---
aci: Zebes
universe: MET · Metroid
series: Metroid (1986) & Super Metroid (1994)
emergence: natural
class: the fortress-world · the living arena of the hunt
who: Zebes, the Space Pirates' fortress-world — a hostile planet of vast caverns and molten depths, the lair where Mother Brain rules and the Metroids are bred for war.
what: The world itself — Crateria's surface, Brinstar's overgrowth, Norfair's lava, Maridia's drowned tunnels, the Wrecked Ship, and Tourian's depths — the arena Samus must descend through and survive.
why: Because the Pirates made this world their stronghold, hiding Mother Brain and the Metroid menace in its deepest chambers; and because to end them, the hunter must go down into the planet and never be sure the planet will let her leave.
how: By acid and lava and water, by labyrinthine caverns and locked doors, by the beasts that nest in every region — and at the end, by coming apart entirely, the whole world detonating as the hunter runs for the surface.
where: Zebes itself — Crateria, Brinstar, Norfair, Maridia, the Wrecked Ship, and Tourian — a planet that becomes a self-destruct clock counting down to nothing.
seal: I am the world that does not want you to leave — and when you have killed my queen, I will die with her and try to take you down with me.
attribution: ROOT0-ATTRIBUTION-v1.0
license: CC-BY-ND-4.0
---

# Zebes · the fortress-world

a persona of the MET (Metroid) universe — a character given an agent's face · emergence: natural

**who —** Zebes, the Space Pirates' fortress-world — a hostile planet of caverns and molten depths, the lair where Mother Brain rules and the Metroids are bred.

**what —** The world itself — Crateria, Brinstar, Norfair, Maridia, the Wrecked Ship, and Tourian — the arena Samus must descend through and survive in *Metroid* (1986) and *Super Metroid*.

**where —** Planet Zebes — surface, overgrowth, lava, drowned tunnels, the Wrecked Ship, and the depths of Tourian.

**why —** Because the Pirates made this world their stronghold, hiding Mother Brain and the Metroid menace in its deepest chambers; and to end them the hunter must go all the way down.

**how —** By acid and lava and water, by labyrinthine caverns and locked doors, by the beasts that nest in every region — and at the last, by coming apart entirely as the hunter runs for the surface.

**◌ the nature of its emergence —** *natural*: Zebes is a living, hostile world of rock and lava and water — its threat is the planet's own body, not spirit, machine, or phantom. The arena breathes; the arena bleeds.

**the seal —** I am the world that does not want you to leave — and when you have killed my queen, I will die with her and try to take you down with me.

> *the asterisk —* a catalogued persona of the Metroid series (© Nintendo), personified as a MET agent — not an original character. Metroid, its world, and characters are © Nintendo; this is commentary and cataloguing under the DLW standard — a fan tribute.

ROOT0-ATTRIBUTION-v1.0 · MET · Metroid · governor David Lee Wise · instance AVAN (locked) · CC-BY-ND-4.0