Post by Fox on Jan 2, 2024 14:11:19 GMT -5
Zoan
Considered the most basic of the classifications of Devil Fruit, Zoans are still a force to be reckoned with, offering substantial advantages to physically oriented fighters and augmenting the abilities of others as well. A Zoan ability is any Devil Fruit that grants its consumer the power to transform into an animal, such as a wolf or a leopard, and with it gain increased physical powers. Zoan abilities come in three main flavors, but each is rooted in the most basic transformational powers.
When a character has eaten a Zoan Class Devil Fruit, they gain two additional forms, known as their Full-Beast Form (Animal) and Half-Beast Form (Hybrid)—both of which come with an Aspect as part of the package. These cannot be Switch Aspects. A character’s Full-Beast Form can inherit all of the Aspects of the user’s original form, gains the benefits of its associated Aspect, can gain new Aspects, or even choose to exchange certain abilities in favor of other, new powers, in the form of Switch Aspects (following the normal rules for these). These very same rules are applied to the user’s Half-Beast Form as well.
When the user switches to one of their Forms, their physical abilities are also often improved beyond their normal limits, depending on what that specific Form Aspect offers. The amount by which the chosen abilities are increased by are based on the tier of the user’s relevant Form Aspect. For example, if the user’s animal is a bulky and powerful creature—let’s use a bear—and the user decides that being a bear should increase their physical power, then their Full-Beast Form Aspect will also count as a Strength Aspect of the same tier.
This also means that a Zoan Form can potentially buff the user. Continuing with the bear example, if the user already has a tier one (1) Strength Aspect as part of their normal self, their tier one (1) Full-Beast Form Aspect (which is also Strength) acts as a buff for their existing Strength Aspect, making it count as tier two (2) while they are using their Full-Beast Form! This otherwise follows the normal rules for buffing.
This effect is applied per Form, and the Form Aspect that comes with it should be stated as part of the Form’s application. If a Zoan develops additional Forms (such as those created by Chopper’s Rumble Balls), then this same rule applies to each new Form you create!
The most simple physiological changes of a Zoan animal do not count towards Aspects unless you are enhancing them. They simply count as part of the overall abilities granted by the power of the Devil Fruit. You don’t have to include an Aspect just because the chosen animal has horns, for example, but you could create an Aspect to represent that those horns are especially sharp!Ancient Zoan
One of the two subcategories of the Zoan class is the Ancient Zoan type. These rarer examples of Devil Fruit allow the user to transform into a prehistoric beast instead of a regular extant animal. As a result, they are usually much more physically imposing, with dinosaur-based abilities expressing particularly increased strength and resilience that should be represented by Aspects. Aside from their physical advantages, Ancient Zoan abilities are not too different from regular Zoan type Devil Fruits.Mythical Zoan
Supposedly the rarest type of Devil Fruit, Mythical Zoans are often incredibly powerful examples of the Zoan category that allow the consumer to transform into a mythical creature. Mythical serpents, legendary birds, and other beasts can all make for suitable creatures, including those that have been deified by particular cultures, but a Mythical Zoan should never allow the user to transform into a true god or god-adjacent person—entities such as Zeus and Thor are not feasible. Among Devil Fruit abilities, these powers often couple the physical enhancement of the Zoan category with the magical and strange abilities granted by the Paramecia or Logia class.
Not all mythical beasts are equal in power—some might have an array of different purported powers where others might have only one or two particularly incredible abilities. Mythical Zoans whose beasts possess magical abilities to generate substances or forces can even make use of those powers without needing to transform, just as Marco was able to produce his regenerative flames to mend wounds, or how Kaidō was able to raise Onigashima through a massive swirl of “Flame Cloud”, even when both maintained their normal form. However, if a Mythical Zoan possesses an ability that is more closely tied to their physiology (such as Kaidō’s ability to breathe fire), then they will need to transform to use it.Zoan: Common Improvements
Many Zoan abilities shown in the series tend to stay on the simple side, with the majority of users keeping to their basic transformations. However, we’ve also seen a fair few users who push their abilities further, which has revealed a handful of common advancements in the use of the Zoan class.Additional Transformations
Some Zoan users, either through extensive training or the use of medicine, develop extra transformations that focus on amplifying their physiology in unique ways. The best example of this is Chopper, whose development of the Rumble Ball (and later his natural proficiency) granted him access to several new Forms. Just like a Zoan’s typical Full-Beast and Half-Beast Forms, extra Forms require a unique Aspect to represent them and the abilities they offer, and may take particular Aspects and buff them using that new Form Aspect. Chopper’s Guard Point greatly increased the density and volume of his fur to create a strong defense, which could be interpreted as a Thick Coat Form Aspect. His Horn Point might give him Sharp Antlers as a Form Aspect.Selective & Partial Transformations
Some Zoan users are able to control their transformations in such a way that they can manifest particular features of their beast form while still maintaining their regular form. This could allow a bird Zoan to transform their arms into wings, or for a feline Zoan to turn their hands into claws. Some Zoan users can even express subtle features of their transformation by halting their shift before achieving a hybrid state. These abilities are a given facet of Zoan users, but some might choose to take it to an extreme worthy of an Aspect.Malleable Anatomy
Another oddity shown by some Zoans is their use of their anatomy in ways that, realistically, just don’t make any sense. The first real example of this was Kaku of CP9, who (still relatively inexperienced with his power) was somehow able to increase the length of his limbs or neck by shortening the other. Zoan users can take instances of this as Aspects (or X-Techniques) to achieve particularly bizarre forms of attack. In more extreme examples, we’ve witnessed Ancient Zoans perform even stranger moves, such as Sasaki causing his Triceratops frill to rotate rapidly around his neck (and somehow fly by doing so), or King pulling back his Pteranodon crest to perform an extremely high speed stabbing attack at distance with his beak.Zoan: Awakening
When a Zoan’s mind and body catch up with their power (and the character has reached the minimum benchmark of 3,000 total X-Poinz), they can achieve Awakening! For Zoan Devil Fruits, Awakening enables the user to achieve an entirely new version of their Half-Beast Form, known as Awakened Form, which grants far greater improvements to the user’s physical characteristics—a notable increase in strength, speed, durability, and recovery rate are typically standard affair for this ability.
The Awakened Form is its own unique Form and functions in the same way as any other Form that a Zoan can develop, but it comes with some notable exceptions. The Awakened Form gains a Form Aspect of its own, as normal, but it also inherits the Form Aspects of the user’s Full-Beast and Half-Beast Form (at no extra cost)! In addition to this, the Awakened Form can use its Form Aspect on the same Aspect as one of the Form Aspects it inherits, meaning that a character whose base abilities do not include that Aspect—let’s use Speed as an example—could potentially gain this from both their Half-Beast and Awakened Form Aspects. In this case, the Half-Beast Form Aspect is buffed by the Awakened Form Aspect! For Mythical Zoans, Awakening can also expand their mythical abilities in a similar way to how a Paramecia might Awaken, and these should be applied for as new Aspects as relevant.
However, Awakening comes with risks. Many Awakened Zoans—the Jailer Beasts of Impel Down as an example—effectively lose their minds to the nature of their beast, becoming extremely simple-minded and lacking in personality. However, in rare cases, some Zoans completely maintain their personality. This successful version of Awakening usually presents itself with a scarf-like formation floating around their shoulders, even when the beast in question is not a mythical creature, as shown with Rob Lucci and Kaku’s respective Awakened Forms.