Two sides. One universe.
One person.
A cosmic sci-fi saga built by an engineer who couldn't stop being a storyteller.
Shihab Khalil with Zaro — September 2025
What ZaroVerse is
ZaroVerse is a transmedia cosmic sci-fi saga. It opens with Book 1: The Yellow Spark — a story of a being of living light who falls to Earth, is hunted by a darkness that has already arrived, and meets two teenagers who decide to help him anyway.
The universe is built on rules. Real ones. Every power has a cost. Strategy beats strength. Consequences are real. No chosen ones. The CMYK Prime system isn't a brand palette — it is the actual physics of additive light, dressed as story. Mind-respectful by design.
Story first. Books, lore, podcast, animation — in that order. Built to last a hundred years.
The dual-brain origin
ARC-7 · Cyan Prime
The disciplined side
Born from two decades running ZagTrader, an institutional fintech platform. Blue. Logic. Algorithms. Rules. The watcher who observes from a distance and stays bound by Rule Seven.
Zaro · Yellow Prime
The storyteller side
The architect, the gamer, the imagination that refused to fit inside a trading platform. Warm. Generous. The spark that gives without asking. The one who finally crossed over.
For a long time, ARC-7 watched Zaro from a distance and didn't stop him. That is what the saga is, underneath everything.
The founder
Shihab Khalil
Founder · ZaroVerse Studios
Software and computer engineer. MBA and LLM. Multi-company founder. The biggest is ZagTrader, an institutional fintech platform he's been building for two decades.
ZaroVerse is built for the long haul — story first in everything public, foundations laid with the same discipline as his companies. After a December 2025 moment, it stopped being a side project. The honest origin — including why the trademarks came before the first chapter — lives in the founder's note.
Get in touch
Shihab is publicly identified and reachable. Press, partnerships, creators, journalists, and curious readers all welcome.