One of the first of the Immortals, Zintoba was a strong and charismatic officer in what was left of the Legions of Del Roh after the Great Contagion. Siash chose him because he knew the family would need defenders, and he recognized that Zintoba could be both a great warrior, and a great leader of warriors.
One of the first things that Zintoba undertook was the restructuring of the Legions, which had been drastically depleted during holding battles against the Fair Folk in neighboring kingdoms and by the Great Contagion itself. In those early years, he and Morovan worked closely to find the best places to shore up the defenses of the islands and ensure that the various enemies of the Golden City were defended against. Over the years, the two similar families began to separate in function and form. The Morovan were assigned to protect the outer defenses, and drifted closer to the Kiri's and the few islanders on the islands that housed those defenses. The Zintoba were given command over the Golden City, set as police and the protectors of the most potent defenses that the Island still possessed. It was Zintoba that manned the Lightning Guns, Zintoba that possessed the keys to activate the Guardian Golems prior to their destruction, and Zintoba that guarded the most powerful of the cities manses and items of power. More important, in many cases, it was the Zintoba that the people looked to as their defenders. The Morovan were gritty, often distant, and just seemed to be somewhat...dirtier...than the Zintoba. Thus the two families drifted further apart, though both remained more connected than any of the other families.
Nonetheless, by the time of the War against the Realm and the arrival of the Circle, the Zintoba were unused to actual warfare. The Morovan handled most of the threats to the city and they were the ones used to actual combat. The Zintoba understood the theory, and were drilled extensively, but for centuries most of them had only had to man powerful defenses and occasionally unleash potent yet expendable weapons. Thankfully, many of those weapons had already begun to run out by the time the Circle arrived, and the Zintoba were in the middle of a process of restructuring. It was a process that Illhousen both took advantage of and enhanced with Tiger Warrior training.
In the months after the Exodus, the Zintoba have become more and more like their shattered Morovan kin. Now they are the distant, brutal, and "dirty" defenders of Nei Roh. Some of them remember their past glories and dislike this change in status, but many more have taken fully to service under the Sun's Chosen. Addicted by the zeal of victory and the lure of fresh territories ripe for conquest, the Zintoba were perhaps a bit too zestful.
The battles in Yane against the Father of Darkness changed that, probably forever, and the life of the Zintoba is forever changed because of it.
The causalities in the city were truly horrible beyond imagining, with over 2/5th of those Legionnaire's that entered the city either dying or being lost and abandoned during the withdrawal. Many more were heavily injured, some pulled or carried out by comrads and others only discovering the full extent of their injuries hours later. The fact that many of these causalities were caused by the hungry spirits of those that had died only made the battle even more horrible.
Even if that had not been enough, many of the Zintoba have begun to doubt their savior and leader, Johann Illhousen. More than a few knew that his rush toward the Eastern Gate of the City was in violation of an agreement with the Deathknights, and some wonder if it wasn't this betrayal that caused the dead to rise. More damaging than any rumor of broken oaths is the widely witnessed behavior of their Lungzao during the battle. Some are not sure that they can trust their leader to be dependable or even rational, and that kind of second-guessing can be dangerous.
So far, these fears are small, and the Zintoba are still strong and ready to defend Nei Roh. However, they are no longer so drunk on their own power.
The Legions commanded by Johann Illhousen and the Family Zintoba itself are almost but not quite wholly synonymous. The officer core of the Legions is overwhelmingly Zintoban, but a number of Morovan have entered into the Legions as well, and retained their familial status. Similarly, especially in the days after the Exodus, the Legions have begun accepting any individuals that wish to serve and training them as legionnaires. Most of these end up in the Home Guard, but this is likely to change in the aftermath of the battle for Yane.
Even so, most of the Kiri-tet's view themselves as Zintoban retainers and for the time being the Families ties with the Legions are very strong. While it is likely that the status of the Morovan in the Legions will increase, and some have even suggested a merger of the two families into one, it is extremely unlikely that other families will attain much power here or that the Zintoban's will loose much.
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