Shiruyeh

Shiruyeh, also known by his alias Khorramdin, was a historical figure in the Great Red Sand and Desert of Hadramaveth in Sumeru. He was the son of Parvezravan and Shirin of Gurabad, as well as the grandson of the Jinn-Mother Liloupar. His actions and death led to the fall of Gurabad, as the final part of Liloupar's vengeance against her lover Ormazd.

Profile[]

Long before his birth, Shiruyeh's existence and fate was already part of Liloupar's machinations against her lover, Ormazd, for becoming an ordinary tyrant after uniting the desert peoples. Prophesied to surpass his father Parvezravan, he was thusly banished from Gurabad after he reached adulthood and was forced to disguise himself with a brass mask. Liloupar then lent him her aid in gathering the displaced and starving commoners and former slaves, who had lost their way of life to the Jinn-powered machines that Parvezravan had introduced to Gurabad.^[1]

Story[]

Shiruyeh was the son of Parvezravan and Shirin, the rulers of Gurabad. Before his birth, his grandmother Liloupar prophesized that he would be "an ill omen upon the king's land." Parvezravan, unaware that this was all part of Liloupar's machinations against Gurabad, was terrified of this warning and eventually banished his son from the city, forcing Shiruyeh to hide his face with a brass mask. Liloupar goaded and aided Shiruyeh's plans to take the throne from his father, fostering support for him — who had taken on the alias of the "brass-masked Khorramdin" — among the downtrodden commoners who were facing an increasing socioeconomic gap as a result of the Jinn machines Parvezravan used to replace their labor.^[1]

Shiruyeh was depicted by his supporters as the emissary of Nabu Malikata, the Goddess of Flowers,^[1] and worship of her became widespread amongst the Brass Mask rebellion. As a result, worship of her became outlawed entirely in an unsuccessful attempt to curb the mounting sentiment.^[3]

Usurpation and Shiruyeh's Plague[]

Shiruyeh's movement gained traction and despite attempts by Parvezravan to curb the mounting sentiment, it eventually gained enough strength to launch a rebellion against Parvezravan's rule. Although the details surrounding the conflict have been muddled with the passage of time, Liloupar used the power of the Abyss in her vengeance against Gurabad; this caused Parvezravan to become a dark monster, and although Shiruyeh and his forces technically won the war, the entirety of Gurabad was struck by a plague and sank into the earth. Most of Gurabad's inhabitants were swallowed up by the darkness or otherwise disappeared, including Shiruyeh and Shirin.^[1][4] According to The Tale of Shiruyeh and Shirin, the people of Gurabad were "scattered amidst a world of darkness, left to become wild creatures who had lost their language and faces."^[5]

Legacy[]

An unknown amount of time after the fall of Gurabad and King Deshret's punishment on Liloupar, Shiruyeh's "rightful heir" Kavusbay returned from exile to take the throne.^[2] It is unknown what happened to Kavusbay, but it is likely that Ramshahr — who is the focus of the rest of that Vaguely-Readable Inscription — usurped him.

Over the course of time, Shiruyeh came to be despised as a short-lived despot who led the great city of Gurabad to its ruin, becoming the namesake of the plague which devastated the once-glorious city. Some Eremite tribes believe the name Shiruyeh means "One who is ridiculous and despicable," and it is branded onto the foreheads of exiled chiefs as a form of mockery.^[5]

Trivia[]

Etymology[]

• Shiruyeh is named and modeled after the real-life Sasanian King of Kings Kavad II, born Sheroe (an alternate romanization of Shiruyeh). Like Shiruyeh, Kavad II slew his father, Khosrow II (Khosrow Parviz) in a coup d'état. Both are also blamed for a plague which killed most of their cities' inhabitants, and had the incident named after them (Shiruyeh's Plague and the Plague of Sheroe, respectively). However, Kavad was not Shirin's son, but instead the son of Khosrow's other wife Maria.
  • Kavad II's son, Ardashir III (written in some Greek texts as Artaxes), is likely the name basis for Ramshahr's young son Artaxir,^[6] who is briefly mentioned in a Vaguely-Readable Inscription.
• Shiruyeh's alternate name, Khorramdin, is likely derived from the Iranian revolutionary leader Babak Khorramdin, one of the leaders of the religious group known as the Khurramites in their resistance against the Abbasid Caliphate.

Other Languages[]

Change History[]

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