Zosha

"A deadly assassin with an edge for the opportunistic kill."

Zosha The Whirlwind
Rat Clan
Fight 5 Body 4 Wits 4 Spirit 3
Nocturnal (Night)
Gold	6

Zosha (The Whirlwind) is a playable Hero and member of the Rat Clan. She is the second Rat introduced, one of the first four DLC characters revealed during the Armello Kickstarter campaign.

Description

Zosha is a brown rat robed in red and black flowing garments tapered with a hooded cowl that allows her headfur to flow from the back in a ponytail. She carries a double-edged swallow blade weapons that can be split into two.

Story

Born in the most ordinary of circumstances, Zosha’s beginnings didn’t hint at the story that lay before her. Though even now that there is one to tell, most of those who could tell it, well… are no longer around to do so.

It’s uncertain when or how she found her way from the streets to be the hand of the Night Mother, a shrewd, insidious matriarch within the Rat Clan, but it fast became known throughout Rat lands that Zosha’s mysterious appearance and the Night Mother’s increasing influence were no coincidence.

For years Zosha remained in the shadows, a quiet unassuming figure by the matriarch's side, dropping a knee, lending her ear at the mere wave of a that jewel covered hand. Though before long, whispers and tavern tales began to find their way across wine soaked tables. It’s hard to tell folklore from fact, but some tales chill bones better than others.

Word of a Hare warrior, once informant to the clan, holed up in his home in the deepest of Rabbit burrows, impenetrable - the mark of the Night Mother found on his corpse before long. Or maybe the boar said to be the size of a house, tusks of ivory, singing songs of Rat favour in taverns, crucified at the very pass he boasted of meeting his Rat contact at. Or perhaps the ever-troublesome, increasingly powerful Bereste family, who having invited the Night Mother for dinner, received Zosha as both guest and executioner. The corpses of wolf rangers discovered in Splintwood Bog, the rat poet Gestan who’d ingested far too much of his mischievous ink, the drowned pups of the lowland raider Black Balkar, who was too stupid to accept the Night Mother’s ever-rare mercy.

As the tales of her mysterious pony-tailed shadow grew, so too did the matriarch's hold over the clan but when her influence began to reach outside of the Clan Armello, an influence that the Rat Clan's ruling families would not tolerate. As wherever there is power, envy is sure to be near.

The ruling families' envy culminated in The Crimson Purge. Many aligned with the Night Mother greeted death that fateful Spring morning, but when they came for the matriarch it was Zosha who defended her surrogate mother, mother of her clan, mother of the night, mother of rats, there in the open streets. With every rotation of her glaive, with every felled betrayer, as the mud ran red with death, this unassuming bodyguard’s legend grew and grew.

The shadowy figure now had a name; the Whirlwind.

In the months after the Crimson Purge, her right to a place among the power-brokers of the Rat Clan unchallenged, the Night Mother, now drunk on power and her seeming invincibility, soon began to make mistakes. Mistakes that, thanks to Zosha, consummate in her abilities and influence, saw that they never saw the light of day. Buried in shadow, laid to rest with the corpses they arose from, these mistakes, these clan-shaking errors, remained Zosha and the Night Mother’s secret. Where orphan became assassin, and assassin became confidant, the Night Mother’s hand had now become her steward.

So when word of the King’s ails came to Zosha, the Night Mother was deeply offended that she was not invited to the meeting of The Four. So as the Heroes’ Call rung true across Armello in search of our next King or Queen, the Night Mother, as always, extended her hand, Zosha, the Whirlwind, but not just to end a life this time. The Whirlwind was to claim the throne, for Armello, for clan, for mother.

Time will only tell, whether Zosha, the Whirlwind will realise her true potential and find the Royal Throne just a little too comfortable to give up.

Gameplay

Hero Ability

Zosha's unique hero ability is Shadow: At Night, Zosha gains Stealth on any type of tile except palace tiles.

Shadow allows Zosha to hide her actions and more easily Ambush enemies at Night, which gives her a combat advantage along with her nighttime bonus die.

Rings

Zosha's ring selection is designed to either give her an edge in settlement tiles or increase the rewards she gains from each kill, as well as give her the option to boost her Wits stat.

Rat Clan rings grant its heroes benefits on claimed Settlement tiles, or aid them in combat.

Name	Effect	Unlock
Black Opal	Gain Stealth in Settlements, Day and Night.	Default
Obsidian	At Night gain Scout on all your claimed Settlements.	Reach Hero Mastery Level 2 with Mercurio
Ruby	First rolled Sword in Battle Explodes.	Reach Hero Mastery Level 2 with Zosha
Turquoise	Gain Evade and +2 Explode Pool.	Win 5 games for the Rat Clan
Tanzanite	+1 Gold when you escape a Peril.	The Usurpers DLC
Cat's Eye	Get a 1 Gold discount on the first Trickery Card played each turn.	The Rivals DLC

Emotes

• Greetings: Shadows bless you.
• Farewell: Farewell. Sleep deeply.
• Oops!: Haste makes for error.
• Bad Luck: Fate is unkind.
• Thanks: I am in your debt.
• Sorry: Veyest Dahn. I am sorry.
• Mercy: I am not your target. Keep back!
• Well Played: Well executed.
• Laugh: Heh...
• Go for X: X should be your target.
• Truce X: X. We can help each other, you and I.
• Threaten X: Sleep with one eye open X
• Curse: Curse it!
• Ouch!: Arh! That hurt.
• Go for Self: Try stop me. It makes the kill sweeter.
• Truce Self: I don't do well with partners. They die. Often
• Threaten Self: I'll take the throne or lie dead at it feet.
• Wow: Even I can be surprised.
• Boast: Blade... Poison... Time... One way or another.

Gallery

Zosha concept model.

Night Sister Zosha skin

battle pose

Zosha on the Choose Hero screen

Night Sister Zosha portrait

battle pose (Night Sister Zosha skin)

Night Sister Zosha (Animated)

Trivia

• Zosha was first revealed on May 4, 2014 once the Armello Kickstarter campaign had been successfully funded, making her the first stretch goal. She was subsequenlty made available to backers once her $215,000 AUD goal was reached.
• Before her name was officially revealed, Zosha was known by the tentative name Rat Assassin.