Simon Zath is one of the antagonists of Flames of Preservation.

He is a Mage with an Alignment

in Water and a soul binding contract with the entity known as the Keeper of Lost Dreams. His
magic is mainly minion based, as he is more of a backline caster.

Physical Overview:

Zath is a gaunt 6’0” man, his bones clearly visible beneath his skin, akin to a starving man, no
matter his diet. He has a rosy complexion, with gray hair that is always slightly damp, as if he
just got out of a shower and poorly dried his hair. The scent of salt follows him wherever he
goes, forever detectable no matter how separate from salt his environment’s odor is. His eyes
are a bright, unnatural blue that seem to almost glow with power. He also has constant deep
bags under his eyes as though he has not slept in a week. He has no fingernails, though the
holes where they should be are filled with flesh, making it look just like any other section of his
finger.

Zath himself:

He has a varied set of clothing, unlike his compatriot Glib, though he does have certain
preferences. He is generally seen wearing something deep blue, as that is his favorite color, and
it's usually some form of hooded robe. His love of the classical ideal of a mysterious mage has
him tend to wear outdated attire that calls upon the contractors of old, strange sigils adjourning
his clothing, woven on outer edges of his cloaks.
Fighting Style:

In a fight, Zath generally stays in the back, having his minions deal with the enemy in direct
confrontation while he slings horrific spells towards the enemy, obliterating even the most
heavily armored enemy from range. The downside to his immense magical strength is that he
cannot fight at all in melee, making cornering him the best plan possible. If he cannot run, he
dies, but you got to make it through a swarm of crab demons and the like to reach him. When
fighting with Glib, he supports Glib with his minions, using his armor cracking spells to help open
up the most heavily armored enemies so Glib can get to their vital organs and kill effectively.

Background:

Born to a somewhat small noble house, Zath grew up in the family mansion surrounded by
luxury. Zath’s lineage was the rank of Count/Countess due to their mastery of the ocean, having
advised the Eternal Queen on matters concerning the waves many times throughout history, in
both peacetimes with trade routes and navigation and during warfare with brilliant tactics that
kept Britannia ruling the waves. However, the most interesting thing to Zath was not the parties
nor the politics, but the manor’s library, filled with books from across the world on every subject
known to man. His personal favorites were ones on oceanic adventures and the stories of magic
and the Mosaic. Due to his love of reading and strange outlook on life, Zath made very little
progress in the field of making friends.

He was the middle child of his family, however, and as such was not as required to take up the
role of future leader of the house like his older brother, nor was he heavily watched and doted
on by his parents like his younger sister, making this personal lacking perfectly fine in the eyes
of most. His love of learning about anything and everything led him to eventually discover that
he had a potential for magic, fully opening his gate through hard work and study of the magical
arts. His parents supported him exploring his newfound talent, knowing that it would both make
him happy and bring great honor to the family. Finding his personal Alignment to be Water, he
began sailing the world, trying to learn and build spells and enchantments, all the while
undergoing a journey of self-reflection. Simon learned that due to his frail form and sharp mind,
he much preferred fighting at range, summoning creatures of mankind’s fear of the depths into
reality, all the while shooting lightning bolts and performing complex rituals to leave his opponent
little more than a stain on the ground.

After 2 years of travel, still excited to learn evermore, he heard of an underwater ancient ruin
that recently was discovered by a coastal village on a fishing trip. Rushing his way to the village,
he was pointed to the sight of the reported temple ruin. Entering the temple, he found it to be a
temple to the Keeper of Forgotten Dreams, having known the entity's general shape and name
from his studies involving old magics. However, never being one for entirely rational acts, Zath
ventured deeper in, eager to learn more of the being and perhaps gain a fraction of its hoard of
secrets. Zath discovered a library, filled with books that were kept inside airtight stone cases. He
began to read and read, learning of entities in the Mosaic that defied his logical mind. He does
not know for how long he was in there, for all thoughts of basic needs seemed wasteful to his
new feverish state of mind. Eventually, even this great library ran out of secrets to explore,
except for the holy book of the building, which he saved for last, knowing it would bring a final
crescendo to his exploration.

Opening the book, he learned of the power the Keeper held in its grasp, reading of the gifts it
offers those who bind themselves to the ancient being. Reading out loud the rite of summoning,
daring to speak to the being itself within its domain, Zath felt his existence shifting out of the
mortal realm and into the Cavern of Lost Dreams. What terrible things were learned by Zath are
best not described to the sane however, and as such we shall skip to what occurred during his
deal with the Keeper. The contract was simple in its enormity, in exchange for ownership of
Zath’s immortal soul and any of his creations, it would intertwine the power of the unknown and
eldritch with Zath’s water magic, give Zath a lesser spawn of the Keeper, and give access to a
vast collection of lore to draw upon. To Zath, the choice was barely a choice, with none of the
usual levels of painful “convincing” that the keeper needed to inflict on the much more common
sane power mongers who want to take some of his trove of knowledge.

The lesser spawn gifted to Zath was later named Nathanial, after a childhood friend he once
had. From this point onwards, Zath became a contractor of the Keeper of Lost Dreams, learning
to summon and control the eldritch horrors of his master’s domain.

Notable Equipment:

Spell book: Unlike most Magic users, who use easy to transport electronic devices, Simon
brings a thick tome, its pages yellowed and written in with an expensive fountain pen. He does
have a digital image of every filled page just in case of its destruction however, allowing him to
simply conjure an exact copy of his book made of Yliaster. He is currently on copy number 7.
Whenever he starts running out of pages, he also just reshapes the book to have more pages, a
feat that is trivial for his skill in the alteration/conjuration of the substance.

Cloak of Depths: When he is preparing for hazardous events, Simon dons his Cloak of Depths.
A blue cloak with ancient enchantments interwoven with dark blue string onto the hem of the
robe, the writings are clearly visible in order to inspire fear into his more knowledgeable foes.
The robe allows him to move twice as quickly in water as he can walk on the ground, have no
requirement to breathe, have completely unhindered senses and speech due to a non-air-filled
environment Ie; water or a vacuum, shield himself from decently high amounts of radiation,
protect him from the temperatures and pressures of the deep sea, and it acts as a potent shield
against attacks that are ranged or melee, even those that are magical in nature. This cloak,
when worn, connects the user's mind directly to that of the Keeper of Lost Dreams, meaning
that those who are not already under its command will almost certainly be after putting on the
cloak.

Bodily Enhancements:

Runic Eyes: Simon’s eyes are enchanted with ancient magic, gifted to him by the Keeper of Lost
Dreams upon his entry into the ranks of the Keeper’s servants. These eyes let him see perfectly
in the dark, and they also let him read any language and understand the meaning of any
symbology he can see.

Chanter’s Tongue: Simon has an enchantment on his mouth that lets him speak multiple things
at the same time, letting him cast complex rituals on his own, also letting him speak the Lost
Tongue, a language mainly spoken by beings who are eldritch in nature, letting Zath easily
communicate with these beings who cannot normally be reasoned with. Think Mandarin
Chinese and all of its ways to change a word based on tone, except it’s designed to be spoken
with ten mouths and each one’s tone matters.

Special Abilities:
*Magic words spoken in the Lost Tongue, in the subtype of the language that is reserved for
speaking to yourself*

Example Summons:
Drill Worm: Drill Worms are a type of Tace beast that drills into corpses and puppets the corpse
around by stimulating the nerves of the creature, luring in creatures with cries of needing help
and then bursting out and burrowing into the nearest creature. They are about three inches
long, look similar to leeches, being multi-segmented tubes of flesh with teeth that shift inside
their mouths, spinning around to grind the flesh and bone they drill through. Another fun thing is
that they excrete a painkiller and local blood thickener through their skin, so people cannot feel
the pain of it nor die from bleeding out, simply the physical sensation of flesh moving. If the Drill
worms reach the spine of a living creature, they hijack the body, fry the brain with electricity, and
then puppet it around in order to kill more, the original body slumping over dead. Simon collects
this excretion in tubes for medical purposes. Simon also uses these for stealth fighters, hiding
as a civilian in a crowd and attacking the foe while their back is turned. He also likes to use
them for psychological warfare, after all, how do you know that the civilian you saved from him
isn’t a walking corpse that will tell the Mad Mage of your safehouse?
Dicer: Dicers are eight legged creatures with an exoskeleton that is orange-red in coloration that
covers the entire body in a manner similar to a spider crab. Their legs end in points that dig into
the surface they stand on in order to maintain balance, these points can puncture about an inch
into concrete, letting them walk on basically any surface. They have solid black eyes on short
crab-like stalks and six long arms that protrude from the upper section of their body that can
swivel in place, letting them face and reach any side of their orb-like body with ease. The arms
end in long, white, curved blades made of bone connected to both the exoskeleton and the flesh
underneath. They fight by running towards their foes and simply slashing until the enemy turns
into ground meat. Dicers have an average diameter on their main body of 3 feet, with arms that
are 6 feet long, with two feet being blade, and legs that are 4 feet long. These are the main
troops of his minions, chopping his enemies up, though he needs to usually make a lot of them,
after all, their bodies are only shielded by a crab-like exoskeleton.

Living Reef: Living Reefs are living masses made of thick bone strands that look similar to coral
reefs. They “see” by feeling vibrations in the materials around them. These materials can be
solid, liquid, or gas and they can still generally decipher it. They can shift the boney mass that
makes up their body, however they are slow with this process, meaning that they can only shift
themselves about half a foot in a direction per second. This is also how they move. Their body
can grow spikes along the bone; however, this is not a required thing for movement. These
creatures are generally about 10 feet wide, 5 feet tall, and 2 feet thick when in wall mode,
though their directional scale and shape can always change due to their shifting style of
movement. Simon usually uses them as moving cover for himself and his minions, though he
also often fills any base he has with these creatures in order to crush any foes he has, usually
while they are alive.

Deep Ones: Deep Ones are 6-foot-tall humanoid fish creatures. They are an ancient race in the
dreamlands, as old as the first tribal gods that Gaia bestowed upon mankind. They have
greenish gray scales that shine with slime. They have scaled, ridged backs, as well as webbed
and clawed hands and gilled necks. Notably, they have heads similar to that of a fish, with
mouths filled with sharp teeth and eyes incapable of blinking. Their forms cause the weak willed
to lose consciousness, and even magi feel ill while in their presence. This effect is notably
diluted in those who regularly deal with the eldritch. Deep Ones are a completely biological
species however, and as such are far longer lasting servants than any Tace Beast. Deep Ones
are generally faster, stronger, and have a faster reaction speed than humans, with a similar level
of intelligence. Zath makes regular payments of food and other such modern luxuries in order to
keep them on his side.

Ruin Bringer: The Ruin Bringer is a last resort for Zath, a sort of failsafe to ensure those who
dare to kill him shall be brought down with him. It is a Celestial Tace Beast that causes a
massive warping of time in a 100-foot radius around it. Anything within this radius will begin to
quickly break down, as though the ravages of time were accelerated. Wood rots, metal rusts
and bends, and flesh decays and dies. It turns everything into nothing more than dust, a living
embodiment of the death that time brings. When Zath is near death, it will be summoned next to
him, the Nihil in the area around him likely not being enough to sustain it for long causing even
the creature itself to fade and die within hours, maybe days at most.

Example Spells:
Lightning: Zath can summon lightning bolts from his body, frying any fools who dare attack the
mad mage. These bolts can be single target, with enough forces to blow holes in concrete, or
multitarget, which spreads from person to person in an arc, losing power with each new target
added to the newly cooked.

Cutting Stream: Zath can fire highly pressurized water in a beam, slicing through steel in a
similar manner to an industrial water cutter. This is very useful when fighting foes in power
armor, turning their custom suits into their custom coffins.