Arslan Senki Novel Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

Je crois que je vais pleurer ;_; c'est trop triste d'imaginer la mort d'Arslan... T.T

Translation of “Elegy for King Arslan the Emancipator“

Source: “Tenba no Yume” Arslan Senki Art Collections by Amano Yoshitaka

Published: 1991

Written by: Tanaka Yoshiki (author of Arslan Senki series)

In-universe author: “unkown but it’s said to be Gieve”

Big thanks to @innerchorus​ for proofreading & helping me out with the wording! <3

Afficher davantage

As much as I know, Andragoras and Tahamine adopted Arslan because Tahamine gave birth to a baby girl, and after that she can't have baby anymore. But why Andragoras didn't try to have other babies with other women? Is there any explanation?

Okay, warning for novel spoilers.

First, the truth about the child born to Andragoras and Tahamenay. The baby was a son rather than a daughter, but unfortunately it was stillborn. This is revealed by Zahhak in Book 16:

'"If Tahamenay had given birth to the child without mishap, things would have turned out differently. Since the son born to that woman was stillborn, Andragoras panicked and staged a foolish charade. No only did he bring in someone else's son, but he also bought three baby girls, gave them the appropriate silver bracelets and sent them off to separate parts of the country. This was all for the sake of preventing the infertile Tahamenay from committing suicide."' (Book 16, Chapter Five, Part ii)

You're right that Tahamenay was left infertile after giving birth. I assume the birth itself must have been pretty traumatic for those who attended her to know this was the case right away, as if Andragoras had believed she was able to give him more children, I doubt he would have gone to all this effort.

As for why he didn't father children with anyone else, as far as I know there are no details about this, but we can make some guesses.

Andragoras doesn't seem to particularly care about the continuation of the royal line. He sees it for what it is, and in all honestly I think he gets a grim sense of satisfaction from hinting at the unpleasant truth while never revealing it in full, and was fully prepared to let the line die out after his death. I'm sure that in an ideal world he'd have liked to have his son inherit, but when that's not possible (specifically, when it's not possible for him to have another child with Tahamenay), from his point of view, a substitute will do.

He needed an heir in order to maintain stability in his rule, which is likely a big motivation for taking Arslan. By the time Arslan is named Crown Prince and officially designated as his heir, five years have passed. During that time, perhaps he held on to some hope that Tahamenay would somehow conceive again, but after five years it must have been apparent that it truly was impossible.

I do think, in the absence of a biological child with Tahamenay, he fully intended for Arslan to become Shah after his death, but was more interested in preserving his own power during his lifetime than he was in setting Arslan up for success.

For Andragoras, I think his biggest motivation was "having". The throne. The wealth and power that came with it. Pars itself. And Tahamenay as his queen. He wanted more than anything to possess her, and he did it by controlling her since he couldn't force her to love him and he knew that without believing she had a living child out there somewhere, she would find a way to escape by killing herself. Perhaps he was even so obsessed with her that no other woman would do. I believe all of this mattered more to him than thinking about what would happen to the country after his own death. He's a very selfish person, especially compared to Arslan.

Unlike Andragoras, Arslan has no personal desire for power and does not wish to be Shah for his own sake, but rather views it as his duty. He spends his whole life wondering what an ideal ruler is like and worries about not living up to that ideal. He is conscientious and puts the future of his people before all else. He doesn't care about riches or treasure. And he does not want to marry or have an heir of his own. They are total opposites in every way.

(That last bit was a digression; I just find it interesting. Hopefully this has answered your question!)

Hilmes thoughts that I'm considering thanks to my fic. It occurs to me that Hilmes is basically... roughly the inverse of Kaykhusraw. To elaborate on that involves novel spoilers through to the end of the series, so consider yourselves warned.

Kaykhusraw: unified Pars under his banner with an army he raised himself Hilmes: invaded Pars under the Lusitanian banner as a 'guest general' of Lusitania

Kaykhusraw: defeated and sealed Zahhak using Rukhnabad Hilmes: attempted to take Rukhnabad and helped facilitate Zahhak's return

Kaykhusraw: first Shah of Pars Hilmes: never actually becomes king

Kaykusraw: betrayed and killed by his own son Hilmes: a son who was betrayed by his own 'father', who ordered his death

Kaykhusraw: founder of his dynasty, royal line began with him Hilmes: last of that lineage, the royal line died with him

Oof.

Am I using this pattern to inform my ever-growing set of personal Kaykhusraw headcanons? Yes.

As requested by @lavender-100, some details about Layla's physical appearance. Some novel spoilers in this post so be warned!

We first meet her in Book 10, where she is a trainee priestess at the Temple of Ashi in the Oxus region. She is initially described as tall, well-proportioned, and wearing women's clothing that is white with blue trim. She is even taller than Farangis (and Farangis herself is described as being taller than average for a woman and a little taller than the average Parsian man). For reference, Layla is about the same height as Narsus.

Layla's hair is short, though no hair colour is mentioned. Her clothing is also short, and her long, slender, tanned arms and legs are exposed to the sun. She has a broad frame and a muscular build, and owing to her strong physique she almost looks like a young boy.

I have some illustrations to share, too!

Book 10, Layla versus Namard, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano.

Book 11, Layla versus Alfarid, Kermine in the background. Illustration by Shinobu Tanno. You can see the silver bracelet on Layla's left arm clearly here.

Incidentally, the design of these silver bracelets given to the three girls (Parizad, Fitna and Layla) is described as being engraved with a design of a young man on the back of a bull, stabbing the bull in the head with a short sword. I'm assuming Tanaka drew his inspiration for this from tauroctony scenes.

Anyway, as you can see, in Tanno's illustration Layla's hair is white. It's possible I missed a description of her hair colour somewhere in the novels, but it's definitely not mentioned in Books 10 or 11, so I'd say it's possible this is a stylistic choice by Tanno that is intended to show the effects of Zahhak's blood on her (a form of mind-control). Since Don Ricardo's hair turned completely white after his encounter with Zahhak, I can see why Tanno might have chosen to portray Layla with white hair here, but I'll keep an eye out for actual written descriptions of her hair colours later in the novels just in case it's mentioned.

Book 12, illustration by Shinobu Tanno, Tahamenay in the process of throwing herself in front of Gieve's sword in order to protect Layla. Gieve came very close to accidentally killing Tahamenay here but thankfully Isfan's quick reactions saved her life as he deflected Gieve's blade.

Book 13, another Shinobu Tanno illustration. Layla and Ilterish get to see Zahhak for the first time. The mage is Gazdaham.

The outfit Layla wears in Book 13 is described as completely unadorned, and she's dressed like a man, with only the silver bracelet appearing out of place with her warrior's attire. Even so, it's mentioned that Jalair thinks she is very beautiful.

(In terms of height, Ilterish is about average height for a man, so Layla's actually a bit taller than him.)