INFO.

dossier:

     ◦     name: shams azari.      ◦     alias: shams shirani, the viper, pari.      ◦     age: verse dependent, 23 - 40.      ◦     status: missing and presumed dead, alive.      ◦     current occupation: forensic social worker, head of kōkan initiatives.      ◦     tattoos: a viper coiled around a crescent moon around her spine.      ◦     languages: farsi, arabic, urdu, kurdish, tagalog, japanese, korean, mandarin, english, german, french.      ◦     fighting style: shams' fighting styles are more evasive and defensive than offensive. she doesn't fight her opponents unless need be, but outmaneuvers them, making them defeat themselves through their own momentum and missteps. her styles are primarily inspired by varzesh - e bastani, taekwondo, aikido, hapkido, koshti - ye pahlavani, keysi and systema. her primary fighting styles begins with her base style. she remains in constant, graceful motion, using wide, sweeping steps and fluid body shifts to make opponents miss by a hair's breadth. this style is built entirely around dodging and psychological pressure. the second one is about control and dismantling. she uses this style not for throws but to seize control of an opponent's limbs, until their own strength to break their posture and joints. her last style, and the least used one, where she abandons all pretense of defense and enters a hyper - aggressive state. her movements become a blinding flurry of strikes from all angles, like a venomous snake striking repeatedly. this style is what the viper was known for in the organized crime world.

1984 - 2004:

born in 1984, shams grew up in tokyo, specifically in the koganehashi district of chiyoda after her family moved across the globe when she was merely three due to politics that forced them away from their home. until she was eleven years old, her life seemed to be the same as any other iranian diaspora in tokyo. only seemed to be. her father, the soon to be leader of the crimson caravans, a persian syndicate, established the syndicate's presence in japan by taking over a large part of chiyoda's underworld during the 1980's, which set shams on the same path as him. from the age of thirteen, shams' life was cleaved in two. publicly, she was a quiet student at an international school in tokyo, her records listing her as the ward of a mid - level iranian trade official— a cover identity for one of her father's lieutenants. privately, she was the daughter and heir of ali shirani (who's real last name was azari, using a fake one for mafia work), also known as the lion.

her training was a brutal forging of a human weapon: ✲ the scholar: a former professor drilled her in economics, international law and forensic accounting in a soundproofed study, the walls lined with books and whiteboards covered in financial schematics. ✲ the spider:  a disgraced former MOIS operative taught her espionage in a sparse, concrete - walled room: surveillance, lock - picking and the delicate science of breaking a person's will without leaving a mark. her fifteenth birthday "gift" was being locked in a mock interrogation room for 48 hours, resisting sleep deprivation and psychological pressure. ✲ the viper:  her body was honed into a lethal instrument by a silent master of varzesh - e pahlavani. she learned to fight with a silk scarf, a pen and the hidden blade in her pesh - kabz ring. perfection was demanded; a failed technique meant a bruised rib or a split lip from her instructor's swift, corrective strike. ✲ the apprentice:  evenings were spent in the back offices of caravan fronts. she wasn't the boss's daughter, but a silent "trainee" named shams, learning the business from the accountants and smugglers, absorbing the rhythms of illicit trade.

at eighteen, her first field assignment was to identify a leak in a yokohama cell. posing as a university intern, she spent two months blending in. she identified the traitor through a pattern of financial discrepancies and his sudden taste for luxury. she left a flawless dossier on her father's desk. the traitor and his conspirators vanished. the lesson was seared into the caravan's upper echelon: they were watched by an unseen eye known only by the codename:  "pari". the fairy. later on, as her work leaned more into the darker side of the mafia, she began carrying the nickname "the viper", a code that only the people who knew of her identity truly understood.

in 2004, the sandstorm syndicate bribed a customs official to target their routes, but shams didn't retaliate directly. she turned the official into a double agent through blackmail, leading to the seizure of key sandstorm shipments. the sandstorm blamed internal incompetence, never realizing their rival was puppeteering their downfall. by 2005, at twenty - three, shams was the secret spine of the crimson caravan. her brother khabib was the public heir, while she, as "the viper," controlled the empire's true levers of power. her cousin darius saw only khabib as an obstacle, completely unaware of the sister who was the true architect. she was at the peak of her power, a ghost perfectly positioned to protect her father's legacy. but the assassination of ali shirani later that year would shatter this delicate balance, forcing the ghost into the light and transforming the strategist into a creature that was more interested in vengeance.

2005 - 2006:

her father is assassinated in a meticulously planned hit that mimics a rival yakuza attack. the order for her own death follows immediately. shams deduces the sophistication of the hit points to an inside job, implicating her power - hungry cousin,  darius. she recognizes the involvement of the omi alliance as the external muscle. she stages her own death in a violent but ambiguous public incident in kamurochō, using blood packs and a trusted confidant as a "shooter." her "body" is lost in the chaos, and because her brother has been locked up as a suspect for his father's death, the underworld believes the shirani line is extinct. with the caravan compromised and the tojo clan in disarray, her sole potential ally is gorō majima. she tracks him down in purgatory, operating under her old codename "pari" as she launches a covert war. her objectives are to cripple the omi's local operations and to gather intel that will confirm darius' treachery. she begins hacking omi gambling den accounts to cause "mysterious" losses, ambushing key lieutenants with potent but non - lethal sedatives, leaving them tied up in embarrassing public places, identifying and anonymously tipping off the police to specific omi weapon or drug shipments.

at each scene, she leaves a single, polished persian coin, subtly scented with saffron oil: a calling card that terrifies omi ranks with its anonymity. kiryū's investigation into the tojo - omi war leads him and daigo into a trap in a dead - end alley. shams intervenes from the rooftops, using tranquilizer darts and environmental distractions to thin the herd. after the fight, she reveals herself and that she is actually alive. she explains the full picture: the omi are involved in a persian dynastic coup. she proposes a partnership where he draws out the conspiracy with his strength, while she dismantles its support structure from within. using her network, she pinpoints a summit meeting between darius and his omi liaison at a neutral location— a luxury yacht in the marina. she leaks false information suggesting a caravan loyalist is on the yacht with evidence of darius' betrayal, ensuring he attends personally to handle it. a tojo strike team assault the yacht as a distraction.

shams infiltrates separately, using stealth to reach the secure conference room. she confronts darius, presenting him with recorded evidence of his dealings and the testimony of a turncoat lieutenant and a fight ensures. with darius captured and his conspiracy exposed to the caravan elders, shams formally nominates her younger brother,  khabib, as the new ghāfed, ensuring a stable, legitimate succession. in a quiet ceremony attended by kiryū and daigo, she brokers a new, non - aggression and mutual intelligence pact between the crimson caravan and the tojo clan, ending years of tension. having secured her father's legacy, she rejects her birthright. she gives khabib control of the caravan, says a final, unspoken farewell to majima, daigo and kiryū, and vanishes from kamurochō, beginning her journey toward becoming shams azari.

2007 - 2009:

the ascension of khabib to the position of ghāfed was a full operation. for several intense weeks, she remained at his side, a steadying presence in a wave of new responsibilities. she guided him through the labyrinth of his new authority, sitting beside him in tense meetings with the network's elders. she translated what their father once called the unspoken language of power, teaching him the intricate lessons her family had once imparted to her— lessons of patience, strategic generosity and the quiet application of force. when she finally saw the first glimmers of a true leader in his eyes, she knew her work was complete. the network was his to command. and she was free to disappear.

for years, the bachelor's degrees in criminology and criminal psychology had been tools of her former life, used to understand and manipulate the system from the outside. now, they were to become the foundation for something new. the desire to pursue a master's in social work had been a quiet dream, one her family had always dismissed as a frivolous distraction from her "real" duties. and one majima had tried to push her forwards to last year. so it was in kyoto where she achieved that dream. she created a new life: a new city, a new number, a new simpler style of dress. every detail was a brick in the wall between her and the woman she had been. most crucially, she refused all financial help from the inner circle of the network. this new life had to be built by her own hands, untainted by the caravan's money. she took on a string of part - time jobs. late nights in quiet shops, early mornings in campus libraries, her hands raw from work her family would have deem.

but no matter what, she was tethered by a sense of unfinished business. the pact between the caravan and the tojo clan helped a lot, but there was still tension between the two groups. and the rift was a wound she may not have helped create, but it was one she felt a profound responsibility to help mend. she continued to keep in touch with khabib, daigo and majima during the process. there were setbacks, but slowly, painstakingly, a new balance was negotiated. it was a fragile peace, but it was peace. she began to believe that the two worlds could coexist without her presence. that fragile hope shattered with a single line of text. the message was from an anonymous number, but the meaning was clear. daigo has been shot.

the carefully constructed walls of her new life crumbled in an instant. kyoto, her studies, her hard - won normalcy, it all faded into a distant haze. she did need to be there. the network, the clan, the delicate balance of power in tokyo— it was all still her burden, her responsibility. she immediately contacts her brother and issues a clear directive. the alliance between the tojo clan and the caravan is under attack. she's seen it before so she knew it was a financial and political play. khabib's mission was to mobilize the caravan's entire intelligence and cyber - espionage network. his task is to uncover the source of the capital funding and trace it to its political roots. shams' mission is to go to the epicenter of kiryū's world: morning glory. to protect the children, who are the most likely target for intimidation, and to be there to give kiryū some ease of mind.

she arrives in okinawa as a graduate student sent to assist while kiryū is away. she spends her time connecting with the children and slowly becomes a steady, calming presence. during that time, she maintains secure, encrypted contact with her brother. he feeds her processed intelligence and she uses this intel to understand the local threats. when thugs come to harass the orphanage, she documents them, records license plates and profiles their methods, sending tactical data back to khabib to refine his search. her role during this time, however, is to make sure the kids are well taken care of.

2010:

now officially leading her own social work firm, shams is back in kamurochō after five years. she has a professional partnership with tanimura, a long and personal history with kiryū and a client referral system with akiyama that is built on trust. her work is what makes it easier for her to help all four on the sidelines, but what really ties her to the twenty five year old secret is her (indirect) connection to saejima. her history with majima already set a path for the two, which is what eventually leads her to look for him herself, and she ends up helping the four on the sidelines. it is when she learns about daigo's involvement and majima's arrest that she begins properly interfering, so when kiryū obtains the evidence about the cover up, shams has an important role to play. the prison conspiracy, after all, detail a money laundering scheme; the ten billion yen was part of a police scandal intended to create a "utopia" where they could send yakuza to have control over crime. and shams, by knowing this true story can see how the prison evidence fits into the larger puzzle.

but to the police or media, it's just paperwork. shams' work begins here. she cross - references the logs (showing solitary confinement durations, "disciplinary" actions) with psychological studies, annotating the evidence to show the deliberate methodology. she turns dates and codes into a timeline of psychological destruction. she begins to discreetly reach out to the very same people who used to be her clients: families of inmates who died under "questionable circumstances," whom she's helped with grief counseling and bureaucratic battles over remains. she uses her ngo contacts to secure a fearless, pro - bono civil rights lawyer. they don't go for a criminal trial yet; they file a civil class - action lawsuit against the prison administration and the ministry of justice for systemic human rights abuses. this is a slower, more meticulous process that exposes the system to public scrutiny. she carefully cultivates a relationship with a single, dogged investigative journalist. she drip - feeds them contextualized information— the human stories behind the paperwork.

and thus, the forces strike back. her funding is audited. her academic credentials are questioned. rumors are planted that she's romantically involved with her clients to discredit her objectivity. her clients suddenly face revoked housing permits, denied benefits and aggressive tax inspections. the system she navigates so well is turned against her. a cold, polite man from the ministry of justice meets her. her doesn't threaten her life; he threatens her life's work.  her implies all her shelters will lose licenses, all her ngo partners will be investigated and every soul she's helped will be dragged back into the mud. so she requests a formal meeting with the highest - ranking official she can reach. she arrives not with two things: a copy of the soon - to - publish journalist's devastating article, and a simple offer. they can lose in a spectacle that brings them all down, or they can lose quietly. she simply demands institutional change.  a binding, public commitment to: an independent oversight committee for all prisons, the abolition of long - term solitary confinement as practiced and a formal review of every case mentioned in the evidence.

the officials, realizing the scandal can no longer be contained, take the quiet loss. they accept her terms to contain the damage. the public sees a "reform initiative" announced. the real villains are quietly pensioned off. the system is humbled and forced to change. the prison case closes, but it becomes the bedrock of shams' future.

2012 - 2015:

tsubasa kurosawa uncovers a minor, decades - old shipping contract between the majima family and a crimson caravan front company owned by ali shirani. he digs deeper and finds the records for "shams shirani," which stop in 2005, and a matching student record for "shams azari" in kyoto. he deduces her true identity. instead of exposing her, he applies subtle pressure. he has her placed under surveillance and uses his influence to create bureaucratic delays for kōkan initiatives' legal filings and scare off clients with anonymous warnings. with kiryū and saejima watched, and majima thought dead, her primary contact within the conspiracy becomes the majima family. she also remains in contact with shun akiyama, whom she trusts as someone she has worked with for multiple years. but she is trapped in the end. any overt move against kurosawa risks her exposure.

hearing of his sister's troubles from tokyo,  khabib mobilizes the caravan's network to investigate kurosawa. his cyber - ops team, the "asab,"  digs aggressively to gain information. khabib's digital assault is detected. while he uncovers the information he indeed needs, his attack leaves a digital signature. kurosawa includes the decrypted "ghost heir" file from his own archives on the hard drive he gives to the flipping omi accountant as a distraction. the file is sold to both the crimson caravan and the sandstorm syndicate. shams is now in the crosshairs of three mortal enemies: kurosawa (who knows her secret and holds leverage), the caravan (who will want her dead for betraying this life) and the sandstorm (who had been plotting her death since 2005). khabib's attempt to protect her has inadvertently created the greater threat. upon kurosawa's defeat, the most direct attack was the sandstorm's. khabib's network intercepts their alert. he warns shams and, knowing she is vulnerable, informs majima and daigo. to deter the sandstorm, their protection of her becomes visibly public.

this successfully deters direct attacks but loudly signals her immense value as an asset. the sandstorm, unable to strike directly, targets her periphery: arson at her office, threats against the people close to her, harassment of her clients' families. mid 2015 they all realize what the issue is. her association with them is what makes her, and everyone around her, a target. they also know that as long as the syndicate holds her identity as leverage, she can never be truly free. but removing their motive is the immediate, life - saving step. with majima, daigo, kiryū and saejima gone from her life, the syndicate backs away, but one threat still remains, in the shadows away from her brother's eyes: the crimson caravan. the rule is, after all, that the only way to leave the mafia is by death. for now, however, she is safe.

in the winter of 2015, she is assigned as the secondary social worker in shinpei okubo's case and thus the primary social worker when emi is killed, where she first meets fumiya terasawa (who she will later on know as sugiura), working next to takayuki yagami and masamichi shintani.

2016 - 2017:

at the start of 2016, she was given multiple cases, but her first major one draws her away from tokyo, to the tangled city of kobe. during this time, she is assigned a case revolving bullying in a school, specifically the miyamoto municipal middle school. her official client is haru takahashi, 13 at the time. a sensitive boy who was the victim of bullying that expressed his trauma through art. it will later be found that his brother, akio takahashi is a big part of the picture, just as their father, ichiro takahashi, will be. shams was assigned to the takahashi family after haru's homeroom teacher reported suspected abuse. during her first home visit, she found proof of what she suspected. haru wouldn't meet her eyes and akio glowered from the corner, his arms crossed over a faded bruise. her breakthrough, however, came at haru's school. she found his sketchbook hidden in his locker. it was a stark and heartbreaking comic strip. the first panel showed a large, monstrous figure swinging a bottle at a taller, skinny boy. the taller boy, face twisted in pain and rage, turning toward a smaller, cowering boy. and the smaller boy on the ground, the taller boy standing over him.

the truth was clear.  akio wasn't the source of the violence; he was its primary recipient and a tragic, violent conduit.  he replicated his father's abuse on his brother, a twisted form of protection - by - assimilation. armed with the sketchbook and her interviews, she decided to act. her forensic report was a indictment of their father. the priority was removing the most vulnerable:  haru. she succeded and ichiro was arrested on child abuse charges. haru was placed with a caring aunt in osaka, where he began to heal. but for akio, the system had no clear plan. at 15, he was both a victim and a perpetrator. with his father jailed and his brother gone, he was deemed "less immediately at risk" and placed in a state - run group home in kobe— an overcrowded, understaffed facility where survival meant hardening your heart further. he gets placed into a foster home and shams fought for him to receive mandatory therapy, but the request was lost in bureaucracy and budget cuts. the last she saw of him was at the family court hearing. she remembers he didn't look at her.

in six years, this case will come up again.

2018:

by now, shams has fully settled into her life as a civilian, her ties to the mafia world officially severed. she has established herself as a forensic social worker specializing in criminal justice, working directly with law offices and the court system. on the side, she also trains and supervises a group of newly hired social workers at her firm. due to her professional connection to the courts, she frequently interacts with the genda law office, a relationship built over the past few years.  her past with the mafia and her subsequent protection by the tojo clan has not been entirely erased, placing her on interesting footing with the matsugane family. the fact of her true history is a secret known only to matsugane himself, a silent understanding that has fostered a relationship of tense respect between them. this delicate balance, however, is primed to be shattered by the events surrounding the surfacing of the mole and the subsequent investigation into kyohei hamura.

the situation escalates officially when her office is assigned to consult on the recent, brutal murders connected to the mole. shams is called upon to serve as an expert witness, tasked with providing psychological and contextual evidence to the court regarding the victims' backgrounds. while the two had already been working together, this role now directly inevitably draws her into the path of yagami's investigation, forcing her to navigate the dangerous intersection of her past, her present mission and a conspiracy that threatens to burn kamurochō to the ground. the assignment concerning the murders acts as the thread that begins to unravel the carefully constructed tapestry of shams' life. as she meticulously built her profiles of the victims— people with histories of specific, untreated injuries, she realized the patterns she was documenting for the court were a perfect match for what the detective agency was chasing.

shortly after, she meets fumiya sugiura, whom she had known as fumiya terasawa, the very same brother of the woman that was brutally murdered in 2015, and makes sure this remains a secret only between the two of them. slowly, as they all work together, they come to the realization that this case, and the mole, are all connected to a ghost that haunted them all: the overall case regarding okubo and thus, emi. for shams, it came in a clear picture: while reviewing some of the old case files, as given to her by suzuyo, she identifies multiple missing persons reports from homeless shelters that match the victim profile. they reach their end goal, almost, really. kuroiwa moves to eliminate loose ends. the insightful social worker who was connecting the AD-9 victims into a coherent pattern for the courts was one, of course. he orchestrates the complex frame - up of kōkan initiatives. falsified financial records, fabricated client lists and planted evidence that suggest shams' firm is a front for witness tampering and judicial manipulation. the frame - up hit with surgical precision. her firm was suddenly suspended from all court - appointed work.

genda law's saori shirosaki is then appointed as her lawyer, but shams knows that without proper proof they won't be getting anywhere, so she does the one thing she promised herself she wouldn't. she pays ramin, an elderly, soft - spoken azeri - iranian man who ran a modest alterations shop, a visit. he was a craftsman to others, but to the remnants of the crimson caravan in japan, he was a “scribe”. a keeper of records. he had worked for her father and was the one who had taught a young shams the art of observation, of seeing the story woven into a person’s clothes and demeanor. so he listens to her problem and over the next forty eight hours, two things happened, utterly disconnected from shams or yagami’s investigation: detailed, anonymous dossiers were delivered to two specific, rival tabloid journalists. they contained salacious,  partially true financial records of a different, mid - level metropolitan police bureaucrat with gambling debts, suggesting he was the one taking money to manipulate cases. it was a red herring, but a brilliantly detailed one, throwing the internal police investigation into disarray and creating competing theories.

using his memory, ramin invoked a favor owed by a forensic accountant within the prosecutor’s office. he simply, and with plausible deniability,  failed to properly archive a specific digital log for 72 hours— the log that would have proven kuroiwa’s access to the systems used to fabricate the evidence against kōkan initiatives. those actions did not solve the case, but rather, they created friction, confusion and critical delays in kuroiwa’s machine. the friction was one of the things that allowed them to break down the door and finally break it. during the final confrontation and expose of kuroiwa, shams works with saori to formally dismantle the frame - up using the newly uncovered evidence. her name is cleared, her firm reinstated. during the next few months, she works with the rest of the firm to get things running again.

2019:

a while after kazuya ayabe's trial, in late january, shams gets a visit from a frantic family member of a past client of hers. a well - dressed but hollow - eyed couple,  the tanakas, tell her that their son,  jiro tanaka, was one of the forgotten victims— a man whose “disappearance” years ago was never investigated, but whose name shams had painstakingly cross - referenced and confirmed as a test subject for shono’s experiments. he had been one of her anonymous case files before the mole’s men ransacked her office. shams, bound by professional ethics, has nothing concrete to give them. the official evidence is sealed, destroyed or buried under national secrecy acts related to the scandal. she cannot give them legal justice or even a body to bury. but she realizes that while the justice system has failed these families, there is one thing left that is not entirely gone. so she does the only thing she can do: she tells the truth, even if it is a more summarized version.

she tells them their son was targeted because he was vulnerable, that he was killed and that his death helped expose a great evil. she then makes it her personal mission. using her unique position, she begins to compile a list. everyone who was a victim of these experiments. one by one, she tracks down their families. a sister in chiba working two jobs. an aging father in a hokkaido fishing village. a daughter in osaka who never stopped searching. each visit is the same quiet one. she arrives unannounced, introduces herself as a social worker connected to the case, and asks if they want to know. when they say yes, and they always say yes, she sits with them, as she did with the first family, and she tells them. she presents the few personal effects logged as evidence, a worn bracelet, a tattered notebook, that the state had catalogued and forgotten. she returns to kamurochō after a series of emotionally devastating trips and carries the grief of dozens of families home with her.

her first major case, which takes place in may, after this case draws her away from tokyo, to the city of yokohama, a city where her professional history is already a minefield, thanks to bleach japan.

since her earliest days at her firm, her path had constantly crossed with bleach japan. the very same bleach japan that she finds out was co - founded by her old friend during her days with the mafia, masato arakawa. as a forensic social worker advocating for harm reduction, safe housing for sex workers, and rehab over punishment, she represented everything the nationalist, "clean-up" group despised. in 2011, she publicly dismantled their statistics in a televised debate on "foreign crime," exposing how their data conflated immigration status with unproven allegations. in 2013,  she successfully defended a hostess club they were trying to shutter, proving the business was legitimate and in 2015, their propaganda chief had written a scathing editorial calling her a "traitor to national purity" for her work with immigrant and marginalized communities. throughout those years, she has also been placed in a difficult position with masato, who she now knows as ryo aoki, as he now posed as another threat to her identity. but what was also kept in mind was that she was also a threat to his.

she gets a referral from a small, overwhelmed ijincho women's shelter. over the past six months,  four women have vanished from the same three - block radius of the city's red - light district. the local police have classified them as "runaways" or "relocated sex workers," cases closed with minimal investigation. the shelter's director, keiko, has heard of kōkan initiatives' reputation for taking on "lost causes" that involve systemic failure. unbeknownst to her, shams has also had taken up similar cases in kamurochō, where every woman killed has also been a sex worker. and thus, the investigation begins. keeping in contact with her firm, she asks them to update her if there are any news about the women in kamurochō and she goes on the trip. but ijincho is a different beast than kamurochō. the workers are bound by debts to their "managers," so they refuse to speak, viewing her as another authority figure who will get them deported or killed, and the police is still as dismissive as they were when she first asked about the case.

the breakthrough comes from a source she never expected: a client from her kamurochō past. a former hostess she helped escape an abusive manager years prior, who now runs a small bar in ijincho, reaches out secretly. she introduces her to miyu,  a 19 year old woman who escaped a place she calls 'the garden'. she later finds out that it is actually a "place" where these women were being collected to until they were killed. a new group operating calling themselves the gardeners had instituted a system. women who became "problematic"— too sick to work, pregnant, addicted, or who tried to report abuse were not sold off. they were being removed. miyu describes being taken to a nondescript clinic on the edge of the district for a "mandatory health check," where she overheard a doctor calmly discussing "disposal logistics" with a suited man before she managed to flee.

shams pieces it together. this isn't a traditional trafficking ring, but rather a part criminal syndicate, part corrupt business. "the gardeners" are a service. for a fee, they "prune" the problems for the various gangs and independent people who want control, making the entire district run more "efficiently" and cleanly. they are the ultimate in outsourcing evil. she identifies the clinic as a former storefront now operating as the "ijincho women's wellness center,"  with suspiciously pristine credentials. her digital forensics expert discovers its shell company is linked to a defunct research firm.

she ends up meeting lin xinyi, who will become connected to this case. a freelance assassin that used to be part of the snake flower triad, first sent to kill her, is later on dragged into this mess because it turns out that one of the victims killed by the gardeners was their mother. when shams shows them the board she created with all the victims, their mother appears connected to them, which xinyi is in denial about at first. after the situation gets explained further, they reluctantly cancel the contract given to them and look into the matter of their mother's mysterious death. through another investigation, they realize that the contracts they've been given all had to do with the gardener's victims: family members or friends that refused to stay quiet, officers that were too close to the truth, curious souls that had no idea what they were getting in. it later turns out that "the gardeners" were actually a faction that had existed in kamurochō as well, under a different name, but led by a man xinyi knew very well. chan yongzheng, who they had known as "uncle" chan.

a few months before, xinyu will tell shams, chan had come to ijincho to show them a file, mainly to threaten them, of their mother, married and happy in osaka, which is why they didn't believe it at first. but as they dug deeper and learned of the truth, they learned that everything was connected. chan, in the end, ended up being the reason why the gardeners managed to leave kamurochō to spread their wings. so they begin working with her and as shams gets closer, the gardeners stop seeing her as a nuisance and start seeing her as an existential threat. she is disrupting their clean, clinical operation. her office in tokyo is hit with a sophisticated cyber - attack that wipes a month of research. suzuyo, who had come to ijincho to assist with street - level outreach, is ambushed. she fights off her attackers but is left with a broken arm. which is why she changes her tactic.

with miyu's terrified consent, they use her as bait in a controlled operation. shams has kenji create a flawless digital footprint suggesting miyu is trying to sell her story to a foreign journalist. xinyu lures a gardener enforcer to a meet, which is recorded with multiple hidden cameras and audio devices. the enforcer took the bait, threatening miyu with graphic detail. every word was captured in high - definition video and crystal - clear audio. a confession of conspiracy to commit murder. her forensic accountant, cecilia, works day and night to follow the clinic's money. she uncovers the fee structure— invoices billed to dummy corporations for "waste management services" and traces the payments not to a gang,  but into a complex real estate development fund with ties to companies that had donated generously to bleach japan. instead of going to the police, she packages the evidence: the video confession, the financial trail, the medical records link to aoki's network into a dossier. and doesn't send it just yet.

because suzuyo and kenji have been involved with the main events during this time, she later on reconnects with ichiban kasuga, an old friend from when she was still in the mafia, and learns that he has been working on the same problem, only on different sides. and she understood the politics. sending it to the compromised ijincho police was futile. sending it to the media would spark a war and get miyu killed. it would also force aoki’s hand prematurely, likely resulting in him using his political power to discredit everything and everyone involved. she needed the right moment, the right leverage and the right target. the dossier was no longer just evidence and now in a city where a former friend had become a nemesis and a new kind of monster was pruning human lives, she would need every piece of evidence she could get. so she waits for ichiban's word.

her moment arrived with the thunderclap of the dissolution. the gardeners were suddenly exposed. this was the leverage. she informs ichiban and company of her plan and sends the document to the pubic prosecutor office. it was a file focused solely on the gardeners’ criminal conspiracy and the corrupt ijincho police captain. this triggered a high - level, external investigation that the local police could not quash. she trusted that suzuyo will be able to handle things in ijincho with the gardeners and the wellness center, knowing she has ichiban on her side as well, and returns to tokyo.

2020:

with the tojo clan and omi alliance officially disbanded, the events presented a crisis and a core tenet of her work:  when systems collapse, the most vulnerable suffer first.  between the rise of smaller gangs, legitimate but morally bankrupt corporations and the police being overwhelmed with the corruption, kōkan initiatives was also flooded with cases. former low - level tojo members and their families, cut off from support, facing homelessness and desperation. small business owners being bled dry by multiple new gangs. an explosion in street - level drug dealing and petty crime as order broke down. all of these things made them shift into emergency mode. rena establishes a legal aid and counseling clinic specifically for those displaced by the underworld collapse, funded through the firm and anonymous donations.

the firm is uniquely positioned to navigate the chaos. they make use of something suzuyo had started back in 2013.  at the beginning of said year, with the help of everyone in kōkan initiatives, she launches a pro - bono project partnering with the the community of kamurochō, calling it the kamurochō neighborhood association.  through it, the firm is able to help more people in a more wide spread way due to more people connecting to get others to get the help they need. now more popular because of how long it's been active, they help organize small business owners— the izakaya masters, shopkeepers and club managers who are being bled dry by multiple micro - gangs. especially targeting those corporations, kenji and cecilia find the illegal clause in the contract, the environmental violation in their redevelopment plan or the insider trading by one of their executives. they then anonymously leaks this information to a journalist or a conscientious city councilor. the corporation is forced to back down.  and for a while, things began returning to how they used to be. that is, of course, until the rk took control.

2021 - 2022:

after akihiro ehara's big announcement at the trial that saori shirosaki and issei hoshino were working on, shams receives a call from the two, asking her to meet up. after throughout research, they find the man that was named, hiro mikoshiba, used to be a student of seiryo high school, the same school she knows yagami and kaito, alongside suguira and tsukumo, were currently investigating a case of bullying in. after the conversation ends, they decide the best thing to do is for shams to travel to ijincho for a while since she was on the rk's radar due to her work last year, not to investigate, but to be there as support for the students. as a social worker before anything else.

she spends the first day around the students, goes to different classrooms, seeing how they were really doing. she ends up talking to mami koda, the young girl who had been bullied, and begins to check up on her every time she can. through her interactions with the students, shams is able to understand that there's a hidden truth behind the body language they were showing. the case has only made her think about her case involving akio and haru. during her visits, she starts interacting with yoko sawa much more frequently and once she opens up to yagami, the two begin discussing their own guilt when it comes to sawa's coerced inaction and shams' inability to help akio further. so when they are told that mikoshiba drove a student to suicide and that the courts found no evidence of bullying, she knew exactly where to go.

shams formally petitions the court to unseal the juvenile records from toshiro ehara's suicide case four years prior. she argues to the presiding judge that the recent murder of mikoshiba creates a direct link and constitutes "compelling new evidence." she maintains that understanding the full, suppressed truth of the past is critical to solving the present murder and preventing further violence. the judge grants her request for a supervised, in - camera review of the files within the courthouse. the files, however, offer her nothing new. it is the same information she'd received from the faculty members of the school, but from her readings, she knew something was wrong.

it was after sawa's death that she uses her credentials and visits the miyamoto municipal group home, the home that worked with the school under the same name. the staff were defensive, the records sanitized. but in talking to a weary, older caregiver who remembered akio, she learned the truth the files omitted: akio had ended up being a bully himself and ended up causing another teenager to fall victim to their own suicide. it is only when she connects the dots that she begins to question kuwana properly. she later finds out that suzuyo, who had been speaking to some of the younger members, found a faint but consistent link: there were several people had either donated to, sat on boards of or were politically connected to the very private child welfare and juvenile detention contractors that had failed akio and countless others. this new piece of information, however, had only put a target on suzuyo and kenji's back. after they return to ijincho, the two are attacked and kenji is sent to the hospital after they are saved by tesso, which only gave shams even more drive to get to the bottom of this.

shams compiled her findings to understand the motive of kuwana's. she knew the confrontation was inevitable. when the two met, she laid her file before him. not the crime scene photos, but rather akio takahashi’s child welfare file, the sketchbook photocopies, the group home’s negligent reports. she laid it out bare: that if he thought holding a hammer to get justice was the way to do it, then he was the first person that had to be held accountable for his actions. as is she. but it didn't work that way. during the fight at the warehouse, shams is there during the showdown with their enemies. she personally shows him a form, a request for state - funded trauma therapy for akio. she tells him it was submitted, reviewed and denied due to ‘insufficient immediate threat and budget allocation priorities.’ she signed it. she viewed this as her life sentence. with kuwana’s part concluded, she was left with the same truth. akio takahashi was still dead, a permanent indictment in her personal ledger.

after all, the scandal was too vast to be swept away. the ministry of justice, reeling from the exposure of corruption within its own ranks and the police, convened a special independent inquest to officially examine the victims and the systemic failures that may have motivated the crimes. given her unique dual role: the lead social worker on the originating takahashi case and a material consultant in the investigation, shams was appointed as a forensic expert advisor to the inquest panel. for weeks, she sat in a hearing room. she reviewed the cases and with her team at kōkan initiatives, she reconstructed the exact points where schools, police and courts had clear evidence of their crimes and chose inaction, administrative slowness or preferential treatment. she used the takahashi case file and the patterns uncovered during the investigation to launch a formal, public advocacy campaign against the privatization and chronic underfunding of japan’s child welfare group homes. she also reached out, anonymously, to fund an arts therapy program at a small, reputable shelter in osaka— the city where haru, she hoped, was still trying to heal.

in 2022, she is involved in helping kaito to find mikiko and visits him when he when he is in the hospital.

2023:

in january, there had been talks about unrest in the iranian mafia, per a secret handler's information. it had started with a key asset: a flash drive containing the identities of every agent embedded in middle eastern intelligence agencies has been stolen. the thief is a rogue iranian intelligence officer selling it to the highest bidder, and the auction is being brokered in the shadows by the sandstorm syndicate. khabib hears about this and cannot allow this to continue, knowing the repercussions. a direct assault is impossible, because it would risk an international incident. they need the problem to disappear and look like an internal underworld conflict, which he can solve independently. so he infiltrate the operations and create enough chaos to force them to destroy the blackmail material as a distraction. it's a sacrifice he's willing to take. this, however, ends up being known by a faction in the crimson caravan: a traditionalist group of elders that would have benefited from this exchange and have been upset with how khabib was running things.

it turns out the secret handler made a discreet offer to the traditionalist leader, a bitter man named rashid al - musa: they will provide the intelligence, resources and political cover to help him eliminate khabib and seize control of the caravan. in return, he becomes their exclusive partner. the first step of their pact was to publicly erase the symbol of the old regime's weakness: shams azari.  it must be a message, a "penance" that breaks the caravan's spirit and shows the new puppet's ruthlessness. so shams is kidnapped in broad daylight after leaving a child advocacy conference, a deliberate insult to her new life. she is taken to a soundproofed room in chiyoda, handed over to al - musa's men. for five days, they enact the "penance." they do not physically mar her (yet); they break her psychologically. they show her fabricated, but horrifyingly convincing evidence on loop: all that seem to be news of the people closest to her killed and drastically hurt. they tell her it is her fault for leaving, for making them vulnerable.

she does not take the dagger. the seed, however, of terrible doubt is planted, and it begins to rot her sanity from within. this is where kiryū comes into play. already aware of the events between the main and smaller faction, they inform him that the situation has escalated beyond mediation. they provide him with the raw intelligence they have on al - musa's known assets in japan, not as allies, but as a pragmatic move to help the stronger faction crush the rogue one quickly and restore their desired stability. they tell him about a kidnapping in chiyoda, but not who was kidnapped. they take no further direct action, remaining neutral observers of the coming storm. meanwhile, everyone in kamurochō is frantically looking for her. they finally figure out where she is and make their way over there to save her, but they end up getting critically injured. the one who gets her out, in the end, is none other than kiryū. he brings her back to a hospital and for a week, she stays there.

the moment she is lucid, she understands the game. the traditionalists missed their chance. now, they will simply make her disappear violently. upon discharge, she finally answers the question everyone was asking, but only to date. she tells him about the torture and what had been said to her and she asks him to keep it a secret from khabib. she knew that if he found out now, a war would wage out, which is exactly what the faction had wanted. but she doesn't tell him one thing: that she knows she will die soon. this begins her final, quiet campaign. she meets with her friends for coffee, she gives a ring to haruka, she has a long, normal lunch with suzuyo and kenji, listening to their future plans. she is saying goodbye. in her apartment, she writes letters and records videos: for everyone that is important to her. she hides them in a little corner she filled up with things she bought over the years. the letters she writes kiryū, majima, saejima and daigo are placed in a safety box, the key in the same envelope of date's letters with a small note to open it once the time is right.

a month after her discharge, on the night of valentine's day, under the neon glow that had witnessed the climax of so many of her life's battles, shams dies where her two worlds violently collided: in front of the polished stones of the millennium tower. she was with yagami when the shot meant for her rang out. in the split - second chaos, a second shot was heard, only this time towards him. her final sight was not of the sky, but of the tower. her last thought was of the despair that her past had finally caught her and that in its final act, it had taken down the one person who represented the honest justice she had spent her second life building. she died on the ground before the millennium tower, a monument to the underworld she escaped and the city she loved, believing she had doomed them both.

I. OVERVIEW: THE CARAVAN SYSTEM.

the three most influential caravans operating in japan are:

     ◦     the crimson caravan:  the most powerful and sophisticated, led by the azari family. focused on high - value smuggling (art, arms, sanctioned tech) and complex money laundering. known for their discretion and long - term planning.      ◦     the sandstorm syndicate:  a more aggressive network comprised of ex - military and intelligence operatives. specializes in narcotics, brute - force smuggling and mercenary activities. notoriously ruthless and volatile.      ◦     the shadow brokers:  a network focused almost exclusively on cybercrime, financial fraud and data theft. they are ghosts, operating through servers and dark web markets and often sell their services to the other caravans or even corrupt yakuza captains.

unlike the tōjō clan, where a single family has its own enforcers, accountants, and diplomats, the iranian networks would outsource or ally with highly specialized, semi - independent cells. this makes them more adaptable and harder to combat.

these groups are not "under" the caravans in a traditional hierarchy. they are more like preferred contractors or franchisees, operating with autonomy but benefiting from the caravan's logistics, protection and financial pipelines.

the 'zobr', the stingers (assassination and wetworks):

     ◦     specialization:  high - profile, deniable assassinations.      ◦     origins:  comprised primarily of former iranian special forces and intelligence operatives who defected for greater profit.      ◦     methods:  their signature is "plausible accidents" and untraceable poisons. a target might die in a car crash, from a sudden "allergic reaction," or a perfectly staged suicide. they rarely use firearms, and when they do, the weapons are untraceable and disposed of immediately.      ◦     relationship with the caravans:  a crimson caravan ghāfed like khabib would hire the zobr for a specific, high - value contract. there is no loyalty beyond the payment. the sandstorm syndicate, being more militaristic, might have a few zobr operatives on a more permanent retainer.

the 'rahzan', the highwaymen (piracy and high - seas theft):

     ◦     specialization:  intercepting shipments at sea. they don't just smuggle; they also steal from other smugglers.      ◦     origins:  a multinational crew operating out of the strait of hormuz, the south china sea and tokyo bay. their ranks include disgruntled sailors, former pirates and maritime logistics experts.      ◦     methods:  they use intelligence from the caravans to target rival drug shipments, arms caches or even legitimate commercial goods on container ships. they'll perform a "ghost transfer"— siphoning cargo from one ship to another in international waters, leaving no trace.      ◦     relationship with the caravans:  the caravans are their primary intelligence source and fence for the stolen goods. the rahzan provide the caravans with a powerful tool for sabotaging rivals (like the sandstorm syndicate) and acquiring inventory without paying for it.

the 'ganjeh' (گنجه), the vault (forgery and identity theft):

     ◦     specialization:  creating flawless false identities, passports, diplomas and professional certifications.      ◦     origins:  a small, secretive cell of master engravers, holography experts, and hackers, many of whom were state printers in the pre - revolutionary era.      ◦     methods:  they operate a handful of pristine, hidden workshops that look more like tech startups or art studios than criminal fronts. they are artists of deception.      ◦     relationship with the caravans:  they are the ultimate utility for the network. the caravan uses them to create new identities for operatives like the azari family who go by shirani. the shadow brokers hire them to create perfect "sleeper" identities for their hackers. they are neutral, serving any caravan that can pay their exorbitant fees, and are considered off - limits for violence by all factions.

the 'asab', the nerves (cyber - intelligence and surveillance):

     ◦     specialization:  cyber - espionage, electronic surveillance, and creating backdoors in secure systems. they are the information - gatherers.      ◦     origins:  a younger, tech - native generation that blends traditional spycraft with cutting - edge hacking. some have ties to university tech programs in tehran.      ◦     methods:  they are the ones who bug the offices of enemies, track police communications, and drain the bank accounts of rivals.      ◦     relationship with the caravans:  they have a symbiotic relationship with the shadow brokers. the asab gathers the raw data and the brokers weaponize it or sell it. a caravan pays the asab to be its "all-seeing eye," providing a critical advantage in intelligence.

the "sarbaz", the soldiers (mercenary enforcement):

     ◦     specialization:  providing muscle for specific, short - term operations.      ◦     origins:  often drawn from azeri or kurdish clans with a martial tradition, or are disgraced members of the basij militia.      ◦     methods:  unlike the zobr, the sarbaz are for intimidation, protection and direct confrontation. they are the ones who will guard a shipment, raid a warehouse or engage in a street fight if a deal goes wrong.      ◦     relationship with the caravans:  the sandstorm syndicate uses them extensively as their primary enforcers. the crimson caravan, preferring discretion, hires them only when absolutely necessary, viewing their use as a sign that diplomacy has failed.

II. HISTORY & PRESENCE IN JAPAN.

the persian presence in japan's underworld began in earnest during 1970 - 1988, as exiled shah loyalists and regime opponents fled with capital and connections. they initially operated in the shadows, but their influence grew during the 1980s. the caravans offered a new, lucrative channel for narcotics and a way to launder money internationally. a pivotal figure was darius vahidi, a sandstorm syndicate boss who, in the late 1980s, attempted a full - scale invasion of kamurochō's drug trade. this led to the "war of the shadows" (1989), a brief but bloody conflict with the tōjō clan. the war ended not with a decisive victory, but with a stalemate and an uneasy understanding: the caravans could operate, but not on yakuza turf without permission. this fragile peace is maintained through tense, back - channel negotiations. it was only in 1990 that ali azari came together with the clan to form an alliance that both groups will benefit from.

IV. NOTABLE FIGURES & CURRENT STATUS.

the azari dynasty (crimson caravan):

ali "the lion" shirani (deceased):  the former ghāfed. a visionary who believed in stability and long - term alliances. maintained a respectful, if distant, relationship with the tōjō clan.

"the viper":  ali's child and true heir, although their legal name is unknown. trained in espionage and finance. unknown if currently in kamurochō.

khabib "the snake" shirani:  second heir to the crimson caravan. currently the legitimate ghāfed.

darius shirani:  the previous, illegitimate ghāfed. aligned the crimson caravan with the omi alliance's rogue elements, believing brute force is the key to power. he was a puppet of the more experienced sandstorm syndicate.

the sandstorm syndicate:

general farhad "the jackal" rostami (deceased):  a former commander who founded the syndicate. his death is shrouded in mystery, rumored to be an internal power play.

saeed "the blade" rostami:  farhad's son, now leading the syndicate. even more brutal than his father, he sees the caravans as an army. he holds a deep - seated grudge against the azari family.

V. INTERACTIONS WITH YAKUZA CLANS

the relationship is a complex dance of alliance and cold calculation.

the tōjō clan:  started off as a reluctant alliance in the 1980s but slowly formed into trustful allies in the 1990s. in 2006, ali's death caused the alliance to break for unknown reasons and it was then rekindled in 2008. the caravan provide access to goods and markets the yakuza cannot reach, but are seen as unpredictable and dishonorable. the more traditional members despise them.

the omi alliance:  under ryuji goda, the omi saw a potential weapon in the caravans, especially the aggressive sandstorm syndicate. this alliance used to continue under goda's successors, who use the syndicates to destabilize tōjō operations in tokyo, until 2010.

VI. CONCLUSION & THREAT ASSESSMENT

the persian caravans represent the new face of globalized crime.  they are not a rival gang to be eliminated in a street war; they are a pervasive system woven into the fabric of international finance and logistics. a direct assault is futile. the only way to counter their influence is through superior intelligence, targeted financial disruption, and exploiting the bitter rivalries between the caravans themselves.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE YAKUZA AND THE CARAVANS.

the iranian networks, or "caravans," operate as pragmatic, fluid webs. there is no universal oath - swearing. loyalty is based on a more ancient set of ties: shared regional origin, blood relation, and, most importantly, mutual profit. the leader is a ghāfed, a "caravan master," valued for his logistical acumen, connections, and ability to generate wealth, not just his prowess in a fight. their power is not measured in city blocks controlled, but in the security and efficiency of their international smuggling routes— their modern silk roads. they are ghosts in the global machine; their strength lies in being unseen. they avoid identifiable markers like tattoos due to both cultural norms and operational necessity. their violence is clinical— a poison, a staged accident, a professional shooting, designed to eliminate a problem without drawing unnecessary attention.

the caravans, shaped by iran's geopolitical isolation, specialize in transnational logistics. their expertise is moving forbidden goods across borders. this includes sanctions - busting on an industrial scale— smuggling iranian oil through a labyrinth of shell companies and tankers, and dominating key segments of the global narcotics trade, particularly the flow of afghan opiates. they are also early adopters of cybercrime, running sophisticated fraud and hacking rings that operate independently of any physical territory. while a yakuza front might be a bustling hostess club or a construction company, a caravan front is more likely to be a discreet import / export firm trading in persian rugs or luxury goods, providing the perfect cover for moving money and contraband.

the caravans are ultimately merchants, not warriors. their ethos is one of supreme pragmatism. survival and profit trump all notions of honor. a deal is good only as long as it is beneficial; betrayal is a calculated business risk, not a moral failing. this makes them incredibly adaptable and resilient but also deeply unpredictable to a yakuza mind. where a patriarch might see a betrayal as a personal affront that must be avenged, a ghāfed might see it as a simple breach of contract, to be rectified through cold, efficient action or simply by finding a new, more reliable business partner. this fundamental difference in worldview makes any alliance between the two a tense, temporary marriage of convenience, forever on the brink of collapsing under the weight of mutual misunderstanding.

core operations:

sanctions busting & oil smuggling:  a specialty. they excel at moving iranian oil and other embargoed goods through a global shell game of front companies, using ports in dubai, turkey, and southeast asia. this often brings them into contact with corrupt elements of their own government, creating a "mafia state" hybrid that the yakuza rarely encounters.

drug trafficking:  as a key transit route for afghan opiates, iranian networks are central figures in the global drug trade, moving product through the balkans into europe. in japan, they are a major source of methamphetamine, often clashing with yakuza clans over distribution rights.

cybercrime & fraud:  less bound by tradition, they are quick to adopt modern crimes like sophisticated credit card fraud, phishing, and hacking, sometimes outsourcing the physical aspects to yakuza affiliates.

culture and methodology:

tattoos:  full - body irezumi telling stories of myth and resilience are a yakuza hallmark. iranian mafia members typically avoid identifiable tattoos due to principles and operational secrecy. when present, they are small, hidden symbols: persian calligraphy, a lion and sun, or a dagger.

violence:  iranian mafia violence is pragmatic, efficient, and often anonymous. it favors poisons, ambushes, and professional assassinations over symbolic finger - cutting or tattoo - burning.

important locations. firstly, two cities named frequently:

the main location of the caravan in tokyo is chiyoda's "international quarter", the kōbai bazaar, located in koganehashi, the golden bridge. the city is a fusion of marunouchi's corporate skyscrapers and nagatachō's political nerve center. koganehashi is the city of power, money and politics. influence is traded in boardrooms and exclusive clubs rather than on neon - drenched streets. its name, "golden bridge," symbolizes the flow of capital and the connections brokered between the legitimate and illegitimate worlds.

     ◦     location:  a specific, older block within koganehashi, nestled incongruously between modern government offices and financial institutions.      ◦     meaning:  kōbai means "red plum blossom," a flower that blooms vibrantly in late winter, symbolizing perseverance and beauty against adversity— a metaphor for the diaspora community. "bazaar" signals its mercantile and middle eastern influences.      ◦     atmosphere:  a pocket of vibrant, chaotic life within the sterile order of koganehashi. the air is perfumed with saffron, rosewater and charcoal from grill houses. the architecture is a blend of 1970s japanese concrete and ornate persian decorative touches— tiled arches, intricate metalwork on windows. it's a place where salarymen from nearby ministries rub shoulders with iranian traders, all drawn by the authentic food and goods.

the hub: the divan club.

     ◦     location:  on the top two floors of a nondescript, slightly aging office building in the kōbai bazaar. the ground floor is a legitimate, high - end persian carpet gallery.      ◦     access:  gained only by invitation. a guest is vetted in the carpet gallery before being escorted to a private elevator by a stoic, well - dressed attendant.      ◦     interior:  the divan club is designed like a modern interpretation of a shah's court: low - level seating areas with plush cushions and rich textiles, separated by carved wooden screens. the lighting is soft and golden, illuminating exquisite calligraphy and modern iranian art on the walls. the atmosphere is one of hushed, powerful calm, a world away from the bustling bazaar below.

the club is the main spot for the iranian mafia, specifically the caravan, which is now led by khabib azari. and because in chiyoda, power doesn't hide in sewers; it operates from penthouses, the club's location in an office building and its veneer of a high - end art gallery make it invisible to casual scrutiny. it looks exactly like what a powerful, legitimate international business consortium would use for its meetings. its location is strategic for "lobbying" corrupt politicians and bureaucrats from the nearby ministries. a meeting with a compromised diet member is just a short, discreet walk away.

the crimson caravan, now under a leader like khabib, no longer reflects what it used to be. it isn't a street gang; it's now a corporation. the club shows an image of immense wealth, culture and influence that commands a different kind of respect from allies and rivals alike. and any law enforcement raid would require navigating a labyrinth of shell companies that own the building and the art within. the club's members would be listed as "investors" and "patrons of the arts."

and then, the main location of the caravan in iran is golshan, an affluent neighborhood in north tehran and nestled against the mountains.  is the district home to many of the iranian mafia members, but there's a more intricate system that not many know of. the champion district is divided into two areas, one being gol - e - sorkh "the crimson rose",  the most exclusive, walled - off sub - district of massive villas with sprawling gardens. home to oligarchs, regime elites and the hidden mansions of crime lords that are heavily guarded by private security. the second area is kouche - ye bozorg "the big alley", which is a maze of smaller, older streets behind the main boulevard. less monitored, filled with smaller, slightly shabbier tea houses, auto repair shops that serve as fronts for criminal activities and apartments for mid - level gang members.

some of the shop locations:

hafez tea house: one of the most famous traditional persian tea houses in the city. dark, smoky, with private booths, also viewed as the information hub where deals are brokered in secret over steaming glasses of chai and qalyân. the owner is the pale moon of golshan. no one truly knows their real name or what they truly look like, but everyone's whispers have made them famous.

the golden fast food: a parody of shiny, western - style fast food joints that dot north tehran. there is one specific restaurant where one can buy "saffron chicken" (health item) and get into random street fights with entitled rich kids.

pahlavani gym: a zurkhaneh  (house of strength), a traditional persian gymnasium where people learn a new fighting style based on varzesh - e bastani  (ancient martial art) with skills like "the lion's claw" and "hero's throw."

the furniture bazaar: the massive, real - life furniture markets of tehran. a huge, maze - like indoor area, a perfect place for tailing missions, chase sequences and ambushes among couches and wardrobes.

khayyam nightclub: the hidden, ultra - exclusive underground clubs of north tehran. the entrance is disguised as a furniture store in the bâzâr-e mobel.

dr. nader's pharmacy: a seemingly normal pharmacy. a front for a black - market surgeon who sells premium healing items, ranged weapons and offers "plastic surgery" to temporarily lower one's wanted level.

sina electronics: a crowded electronics store.

the main street, boulevard of the revolution, is a wide, tree - lined avenue that is the public face of golshan. by day, it's bustling with luxury car dealerships, high - end boutiques and cafes where the wealthy sip tea. by night, it becomes a cruising strip for sports cars and a hunting ground. naderi circle is the central hub, always clogged with traffic. a giant, abstract sculpture of a lion stands in the center. pickpockets and informants blend seamlessly with the crowds. the hub is also where the infamous bacara nights can be found, a forgotten cabaret. somewhere near the neon blur of kouche - ye narenj, also called the bitter orange lane. bacara stood like a mirage of sequins and saxophones, almost like a portal for people who wanted to forget themselves or actually, remember a city that they wished for.

bacara, in the 1960s and 1970s, wasn't just a cabaret, but rather a stage where iran flirted with people from all over the west and east. the seats were filled with actors, poets, writers, businessmen and more importantly, mafia members. behind the curtain of art was a disguise for international organized crime. it was created by the azari family for that very reason, and now, in the 2000s, owned by shams azari, and it is where many families have been invited and especially the tōjō clan. as time moved and the iranian mafia became more and more disorganized, the cabaret was still in place, but under the disguise of a regular club, still used by international mafia to host important meetings and events. that changed, when shams changed the main idea: in 2017, instead of a hub for mafias to connect, it became a center of information that she made use of.

kōkan initiatives:

kōkan initiatives, founded by shams azari in late 2009 with the help of date makoto, is not a traditional clinical social work practice. it is a specialized consulting firm that operates at the critical junction where individuals encounter large, complex systems— primarily the criminal justice system. the name, meaning "exchange" or "interchange" reflects its core mission: to serve as a vital two - way bridge. the firm translates the nuanced realities of vulnerable individuals into a language the legal system can understand and act upon, while also working to reform the system itself to become more humane and effective. the firm's atmosphere is professional and calm, more akin to a high - end legal or policy NGO than a clinic. the offices are designed to be welcoming yet efficient, a safe and respectable space for meeting with clients, lawyers and city officials. they focus on macro social work and forensic social work, with a sharp strategic edge. kōkan initiatives can often be found frequently interacting with sky fianance and the yagami detective agency.

systemic advocacy and policy reform:

     ◦     this is their primary, long - term goal. they conduct research and compile data from their direct client cases to identify recurring failures within the system. examples:  they might author reports on the disproportionate impact of mandatory minimum sentences on mentally ill offenders, or propose new protocols for police when interacting with trauma survivors. they lobby for the creation of specialized courts (e.g., mental health courts, veteran's courts) in kamurochō.

high - stakes forensic case consultation:

     ◦     this is their day - to - day work and their source of influence. they are hired by law firms and the courts themselves.      ◦     mitigation specialists:  for defense attorneys, they conduct deep - dive psycho - social assessments of defendants. they don't seek to excuse crime, but to explain it by presenting a full picture of the person's life— their trauma, mental health, intellectual capacity, and social history. this is crucial during the sentencing phase to argue for rehabilitation over pure punishment.      ◦     victim advocacy and expert testimony:  for the prosecution or victim's families, they help traumatized witnesses navigate the legal process and provide expert testimony on the psychological impact of the crime (e.g., the effects of grief, PTSD, or intimidation).

training and supervision:

     ◦     shams personally supervises and trains a select group of newly hired social workers, but also extends this service to other city agencies.      ◦     client:  they are contracted by the tokyo metropolitan police department or public defender's office to train staff on topics like:

de-escalation techniques with mentally ill individuals. recognizing the signs of trauma and coercion. cultural competency, especially regarding marginalized communities in kamurochō.

employees of the firm:

the catalogue for the firm can be divided into regular employees and the 10 interns they train each year. the seven main employees are:

     ◦     shams azari:  the founder of the firm. she does not handle day to day client cases anymore. her role is to design the firm's overarching missions. she identifies the systemic flaws they will target. she analyzes patterns from their case files to pinpoint a recurring injustice— e.g., a specific police precinct known for coercing confessions, a loophole in tenant law exploited by slumlords, a bank with predatory lending practices targeting the elderly. she then designs a multi - pronged "campaign" to address it, assigning her specialized teams (legal, financial, field work) to tackle the problem from all angles. this is also where her past is an undeniable asset. she is the firm's ultimate behavioral and strategic analyst. when a case involves a corrupt official or a cunning criminal, the employees bring their findings to her. she can look at the data and, drawing on her understanding of how power brokers and criminals truly think, predict their next move.      ◦     tatsuya sato:  a licensed PI who works exclusively for kōkan initiatives. he handles the legwork that can't be done from an office— verifying client stories, tracking down deadbeat parents and gathering on - the - ground intelligence. he is a former metropolitan PD detective who was drummed out of the force for being "too honest." he refused to look the other way during a corruption sweep and found himself framed for misconduct. he was a bitter, drunken PI taking sleazy jobs before date had told shams about him when she hired him to investigate a police brutality case she was building. she gave him a purpose again: to find the truth, no matter where it leads. he now uses his old police contacts and street knowledge to dig up the evidence that the firm can analyze.      ◦     ishikawa rena:  heads the firm's direct clinical services. she conducts therapy sessions with their most traumatized clients— abuse victims, former yakuza trying to go straight and traumatized children. she is the daughter of a high - ranking yakuza member who was murdered in a power struggle. she rejected the yakuza life entirely, using her family's illicit wealth to fund her education in psychology, burdened by a desire to atone for her father's sins. she crossed paths with shams when they were both consulting on the same child custody case, instantly recognizing the same "shadow" in shams's eyes that she saw in her own. they formed an immediate, unspoken understanding. rena has a unique ability to gain the trust of people who hate the system, because she openly acknowledges its flaws.      ◦     pradtana chaiprasit:  the operational backbone of the firm. they manage the vast databases of case law, social services and criminal records that shams uses for her systemic analyses. they are also a logistics genius, coordinating with shelters, legal aid and other resources. they are a former records keeper for the tōjō clan's disciplinary committee. their meticulous mind made them an invaluable, if overlooked, asset. they grew disillusioned after being forced to "lose" files that would have incriminated a high - ranking patriarch. they quietly resigned and were scraping by as a city clerk when shams, who knew of their reputation from her own past, sought them out. she offered them a job where their integrity and precision would be their greatest asset, not a liability.

they are often compared to vampires, and while they are almost the same, there is one specific difference. instead of just feeding on blood, they also feed on its essence. the khanas, three of them, represent the ways the nisnas have chosen to live with their "fallen" state.

varshakhan khana:

     ◦     they have embraced angra mainyu's lie: that the universe is fundamentally flawed and only the strong have the right to reshape it. they believe their hunger is a gift, a tool to consume the flawed creation of ahura mazda and build a new, perfect world from the ashes— a world of eternal night (zhulmat - e - abad) where their hunger will be the only law.      ◦     note: they draw on the imagery of the varengan and the daevas.      ◦     they feast on the highest essences: the urvan  (soul), the fravashi  (divine guardian spirit) and khvarenah  (the divine royal glory). consuming these utterly destroys the victim.

khashayar khana:

     ◦     they are the ultimate fatalists. they see themselves as children of neither light nor dark, but of the void in between. they follow the path of the pari - khan, the "fairy king," a mythical nisnas who taught them to drift like sand on the wind. they believe no path, redemption or domination, matters, for the sundering cannot be undone.      ◦     note: they are inspired by the jinn and the peri who were cast out of heaven. they are masters of illusion and subtlety, like the aal of persian folklore.      ◦     they are connoisseurs of experience, feeding on potent emotions (veyseh): a warrior's courage, a lover's passion, an artist's inspiration. they leave their victims alive but emotionally hollowed, their creative spark gone.

shahravar khana:

     ◦     they follow the path of shahravar, a nisnas prince who was enlightened by the teachings of zoroaster himself. he taught that the sundering was a test, not a damnation. their hunger is a sacred fire that must be controlled, and they must use their power to protect the creations of ahura mazda, thus earning their way back towards the light. they are the keepers of the atash - e - vahram, a sacred spiritual flame they protect in a hidden fire temple.      ◦     note: they embody the zoroastrian virtues of good thoughts, good words, good deeds. they see themselves as the spiritual successors to the sassanian dragon - slayers and the simurgh.      ◦     they practice ethical consumption. shams feasts on raw energy (zhor), which is replenishable. others in her khana might feed on spent emotions (like grief after a catharsis) or physical pain, acting as unseen healers who take suffering away.

the magic system (or what the nisnas call the art of half - being):

nisnas magic is born from their duality and their connection to cosmography.

     ◦     the seven bounteous creations (haft khan):  each khana has an affinity for one of ahura mazda's creations, which they can both draw power from and corrupt.       ◦     sky:  control over winds, limited weather influence.       ◦     water:  influence over emotions and dreams (as water is connected to the subconscious).       ◦     earth:  strength, resilience and communion with stone and plant.       ◦     plants:  healing, poison and control over vitality.       ◦     animals:  shapeshifting into specific totemic animals (wolves for varshakhan, birds of prey for khashayar, moths or foxes for shahravar).       ◦     humankind:  the power of illusion (nairang) and persuasion.       ◦     fire:  the most dangerous and holy. the ability to manipulate spiritual energy (zhor) and, for the shahravar, to wield the sacred fire itself.      ◦     the daevic arts (varshakhan sorcery):  the varshakhan practice forbidden arts, invoking the names of daevas to curse their enemies. the dagger used on shams was inscribed with the true name of the daeva bushyasta, "the procrastinator," who brings lethargy and decay, and was imbued with the venom of the sag - did, the "death hound" of folklore.

the nisnas body houses daena— the embodiment of their conscience and actions. then there is the fravashi— their divine, pre - existent spirit, which is normally a guiding, unseen force. if it has been made manifest and trapped in a fragile form, this will be an abomination, as the fravashi is meant to be eternal and untouchable.

⊹ PRE EVENTS.

the story begins with shams, the heir to the shahravar khana, participating in a truce gathering with the other khanas at a hidden ateshkadeh  (fire temple) in the mountains of shiraz. the gathering is shattered by a varshakhan ambush. during the chaos, shams is dueling a varshakhan elder when he produces the dagger of bushyasta. instead of a killing blow, he plunges it into her shoulder. she expects death, but instead feels a violent, soul - rending tearing. as the sun rises, her body collapses, and her consciousness erupts from her chest in a burst of light, taking the form of a solitary butterfly. she is trapped, unable to control her torpid body, forced to watch her khana retreat in disarray and confusion, believing her lost.

weeks later, shams has learned the rhythm of her existence. by night, she is a nisnas, but weaker, her energy constantly draining. by day, she is a butterfly, her human soul exposed and vulnerable. she discovers her butterfly form can sense the flow of zhor  (energy) and perceive the spiritual decay left by varshakhan feeding grounds. she realizes the attack was a precise, magical act. stealing ancient scrolls from her own now - cloistered khana, she vows to uncover the reason she was made this way.

shams' research leads her to the legend of the tree of weeping souls, said to be a primordial tree poisoned by angra mainyu's tear. her butterfly soul is instinctively repelled by its mention. tracking its lore, she travels to the ancient hyrcanian forests near the caspian sea. there, in a hidden grove, she finds a single, petrified branch— proof the tree exists and that the varshakhan have access to it. she learns the dagger's magic is one of "preparation," not destruction. it doesn't kill but rather it unmakes and prepares the soul for a greater ritual.

her next clue points to the khashayar heir, a nisnas named ramin. she tracks him, finding him just as a varshakhan hunting party arrives to "collect" him. she intervenes, using her unique nature to her advantage— her butterfly form distracts the attackers with blinding flashes of pure spiritual light and sees the truth from him. in fact, the varshakhan have promised the khashayar a permanent domain in the new world order, free from their endless wandering. he was a willing participant until he learned the full cost. he tells shams of the zhulmat - e - abad, the eternal night, a ritual that requires the three heirs as living keys. the varshakhan heir represents the body, ramin the spirit, and shams, the soul. her transformation was necessary to make her soul "harvestable."

and thus comes the revelation. if her butterfly is her fravashi, perhaps it can feed her daena. in the ruins of a sassanian - era observatory, she conducts a dangerous experiment. as the sun rises and her butterfly form emerges, she guides it to the center of a powerful, natural ley line convergence. instead of drawing blood, she has her fravashi draw pure, unaligned zhor from the earth itself. it works. the energy is raw and difficult to process, but it sustains her. for the first time since her curse, she stops weakening. she begins to feed directly from the cosmos, no longer reliant on human essence. this makes her stronger than anyone anticipates and completely outside the varshakhan's predictions.

they pinpoint the ritual's location: the mount of the two thrones (kuh - e do takht), a site sacred to both mithra and ahriman in zoroastrian lore, a place of perfect duality. they arrive on the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. the summit is a terrifying sight. the varshakhan khana, led by their heir ardeshir, has assembled. ardeshir and ramin are chained to two ancient altars, their essences being drawn into a swirling vortex of darkness above the mountain— the nascent zhulmat. a third, empty altar awaits shams. her own shahravar khana, believing her dead, is launching a desperate, seemingly suicidal assault to stop the ritual.

shams realizes that destroying the ritual from the outside is impossible. she must break it from within. she makes a choice: she just surrenders. she walks onto the empty third altar, allowing the ritual magic to seize her. inside the spiritual vortex, she confronts ardeshir's consciousness. he gloats, believing they have won, but she does the unthinkable. instead of letting her two souls be torn apart, she uses the ritual's own immense power to reforge them. embracing her duality, she forces her daena and fravashi to merge, becoming, for a fleeting moment, a complete being— a new saam - ghul. the influx of this whole, balanced energy is anathema to the dark ritual. the vortex destabilizes, the energy running wild.

the zhulmat - e - abad collapses in a cataclysmic explosion of light and shadow. the mountain is scarred, but the eternal night is averted. ardeshir and many varshakhan elders are consumed by the backfire. the surviving varshakhan flee, shattered but not destroyed. shams survives, forever changed. her curse is not entirely broken, she still transforms at dawn. but now it is a choice. she has mastered her duality. she can be a nisnas, a butterfly, or, for brief moments, the whole one. her khana see her as a messianic figure, the fulfillment of their founder's prophecies. the remnants of the khashayar, led by ramin, swear a new oath to the shahravar.

five years have passed since the battle. shams has embraced her role as the "vas - e - do - jahan"  (the bridge between two worlds). she leads a newly unified khana, a fragile alliance of the reformed shahravar and the loyalist khashayar, now called the "khan - e - noor"  (the house of light). they operate from a hidden headquarters beneath the historic naqsh - e jahan square in isfahan. the varshakhan are scattered, but not defeated. they have become a shadowy insurgency.

⊹ POST.

suddenly a new threat emerges. nisnas from all khanas, beginning with the most ancient and powerful, are falling into a catatonic state. they are not dead, but their essence is fading, as if their very connection to existence is unspooling. they call it the "sokut - e - javidan"  (the eternal silence). it strikes without pattern, affecting varshakhan, khana - e - noor and unaligned nisnas alike. one day, shams' soul is drawn to a strange, dissonant energy in a remote desert. she finds a crater holding a fragment of a meteorite— but this stone is cold, black, and seems to absorb light and sound. it is "sang - e - nemudar"  (the omen stone). when she touches it with her spiritual form, she is flooded with a vision: not of the future, but of the past— a perfect, agonizingly beautiful memory of unity from the perspective of the first nisnas, saam - ghul,  before the sundering. the vision ends with a wrenching tear, and a single, echoing whisper:  "find the other half."

her investigation leads her to the true mastermind:  behnan, the sole surviving elder of the varshakhan. but behnan is no longer a mere warmonger. he has become an ascetic of annihilation. he believes the sundering was the first flaw in a broken universe, and the only path to true peace is not to rule a corrupted world, but to un - create it entirely. he sees the eternal silence not as a threat, but as a divine mercy, and he seeks to accelerate it. it turns out he's hunting for the legendary "golestan - e - makoos"  (the garden of reverse miracles), a mythical place said to hold the "memory" of the world before the sundering. his goal is not to heal the nisnas, but to use the garden's power to perform a "counter - sundering"— to broadcast the "memory of non - existence" across the spiritual plane, erasing every nisnas at once, returning their collective essence to the void to restore cosmic balance.

so now she has to race him to the garden. her goal is the opposite: to use its power for reintegration, to find a permanent cure for her people's fractured state.

the garden is not a physical place, but a pocket dimension housed within the oldest living cypress tree in abarkooh. to enter, shams must use her duality, having her body and butterfly soul step through simultaneously. inside they find a garden of events, emotions and lost moments, all frozen in crystal clarity. at its center hangs the "mehr - e - gomshodeh"  (the lost sun), the crystallized, dormant heart of the original saam - ghul. behnan is already there. he begins the ritual of the counter - sundering, preparing to merge with the lost sun and broadcast the signal of un - creation. she realizes she cannot defeat him with force, so her final move is to do what she did on the mountain, but in reverse. instead of merging her two souls, she splits them willingly and completely, projecting her daena and her fravashi as two separate entities.

the lost sun responds to her and begins to flares with light and offers a choice to every nisnas simultaneously: to embrace the silence or to embrace the struggle.

the catatonic nisnas awaken, forever changed by the psychic choice they were offered. most chose to live. behnan willingly walks into the dawn and turns to dust. but the victory is profound and complex. the lost sun is now dormant within shams, a burden of immense power. shams is no longer just the heir to a khana, but the living steward of two worlds. one moment she is a nisnas, the next a butterfly superimposed over her form. the work of building a new destiny for her people, of learning to live with the gift she seems to have been given, has just begun. the final image is of her butterfly soul taking flight, not away from her body, but dancing around it in a perfect, harmonious orbit.

⊹ SOME NOTES.

and by the time she shams was fourteen, she entered the tākht - e - sāya, the throne of shadows, a canyon that is said to reveal secret through its echoes. if the rocks whisper her true name, forouzandeh, she is destined to lead. and that it did. upon her return to the village, she was named the sar - tāj of her village.

by the time her wings had unfurled fully, her father’s feud with keyhan veval, the lord of one of the cities of golestān -e - sofra, had festered like a wound left to rot. the vendetta began before her birth, seeded in a betrayal written in ink upon the scroll of broken oaths. but keyhan desired more than vengeance. he wanted artistry in cruelty. on the night of ashen bread, when the tribe honored the dead and souls flickered between, his men struck. they came using magic stolen from the manifestation of the souls being celebrated, slipping past the sentinels as shams was kindling the ritual flame and she was taken by them.

his estate was a living grotesquerie, if anything and the dungeons were no mere prison, but a chamber of metamorphosis, where, in his words, he wished to peel the divine from flesh like rind from fruit. shams was chained in manacles forged from aži dahāka, the three headed dragon’s scales, which further immobilized her due to her ancestry to the dragons. his plan was to rip her wings from her back, but since they only appear in her true reera form, he began mentally draining her first. she was forcefully fed a dragon’s blood and ultimately its heart, which keyhan had kept it beating in a glass womb for centuries. it was down her throat and it unmade and remade her— ribs cracking and finally, her true form appearing.

and thus, she had not only lost her wings, but defiled her ancestors’ blood by devouring their maker’s heart. as the ritual neared completion, the dungeon itself changed. the stones loosened her chains. she fell through the estate’s gardens and she tumbled over the outer wall, her blood painting the sigils there into waking life and collapsed into the mud. she escaped the estate now, but she carries keyhan’s masterpiece inside her now and soon enough, it will hatch. now, half - blind, she crawled toward the distant torchlight. the people who found her were not just any warriors, but the pāsbānān and behrad had led them.

she is returned back to the village, but the air is different now. her father waited for her, as she knew he would, amidst the rest of the council, where the allied elders sat. she had little care for conversations at the moment, but her mind was on one thing. in athyani burials, the wings of the fallen were burned and their ashes scattered to the wind so the dead might be remembered. hers would be no different. it is also during her time healing that she realizes that her magic had shifted. the dragon’s blood seared her channels raw and caused her energy to fuse with the way her magic worked. instead of simply manipulating light, she controlled energy altogether, a phenomenon that hadn’t existed for centuries due to energy magic becoming extinct. the magic wasn’t just new, but a violation of natural order and clearly tied to the dragon’s extinction. almost like it’s the dragons’ last breath given form.

between dealing with her new abilities and the overall capture, her family had planned multiple meetings with people in the other districts, until they finally reached the royal family. the king, however, refused to do anything. he was a high reera who hasn’t put much effort in the last centuries for his own people, too selfish with his own needs. in anger, they return home and a new event that changes the course of their lives begins: the revolution.

›   chapter two: 

the lords and elders of narbarad all got together, planning their next steps. they had grown tired of the way the kingdom was running and knew it was time for a change. some of them agreed that ali ought to become king, but he was focusing on winning this before anything else. shams, who heard of this later the same day, told her father that she wanted to join him as well. that she has every right in this fight as everyone else is. and she did. with enough training, she got back on her feet and managed to get her rhythm back. shams was not only walking towards the path of becoming a better warrior, but a great planner as well. the revolution itself wasn't quite what it felt like. if anyone would ask, it was more of a war happening in the same kingdom. on one side there was a great army containing many races, high reera and lower reera alike. on another, there was the royal army. in the midst of all of this, however, shams was not just a lady willing to fight a brutal battle, but someone who wanted to win.

she established a secret network of spies and informants, not just in narbarad, but around each kingdom as well. there were many secrets that had helped her with the multiple battles she was getting into. one of those spies, not a noblewoman but one of her father's servants, named bahareh, played a crucial role in gathering vital information about the king and his wife. unlike the noblewoman, bahareh's background as a servant allowed her to move more freely and inconspicuously within the palace grounds. despite the risks involved, bahareh's loyalty and keen observational skills made her an invaluable asset. she meticulously collected snippets of conversations, noted the interactions between the king and his wife, and paid close attention to the dynamics within the court. her efforts provided shams with a steady stream of information that made winning this revolution much easier.

when it was time for the final battle, they had already unraveled the sacred geometry of war— the precise calculus by which the enemy’s legions would manifest. to know the system of the army’s descent was to wield prophecy: the exact moment the vanguard would tear through the mountain passes, the hierarchies of steel and sorcery that dictated their advance, the killing grounds where their formations would pivot like a bloodbath. bahareh had stolen this knowledge from the lips of generals that were stupidly drunk, from the wax - sealed scrolls and from the rhythm of boots as the royal guard shifted their patrols. she had mapped their strategies as living sigils, each commander’s arrogance, each battalion’s blind spot, each fatal delay between order and execution.

after a long period of conflict, they finally achieved victory. in the aftermath, there was a brief period of shared control of the royal court, lasting for a week, allowing everyone time to rest and recuperate. once the week had passed and the key figures were well - rested, a crucial meeting was convened to determine the future of the kingdom and establish the new royal family. as planned, the consensus was to select shams' father as the new ruler. ali, known for his wisdom, leadership qualities and fair governance, was seen as the ideal candidate to bring stability and prosperity to the kingdom. his reputation as a just and benevolent leader had earned him the respect and support of both the nobles and the common people.

the decision was formalized during the meeting, with all parties agreeing that shams' father was the best choice to lead the kingdom into a new era. his appointment was met with widespread approval, as many believed he would restore order, implement fair policies, and ensure the well-being of the realm. with her father now installed as the new king, the transition of power was smooth and well - received. the royal court began its work under new leadership, focusing on rebuilding the kingdom, addressing the needs of the people, and fostering a sense of unity and hope for the future. this marked the beginning of a new chapter for shams, as the princess of narbarad.

once Shams settled into her new home as princess, she was finally confronted with the emotional and physical pain she had put off during the battle: the loss of her wings. the wings had been a vital part of her identity, representing her freedom, strength and unique heritage. losing them in the heat of conflict had been a devastating blow, but the urgency of the war had left her no time to grieve.

now, in the relative calm and safety of the palace, the reality of her loss hit her with full force. the pain was not just physical; it was deeply emotional, a constant reminder of what she had sacrificed. her wings and magic had given her the ability to soar above her problems, both literally and figuratively, and now she felt grounded in a way that was both new and profoundly unsettling. despite her new title and responsibilities, she found herself struggling to adjust. the opulence of the palace and the demands of her role as princess often felt like a stark contrast to her turmoil. she was surrounded by luxury and power, but all she felt was profound sense of loss.

she realized that in order to get her life around, she needed to get herself out of whatever she is in at the moment.

as shams continued her healing process, she rediscovered her profound desire to help her people. the time she spent recovering allowed her to reflect on her purpose and the role she could play in the kingdom beyond her own grief and responsibilities. she began to focus on creating tangible improvements for her people. she initiated the establishment of camps and safe havens across the kingdom, places where those affected by anything that might happen in their lives could find refuge, support and a sense of community. these camps were designed to offer more than just shelter; they provided food, medical care, training spaces, and educational opportunities to help people rebuild their lives. but she knew that if she were to fulfill her duties fully, she has to deal with the biggest problem at hand: her new magic.

›   chapter three: 

it takes her a few months of research to understand where she needs to go. throughout those months, the energy she now controls had caused waves of disruption around her. the world did not accept the magic that was being thrown at it and she knew there was more to the picture than what was being led on. while she was in one of the libraries of her home district, a scholar approaches her with information that was more of a guess than true knowledge, but at this point, she would do anything to find a solution to what she doesn’t want to call a problem. mount qaf, the mountain rage that all elders had called too dangerous for anyone to survive, is where she might find answers. and this is where she was headed towards.

the air above mount qaf did not behave as air should. it shimmered like oil on water, bending light into impossible shapes, rippling doorways to realms that were not bound by laws of nature. she had heard the tales: that qaf was not a range, but a spine of the world, its peaks piercing the veil between planes. the home of dragons. the cradle of forgotten magic. and now, she had come to learn the truth. the climb was as terrifying as they had made it out to be, because it was not one of stone, but of shifting realities. one misstep could send her tumbling into different planes with no way to go back home. her new magic, light made savage, raw as an open wound, flickered uncontrollably here. each pulse of energy drew things from the mist: shadow - eaters with needle teeth, drawn to power like moths to a flame.

deep across one of the mountains, she found the first true dragon since their deaths. not a beast of flesh, but a ghost of living script, its body woven from glowing runes that told the story of her people. through a conversation with them, she understood the truth of her magic. light was not hers to command. it is a language and all she does is scream. to master it, she had to make the choice of facing the mirror of ash, where she would see all the selves she would become, or walking the path of the very first dragons, where each step will rewrite her bones. and the deeper she ventured, the more qaf tested her.

the portals bled into one another, forcing her to walk through memories not her own, watching her ancestors burn wings as offerings to something older than dragons. as she spent more time there, she learned much more about her ancestors and why they were actually tied to the dragons. they had killed them and eaten their hearts, just as she has, but instead of the guilt eating her alive, they were proud. until the dragons disappeared. and it was with this realization that her light grew sharper and more confusing. it left her with more questions.

she wasn’t ready yet. the trials of mount qaf should have broken her. she had crossed the bridge, only for her steps to shatter like glass beneath her, sending her plummeting into the abyss, until the winds themselves spat her back out. she had stood before the mirror of ash, but her reflection had splintered into a thousand possibilities, none of them whole. even her light, that furious, untamed force, rebelled against her, searing her palms when she tried to shape it. it was in the ruins of a half - collapsed portal that she found them. a scattered group of energy mages, none of them like her. they saw exactly why shams was failing. and with them she had finally seen what she needed to see. she had spent so long forcing her power into obedience, just as keyhan had forced the dragon’s heart into her. but energy magic was not about control. she had learned that it was about surrender.

they led her to the pool of drowned stars, a place where the sky fell into the earth and dissolved. when she touched the water, her light exploded in recognition. the pool showed her the dragon’s heart inside her, still beating and the echoes of her ancestors. she realized that her magic was never hers to command. it was a gift and gifts must be received. and qaf, at last, began to answer. she stands at the summit of broken portals now, her light now a single, perfect note, and the ghost of the dragon bows its head. now you speak, they say. and with that, she returns home with more understanding.

›   chapter four: 

when she comes back, she does so with a clearer mind. she returns to the duties she had started. shams worked tirelessly to ensure that these safe havens were well - organized again and effective. she enlisted the help of skilled builders, healers and dedicated scholars, creating teams that could address the needs of the people. her leadership in this endeavor was marked by her personal involvement— she frequently visited the camps, listening to the stories of those who had suffered and offering words of encouragement and hope.

the princess' efforts quickly bore fruit. the camps became beacons of hope and stability in a kingdom still recovering from the ravages of war. they served as places where families could reunite, where children could play and learn without fear and where individuals could receive the care and support they needed to heal both physically and emotionally. through these initiatives, she found a new sense of purpose and fulfillment. her actions not only helped her people but also aided in her own healing. she saw firsthand the positive impact she could have, reinforcing her belief in the power of compassion and community.

moreover, shams' projects inspired others in the kingdom to get involved. nobles, merchants, and commoners alike contributed resources and volunteered their time, fostering a spirit of unity and collective effort. this communal support strengthened the bonds within the kingdom and helped to heal the social fabric that had been torn apart by the conflict. in addition to creating these safe havens, she also spearheaded various social programs aimed at long - term recovery and development. she advocated for better education, fair labor practices, and economic opportunities for all, ensuring that the kingdom's recovery would be inclusive and sustainable.

shams' dedication to her people earned her widespread admiration and respect. she became known not only as a princess but as a leader. through her actions, she helped transform the kingdom into a place where everyone had the chance to thrive.

shams and her brother became indispensable to their father's rule, each playing crucial roles in the administration of the kingdom. khabib took on the responsibilities of higher politics, dealing with international relations, diplomacy, and overarching strategic decisions. his sharp intellect and understanding of global affairs made him an excellent advisor and strategist, ensuring the kingdom's place and influence on the world stage.

shams, on the other hand, focused on lower politics, directly addressing the needs and concerns of the common people. her deep empathy and firsthand experience with the struggles of the populace made her a natural leader in this area. she worked on policies and programs that improved everyday life, from healthcare and education to infrastructure and social welfare. her efforts in creating camps and safe havens were just the beginning of a broader campaign to ensure that all citizens had access to the resources they needed to prosper.

In addition to her political responsibilities, she also took on the role of commander in chief of the royal army. her experience during the conflict had earned her the respect and loyalty of the soldiers, and she was determined to maintain a strong, disciplined and well - prepared military. while khabib handled the political machinations, she immersed herself in the intricacies of military strategy and operations. she regularly met with the generals, discussing plans, evaluating threats, and ensuring that the army was always ready to protect the kingdom.

›   chapter five: 

for three millennia, the kingdoms had flourished in careful balance. the eshra, those ancient beings woven into the fabric of the immortal realm, had long been both stewards and specters, their presence a dance between creation and chaos. the reera prided themselves on understanding these forces, on coaxing harmony from the unseen. but something was breaking now. it began with whispers. a village in narbarad’s eastern valleys woke to find their fields frosted in midsummer, the wheat blackened as if scorched by an invisible flame. in saevrolia, a river reversed its course overnight, dragging half a forest into its depths. zaetian healers reported patients speaking in tongues, their eyes bleached white, their voices harmonizing in a language no linguist could place. the reera, who had spent lifetimes documenting the eshra’s rhythms, were the first to sound the alarm. the spirits were slipping. where once they had been predictable— capricious, yes, but bound by ancient accords, now they lashed out like wounded animals. some reera claimed the eshra were afraid. others insisted they were awakening to something older.

as the disturbances spread, so did the terror. narbarad’s royal astronomers tracked a new star in the sky, one that pulsed like a heartbeat. within weeks, their telescopes cracked from within, as if blinded. saevrolia’s forests grew thorns the size of swords, their roots twisting into sigils that burned who touched them. zaetia’s famed mirror - pools, once used to commune with the eshra, now showed only a figure with too many eyes, mouthing words that left viewers bleeding from the ears. the reera scrambled for answers. had the eshra finally grown weary of their stewardship? or had something beyond the immortal realm begun calling to them? it was shams who pieced together the truth. after months of chasing anomalies, she identified five points of corruption, places where the veil between the eshra and the material world had grown rotten thin.

it had started with chidie oluchi. she was raised among mortals, believing herself human, her true heritage hidden beneath layers of glamours placed by the priests of kuiniel. she is, in truth, the last of the knights that protected aivebia. to protect her from being used, her own people encased her heart in living crystal, a sacred rite meant to shield their knights from corruption. but now, the crystal pulses with an eerie light, attracting the eshra as if it’s a beacon. wherever she goes, the world distorts, tides obey her nightmares, storms whisper her true name, and the eshra gather in the shadows, drawn by the song of her trapped heart. then, the rest followed. a marsh that frowned travellers in liquid silence in saevrolia, a mine where gems grew like tumors, a ground of grass in the qatarons that swallowed anyone who walked on it. it never ended. each nexus pulsed with the same wrongness, as if a god had pressed a thumb into the world and left a bruise.

worse, shams’s magic reacted violently near them, suggesting the corruption was alive and hungry. the council of the esoteric order, a group of reera with powerful innate magic that were well versed in the eshra, came together to find an end to it.

but the end was worse than anyone imagined. the eshra were never supposed to break free. the knights' ancient bindings were never meant to fail. the five nexuses should have remained dormant. but then came shams and her energy magic, forged from a dragon’s stolen heart, changed everything. when she absorbed the dragon’s essence, she did more than alter her own fate. she ruptured the equilibrium of the realm itself. and the eshra feed on balance. for centuries, they existed in a careful dance, creation and destruction, bound in harmony. but shams' energy was too pure, too raw, like a star forced into a closed room. and as thus, the truth is uncovered: for the world to continue living, shams has to die. not just any death— a willing dissolution, where her essence is scattered back into the cosmos, returning the stolen energy to the cycle. but there is one twist. shams’s death must be an act of absolute selflessness. if she sacrifices herself out of guilt, fear or obligation, it will not work. and she does so easily, because what is she if not a ghost in the body of a leader?

⋆ fire and blood: shams is from an island off the shores of dorne. while it is affiliated with the main land, it is independent of westeros. her father rules the island, her family has connections around all of westeros due to their knowledge of mythical creatures and the archive they have kept updated for centuries, which is why they are in constant contact with the targaryens and the velaryons and other dragonriders. after shams almost dies and after escaping an arranged marriage that was set up by her mother, she travels around the mainland to help as many people as she can. she gives up her title as princess and becomes commander - in - chief of her father's army and as such, when the dance happens, she sides with rhaenyra and supports her claim. on a similar note, her asoiaf verse is similar to the regards of her origin and what she does during her time.

⋆ final fantasy xiv: a hyur whose soul carries the reincarnated essence of an ancient primal. once a sharlayan scholar, she uncovered an ancient allagan relic that awakened her latent connection to the primal, flooding her mind with echoes of past summonings. now, she struggles with visions, her body occasionally flickering with embers of her past incarnation. though not fully tempered, she struggles with losing herself to the primal’s will and wanders eorzea seeking answers— whether to purge the entity, control it or become its vessel once more. her journey will intersect with the scions when they realize her condition could be the key to stopping a new wave of primal awakenings. there is a possibility of sealing away the primal for good or merge with it to control its power, but will that end in shams' erasure?

⋆ the grishaverse: shams descends from one of the ancient kings who once ruled over ravka’s fractured feudal provinces. though her royal blood no longer carries a title, she starts off in the little palace, where she trains as a fabrikator. while her talent for creation mirrors the fundamental equation of energy magic, it’s her raw physical prowess that unexpectedly steers her toward combat training. beyond her official duties, she secretly leads efforts to protect war - torn villages. her path takes a turn when she encounters the simurgh. she doesn’t slay the creature for an amplifier; instead, they forge a bond. through their connection, the simurgh becomes both her protector and mentor, manifesting when called upon. it grants her three gifts: transcendent insight beyond mortal understanding, the ability to forge weapons from its divine light and the secret of immortality. and now shams takes charge, training new grisha in the army.

⋆ the hunger games: victor of the 72nd hunger games, shams was born in district six in the heart of the transit hub. at sixteen she volunteers, not because she wants to, but because her family has an underworld system of moving goods (and secrets) across panem and she needed to drive attention away from it. during the early days in the game, she avoided killing people and instead helped wounded tributes, tying tourniquets and hiding them from careers. when forced to fight, she used to distract people. she used to fell them with sleeper holds, tripping wires or traps. in one of the games, another district six tribute was placed on a silver platter, their chest cut open as a test. after she wins the games, the capitol names her a wounded nightingale and she plays the role of the perfect victor, but secretly she does the same thing her parents used to do and smuggles supplies to rebels. she does not officially join the rebels at first, but is known around their circles.

shams was born to a family belonging to the writers faction in the real world, around the time the warring between the two factions had already existed for years. the azaris used to be an ancient lineage of narrative weavers, a family cursed (or blessed) with the ability to alter reality by rewriting its story. they did not create from nothing until much later— instead, they edit existence like a manuscript, changing events, people and even history itself with the stroke of their pen. the ability died out ages ago due to other members of the faction taking advantage of it and as such, they primarily focused on the art of creation by writing. but how exactly did their ability work? there used to be a hereditary artifact, a pen that writes in blood - ink, capable of altering events, but only if the change "fits the narrative." small edits (changing a name, erasing a memory) are easy, but large ones (preventing a death, rewriting a war) require sacrifices.

compared to the canvases of the painters, written stories are interconnected with each other, forming one realm that they call the pale verses. each world is a labyrinth of stanzas, metaphors given physical form and allegories that twist reality. time loops, meanings shift and the only way to survive is to write oneself into the narrative or be erased by the world's hunger for new stanzas. not many reach the hub of said world, but it is a vast, labyrinthine library where every story is its own world. each written work manifests as its own self - contained universe, obeying the rules of its narrative. the more a story is read, remembered or revised in the real world, the stronger its world becomes. when a story is abandoned, burned or lost, its world begins to dissolve.

this was one of the focal points between the writers in the faction. not only have they been warring with the painters, but for more control, books would be hidden and even burned to diminish a family's power. and because the azaris were the only known writers who could rewrite the events of a story, it had soon began to affect them. soon, the greed and fear of her family had taken over, each person fighting to be the strongest narrative weaver. reality, strained by their manipulations, began to reject their changes. people they had erased in the worlds flickered back as half - formed ghosts, events they altered twisted into paradoxes and entire bloodlines collapsed under the weight of their revisions. this had caused issues in the real world as well. the more a writer rewrites a story, the more they stop existing in the real world. and thus, almost all of the weavers disappeared, except for a select few who had seemed to make the right choice.

around the time she had begun to be a prodigy in the art of writing, she finds said artifact. upon touching it, it triggers an event that leaves her trapped in a poem about the history of the writers. this is where everything changes. the world she had entered was like no other she had seen before, a reality the hub would call the devouring stranza. the poem is alive and it is a parasitic text, a living entity that consumes stories, memories and souls to sustain itself. it was originally a eulogy, written by the last weaver as their bloodline collapsed. intended to be a monument to lost history, it instead became a recursive curse— a poem that rewrote itself with every word read, growing more ravenous with each iteration. as they removed each other from existence, the poem absorbed their forgotten remnants, becoming a patchwork of missing memories.

now, it exists as the only true record of the azaris and one that feeds on their descendants. but what was the actual structure of the poem? the poem has no true beginning or end. it loops eternally, with each stanza referencing its own consumption. key lines shift upon rereading, ensuring no two interpretations are the same. the poem cannot exist if the weavers are truly gone. thus, it preserves the last weaver (shams), not out of mercy, but to sustain itself. if she dies without passing on her power, the stanza will unravel, but so will every reality the weavers ever altered. and it is during her time there that she learns of this.

throughout her journey, she walked through different locations that helped her learn the reality of this world. the inkwell catacombs, a place that held the corpses of weavers who tried to escape their fate, or the artifact's birthplace, a glacial tundra where the first quill was dipped, were the first two she had to encounter. the last location, however, was the one that opened her eyes. the ghost press, they called it, a monstrous, broken printing press in a dead city, tended to by ink - golems made of discarded drafts. if she can stop the press, she might stop the poem’s hold on her. but the press is guarded by something that wears a weaver’s skin. in the end, there were only two solutions to escape the world she had found herself in: either complete the text and dissolve into the stranza or rewrite herself out of the narrative. which is exactly what happened.

she's back to reality now, but things seem to be different. the attack against the dessendre family had now occurred and things were much more drastic than before. shams' physical health has also weakened and for her to find a cure, she must travel into different artworks, whether created by a writer or painter, and find something that will sustain her or else she will be consumed by ink. she channels her energy into these worlds, while keeping her physical body in the real world, and helps resolve the issues with her own ability. she appears as a normal human, but if one were to look closely, her reflection flickers, sometimes showing a verse where her face should be. when shams is inside artworks, time moves differently for her. the scenes in front of her shift to depict past or future iterations of the events or it replays in different ways to show many versions of what is yet to happen (or maybe never will happen). she also cannot rewrite events unless she uses the blood of the source creating these worlds.

and this is how she gets involved with lumière and the continent. her latest journey, she had entered a few years after the fracture, making sure she acclimates herself with the continent. her initial reason for coming, however, was not for the cure, but because of the war happening in the real world. she simply had to act before things worsened and to her, the start was with the very same corruption that her faction had started. while clea created the nevrons to lock away all of aline's chroma, shams will seek out expeditions to help them get closer, which she had done in the past. the expedition will be able to find her in multiple locations, the first one being the ancient sanctuary. she will leave little clues for the expedition to find her, but if that does not seem to work, she will seek them out herself, which will be in old lumière. she is also familiar with most inhabitants of the continent, particularly being fond of the gestrals and the grandis.

she makes no decisions when she is with expedition 33, only being there for support, whether that is a party member or as a camp inhabitant. her loyalty remains with finding a way to end the war, something she values even more than finding a cure. if maelle's ending has been chosen, she will leave the canvas. in the same vein, if verso's ending has been chosen, she will do the same. she won't particularly tell the full truth at once because of how deep it is and how it is not her story to tell, but if they were to ask the right questions, she will give the right answers.

when she returns to the real world, she moves forward with the fight between the writers and the painters. when it comes to her cure, there is no proper solution that would be viewed as a good ending. she could retrieve the inkwell of the first weaver, but his blood carries his madness and hunger, so she would risk becoming a new devouring stanza herself. she could find a counterpart to the quill that unwrites instead of writes, but if she were to unwrite herself, it would unmake her past actions, collapsing events she’s influenced. she could force the entity that eats forgotten stories to consume the stanza, but that would mean herself with it. either way, the ending for her will either be being erased from existence, becoming a monstrosity or dying. in the end, she disappears either way. it only depends on which option she prefers. and any journey she could take will only delay the inevitable.

⊹ LITTLE NOTES:

her appearance shifts during her time in the canvas. the way her illness shows itself when she is inside an artwork is making it seem like it is a magical illness. in each artwork, the way it manifests is different. while she is on the continent, her face has golden marks that shift depending on her energy levels. see here for an example of how it might look.

it is said that the land was a chaotic and untamed wilderness, fractured by forces and ruled by warring spirits. according to legend, the world was shaped by the struggle between two primordial beings: zurvasha, the spirit of boundless time and varghat, the spirit of endless chaos. to bring balance to this war - ravaged land, zurvasha created the avahran, six divine stewards, each governing a natural element. these stewards forged the foundation of the land. however, varghat's remnants seeped into the earth, creating places of corruption and spawning creatures of darkness that sought to undo the stewards' work. the avahran, unable to deal with varghat's lingering power, imbued their essence into a mortal champion, a visionary leader who would come to be eshandar, whom they tasked with uniting the warring tribes and protecting the land from chaos.

and thus, the area got divided into three main districts:

the golden plains (dasht-e - zar), which were expansive deserts with golden sand dunes. oases dotted throughout serve as hubs for trade and agriculture.

the riverlands (abshahr), which were fertile lands fed by the twin rivers, believed to be gifts from ahryvaun.

the azure mountains (kuh - e - lazvard), which were towering peaks rich in precious gems like lapis lazuli, believed to house spirits and dragons.

one of the most important locations in zarnesha is the temple of the sixfold flame, an ancient site where the rivers met. it is said that this is where eshandar made a sacred pact with the avahran and received what would now be two of the infamous royal objects given to each new generation. the first is the shamshir - e - borhan (the sword of clarity), a blade imbued with mehrathar's light, capable of dispelling corruption. then comes the farvanaar mantle, a shimmering cloak woven with the winds of vayoran, granting eshandar the voice to unite people. it was through eshandar that future warriors were able to fight the darkspawn.

the nation thrives on trade, exporting silk, spices, gems and intricately designed weapons to distant lands, including thedas. the rivers varan and mazand allow for advanced irrigation systems that support agriculture. the caravan serai, an ancient trade route connecting them to other continents, ensures a steady influx of wealth and culture.

IMPORTANT HISTOICAL EVENTS.

zarnesha is founded around -3200 ancient by eshandar the first shahanshah, chosen by the avahran spirits.

early zarnesha thrives, rivers varan and mazand bring life and the people develop a magical system rooted in balance, not domination.

the fade is thin here too, so spirits often cross into the mortal world but are carefully bound and honored through the six pillars of balance.

as tevinter rises and arlathan falls, zarnesha remains distant and self - contained.

early explorers from tevinter vanish mysteriously trying to reach zarnesha, leaving behind myths of a "golden river kingdom" untouched by blood magic.

when the darkspawn rise in thedas, zarnesha feels a ripple in the fade, like a sickness infecting the spirit realm.

darkspawn emerge in zarnesha too, but differently. instead of pouring from the deep roads, they manifest in the mortal world through corrupted spirits. spirit wells become tainted pools. infected spirits, called "varzhan" (meaning "twisted echoes") fuse with beasts, dead things and even rocks, forming grotesque but semi - sentient horrors.

unlike thedas, zarnesha’s darkspawn are not endless armies. they are isolated outbreaks, tied to specific corrupted spirit wells. most of the country remains untouched, but wherever a well falls, the land becomes barren, cursed and dangerous.

the shahanshah at the time creates the order of the verdant spear, warrior - mystics trained to purify wells and destroy varzhan before they spread.

chantry envoys arrive much later, around 1 divine to 5:00 exalted.

zarnesha accepts their traders but bans chantry missionaries.

inquisition agents once tried to make contact during the chaos of corypheus’ uprising, but found a closed, heavily - guarded empire.

around 9:30 dragon, news of the fifth blight reaches zarnesha.

their scholars quickly note the difference: in thedas, darkspawn corrupt and conquer physically. in zarnesha, they corrupt spiritually, poisoning fade touchpoints.

some suspect that if zarnesha’s spirit - wells all fall, the nation would collapse from within, not through invasion, but through spiritual death.

as the veil weakens everywhere in 9:52 dragon, the number of corrupted spirit wells is rising alarmingly.

even strongholds once protected by the verdant spears are now faltering.

civil war is brewing between:

the order of the verdant spear (traditionalists who want to strengthen old spirit pacts) and the glass lotus circle (reformers who seek new magic, even blood magic, to fight the spreading corruption).

now, shahanshah ali rules a land on the brink. his court is split between advisors who believe they must awaken old powers and those who believe they must renew their pact with the avahran. in secret, ali sends a group of people to thedas, hoping to learn about the grey wardens and their knowledge of darkspawn taint before it's too late. this is where shams, a mage here, comes in. two years before the events of origins, at the border of zarnesha, a secretive cult from thedas known as the crimson altar found a hidden passage by shipwreck along the coast. this cult had forsaken the maker, worshiping the ancient dragons and believed that consuming dragon's blood granted them "ascension". during a ceremonial march between two holy cities, they abducted shams under the cover of a sandstorm, spiriting her to a hidden cavern. she is, then, forcefully fed a dragon's blood and is innately transformed.

her magic mutates overnight. upon her return, the zarneshan court was horrified. blood magic was strictly forbidden as it was seen as a violation of natural balance, a path to demonic possession. shams voluntarily submitted herself to isolation in the sacred shrines of avanisha, ancient places used for healing and spiritual testing. there, over months, she mastered her blood magic, reshaping it into something defensive, self - sacrificial and non - corrupting. instead of sacrificing others for power, she sacrificed her own blood to shield soldiers, cleanse wounds or ward off darkspawn taint. she invented spells like blood ward (sacrificing health to create protective barriers) and sanguine bond (linking to allies to absorb their pain). at the age of twenty, she is being trained to rise as the next commander in chief and one final task awaits her: uniting the forces between thedas and her own continent.

ORIGINS. shams arrives in ferelden before the events of the battle of ostagar and can be found in the camp when the player character first meets the wardens. she is there beside duncan, gently encouraging the recruits who are having second thoughts about the joining. she is surprised by ariel's appearance, as they have been friends since a young age, there and after she finds out how he is no longer in the circle, she is found conversing with him about it. in her specific tent, one can meet the forces she brought with her. they entail the verdant spears, the sapphire host (swift scouts and outriders), the azure shields (frontline defenders), the glass lotus circle (spirit healers) and the oathbearers (shams' personal guards). before the joining shams can optionally talk to the player character, giving them the chance to ask questions about zarnesha or get encouragement before facing the joining. regarding her quest, it can be divided into a few categories.

after ostagar’s fall, shams is among the few who survive, but she is wounded and separated from her army. the warden has to find her and reunite the scattered forces, bringing them together to rebuild strength against the blight. this quest will also determine whether shams and her soldiers will fight alongside the warden later or not. after ostagar’s destruction, the player character is traveling with morrigan and alistair. at night, around their second or third campfire, a dream - vision comes. the character sees shams surrounded by a broken battlefield, clutching a bloodstained standard and calling their name. this could be interpreted as a “pull of fate”, suggesting shams might still be alive.

THE FIELDS OF RUIN:

the characters will return to the outskirts of ostagar (now a haunted ruin overrun with darkspawn) and search for markers left by the surviving zarneshan soldiers: sunburst carvings etched into trees and rocks.

eventually, they find a small collapsed shrine, where shams has been hiding and tending to the wounded, injured but alive, her armor battered. when she is found, she is kneeling over a dying soldier, quietly praying.

she insists on standing and fighting, despite her wounds and explains what had happened. many of her forces scattered during the chaos. others tried to protect civilians fleeing the battlefield. a few are trapped or held prisoner by darkspawn or sheltering in abandoned villages nearby.

and as thus, a new objective is formed: track down the five scattered divisions of the zarneshan army.

each division is its own mini - mission: the verdant spears are trapped in a ruined tower south of ostagar, besieged by darkspawn and blood mages. the sapphire host are caught in a swamp where the fade leaks into reality, suffering hallucinations. the azure shields are fortifying a collapsed bridge and one must defend their position in a desperate siege event. the glass lotus circle are hiding in a desecrated chantry, so the pc must cleanse the area of corrupted spirits before they can move. lastly, the oathbearers were tasked with defending the retreat routes but were betrayed by a local bann seeking to curry favor with loghain. the player must track them to a small, fortified estate where the bann has imprisoned the surviving oathbearers as leverage.

once all divisions are found, shams calls a final gathering at her camp. in return for their help, shams and her forces promise to aid the warden at key battles, including redcliffe, denerim and even the landsmeet if they survive that long. a few special side options can be unlocked:

summoning zarneshan healers during sieges

calling zarneshan honor guards as temporary party members for certain large battles

AWAKENING. after the events of origins, shams kept her oath to remain loyal to ferelden until its lands were stable. now working with the warden - commander, ariel, she is elevated to commander in chief of zarnesha's military and has created the lion guard, elite warriors with lion emblems representing courage and the immortal warriors, a separate regiment, hand - picked from childhood by her generals and trained in the arts of combat, magic and diplomacy. while she remains with her current forces in thedas, she has put trust in her soldiers to train those two new factions until they are needed, whether that is in thedas or zarnesha. shams establishes a fortified outpost at the ruins of an ancient tevinter watchtower near amaranthine, now called sarn thaen. her forces back roaming darkspawn hordes outside of warden control and protect local villages.

while they were offered lands by the surviving ferelden nobles, she refused any official lordship, choosing to live as protectors and friends to the people instead. she can be easily found due to her connection to ariel. if allied with, zarnesha becomes a critical support force for the grey wardens, especially defending amaranthine or vigil’s keep. if virgil's keep survives, she builds a small permanent settlement, a blend of ferelden and zarneshan culture, teaching new grey wardens desert tactics. she returns to zarnesha, but remains in contact with the grey wardens through ariel as they exchange letters throughout the years.

INQUISITION. by 9:41 dragon, shams has officially become sardar - ahura (supreme commander in ancient zarneshan tongue), head of zarnesha's military and a powerful figure in the royal court. her experience with blood magic and darkspawn in thedas caused her to advocate for opening limited diplomacy between zarnesha and distant nations, quite a controversial stance. when the breach tears open the sky, zarnesha already suspects something darker is stirring. the council of twelve (zarnesha's ruling court) sends a formal delegation to the inquisition once it stabilizes at skyhold and shams is among them, this time as ambassador - general and military attaché. her official purpose is to offer assistance against the rifts and tevinter incursions in the south, observe the inquisiton's strength and judge whether a formal alliance would benefit her homeland and seek knowledge about red lyrium and ancient blood magic artifacts.

she can usually be found overlooking the training grounds where soldiers spar, often advising trainers and helping mages in the undercroft research how to better contain or close rifts without relying on raw destruction. during her time in thedas, there are two side quests relating to her. the first is where she asks the inquisitor to help her destroy an ancient artifact tied to forbidden dragon blood rituals hidden in orlais. the second one is a simpler quest: she proposes a joint training mission where inquisition forces and zarneshan soldiers working together to close minor rifts. during her time with the inquisition, she struggles with the use of red lyrium, as it only reminds her of what happened years ago. she does questions, quietly, whether there is truly any safe blood magic or if she is just living on borrowed time.

if the inquisition leans toward diplomacy and healing, she might suggest forming a permanent alliance between zarnesha and the rebuilt southern kingdoms.

if the inquisition abuses magic, she quietly withdraws, taking her forces with her to protect her homeland from a world spiraling into madness.

VEILGUARD. during the events of the game, shams is more of an npc than an actual companion. she returns immediately to her homeland after trespasser because the fractures in the veil are affecting her homeland too. zarnesha is at a crossroads: do they remain isolationist or finally engage fully with the world beyond? she leads a new diplomatic mission called the sapphire concord, a council of zarneshan generals, mages and scholars who now try to build relationships beyond their borders, starting with tevinter, nevarra and orlais. she helps train new blood mages, but under strict codes of discipline, drawing on both zarneshan traditions and modern magical theory from the college of enchanters.

around act two the party will learn that she voluntarily entered a massive unstable rift in the anderfels to seal a growing veil tear. she's trapped inside a part of the fade, a mirrored image of her home, where spirits recreate her memories, fears and ideals, trying to convince her to stay forever. the quest will involve getting her out of said fade pocket, where the party will meet mirrored versions of her generals, parents and even a twisted version of herself that represents her blood magic corruption. they will have to face a high demon of regret that has bound shams' mind in chains of illusion. her own blood magic is used against the player unless they can invoke her humanity through dialogue. in the end, she offers to either return to her homeland for recovery reasons or stays with the veilguard as a blood warden of some sorts.

the magical power of a sorcerer or the key to an enchantment may be kept in an external object. the destruction of that object would rob the witch of their powers and break the spell. alternatively, they may use a twig as the means of practicing their craft. these instruments are reminiscent of the magic wand or rod in the european folk tradition. most magicians actually employed some tool that helped them cast their spells. they know that if they use a talisman in bewitching someone their magic may be reversed when the talisman is destroyed. therefore, witches who want to make their spells permanent would cast their talismans in the sea or hide it in a remote or inaccessible spot. some charms have special names. their most useful aspect, however, was when they rid into battle on strange mounts with bodies made up from various parts of a number of animals. both the mounts and the witches can emit fire from their various weapons and body parts.

it was also important to note that there were two kinds of magic when it came to the circles of persian magicians: high magic and folk magic. magic and science can be defined differently and demarcated from each other but high magic is indistinguishable from science in medieval cultures. its assumptions are rooted in a sophisticated tradition of philosophical speculation about reality and cosmos that is based on “scientific” norms and learning of the period and is transmitted largely by means of writing or formal discourse. alchemy, astral magic and numerology are examples of high magic. folk magic, by contrast, is practiced by those who belong to the less literate or entirely unlettered social groups and is largely transmitted by oral tradition or by traditional training. while there is a vast area of overlap between these two forms of magic, they are in general distinct and people who live in societies that practice them are able to distinguish one from the other with reasonable ease.

hereby, shams was born in a long line of human afsungar that practiced high magic who were closely tied to the persian court. they never announced themselves as witches and instead were known as magi, the term for priests in zoroastrianism and despite the long and troublesome journey this had caused her family, they became a vital part of the king's circle during said time, being considered nobility themselves. things change, however, when shams is gifted the fire of ahura, given to her by ahura mazda who is the creator deity in zoroastrianism. as it was not regular fire - bearing magic and more of a divine force, she was able to bear it in public without repercussions as they were so blinded by their beliefs that they thought the gods must have chosen her specifically. because ahura mazda is the creator of asha, which is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right', she was not only given an ancient power that could either restore life or bring chaos, but also the ability to feel the energy around her.

the fire gave her more specific powers than the regular witch. she was able to heal wounds, cure vampiric corruption and neutralize curses with potions and was able to use a remnant of the divine flame, capable of burning away dark magic but never harming anyone innocent. in addition, she had the ability to create general illusions and mirages that can last years. shams, during her time in the court, managed to travel enough to learn more about alchemy and make use of it. in a simpler world she would have been able to live freely, but in this world, due to the fact that the fire made her immortal, she had to create plan after plan to remain amongst mortals without exposing the real truth. the illusions helped her greatly, but soon enough she had to make the choice of going underground due to humanity's nature of corrupting what surrounds them. she hid herself with different appearances she created with her illusions until the day a padishah is alerted of her presence and wished to consume her flesh so to protect it and herself, she ends up erasing her existence from history.

she makes sure that the records only show her brother as the last remaining afsungar of their family, and disappears for what is centuries. the stories tell many things. some say she is a demonness, others say she was a divine being that was corrupted by evil and turned into a snake goddess and others simply said she was a maniac, but one thing remained true: no one knew the true tale. what truly happened was this: after the rumors began spreading, people began naming her shahmaran, after the infamous mythical creature, half - woman and half - snake,  but instead of troubling herself with it, she used it to her advantage to hide herself better. anyone who had met her after only knew her as shahmaran and as such, she created an secret city named maran to offer a safe haven for who need it, but rumors say it is called the city beneath the sands. this city was a point of interest to many, because in it were three locations that would be useful to the immortal.

one was a glowing underground lake where spirits of the past are able to be reached, a grand hall where the fire of ahura still burns, sealed behind sacred inscriptions and a labyrinthine archive containing scrolls of lost magic, unseen prophecies and the records of ancient civilizations. accessing the city is nearly impossible unless one follows shams' secret markings left throughout the land. during this time, she could also be found creating specific locations where mortals can reach it in ziggurats and temples that others consider sacred. there was never a face to the name, but it usual for her to create more spaces during her time. she would also make use one of those ziggurats for a sect called the saoshyant guardians named after the avestan language term that means "one who brings benefit". the sect itself, at a first glance, looks like a hunting sect but it's more of a collection of soldiers and an army that is there to be of aid in the actual world when assistance is needed. and until her real name is found, she remains where she is, helping people in secret.

IN GAME DETAILS:

tiamat was always more practical, seeing weakness in this. io's death was proof to her that it was power alone that leads them to greatness. her plan was to rally the dragons so that they may claim the world as theirs. when the both of their untheric aspects died after a long battle, their divine powers were taken from them. less and less people prayed to them and soon enough, it was difficult to remain a figure of faith in a community if they were no longer remembered. and this is when a prophecy appeared. the last oracles of io came forward, who foresaw a time when a human would wield the dragon gods' powers. the prophecy was hidden by the two gods' remaining followers due to the danger that now revolves around the dragons and their kin. the prophecy itself entailed many details, but the focus was that a sorcerer would be tied to bahamut, by both blood and fate, and while she would be marked by him, she would also carry the five dragons that personalize tiamat.

it was said that if she were to choose tiamat, it would cause destruction, but at the same time, if she choose bahamut, her fate won't be kind either. and as such, shams' bloodline and family would be tied to bahamut, making them sorcerers with platinum dragon ancestry. the prophesized, however, will never be at peace like the rest of her family are because his sister left her own mark on the young child, due to the interference of the cult of the dragon. shams was born in in 1394, 21 years after the last rage of the dragons. raised as noblewoman of waterdeep, she became one of the secret councilmembers and trained under her family's most talented warrior as they believed she was the sorcerer in the prophecy. and as such, she is a sorceress with draconic bloodline, specifically bahamut's bloodline, the platinum dragon. she can use radiant damage, a specific divine energy. since tiamat has also branded her, she has the ability of injecting a powerful venom on whoever she choose and is very agile in battle.

due to her connection to both, if she approaches any dragon, there will be a moment of consideration whether the dragon wishes to attack or not. during the same time, the followers of bahamut and tiamat had began preparations for a possible future battle in the war between the two dragon gods. the gods who survived the long years without worshipers received a great influx of power from their new draconic followers. however, this also threatened faerûn with the possibility of a new battle in the dragonfall war. and more importantly, she hasn't chosen a path just yet. shams travels around the continent, trying to find out more information about said prophecy to put an end to it before it even began, but on her way she meets an old human wizard dressed in robes accompanied by seven canaries, who later on, she finds out, was actually bahamut himself. that meeting will later on end and she is placed into a divine statis where she is put in an artifact until bahamut opens it for her.

things change, however, when the cult of the dragon does a ritual and they break the seal to make use of her. she re - enters the mortal plane around 1487 at the time of the second sundering and is used by the cult, forced to stay so she may be used to turn dragons into dracoliches against both of their will. she manages to regain control of her powers, forming a connection with the dragon and escaped the cult as she wandered faerun. it was a new world for her, due to the fact that she had been sealed for around one hundred years now. everything seemed strange to her, but her open - minded nature helped her learn fast and form a community of her own. still, the choise she had to take remained. and wasn't that what the prophecy was all about? no matter what, she knew she wished to choose her own path. gods are bloody and gory, no matter if they're deemed as good or evil. what is good to a god may turn into a disaster for humans, as others have seen before. she spends her time in different archives to learn about magic she could use to tap into her powers but she finds very little.

until she is taken by the mindflayers. enter the events of baldur's gate iii. she survives, somehow, but now there were three. bahamut, tiamat and the parasite. she spends the first two arcs focusing on the parasite and the illithid powers that come with it, hoping that perhaps this will help her come closer to an answer. she had tried every ritual and every attempt to suppress or sever the connection she has to them. and yet, the more she resisted, the more unstable she became, but the moment she gets to make her own choice will be in arc three. she ends up dividing her mind, in the simple sense. she managed to reach deep into her head, past the gods and the parasite, to where her pure magic resided. this is when she split her mind into different parts. one part of her focused on the resistance, making sure that she keeps being untouched by the gods and another part became the conduit, capable of wielding bahamut and tiamat's powers, but only when she allowed it.