Tzakni Nezami Serénez

"You should know by now that the Serénez Tribes always play by the rules. Do not let my age fool you into believing that I am any different." ~Tzakani Nezami Serénez~

Tzakani Nezami Serénez is a Zaderic Komera hailing from Daksina-Serénez just west of Koldia. While she became well-known for her powerful bow and her lightning reflexes, she gained particular notoriety after it was revealed that she was able to understand the Jalengan language, and more importantly, when she became the first and so far only person in history to crack the codes of the Jalengan Puzzle Books.

Tzakani is the instigator of several major events throughout the The Crest of Zabutur series, and while many of these were not directly intentional, she is still considered to be one of the most world-changing mortals in history as a result.

Early Life
Born Tzakani Nezami Ruzmari, Tzakani is the first of four children born to Raul Ukon Serénez and Faluda Ruzmari, and the only Zaderic child in the family. This incident, coupled with Tzakani's curious fascination of the Serénez Tribes even as a toddler, inspired Raul to take her to the tribes for further interaction. Her younger sisters Alshama, Chayasa, and Nayati, who were not born Zaderei, did not ever develop such an interest.

Tzakani was 3 years old when her father put her and himself through the Serénez joining ritual, and both successfully joined the tribe. While it did not change much about her life or childhood, she and Raul both adopted the surname Serénez. From there she learned a great many of the tribes' secrets, taking the Blood Oaths even as a toddler, which was purportedly not an uncommon occurrence among the natives. At her young age she was taught the Old Zaderic Language alongside Common, as well as tricks and skills to hone her reflexes, martial and elemental abilities.

Tzakani's family relocated several times during her infancy and early childhood before ultimately settling on a small village called Auzoa, whose proximity to the notorious Titans' Playground allowed its inhabitants to generally be left alone, Raul and Faluda included. Due to its fairly remote location and lack of economic or strategic value, as well as its proximity to both the Titans' Playground and a formidable tribe of Serénez, the village generally sees little to no hostility from external forces or even criminal organizations—which was precisely why Tzakani's parents settled there, in the interest of not wanting their children to get pulled into their parents' former lives of crime.

Childhood Trauma
Tzakani's father Raul had been her primary mentor and friend during her early childhood, and his brutal death affected Tzakani much more prominently than the rest of her family, primarily because she was there to witness his immolation at the hand of a trio of Karzez hitmen firsthand. This incident was not only the harbinger and beginning of Tzakani's mental and emotional trauma, but also the event that cemented her passionate hatred of the Karzez criminal organization. This not only led to her revealing a feral side tied to her Zaderism, but her retaliation involved a rather primal and brutal murder of all three individuals connected to Raul's death. This left the young girl heavily scarred emotionally, and she is regularly haunted by flashbacks of both her father and her method of murdering his killers.

By the time she was 11 or 12, Tzakani also developed a grudge against the Kagero-Kiza due to a revelation about their involvement on selling Raul out to the Karzez, and due to the rarity of Shinzoka that are not part of this organization outside of Munjang-Îue, Tzakani's dislike of the Kagero-Kiza extends to Shinzoka as a whole. This grudge against the Shinzoka resulted in her taking the lives of two Kagero-Kiza agents: one was slain with an arrow that was loosed after a warning, which resulted in another agent later hunting her down and attacking her. She lost her life to Tzakani however, after being strangled to death during the struggle. Tzakani is not proud of any of these kills, and is perpetually haunted by the blood on her hands. She often has flashbacks to these moments, whether attacking the hitmen that killed her father, or murdering the Kagero-Kiza agents. Part of her dislike of Shinzoka stems from this trauma, and as such part of her racism towards them is born of fear or from her trauma.

Elven Civil War
Tzakani's actions are believed to have indirectly triggered the infamous Elven Civil War in Koldia, partially due to the connection that Emperor Mieszko and Empress Venéra had with the Archon of the Sacrisola Isles, and more so from the Archon's obsession with the artifact known as the Crown of Zivia. With countless myths and legends surrounding this legendary artifact, he set out with the help of Imperial Zukuren soldiers from Koldia to try and locate the artifact, but they were unable to decipher the Jalenga's riddles. It was not until they arrived in the Kozélan Forest that Tzakani caught wind of their actions, and her curiosity led her on a hunt to find this crown for herself using her own knowledge of the Jalengan remnants that were scattered across the Sayenzi Remnants. If she was not able to find it herself, she at least wished to keep it out of the Archon's hands, an objective that she was moderately successful in completing.

During her journeys through Sayenzi, she ran into an Arakan compound that she later discovered an elf prisoner in. Said prisoner was none other than Princess Leto, and due to Tzakani's assistance in releasing her, she went on to cause a great deal of change within Koldia that reverberated outward and impacted much of Mencu. As such, Tzakani considers herself indirectly involved in this change, as well as Leto's Rebellion.

Appearance
Tzakani is a short and unassuming woman with no particularly remarkable or especially unusual features beyond her tribal markings and her Zaderic features, but her face became widely known into her adulthood due to her reputation preceding her.

Physical Appearance
With her height peaking at 5'2" and weighing in at 121 lbs, Tzakani does not cut a very imposing figure. Lithe and athletic, Tzakani has a robust figure that shows potential for growth as she ages, but also betrays her adolescence despite the mature way she carries herself. Her light brown skin, dark brown hair, and striking red eyes are all commonplace for Zaderic Komera, particularly those in the Serénez Tribes, and her sunburst Zaderic marking (known archaically as a Keiza) is located around her right eye.

Like many others in her tribe, Tzakani has small but intricate markings down her chin that lead down the front of her neck. She has similar tattoos on her shoulders and upper arms, and while they may look like merely abstract designs, to the skilled reader and scholar of Serénez culture, they can also detail aspects of their owner's life. Apart from these inkings, Tzakani wears little in terms of cosmetics, usually opting only for some shadow around her eyes to pronounce them further. This has the side effect of augmenting a fierce-looking resting expression, as well as amplifying the thousand-yard stare she has due to her ongoing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). While she sometimes ties her hair into a long, low ponytail near the nape of her neck, she generally otherwise leaves it down, sometimes trimming off bits if they become too unkempt.

Tzakani has a small but growing collection of scars, the most prominent of which are claw marks on the rear left side of her neck, a small series of what looks like bite marks around her left ankle, an X-shaped patch of scar tissue on her right hand that was formerly a full-fledged hole, and a large gash from her right hip upwards to just below her sternum. Her neck scars were obtained in the scuffle against the Kagero-Kiza agent at the age of 12; the bite marks around her ankle were actually caused by a spiked gauntlet's grip in an altercation with a renegade Arakan Tzakani had when she was 14; and both the X-shaped scar on her hand and the large incision on her abdomen were caused by Jalengan automatons in Bidas-Cronia, both also when she was 19.

Clothing
Tzakani prefers loose garments with long sleeves and long trousers, opting for ones that have ample pocket space. Her favourite attire is a dark coat over an olive-green top and matching pants, with a green Serénez Emblem serving as a belt buckle, and also as bands around her upper arms as a cultural identifier for her tribe. She occasionally opts for fingerless gloves when hunting and using her bow, and began habitually wrapping her hands as she grew older, both due to becoming more proficient at hand-to-hand combat, and to cover up a large scar on her right hand inflicted by a Jalengan automaton. Since Zaderei, Komera, Serénez Tribespeople, and Serenza with an affinity for the element Earth are among the foremost groups that are wont to go barefooted, Tzakani almost never wears shoes—considering that she falls into all four of these categories.

In scenarios where a more formal appearance is necessary, Tzakani opts for long skirts and sleeveless tops, showing off the tattoos on her arms and shoulders. She often elects to wear light jewelry, usually around her neck and on her ears, as well as thicker metal bands around her wrists and ankles. After her right hand was severely scarred, she would switch to more ornate cloth to wrap it, as to present a more appealing and appropriate aesthetic for the situation at hand.

Personality
Tzakani is uncompromisingly honest and has developed a reputation for being such. This in turn makes her a terrible liar and an unimpressive actress, although under her blunt personality, her primary form of deceit is omission. A staunch secret-keeper like many Serénez Tribespeople, Tzakani is slow to disclose secrets she does not wish to share, and will often keep her language vague enough to prevent spilling it, while also avoiding any technical untruths. Headstrong and relentlessly stubborn, she does not mince her words, which has sometimes gotten her into trouble.

Due to a myraid of trauma and discipline throughout her childhood, Tzakani is wary of others and often very tense and hypervigilant. She startles easily, and turns hyperaggressive if she feels endangered or if she feels that she needs to defend herself. She is also very slow to trust others, although is willing to open up to those who are willing to put in the effort to befriend her properly. While her stoic and disciplined childhood have helped her keep many of her emotions in check, in truth Tzakani is harbouring a lot of this trauma and trying to cope with it on her own.

Virtues
Many people view Tzakani's brutal honesty as a refreshing change of pace from most other people who might tell pleasant falsehoods rather than the unpleasant truth. Cautious but also adamantly loyal to those she calls friends, Tzakani is a reliable travelling companion and an excellent confidant. Her blunt, straightforward approach to issues is a precarious but remarkably effective method of calling out flaws and problems when she spots them, and she has even called out Jalenga Queen Zivia herself on some of her issues without backing down. While introverted, Tzakani is not shy, and is therefore not afraid to confront people directly when she has a problem with them. She is also a very disciplined young woman with a sharp mind and a generally rational method of thinking, which has even earned her the respect of the Archon, leader of the Vestar-Menda.

Vices
Tzakani's primary vices are often her virtues as well.Her blunt honesty can strike people the wrong way and she can be viewed as rude or even hostile, and due to her trauma, she can sometimes be unreasonably stubborn which can make her very difficult to deal with. She also suffers from PTSD which can inhibit her rational thinking or cloud her vision on what is real and what is merely a malicious flashback or illusion. While she has a dry and intellectual sense of humour, she rarely ever smiles, and her strong sense of discipline can make her come off as unfriendly or even robotic at times. Given that she was essentially a child soldier, some of these behaviours have had people try to call out the practices of the Serénez Tribes and the Krippan Empire, although the exact workings of these rites is not something Tzakani ever talks about either.

Beliefs and Morality
Tzakani believes firmly in unbridled honesty and in a careful distribution of information based on necessity and importance. Her detestation of hypocrisy leads her to play by the same rules that she expects others to adhere to, and she has no love or interest in good intentions; only good results. While she is willing to change her beliefs and opinions when new hard-proven information becomes available, she otherwise takes a very unforgivingly objective approach, and has no interest in seeing things from other perspectives if the truth is sufficiently defined.

Trivia

 * Had Tzakani not been born a Zaderei, her eyes would have been grey.
 * Tzakani has a Kumenza named Eka-Tzakani.
 * By definition, Tzakani fits the description of an antagonist in each book, due to her primary objectives often being to prevent other individuals from completing their desired goals or objectives; as opposed to having a proper agenda of her own. However, one could argue that her goal is to protect the status quo without conflict.
 * Eka-Katara has been hired to assassinate Tzakani on multiple occasions, and while she refuses to do so, she uses this as an excuse to pay her a visit. She is also one of the only people that has earned Eka-Katara's full and undisputed respect.