Zeref Dragneel

Zeref Dragneel is a male anime and manga character who features in Fairy Tail.

Biography

Zeref Dragneel (Japanese: ゼレフ・ドラグニル, Hepburn: Zerefu Doraguniru) was a male human who was born in the world of the Earthlands where he lived with his family with him having a new born younger brother named Natsu Dragneel. In that time, the Dragons attacked mankind around 400 years ago thus killing his parents along with his little brother thus leaving Zeref an orphan. The extremely young Zeref was then taken in by the Mildian Magic Academy as a student where he developed an interest in researching the connection between life and death. He intended to use magic to bridge the gap in order to bring back the dead with him looking to bring Natsu back to life. He developed ground breaking research that impressed his mentors but they believed his works were blasphemous and breached the sacred teachings of the god Ankhseram (アンクセラム Ankuseramu). As such, they urged Zeref to abandon his research but despite this he continued his work over the years with this displeasing his teachers. In time, he presented his completed work to his teachers and peers where he showcased the R-System that he claimed had the power to revive the dead. Afterwards, he was met by his mentor who stated that the faculty of the magic academy had decided to expel him for his continued breaches. Overcome with grief, Zeref was then stricken by a curse by Ankhseram were he was stricken by a curse of contradiction whereby he radiated magic in times of emotion that resulted in black power that killed anyone around him. The first time this occurred resulted in the death of Zeref's teachers and all his fellow students at the magic academy. In time, Zeref came to learn that the curse also meant that he could not die from old age and was forever young. The cursed existence was a punishment for Zeref and he came to wish to die to end this existence where he wandered the lands. At some point, he resurrected his younger brother Natsu but the boy was wild and refused to be trained by Zeref. A chance encounter with the dragon Igneel led to Zeref giving Natsu over to the fire dragon who served as an adoptive father to the boy. Around this time, the friendly Dragons looked to end the threat of Acnologia and orchestrated a planet. They took the orphaned children of the conflict and trained them to be Dragon Slayers with five such people chosen for the task. To aid them, it was decided to send the young Dragon Slayers into the future to around 400 years where they were to help in bringing down Acnologia. To achieve this, Zeref met with a celestial wizard by the name of Anna Heartfilia (アンナ・ハートフィリア Anna Hātofiria) and had her use the Eclipse Gate to send the children forward through time. Thus, Zeref came to be separated from his brother for centuries and left entirely alone. He unintentionally took the lives of many due to his curse and the lands of Isghar came to refer to him as the Black Wizard with history calling him an evil figure.

Over a century ago, he was noted to had a young female wizard named Mavis Vermillion where reluctantly he taught her dark magic as she needed aid in fighting against the tyrannical Blue Skull guild. Years later, she came upon him again where the pair grew close as she was not scared of Zeref despite his curse and his reputation as the Black Wizard. Mavis revealed that she used dark magic which was why she had not aged and a shocked Zeref checked her to find out that she had similarly become cursed by Ankhseram. He revealed to her the true nature of the curse which left her horrified and she ran off with Zeref taking sad solace in the fact that she was similarly horrified at him as others he had encountered over the years. Afterwards, he decided to continue his wandering and looked to continue his plans that involved removing the curse from himself. Over time, he created the Etherious breed of demons in the hopes that one would be strong enough to kill him but none managed to accomplish the task. He then decided to revive his dead brother Natsu as an Etherious demon and created a being that he hoped would be able to kill him where he named the creature Etherious Natsu Dragneel or E.N.D.. Sometime before X781, he travelled to the Western Continent of Alakitasia where he subjugated the 730 magic guilds in the land and forged them into the Alvarez Empire. This was with the goal of growing them into a powerful military force which he intended to use to attack the Black Dragon Acnologia. Around this time, he came upon Mavis Vermillion again who was living alone by herself in the forests as the curse of Ankhseram had began to take effect on her making her unwittingly kill all those around her. The two thus became closer due to their shared pain and became romantically involved where they kissed. However, the nature of the curse meant that the love they had meant that death followed in its wake and the immortal Mavis was killed as a result with her dead in Zeref's arms thus adding to his sorrow. He took her body and went to Magnolia where he left her corpse by her Fairy Tail guild house and decided to return to the Alvarez Empire as he did not care about anyone in that kingdom. Sometime afterwards, he encountered a young lost child who reminded Zeref of Mavis and he named the boy August. The child accompanied him and helped in the founding of the Alvarez Empire where he came to be a powerful age.

Many years ago, it was noted that the Alvarez Empire launched an attack against Ishgar with this being done so against the wishes of Emperor Spriggan. The conflict ended when Zeref felt that this was not the time for the attack and called off the assault where he stated that the Magic Council's arsenal of superweapons was only a factor in calling off the onslaught.

Zeref was known to entered into a slumber on Tenrou Island and spent sometime there where he was happy to be away from people. He remained in a slumber until one night when a pack of wolves attacked him only for the animals to be killed by the curse from his body. This left Zeref wallowing in misery where he apologised for killing them and expressing a desire to meet Natsu again. By this point, the island was being visited by members of the Fairy Tail guild who were conducting their S-Class Mage Promotion Trial. This led to Elfman and Evergreen encountering him where Zeref urged the two to stay away as his magic was going rampant and a wave of energy was released that nearly killed the two mages but they were saved by the timely arrival of Natsu. Seeing his brother surprised Zeref who commented on how Natsu had grown up though his sibling had no memory of his family. Zeref then said that he had anticipated their arrival though Natsu misinterpreted this as a challenge leading to a fight where he punched his brother. This unfazed him with Zeref being disappointed that Natsu still lacked the strength to kill him with his power going out of control again. The resultant dark magic was only blocked by Natsu's scarf but this came to alert the Dark Mage guild Grimoire Heart who had actually come to Tenrou Island in search of Zeref. The dark guild had looked to acquire Zeref so that the current Magic world will end and user in a new Ultimate Magic World where those that did not possess magic would suffer and die. However, Zeref had no interest in helping them though was somewhat powerless as he was still in his slumbering state. This allowed Ultear Milkovich to take him back to her guild's airship as she wanted him to become the King of the Ultimate Magic World. He would beg her to stop but she refused and revelled in her actions. Around this time, Zeref came to sense the coming of the Black Dragon Acnologia where he came to release his dark magic that killed the wizard Zancrow. He came to apologise for killing the mage where he expressed the view that he did not want to be an ally or enemy to the world. However, he relented that if the world had to come to an end then he would fully awaken to help bring about it. He then proceeded to kill Hades and witnessed Acnologia destroy Tenrou Island whilst he departed the area on an airship.

In the aftermath, he came to disappear where all attempts by the Magic Council to find him had failed. The knight Arcadios came to reveal that senior figures in the Kingdom of Fiore had learnt how Zeref had been responsible for transforming Acnologia into a dragon and looked to use the time travel abilities of the Eclipse Project to stop him. This plot would ultimately fail with Zeref being present in a nearby forest where he resolve to bring about the end of humanity to end the constant cycle of hatred and violence perpetuated by the species. He then went forth to meet the Black Dragon Acnologia where he stated that the prophecised time of their end battle would soon begin. Zeref then returned to the Western Continent to the Alvarez Empire which was being a host to guildmaster Makarov Dreyar who was surprised to find out that the famed Emperor Spriggan was actually the Black Wizard. The pair had a private meeting where Makarov begged Zeref to not begin a war with Ishgar but the Black Wizard stated that he intended to acquire the Lumen Histore from the Fairy Tail guild as part of his goals. This resulted in Dreyar attempted to kill Emperor Spriggan but he was easily neutralised and nearly killed but was saved by Mest who teleported the guild master back to his Fairy Tail compatriots. Zeref instantly knew that Natsu was around and was pleased at the thought of their eventual confrontation with one another. He called a gathering of the Spriggan 12 with 7 of their number meeting with their emperor who detailed an all-out invasion of Ishgar.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Zeref appeared as a young male with black hair who wore elaborate robes. Despite being hundreds of years old, he still retained the appearance of a young man. He came to be known by the epithet of the Black Wizard (in Japanese: 黒魔導士, Kuro Madōshi). After founding the Alvarez Empire, he went under the identity of Emperor Spriggan (皇帝スプリガン Kōtei Supurigan). Zeref said that he chose the name Spriggan because it was an ugly fairy and that this represented himself better than a demon.

Originally, he was shown as being a polite, courteous and formal person. He demonstrated a curious, ambitious and rebellious nature with this being shown when he continued his experiments even after it was forbidden by his superiors.

After being cursed by Ankhseram, Zeref came to fall into despair as emotions triggered the magic that caused him to kill all those around him. This influenced his interaction with others and he kept a wide berth from living beings as doing so meant the curse would strike them down. When he formed the Alvarez Empire, he said that it was simply a pawn for him and he had no emotional connection to his subjects with him stating that this was for their benefit. Furthermore, he longed for death in order to escape the curse and over the years he sought multiple options in bringing about his demise. Over the years, he created the Etherious Demons, the Alvarez Empire and E.N.D. all of whom he had hoped would be strong enough to kill him.

The curse of contradiction resulted in him being conflicted on his motivations over the years. He claimed that he hated war and death yet he found the conflict he would trigger from the Alvarez Empire as a form of amusement. Similarly, he was not sure if he wanted to save his younger brother Natsu or kill him. In addition, at times he claimed that he wanted his brother to kill him yet other times he wanted the opposite. He also seemingly wanted to save humanity from his presence yet at the same time he claimed that mankind needed to be eliminated. Thus, his mind became fragmented and contradictory by nature where when confronted with this he suffered a mental breakdown. Zeref stated that initially he simply wanted to die but in time his goals changed where he then wanted to destroy the world.

Looking to protect others at times, he said he never chose to stay in one place or enter extended contact with living creatures.

It was shown that he had nothing but disdain for the cultists who longed for his resurrection and viewed them as a group of desperate fanatics. As Zeref, he was seen as an aggressive single-minded tyrannical dictator bent on conquest by the people of Ishgar whilst as Emperor Spriggan the people of Alakitasia spoke of him as a benevolently noble and caring leader.

Over time, he came to show a dim view of humanity in general. He claimed to had seen a cycle of hatred continue on and give rise to new evil and conflict between people. This ultimately led to him embarking on a plan to bring about the end of the current age and usher the end of humanity.

Zeref Dragneel was the elder brother of Natsu Dragneel (ナツ・ドラグニル Natsu Doraguniru) where he cared deeply for his younger sibling. He was known to wear a pendant that carried a childhood picture of Natsu and himself.

Centuries ago, he came to encounter a young woman by the name of Mavis Vermillion (メイビス・ヴァーミリオン Meibisu Vāmirion) who he met during his travels. He came to find a kinship in Mavis Vermillion after she showed him kindness. This saw him teach her black magic so that she could use the power to save a town from a dark guild. When next they met, he expected her to reject him after he revealed his identity to her but she still showed him kindness. After she was stricken with the curse of Ankhseram, he revealed the cruel fate she would be forced to experience and expected Mavis to hate him as a result. Despite that, the pair found solace in one another due to their shared pain of being cursed immortals. This blossomed into love and the shared a kiss but the emotion Zeref felt for Mavis led to her being struck down by the curse and physically her body was dead. Mavis's death hurt Zeref and he decided to cut himself from any emotion again and even treated her dead body with disrespect as he simply threw it to the ground outside the Fairy Tail guild house.

Unknown to Zeref, he had a biological son with Mavis with this being a silver-haired boy who came to be called August (オーガスト Ōgasuto). He had chosen the name for the child after finding the young boy alone in the forests and noted his features that reminded Zeref of Mavis. Thus, he named the child 'August' after the time he spent with Vermillion. He was never aware of the fact that the boy was his own son and thus he never fully showered August with affection.

It was said that Zeref hated the Black Dragon Acnologia and that he was an evil too dangerous for the world. In fact, he feared that the dragon would destroy the world and that the only remaining life would be the immortals such as himself. As such, he believed that once everyone was dead that Acnologia would amuse himself by torturing Zeref and the other immortals for eternity. Thus, he resolved to find a means of defeating the mighty foe. To accomplish this, he required the Fairy Heart's power and sought to change the timeline itself by creating a new reality.

Powers and abilities

Zeref was a human who had a talent for using Magic (魔法 Mahō) which allowed him to become a Mage (魔導士 Madōshi). He had been born with immense magic power and was a prodigy in sorcery. His senses were greater than that of a normal person where he was able to sense the approach of enemies.

From his use of Ankhseram Black Magic (アンクセラムの黒魔術 Ankuseramu no Kuro Majutsu), he came to be afflicted with the Curse of Contradiction (矛盾の呪い Mujun no Noroi). It meant that the more emotion he failed then the greater amount of death followed in his wake. This took the form of a dark magical sphere that emanated from him that killed anything around him from people, animals and plants leaving nothing but death in its wake. He was also cursed with immortality and was unable to die where he stated that even cutting off the head would not end his existence. As his powers were dependent on his emotions it meant that his magic became uncontrollable and burst randomly when caring for others. By cutting off his emotions, he gained a greater level of control over his powers. A consequence of the curse was that he became an immortal with him being unable to die nor die he physically age. His body healed at an accelerated rate where any wounds that cam from damage received being closed up without a trace after a short period of time.

Among the spells known to him included:

• Death Predation (死の捕食 Shi no Hoshoku) : less a spell but rather part of the curse which caused a dark wave to kill everything around his immediate vicinity regardless of his intentions.
• Telepathy (念話テレパシー Terepashī) :
• Enchantment (付加術 Fukajutsu) :
• Repent (悔い改めよ Kuiaratameyo) : a spell enacted by swiping both arms in a circular motion until the bottom of his hands met with the top hand index along with middle fingers pointed upwards whilst the other hand's little and index fingers pointed downwards. Once done, he surrounded an area in a dark aura and created a huge vertical explosion with Zeref able to control the blast radius.
• Dark Blast Inferno (暗黒爆炎陣 Ankoku Bakuenjin) : he gathered dark magic as a flame in his palm and projected it outwards as a powerful attack.
• Fire Magic (火の魔法 Hi no Mahō) :
• Living Magic (生活魔法 Seikatsu Mahō) : a long forgotten form of magic that allowed Zeref to breath life into objects thus turning his creations sentient and seek to further his desires with most of these becoming Demons.
• Teleportation Magic (瞬間移動の魔法 Shunkanidō no Mahō) : by conjuring a Death Orb in thin air, Zeref was able to teleport to a location by emerging from within it.
• Time Magic (時の魔法 Toki no Mahō) :

It was known that he had taught Mavis the spell Law (ロウ Rō) though he himself was never shown to had used it.

He also ruled the mighty kingdom of the Alvarez Empire (アルバレス帝国 Arubaresu Teikoku) that was located on the Western Continent. Zeref had sought to forge them into the strongest military force in the world with the power to fight against the Black Dragon at the prophecised final battle.

Zeref was also known to had created the many breeds of Demons known as Etherious. Some of these were part of his experiments that he used to recreate Natsu. The magic that created Natsu resided within a tome that was known as the Book of E.N.D. and it was said that killing Zeref would kill the demonic part of Natsu.

It as shown that he had been responsible for creating a number of potent magical tools such as the R-System and the Eclipse Gate. These creations were made for the express purpose of restoring his brother back to life but were ultimately failures.

Notes

• Zeref Dragneel was created by Hiro Mashima where he featured in the setting of Fairy Tail.

In other media

Television

• In Fairy Tail, Zeref Dragneel appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Akira Ishida and English actor Joel McDonald in the dub.

Appearances

• Fairy Tail:

External Links

• Fairy Tail Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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