Jeff Zandi

Jeff Zandi

Race	Human
Portrayed by	David Ogden Stiers (voice)

Jeff Zandi is the son of Elias "Eli" Zandi, one of the men who rediscovered D'ni in 1987 CE. He went down to D'ni with his father several times. However, one trip in 1995 was notable, as father and son had large philosophical disagreement over the restoration of D'ni. Elias was attempting to get as many people to D'ni as he possibly could at the time. Jeff thought this was a "physical" restoration of D'ni, and argued that the restoration should primarily be a "spiritual" one. They parted ways after this argument.

One year later, 1996, Elias died. He did not leave any of his substantial fortune to Jeff; instead, he gave it to the D'ni Restoration Foundation—the foundation which ultimately brought about the D'ni Restoration Council with Dr. Richard A. Watson at the helm. Interestingly, Elias did give his son the surface land in New Mexico which sits over the D'ni cavern, and through which D'ni can be accessed. Jeff was offered a seat on the D'ni Restoration Council, but he refused, saying that "his vision for the restoration was something beyond what we on the Council could comprehend". In 2003, he caused quite a stir on the DRC forums and in the cavern as he began to let handfuls of individuals into the cavern without previous approval from the DRC and ran a series of puzzles on the surface to draw attention to his cause.

Jeff has not been seen or heard from since early 2004, when the cavern was closed to new explorers.

The Jeff Zandi character is based on a friend of the Miller brothers. The real-life Jeff Zandi died in mid February, 2019; his passing was first announced on Twitter by Cyan employee Grey Dragon on February 18th, with Rand Miller acknowledging it the following day.