 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | A massive Guardian that has been feeding off the Dragontorch's energy. Its body is encased in crystallized Wyvern Milk, allowing it to regenerate. Zoh Shia, like other Guardians, excels at energy attacks and can produce repeated explosions to crystallize the whole area. Beneath its white Guardian coat, its body pulses with dark recollection - which you may see, should it reveal its full power from the days of yore. | „ |
| ~ Zoh Shia's entry in the Hunter's Notes. |
Zoh Shia is one of the overarching antagonists (alongside the Ancient Wyverians) of the 2025 action-roleplaying video game Monster Hunter Wilds, serving as the final boss of its Low Rank story. A Construct designed by the Ancient Wyverians to guard their most precious relic: the Dragontorch, Zoh Shia would choose to turn on its creators instead, seizing the relic for itself and bringing the civilisation to ruin in the process. In the present day it remains sealed within the Dragontorch's shrine, feeding on its endless power and causing the Inclemencies as a side effect.
Physiology[]
Unlike the other Guardians, Zoh Shia does not seem to be based off a singular monster, instead being an amalgamation of numerous Elder Dragons. It has a slim, quadrupedal physique similar to Gore Magala, with its wings taking the form of an additional pair of well developed arms that have light blue veins on their palms. The inside of its mouth is bright blue, filled with small, sharp teeth. Its tail is also quite long, being roughly the same length as its body and head combined. Zoh Shia's head is rather smooth, tapering into a sort of beak with a spike on its chin. It is extremely large, measuring around 46 meters in length.
Initially, Zoh Shia is completely covered in an armour made of Wylk, giving it a somewhat angelic appearance. Its digits have feathery extrusions to them, while the Wylk itself takes the form of ribbon-like strips that flow from Zoh Shia's body, giving it a feathered look. This Wylk also forms two rows of horn-like structures that run the length of its body. Zoh Shia's face is completely covered by a featureless white dome, while its head is surrounded by numerous Wylk tufts that form a feathery crest, with two large "horns" atop its head and two smaller ones on its chin. When said dome is broken, its eyes are revealed to be little more than dark pits.
However, as the Wylk shell is whittled away, Zoh Shia's true horrific form starts to reveal itself, exposing its pitch black, scaly skin. Twisted and malformed horns start growing in the place of its Wylk extrusions, while the veins on its palms turn red. Its head grows in size and becomes covered in these horns, causing it to grow tooth-like extremities on its jaws, with its tongue also becoming a twisted mess of tendrils. Most disturbing however, is the fact that Zoh Shia's eyes have changed, revealing them to have yellow sclerae and slit pupils eerily similar to the black dragon Fatalis.
Biography[]
Background[]
A thousand years ago, the people of Wyveria ruled the Forbidden Lands, creating technology unparalleled by any civilisation that came before or after them with the guidance of the Wyverians, a race of long-lived reptilian folk. In time, these people would create their magnum opus: the Dragontorch, a supremely powerful device capable of producing infinite energy in the form of Wyvern's Milk, or Wylk. Disregarding the warnings of the Wyverians, the people of this civilisation would cast their nature loving kin into exile, determined to control nature in its entirety. They would construct massive energy networks called the Wyrmways that allowed for the manipulation of Inclemencies: anomalous weather events that suited the needs of these people.
In time, the people of Wyveria would create the Guardian monsters, artificial lifeforms meant to serve and protect them. These creatures were completely aberrant in nature, possessing no capability to age, reproduce or feed, subsisting wholly off the Wylk that flowed through the land. Eventually, the people would decide to create their magnum opus: a Guardian akin to an Elder Dragon named Zoh Shia. The details of what followed are murky, but it seems that Zoh Shia turned against its creators relatively quickly, seeking to hoard the Dragontorch's power all to itself. With the rest of the Guardians it would lay the land to waste, causing massive destruction and loss of life.
Eventually, the people were given no choice but to give Zoh Shia what it wanted, sealing it in the Dragontorch's shrine where it would feast on its Wylk peacefully. The people of Wyveria would be able to force the Guardians into hibernation, but with their power source gone and infrastructure completely ruined, they were unable to rebuild. Thus, the civilisation's scholars would elect to remain in the ruins of Wyveria, ensuring that their peoples' sins will never be repeated, while the rest of the people would spread out across the land and find ways to coexist with nature, just as the Wyverians had warned them to do.
Centuries would pass, with the presence of Zoh Shia, the Guardians and the Dragontorch being all but lost to time. Even then however, the Guardian's influence was felt through the lands as its feeding habits enabled the regular occurrence of Inclemencies, which the descendants to Wyveria soon believed to be natural phenomena. At some point, the descendants of the Wyverian scholars, known as the Keepers, would successfully reproduce a compound capable of negating Wylk's energies, destroying it entirely. As such, they would fashion a highly concentrated amount of it into a pendant, should the Dragontorch ever need to be destroyed. This pendant was given to Nata's father, though after his untimely demise, Nata would inherit it.
Monster Hunter Wilds[]
During an exploration of the Ruins of Wyveria, the hunter and their party manage to find a passage deep into the ruins, where they discover the Dragontorch. However, this marvel soon leads to a more disturbing discovery: a massive Guardian sleeping within. Returning to Suja to consult Tasheen and the Allhearken, the latter reveals the Guardian as Zoh Shia to the hunter. Hearing of the monster's civilisation-destroying capabilities, the party realise that the only way they can feasibly stop Zoh Shia from awakening with all of its stored power would be to deactivate the Dragontorch. This leads to a debate within the party: while Olivia wishes to deactivate the Dragontorch, preventing the most casualties, Alma, Werner and Gemma refuse to do so, with Werner wishing to study it so as to help more people while the others fear that deactivating the Wylk could dangerously destabilise the ecosystems of the region and the livelihoods of the people living there. Eventually, Nata, as the bearer of the pendant, is asked to make the decision. He favours with Olivia's decision of deactivating the Dragontorch as, after his journey through the Forbidden Lands, he has hopes that the ecosystem and their people can re-adapt without the Dragontorch.
Thus, the party return to the Dragontorch, where Nata, with a heavy heart, prepares to set down the pendant. Before he can do that, the hunter steps in, revealing that they have an alternative plan: to slay Zoh Shia. Thus, they break open Zoh Shia's cocoon and face it head on. During the fight, Zoh Shia reveals its true black scales, shocking the hunter at its true nature, but is nevertheless slain, putting an end to its destructiveness.
With the death of Zoh Shia, the Forbidden Lands are at relative peace, experiencing a bloom in floral and faunal diversity. However, sometime after the slayings of Arkveld and Gore Magala, the Allhearken begins sensing glimmers of life from within the Dragontorch, while Werner reports strange blooms surrounding the structure. The hunter quickly deduces that Zoh Shia has returned and thus, sets out to hunt it once more. They succeed, but as there are still countless buds surrounding the Dragontorch, sprouting from the ground ceaselessly, the hunter realises that Zoh Shia can keep coming back. As such, it's decided that for now, the hunter shall remain in the Forbidden Lands, taking down Zoh Shia whenever it regenerates and comes to wreak havoc.
Powers and Abilities[]
An incredibly powerful Guardian, Zoh Shia is an artificial lifeform with the ability to extinguish entire civilisations on its own. Owing to its huge size and bulk, it is incredibly resilient, being able to shrug off powerful explosions and grievous slashes from the oversized weapons the hunters use. Its large, powerful wingarms allow it to scramble rapidly around the arena, bulldozing anything in its path. Like other monsters, Zoh Shia possesses an incredible stamina, allowing it to keep on fighting despite its extremities being broken over and over again.
Unusually for most monsters, Zoh Shia wields the power of two elements: fire and thunder. It mainly delivers fire in two ways: by breathing it out, or by coating its hands in it. The fire issued for from its body is hot enough to make the stone floor of its arena glow red hot for several moments, with the sheer impact of its flames knocking hunters off their feet. Curiously, it can also summon bizarre, bouncing fireballs or flaming meteors, abilities which have only been used in tandem by one other monster. Zoh Shia's lightning abilities are especially bizarre, seeing as despite the electricity crackling in its body, it never discharges it from its body itself. Instead, it summons lightning bolts from random places in the room, calling down strikes on the hunter or sending arcs of it racing in straight lines. Interestingly, Zoh Shia's lightning is red, indicating trace amounts of the Dragon element in it, similar to another monster's lightning.
As a Construct, Zoh Shia is completely immune to aging, making it immortal in the simplest sense. Like other Guardians, it can control the Wylk it feeds on, but to a much greater degree as the crystals it generates are much larger and long-lasting, allowing it to coat its entire body in this solidified bioenergy. It can also pump massive amounts of stored Wylk into the ground, creating huge explosions that even cause new crystals to form, with said crystals creating even more devastating explosions when struck by elemental damage. As Wylk's bioenergy richness allows for the regeneration of living tissue, Zoh Shia can utilise its Wylk armour to keep regenerating, allowing it to restore broken body parts in a matter of seconds, using its stored up Wylk to build new armour when damaged. When its Wylk reserves are too low to regenerate its armour, Zoh Shia still possesses an impressive degree of regeneration, allowing it to regrow the tumorous horns that cover its body, protecting itself from attacks.
Even in death, Zoh Shia is able to return from just a single cell of its being, which develop into dozens of cocoons near the Dragontorch, each harbouring a clone which emerges when it receives enough energy. Whether these clones are reincarnations of the original or new individuals is unknown, but whatever's the case they are just as aggressive and significantly stronger.
Personality[]
While a power hungry and aggressive monster, the Zoh Shia doesn't give off this impression in its initial appearance, only examining the hunter curiously as it awakens from its slumber. This all changes as soon as it roars and goes on the attack, displaying a calculating and strategic mind as it attacks with slow, restrained strikes, causing controlled explosions of Wylk to limit the hunter's mobility and knock them down. However, as its Wylk armour is broken, Zoh Shia becomes more and more feral, unleashing showers of flame with reckless abandon and expending its Wylk reserves on tremendous explosions. As its item descriptions frequently discuss restrained anger and malice, it seems that Zoh Shia is aware of its feral, destructive nature and thus, trying to keep itself collected to avoid hurting itself.
When its defences are completely gone, Zoh Shia becomes completely savage as its true power erupts forth, utilising its elemental and Wylk powers with reckless abandon. It often uses powerful charges and claw swipes in an attempt to finish the hunter off with its bare hands, discharging jolts of fire and lightning in rapid succession as it wrecks the arena. Overall, this form allows Zoh Shia to showcase the monstrous being it truly is, viciously defending its ill-gotten gains as it rampages without care for anything in its vicinity.
Habitat[]
As an artificial monster, Zoh Shia has no true natural habitat. Instead, it inhabits the Ruins of Wyveria, where it spent all its time hibernating and absorbing the Dragontorch's energy until recently.
Trivia[]
- It’s heavily implied that Zoh Shia is a refurbishment of a concept from the original Monster Hunter game: the Equal Dragon Weapon, an artificial lifeform created by ancient people from Elder Dragon corpses to rival the most powerful monsters, whose creation would trigger many Elder Dragons to destroy the ancient civilisation. As such. Zoh Shia shares many attributes with it, such as traits borrowed from many other Elder Dragons, an artificial nature, relations with the destruction of the civilisation that made it, and a visor-like face.
- Despite not being based off a single monster species, Zoh Shia's attacks pull from many immensely powerful Elder Dragons:
- A majority of its Wylk based attacks, in which it pumps it into the ground with its palms, seem to be based off the bioenergy explosions utilised by Safi'jiiva, as well as its tail flail.
- Its front claw swipes, bite and wing rakes are directly taken from Shara Ishvalda's move set.
- Its Wylk ground slam is taken from Gaismagorm's move set.
- Its arena-wide elemental and Wylk explosions look incredibly similar to Alatreon's moves, with Zoh Shia even taking to the air in a similar manner to Alatreon in one of its attacks. Zoh Shia also chains lightning off its Wylk crystals like Alatreon.
- Its rapid slithers forward and flame breath all seem to borrow heavily from Fatalis.
- Its bouncing fireballs and phase transition are taken directly from the intro cutscene of Crimson Fatalis.
- Finally, its electrical discharge and lightning attacks all borrow from White Fatalis.
- While not an attack, Zoh Shia’s physique highly resembles that of the Magala Elder Dragons, particularly Shagaru Magala.
- While not explicitly stated in game, it's heavily implied that Zoh Shia's primary template is Fatalis and its counterparts:
- It borrows attacks from every single one of the Fatalis variants instead of just Fatalis, implying a very significant connection to them.
- The horns that erupt from its body are very similar to the ones that grow on Fatalis's head, with its pitch black hide being a similar shade to Fatalis's.
- It frequently assumes a bipedal stance in combat, similar to Fatalis.
- It possesses an incredible degree of regeneration, being able to continuously grow back its Wylk shell and repair its broken body parts, similar to how Fatalis can completely regenerate itself in a longer time span.
- Its roar is an electronically distorted version of Fatalis’s roar from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
- Zoh Shia's second phase fight borrows leitmotifs very heavily from Fatalis's theme from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
- Finally, the hunter has some dialogue during its phase transition expressing horror at its black colouration, implying that they recognise it as a being similar to a Black Dragon: Elder Dragons that share an extremely dark hide and incredible power akin to calamities.
- Zoh Shia seems to be based off Lucifer, particularly his incarnation from Paradise Lost: once beings created to be benevolent and blessings for their worlds, their lusts for power would cause them to devolve into horrifying and evil abominations. This is reflected by how Zoh Shia initially appears angelic, only to shed its shell and reveal its true, demonic visage.
- Zoh Shia's species title is the White Seraphim Dragon, which references its angelic appearance and might as Seraphim are powerful and high ranking angels.
- This title is incredibly similar to the title of one of Monster Hunter Frontier G2's Elder Dragons, a relative of Alatreon known as Disufiroa, whose title is the Frozen Seraph Dragon. What significance this has is unknown.
- In addition, the two parts of Zoh Shia's name have Biblical significance. Zoh, in the Hebrew Old Testament, signifies eternal or blessed life, while Shia means "gift of God", displaying how Zoh Shia was meant to be the pride and joy of Wyveria.
- The latter portions of the names of Zoh Shia's weapons reference different angels in Abrahamic religions:
- Its Great Sword, the Blazing Veiah, is named after Vehuiah, angel of willpower and courage.
- Its Long Sword, the Blazing Rafel, is named after Raphael, one of the of the seven archangels of Judaic angelology, and archangel of protection and healing.
- Its Sword and Shield, the Blazing Mikal, is named after Michael, chief of all angels and archangels, commander of the army of Heaven.
- Its Dual Blades, the Blazing Liel, is named after Lailah/Leliel, the angel of conception, pregnancy, and the night.
- Its Hammer, the Blazing Uria, is named after Uriel, archangel of wisdom and knowledge in certain Christian traditions.
- Its Hunting Horn, the Blazing Gariel, is named after the Biblical archangel Gabriel, the messenger of God and herald of the end of days.
- Its Lance, the Blazing Sital, is named after Sitael, the Kabbalistic angel of construction and fortification.
- Its Gunlance, the Blazing Lael, is named after Lelahel, angel of artistic talent.
- Its Switch Axe, the Blazing Mahaiah, is named after Mahasiah, angel of finding and rectifying errors.
- Its Charge Blade, the Blazing Yirmiya, is named after Jerahmeel/Jeremiel, angel of hope and mercy, also a gatekeeper of Heaven.
- Its Insect Glaive, the Blazing Katir, is named after Cahetel, angel of gratitude and material prosperity.
- Its Light Bowgun, the Blazing Kaiah, is named after Achaiah, angel of patience and understanding of cycles.
- Its Heavy Bowgun, the Blazing Mitran, is named after Metatron, an archangel who keeps the covenant between God and his chosen people, and the scribe of God.
- Its Bow, the Blazing Samira, is named after Samael, angel with adversarial duties in most traditions, but is not outright fallen or evil.
- Zoh Shia's species title is the White Seraphim Dragon, which references its angelic appearance and might as Seraphim are powerful and high ranking angels.
- Until the release of Title Update 1, Zoh Shia could only be fought once, leaving it with no unique gear as well. However, it now drops unique materials that can be used to craft its gear set.
- With the Japanese localisation of the game confirming it as one, Zoh Shia is the only Dangerous First Class Monster not classified as an Elder Dragon.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Monsters Others | ||