He is. He’s the keeper of all bad souls in the Maw after he broke free of his chains.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Oh my god WE were the jailers all along…
He doesn’t keep the souls there…they are locked there with him. He was tossed in there just as all the rest were. His job was never to lock people in. The place is the Jail. He is Jailed in there with the rest.
Good Lord… does no one read tonight? 
It was a Monday morning meeting where they picked the name?
Shoulda called him the prisoner with a job…
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Because he became a corrections officer right out of high school.
Blizzard dubbed him, “the Jailer,” but jails usually don’t employ their prisoners to take over the cosmos.
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Final Fantasy XI had I think a raid boss called the Jailer of Love, who was linked to another raid boss called Absolute Virtue, which got a lot of media attention because it was initially apparently intended to be an 18 hour fight and some people actually tried to do it. So clearly Zovaal is a total ripoff of the Jailer of Love
Perhaps I’m not doing well getting this across. (bear with me it is currently 2 AM)
I know that in the game they tell us he became the “Jailer” and that’s supposed to mean something. However, when I hear the term “Jailer” I think keeper, warden, guard things along those lines. A jailer would be someone locking up those who are unable/unwilling to conform to what society considers acceptable. The individual in charge of the prisoners, ensuring they are locked up and possibly letting them go as needed when their terms are up or ensuring ultimate punishment…which isn’t really fitting for Zovaal as he was imprisoned with the rest and became the lead thug.
You can surely say he took over and bent the realm to his rule while locked up within it. On the inside one trapped withing might come up with the terms tormentor, torturer, soul crusher or hope destroyer (I’m sure there are other great terms out there, there is a great amount of imagination on the forums) as they are submitted to his torments. He rules with an iron fist, ensuring he gets what he wants, like a made sociopath with a scalpel flaying their souls apart bit by bit.
On a ruling level, one might think he would call himself a lord, tzar, emperor, king or even god to those he rules over. He could call himself whatever he wanted (perhaps Mr. Fuffybutt) to instill fear into his subjects. However, the term chosen for him is “Jailer” which just seems like such a missed opportunity for world building and instilling dread into the characters / world. If he is supposed to be the big bad “Jailer” just seems like such a missed opportunity.
Now there could be reasons for this that haven’t come to light yet. Maybe he took over the “Jailer” title of the last person when he was tossed in there and that really was the best term they could come up with. I just want more from my evil characters. The term “Jailer” as the biggest evil thus far seems sad and unimaginative. Just my 2 cents. (Note to self, drink less coffee starting the Saturday…gotta make it through Friday first.)
I wondered that myself. Maybe his original job as Arbiter also incorporated looking after the Maw? Or …I dunno, its a weird point. Blizzard really should clarify it.
Ages ago, Zovaal was known as the Arbiter , responsible for judging the souls that entered the afterlife. However, when he betrayed his fellow Eternal Ones and tried to upset the balance of the cosmos, his counterparts stripped him of his power, cast him into the Maw, and created a new Arbiter to replace him
a person in charge of a jail or of the prisoners in it.
Zo’vaal was the banished one.
Once he broke free, and took ownership of the bad souls, he becomes a Jailer of sorts. You are looking at it from a very specific [real life] definition and interpretation… it’s more about the idea of what a Jailer is and how it sounds in a fantasy setting for said ‘villain’.
He imprisons souls and bends them to his will.
It’s loosely connecting that first idea of ‘imprisoning’ souls and it being a ‘rule of cool’.
Though I did have a proper giggle reading some replies here, lol.
Because “nothing escapes the Maw.”
Except us shortly after entering the Maw.
And all the covenant armies twice a week somehow.
…
Why is the Jailer called the Zovaal?
What about stepbro?