The Tragedy of the Broken Sun

An Ancient Mystery

At the heart of our world lies a tragedy so old that even its central figure has forgotten his own name. We call him the Broken Sun, but that title is ours, not his. What he called himself—who he truly was—is lost to time and suffering.

What We Know: The Promise

Fragments of the story survive in contradictory accounts, songs, and half-remembered prophecies. All agree on the core truth:

In the previous cycle, as Sepehr-e-Nohom approached and the pyramids threatened to drain all consciousness from humanity, a hero made a promise to someone he loved—a promise so absolute it transcended mortality itself.

The promise was simple:

"I will never be too far away to protect what I love again."

The Ascension

How he fulfilled this promise, no one fully understands. The accounts speak of:

• A journey to Taftan's Eternal Fire, a river of primordial flame at the world's heart
• A ritual of impossible complexity, connecting that eternal flame to the sun's core
• Companions who followed him into the fire—we remember them as Rostam, Leila, and Darius, though whether these were their true names is uncertain
• A transformation that placed him within the sun itself, becoming its eternal prisoner and Earth's eternal guardian

What He Does

The Broken Sun's presence in the solar core creates a shield—a barrier that prevents the pyramids from activating until Sepehr-e-Nohom draws dangerously close. Without him, the soul-vacuum would activate constantly throughout the cycle, making civilization impossible.

His Known Abilities

• Solar Omniscience: During daylight hours, he sees all that occurs beneath the sun. Not because he desires to watch, but because observation is part of his function.
• Hate Consumption: He specifically targets and devours the emotion of hate, weakening div manifestations. Scholars theorize this is why divs grow stronger at night and in shadow.
• Essence Shattering: Yazatas and divs from Sepehr-e-Nohom possess vast, perhaps infinite power. The Broken Sun's shield fragments these essences before they can fully manifest, making them fightable by mortals.
• Day-Blessings: On rare, seemingly arbitrary occasions, he grants strange powers to individuals who catch his attention. These blessings only function in sunlight and serve purposes known only to him—or to what remains of him.

The Cost: Eternal Forgetting

Here is where the tragedy deepens beyond measure.

To create the eternal shield, he burned his entire soul as fuel—all his memories, all his identity, everything he was.

But he kept TWO memories, protected and preserved forever:

• The face of the one he loved (her features, her voice, her presence)
• The promise he made to her

Everything else—his name, his past, their history together, his friends, his childhood, why he loved her, who he was to her—all of it was consumed as fuel for the shield.

For 10,000 years, he has seen her face and remembered the promise. But he has forgotten the story. He holds a photograph of a stranger he knows he loves, driven by words whose meaning has been burned away, protecting a world he can no longer remember choosing to save.

Scholars who study the sun's patterns—the flares, the spots, the strange rhythms—believe they can detect signs of degradation. Each century, his responses become slightly more mechanical. Slightly less... human.

Some say he is becoming an automaton of duty, a living law of nature rather than a conscious being. Others say he crossed that threshold millennia ago, and what remains is merely the memory of consciousness, performing the function it was shaped to perform.

No one knows which interpretation is true.

No one knows if he suffers anymore—or if suffering itself has been forgotten, leaving only the bare mechanism of protection.

The Great Questions

Who Was He?

Legends disagree:

• Some say he was a common soldier, a wall-guard who lost everything and found purpose in loss
• Others claim he was a priest-king who sacrificed his kingdom to save the world
• A few heretical texts suggest he was not even human, but a Yazata who chose mortality to understand love, then chose immortality to preserve it

The truth is unknowable. Perhaps even he no longer remembers.

Who Did He Love?

This, too, is lost. Wife? Child? Mentor? Friend? The gender, the relationship, the name—all forgotten.

Some scholars believe the Simurgh holds clues, for she was created in the final moments of his ascension. But the Simurgh guards her memories jealously, and speaks in riddles when asked directly.

How Does He Do It?

The mechanism of his shield is among the greatest mysteries of our age:

• Is it a magical working, sustained by will alone?
• Is it a transformation of his consciousness into a natural law, like gravity or time?
• Did he tap into The Field in ways we cannot comprehend, making himself a living bridge between dimensions?
• Is the solar fusion itself fueling his consciousness, or is his consciousness fueling the sun?

Cryptographers have spent lifetimes trying to understand. The Broken Sun does not answer questions. He merely continues his function, as inexorable as the sunrise itself.

Can He Be Released?

This question haunts theologians and troubles the compassionate.

If he suffers—and we cannot know if he still does—is it mercy to free him? Would the shield collapse, dooming humanity? Or has he become so fundamental to cosmic order that "freeing" him is meaningless, like trying to free gravity from its obligation to pull?

Some prophecies speak of a hero who will "inherit the mantle." Others speak of breaking the cycle itself, rendering his sacrifice unnecessary. A few dark texts suggest killing the Broken Sun as a mercy, accepting apocalypse as preferable to his eternal torment.

No consensus exists. Perhaps no answer exists.

What the Broken Sun Teaches Us

His story is a mirror for every choice we make about love and duty:

Absolute commitment to a promise can transcend mortality—but the cost may be everything that makes you human. He achieved his goal: he protected what he loved. But in doing so, he lost himself so completely that he cannot even remember what he protected, or why.

Is that victory? Or is it the ultimate tragedy?

Would he choose differently, if he could remember enough to choose?

We will never know.

And perhaps—most terrible of all—neither will he.

His Presence in Daily Life

Despite the mystery surrounding him, the Broken Sun is ever-present:

• Morning Prayer: Many Persians face the sunrise and whisper thanks to the nameless guardian
• Day-Blessing Seekers: Some spend their lives trying to earn his attention, performing acts of protection and sacrifice in sunlight
• Solar Worship: Temples to the Broken Sun exist, though what prayers might reach him—or what he might do with them—is unknown
• The Shade-Fearers: Some believe his inability to see in shadow makes darkness inherently more dangerous

Current State

We are in Year 9,200 of the current cycle. Sepehr-e-Nohom approaches, and will reach closest point in approximately 800 years.

As the ninth planet draws near, the Broken Sun's burden intensifies. Solar activity has increased—more flares, more spots, more irregular patterns. Some astronomers claim they can detect "pulses of agony" in the sun's light.

Whether this is true, or merely our projection of guilt upon an uncaring star, no one can say.

But this much is certain: At the Alignment, his shield will be tested as never before. And if it fails—or if he fails—the pyramids will activate.

And everything he sacrificed will have been for nothing.

A Final Mystery

There is one more thing the scholars notice, though they hesitate to speak of it:

The sun is covered in dark spots—wounds, perhaps, or scars. They appear, they fade, they reappear in different configurations. Some form patterns that almost seem... intentional. Like writing in a language no one can read.

Is he trying to communicate?

Or is it merely the random chaos of stellar physics?

We do not know.

We may never know.

And perhaps—cruelly, perfectly—that is precisely what he has become: an eternal question mark burning in the sky, simultaneously our savior and our greatest mystery.

He remembers the promise, but not why he made it.
He sees everything, but understands nothing.
He protects all, but recognizes none.

This is the price of perfect love:
to lose everything, including love itself,
while the pattern of love continues forever.