"Lord Louis is everything to me! How could I expect a damned clemar to understand what it's like!? You... You must know... Surely an elda like you must know what it's like! To be an outcast, to be every fool's scapegoat! They call us "lesser tribes"! They loathe us! Their speeches of tribal harmony mean nothing when every day, they cheat and abuse us! Do you think I didn't believe, once? That I never dared to hope my efforts made me equal? Then I heard exactly what they think of us... "The lessers are expendable. Send them to the fore and they shall be our living shields." They doomed us and laughed as we died!"
Cirsium Zorba is a major antagonist in Metaphor: ReFantazio. An outcast necromancer of mixed tribal heritage who has one clemarian horn and a mustari third eye that never opens, he is Louis Guiabern's right-hand man and one of his most loyal and valuable assets.
Appearances[]
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: Major antagonist; recurring boss
- Metaphor: ReFantazio (Manga): Major Antagonist
Design[]
Zorba is a slim young man with traits borrowed from both a clemar and a mustari, sporting only one horn on the left side of his head and a third eye that, unlike other mustari, is perpetually closed. He has pale skin and long dark purple hair that covers the right side of his face.
His attire consists of a jagged black choker, brass accessories in his hair, jagged-patterned fishnets on both arms, and baggy black pants with black split tails adorning it.
After returning from his supposed death, his appearance alters significantly. His hair is now slicked back, his third eye is now open to reveal a sinister-looking eyeball with red sclera and a green iris, he has two red lines resembling blood running down his face from his third eye through his other eyes, and he wears a Sanctist robe disguise.
In his half-human form, he has the upper right side of his torso being composed of grotesque musculature with teeth and a large eyeball underneath his ribcage, and his right arm is replaced with a large, claw-like appendage resembling a human spine.
Personality[]
Zorba is a bitter and deranged man who is marked by his utter devotion to Louis. His loyalty runs so deep that merely blemishing something in Louis' image, such as a portrait, is enough to send him into hysterics. As a mixed child, he was outcast his entire life, both for his heritage as well as his lack of talent with combat magic. This bitterness would eventually fuel his learning of dark magic as well as his faith in Louis' vision for a world built on strength rather than birth. In addition, it also causes Zorba to take great pride in his skills as a necromancer, on top of feeling little for the corpses he desecrates in his liege's name. Unlike most other members of Louis' faction, he is fully aware that his boss wants to evolve every person in the world into humans, but not only does he follow him anyways, he completely embraced the idea.
Despite his amorality, his genuine belief in Louis' ideals combined with his willingness to fulfill his wishes no matter the cost causes the party to view him with an equal measure of scorn, respect and pity. Even Hulkenberg, who found him utterly detestable, still came to respect his devotion after their final battle, and Basilio commended Zorba as "the only one who understood everything Louis wanted and fought for it anyway."
According to himself in the aftermath of Forden's assassination, he has an excellent understanding at human anatomy, which allowed him to instantly find out that the protagonist failed to kill Louis completely.
Profile[]
Prior to joining Louis, Zorba was an army engineer capable of reanimating the dead. He was a commoner and a half-mustari hybrid, so he was an outcast that nobody took seriously. Hulkenberg theorizes that Louis encouraged him to train his skills until he can completely recover and/or resurrect extremely powerful individuals such as Louis himself and even humans.
On the day of King Hythlodaeus V's funeral, Zorba introduced himself by casting Electric magic to destroy the royal casket, then summoning skeletons to attack the King's Guard and the party, who had still been distraught over losing Grius to Louis' sword, slinking off into the Regalith Grand Cathedral to invoke the "Day of Calamity," taking both Louis' loyalists and hostages that had fled into the cathedral.
The necromancer anticipated the party would try cutting through the mausoleum to reach him, and so reanimated Grius and had him attack the party.
As the party traverses the cathedral, they eventually reach the top where Zorba is hiding, the king's Royal Sceptre in his possession. However, it is shortly confiscated by Hythlodaeus' magic, leaving it out of the people's hands until the king is chosen. Upon cornering Zorba, the party does battle with him and eventually defeats him and his army of corpses. In one last-ditch effort, Zorba concentrates his magic to resurrect the Homo Avades brought into the capital by Louis, before falling over the edge, seemingly dying.
Unbeknownst to the party, however, Zorba survived, and had his body recovered by his undead minions and returned to Louis. His body was modified and altered by his lord, where he would infiltrate the Sanctist Church and enact a plan to assassinate Sanctifex Forden with him.
If the party fails to retrieve Drakodios within 20 days, Louis will declare the party as traitors and order Zorba to wipe them out one by one. The protagonist was the last to be targeted and killed, having been cornered by him in an alleyway.
During Saint's Day Eve in the Montario Opera House, he entered Forden's court and disguised himself as his attendant. There, he helped Louis orchestrate his fake death to set up Forden for assassination. He retrieved Louis' body and restored it back completely and swapped out the real Drakodios for a counterfeit under Forden's nose so he would be left a sitting duck while attempting to fight Louis, with none knowing the wiser. The plan worked and Louis ended up assassinating Forden. He also gloated about Fidelio's death, despite Louis being seemingly displeased by having to kill him personally.
On the day of the protagonist's duel with Louis, Zorba managed to track down the village where the prince was and located and killed him, but when he saw the party arriving to check the prince up shortly afterwards, he detected a surge of magla similar to the prince's from the protagonist and stayed to observe. When Russell spotted him and the protagonist (who has just realized his memories as the prince's idealized form and has fused with his body) pursues him, he would attempt to leave, only to be intercepted by the reincarnated prince. Rather than stick around and fight, Zorba resurrects Homo Gorleo to distract them before leaving.
In the meantime, Louis infiltrates the Skybound Avatar and occupies it, then turns all of his remaining followers into humans, including Zorba. Unlike the others who have devolved into rampaging monstrosities, Zorba willingly accepted the transformation and was only partially mutated with his sanity completely intact.
He is encountered one last time defending the final King's Servant in the exact same spot where the prince was cursed twelve years ago. Here, he removes his robe to reveal his grotesque mutated form, willingly having become part-human to fulfill Louis' wishes. After a hard-fought battle, Zorba is defeated, where he curses the protagonist and his group for opposing what he views to be a just world, and passionately declaring his willingness to die to serve Louis' ends. With his final breath, Zorba hurls himself off the edge of the palace to his death. While the protagonist and his party grew to pity the man, his corpse would later be found by the people of Grand Trad, which allows the crier Batlin to convince the people of Louis' farce and rally behind the protagonist.
Manga version[]
Zorba summons the giant human right during the attack in the Royal Funeral and does not fake his death unlike in the original game. After summoning the human, he merely watched behind the scenes and escaped to report to Louis about the party's new Archetype powers.
Stats[]
Regalith Grand Cathedral[]
- If there are no Corpsethrall present, Zorba will spend his first turn summoning one. Up to two Corpsethrall can be present at the same time.
- Zorba will only use Madness Curse on a Corpsethrall.
| Zorba | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Level | HP | Turn Icons | ||||||
| Person | 19 | 2500 | 2 | ||||||
| Affinities | |||||||||
| Slash | Pierce | Strike | Fire | Ice | Elec | Wind | Light | Dark | Almi |
| --- | --- | --- | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | --- | Resist | --- |
| Normal Drop | Rare Drop | ||||||||
| Energy Incense | --- | ||||||||
| Skills | |||||||||
| Corpse Puppetry | Summons a Corpsethrall. | ||||||||
| Bondage Curse | Inflict Paralysis on one enemy. | ||||||||
| Madness Curse | Inflict Rage on one enemy. | ||||||||
| Mudo | Light Dark damage to one enemy. | ||||||||
| Mudoon | Medium Dark damage to one enemy. | ||||||||
Skybound Avatar[]
- If Zorba takes enough damage, he will switch to Defense Mode. Gallica will prompt the protagonist to let her lift it if he does this for the third time and beyond.
- Zorba might use Soul Scream if his HP is 30% or below.
| Melancholia Zorba | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Level | HP | Turn Icons | ||||||
| Human | 74 | 20,000 | 2 | ||||||
| Affinities | |||||||||
| Slash | Pierce | Strike | Fire | Ice | Elec | Wind | Light | Dark | Almi |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Normal Drop | Rare Drop | ||||||||
| Health Incense | Energy Incense | ||||||||
| Skills | |||||||||
| Gakandeon | Heavy Elec damage to all enemies. | ||||||||
| Mamudonyne | Heavy Dark damage to all enemies. | ||||||||
| Madness Curse | Inflicts Rage on one enemy. | ||||||||
| Bondage Curse | Inflict Paralysis on one enemy. | ||||||||
| Sorrow Curse | Inflict Anxiety on one enemy. | ||||||||
| Defense Mode Shift | Switches into Defense Mode. | ||||||||
| Soul Scream | Gain four turn icons. | ||||||||
Defense Mode[]
| Zorba | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Level | HP | Turn Icons | ||||||
| Human | 74 | 20,000 | 2 | ||||||
| Affinities | |||||||||
| Slash | Pierce | Strike | Fire | Ice | Elec | Wind | Light | Dark | Almi |
| Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | Resist | --- |
| Normal Drop | Rare Drop | ||||||||
| Health Incense | Energy Incense | ||||||||
| Skills | |||||||||
| Piercing Apostasy | Chance of repelling physical attacks. (Passive) | ||||||||
| Heat Riser | Increases all stats of one ally. | ||||||||
| All Reset | Erases all buffs from all foes. | ||||||||
| Offence Mode Shift | Reverts back to usual form. | ||||||||
Quotes[]
Regalith Grand Cathedral[]
- "Rejoice, rats! That witless assassin is dead, but I shall gladly send you to join him!" (Pre-battle)
- "Now, die! Lord Louis's destined kingdom will be built atop your bones!" (Start of battle)
- "Cease your pointless struggling." (Randomly, on someone else's turn)
- "You'll die soon enough." (Randomly, on someone else's turn)
- "You're the fools who defy Lord Louis!" (Randomly, on someone else's turn)
- "I pull your strings!" (Using Corpse Puppetry)
- "I've bodies to spare!" (Using Corpse Puppetry)
- "Writhe and torment!" (Using Bondage Curse)
- "Now dance for me!" (Using Madness Curse)
- "Die! For Lord Louis!"
- "Die!"
- "Lord...Louis!" (Randomly on someone else's turn, when low HP)
- "Impossible! This can't be happening...! Lord Louis...!" (Defeated)
Skybound Avatar[]
- "Now die! All of you die! There's no place for parasites like you in our new world!" (Start of battle)
- "You're one to talk of reason, you imbecile! I'm not here to chat, I'm here to annihilate you!" (Start of battle, speaking to Hulkenberg)
- "I am made for Lord Louis's world! My new form... proves I'm worthy!" (Randomly on someone's turn)
- "Our world has no room for the likes of you!" (Randomly on someone's turn)
- "Why won't you shut up and die!?" (Randomly on someone's turn)
- "Such zest!" (Party's attack misses)
- "DIE!"
- "Your struggles are pointless!" (Using All Reset)
- "Limitless magla flows through me!" (Using Heat Riser)
- "Fear me! Chaos incarnate!" (Using Sorrow Curse)
- "Cower before me!"
- "Now suffer!" (Using Madness Curse)
- "All who oppose Lord Louis shall die!"
- "Stop flailing!" (Attack misses)
- "How dare you!" (Attack misses)
- "The enemies...of Lord Louis...enemies..." (Randomly, low HP)
- "Urrrgh! Damned fairy! Where'd you go! I'll crush you like the bug you are!" (When Gallica lifts his Defense Form)
- "You're fools all! You fail to grasp Lord Louis's ideals! You're expendable! The lot of you! Expendable! You hear me!? You're blind as all Lord Louis's enemies... and I'll see every last one of you dead!" (Low HP)
- "Dammit... not again... Lord Louis!" (Defeated)
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
- Cirsium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, commonly known as thistles. From Ancient Greek κίρσιον (kírsion, "kind of thistle").
- Zorba means "bully, tyrant, extorter" in Turkish.
Trivia[]
- Basilio mentions how even he was put off by Zorba's brand of insanity and wouldn't dare invite him out for a drink.
- If one pays attention to Forden's Aide when he volunteered to examine Louis' body on Saint's Day Eve, he has Zorba's makeup and his fishnets can be seen through a glimpse of his leg. On the next day, Zorba confirms that was actually him infiltrating the Saint's Day Eve event.