The Zenith – Hidden Ninja Clans of Veridia

Overview

The Zenith are a secretive race of miniature humans, standing no taller than a shampoo bottle. Though their size makes them fragile, they are endowed with supernatural agility, reflexes, and martial prowess. Legends describe them as able to run on bamboo stalks, leap between raindrops, and vanish into a shimmer of mist.

To most inhabitants of Nova Prime, the Zenith are only jungle myths. But in the depths of the Veridia Wildlands, hidden villages of this tiny race thrive — concealed in hollow trees, under waterfall caverns, and even inside ancient ruins overtaken by roots.

Appearance

  • Size: Average Zenith stand between 15–20 cm tall (6–8 inches).

  • Look: Perfectly human in proportion — sharp eyes, wiry frames, hair tied back in martial topknots.

  • Clothing: Woven silks of vibrant colors, often dyed from jungle plants. They wear masks during combat, stylized to resemble jungle animals (serpents, panthers, owls).

  • Aura: When using their martial arts, they seem to almost bend physics — balancing on raindrops, striking through the air faster than arrows.

Culture

  • Villages: Entire hidden cities built in miniature scale, often woven into tree canopies or carved into ruins. A single giant leaf could serve as a Zenith roof. Their craftsmanship is delicate but elegant.

  • Philosophy: They follow a Balance Creed, teaching that their small bodies carry the weight of great responsibility — to preserve the natural harmony of Veridia.

  • Training: From birth, every Zenith child learns the Way of the Air Steps — martial techniques that let them harness momentum, rebound off surfaces, and move in seemingly impossible ways.

  • Storytelling: Their epics are performed as shadow plays on bioluminescent leaves, telling tales of heroes leaping across stars.

Abilities

  • Air Step Mastery – Zenith can leap incredible distances, run along surfaces that shouldn’t hold them, and seemingly fight while suspended in midair.

  • Miniature Strength – Despite their size, they can lift objects several times their weight and hit with surprising force.

  • Fragility – A single misplaced strike from a normal human can kill them instantly. Thus, stealth and speed are their lifeblood.

  • Ninjutsu Arts – Masters of tiny weapons: needle-sized darts that can pierce human skin, shuriken no bigger than a coin, and thread-thin garrotes made from spider silk.

Relationship to Others

  • Humans: Most don’t even know they exist. When seen, Zenith are mistaken for sprites or jungle spirits.

  • Jerry the Squirrel: The Zenith revere Jerry as a Forest Trickster-King — not realizing he’s just a mutant. Some even believe he is a reincarnated Zenith elder trapped in a squirrel’s body. Jerry, of course, thinks this is hilarious and milks it.

  • Daemos Industries: The corporation has never confirmed their existence… but there are rumors of tiny captured skeletons in black-site labs, fueling conspiracy theories.

Legends & Mysticism

  • The Raindrop War – Zenith legends speak of a battle fought atop raindrops during a monsoon, where two clans clashed in the storm sky.

  • Star Relic Bond – Whispers tell that the Zenith were once guardians of the first Star Relics on Nova Prime — their size chosen by the gods so they could move unseen.

  • The Hidden Emperor – The clans are rumored to answer to a single invisible monarch, who has not been seen in centuries. Some doubt he exists at all.