I posted this to IG back in January last year, but I think now is exactly when such a hero ought to reenter the public consciousness. After all, a wizard is never late nor early, but arrives precisely when he means to. Hafiz el-Ruqayyah is a member of an order of Zoroastrian wizard-monks who spend their lives observing, preserving, and breeding Rocs: gigantic birds of prey spoken of in Persian legend sporting plumages blue as the sky, white as clouds, and red as the setting sun. The sages revere the Roc as sacred emissaries of Ahura Mazda—the prime deity and source of all light, warmth, and good in the universe—and many sages, like Hafiz, specialize in the magics of air and lightning—without the former, fire cannot burn, and the latter being able to spark fire. Hafiz was at the end of his training, having mastered the sword and receiving his mentor's Damascus steel scimitar in recognition of his prowess, as well as unfailing command over the power of the storm. The final step was to travel to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea to assume guardianship over a juvenile Roc who would serve as Hafiz's familiar. But at the very moment the rare bird was bestowed on him, it was whisked away, summoned from a vast distance by an evil conjurer. Determined to reclaim his sacred charge, Hafiz tracked down the conjurer to Dubai, across the Persian Gulf in the UAE. When he arrived, the young sage was appalled at the disparity of living conditions between the obscenely wealthy and their slaves, for it went against every righteous teaching and instinct that Hafiz had learned his entire life. Though rescuing the Roc—whom after the ordeal he named Shamshir—tested his every skill, Hafiz realized his life's work had only just begun: to liberate the slaves of this modern society, vanquish the evil that gripped the slavers' hearts, and serve as a symbol of freedom and hope for the downtrodden across the Arabian Peninsula. By the light of day or moonlit night, whether Shamshir casts her shadow on scorching desert sands or towers built on forced labor, all who view the Keeper of the Roc know the winds of change are soon to blow through their lives.
