| Zahra | |
|---|---|
| |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Legendary hero Farmer |
| Affiliation | Al-Azaliyya |
| First appearance | - |
From Al-Azaliyyan legend.
An orphan girl from the town of Uyarmah.
She was orphaned at a young age when her parents died to sudden illness.
Uyarmah was a town in a harsh and unforgiving region where most children without parents did not survive.
Zahra managed to make her living by learning to cultivate the small bit of land that her parents owned.
She made money by cultivating and selling seeds of different kinds.
She was always kind and had a positive outlook on life, and the townspeople soon became affectionate of her.
Zahra's defeat of calamity Visharah
Zahra was barely 12 when Versa unleashed the calamity Visharah the Corruptor on the people of Al-Azaliyya.
Eventually word reached the town of Uyarmah that Visharah was about to reach them, but Zahra refused to evacuate.
Instead, she encouraged the townspeople to fight against Visharah.
Everyone laughed at the idea, but Zahra was deadly serious and explained her plan. With her resolve, she managed to get the people to believe in her plan and convinced them to stay and fight. When Visharah and her horde of undead reached Uyarmah, the town militia shot hundreds upon hundreds of arrows with small satchels of seeds attached at Visharah.
The calamity parried the arrows with ease, but her life aura caused the seeds to sprout immediately around her. Within moments, Visharah and her army were entangled in the plants and vines that were growing wildly out of control all around them.
Once Visharah was restrained, the townspeople set the “forest of plants” on fire, burning Visharah and the undead horde alive.
However, as the flames destroyed her body, they also released the poison it contained. The poison spread rapidly into the town, and the people panicked and ran away in panic. Those that ran too slow perished, including Zahra herself, whose legs were simply too small to outpace the poison.
The survivors of the ordeal quickly spread word of Zahra the martyr, the orphan girl that stopped Visharah’s advance and saved all of Al-Azaliyya.
Reverence of Zahra in the current age
In the current age, Zahra’s cleverness of turning the monster’s strength against her is told as a tale of inspiration. “Anyone with the resolve and resourcefulness can become the hero that achieves the impossible”.
Zahra is venerated as a saint and her spirit is believed to protect the city of Zahrana-al-Barran (renamed from Uyarmah) one of the biggest cities in Al-Azaliyya.
The area where Visharah perished is a cordoned-off location within the city, because the deadly poison still lingers in the ground even after 1000 years.
However, with help of mechanical contraptions, the people have placed a statue of Zahra right next to Visharah’s corpse.
The statue being placed there is a symbolic gesture: Zahra was brave enough to challenge Visharah, so her statue must be next to Visharah’s corpse, no matter how deadly the surrounding area is.