvia, the daughter of Gen, the god of Hollow. This represented the second Death Lord to show an interest in the girl as the servants of The Walker in Darkness had also attempted to claim her. Tya Mnemia fought her off from the shoulders of the warstrider driven by Kadon Cind.
The third time she assaulted the Circle she did not escape. During Calibration in the city of Lookshy a Soulsteel warstrider “captured” from the forces of The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears animated and was part of a large scale attack on the city. Zuko Kota, attempting to take control of a nearby battery of weaponry faced her one on one and killed her.
But, with her death she was not reclaimed by The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. Instead of male voice called her to make a second bargain for her life. When she awoke she was bound and all but helpless. But, through either determination of a conveniently unlocked door she escape her new confinement, reaching the Yellow River and eventually the central hub for the portal network before she was captured by the Circle.
Further investigation has indicated that her exaltation was captured using an alternative Soulsteel box, one created by Zuko’s former exalt and in the control of the agents of The Mask of Winters (including an Abyssal known as The Seven-Degreed Physician of Black Maladies). That artifact has been recovered, but the Circle still has no idea of what if any bindings still hold Ziggurat’s exaltation.
Upon her capture, the Circle turned Ziggurat over to Aboshi and the Emerald City. Since then the abyssal has been kept under close watch, held in a small cell and bound by artifacts that prevent her from recovering essence or opposing Zuko’s will. But, having seen the degree to which Fallen Wolf of the Cutting Sea has fought the influence of The Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water, Tya Mnemia has made an effort to turn Ziggurat against her former masters.
Current Portrait found on Google Image search, useing keyword “Ramona Flowers.” Photografpher and model not known.
Old Portrait by Luis Royo
Sorry guys, it was a nice image for her, but it just wasn’t her in my eyes.
ST Public Notes!!—————————————————————————
Zis originally was created in City of Heroes as a bizarro world version of one of my mains Scieszka. Scieszka in turn was partly inspired by the character of the same name from Full Metal Alchemist. While nothing became of Zis, her hero counter part as a long history. (you are warned..)
She was created to be the first hero made when I switched over to the RP server at the invite of a friend who was already involved in a supergroup there. Her character was a Bruce Wayne playboy type and it was suggested he could introduce any female character I might make. Her character, Brad Peters, was a male underwear model who was hired to model a stylish new battle suit. However, after the fashion show, the creator of the suit vanished, and before telling him how to take the dame thing off. Not able to model till he could take the suit off, and not having a great education or work background, he ended up doing the only job he could do with it on. So he became a hero known as the Titanium Falcon.
Scieszka, or “sis” for short as her name sounds like Sis-ka when said aloud, showed up about the time Brad finally figured how to get out of the suit and was about to take up modeling again while continuing to hero (verb) all while becoming more romantically involved with a member of the super group he had fallen in with, The Pillars of Virtue (a volunteer hero group, which is much like a volunteer fire fighter department.) Sadly, his organizational skills where less like Bruce Wayne, and more like Tony Stark (Minus the genius part). So he started looking for a personal assistant. In comes Scieszka.
A young girl of 19 from Muncie Indiana, she came to paragon to see the world beyond her crowded family farm and to go to collage at the new city university. She had a job all lined up which would have supported her well and allowed her enough time to take classes at the near by PCU. (Paragon City University) However, on her way there, the monorail she was on was stopped in the middle of a quarantined area of the city where a sudden outbreak was making the citizens delusional and violent. Her parents had forced her to take some self defense classes before they would support her going to the famous, “City of Heroes”, and so she put her skills to good use seeing the people in her tram to safety. However, she missed her interview and lost the job.
Going from job to job she was barely making ends meet. Each job she took ended shortly there after in some hero related incident (one was finding out the cat food company she worked for was a front for the Vahzilok villain group and that the food being made for cats was left over human parts that where not used in their Frankenstein like zombie creations.) Soon no one wanted to hire her fearful that she was either unlucky or a plant in part of a plan by some hero group to arrest everyone in the company. Needing money, she found out the city pays a small commission for hero work in the city. As most of the things she had gotten involved with fell under that, she got her hero license and was put into the system as one of the city’s many defenders. (Though “Grey card” license holders don’t stay active for long and fewer see promotion to green.)
Brad, a now major hero in the city, required someone who could both type, understood something about business, could clean, and could be trusted not to get captured every other week or turn out to be in league with one of the many villain groups he had made enemies with. And while he was starting to enter into an exclusive relationship, he also wanted someone who was good looking. Being both a hero and able to type very fast and recall most anything she hears or reads, Sis quickly got the job.
For a long time her extreme clumsiness was seen as her power (her most famous incident was when she reached into the supergroup’s copier to clear a paper jam, the copier garbed onto her pulling her in up to her arm pit. And then preceded to pull her suit jacket clean off her back in a flash and ejecting the remains of the clothing out the shredder in a cloud of confetti. The copier then proceeded to continue to her shirt.. I think you all know where this is ending…) However, about the time it was learned that a major villain, Lord Nemesis, whom she never interfered with wanted her dead, that she discovered that she healed from injury very quickly. After Nemesis burned the family farm and killed her parents and most of her siblings, it was discovered that she could even regrow a lost arm. With a superpower of her own, a growing skill in martial arts, and tactical genius wanting her and what was left of her family dead, she became a full time hero and the sidekick to the Titanium Falcon, the Bronze Sparrow.
After the Pillars tracked down and stopped a time traveler from WWII who was attempting to do some information gathering before escaping back to the war, Scieszka’s clumsiness struck again when she picked up the traveler’s time distortion device. And was sent back 63 years. And the batteries in the device died. After 63 waiting to catch back up with present day, Scieszka discovered that she was not just a member of a race called the Immortals but was also the grandchild of Nemesis, with one destined to kill the other.
Also, having knowleage of how the stock market would play out for the next 60 years, money became less of a problem. She’s just sorry her attempt to stop Jar-Jar from making it into Star Wars didn’t work.
And unlike Zis, she isn’t a complete whore. The Scieszka drinking game has become, “Make her blush, take a drink.”
Her story continues still on the Virtue server.
Images in ST notes by Mia or created from FMA or an anime statue.
