What would one day become Zhien was at first nothing but a figment of the imagination, a short-lived and absentminded afterthought by one of Innouruuk's most powerful minions : Lanys T'Vyl.  When she was still young, not having fully mastered her abilities, Lanys saw a Tier'Dal man of impressive beauty and immediately, if only for a second, felt the pangs of a romantic crush on him.  Her natural self-discipline quickly kicked in reworking the love into hatred, but not before Erollisi Marr, goddess of Love, detected her feelings and hoped to nurture them into a potential force of good.  Before the thoughts dissipated, Erollisi grabbed what remained of them, which was actually the dream-child of a union between Lanys and the man.  Thus, if only in an abstract sense, Zhien came into being existing in a make-shift dreamworld of Erollisi's making, where she was raised and grew into adulthood by the goddess and her family.  Mithaniel taught her honor and valor, Erollisi taught her compassion and the tenets of goodness, and Tarrew channelled power into her, making her a righteous and powerful force.  All this time, Zhien was raised in the dreamworld, a warped psuedo-reality of Erollisi's dreams where there was no hatred in the world, where all races had always worked hand-in-hand with one-another; it was for this reason that Zhien had become a shadowknight, for in this false world while dark elves could still not become paladins, they could use their dark arts for good.  Zhien studied much of her skills at this false reality's Neriak A&M University (Agriculture and Magik) and, in honor of her alma mater, decided that any armor she wore in the future would adopt the maroon colors of her school.

Twenty-five years after she had first been created, Zhien was discovered by the Nameless, who disapproved of what it felt was the Marr's "pet" and expunged Zhien into the real world, where she found a much harsher reality than she had ever been exposed to before.  Thinking to rewrite the world into a vision like that she had been raised in, Zhien was shortly-after contacted by other guardians of reality, including Kriggan, who taught her that a balance was necessary for the world to work properly and that she would have to limit her efforts to convincing through example and not through force.  So Zhien, begrudgingly, took it upon herself to police the world in a mediator capacity, only using her incredible powers when all other venues failed or were not viable.