Zau (#78782844)

Zau <3

orange simplified just the core of him, more or less. main core points are - orange, both colour but more so fruit aspect. fruit in skin aren't oranges but if you squint-- - his cats. in fire and Fire modern storyline, he has two cats - both fluffy graying, one lighter and darker - Uns and Toos (Mongolian for Ash and Dust). orange here is more so symbolic - his rings - blue for Vati, red for Lux. due to limit of overlaying and only two rings, there could be goldish as well as nod to Eyle

Zau with peaches :)

orange Kingdoms. canon and origin story. king of Kingdom of Fire, married to Eyle. in original idea of story, he was more villain, one against who Valkaria and Luka go. however in rewrite he is more so guy who did bad decision in atempt to protect his Kingdom, and family. his role there is unsure (and what that means for his interactions with Valkaria and Luka...) as I am reworking story but I put it by side because...

fnf modern PEACHES

orange fire and Fire (fnF) Modern. I can yapp for days here named after storyline where events of canon story take different turn. this is new canon (I worked on Kingdoms for so long, then Zau showed up and was lol no). fantasy set in more modern times. Zau is more so just a guy. "just" a guy who is very good with fire magic (but doesn't care and rather flirts with ladies. bro wanna have fun). he met Vala and Luka, they somehow get together <3 he is loving, caring and patient, easy to get all cozy and silly and comfy (hoodie moment) + fan is also part of outfit at times

vampy Zau

orange but there is vampire. forced to be turned to vampire by his partners in atempt to save his life, he has turned to man (.... or dragon here) fueled by anger to take revenge on those who hurt his lovers and his children. he is dealing with a lot of pain of having to calm down his own self. his hair (mane here) bleached is his most significant visual - together with shift to more dark/black clothes + fan is also part of outfit at times, possibly most fitting here

mermay orange - ii

orange orange fnF mermay. he is just a guy who found mermaid in his pool. now he and his best friend Luka hang out with her. so parties and seashell collections also great for MerMay

OH PIRATE YAA - ii

orange orange pirate. well there is mermay but set in that fun pirate time like Pirates of Carribean also great for FR's Talk like a Pirate event

neon AU

orange orange Neon. .... idk he glows in Neon? . . . I genuily can't say much lol

unicorn <3

orange orange Unicorn. just embrace that glorious mane look . . . and sparkles or smth

+ some random thoughts/notes I have
- on 15 May 2025. he looks so extra orange and brown and warm with dither. HIS BLUE GLAZED POT TURNED UNCOOKED under dither tho that is funny. img link

let me yapp a bit (before longer yapp in "so. what's the deal with him?"

he has LEOPARD? instead of JAGUAR???
yupp. my jaguar man has leopard gene. this is because
orange1. oilslick jaguar... well it isn't ugly but it is for him
orange2. I do like leopard a lot (jaguar too)
orange3. it funnily creates amusing contrast between him and Vati - Vati is based on Valkaria's feral form, where she is snow leopard. what prim gene does Vati have? yeah. jaguar. it was simply more fitting for her, and I think that at time leopard gene did not exist? I anyway probably wouldn't pick it, as jaguar just suits her well

bee. beeeeeeee.
he was born with it

but also
orange1. bee is among my top 5 secondaries. has to bee. so it is hard for me to gene replace not only gene I like, but gem gene I like. I anyway did not had any specific gene in mind, so why not to leave it
orange2. it also felt fitting because Zau is described as older guy. not THAT old, but in Kingdoms very possibly he would be still appearing in story while he is older, and giving him some grays. in modern story, there is also bunch of jokes coming from Luka that Zau is old, and considering how story is mostly around Valkaria and Luka who stay youthful but Zau not so... it adds to it (and inside? joke between me and friends how wow, I have older character. Zau is like, "only" nine and half years older than Luka tho and he doesn't look or act much older. main chunk of story (and other stories)? he is like, 35-40. not THAT old. but we know how youths will see someone 5 times older and be "wow. you ancient"
orange3. this realization came later. bees are gentle and hardworking. some of Zau's core traits is gentleness and hardwork. as much this sentence is so simple, it just hits me deeply with how, in fact, perfect it is

why runes tho.
idk it was just prettiest on him IMO

very glad for this addition as it made me colour his paw tips and cheek slightly lighter when I designed his leopard jaguar form and those are some of my favourite little details on him augh

the deal with Zaulan is that he was (WAS....) minor character in story I am working on (was... I put it on hiatus. because of him LMAO). however, I disliked his previous name (Zeroo or smth. I was thinking about coca cola when I first wrote him. I was 13, in class, desperately needed a name. what?). since I kinda struggle with coming up with names, I started to reffer to him as "that unnamed king of Fire (Kingdom)". this went on for 6 years.

then, I started having ideas (a very dangerous thing, indeed!). king of Fire? needs dragon. I drew and named not only this dragon - Gulrrhuth - but her species too. yet this poor king? nothing. so one day I said it is enough, looked thru names I liked vibe of to mash into name for this guy. so on 28 march, 2022, he was named.

this was spark that started... something.
then I really wanted to write scenes with him.
oh. this was chaos.

there is a scene, in which he gets close to Valkaria - other happy brainrot character of mine - to show her how use bow. well I am weak human to write sweat and stink bad so better smell has to be sensed. what medieval people would do? I started to think of lemon (I blame lemon cake mentions in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). but lemon no... what of other citrus? ORANGE? and so that happened.
and then Zaulan showed he is bit too charismatic. we all stood in shock. amusement. admiration. adoration. (words better not be said).

I haven't even drawn him yet. I had only loose ideas - to be represented by jaguar, because cats superior and idk, jaguar strong and he do be big strong guy (tiger was claimed by bigger people). melanistic, becususe idk, why not. I was so into idea of him I rushed to AH to buy dragon (I think he was like, 10-15g-). he guided me in design - I anyway take lot of liberties when designing characters - brown jaguar, but rather with creamy accents than silver (he can age into that I guess). that gave just a fuel to draw.

he is more than half I draw.
he became fan favourite.
he is absolutely creator's favourite.
he is guilty of starting several AU stories.
now he is where he is.
orange to be praised.

his favourite colour is rather light blue/cyan tho
and his favourite fruit is probably peach