Shirin of Gurabad

Shirin is a historical figure from the Great Red Sand, Sumeru and was the last queen of Gurabad before its destruction. She was the half-Jinni daughter of Liloupar and Ormazd, the wife of Parvezravan, and the mother of Shiruyeh. She acquired a negative reputation due to her purported role in the deaths of Ormazd and numerous other citizens of Gurabad.

Profile

She was the half-Jinni daughter between the mortal hero Ormazd and the Jinni Liloupar, and later became the wife of Ormzad's adoptive son Parvezravan (Kisra Parvez). According to popular legend, as recounted in The Tale of Shiruyeh and Shirin, Liloupar's prophecies regarding Gurabad's fate and the loveless relationship between Shirin and Parvezravan eventually led her to plot his demise and with it, Gurabad's destruction, through their son Shiruyeh.

In reality, Shirin and Parvezravan were pawns in Liloupar's three-generation revenge plot against Ormazd. Many of the events attributed to Shirin in The Tale of Shiruyeh and Shirin were actually Liloupar's doing, or have been interpreted as acts of malevolence on Shirin's part when she was innocent at best, or in the throes of insanity at worst.^[3]

Story

The shepherd Ormazd gained Liloupar's favor and, with her assistance, united many desert city-states under Gurabad's control. However, 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]

She gave him a daughter, Shirin, along with three prophecies and three admonitions. The prophecies were that: First, Shirin 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."^[1]

Shirin went on to marry Kisra Parvez, Ormazd's adoptive son and unbeknownst to them, his actual son with Liloupar^[2][6] — as a reward for his accomplishments in Gurabad's glory. At some point after their marriage, Shirin unwittingly served Ormazd poisoned honey, killing him.^{[Note 1]} Upon realizing what she had done, Shirin went insane. Kisra was simultaneously horrified by the tragedy and elated that he could now become king.^[3] He immediately assumed the throne under the name Parvezravan and, with Liloupar's help, "ripped away" the insane Shirin's mind^[7] to spawn malformed Jinn spirits,^[8] which he then trapped within machines and exploited to expand the kingdom.^[2]

At some point, Parvezravan came to learn of Liloupar's prophecies and admonitions. Fearing that his son with Shirin, Shiruyeh, would one day surpass him, Parvezravan banished Shiruyeh from Gurabad after he became an adult.^[1] Little is known about Shirin's life between Ormazd's death and the fall of Gurabad, but Shiruyeh is described as fleeing to the insane Shirin's side while Parvezravan turned into a "dark monster." Gurabad was presumably swallowed up by the earth and corrupted by the Abyss soon afterwards, leaving the fates of all three a mystery.^[2]

Legacy

Over time, many of Liloupar's deeds became attributed to Shirin. One depiction of her in literature can be seen in The Tale of Shiruyeh and Shirin, which begins to diverge significantly from the true version of events, starting with the aftermath of Shirin and Kisra's marriage:

Much to Shirin's dismay, Kisra held no genuine love for her 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." However, it is said that Shirin went mad upon seeing the consequences of her actions, and later stopped appearing in public altogether.^[1]

Shirin bore Parvezravan a son, Shiruyeh; while Shirin doted on him, the king was wary of his son due to Liloupar's prophecy. Once he reached adulthood, Parvezravan banished Shiruyeh from Gurabad, and Shiruyeh was forced to hide his face behind a brass mask. Shirin took advantage of this to secretly meet with her son while disguised as a divine priestess, giving him a false prophecy to encourage him to kill his father and claim the throne for himself.^[1]

Eventually, Shiruyeh returned to Gurabad and stabbed his father to death. However, he came to have remorse for his actions and despite receiving his mother's forgiveness, was plagued by nightmares. One night, while wandering the desert in a bout of insomnia, Shiruyeh fell into a deep chasm and disappeared. Soon afterwards, a plague arose from the chasm which killed half of Gurabad's population and led to its abandonment, which later became known as "Shiruyeh's Plague." It is believed that both Shirin and Shiruyeh became evil apparitions, with Shirin either imprisoned in a magic silver bottle by King Deshret later on, or continuing to wander the desert to this day.^[1]

Out of all the victims of her schemes, Liloupar expresses the greatest remorse for Shirin's fate. She laments Shirin's fate in Nameless Tablet (II), asking for her daughter's forgiveness. At the end of Memories of Gurabad, Liloupar enters the gate to Gurabad alone, telling the Traveler that "my children are still there. [Shirin] and Shiruyeh... they must be rather lonely." Liloupar later took her own life during Your Past Is Like a Garden, seemingly never reuniting with her suffering progeny.

Trivia

• In Memories of Gurabad, Liloupar refers to Shirin as Parvezravan's elder sister (Chinese: 亲生姐姐 "biological elder sister"). At the same time, the original Chinese text for Nameless Tablet (II) refers to Parvezravan as Shirin's older brother (Chinese: 胞兄 "elder brother from the same parents").

Etymology

• Shirin was the wife of Khosrow II (Khosrow Parviz), both of whom are major figures in Persian literature. She is best known for her depictions in the Shahnameh and Khosrow and Shirin, the latter of which is a major inspiration for the in-game book The Tale of Shiruyeh and Shirin. However, there are several key differences: Genshin's Shirin had a loveless marriage with her husband and eventually used their son Shiruyeh to instigate Parvezravan's death and the fall of Gurabad. The historical Shirin and Khosrow were mutually in love with each other, while Shiruyeh was the son of Khosrow and his other wife Miriam; in Khosrow and Shirin, Shiruyeh murders Khosrow in order to marry Shirin himself, and she commits suicide to avoid this fate.

Notes

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References