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Zaul Oleander hails from the Tethe’alla part of Aselia. Orphaned at the age of fifteen, when his parents Lucius and Regina were inflicted with a deadly poison during a treasure hunting mission. Not one to wallow in depression for too long, he carries on his parents’ carefree attitudes.

Zaul really did lose an eye around the earlier years of trying to get by on his own, at the age of seventeen. Being a Half-Elf, he was looked down upon and bullied wherever he went. He came to sustain such an injury defending himself in a particularly awful scuffle in Flanoir.

However, it was soon replaced by an Exsphere―not one cultivated from the lives of others. It was originally an empty one that came from the Toize Valley Mine. It rests in a Key Crest fixed into his eye socket, and it’s had some of its own modifications. Of course, since it must absorb one’s life in order to activate for use, it had absorbed the entirety of Zaul’s life force the moment he began to bear it. If it were to be destroyed or removed from him, then his life ends outright.

In battle, the Exsphere does the usual; that is, hype up his abilities the more he engages in battle. It also does function like an actual eye, and he can actually see through the eyepatch. However, as it is wired directly to his brain to do this, it has a tendency to affect his demeanor. The longer he stays in battle, the more stress he is put under and the more his Exsphere is driven into self-preservation mode. This results in him growing hyper, trigger-happy, and in the worst-case scenario, take on a cruel streak.

As for how he obtained the Exsphere, he would say he was “just your average schmuck desperate for money, who sold his soul to science”. It was just some time after the fight where he lost his eye. He was wandering the streets of Flanoir with the intent of finding the city’s famed doctor to beg him for treatment. Instead, he soon chanced upon a mysterious and eccentric scientist who promised him a hefty sum and free living quarters—if he let him do experiments on him. His motives are yet to be clear, but he also promises he wouldn’t kill Zaul.

The deeper truth behind this is that “Doc” (that’s the only name the scientist will allow to be mentioned in public) is a person who believes he figured out the “good” way Exspheres were truly meant to be used. The Exspheres he has in stock are empty, the kind that have not been cultivated on lives yet, though they have certain enchantments placed on them. So Doc goes around and observes people, selects some he deems “worthy” for his experiments, briefs them on how Exspheres work, and grants them one of his modified Exspheres. Of course, he gives his would-be subjects a choice, but it is often paired with another offer that seems quite tempting.

One of the enchantments he has imbued on these Exspheres makes it so that the wielders have a sort of telepathic link. They all have ultimately agreed that should one of them die, one of the others shall track them down as quickly as possible and destroy the Exsphere to release the soul.

This team that Doc has developed in secrecy, which Zaul is a part of, is called the League of Ethical Exsphere Testers, or L.E.E.T. (Yes, that name is played for lulz.)

In the later part of the year 2012, Azura inflicted lycanthropy on him in a desperate attempt to save his life by granting him the accelerated healing that comes with it. It was successful, and he decided to keep the condition. (The story regarding that can be read here.)