The Crew of Rostam-7: The Ascended Yazatas

Before the Ascension: Squad Rostam-7

They were not heroes. They were wall-guards—ordinary soldiers in an endless war. Their squad designation, Rostam-7, came from their sergeant and the sector they defended: Wall Section 7, Western Approach, the Eternal City.

Sergeant Rostam: The Pragmatic Anchor

Before

Age 34. Third tour of duty. A man who believed in three things: the squad, the mission, and coming home alive. He had a wife and two teenage sons in the Safe Zone. He taught them to fix clocks—a peaceful trade for after the war.

He was Tier 2, which made him valuable but not irreplaceable. His specialty was defensive engineering: maintaining the Wall's barrier-engines and optimizing shield formations. He ran his squad by the book because the book kept people alive.

He did not understand his comrade's grief-madness. He understood loyalty. When the grieving soldier said, "I'm going to Taftan," Rostam said, "Then we're going to Taftan." It was that simple.

After: The Yazata of Resilient Defense

Rostam did not want godhood. He got it anyway. His domain is Unyielding Defense—not glory, not conquest, but the grim work of holding ground. He embodies the soldier's creed: "Not one step back."

On Némand, he commands the primary defensive perimeter. He is stoic, methodical, and exhausted in a way that transcends mortal fatigue. He is a god who dreams of clocks.

His prayers are answered not with miracles but with endurance. Soldiers who refuse to break, walls that hold one more hour, shields that don't shatter under impossible stress—that's Rostam's gift. It's not glamorous. It's enough.

Scout Leila: The Warning Voice

Before

Age 22. First real tour (training deployments didn't count). Talented but inexperienced. Her magic was sensory enhancement—she could see spiritual signatures, detect Div-corruption from a distance. Made her valuable. Made her terrified.

She'd seen things other soldiers couldn't. Seen the moment before a Div manifested, seen the soul-rot spreading through infected civilians. Seen too much, too young. She coped by never shutting up—constant chatter, jokes, observations. Anything to fill the silence where the visions lived.

She followed the soldier because in the Breach, when everything went to hell, he'd pulled her from under rubble and said, "Stay with me, kid." She'd been staying with him ever since.

After: The Yazata of Far-Sight and Warning

Leila's gift became her curse perfected. As the Goddess of Prescient Awareness, she sees every possible threat, every timeline where the Divs break through. She experiences every catastrophe before it happens.

On Némand, she is the early warning system—the voice that screams in the minds of her fellow Yazatas when danger approaches. She cannot rest because rest means blindness, and blindness means death.

Her prayers manifest as prophetic dreams, sudden intuitions, the feeling of being watched that saves your life. She speaks to mortals less than the others because every conversation reminds her of how young she was, how much she lost.

She is vigilant, anxious, and entirely indispensable. A goddess who wishes she could still just be a scout.

Engineer Darius: The Cynical Builder

Before

Age 41. Too old for wall duty, but the Army needed engineers more than it needed paper-pushers. Fifth tour. Stopped counting years ago.

Darius was good at his job—Tier 3 Architect-class, could build you a semi-autonomous defensive turret from scrap and prayers. He was also deeply, profoundly cynical. Believed the war was unwinnable, that they were just delaying the inevitable. Still did his duty because what else was there?

No family. Had a partner once, lost them to a Div raid years back. Never bothered again. Figured everyone was on borrowed time anyway.

He went with the soldier because: 1) the soldier and Rostam saved his life during the Breach, 2) He'd seen the Taftan Core in schematics and was professionally curious, 3) He was tired and going out fighting felt better than waiting to die.

After: The Yazata of Unyielding Structure

In godhood, Darius found the purpose cynicism had hidden. As the God of Immovable Architecture, he builds the un-breachable, the eternal, the absolutely reliable. His domain is structures that outlast their creators.

On Némand, he engineered the prison itself—the reality-binding mechanisms that keep the Divs contained. He maintains the cosmic infrastructure, the unseen scaffolding that prevents dimensional collapse.

His prayers are answered in moments of desperate construction: the bridge that shouldn't hold but does, the wall built in a day that stands for centuries, the machine that runs long after its creator is dust.

He is weary but precise. A god who understands that hope is a structural problem—and can be engineered accordingly.

The Eternal Garrison

Together, they form the Eternal Garrison of Némand—the first line of defense against the Divs' eternal hunger. They are not the gods humanity wanted. They are the gods humanity needed.

Rostam holds the line. Leila sees what's coming. Darius builds what cannot break. And above them all, the Broken Sun burns—the mad watchman, the soldier who could not come home.

They were squad Rostam-7, Wall Section 7, Western Approach. They held their position for seven hours. They've been holding it ever since.

"We didn't follow him because he was special. We followed him because he was us—and he refused to stop trying. If that made him a god, then godhood is just stubbornness with a really long shift."
— Sergeant Rostam, last words before the Ascension