Gladion Deus

Xavier Zilyana, better known by his holy name, Gladion Deus, is a warrior, mercenary, and slayer, whose ancestors lived in Hallowvale before the Zamorakian invasion (explaining his last name, Zilyana, which is that of an Icyene).

He was born and raised in Lumbridge, where he has recalled many traumatic experiences fighting goblins from. Today, despite these experiences, he still highly opposes the H.A.M. (Human Against Monster) order, and has urged the church of Saradomin to excommunicate their members.

After having received formal training in Lumbridge, Gladion became an adventurer at the age of 18. He drove himself closer to Saradominist values after leaving a village under a somewhat secular government.

Wanting to pursue his new dream of becoming a holy fighter, he enlisted as a white knight in Falador just a year after leaving Lumbridge. Here, he quickly climbed the ranks, fought numerous battles against the black knight order, and became well respected under the alias of Sir Xavier. After getting critically wounded in the leg during a battle against the trolls in the north, he indefinitely resigned from the Order of the White Knights at the age of 25.

During his rehabilitation, he began athletic and military training in the gnome region for 3 years, where he also became closer to the Guthixian faith, which at the time, like most Saradominists, he was open to. He became incredibly physically fit while still underweight. He also acquired marksmenship skills and built on his already impressive melee skills.

By the end of those 3 years, he was able to single-handedly topple a Khazardian army in one of the Khazard-gnome battles. He then partially converted to the Guthixian faith in order to maintain diplomatic relations between the two Gods and their armies. Now fully healed and independent once again, he became a paid mercenary for several armies.

Although this was supposedly a time of peace in Gielinor, the hostility that broke out into full-blown wars involving followers of Bandos, Zaros, and Zamorak against followers of Saradomin, Guthix, and Armadyl have often been dubbed "The New God Wars" and have escalated to battles of that magnitude.

For example, Gladion Deus was involved in the Battle of Lumbridge which was a brawl between the titanic forms of Saradomin and Zamorak themselves after the death of Guthix. This battle among many others have earned their place under Gladion's belt. In just recent months, he has now shifted paths, training as a slayer in order to thin out the massive armies or Zamorakian, Bandosian, and Zarosian monsters.

Divine Status
Although he holds no divine powers, aside from his semi-impressive skills in wizardry, or military status in the holy wars, Saradomin recognizes Zilyana by his incredible strength in military strategy, marksmenship, and swordsmenship, even without the aid of any military might. Saradomin gave him the name Gladion Deus, translating to "Divine Sword".

"Almost miraculously, he fights as the strongest soul taking the form of among the weakest bodies in this Battle of Lumbridge, suddenly becoming the strongest soldier on the battlefield with such little muscle tissue. Yet he is no prophet, and I find that incredible." -Saradomin on Xavier Zilyana after the Battle of Lumbridge

Gladion Deus was happy to hear such recognition of his hard work, but declined any offer of immortality or higher military ranking. He claimed that he fought for no god, but a cause. Saradomin's admiration of him only grew with that statement. Zilyana continues to fight for independent clans, commanding small bands of warriors sometimes more elite than him into battle, still proudly sporting the name, "Gladion Deus".