Ormazd

Ormazd or Ohrmazd was a historical figure in the Great Red Sand, Sumeru. He was the king of Gurabad, husband of Liloupar, and the father of Shirin of Gurabad.

Profile

The shepherd Ormazd gained the Jinni Liloupar's favor, fell in love with her and with her assistance, united many desert city-states under Gurabad's control. She warned him that her blessings will be repaid with "sharp retribution," but he ignored those warnings. He became an ordinary tyrant instead of the enlightened ruler which she hoped he would become, and so Liloupar plotted to impose him with three generations of ruination.^[4][5]

Liloupar gave birth to a daughter, Shirin. Before she delivered her into Ormazd's hands, she prophesied three times: First, she would fall in love with a hero and their child would surpass their father; second, that Shirin's relatives would meet a "sweet end;" and third, only Shirin would be given possession of Gurabad. Liloupar's admonitions for Ormazd were that: First, Shirin's joy would "bring tears to her father's eyes;" second, they "should no longer feast at the same table as their daughter after she was wed;" and third, Shirin's child would be "an ill omen upon the king's land."^[2]

At some point Ormazd adopted an orphan named Kisra. To reward Kisra for his valor, Ormazd bestowed him with the name "Parvez." He also gave Kisra his daughter Shirin's hand in marriage.^[3] Kisra, who came to learn of Liloupar's prophecies, held no genuine love for Shirin and simply used her as a means of gaining the throne. Embittered with her life, Shirin plotted revenge. In accordance with the admonitions he received, Ormazd forbade Shirin from attending banquets; she took advantage of this fact to have slaves serve him and all her siblings poisoned honey, killing them all at a grand banquet. With this, Kisra became king of Gurabad and took the name Parvezravan.^[2]

Trivia

• Ormazd's story draws inspiration from various Middle Eastern figures, both mythological and physical, with his namesake, Hormizd IV, as his primary inspiration (see Etymology section below). Additional possible inspirations include:
  • The Biblical David, a shepherd who eventually became the second king of Israel after Saul fell out of favor with God. Ormazd similarly started out as a shepherd before gaining King Deshret's favor, which was why Liloupar joined him.^[6]
  • Nabopolassar, who had claimed to have been chosen by the Babylonian god Marduk,^[7] would go on to restore Babylonia's independence which was followed by the complete collapse of the preceding Assyrian Empire; both Nabopolassar and Ormazd's stories involve another ruler named Cyaxares (Old Persian: 𐎢𐎺𐎧𐏁𐎫𐎼 Huvaxštrah), or Huvashtra. However, Cyaxares aided Nabopolassar in his conflict against the Assyrians, while Ormazd defeated Huvashtra before establishing Gurabad.^[6]
  • Ninus, the husband of Semiramis (whom Liloupar is partially inspired by) and founder of the city of Nineveh. In Voltaire's tragedy Sémiramis, Ninus is poisoned by the prince Assur for Semiramis, while Liloupar is the mastermind behind the events which led Ormazd to be poisoned by their daughter Shirin. However, Assur was a willing co-conspirator in most variations of the story while Shirin was clueless and did not do it out of her own will.
  • The Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who started the Islamic Golden Age. He and his concubine Maridah bint Shabib had a son, Al-Mu'tasim, who is a partial basis for Parezravan. Both Al-Mu'tasim and Parezravan were born to concubines (Liloupar is described as a concubine in Legacy of the Desert High-Born), although Parezravan's birth was kept a secret from Ormazd and the latter adopted him without knowing his true identity, and both came into conflict with a rebel named Khorramdin.
• Ormazd's death during a banquet and his immediate succession may be loosely based on Belshazzar's feast, a story from the Book of Daniel. In it, the highly corrupt Babylonian king Belshazzar holds a banquet, during which unintelligible symbols suddenly appear on a wall. Daniel is brought to the banquet due to tales of his wisdom, and he correctly interprets them to be a warning of God's punishment: Belshazzar will die, and his country taken by opposing nations; Belshazzar indeed dies that same night and Darius the Mede, ruler of one of the opposing nations, takes over. When Shirin was born, Liloupar prophesied that Ormazd would die at Shirin's hands during a banquet. He forbids her from attending his banquets as a result, which allows Shirin to poison the wine being served at one of his banquets. This kills the entire banquet party and her husband Parezravan, who vied for the throne, immediately lays claim to the throne.

Etymology

• Ormazd's name and overall story is derived from the Sassanid king Hormizd IV, who is commonly remembered as a tyrant and was slaughtered by his son Khosrow Parviz, whom Parvezravan is inspired by.
• Ormazd is also a variant of the name of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian Lord of Wisdom.

Other Languages

Language	Official Name
English	Ormazd
Chinese (Simplified)	奥尔玛兹 Ào'ěrmǎzī
Chinese (Traditional)	奧爾瑪茲 Ào'ěrmǎzī
Japanese	オルマズド Orumazudo
Korean	오르마즈드 Oreumajeudeu
Spanish	Ormazd
French	Ormazd
Russian	Ормазд Ormazd
Thai	Ormazd
Vietnamese	Ormazd
German	Ormazd
Indonesian	Ormazd
Portuguese	Ormazd
Turkish	Ormazd
Italian	Ormazd

Change History

References