Pa'u (meaning 'Priest') Zotoh Zhaan is a Delvian. She's immensely strong, terribly dignified, and she's 812 years old (although that's ancient for most races, her comparable human age is about 40). Delvians are a highly spiritual race, thoughtful and peace loving. Zhaan has reached the 10th Plateau in the Delvian Seek, a search for perfect understanding and unity with all life. However peace-loving and gentle Zhaan appears, she carries a dark burden. Because her lover, a leader among the Delvians, was proceeding with plans to give control of their world to the Peacekeepers, Zhaan murdered him in a manner most foul. During an intertwining of her soul and mind with her lover, an encounter both spiritual and sexual, she used her power to overwhelm him and kill him, an act that nearly drove her mad. In prison Zhaan brought herself back from insanity step by small step, nurturing a higher, wiser power in herself that could keep the dark forces in her soul under control. She is not entirely safe, however. At certain times on their indeterminate voyage, Zhaan has broken faith with herself, or has been forced to, and her dark side has emerged. Besides being individuals of immense power and wisdom, Delvians are also plant-based life forms -- which explains Zhaan's euphoric response to sunlight. Her form does not consist of bones, but of plant tissues and fibers.