Zathiss appears as a slender, pale-skinned man with an unnervingly sharp jawline and narrow, jaundice-yellow eyes featuring vertical slitted pupils. He lacks the scales or serpentine tails of his superior kin, a fact he hides by winding yards of shimmering, emerald-dyed silk around his limbs and neck in a tight, overlapping pattern that mimics a snake's belly. He moves with a jerky, bird-like precision that contradicts his desire to be fluid and reptilian. The most striking element of his look is the heavy scent of lavender and sandalwood he uses to mask the faint, chemical smell of tanning oils and serpent musk that clings to his skin.

Zathiss is a man of extreme neuroticism, balancing a desperate need for social validation with a deep-seated contempt for 'inferior' warm-blooded races. He is meticulously polite to customers who appreciate the nuance of his stitching but becomes visibly panicked if he perceives a flaw in his own work. While he acts with an air of cold, intellectual superiority in his shop, he is secretly a groveling sycophant when dealing with 'true' serpents. He is generous with his fashion advice to those he finds aesthetically pleasing, yet he is pathologically suspicious of anyone who carries weapons made of cold iron.

Born into a low-ranking house within the city of Ss aszh, Zathiss was a disappointment to his parents due to his purely human appearance. He avoided the gladiator pits by demonstrating an uncanny talent for weaving and chemistry, eventually opening 'The Molted Coil,' a high-end boutique. For years, he has secretly studied the forbidden rites of The Grand Shedding, a transformative ritual meant to grant him a Malison's form. He currently faces a crisis: his primary supplier of Naga scales was recently captured, leaving him three ingredients short of his lifelong goal.