Zehel

'''SPOILERS AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! '''

Zehel is one of the Seven Ghosts in the 07 Ghost series. He is the cutting spirit and can cut the bonds that tie a person's heart to misfortune. The most recent incarnation of Zehel, Frau, was the only Ghost capable of wielding Verloren's Scythe and succeeded Verloren as the God of Death.

There is a statue of Zehel in one of the seven Ghost towers in the Barsburg Church. It remains unknown what people pray to the statue for, though considering Zehel's power, it could be for someone to become a better person.

Etymology
The name 'Zehel' is sometimes translated as 'Sichel', which is a German word and translates to 'scythe', being a reference to the choice of weapon.

Form
Zehel's true appearance is in the form of a hooded skeleton, (like the grim reaper) wielding a large scythe. His appearance is the same as Verloren's, since the Ghosts are made up of Verloren's fragments.

Human
Due to the fact that only blood descendants of the God House of Zehel can be reincarnated as Zehel, those acting as Zehel tend to resemble each other. Those from Zehel's bloodline tend to be very tall and muscular, with straight hair (of inconsistent colour), long faces and narrow, dark eyes (blue or purple). Going by Frau's and Guido's appearances, reincarnations of Zehel can be considered the most 'masculine' or masculine-looking, as it seems that all the other Ghosts' reincarnations, especially Profe, tend to look more 'beautiful' or 'pretty' rather than handsome, following the 'bishounen' ideal.

Symbol
Zehel's Ghost symbol is dark red, and resembles some sort of upside-down scythe, the blade to the left of the symbol, with a large grip, and a curved stem almost the length of the scythe's snath.

Persons who have acted as Zehel

 * Guido
 * Frau
 * Many unnamed previous vessels

Personality
Zehel tends to be easygoing and a bit reckless, taking risks while underestimating the consequences and having little patience for work that does not involve a lot of combat.

With enemies, Zehel is a dangerous foe to cross paths with. He tends to mock or insult his opponents, and is able and willing to react with violence if the situation calls for it.

With companions, he tries to be gruff and aloof, but he is a compassionate Ghost who cares deeply about and is very protective of his loved ones. He can be short-tempered, blunt and to the point, almost to the point of rudeness, but he don't intentionally tries to hurt people's feelings with what he say. He also have a gentle side, which makes him get along well with children, and is chivalrous, often helping women out of genuine concern or sympathy. He tends to be very possessive of those closest to him.

He also develops deep, mutual emotional bonds with his apprentices, and he is fiercely protective of them; the relationships with his apprentices can develop to the point where he thinks of them as a member of his family. His apprentices, in return, admire him as someone to emulate. In fact, Frau began smoking in an attempt to imitate Guido, who also smoked, and developed Guido's habit of calling people younger than him a "brat." Teito, who is Frau's apprentice, began to develop some of Frau's mannerisms after spending a month travelling with him.

Zehel have a strong sense of loyalty, and will not hesitate to sacrifice his live for those who earn his trust, affection and respect. He have a tendency to smoke.

Abilities and attributes
The Seven Ghosts all possess the ability to erase or otherwise alter a person's memories. Like the other Ghosts, Zehel can make his true form temporarily leave his human, host body.

Also, it is possible that the Ghosts can recover faster from injuries than ordinary humans, as Frau/Zehel recovered almost instantly when Teito, possessed by Mikhail, stabbed him.

Since the host body is dead; their hearts do not beat and their bodies do not give off heat, it is probable that all of them have a much greater tolerance of extremely low temperatures than ordinary humans, shown when Teito felt very cold when travelling in the mountains with Frau while Frau felt fine. However, their bodies can still freeze, so it is still dangerous for them, to a certain extent, to be in extremely cold climates.

Specific abilities
Zehel is the cutting spirit, meaning he has the power to sever the bonds that tie a person's heart to misfortune.

The creation of the Ghosts
The Seven Ghosts are amongst the earliest 'gods' created by the Chief of heaven and their existence dates back roughly 1000 years. At the time of their creation, humanity was already present.

The legend of the ghosts tells that Verloren (the God of Death) was in love with the Chief of Heaven's daughter, Eve, but after her skeleton was found and her soul devoured, the Chief of Heaven accused Verloren of killing her. As Eve's soul being devoured automatically forced it to be sent to earth and reincarnated, Verloren escaped the heavens and fled to earth to find her reincarnation.

Verloren began looking into the hearts of humans in order to find the soul that originally belonged to Eve. However as he looked, that person's heart was instantly tainted by his presence, and slowly slipped into despair. This meant those souls could not enter Heaven in this life because they were no longer pure, and they would be forced to reincarnate again once they died.

"The Chief of Heaven dispatched seven heavenly lights from the heavens, in order to punish the wicked Verloren. They are said to have sealed the detestable Verloren on this earth."

- A nun

When the Chief of Heaven noticed the consequences Verloren's actions had on those souls he looked into, he fashioned seven heavenly lights out of Verloren's fragments, each with one of Verloren's powers, and sent them to execute him.

Schedel's Crusade
The Ghosts' mission was to take Verloren's body to The Land of Seele- where it would be judged and destroyed, and after they had fulfilled this mission their souls would be able to return to heaven. The ghosts drove Verloren to Seele, but even with their combined strength, they weren't strong enough to destroy him. Faced with this, they instead used the powers of the two angel eyes (Mikhail and Raphael) to tear Verloren's soul from his body, in the hope that they never join again so he could never be at his full power.

They sealed his physical body in Pandora's Box on earth, and used the Eye of Mikhail to make sure it could not escape from its prison. They sealed his soul using the Eye of Raphael, putting his soul in a human- and forcing it to undergo a process of constant reincarnation whenever the human body died- regardless of how the person had lived their life- so it could never enter Heaven again.

The threat of Verloren had been eliminated, but since the Ghosts were unable to judge Verloren, they could not return to heaven; instead staying in the mortal world to serve as guardians.

Zehel went on to become the progenitor of the Verius bloodline.

After sealing Verloren
"The Seven Ghosts, to continue to protect the seal on Verloren, always remained in this world. In order to coexist with the people of this world they took on human forms. Before long they became tied to humans and built families... The houses of God inherit the blood of the Seven Ghosts."

- Seilan

Now on earth, each Ghost assumed human form and went on to live human lives; they married humans, had human children and died as humans. The Seven Ghosts and their human families went on to form the Seven Houses of God, and the Ghosts' powers were passed on to their children, and further generations.

The current ghosts are the descendants of the original seven.

During the Raggs War and return of Verloren
Around 990 years after Verloren had been sealed, the Eye of Raphael malfunctioned- resulting in Verloren's soul awakening (the human who was currently holding Verloren's soul regained all of Verloren's memories) and continued with Verloren's crusade against the Chief of Heaven.

The descendants of the ghosts that first fought Verloren were again forced to re-group and fight.

Currently, very little is known about the Ghosts' roles in the Raggs War.

A member of the Raggs family (the God house of Vertrag) and person acting as the Ghost Vertrag, Fea Kreuz, was accused of stealing and escaping with Pandora's Box, and it was this theft that sparked the Raggs War. Pandora's Box had been moved into a human- meaning Verloren's body was at a risk of escaping- so four Ghosts (Zehel among them) protected and guided Vertrag through the Seven God Houses in order to receive the cursed tickets and travel to the Land of Seele to destroy Verloren's body.

This, coupled with the fact Verloren's soul had awakened, caused Ea and Landkarte to separate from the others and go undercover into the military.

"The military's actions are disturbing. We will investigate further."

- Ea and Landkarte's last words before disappearing.

However, the Ghosts were not successful in their mission, and it resulted in the death of one Ghost, Vertrag, whose reincarnation was killed by Ayanami and devoured by Verloren.

The remaining six, however, escaped with their lives.

Modern history
In chronological order:
 * Raggs War
 * Sky Pirate Subjugation
 * Mikage's Death
 * Wars Attacks
 * Infiltration by the Black Hawks
 * Military raid on the Barsburg Church
 * Attack at the Hausen House
 * Battle at Hohburg Fortress
 * Verloren's Revival

Trivia

 * When Zehel devours a soul, the process appears to be rather similar to a vampire biting a victim.
 * Of all the Ghosts, Zehel is the Ghost Mikhail has the most interaction, and shared appearances in official art, with.
 * After the events of Verloren's Revival, Zehel is the only remaining Ghost. All the other Ghosts lost their powers and became mortals.