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1pen — Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts
Published: 2008-12-09 05:47:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 15542; Favourites: 118; Downloads: 0
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"Strongest of the scions created by the gods, they feared his growth, and so kept him a child. So indomitable is his strength that all things are by him twisted and pressed into oblivion. He alone fashions the laws governing all things, and administers punishment in place of the gods. So is he Keeper of Precepts, and his authority is absolute."-Final Fantasy XII Clan Primer Bio
"Also known as Zodiac, Zodiark, is an Esper from the world of Ivalice. The Esper of Dark, he represents the Zodiac sign of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder. Zodiark is indeed a serpent, in the form Ophiuchus is most commonly associated with, a snake. From his power of Dark, his color sign is Black. He is also referred to as the Ashlesha Ascendant, which is the Sanskrit name of its Zodiac sign as used in Jyotish (Hindu) astrology.
It should be noted that although Ophiuchus is not a sign of the Zodiac, Ophiuchus is the only constellation in the sky which the Sun passes through on it's orbit that is not one of the 12 Western astrological signs. It was formerly known as Serpentarius, the rare gem which can be stolen from Zodiark. "
-from the Final Fantasy Wiki
A reference was used: [link] , but only to clarify details as you can see.
My favorite esper of Final Fantasy 12, even though he frequently hands me my ass. Frequently. Oh yeah, and I think he looks more like a pelican eel than a serpent.
MY OTHER ESPERS:
Hashmal:
Zalera:
Ultima: [link]
Related content
Comments: 46
Amazing job
i especially love the detail of the head and crest of this piece.
fantastic work
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Actually. Ophiuchus has been added by some modern astrologers to the zodiac. [link]
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Yep! I remember reading about it, and every one having a fit that its addition would mean changing your current zodiac sign.
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not every one. just Sagittarians and Capricorns
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Without equal. I am sincerely amazed by this drawing. Well done.
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This guy has the single most beautiful final attack in the game! But, you have to admit, Ultima is prettier in general...Haha. This=epic winningness!
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This is stunning! The details and design are so amazing, I could stare for hours....
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Also my favorite...I LOVE Final Eclipse...amazing job at depicting this Esper perfectly! This guy gave me a hard time and was the hardest boss (next to Gilgamesh)...Yiazmat just took me 5 hours, literally, to beat...wasn't hard aside from that. I grinded to level 80 using these gambits and a forever spawning monster in the Stillshrine of Miriam, got Zodiark by using Dark Sheilds (Demon Shield?) and some accesories that blocked instant-KO, and LOTS of quickens...and kept switching through all of my characters to take on Yiazmat. Had Fran with the strongest ninja knife thing and the cat-hood and kept cycling through all my characters...kept spamming Final Eclipse as often as I could too (gambit the caster to hit themselves with gradual petrify after summoning Zodiark)...it never did max damage though, since Yiazmat has a damage cap limit thing (at least towards death I think) that makes his max impact of damage 6999. After about 5 hours of doing that over and over and doing minor actual adjustments to make sure everyone was alive (Phoenix Down - KO gambit works wonders) I got 'im.
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What forever spawning monster is that in the stillshrine? The skeleton guys in the basement? And what accessory prevents instant KO again? I have yet to defeat Zodiark and it's driving me nuts. I can't even manage the basement in pharos for some reason. It's funny, Gilgamesh was a cake walk (and everyone says he's hard) and then everyone's like Zodiark is easy...and I can't get him.
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Gilgamesh and Zodiark were the only bosses I had to turn "Wait" on for...otherwise I had "Active" on the entire game (the way the game was meant to be played!!!)
But there's this like reaper ghost thing in this hallway with sculptures sitting in chairs (I think, near the big giant statue room place) and he summons zombies infiniately...if you look on gamefaqs somewhere there's a guide about exactly this and tells you the perfect gambit to use to have your characters kill all the zombies but not the reaper, and if you get it right they'll take care of eachother too and will do it for hours on end...I left it on over night and gained 27 levels, lol...
And uh...it's some fancy bazaar accessory I think...I lent my game to a friend and my PS2 is in Philadelphia so I can't really check for you, unfortunately
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Great piece of art
He was a pain to beat in the game...the only way I lived and won was do to these mask I had that absorb dark magic I forgot what they were called lol the only boss I cant beat in the game is yiazmat I just gave up...
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Even with the masks he still regularly kicks my butt. I just need to level up more I think.
Oh, there is a trick to Yiazmat. 
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Thank you very much and thank you for the 
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There is a way to beat him... I think you need only one character out when you start fighting him, He uses Darkja for his first attack after he does that then bring out your gang and just watch out for his others
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Hehe, thanks, but I quickly realized he'd do that, and anytime I see he'll do that I throw out the party and leave one, but he still regularly kicks my rear. I never dispel him (found out the hard way that brings up his paling and darkja faster), I've tried all sorts of the things. 
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if ya need a trick with him use renew and make sure that you have that thing that absorbs dark magicks ive killed him when meh crew was only lvl 56 57 ish also nice work
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He's a serpent for serpentarius. But I think in the game he looks like a pelican eel.
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he looks like a dragon with tails for wings. hah
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I find it funny, about this one.
All of the Espers in Final Fantasy XII are based off of bosses from other Final Fantasy games.
Zodiark, the king of them all, has a design eeriely similar to Raem...the "final boss" of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles...a GameCube game. Perhaps a secret flipping off to the Playstation fans?
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Hmmmm, I'd never seen Raem, so I googled it and I can see what you mean. But I love how the entire Final Fantasy has its own take on mythology, the master swords, genji armour, can we say "bahamut" making an appearance in some form or another in almost every single project... but that's what makes FF, I guess. It's nice to be surprised when familiar themes and symbols show up in the new game in unexpected ways. It's like...hello, Chaos, nice to see you again...my how you've changed. I really liked how FF12 interpreted the Zodiac into its predestiny-versus-free agency theme.
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Aye, I really love the powerful theme in FFXII about destiny and freedom. The Occuria were really fascinating, and Vayne - the first main-series FF villain NOT trying to destroy everything, and a rather complex individual with great moral ambiguity - was a fitting antagonist when you consider the really strong themes of him being, as D&D fans would say, 'Lawful Evil'. It's interesting when you consider he and Cid both wanted to free mankind from the Occuria, and yet both were evil on the merit that THEY would impose THEMSELVES upon Humekind as the rulers, and with iron-fistedness to boot (Cid in particular wanted to become a God, it seemed, near the end). What complicated storytelling.
And yeah, the Espers were AWESOME. All of them. Full stop. I liked the interpretations of some previous main bosses - look at Exodus; or Chaos; or goddamn ZEROMUS! I also loved Famfrit, Belias, Shemhazai ... even butt-ugly Cuchulainn had an interesting backstory given him, as well as some nice re-design. Seriously ... wicked cool, badass, and also REALLY well-tied into the mythology.
FFXII seriously had one of the best-developed worlds I've ever seen in a game, not to mention one of the most unique kinds of plots for an RPG (not as good as it could've been, but still really great). That's what you get with Yasumi Matsuno on the helm - real damn pity he hasn't made anything new since then.
I love your work on these four Espers. Really wish you'd do all 13, but I understand the constraints of time, patience and hard work that come with making stuff like this.
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Thank you! 
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Very cool! 
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Thanks, and thanks for the
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True but you took great patience to recreate that detail.
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Some people might call my attention to detail neuroses.
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Neuroses or genious I think its cool and impressive.
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