Zygarde's appearance is based on a serpent in the shape of the letter Z. It may also draw inspiration from both the
Níðhöggr and the
Jörmungandr. Jörmungandr, often written Jormungand, or Jörmungand and also known as the Midgard Serpent (Old Norse: Midgarðsormr), or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and Loki. According to the
Prose Edda, Jörmungandr is punished by Odin by tossing it into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the earth and grasp his own tail.
Níðhöggr is the the serpent from the
Poetic Edda which resided at the bottom of the world tree
Yggdrasill and gnawed at its roots. The patterns spread upon Zygarde's body are very similar to and may be based upon
ribose and
deoxyribose molecules. Its tail is possibly based in shape on
base pair codons, the essential building blocks of the
DNA double helix.