Zeref Dragneel
Zeref Dragneel is a male character who features in Fairy Tail.
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Biography
Zeref Dragneel (ゼレフ・ドラグニル 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. 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 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 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. 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.
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.
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. Thus, he resolved to find a means of defeating the mighty foe.
Powers and abilities
Zeref was born with immense magic power and was a prodigy in sorcery.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
Notes
- Zeref Dragneel was created by Hiro Mashima where he featured in the setting of Fairy Tail.
Appearances
- Fairy Tail:
External Links
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