Ziral is a supporting antagonist in Marlfox, the eleventh book in the Redwall novel series. She is a Marlfox who was assigned along with her siblings by their mother Silth, the tyrannical ruler of Castle Marl, to get something rich and beautiful for her chambers to feed her ego and vanity. Along the way, they come across Redwall Abbey which Mokkan masterminds a heist against by having Ascrod and Vannan sneak in while he and the other siblings instigate a battle against Redwall Abbey's residents that started from Mokkan kidnapping one of the abbey's children, Dwopple.
Biography[]
As a Marlfox, Ziral was raised with her siblings by their mother Silth, who was a tyrannical and oppressive ruler of Castle Marl. From time to time, they would be assigned by her to get rich and beautiful items for her chamber to satisfy her due to how vain she is. At one point after being assigned again, they go to Mossflower. While Ascrod, Vannan, Gelltor, and Predak were antagonizing other creatures they came across, Ziral focuses on finding a spot to hide the logboats they stole from shrews and a place to set up camp with Mokkan. Eventually, Mokkan finds a sheltered creek at the streamside and orders the water rats they had to pull all of them into the inlet. Once they do so, Ziral has two of them take six trackers apiece to go separate ways and find their brothers and sisters to bring there.
After Mokkan gives a few more orders to the rats as they set up camp, Ziral converses with Mokkan, ranting a bit about how their mother often has them find beautiful things to surround her, insulting her as well which Mokkan reminds her counts as treason to speak of her like that much to Ziral's frustration as she flung her ax in a sycamore trunk. Mokkan calmly chides her for losing her temper before she pushes a water rat into the shallows as he tried to hold on to the bundle of kindling wood he was carrying. Jerking her axblade from the trunk, she continues to rant about how she won't just die and leave the island to them. Mokkan then explains to her that that is when the trouble will start as they will kill each other for one of them to get the throne of Castle Marl and all its wealth for themselves. This leads to Ziral pretending to sheathe her axblade beneath her cloak before attempting to swing it at Mokkan only for him to lock it against the curve of his own ax and forcing her ax to the ground, trapping it beneath his footpaw and acknowledging that she sees what he means.
Later on, Ziral converses with the other Marlfox siblings after one of Gelltor's water rat guards, Fatchur, got killed with Gelltor himself getting injured and reminds him as he tries to convince them to join him to kill some of the Redwallers that it's only blood after blood if someone kills a Marlfox, agreeing with Mokkan that they came only to plunder with Redwall Abbey being the only place worth thieving from and that none of them were with him. Gelltor continues to rant about how they're stealing stuff to please Silth leading to Ascrod lyingly telling him that they're storing up the valuables for themselves and that they'll rule the island together before Ziral explains that Mokkan says they'll kill each other off until there's only one left to rule to which Mokkan himself shrugged at before telling them they let the future decide for itself while they concentrate on the abbey at the moment. He then proceeds to tell them of the scheme he concocted to steal from the abbey.
For her role in the scheme, Ziral listens to noise on the other side of the wallgate and hears the children playing. Once she informs Mokkan who correctly deduced they'd be there, he tricks one of them, Dwopple, while pretending to be a kindly creature named Stickabee into jumping off the walltop into a cloak he had be held by angles by his water rat guards who captured Dwopple when he fell in. Mokkan takes him back to camp and later holds him ransom in front of the Redwallers, telling them to give them something rich in exchange for Dwopple. In the evening, as the Redwallers make their approach to the camp with intent to pretend to comply to their demands before attacking, Mokkan has Ascrod and Vannan sneak into Redwall Abbey while he and the others start a battle against them. Once the Redwallers arrive, reveal their weapons, and attack, Mokkan instigates it, issuing orders to his siblings with Ziral herself being ordered to take more rats and stop the hare, Florian, and his creatures from breaking through the cordon. During the battle, however, Ziral ends up being killed by the squirrel Janglur who stole her ax with his sling and beheaded her. Her death would cause her siblings (except Mokkan who tricked them into going against Redwall Abbey to conquer it to get them killed by the Redwallers while he escapes on one of their logboats back to Castle Marl with the tapestry they stole) to try to conquer Redwall Abbey and kill Janglur to fulfill their code of blood for blood, though after multiple attempts, all of them end up being killed.