By far one of the most interesting characters in the game to me, yet he has little to no story. No comic, no cinematic, nothing. With how Overwatch seemingly refuses to move the plot forward, I would’ve thought within the years we’ve had the game we would have gotten Zenyatta backstory, at least with Genji, but it’s been crickets. The concept of the Iris is something that fascinates me, but I doubt it’ll ever have anything written on it.
Zenyatta’s healing is something I’m interested in as well… Mercy (and I think Moira?)'s lines about how his healing works and their curiousness toward it makes me believe he can canonically heal people in Overwatch’s real world rather than just in game, so why not go in depth on his orbs? Anything? Maybe just share some details on the Shambali besides “Aww Mondatta died 
tough”
I suppose Zen’s cures are a mystery equivalent to the Dragons of Genji and Hanzo. I seem to remember that to the AMA when asked about these technologies they replied “it’s not magic, but we don’t feel we have to literally explain everything about the world of Overwatch” (I’m paraphrasing but more or less they said this)
about Zenyatta … we are pretty sure they are preparing Suravasa, but it must also be said that … it would be interesting to understand what path zenyatta has taken from being a factory product to a monk with a deep thought. Yes, I think this is what we would actually be interested in as an in-depth study, perhaps more than simply “let’s show how he decided to travel the world”.
I think he maybe has a similar healing like Mercy and his orbs work like Mercy’s staff.
I always imagined that the Zenyatta orbs must have something similar to nano-machines capable of healing (both humans and machines). When he send his orb charge with the nano-bots, these starting healing the ally.
(…) The first useful applications of nanomachines may be in nanomedicine. For example, biological machines could be used to identify and destroy cancer cells.Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment. (…)
Albert Hibbs (…) suggested that certain repair machines might one day be reduced in size to the point that it would, in theory, be possible to (as Feynman put it) “swallow the surgeon”. (…)
Since nano-robots would be microscopic in size, it would probably be necessary for very large numbers of them to work together to perform microscopic and macroscopic tasks. (…) These nano-robot swarms, both those unable to replicate (as in utility fog) and those able to replicate unconstrained in the natural environment (as in grey goo and synthetic biology), are found in many science fiction stories, such as the Borg nano-probes in Star Trek and The Outer Limits episode “The New Breed”. (…)
A detailed theoretical discussion of nanorobotics, including specific design issues such as sensing, power communication, navigation, manipulation, locomotion, and onboard computation, has been presented in the medical context of nanomedicine by Robert Freitas. Some of these discussions remain at the level of unbuildable generality and do not approach the level of detailed engineering.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanorobotics
There has been no mention of nanobots in Overwatch, except to say that Mercy’s healing is not nanobots.
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Oh yes, y’re right. I will correct myself:
It can be a similar technology like Mercy staff or maybe nanobots.
[insert “Nanomachines, son!” meme XD]
But, seriously, we oficially know orbs was carved by shambali monks and servers to chanel the monk energy (unleash in armony or destructive way).
https://i.ibb.co/82yHpm2/ball1.png
Maybe this technology could use the same or similar principes of Mercy’s heals. They look a little like. Also we know Zen “shoots” concentrate energy like moira orb who shines in gold and follows the ally joined by a beam of light like Mercy’s caduceus.
https://i.ibb.co/8ddP2J5/ball2.jpg
Zen actually is like a healing generator and/or a biotic emitter. He has a range of action and he must see (“be concentrate”) in his ally.
You’re going to have to wait for OW2 and for when they implement the Zen & Genji mission they teased about in OW2 previews.
Aka, it’s going to be a loooong wait.
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The most recent piece of free lore we received (free meaning not Deadlock Rebels, which has a paywall) is a Zen short story. Stone By Stone.
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