Zanik

Zanik is an adventurous and bold cave goblin of the Dorgeshuun tribe who was chosen by Bandos to be his Chosen Commander puppet. Like all Dorgeshuun, she lives in Dorgesh-Kaan, the tribe's subterranean city beneath Misthalin, in the north-eastern part, between the nursery and the Dorgeshuun Council's meeting room.

Zanik is very skilled with a bone crossbow and has moderate experience with a bone dagger. However, she seems to be unable to perform magic, having failed to learn Wind Strike at the Wizards' Tower. She is a member of the Champions' Guild and a national hero of Dorgesh-Kaan for her indispensable aid in the defeat of Bandos in 169 of the Fifth Age. Some time later, she joined The Godless, a multiracial organisation aiming to remove all gods from RuneScape.

Early life
Zanik was born to two unnamed cave goblins in the late Fifth Age. Like all infants, she was raised away from her parents, whom she would never know, in the communal nursery, where many nursemaids took care of her. Mernik, the nursery's strict but caring overseer, became a mother-figure to her. When old enough, Zanik went to school, finding the goblin scribe's classes boring, but the lessons of the scientist Oldak more enjoyable. Nevertheless, her favourite activity would become exploring the caves and tunnels around the city, which Dorgeshuun children were taught to be the entirety of the world. At some point, she gained a romantic interest in her classmate and friend Dorgan, with whom she would often go adventuring. In contrast to her fairly timid and prudent friend, Zanik was ruthless and did not step back from a dangerous situation.

Encountering Juna
In her youth, Zanik took Dorgan to explore the quartz crystal cave with beautifully shimmering lights. While looking at the cave's ceiling, Dorgan gave her a necklace as a token of affection and she kissed him. At that moment, however, an underground earthquake suddenly took place, causing Zanik to be buried and trapped by debris as the pair was escaping out of the cave. While Dorgan left to call for help, Zanik reached the end of the tunnel she was trapped in and began to explore. She soon noticed moving creatures of light above a deep chasm before encountering the guardian of the Tears of Guthix, Juna, who warned Zanik not to come closer. The bold goblin became curious of the cave behind Juna and attempted to jump over the snake into the cavern but was easily blocked and nearly swept into the chasm, with Juna remarking that another attempt would end with death.

Even though Zanik was afraid, she pretended not to be and remained until Juna spoke again, intrigued by the fact that Zanik had not left, unlike previous Dorgeshuun explorers. She explained that she was a Guardian of Guthix, guarding the Tears of Guthix for the god of balance. Naturally, Zanik expressed only disbelief, clinging onto the story that the gods were a legend used to scare the Dorgeshuun children. This upset Juna, who deemed it an act worse than blasphemy for a tribe to not only have defied their god - Bandos - but also deny their existence completely. Zanik attempted to made amends, but the snake ordered her to leave, which she did. She was later retrieved by Dorgeshuun guards in the Lumbridge Swamp Caves and taken back to Dorgesh-Kaan, where Mernik and Dorgan were relieved to see her alive, although she lost all romantic interest in the latter when he asked her to promise never to walk off again out of concern for her well being, which she refused to do. Zanik, now curious, wanted to learn more about Juna and the cave behind her. She spoke to the city scribe after class, who gave a brief explanation of how an exploratory division under Ur-golt found Juna, the cave, and the living creatures of light that glide aimlessly around the cavern before being threatened by her and sealing the tunnel, to Zanik's great dismay. The scribe told Zanik not to worry about it, to which she angrily stormed off. Zanik returned to Juna later. Wanting to enter the cave, she proved her worth to Juna as a 'flying Dorgeshuun' by riding a light creature around the cavern after attracting it using the blue gem from Dorgan's necklace and a lantern (in a similar fashion to the exploratory division) and collecting a strange rock sample from a cliff. Juna, impressed by the act, allowed Zanik to access the Tears of Guthix cavern and explained that she would require all future visitors to perform the act, and gave instructions on what to do when collecting tears. The tears were collected and drunk by Zanik, which made her more steady and assured of herself. She also gained an intuitive understanding of where she was.

On her way back to Dorgesh-Kaan, Zanik confronted Ur-lesh, the very old headwoman of the Council, and Oldak, the city's Council-sponsored wizard. Filled with anger, she demanded to know why they had lied to the Dorgeshuun and why they did not want to go return to the surface. Ur-lesh and Oldak told Zanik that there was a great war happening on the surface and wanted to protect their people by remaining underground. The councillor explained that children were denied the truth for their own protection and confirmed Juna's story that the gods were real rather than 'fairy-tale villains'.

Later, Zanik and Juna became friends and exchanged stories and knowledge with each other. Juna's stories of the surface, about the end of the God Wars, and about Guthix inspired Zanik to one day explore the surface and see the vast incredible landscape different from her own. However, the Council refused to take the risk of exploring the surface, fearing the wars to still be raging.

This was discovered not to be the case in 169 when a cave goblin miner accidentally tunneled into the basement of Lumbridge Castle revealing their presence to the outside world. Duke Horacio of Lumbridge established a peace treaty with Ur-tag, Ur-lesh's successor as head of the Council, on behalf of the cave goblins. The negotiations were almost disrupted by the Duke's adviser Sigmund, a member of the racist, anti-goblin Humans Against Monsters organization, however an adventurer exposed the plot and Sigmund was fired for his actions.

Exploring the surface
Around the same time the Dorgeshuun made contact with the surface, Zanik visited Juna and again drank from the tears. It was at this point that Bandos himself made use of the opportunity to reclaim the Dorgeshuun for himself by making Zanik his 'Chosen Commander'. In order to stop the Battle of the Plain of Mud in the Fourth Age Bandos had promised the goblins that a chosen leader would bring them to victory over the world.

In Zanik he saw an opportunity to bring the cave goblins back under his influence and, at the same time, find a way around the Edicts of Guthix. He manipulated the tears to brand his symbol onto Zanik's forehead, which Juna falsely interpreted as a sign from Guthix, informing Zanik she had a destiny to fulfill, much to the young goblin's discomfort.

Meanwhile, the cave goblins began to fear that H.A.M. was planning another attack and planned to send an agent to attempt to infiltrate their base. They chose Zanik as their agent due to her adventurous nature and expressed desire to see the surface, officially appointing her the city's ambassador to the surface world.

Since no living cave goblin had ever seen the surface, they contacted the adventurer who had previously worked on their behalf during their negotiations with the Duke to serve as a guide. Zanik accompanied the adventurer to the surface and the two explored Lumbridge, where Zanik saw the sun for the first time and met the warlike and fairly unintelligent surface goblins as well as humans, not all of whom were as friendly to her as the Duke. During their trip, the two would grow to become good friends.

Eventually, she expressed desire to visit the H.A.M. Hideout, located underneath the forest west of the castle, to see the people who had tried to invoke war between Lumbridge and Dorgesh-Kaan. To this end, the adventurer and Zanik disguised themselves as H.A.M. members and infiltrated their base.

The pair broke into the cellar and subdued all the patrolling guards before proceeding to eavesdrop behind the meeting room's door. There, they overheard Sigmund discussing his latest plot with H.A.M.'s leader, Johanhus Ulsbrecht, the deacon, and another high-ranked member. They discovered that Sigmund had made a deal with the dwarves to be supplied with equipment to construct a large drill, which he planned to use to drill upwards from the basement of Seth Groats' farm, thus allowing the River Lum to flood the caves beneath Lumbridge and thus Dorgesh-Kaan itself, annihilating the Dorgeshuun. As Zanik and her companion were about to leave, they were spotted by H.A.M. members. While the human adventurer was merely put inside a prison cell, Zanik was viciously beaten to death and her body was unceremoniously dumped outside.

Discovering her destiny
When the shocked adventurer discovered Zanik's dead body, they noticed the mark on her forehead was glowing, and as such took her to Juna. The snake was stupefied to hear of Zanik's premature death, stating that her destiny had not been fulfilled. She proceeded to meditate, allegedly communicating with Guthix, unaware of the fact that both she and the adventurer were being manipulated by Bandos. She concluded from the war god's words that Zanik's death would be reversed and allowed the adventurer to collect tears for her. Upon being exposed to the tears, Bandos resurrected his Chosen Commander and Zanik's life was returned to her. She then revealed Sigmund's plot to her friend, who had not been able to hear it properly, and the two headed to the watermill.

After smuggling Zanik inside, hidden in a crate, the two confronted Sigmund and his bodyguards as the drill was about to be started. A fight broke out in which Sigmund personally took on Zanik after his cronies had been killed, protected from her attacks by Saradomin. However, the adventurer was able to wound him through other means but he fled using a ring of life before he could be killed. They then destroyed the drill, saving the Dorgeshuun, who proceeded to open Dorgesh-Kaan to humans.

Soon afterwards, Zanik attended the archaeological dig which had been initiated during the excavation of the train tunnel to Keldagrim after ancient Dorgeshuun artefacts had been found. The adventurer, a qualified archaeologist, also helped with the digging and discovered an ancient mace, which the scribe suggested to be taken to the Goblin Village for identification, for he could not understand the writing on it.

Zanik and her friend travelled to Generals Wartface and Bentnoze, who recognised the mace as a holy weapon used by soldiers during the God Wars and began to call Zanik a not-goblin for defying the Big High War God. At that moment, Grubfoot, the generals' servant, appeared and told of a dream Bandos had given him, wherein he had seen Zanik leading the goblins as the Chosen Commander, her supposed destiny. He then urged her to hold a speech before the village's residents. The generals gathered all goblins and Zanik spoke of the Big High War God and how he forced the Dorgeshuun to fight a battle they could not win, to which the Dorgeshuun left his ranks and hid underground, causing the goblins to call Zanik's tribe cowards. As she was calming them down, goblins suddenly began to die in the crowd. The adventurer quickly identified the source of the killing as two H.A.M. snipers shooting goblins from atop a tower and went after them, while the goblins took cover in their huts. However, after they killed the two assassins, the adventurer returned to see Zanik losing a duel with Sigmund before the ex-advisor blinded her with flash powder and put his sword to her throat. He announced that he would have the newly built train run her over on its first run, causing the goblins to blame the dwarves and begin a war, thus eradicating two races in one go. He then left with his hostage.

The goblin generals dispatched their favoured sergeants, Slimetoes and Mossfists, who joined the adventurer to the Lumbridge Swamps. There, they descended into a H.A.M. storeroom. The goblins distracted the guards while the adventurer confronted Sigmund, who had tied Zanik to the rail tracks. The two began to fight and Sigmund blocked all attacks using his protection prayers, but the adventurer disrupted them using the power of the goblin mace. After being severely wounded, Sigmund once again escaped using a ring of life. The adventurer quickly untied Zanik before the train was able to run her over, foiling Sigmund's plot again.

Abduction by Bandos
Later, Grubfoot travelled to the Dorgeshuun Mines to meet Zanik, but was not allowed entrance to Dorgesh-Kaan. The adventurer vouched for him, however, and took him to Zanik. There, he fully told the dream he had experienced. Grubfoot had seen Zanik in Yu'biusk, legendary land of the goblins, believing she would lead the goblins back to the realm of prosperity and peace as the Chosen Commander (as opposed to leading the race to victory over the world). However, he did not know the location of Yu'biusk and told them the location of the Goblin Temple beneath the Plain of Mud in confidence so that they could ask the high priest.

Zanik and the adventurer travelled to the temple using Oldak's moving-over-distance spheres, but the adventurer was denied entrance, being a human. They proceeded to brew a goblin transmogrification potion using toadflax and pharmakos berries, transforming them into a goblin. After entering the temple, they discovered Zanik had been incarcerated by Huzamogaarb goblins after trying to convince the goblins that war and the war god are bad. The adventurer questioned the high priest, Bighead, about Yu'biusk, but he told that he did not know, but his dead predecessor, Snothead, might, before explaining that dead priests could still be contacted in the crypt.

The adventurer released Zanik from prison and entered the crypts, where they fought the undead Snothead to win his respect. However, he did not know either and suggested that his predecessor Snailfeet be asked. Likewise, Snailfeet did not know, nor was his predecessor Mosschin or his predecessor Redeyes, although they remarked that they had been promised to return there upon death in Hopespear's vision, which had not happened. Redeyes' predecessor, Strongbones, the first priest to be buried rather than cremated, said that Yu'biusk was a different plane of existence where no goblin had been for millennia.

The adventurer shared this with Zanik and Oldak, who proceeded to activate the fairy ring in the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon to lead to Yu'biusk. This succeeded, and the trio travelled to the homeworld of the goblins. However, it was nothing like Grubfoot's dream, for Bandos had destroyed it in the early Fourth Age, unbeknownst to his Gielinorian followers, and was but a barren wasteland with dead rock formations and craters filled with green sludge. Zanik and the adventurer began to explore and encountered a strange box with Bandos' symbol on it. Upon opening it, Zanik was sucked inside and transported to Bandos's throne room. The adventurer attempted to rescue her, but was forced to return to Dorgesh-Kaan with Oldak because the unstable portal was about to close, leaving an unconscious Zanik trapped in Bandos' domain.

In the throne room, Zanik regained consciousness after a long time and climbed onto a goblin statue, jumping onto others to advance. When she found herself standing on top of a large ourg statue holding a bowl of water, she noticed the water showed an image of her house before showing the nursery. She screamed for help and one child, Andil, was able to hear her. She begged Andil to tell the adventurer that she was still trapped in Yu'biusk, but the young goblin was taken inside by Torzek, Mernik's assistant, who did not believe her. Zanik then navigated her way to the very throne of the war god by jumping from statue to statue, where she found a pendant with a cyan gem. Unaware that Bandos had lured her there and planted the pendant, which contained a significant portion of his power, on the throne for her to find it, Zanik took the pendant and put it on. Immediately, the ourg statue kneeled before her, and, upon looking into the water, Zanik saw the adventurer in Dorgesh-Kaan fighting a H.A.M. agent, Walton, disguised as a merchant who had been attempting to poison the Dorgeshuun children as part of H.A.M.'s latest plot. Immediately, she sought a way to leave the throne room and the statues in the room parted for her to reveal a portal, which Zanik subsequently entered, oblivious to the fact Bandos had begun to possess her.

As the Chosen Commander
After escaping Bandos' throne room in Yu'biusk and defeating the H.A.M. agent Walton, Zanik and the adventurer went to the meeting of the Dorgeshuun Council. There, it was decided that Walton should be escorted to Lumbridge, being a human, for the surface authorities to deal with him. Zanik became angry at this, stating that Walton deserved immediate execution, which Ur-tag declined. She proceeded to storm out of the meeting in anger. The influence of the war god growing, however, Zanik shot Walton with her crossbow when he was being taken out of the city by Captain Undak, killing him. Undak ordered her arrest, to which she ran away to the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon. Her friend went after her and the two had an intimate conversation, wherein Zanik expressed her desire for a peaceful world without anyone trying to kill her kin and after which she voluntarily returned to the city.

There, Ur-tag stated that, although she was a national hero, the council was not above the law and Zanik had to be punished. It was decided that she should be banished from Dorgesh-Kaan, to everyone's sorrow. After saying goodbye to the adventurer, Zanik used one of Oldak's moving-over-distance spheres to depart. In exile and under full control of Bandos' pendant, a cyan exoskeleton developed around her as she travelled to the Goblin Temple under the Plain of Mud. Many of the goblins, including Bighead, gathered around her, seeing that she was the Chosen Commander of Bandos.

She proceeded to lead the goblins on a march to the base Sigmund's militant H.A.M. splinter group had set up in the basement of the Mill Road Mill north of East Ardougne. After breaking into the base during the adventurer's attempt to help Grubfoot, whom Sigmund had kidnapped, escape. As Grubfoot escaped out of the base, Zanik and her goblins engaged in combat with the H.A.M. agents. Upon seeing this, Sigmund attempted to flee, but was stopped by the adventurer, who proceeded to duel him, along with Zanik. Upon defeat, he was about to be saved by his ring of life once again when Zanik chopped off his hand with a dagger. Sigmund, crippled and shocked, said he would rather die than live in a world reigned by goblins, after which Zanik mercilessly stabbed him to death. Having completely lost control over her actions, she turned against her friend stating that all humans must die. The adventurer was forced to fight her and defeated her repeatedly, but Bandos' power regenerated her each time. They attempted to talk sense into her, but the war god himself spoke through Zanik, claiming her as his rightful property whom he resurrected from death and whom he had chosen to be his Chosen Commander.

After being reminded of their friendship and her struggles for peace with the surface, Zanik overcame Bandos' control and removed the pendant, allowing her to break free of his hold. However, Bighead, the sole survivor from the battle below, picked up the pendant and hung it around his neck. His spirit being much weaker, Bandos immediately took control of him, no longer caring about his Chosen Commander and intent on destroying the Dorgeshuun and returning to Gielinor. As the avatar of Bandos, Bighead teleported away, shattering the teleblock glyphs placed in the base.

Zanik and her friend quickly teleported together using a single Dorgesh-Kaan sphere, but it malfunctioned and they found themselves in an odd cave. An earthquake ensued, and Zanik found herself trapped on a ledge. However, the adventurer restored her confidence and she grappled out of it. Escaping from the cave, they found themselves in Juna's presence. The snake told Zanik to fulfil her destiny as Bandos' Chosen Commander and not to defy the gods. After deciding she controlled her own destiny and hearing about the great danger Dorgesh-Kaan was in, the pair headed back to the city, ending the good relationship between Zanik and Juna.

Showdown against Bandos
Upon their arrival, the pair learnt that the Bandos Avatar had stormed through the city and left a large obelisk in the middle of the market, killing several guards in the process. The markings on the obelisk were translated by the goblin scribe; the ultimatum warned them that Bandos was enraged with the cave goblins and intended to wipe them out unless they became his followers, giving the Dorgeshuun one final chance to join his armies and die for him. An emergency meeting was called by the Dorgeshuun Council, with most councillors panicking and wanting to flee the city and dig deeper. Zanik then held a heartfelt speech about the Dorgeshuun's history of defiance. She stated that they were unlikely to win, but that fighting back would be the ultimate crowning to their defiance, to which Ur-tag agreed to take the fight to Bandos.

After running a few errands for a few goblins in need, such as making a time capsule in case of an apocalypse and attempting to convince the dwarf ambassador Alvijar to harbour the Dorgeshuun children safely in Keldagrim, without success, the adventurer helped Oldak modify Zanik's crossbow to have a special attack that could disrupt divine magic. Zanik and her friend then stepped into the portal to Bandos' throne room, where the war god's avatar was awaiting them. He mocked Zanik, furiously stating that the Dorgeshuun were his rightful property and that he would use his avatar to reassemble his armies and take over Gielinor as his own. The avatar then attacked the former Chosen Commander with full force and a skirmish broke out.

After weakening the avatar, Zanik tried to shoot it with her crossbow special attack, but it was knocked out of her hands, causing Oldak's modifications to break off. The adventurer left her to fight the avatar on her own to retrieve the crossbow parts, but Zanik was knocked unconscious by the avatar, who proceeded to fight the human. They retaliated and weakened it, successfully using the crossbow to sever the link between Bandos and his avatar before it could regenerate, defeating it. Shortly afterwards, Zanik woke up and crushed the pendant with her foot, destroying a significant part of Bandos' power and greatly weakening him. The Bandosian symbol on her forehead also vanished.

The pair triumphantly returned to Dorgesh-Kaan, where they were declared outright heroes and the Council had a statue built to honour the adventurer and Zanik for their bravery.

Adventuring life
After recovering from the incidents with Bandos, Zanik began to travel the surface as an adventurer. She visited many places, from as far west as Oo'glog to as far east as Morytania and Mos Le'Harmless. She was also admitted into the Champions' Guild and fought TzTok-Jad. One a boat trip from Entrana to Port Sarim, Zanik once saw the periscope of the Red Raktuber, a submarine of the KGP, but was led to believe that it was the Leviathan by local sailors. Even though she was relieved to be free of her alleged destiny, Zanik still suffered nightmares about Bandos, but would always wake up to find herself free of him.

A few months later, however, Guthix was killed and his Edicts abolished, allowing the gods to return. After seeing Guthix's death, Juna, who had been present in his cave, realised she had been idolising her god and deities in general. She came to the realisation that Zanik had been right to defy Bandos and shape her own destiny, for Guthix had attempted to protect the world against gods, and hoped for Zanik to forgive her. Zanik joined The Godless after listening to a speech from their emissary Holstein, desiring to defend RuneScape from all gods.

Bandos was amongst the first of them to come back and planned to resume his plans to conquer the world and destroy Zanik and the Dorgeshuun, but he was stopped by the god Armadyl, whom he began to battle in Asgarnia. Zanik attempted to convince the Godless, most notably Kara-Meir, to join Armadyl's army and fight Bandos, but they refused to comply, randomly ambushing both factions instead. The war god died in battle, to the Dorgeshuun's relief.

However, when Armadyl dealt his opponent the final blow, Zanik felt an excruciating pain herself. After visiting and reconciling with Juna, they concluded that it had been Bandos who had resurrected Zanik after she was killed by the H.A.M. cultists. With his death, the Bandosian energy within Zanik had also begun to fade, which meant she would soon die. As a result, a saddened Zanik chose to return to Dorgesh-Kaan to remain with what was close to her.

The Kyzaj Tournament
After Bandos' death, the adventurer returned to Dorgesh-Kaan to find that it under siege by Bandosian forces, who blamed the Dorgeshuun, feeling that it was Zanik's fault that Bandos died. Zanik appeared to report that they had managed to slow down the advance by collapsing the entrance near the Dorgesh-Kaan mines but that it was only a matter of time before the city was overrun.

The adventurer entered the Lumbridge swamp caves to negotiate with leaders of the various Bandosin tribes on behalf of the Dorgeshuun. The leaders fell into an argument over which of them was the strongest and had the right to lead. Though Zarador saw the adventurer's encouragement of the argument as the delaying tactic it was, the other leaders of the various tribes wouldn't be dissuaded so he proposed a traditional Kyzaj Tournament to settle the dispute and choose the leader. Realizing that the other leaders would kill Zanik on sight, the adventurer entered the tournament on behalf of the cave goblins as Zanik's "trained attack beast".

Zanik met her friend at the portal to Yu'biusk to wish them luck, though she didn't dare risk being caught by entering herself. However, she was able to help indirectly by teaching them how to wield the Kyzaj weapon, drawing on memories she gained from her connection to Bandos. She also eventually revealed her discussions with Juna and possible impending death.

The adventurer managed to win the tournament however, while they were occupied, Zanik was captured by Zarador. He threw her into the ring, declaring her to be the final opponent of the tournament. If the adventurer slew her, the Dorgeshuun would be disqualified from the tournament since their champion had died, ending the feud. If she was spared, she would become the new leader of the Bandosian forces, ending the feud.

If Zanik was spared, she made an impassioned speech, declaring her intention to lead the forces in attempting to carve out a new life on Yu'biusk rather than continuing to attack the "weaklings" on Gielinor. Her speech inspired most, even Zarador confessed he may have been wrong about her not being a leader. However a faction, led by General Graardor, rejected her leadership and opted to remain, though they were forbidden from continuing their campaign against the cave goblins.

Zanik said her farewells to her friend, after discussing their adventures together and her future. She declared that she had felt stronger since coming to Yu'biusk, theorizing that there may be residual energy from Bandos there, supporting her life. Either way, she would never be able to return, and so she asked the adventurer to remember her and say goodbye to the other Dorgeshuun for her. Her fate after this is unknown.

Alternate History (Dimension of Disaster)
In a parallel dimension in which the Player never existed, Zanik's fate turns out differently. According to Zemouregal's notes, Zanik is appointed Chosen Commander by Bandos and goes to the Temple of Lost Ancients to lead Bandos' forces there. Under her leadership, the forces of Bandos push back their enemies, seize all the pieces of the Godsword, and use the reforged weapons to achieve final victory over all other forces. However, Zanik, overconfident in her victory, then discovered and opened the ancient prison beneath the temple and was killed by Nex instantly.

In Zemouregal's lost property chest, there is a crossbow that looks exactly like Zanik's crossbow from the Chosen Commander quest called "Hero's useless weapon". It's description, "Apparently useless against Mahjarrat (or at least Zemouregal)", implies that someone tried to use it against Zemouregal and failed. However, this is likely merely a joke, since by the above account, Zanik never fought against Zemouregal nor regained control from Bandos so that she could have Oldak make her crossbow into a special crossbow for fighting against the Bandos Avatar.

Locations
After The Chosen Commander, Zanik can be found in the following locations for a few minutes before continuing her travels:
 * Oo'glog
 * Dorgesh-Kaan market
 * Draynor Village (In the Wise Old Man's house)
 * Champions' Guild
 * Gamers' Grotto
 * Ranging Guild
 * TzHaar City
 * Wizards' Tower
 * Her home in Dorgesh-Kaan
 * Oldak's lab in Dorgesh-Kaan
 * Ice Mountain
 * Goblin Village

Examines

 * She has a mark on her head.
 * A goblin adventurer.
 * An eager cave goblin on her first trip to the surface.
 * Hopefully she'll pass as a short, hunched HAM member.
 * Alas, poor Zanik.
 * She's kicking HAM butt!
 * A goblin fighting for her city.
 * A heroic cave goblin joining you for another adventure!
 * The Chosen Commander?
 * Putting up a fight!
 * Zanik is tied up on the train tracks.
 * Hero of the cave goblins.
 * Her footing looks unstable.
 * Back from the dead... again?
 * A cave-goblin sniper!
 * She looks badly hurt.
 * The Chosen Commander.
 * No longer the chosen commander.
 * A cave-goblin adventurer.
 * The famous cave-goblin adventurer.

Trivia

 * Zanik has the highest amount of examine phrases of anything in the game, with a total of at least 20.
 * In the ninth Postbag from the Hedge, the Chaos Elemental states: "she is reborn, the chosen one!", possibly referring to when Zanik is revived in the quest Death to the Dorgeshuun.
 * If you examined Zanik while fighting Sigmund and his guards, the text was "She's kicking HAM ass!". This was odd considering 'ass' was filtered out at the time. Now, ass is not filtered, but the examine text has been changed to "A goblin fighting for her city."
 * The word Zanik has various meanings in different languages.
 * In Dutch her name means nag (with the infinitive being zaniken).
 * In Polish it means atrophy and/or disappearance.
 * In Czech it means death, destruction and/or extinction. Arguably more fitting translations that the former, although it is not clear if this was intended by Mod John A.
 * Mod John A stated in a Q&A on 23 July 2010 what the inspiration behind Zanik was:
 * "One was the character Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica (the new version, where Starbuck is a girl)."
 * "Another is the song 'Us' by Regina Spektor--that's always how I've imagined Zanik's voice to sound, even though obviously you never hear it in-game."
 * "There are lots and lots of other things that inspired the character, though, and a lot of the creative process is subconscious so I don't even know myself."
 * Zanik was first mentioned, although not by name, in the fourth Postbag from the Hedge, where Ur-tag says "There are only a few cave goblins who have ever interested [Juna], and only one who is living now, but she has expressed interest in visiting the surface so perhaps someday you will meet her."
 * Zanik's TzHaar name is "JaYlt-Xil-Zanik", which means that she's a hunter or fighter.
 * Zanik is currently the only Cave goblin with updated graphics. However, this is only available during The Mighty Fall.