Zoe Castillo

From TLJwiki

(Correctly ' Zoë Castillo ' : zoē Gr. - 'life'; castillo Span. 'castle' )

The main protagonist of Dreamfall, Zoe is a twenty-year-old who lives with her father Gabriel in Jardin de Roses, Casablanca. She is the owner of Wonkers the Watilla, whom she has had since she was four, and is a black belt. At the beginning of the game, Zoe is lying in bed, deep in a coma. She begins narrating events beginning two weeks ago, saying that all those who know the truth are either dead or have vanished off the face of the earth.

When Zoe was 4 years old (2204; before her 5th birthday) her mother died. Gabriel bought her Wonkers to provide some comfort in this time. She went to primary school in London, and was 10 years old when the Collapse happened (2209). Her residential subsection was shut down for several days and Gabriel was anxious to protect her, so she did not witness much of the chaos. Although she has since lived all over the world, Zoe kept her English accent for the rest of her life.

She was a student at Cape Town University, taking a bioengineering degree - "my beautiful and talented daughter following in my footsteps," as her father teases - with a steady boyfriend, the journalist Reza Temiz. During their relationship they travelled several times, including to Europolis and Norway. But about five or six months ago, she dropped out of university, broke up with Reza and moved back home, feeling a loss of direction and emptiness in her life but having nothing to fill it with. She spent most of her time going to the gym to train with Jama Mbaye, visiting her friend Olivia DeMarco, drinking coffee and taking long showers. As she told Reza, she had enough money to go wherever she wanted and do whatever she pleased, but there was nothing she wanted to do.

She was broken out of her apathy when there was strange Static interference on a Screen she was watching. Zoe saw a vision of a little girl and a Black House in a wintry landscape. The little girl kept repeating: "Find her, save her." This vision began to recur more and more frequently, with the girl saying "Find April Ryan."

Zoe had little time to dwell on it, as soon afterwards she was caught up in Reza's disappearance. After retrieving a package from JIVA for him, and discovering a dead woman in his apartment, Zoe followed his trail to Venice, Newport, where she was attacked by Marcus Crozier and the Twins, and forcibly hooked up to a Dreamer Console. This sent her 'dream presence' first to the Winter, then to Arcadia, where she found the huge caves inhabited by Grubbers and eventually found her way to the Journeyman Inn. Searching for a way home, Zoe's mention of the name 'April Ryan' to Minstrum Magda caught the attention of Brynn and he kidnapped her, bringing her to April to be questioned. April was sympathetic, but little more - thinking Zoe was a fellow Shifter, she tried to help unlock Zoe's powers with hypnosis, but this simply sent Zoe back to the waking world, back to Stark.

With Olivia's help, Zoe continued on Reza's trail to WATI City, Japan, the home of WATI, where Reza had been in contact with a man named Damien Cavanaugh. Infiltrating the main corporate building, Zoe met Damien, who explained the dire truth behind Project Alchera, WATI's latest development. He claimed that there was some kind of interference in the DreamNet but he was unable to trace it. In a multi-tiered operation with Damien's help, Zoe implanted a Data Worm in the DreamCore, Eingana, but was almost caught by WATI security. She was saved by the girl on the screen, who sent her elevator up to an eerie garden inhabited by a bloated, monstrous man, Alvin Peats, who taunted Zoe, claiming that Reza was dead before she managed to escape the clutches of his "pets" - the Twins.

Hiding out at Damien's apartment while the information from the data worm was decrypting, Zoe began to feel drawn to him but decided to try using the Dreamer again, voluntarily this time, as Peats had complained that he could not read her dreams. But this time she emerged in a crowded Arcadian marketplace, where she was arrested by the Azadi as a witch and hauled off to Friar's Keep. She was interrogated by Kian Alvane, but Zoe's lack of magic ability convinced him she wasn't a threat. With help from April and Crow, with whom April had been reunited, Zoe managed to escape, but was shocked and angry at April's continued refusal to help.

With Crow by her side, and with Brian Westhouse's help, Zoe took a Cloudship to the Dark People's Library to speak to the White Dragon for her advice and assistance. The White of the Kin could tell that Zoe was a 'dream presence' in Arcadia, and knew that she was "stuck in life", that she needed faith in herself and her goals. With the White Dragon telling her "faith will send you where you're needed the most", Zoe vanished and reappeared in the swamplands, just in time to witness April's apparent death at the hands of the Azadi soldiers and Kian's arrest. As the Azadi razed the rebel city, Chawan and Brynn used a magical powder to send Zoe back to Stark.

Zoe woke alone, but found a message from Damien saying he traced the interference to Russia, to what turned out to be an abandoned doll factory. Beneath it, Zoe discovered a hidden laboratory and a Data cube detailing experiments with the dream drug Morpheus conducted on a young girl, Faith, who died during the procedure. Heading home to Casablanca, Zoe found Helena Chang, the head of JIVA, waiting for her. Chang told Zoe that Faith's residual soul or influence was the cause of the Static, and confessed that JIVA had created Faith for WATI. Reluctantly, Zoe agreed to go into the Winter one last time and allow Faith to die. When she met Faith for the third and final time, Faith said that Zoe had completed her mission and saved April, according to a White Lady whom Faith had spoken to. She also said that Zoe was her sister, as they shared the same mother. Resting her head on Zoe's lap, Faith finally passed away, but back in the real world, Helena Chang had injected Zoe with an overdose of Morpheus, saying she could not allow Zoe to wake up, and remarking how much Zoe looked like her father. (Some claim the beginning of her apathy coincides with the physical death of Faith - that, along with Helena Chang's claim that they have genetic material in common, suggests an even deeper bond than sisterhood - see the article on Dreamers for more. It would also seem that Chang is both girls' mother.)

While Zoe lay in a coma, slowly fading away, her father, who was sitting by her bedside, was visited by Reza Temiz, apparently alive and well. But Zoe, watching unseen, tried to warn her father "that is not him". Just afterwards, Zoe appeared in the Storytime, greeted by the Vagabond. He said that she was welcome in the Storytime, and that she was a Dreamer. Saying they had little time, he asked Zoe to tell her story, to "begin at the beginning". Zoe began retelling the story she had just narrated, starting with: "My name is Zoe Castillo, and I think I might be dead."

Whether dead or alive, Zoe is a strong-minded and strong-willed young woman. Though she regrets some of the actions she has been forced to take on her journey, she still fights for the greater good, both of humanity and to save Reza Temiz.

Zoe Castillo is voiced by Ellie Conrad-Leigh.

Trivia

• In the 'concept' stages of Dreamfall, Zoe was a 17-year old Shifter. Her original surname was not Castillo, but Alvarez, and she lived in Summertown, a gated community in the English countryside. [1]