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When the legendary king of kings Cyrus the Great died battling Scythian raiders in December 530 BCE, he left some extremely big shoes to fill. Cyrus understood this, and in the preceding decade tried his hardest to prepare his eldest son, Cambyses, to succeed him. In 538 BCE, Cambyses had been made a governor over Northern Babylonia, and was inaugurated at Babylon's famous temple to Marduk in March of that year. However, Cambyses wore Elamite clothing and carried weapons in sacred spaces where it was forbidden, making him unpopular with the priests and forcing Cyrus to revoke his governorship after just nine months. Still, Cambyses was named Cyrus's co-regent around the same time, and would take his father's throne when the Scythians slayed him. The transfer of power was by all accounts a peaceful one, at least externally. Cambyses, you see, had a not-so-secret rivalry with his brother Bardiya, governor of the provinces in the eastern portion of the Empire. But more on that in a bit.

By far, the most famous event of the reign of Cambyses II was his conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE. The exact details as to why are a little fuzzy. Herodotus claims it was because the pharaoh Amasis II had tried to weasel his way out of marrying his daughter off to Cambyses as they had arranged, but of course we should always take Herodotus with a grain of salt. Whatever the reason, Cambyses laid absolute waste to Egypt, committing all manner of various atrocities, including slaughtering the Egyptians' sacred Apis Bull. Amasis's son and successor, Psamtik III, was captured, forced to witness the suffering of his enslaved entourage, and the second he tried any funny business, Cambyses sentenced him to suicide by drinking bull's blood, thus marking the end of the reign of the last indigenous pharaoh in history. These are but a handful of incidents which lead to Herodotus' report that Cambyses was afflicted with madness, and indeed even the king's own men were not safe from his eccentric lifestyle. When one of the king's officers, Prexaspes, called him out for being drunk, the king ordered the son of Prexaspes be brought before him. The king thusly grabbed a bow and attempted to William Tell an apple off the kid's head, missed and killed the boy, and declared it proof that he was in fact drunk off his ass like that was his intention all along.

While it all makes for a great story, and indeed these are all details I used to make a villain out of Cambyses in my D&D campaign, we should be skeptical on the exact nature of his mental illness in real life, as all accounts of it come from his enemies. The same is true of the final act of delirium reported of his life: the murder and cover-up of his brother Bardiya. It is said that, scared out of his wits after the death of his son, Prexaspes did as Cambyses commanded and assassinated his hated brother. Bardiya was thus replaced with a body double, Gaumata, the brother of a convicted priest named Patizeithes. For a while, the ruse worked, and Gaumata served as Cambyses puppet king in Babylon until 522 BCE, when Bardiya's wife became suspicious and identified the impostor by the fact that his ears had been cut off under criminal charges. She then went to her father, Otanes, who gathered a group of six conspirators to assassinate the false Bardiya. Cambyses is said to have committed suicide by stabbing himself in the leg around this time.

Now this group of conspirators was headed by one Darius, who promptly usurped the empty seat left by Cyrus's now dead and heirless sons. King Darius the Great was a master of propaganda, who commissioned the famous Behistun Inscription detailing his victory over the mad king and his imposter brother. As I said, this is one of the only sources we have of this supposed conspiracy, and it is the account which later Greek authors like Herodotus would perpetuate, so as historians we should take this with a giant grain of salt. Indeed, when I was writing chapter 2 of my D&D campaign, my first instinct was to write Darius as the grand conspirator, somehow tricking the party into doing his dirty work. However, it didn't quite fit the narrative I was going for, and there was just so much juicy material to build a who-done-it conspiracy story out of Cambyses' madness. So ultimately, I chose to take Darius's side for the Drake Hero universe, and portrayed Cambyses as a tragic king whose mind was failing him and the responsibility of filling his father's shoes was just too much. Darius was still a manipulative man spurned by mistrust and not afraid of getting his hands dirty, but ultimately he wanted what was best for his people, and believed he was doing the right thing by undermining his king.

Design notes, like his father, there's surprisingly few contemporary images of Cambyses. I imagine Darius had something to do with that, but shhh don't tell him I said that. So I relied on more modern pieces depicting the king when designing him. The main works I drew from were "The King Cambyses at the Siege of Pelusium" painted in 1872 by Paul-Marie Lenoir, "Cambyses II Admiring the Beauty of the Daughter of Amasis" illustrated in 1934 by Fortunino Matania, and "Cambyses Killing the Apis" illustrated in 1881 by Hermann Vogel. Is it perfect, no, and indeed I think a few elements of the composition feel a bit smashed together. If I had to redo it, I'd probably do away with his cape. I wanted to try and put a faravahar design on the back of it to fill out that big empty space, but couldn't really get it to fit, so I sort of left it white. Oh well, for what it is, it's fine. It served its purpose well enough as a D&D character icon XD

Description
When the legendary king of kings Cyrus the Great died battling Scythian raiders in December 530 BCE, he left some extremely big shoes to fill. Cyrus understood this, and in the preceding decade tried his hardest to prepare his eldest son, Cambyses, to succeed him. In 538 BCE, Cambyses had been made a governor over Northern Babylonia, and was inaugurated at Babylon's famous temple to Marduk in March of that year. However, Cambyses wore Elamite clothing and carried weapons in sacred spaces where it was forbidden, making him unpopular with the priests and forcing Cyrus to revoke his governorship after just nine months. Still, Cambyses was named Cyrus's co-regent around the same time, and would take his father's throne when the Scythians slayed him. The transfer of power was by all accounts a peaceful one, at least externally. Cambyses, you see, had a not-so-secret rivalry with his brother Bardiya, governor of the provinces in the eastern portion of the Empire. But more on that in a bit.

By far, the most famous event of the reign of Cambyses II was his conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE. The exact details as to why are a little fuzzy. Herodotus claims it was because the pharaoh Amasis II had tried to weasel his way out of marrying his daughter off to Cambyses as they had arranged, but of course we should always take Herodotus with a grain of salt. Whatever the reason, Cambyses laid absolute waste to Egypt, committing all manner of various atrocities, including slaughtering the Egyptians' sacred Apis Bull. Amasis's son and successor, Psamtik III, was captured, forced to witness the suffering of his enslaved entourage, and the second he tried any funny business, Cambyses sentenced him to suicide by drinking bull's blood, thus marking the end of the reign of the last indigenous pharaoh in history. These are but a handful of incidents which lead to Herodotus' report that Cambyses was afflicted with madness, and indeed even the king's own men were not safe from his eccentric lifestyle. When one of the king's officers, Prexaspes, called him out for being drunk, the king ordered the son of Prexaspes be brought before him. The king thusly grabbed a bow and attempted to William Tell an apple off the kid's head, missed and killed the boy, and declared it proof that he was in fact drunk off his ass like that was his intention all along.

While it all makes for a great story, and indeed these are all details I used to make a villain out of Cambyses in my D&D campaign, we should be skeptical on the exact nature of his mental illness in real life, as all accounts of it come from his enemies. The same is true of the final act of delirium reported of his life: the murder and cover-up of his brother Bardiya. It is said that, scared out of his wits after the death of his son, Prexaspes did as Cambyses commanded and assassinated his hated brother. Bardiya was thus replaced with a body double, Gaumata, the brother of a convicted priest named Patizeithes. For a while, the ruse worked, and Gaumata served as Cambyses puppet king in Babylon until 522 BCE, when Bardiya's wife became suspicious and identified the impostor by the fact that his ears had been cut off under criminal charges. She then went to her father, Otanes, who gathered a group of six conspirators to assassinate the false Bardiya. Cambyses is said to have committed suicide by stabbing himself in the leg around this time.

Now this group of conspirators was headed by one Darius, who promptly usurped the empty seat left by Cyrus's now dead and heirless sons. King Darius the Great was a master of propaganda, who commissioned the famous Behistun Inscription detailing his victory over the mad king and his imposter brother. As I said, this is one of the only sources we have of this supposed conspiracy, and it is the account which later Greek authors like Herodotus would perpetuate, so as historians we should take this with a giant grain of salt. Indeed, when I was writing chapter 2 of my D&D campaign, my first instinct was to write Darius as the grand conspirator, somehow tricking the party into doing his dirty work. However, it didn't quite fit the narrative I was going for, and there was just so much juicy material to build a who-done-it conspiracy story out of Cambyses' madness. So ultimately, I chose to take Darius's side for the Drake Hero universe, and portrayed Cambyses as a tragic king whose mind was failing him and the responsibility of filling his father's shoes was just too much. Darius was still a manipulative man spurned by mistrust and not afraid of getting his hands dirty, but ultimately he wanted what was best for his people, and believed he was doing the right thing by undermining his king.

Design notes, like his father, there's surprisingly few contemporary images of Cambyses. I imagine Darius had something to do with that, but shhh don't tell him I said that. So I relied on more modern pieces depicting the king when designing him. The main works I drew from were "The King Cambyses at the Siege of Pelusium" painted in 1872 by Paul-Marie Lenoir, "Cambyses II Admiring the Beauty of the Daughter of Amasis" illustrated in 1934 by Fortunino Matania, and "Cambyses Killing the Apis" illustrated in 1881 by Hermann Vogel. Is it perfect, no, and indeed I think a few elements of the composition feel a bit smashed together. If I had to redo it, I'd probably do away with his cape. I wanted to try and put a faravahar design on the back of it to fill out that big empty space, but couldn't really get it to fit, so I sort of left it white. Oh well, for what it is, it's fine. It served its purpose well enough as a D&D character icon XD