characters
Anahita: The Heir of Promise
The protagonist of Arc 2—a young soldier who carries an echo of the Broken Sun's unbreakable will.
The Weight of Legacy
Anahita is twenty-three years old—the same age the Broken Sun was when he ascended. This is not coincidence. In the world of Némand, bloodlines carry resonance, and she is a seventh-generation descendant of Rostam's line.
Background
The Bloodline
Rostam had two sons before his ascension. They grew up with the peculiar burden of being "the god's children"—venerated, pressured, and ultimately unable to live normal lives. The bloodline carried a faint but measurable divine resonance, making each generation slightly more attuned to Spenta-aligned magic.
Anahita inherited this resonance. She can sense the "wrongness" in corrupted machinery, hear the whispers of Mahtab more clearly than most, and has an intuitive understanding of how devices should work. This made her a prodigy. It also made her a target.
The Lieutenant
Current rank: Lieutenant, Army of Mazda, Engineering Corps. She serves in the Aqueduct Temple of Anahita—a massive water-pumping facility that bears her namesake yazata. Her role is "Harmonic Tuner"—detecting and repairing spiritual imbalances in the temple's machinery.
She's good at her job. She's not good at anything else. Socially awkward, politically naive, and deeply uncomfortable with the weight of expectation that follows her bloodline. She just wants to fix machines and go home.
The Crisis
The Dreams
As Némand draws near and the Simurgh's corruption spreads, Anahita begins experiencing vivid, intrusive visions:
- Standing on a wall she's never seen, watching smoke rise from a distant district
- Hands (not hers) holding a half-finished blanket, covered in ash
- Walking through a river of liquid fire, four figures moving in lockstep
- A woman's face—the beloved's face—smiling in a cottage doorway
These aren't metaphors. They're the Broken Sun's memories, bleeding through the resonance of her bloodline as the Simurgh's corruption weakens the barriers between past and present.
The Call
Kaveh the Ghost appears not in glory but in desperation. The aqueduct's pumps are failing. The corruption is spreading. And she's the only one who can hear what the machines are screaming: that the Simurgh is dying, and with it, the world.
Kaveh tells her the truth: she is not chosen because she's special. She's chosen because she's resonant—and resonance means she can reach the Simurgh's core where others would be annihilated by the feedback.
The Journey
Personal Growth
Anahita's arc is not about becoming powerful. It's about understanding what power means. She begins as someone who:
- Views her bloodline as a burden
- Sees herself as unworthy of her ancestor's legacy
- Uses technical competence to avoid emotional engagement
Through the journey to Mount Damavand, she learns that the Broken Sun wasn't a hero—he was a man who made a choice. And that choice, repeated across millennia, is what godhood actually is.
The Confrontation
At the corrupted Simurgh's core, she faces not Zahhak's might but his argument: that protection is suffering, that the Broken Sun's vow is the ultimate cruelty, that mercy means ending the cycle.
She can't refute his logic. Instead, she acts. She does what the Broken Sun did—she stands on the line, holds up her shield, and says: "Not one step back. For home."
It's the same vow. The same simple, human refusal to quit. And the Simurgh—built from that vow—remembers.
Character Traits
Strengths
- Technical Brilliance: Tier 2 bordering on Tier 3, exceptional with mechanical systems
- Intuitive Resonance: Can "feel" the correct solution even if she can't explain why
- Stubborn: Once committed, she doesn't quit—Rostam's gift
- Empathetic: Treats machines as if they have feelings (because in this world, they do)
Flaws
- Self-Doubt: Constantly compares herself to the Broken Sun and finds herself wanting
- Socially Isolated: Her bloodline makes normal relationships difficult
- Perfectionist: Sees any failure as proof of unworthiness
- Emotionally Repressed: Uses technical work to avoid processing trauma
Equipment
Standard Issue
- Vanguard Shield: Tier 1 defensive device, same model the Broken Sun used
- Engineer's Toolkit: Portable Harmonic Tuner and repair implements
- Resonance Lens: Allows her to see spiritual signatures
Inherited
- Rostam's Compass: A simple mechanical compass that always points toward "home"—except it's broken, pointing toward Mount Damavand (where the Simurgh, built from the Broken Sun's home-longing, resides)
The Resolution
Anahita's story ends not with her becoming a god, but with her choosing to remain human. She understands now what the Broken Sun lost—and refuses to lose it herself.
Instead, she becomes the Simurgh's liaison—the voice that helps it remember why it protects, the human connection that keeps it anchored to the world rather than drowning in abstract Order.
She is not the Broken Sun. She is the light in the cottage window—the thing worth protecting. And that, perhaps, is the greater heroism.
"He didn't protect the world because he was a god. He became a god because he couldn't stop protecting. There's a difference—and it's the difference between divinity and humanity."
— Anahita's journal, final entry before departing for Damavand