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is a fictional character designed for the Soul Series of fighting games. His first and, to date, only appearance is in Soul Calibur III.
Biography Zasalamel was originally born into a Sumerian tribe formed hundreds or thousands of years ago in charge of protecting the holy sword, Soul Calibur, embedded with the knowledge that wielding such power was forbidden. This strict edict existed to prevent the holy sword from being used for personal gain. Zasalamel, young and talented in both mind and body, was angered by this edict's failure to create a loophole that would allow the tribe to use the weapon in case a crisis were to occur. To destroy this foolish tradition, he prepared to take the sword into his own hands, but the tribe discovered his plans, and then proceeded to crush his arm and exile him from the tribe as punishment. Zasalamel was stricken with bitterness and despair, leading him to the pursuit of ancient knowledge, particularly the art of reincarnation. Finding this secret art which many had sought and failed to obtain within knowledge thought to have been lost long ago, he spent many years studying and training until the power became his own. However, he could not have anticipated the cost of such knowledge; for every time he died, he experienced a nihilistic feeling as if sinking into hell, and a pain as if his body were being ground into dust. He had distorted the laws of causality set down by the gods and he had torn off the shackles of time. In exchange for obtaining eternal life, Zasalamel had lost peaceful death. He reincarnated repeatedly over many generations, gradually losing the initial joy as his existence waned and the pain of death increased. Any enthusiasm he felt for living was gone many lifetimes ago, but he could never escape the eternal circle of reincarnation. During one of his lives, he had taken possession of Soul Edge in hopes of using it to commit suicide and be freed from reincarnation once and for all; but he ended up a servant of the sword and bonded with the sword until the last of that life faded. In this current incarnation, he turned his hope to the Soul Calibur and returned to his birthplace to take the spirit sword back. But when he reached his homeland, the tribe was gone and the site was emptied without a trace of anything that had happened. Zasalamel tracked the whereabouts of the Soul Edge by following closely the massacres caused by the Evil Seed and Nightmare, learning that the Soul Calibur had finally reappeared as it was destined to whenever the Soul Edge became too powerful. He hoped that he may be able to obtain both of them at once; but unfortunately, the Soul Edge had lost half of its body and become sealed, and the Soul Calibur had been infected by evil, gradually losing its strength. In order to revive the Soul Edge, he lent his power to its will. Zasalamel resurrected the dead armor of the azure knight, Nightmare; and in order to aid Nightmare and increase the Soul Edge's power, he needed to create conflict within the mind of Siegfried Schtauffen, the possessor of both swords, by searching out survivors of Nightmare's carnage and directing them toward Siegfried. He figured that the strong hatred and hostility these surviving few bore would be enough to shatter Siegfried's will; and if the Soul Edge grew in power, the Soul Calibur would regain its strength as well, as told in the legends of Zasalamel's former tribesmen. After spreading his influence, Zasalamel lurks in the background, waiting for Siegfried's mind to be shattered; and when it is, Zasalamel will be ready to take advantage of the situation and steal both swords, hopefully to use this ultimate power in accomplishing his final death. Weapons -- Kafziel The scythe wielded by Zasalamel, apparently since his first life. Nothing is really known about this weapon. The name comes from Kafziel, an Angel of Death in Jewish lore appointed to take the lives of kings. Stages -- Clock Tower (SC3) A stone clock tower that stands at the corner of a quiet temple outside the edge of town. Inside, a complex arrangement of machinery creaks along, ceaselessly counting each passing second. The inside of the rarely-visited tower is dark and gloomy, but light shines in from a window near the top of the clock mechanism brightens up a section of the tower. After this tower was built, a man began to visit this place. This habit has not changed over the course of his countless lives. He will come here again, to this place where the steady rhythm of machinery counting away the seconds is all that can be heard. For this man who has lost his sense of time over the course of his countless lives, it may be that this is the only place where he can truly feel the passage of time. Character Analysis Zasalamel's tier is sometimes disputed but most agree he is around the status of upper tier. Zasalamel possesses many fast long-ranged moves that deal fairly respectable damage, making him a more than formidable foe in mid-range, challenging even Kilik. His B,B and 2A are considered among the best moves in the game. Zasalamel's 2K is also one of the best low kicks in the game, and acts as an excellent spacing tool. His forward run mixups are tricky and can give rise to good, if simple, combos, especially those that start with 33_99B. Despite these strengths, Zasalamel has many weaknesses that detractors are fond of pointing out. Many of his moves are unsafe on block and easily punished by experts. He has very few viable lows, too many highs, and in general, tends to completely lack the versatility and variety of play that his counterpart Kilik is famous for. Perhaps Zasalamel's most glaring weakness is that he has almost no strong horizontal step-killers, making his play predictable and linear. The unsurprising consequence of this odd match of incredible strengths and incredible weaknesses is that expert Zasalamel players tend to rely on a very small subset of his moves because they are the only ones that are consistent enough to win. Still, that small subset is apparently enough, as demonstrated in the Chicago SC3 National Championship of 2006 where Zasalamel proved to be a character almost on par with the top tier. In the arcade version, Zasalamel was changed tremendously, to the point that veterans consider his playing style to be completely different. His tier remains fairly high in the arcade version, and is perhaps higher than before due to toning down of the top tier, such as the removal of Xianghua's best cancel and the VC glitch, one of Mitsurugi's trump cards. Trivia Series Appearances | ||||||||
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