June 2023
Relevant reference material: “The Void, voidspace, and personal voids,” “The Magic System,” and "The Timeline." It is highly recommended that you read the post on the void prior to reading this one if you are unfamiliar with Broken Dimensions.
Ah yes, the rest of Menace's favorite pet project: how the ziojic race works.
Firstly, what is a ziojic, or void demon?
"Void demon" is, at its root, a silly little term that Menace used until they began adding words to the loose conlangs of Broken Dimensions. It is a term not frequently used in-universe, and will mostly be used here as a baseline. The terms people in-universe would use are "ziojic" and "ziorisa demonica," whose differences will be defined in a moment. First, it is good to explain that "zio" is the word for "void" in the Old Common conlang, which is why it has been used so frequently in this post and the last (zio'ajay, zio'cerual, ziojic, ziorisa demonica...).
Moving on, there is one key note to make about the terms "ziojic" and "ziorisa demonica" and that is this: only one is the technically correct word for a void demon. A void demon, or ziorisa demonica, is someone who was resurrected using the zio’andar, which is a rare and highly-guarded resurrection rune. Literally, "ziorisa demonica" means “void-creature hailing from hell" and would have been derived from the superstitious belief in Eras 2-4 that voidspace was a vacuum-like hellscape. Even after the misunderstanding was cleared up, the word stuck around and lost its negative connotation.
"Ziojic" just means “Void magic:" magic that is of the nature of The Void (sentient), or that operates best in voidspace. However, the word can also be used to mean “user of Void magic,” which is why it is used the same as ziorisa demonica. It is also shorter, which is why it's mostly commonly used in-universe and by the author.
As for what a ziojic actually is, it's already been mentioned that they are people who have been resurrected using the zio’andar.
But what does that mean?
The zio’andar is, as mentioned previously, a highly-guarded resurrection rune. It came about back in Era 1, during or before the gods' War for Balance, and was used up until Era 3 as one of several basic resurrection runes for servants and allies of the gods, sacred animals, and/or demigods who died either naturally or unnaturally. It wasn't until Era 3, after the rune was used to resurrect Nathan Shasear in the final battle of Prophecy Lost, that the rune gained a special meaning.
After Prophecy Lost, the gods of the Revival era realized that the zio'andar specifically channeled the old magic of The Eternal Darkness, something that was largely forbidden. In fact, the trickster god Maikoa was cast out and imprisoned for several millennia for activating a well imbued with TED's magic. The zio'andar was therefore labelled off-limits, only to be used in specific circumstances on people with specific magic types, power brackets, or genetic heritage (i.e., the rune wasn't supposed to be used on anyone other than Shades (formerly Svarenic peoples) who were trained in the gods' various Guilds, specifically the Combat, Shade Arts, and Hekatan Magic Guilds). The rune was systematically wiped from every known place of record, and the people resurrected by it were kept to a very small number.
The secrecy lasted until the end of Era 4, after which the gods were forced to use the rune to resurrect a great many important people who had been killed by the Seven Heathen Mages—a group of sadistic, cruel rebel mages who sought to destroy everything the gods had built up since the Era 3 Revival. After this, it was made known that everyone resurrected with the rune had it permanently tattooed somewhere on their person (most frequently over the chest, as many resurrections were done right at the funeral pyre or prior to modern cremation). As to be expected, afterwards it was virtually impossible to keep the rune a secret. The gods still tried to keep it wiped from publicly-accessible records, but they couldn't keep tabs on every resurrected ziojic. Nonetheless, it stayed relatively quiet except by specific groups.
It wasn't until after Crisis 4 and the mass use of the zio'andar that people began to notice what made the ziojics different from other resurrected people. Some resurrection runes, for example, simply healed all wounds and called the soul back to the body. The resurrected person would then live out their normal lifespan, sometimes in service to the gods, sometimes not. But the ziojics who were resurrected after Crisis 4 just kept on living; they didn't die again, at least not by old age or simple illness or injury. That was the first big clue that ziojics were different.
Other differences include a ziojic's innate ability to teleport with extreme accuracy, whether or not they were proficient in the skill before dying. Some characters, like Catie Davis and Evansen Stark, explain this by way of the "grid sense" they received post-resurrection—essentially, a subconscious ability to sense the world around you on a deeper-than-physical level and with heightened sense and clarity, even with eyes closed. It doesn’t quite allow someone to see through solid matter or across improbable distances (the max range is a mile), but rather a ziojic will have a near-solid feel for the world in their direct vicinity.
The grid sense makes for an exceptional warrior in modern Eras.
In short, being reborn by and with the magic of The Eternal Darkness comes with some serious perks. Here's a list of the rest:
mildly corrosive blood! Ziojic blood is over 50% pure voidmatter and can thus act as a mild acid—one that you wouldn’t want your skin to come in contact with for prolonged periods of time (or at all, really)
Note: Solorana’s life-giving creation magic is healing, non-corrosive. Light. Happy. Pleasant. The Eternal Darkness’s magic was made to corrode and defy things like gravity, purity, and light. Void Magic is more diluted that TED’s raw power, but the themes are still the same, and as such, most of a ziojic's biomatter is toxic to other mortals/quasi-immortals. Everything on the outside of their body is fine, but their blood, internal organs, and other components (sometimes even tears) is mildly toxic due to the high concentration of voidmatter.
People who have taken ziojic lovers have worked with their partners to combat this, and they are to responsible for the existence of life-saving anti-voidmatter and voidmatter removal spells.
ehanced gyromanipulation (gravity manipulation) skills. These already exist in the BrDim universe in the form of hyper- and hypogravitational magic, but ziojic gyromanipulation is a step up. It’s like an instant track to mastering hyper/hypograv magic, and then some. More precise levitation and reorientation skills, better projectile aim and control, better sense of one’s self when in the air (jumping, falling, etc.).
markings. All ziojics have thick bands of color on their cheeks coming down from their eyes, as well as bands around the upper arm/bicep area. The color varies, and some think it has to do with personal preference, the dimension you die in, or the primary magic type used. Jury's still out as to which one it is.
All ziojics also have the zio'andar on their person, either because they put it there or a god did, and it will often be its own separate color.
bioluminescence! It varies from person to person as to what specifically glows, but most ziojics have some sort of bioluminescence. Caitie Davis’s hair glows and takes on a plasma-like flow, and her bones glow in the dark. Ev’s hair glows at the ends, and technically their hair is a ziojic feature in and of itself—it was just brown before, and after resurrecting it fades from brown to white to orange as it grows. Glowing freckles and scars are also common, and some have glowing horns or teeth (the latter usually inconjunction with glowing bones, for obvious reasons).
All ziojic’s eyes glow, and most have dark/black sclera.
ziojic can survive in the void with no life support measures. They are also immovable by the ziois: ocean-like waters on the edges of flat worlds like Tartarus, Koshi Minor, or in parts of the Iron Archipelagos.
After the findings that come with the aftermath of Crisis 4—more accurately: after the gods take their leave in the latter half of Era 5—more measures are put in place to safeguard zojic resurrection and creation.
Think about it: if there's a rune that can instantly make you immortal, give you advanced self-healing, cool markings, and a teleportation grid sense, and void magic, there will be people who will do anything to use it. Yes, dying is extremely painful, and yes, after the gods leave the only way to achieve ziojic resurrection is to find the rune, carve it onto yourself before you die (or have someone else do it for you, maybe ahead of time, and cut the last dash yourself on your deathbed). But there are people who would do it anything, for all kinds of reasons!
Revenge. Spite. Love. Especially star-crossed love in which you want to spend the rest of eternity together but are being faced with brutal death because your respective families hate each other’s guts, à la Romeo and Juliet. Or you can be unlucky like Evansen Stark and have it tattooed on you without permission, after which you are taught to cut over it in near-death situations because your aunt was part of a cult.
People will be people, and you can't just have people killing themselves to achieve Immortality+ whenever the feel like it!
In steps the Resurrection Council.
Now, it's important to know and keep in mind that the gods couldn't just wipe the memories of everyone who had ever seen and memorized the zio'andar. They didn't have the ability to do so (yet). The Resurrection Council knew that going in. That said, they did they damndest to purge all known record of the zio'andar following their formation, except for the copies that were, of course, branded on people's skill. This wouldn't stop its distribution by word-of-mouth and demonstration, but once the gods' loyal Guild members swore secrecy, it was at least kept to a minimum.
After that was taken care of, the Resurrection Council set up some rules.
Firstly, anyone who tries to become a ziojic using the zio'andar (or Void Death Rune) for selfish motives (riches, the installation of fascist power or dictatorship, to sell themselves as a god, etc.) simply wouldn't get to resurrect. Everyone who dies using the VDR stands trial, and if the members of the Resurrection Council deem them unworthy, then they'll be sent on to the afterlife, no chance of parole (resurrection).
Secondly, anyone who passes the trial has their memories wiped of the whole ordeal, and the memories of their death softened, but not removed. (The goal here isn't to make them forget their death, or the pain of it. They want resurrected ziojics to remember death so they don't go seeking it out again—because a ziojic CAN still die.)
Thirdly, the ones who pass the trial must have a valid reason to go back. Either they died in a tragic accident, were killed in cold blood and need/want revenge, died in secret and need to get back to their family... or they need to be useful to the godly pantheon.
See, the resurrection a ziojic earns has two components: a will to return to the land of the living, and not for maligned gain or reasoning, and permission from the Resurrection Council. The latter most often comes with a catch. Sometimes it's something simple that aligns with the ziojic's reason to return. Catiei Davis, for example, was commissioned by the gods to destroy the contract demon Myrixel upon her return, which would lead to the slow but steady liberation of the Iron Archipelagos.
Evansen Stark, on the other hand, was sent to Aetheria to be the gods' tool and spy. They ended up being those things twofold.
But the Resurrection Council isn't all bad. They’re honor-bound to allow you to resurrect after commissioning you, and while some of the gods are dishonest sleezebags, the members of the Resurrection Council are not:
Morsanna, the goddess of Death, who thus has purview over anything and everything dealing with death directly—especially resurrection, which violates the laws of balance and must be done properly, with extreme scrutiny.
Sometimes Morsanna will intervene with a trial (usually a tricky one) and demand that the potential-ziojic fight her either to first blood or to a call. If she demands "until first blood," then her judgement has already been made, and that person will have their resurrection forfeited. Morsanna does not bleed.
Ialu, the goddess of prophecy, who is on the Council to catch and interpret glimpses of the future to decide whether or not Morsanna should forfeit a person their promised resurrection. She is one reason people do not pass the trial; she can see if and when your intent became or becomes maligned.
Meyaa, the goddess of voidspace and the secondary Guardian of The Void (sentient), and is by proxy the patron of all ziojic. She is also the goddess of dreams, and is another reason someone might not pass the trial—she can see your dreams of power and cruelty.
Maikoa, the god of trickery, who technically shouldn’t be on this Council, but they tried to free TED once or twice and are now the primary Guardian of it The Void (sentient), and thus have purview over all children of The Void. They are the final reason someone might fail the trial, because they are the god of lies and trickery, and they can sense if someone is even considering it.
These four tend to be very good on their word, and are some of the only gods left with any integrity after Era 5. Maikoa will sometimes pose strange or conniving commission quests, and Ialu will often give cryptic advise and quests, but they're otherwise an honorable Council to have judging your petition for immortality.
It's also worth noting that Ialu is the reason the zio'andar's status was upped. She was the one who used it to resurrected Nathan Shasear, and was therefore the first one to notice it's effects and introduce a "trial" to the to-be-resurrected. (Although her "trial" to Nathan was to not give up on himself and waste his potential, which is pretty-opened ended.)
And, finally, a ziojic can die, but in most cases, they die from extensive, fatal wounds, often from combat—or occasionally suicide. Very little else can kill a ziojic, as shown by Evansen Stark, or even Nathan Shasear, who was resurrected with an even less limited version of the zio'andar and straight up can't die by any mortal means!
That pretty much wraps this topic up! It's worth noting that most other resurrection runes don't work like the zio'andar. The zio'andar can either be bestowed and used upon someone directly by a god, or it can be carved into the skin upon death (or, like in Ev's case, tattooed on in advance and cut to reactivate it upon death) and the trial can be taken. Most other resurrection runes only work on animals, or if they do work on sentient people, they required a complex rune matrix and multiple people to activate them. The zio'andar is unique, in that sense, which makes ziojics even more so.
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