Farzin

Issa and Tahmina (Sisters-in-Law)

## Application Sheet

Farzin was a cream-furred male wolf with darker brown markings. He was a Xassan, the former consort to Prince Elam (NPC) until his untimely death. He grieved his mate's loss, but served as a wise advisor to Elam's younger brother, Nineveh, when he became the Cyrus. However, he was lost in the Deep Freeze, vanishing into the snow, never to be seen again. He was created and RP'd by mongoosefangs.

## Personality

* ***Charismatic and Supportive.*** It's easy to like Farzin, a warm and well-spoken wolf who knows how to lay on the charm. How else would he have wriggled his way into Elam's heart and the royal family, despite stuffy old Zagros's reservations? Between the two of them, Farzin was always known as the 'fun' one, with his lilting laugh and merry eyes, quick to offer encouragement or distraction to his mate when the pressure of Elam's studies became too much. In a word he could have been described as dazzling in his prime, spontaneous, always full of surprises to sweep the sheltered Prince of Xassa off his feet.
* ***Vain and Possessive.*** He's not overly effeminate in his speech or mannerisms, but Farzin does tend to be vain when it comes to his appearance. He shies away from physical labor and dirty work when he can. Getting on in years does bother him, but he tries to make light of the situation, and if he wasn't currently in mourning he would likely be keeping score of how many heads he could still turn at his age. As it is, Farzin now wields his charisma and good looks because they remain the most effective tools he has- not because he finds joy in flirting or has any interest in kindling a new relationship.
* ***Forlorn.*** It's no secret that he misses Elam terribly, and months later he is still trying to come to terms with this altered course of destiny. As it turns out, Farzin isn't very good at this 'letting go' thing. Perhaps he was so intent on becoming one with his mate and living in the present that he never envisioned a future as the sole survivor. Suddenly faced with massive changes looming on the pack's horizon and the prospect of growing old alone, to say that he's a little more withdrawn these days, a little more grave, is an understatement.
* ***Bitter.*** He's always been known for his quick wit and sense of humor, but recently Farzin's playful banter has taken on a melancholy and self-deprecating note. "Of course, you want the most handsome wolf in all Xassa for the job... but Elam's not here, so you'll have to settle for me instead." Lighthearted quips have always been his go-to for defusing tense situations, but grief still weighs heavy on Farzin, and his smile these days is a pained and brief one. Only time will tell if he ever decides to open his heart again.
* ***Conflicted.*** In the time since Elam's death, the repeated blows to the pack have only made him even more loath to form attachments or get his hopes up. He wants to imagine a bright future for Xassa, but in Farzin's experience there is no happily ever after. If something sounds too good to be true then it probably is. The pack will open its borders whether he likes it or not, but his thoughts on Xerxes Peace are... complicated. Farzin holds to it in the hopes that it will help him let go of his misgivings, reminding himself that wolves should not bear malice or fight amongst themselves. But he's not so short-sighted that he fails to see what's really at stake, and he looks to the future warily. Farzin can only hope that no one else gets killed on account of a certain young wolf's mistakes.
	+ Gentle by nature, abhorring conflict, never one to complain- there are a great many things Farzin is willing to tolerate, but no matter how many times he claims to not blame Nineveh for the accident that took Elam's life, he's not completely at peace yet. On the inside he grapples with unseemly resentment and Farzin is deeply ashamed of it. He's the closest thing Nin has to a father now and he would never wish harm on the lad in a million years, but does it make him a monster to believe that the wrong wolf died that day? He doesn't want to be angry. He doesn't want to hate. If he cannot forget, then he is trying his damnedest to forgive.
	+ To that end, Farzin swallows his feelings, serving and guiding the young Cyrus as best he can, the way Elam would have wanted. He'll never directly say so, but he doesn't think Nineveh is fit to lead the empire. Perhaps not ever, and certainly not now, rash and ill-prepared as the boy is. Farzin remembers a time when he could almost love Nin like his own flesh and blood... but when he looks at the Cyrus now, he sees only the reckless child who came back from the storm with the stench of smoke on his pelt and tears of guilt in his eyes.

## Pre-Group History

Farzin has always lived in Xassa, and his family's history goes back several generations, originally loners who sought asylum on the Empire's outskirts in the days before the Silence. When the decree came that Xassa's borders would be closed indefinitely, fearing they would be cast out, these wolves pledged themselves to the Cyrus and assimilated into the pack once and for all.

Most of Farzin's ancestors took up the task of Su'en or Marduk over the years. His own father was a high-ranking guard, although his mother was a healer. Farzin was born to them one spring as the sole pup they would ever conceive. His early upbringing was fairly uneventful. Like all Xassan children, he was raised to believe in Xerxes and follow the Empire's laws. Young Farzin was carefree and made friends with ease; it wasn't until he approached his first year of age that he began to show difficulties with the path laid out in front of him. He certainly didn't show any interest in becoming a Marduk like his father.

In fact, he didn't care for the 'rough' tasks at all. If Farzin's mother ever put two and two together, she kept silent, but his father was insistent. He would often beckon his son to accompany him on routine patrols around the Tell in an attempt to motivate him. The short of it is that it eventually worked- just not as the Marduk intended. Farzin indeed found his life's purpose on the day his father told him to stand up straight and look sharp, for they would be escorting the Cyrus himself, and there was the stately figure of Zagros... and at the Cyrus's heels, a youth about Farzin's own age, at once both excited and unsure.

And he was the loveliest wolf that Farzin had ever seen.

Farzin had more or less always known that he fancied other boys. He was no stranger to flirting with his peers when his father wasn't looking. But for the first time in his life he found that he was... flustered? Nervous? He didn't know a thing about Zagros's heir, whether the lad would even deign to speak to him at all, but one thing was clear to him: he had to know. He had to try. So when the Cyrus and his Marduk sat down to discuss some boring political thing or other, giving the young Prince leave to stretch his legs, Farzin approached the other male to deliver the smoothest pick-up line in Xassan history: "Hey... do you want to go somewhere else with me?"

The two became fast friends as Farzin began to shadow his father's patrols with renewed purpose, just for the chance to get close to Elam, chatting away whenever they could get some distance between them and their parents. Farzin dazzled the Prince with tales of everyday life in the Empire- Elam's naivete surprised him, as it turned out that the Prince knew little of the 'real' world beyond his duties as heir apparent, but Farzin was all too happy to keep him entertained. Besides that, Elam was gentle and devoted and endlessly kind. There was nothing Farzin would have liked more than to take him away somewhere else for real.

So when Elam announced that he was to become a Magus, Farzin offered him the next best thing: "Well, in that case, I'll be a Nabu- then I can keep bringing back stories for you to record, all right?"

Farzin took to his new task readily, though there wasn't much travel abroad in those days with Hassan's Silence in effect. He could still survey the territory and his charm made him a natural diplomat when it came to mediating disputes between packmates. Best of all, it gave him a real excuse to go and visit Elam... even if his 'reports' came down to little more than seeing a bird that day. When it was clear that Farzin was really just seeking the other's company, it became something of a running joke between them. And it was when Elam laughed one day that Farzin could contain himself no longer, and softly planted a kiss on his Prince's cheek.

The most sacred waters in Xassa were never so sweet as the moment when Elam kissed him back.

And the Prince might have been a bit naive, but it was Elam who supported Farzin in the coming years when his parents succumbed to illness. It was Elam who proposed that they should make their mateship official, even if it meant potentially disappointing the Cyrus and placing the royal bloodline in jeopardy. Farzin knew then that he would never want anyone else. Elam wasn't sheltered; Elam was his shelter.

The very least he could do in return was to help the Prince look out for his younger neglected siblings. If he never had any real desire to raise a family, if he wanted to keep the Prince all to himself, if he secretly wished he could spirit Elam away and show him the wonders of the world- Farzin never said a word. Time has a way of tempering things, and so the Consort allowed himself to be tamed, sitting in on every dull political meeting with his mate, letting little Nineveh and the other children chew on his ears and call him Uncle. He would have endured anything for Elam's sake. Farzin's only regret was that Elam would never truly get to be his own wolf, bound as he was to assume the burden of the Empire one day. But he would support the Prince regardless and they would face the world one day at a time- as long as they were together, Farzin thought, he could never be unhappy.

But fate had other plans...

## Trivia

* Farzin's contract stone is a speckled piece of black granite, worn smooth by the river, but chipped and blunted at one end.
* Although he can't recite the name of every Cyrus ever, Farzin has spent enough time around the royal family to glean a decent working knowledge of the Empire's intricacies.
* The Caves give him the creeps, and he won't enter without a very, very good reason.
* Commonly referred to as 'Uncle Farzin' by Nineveh and his littermates.