Windaz
Forsaken Child of Flesh and Steel
Limited/Nature Type
Original Media: The Chaos Zone
(first appeared in 2021)
Story
To get the full picture of Windaz, we need to look back a bit, to when a robot maid by the name of Li’l Miss Marshmallow was taken and corrupted with Limited. Not only did she begin to act out of control, but two beings formed from Limited grew from her body. When the human Sanae Kochiya fought one of these beings – which went by the name Sakaros – some of the Limited from the creature’s body splashed onto Sanae’s weapon, and eventually seeped its way into her body, having evolved enough to corrupt an organic being like her instead of just robots. This, in turn, made Sanae act out of control, leading to her allies having to fight the Limited out of her system, and destroying it once she was freed from the corruption…
…except, through means unknown, it wasn’t destroyed, instead being sent to another world, where it took over a robot body with no mind, and re-shaped it based on the memories of the robot maid, the creature born from her, and the human Sanae. The resulting entity was Windaz.
Windaz didn’t have much of a mind of her own at first, not helped by having memories of Marshmallow, Sakaros, and the corrupted Sanae swirling through her head. She was taken in by the “Evolve Fighters”, a group of Limited-born creatures (including both of the Marshmallow-born entities), and tasked with being an errand girl.
While Windaz didn’t have the mind to think this demeaning at first, she began to form a cautious, curious, sociable personality from what she saw of those she eavesdropped on during her missions, and especially from a girl named Descant, who treated her as a friend in need right away.
With a new sense of independence, Windaz quit the Evolve Fighters (though not before fighting a bloodthirsty Sakaros who had destroyed the rest of the team), and went out on her own. She now roams the land, sometimes getting in touch with friends she’s met along the way, and trying to help with whatever she can.
Abilities
Cinder Shock
Windaz shoots a bolt of flaming electricity straight forward. Has the power to break through weak shields.
Flame/Electric Type
Grab Buster (Windaz’s version)
Windaz fires a spark of frozen, crystalline energy, dealing damage to her opponent and healing her by a small amount of the damage dealt.
Freeze/Crystal Type
Grab Buster image is edited from Mega Man V (video game, 1994).
Lightning Tempest
Windaz summons a series of violent winds, bolts of electricity spiraling within each.
Electric/Wind Type
Zephyr Testament
Windaz concentrates and summons a calm circle of wind that powers up nearby allies, and cures them of any ailments they may have.
Wind/Mind Type
Blooming Void
Windaz summons three pools of dark energy, each one surrounded by thorny vines. Opponents that get caught in these pools take rapid damage.
Nature/Shadow Type
Image is from Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (video game, 2007).
Voice
General Description
Teenager/Young Adult; usually rather quiet, but doesn’t speak slowly; speaks especially frantically when stressed
Example Voice
Source: Tales of the Abyss (video game, 2005)
Original Context: The voice of the character “Philia Phillis”.
Behind the Scenes
If the explanation for how the Limited that became Windaz survived seems strange, it’s because it wasn’t always my intent; while I first wanted to have Sanae’s Limited corruption end with its destruction, later ideas inspired me to bring it back, even if I couldn’t think of how to make it make sense.
The first idea I had for what would become Windaz was essentially Sanae’s corrupted self as her own character; this corruption was inspired by how older fanmade Touhou media tended to play up Sanae’s hostility toward the youkai of the series. Windaz’s name back when she was tied to this concept was “Zeta-Yurusanai”, a play on the Japanese phrase “絶対許さない” (“Zettai Yurusanai”, literally “absolutely unforgiving”) and the Greek letter Zeta; this name was inspired by a nickname Sanae supposedly has/had in Japan according to the Touhou Wiki, which was a pun on the same Japanese phrase (“絶対許早苗”, or “Zettai Yuru-Sanae”).
Eventually, I decided the idea of an “evil Sanae” wasn’t interesting enough, and made her a more unique character. Her connections to Sanae were still kept in her name, as a reference to certain “evil doppelgangers” in Rockman X Mega Mission whose names were German equivalents to the original characters (the character “X” begot the character “iX”, whose name is pronounced as the letter X is in German among other languages; the character “Zero” begot “Nichts”, the German word for “nothing”, a word which itself “zero” could be a synonym to). Her name is the Proto-Germanic word for “wind” (referencing how Sanae is a wind priestess).
I don’t remember how much of the rest of her debut was pre-planned; I definitely planned to have her leave the Evolve Fighters by the end of her first story, but much of what happened in-between is fuzzy in my mind; the most I remember is half-jokingly comparing Windaz’s situation to that of the character Roxas in the 2009 game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which might have become some unconscious inspiration.
Despite (or maybe because of) how hectic and complicated her origins are, Windaz is one of my favorite characters, and one who stays close to the front of my mind when I think of my “main” Chaos Zone characters.
Brash Buster 