Narsus And Farangis Brotp: An Incomplete Compilation

Narsus and Farangis brotp: an incomplete compilation

The way he constantly entrusts her with tasks, difficult and dangerous ones, and her unfailingly completing them, speaks volumes of the level of trust Narsus has in Farangis and her capabilities, and Farangis' trust in Narsus and his loyalty to Arslan.

Plus the way she regularly chides him regarding the Alfarīd matter, I don't like the subject matter nor Farangis' stance really (I like Alfarīd and I don't like how reluctant Narsus is, she deserves someone who wants her full-force 100%— and I don't really like how Farangis tells Narsus it's either accept Alfarīd's feelings or be single forever) (I do like her telling Narsus to have a serious conversation with Alfarīd though) (ANYWAYS that was a tangent) it feels like an elder sister scolding a younger brother, even though iirc Narsus is older than her. Farangis just proves that Elder Sister is a matter of attitude, not age lmao.

Can I see any romantic potential in them? Ehhhhhh, debatable. I don't think Farangis can see him in that way.

I much prefer them being bros.

long time no see !!! hello again!

with the new trailer out i’m truly getting excited for the movie, i really can not wait to see all that umfolds in this movie!!!

the music is so beautiful and the visuals are to die for !! i cant wait its going to be so good !!!

if you guys want please leave me questions about what i think is all gonna unfold in the movie, or what i think about akane and kougami in this movie… please i need to spill my brain rot, but i need questions to answer them properly .

im not interested in glory through combat anymore. i do not want to be a part of this shit.

Regrow + Breakthrough

Throwback to some explorations of above and under water magic ✨

In Search of Flight Painting Process

I have no words for this

I am absolutely in love with him and how he turned out ❤️

And here we have Isfan's design sheet! His designs came surprisingly quicker and easier than the other ones, though I kept forgetting stuff and having to hastily add them before I forget again.

You'll be going on uh... either a Wolf Trip™ or an Alder Journey™, I have no clue which section is longer.

Without further ado, let's jump right in!

The first outfit is definitely the fanciest, something that doesn't let you doubt that he is indeed Shapur's heir. Maybe he'd wear it for celebrations? It's a riff on my interpretation of his manga design, with the patterned trim. I saw the manga version of his attire being black with a burnt orange sort of trim— as opposed to the blues of the anime design. We'll get to that latter one in a bit but first, we'll tackle this one.

I mentioned the concept of family colours and wearing them as the outermost layer of one's attire in Shapur's sheet and Arslan's— and here is no exception. I headcanon this shade of purple as Shapur's family's colour, and so Isfan wears it when he is to be seen by outsiders— people not part of his family or close circle.

You'll have to zoom in pretty damn far to see it, but maple leaves are included in the pattern on his clothing. It's because for some reason my brain went “ah yes autumn is suited for Isfan for sure” and it's a subtle way of linking him to Kazai; who has maple leaves on his right arm's tattoos. He learned a lot from Kazai, and regards him as family.

And of course, because it's me, there is symbolism involved (this made me realize I never explained Kazai's tattoos, oops):

“Maple is a symbol of strength and endurance.”

×

“Maple symbolizes balance, love, longevity and abundance. It also speaks of success, generosity and practicality.”

×

“Maple trees symbolize balance, offering, practical magic, promise, longevity, generosity, and intelligence.”

×

“Some of the symbols of this tree include balance, promise, strength, practicality, and endurance.”

×

“The maple tree is believed to have the strength to withstand different environmental conditions, enabling it to grow all around the world.”

Strength, endurance and practicality are traits that I associate with Isfan— especially endurance, as he survived a nigh impossible scenario as a child. He is strong and hardy, and most definitely one that would not go down easily. Under the clan's tutelage he would learn practical skills like medicine and craftsmanship as well.

“The maple tree is believed to have magical properties, and wands produced from the branches of these trees is believed to have the ability to ward off evil spirits and danger away from us.”

×

“The maple tree is believed to have magical properties that protects those who have it around them— its wide and tall growth casting shadows under which living beings may take their shelter.”

This protective magical properties tidbit is a reference to his role as heir to his brother who is responsible for protecting their people, and Shapur is also a marzban responsible for protecting the border region from foreign threats, but it is also a reference to the chain and armor of Isfandiyar; Isfan's namesake and a hero from the Persian epic Shahnameh:

“According to the epic Shahnameh, Esfandiyār was the Crown Prince and a Divine Warrior of ancient Iran who supported the prophet Zartosht (Zarathustra), enabling him to spread the religion of Zoroastrianism. He also fought against many apostates and enemies of Zartosht to do so. In return, Zartosht gave Esfandiyār a chain and armor from Heaven. The armor made him invincible and the chain had the power to bind anyone, even a demon or evil magician, making them unable to escape. Zartosht also gave a Divine blessing to the prince and declared that anyone who would spill the blood of Esfandiyār (killed him) shall suffer a cursed life of bad omens until the day he dies and even after death would be condemned to hell.”

And I headcanon that Isfan has a sensitivity to the supernatural, spirits and mages and magic, from the incidence where he got abandoned in the mountains and saved by wolves.

And don't you worry, we'll get to the wolves.

There's a wolf pendant hanging from his coat's clasp, and wolves... are quite the vital aspect of his character.

“According to Zoroastrian legends, Zoroaster as a child was carried by the devs (the gods) to the lair of the she-wolf, in expectation that the savage beast would kill it; but she accepted it among her own cubs, and Vahman brought an ewe to the den which suckled it. (It was impossible in the Zoroastrian legend for the wolf herself to give milk to the infant, since wolves are regarded as daevic creatures.) According to the Avesta, the sacred text of the Zoroastrians, wolves are a creation from the 'darkness' of the evil spirit Ahriman, and are ranked among the most cruel of animals, and belong to the daevas. The Bundahishn, which is a Middle Persian text on the Zoroastrian creation myth, has a chapter dedicated to the 'nature of wolves' as seen in Zoroastrian mythology and belief.”

×

“Wusuns, an Indo-European semi-nomadic steppe people of Iranian origin, had a legend that after their king Nandoumi was killed by Yuezhi, another Indo-European people, Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild and He was miraculously saved from hunger being suckled by a she-wolf, and fed meat by ravens.”

These stories of Zoroaster (also known as Zartosht and Zarathustra: a prominent figure and prophet in the religion Zoroastrianism, the main religion of ancient Persia before the Islamic Conquest) and Liejiaomi bear echoes of Isfan's own, being abandoned in the mountains in hopes that he (and his mother) would die, but instead being saved by wolves.

Zoroaster's story mentions an ewe and Liejiaomi's ravens— Kashi's familiar animals were wolves, and Ayunnen's, though under reconsideration for change right now, were ravens. Rams/sheep were part of the candidates I was considering, too. And... a doe? Either way, his circumstances and backstory bear resemblance to these myths.

“In the Secret History of the Mongols, the Mongol peoples are said to have descended from the mating of a doe (gua maral) and a wolf (boerte chino). In modern Mongolia, the wolf is still seen as a good luck symbol, especially for males. In Mongolian folk medicine, eating the intestines of a wolf is said to alleviate chronic indigestion, while sprinkling food with powdered wolf rectum is said to cure hemorrhoids. Mongol mythology explains the wolf's occasional habit of surplus killing by pointing to their traditional creation story. It states that when God explained to the wolf what it should and should not eat, he told it that it may eat one sheep out of 1,000. The wolf however misunderstood and thought God said kill 1,000 sheep and eat one.”

Gorgan, his homeland, is geographically quite close to Turan, who were inspired by the Mongols, so I couldn't not include this, plus the medicinal stuff were a bonus since Isfan is a trained healer.

“In the mythology of the Turkic peoples, the wolf is a revered animal. In the Turkic mythology, wolves were believed to be the ancestors of their people. The legend of Ashina is an old Turkic myth that tells of how the Turkic people were created. In Northern China a small Turkic village was raided by Chinese soldiers, but one small baby was left behind. An old she-wolf with a sky-blue mane named Ashina found the baby and nursed him, then the she-wolf gave birth to half-wolf, half-human cubs, from whom the Turkic people were born. Also in Turkic mythology it is believed that a gray wolf showed the Turks the way out of their legendary homeland Ergenekon, which allowed them to spread and conquer their neighbours.”

This as well, since Gorgan is close to Turk too. Ashina was a candidate for his mother's name among many that us from the fandom have come up with, this one was by @marchdancer I believe? This story also features a young child being saved by a wolf. And though Kashi wasn't his mother (she would have become an adoptive mother to him had Shapur not found the two-year-old boy and his mother), her association with wolf and the colour blue (though not quite sky blue, more of a midnight blue), and the superficial similarity of the names Kashi and Ashina, this links him to this woman he has never met and never will.

“In another Japanese myth, grain farmers once worshiped wolves at shrines and left food offerings near their dens, beseeching them to protect their crops from wild boars and deer. Talismans and charms adorned with images off wolves were thought to protect against fire, disease, and other calamities and brought fertility to agrarian communities and to couples hoping to have children. The Ainu people believed that they were born from the union of a wolf like creature and a goddess.”

The Marda clan comes to play a helper role of sorts in the locals' agriculture as mentioned briefly here: fertility and harvest and grain storage and even bringing rain. And though he's not part of the people who directly help with those, he is considered part of the clan, and takes an active role in protecting the livelihoods of the local folk of the lands.

The tassel hanging from the pendant, it was just a little reference to the other two-thirds of the 22-trio as I like to call them (Isfan, Farangis, Gieve) who have a close relationship in this AU— the plum purple for Gieve, a brother figure, and the light green for Farangis, a sister and a rival in the arts of healing.

Also fun fact, this outfit was a way for me to play with some uh, illusion tricks so to speak— how clothing can give off an illusion of a bodily silhouette that isn't necessarily true.

I once saw a fanart that wrote “SLENDERMAN/スレンダーマン” next to a sketch of Isfan, basically implying that he's really slender? And we in the fandom have this headcanon that Isfan is taller than his brother. And he does give the impression that he is thinner than his brother, even if he's not slenderman™ thin. In the novels it was mentioned that he has a “medium build” but then in the same sentence compared to reeds— and aren't reeds... super thin??

“Isfan had a medium build, like reeds growing next to a swamp, and amber eyes.”

To reckon with this confusion I drew his base body... not that thin, not that far off from his brother's even if it's juuust a tad slimmer, and tried to design this first outfit to build the illusion that he's really slim. Just as a fun project and challenge for myself. And I like to think I succeeded even if partially! I'm quite proud of this design.

Moving onto the second design, damn how long is this post now? It's more of a design that leans both into his brother's style (the way the coat is cut/styled) and the clan style (the short wide sleeves). He wears this kind of style often, but especially when he participates in the whole... patrolling healers group project... thing... tradition... whatever that is (referenced here). The outermost layer is a shade of green to signal that he is a healer of the clan, and though the coat doesn't have the chestnut-leaved oak leaves on it, he does wear the leaf pin/brooch to signify his status as a healer trained by the clan. The brooch was first introduced in Arslan's design sheet and I go in-depth about why I chose that tree's leaves in particular. The teal and the red and green echo his older brother, though they are more of darker or less saturated shades, because I headcanon that Isfan favors darker colours. And so while there's no purple in this design, it still draws on the colours associated with his older brother (as well as the clan healers).

Also, @innerchorus mentioned sage green in the colours they associate with Isfan and hey, he does look good in it!

Embroidered on the neckline of the coat are alder leaves and cones— and here's why:

“The common alder provides food and shelter for wildlife, with a number of insects, lichens and fungi being completely dependent on the tree. It is a pioneer species, colonising vacant land and forming mixed forests as other trees appear in its wake.”

The shelter for wildlife bit echoes the hornbeam tree Ayunnen was found under— the man who found him before Shapur did, the man who would've raised Isfan as his son; utilized here before.

“The alder tree has been used for several purposes (such as construction and medicine) due to its unique nature and strength.”

Don't worry, we'll get to both.

“The timber has been used in underwater foundations and for manufacture of paper and fibreboard, for smoking foods, for joinery, turnery and carving. Products of the tree have been used in ethnobotany, providing folk remedies for various ailments, and research has shown that extracts of the seeds are active against pathogenic bacteria.”

Alder has many uses as shown above, and of course I put emphasis on the folk medicine part, though we'll get to the underwater foundations part later :)

“The common alder is used as a pioneer species and to stabilise river banks, to assist in flood control, to purify water in waterlogged soils and to moderate the temperature and nutrient status of water bodies. On marshy ground it is important as coppice-wood, being cut near the base to encourage the production of straight poles. It is capable of enduring clipping as well as marine climatic conditions and may be cultivated as a fast-growing windbreak.”

Stabilizing riverbanks, flood control, purifying water, they all sound like they'd be useful for agriculture (see what I said about the clan's role in the locals' lives) as well as a protection of nature, a reciprocal providence and protection that the clan and nature exchange on a principle's basis. The windbreak part plays into his role as protector. And I can't help but be a little amused at the straight poles part, lol. It's the reed thing all over again. Anyways!

“The alder tree has the ability to develop well and prevent rot when in water for a long time— becoming strong as stone when done so. This makes it of great importance in the construction of bridges over bodies of water.”

Told you we'd get to the construction part! And here we have our favourite part: alders become strong as stone when in water for a long stretch of time. The strong as stone part echoes the ironwood in Shapur's design sheet, and the water part... well, Arslan is closely associated with water in this AU, and it could allude that Isfan is stronger when he is with Arslan, with his family.

Like Shapur.

Because the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

And the bridge... well, it could be said that he (along with Arslan) was the bridge that brought Shapur and the clan together.

“The wood becomes strong as stone when dipped in water for a long time, making it an excellent source of timber for heavy use such as construction, production of long-lasting shields, and so on.”

Not much to say about the shield part except that it could play into his role as protector.

“The alder tree is believed to have the ability to protect and serve as a hiding place for people who are in need of shelter.”

The clan takes in castoffs and runaways, those vulnerable folk in need of protection, and he was one of them. When the clan settled on Shapur's family lands, they continued on with their thing and both Shapur and Isfan allowed it, sheltered the new additions to the clan without a word to anyone else.

“The alder tree's ability to grow and thrive in swampy or wet environments can be said to be due to its determination— therefore it can symbolize determination or a desire to achieve what one strives for no matter the challenges they may face in life.”

I see Isfan as a very determined young man, determined to prove himself, to make his brother proud, to protect his family and their people. I see him as a very diligent and hardworking person because of his desire and determination. And so this... yeah. And so this added to the reasons the alder trees were chosen, out of the many plants and trees that are found in the Alborz mountain range.

Also he's wearing a wolf fang as an earring.

Now at last we arrive at his third and final outfit.

Are y'all still alive?

Essentially, this outfit is what I imagine would be worn under his armor— a reference and riff off of his anime (and Senshi no Shikaku?) design, the long-sleeved dark blue shirt. It's quite simple in design, not meant to be fancy, but of course, I just couldn't help myself, lol. I had to add pomegranate seeds and flowers on the collar that I was... just planning to leave plain.

The pomegranate flower is a reference to the name I have chosen for his mother in this AU being Golnar, which means “pomegranate flower”.

I have explained in length why I have chosen that name in this post, and I highly encourage to read it if you haven't. I'm really proud of the symbolism I have managed to collect.

Here's an extra tidbit, just for fun:

“The flower of the pomegranate tree is called Gulnar. The popularity of the flower is mostly due to its medical uses (in traditional medicine). Persian Gulnar decoction is used to treat syphilis. The juice is used to treat jaundice, diarrhea, and to treat frequent nosebleeds. Dried and creamy flower buds of this flower are used as a treatment for bronchitis.”

Eyyy, more tallies on the healer!Isfan stuff! :D And he still wears the oak leaf brooch here as well. The lacing thing was just to add a little bit of interest— I didn't want to just rehash the original design from which I took the inspiration. The shoulder part was partly inspired by Kashi's design (echoed also by her son Arslan, and Ranna as well). The dark blue to reference his canon outfit, but also form a sort of... unity with his younger brother Arslan and the entire... Ashina... Kashi... thing.

Things like medicine and supply pouches and his sword would hang from the belt— which reminds me I have once again forgotten to add the belt on his second outfit! This is why I can't be trusted.

And just for fun, here's a... thing I added though I don't consider it a proper design:

Just... Just put his normal cloak on, it's fine, I don't know what I was thinking with this one.

And so... here's the design sheet! I hope y'all like it. I haven't decided yet who'll be next, though I have a feeling it's gonna be either Farangis or Gieve.