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History has more than its fair share of great conquerors and military geniuses, each striving to surpass their predecessors. Before Napoleon, there was Genghis Khan, before Genghis Khan, there was Caesar, and before Caesar, there was Alexander.

And before Alexander, there was Cyrus the Great, King of Kings.

Every source on Cyrus's life is mired in legend and exaggeration, as is the case with most leaders of his day. Still, they all agree that Cyrus was born at the dawn of the 6th century BCE, the son of King Cambyses I of the land of Anshan, then a provincial protectorate of the larger Median kingdom ruled by Astyages, whose daughter was Cyrus's mother Mandane. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Astyages had a prophetic vision warning that his grandson would usurp him, and ordered that Mandane's baby be taken into the woods to be killed. As always happens in these stories though, the hitman couldn't bring himself to murder an infant, and so gave him away to a shepherd family instead. Cyrus was raised in this life until he was 10 years old, at which point he beat up a nobleman's son, and the shepherd was forced to come clean. Apparently fine with this turn of events, Astyages just said "eh send him back to his biological parents", and we'll I'm sure you can guess how that's going to go for him. Since this story comes from Herodotus, whose capacity for accurate information is… tenuous at best, we should probably take this story with a grain of salt. Honestly, this type of story is a surprisingly common trope for kings of Mesopotamia, so it may just be more of a cultural narrative expected of usurper kings, not just one specific to Cyrus. Whatever the case, Cyrus went on to live a nice boring life of regional bureaucracy, keeping his nose clean and not making a blip on the big man's radar.

That is, until Cambyses died in 559 BCE, and Cyrus succeeded him as king of Anshan. The suspicious glances his grandfather Astyages kept throwing at him eventually turned into a war which lasted from 553 to 550 BCE. Unfortunately for Astyages, he proved to be very unpopular, and many of his court defected to Cyrus's side. Reportedly, Cyrus spared his grandfather's life, but still took the throne for himself, completely overhauling the Median Empire's organization into what we would now recognize as the Achaemenid Empire. With all his internal struggles sorted out, Cyrus could now focus on foreign affairs, chiefly his beef with the Lydian king Croesus. Croesus had stoked Cyrus's ire by attacking Persian cities, and that was a mistake. Cyrus was a military genius who knew how to appeal to the common people, indeed he was famous for his religious tolerance. More on that in a bit. Croesus recognized Cyrus's talent, though, and to err on the side of caution, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi on whether or not he should attack. The Oracle, in all her conveniently vague wisdom, foretold that if Croesus went to war with Persia, he'd destroy a great empire. An elated Croesus thus went headlong into a battle against the king of kings, and got his ass handed to him, never once considering that the "great empire" he would destroy was his own.

However, it's Cyrus's campaign against the other giant superpower of Mesopotamia, Babylon, which truly catapulted him into the immortal memory of history. Nabonidus, king of Babylon, and his son Belshazzar were not popular rulers, having come to the throne by conspiracy and usurpation. The clergy distrusted them, the people hated them, and it is even said that some totally random Jewish exile named Daniel quite literally pointed out the writing on the wall to Belshazzar as a warning from the heavens themselves that their reign was nearing its end. In 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great reached the capital city, and entered the gates with no resistance from the civilians. The Babylonian royals fled, and Babylon would become the crown jewel of Iran for the next two centuries. Famously, Cyrus allowed the Jewish priests, previously forced into exile from Jerusalem after their Temple was destroyed in 587 BCE, to return to their homeland and worship as they pleased. Cyrus understood that the only way to keep an empire loyal was to allow people to keep their cultures and traditions. The less of an asshole you are, the less likely people will want to overthrow you, who knew? When it came time for these priests to reconstitute their religious law and doctrine, a little known set of scrolls called the Bible or something, the king of kings got unyielding praise heaped upon him. Cyrus is thus the only individual in the Hebrew Bible on whom the esteemed title "Messiah" is bestowed.

With most of the known world under his control, and the most prosperous cities of ancient history at his fingertips, Cyrus settled back down into his throne and spent the next decade returning to a life of peaceful bureaucracy, only dragged out to deal with Scythian horsemen occasionally raiding from the North. Indeed, it is said that Cyrus ultimately met his end in battle with the Scythians, specifically the Massagetae. In 530 BCE, he had tried to secure peace with their amazonian queen, Tomyris, through marriage, but she rejected his proposal. Ouch. Thoroughly cockblocked, Cyrus switched to playing dirty. Specifically, he tricked the Scythian troops commanded by Tomyris's son into getting absolutely smashed on wine, leaving them wide open for attack and imprisonment. Tomyris's son, ashamed of his drunken weakness, committed suicide in the Persian camp. And hooboy was Tomyris absolutely livid. She raged into battle, decapitated the king of kings, and had his head stuffed into a jar of blood. Reportedly, she is said to have quipped that she had at last quenched the conqueror's thirst for blood. Jesus Christ, where's the Netflix series on this chick?

Design notes, the D&D campaign I ran took place in 526 BCE, so my party just missed the reign of Cyrus. However, because the legacy of Cyrus was such a crucial plot point to chapter 2 of the campaign, I went ahead and drew him anyway. There's actually surprisingly few contemporary portrayals of him, at least that I've been able to find. There's one famous image of him from the ruins of his palace in Pasargadae, which I believe is the source of inspiration for a famous modern headshot engraved in the 19th century (supposedly based on an Iranian painting of Cyrus, but unfortunately I haven't been able to actually track down the source of the engraving or the piece it is based on beyond that). So instead I took reference from more modern paintings based on the life of Cyrus, most heavily a 1775 tapestry titled "The Defeat of Astyages" by Maximilien de Haese. Cyrus's robes in that work are clearly anachronistic, probably based on Ottoman fashion, so I altered it to be a bit more accurate to the Achaemenid era. Certainly room for improvement, especially in the lower half, but I do find the colors quite pleasing at least. When it comes to such definitive characters in history, it can be hard to come up with an original design that feels like it matches their presence. I mean hey, at least it's a better outfit than just being a literal head pickled in a jar of blood.

Description
History has more than its fair share of great conquerors and military geniuses, each striving to surpass their predecessors. Before Napoleon, there was Genghis Khan, before Genghis Khan, there was Caesar, and before Caesar, there was Alexander.

And before Alexander, there was Cyrus the Great, King of Kings.

Every source on Cyrus's life is mired in legend and exaggeration, as is the case with most leaders of his day. Still, they all agree that Cyrus was born at the dawn of the 6th century BCE, the son of King Cambyses I of the land of Anshan, then a provincial protectorate of the larger Median kingdom ruled by Astyages, whose daughter was Cyrus's mother Mandane. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Astyages had a prophetic vision warning that his grandson would usurp him, and ordered that Mandane's baby be taken into the woods to be killed. As always happens in these stories though, the hitman couldn't bring himself to murder an infant, and so gave him away to a shepherd family instead. Cyrus was raised in this life until he was 10 years old, at which point he beat up a nobleman's son, and the shepherd was forced to come clean. Apparently fine with this turn of events, Astyages just said "eh send him back to his biological parents", and we'll I'm sure you can guess how that's going to go for him. Since this story comes from Herodotus, whose capacity for accurate information is… tenuous at best, we should probably take this story with a grain of salt. Honestly, this type of story is a surprisingly common trope for kings of Mesopotamia, so it may just be more of a cultural narrative expected of usurper kings, not just one specific to Cyrus. Whatever the case, Cyrus went on to live a nice boring life of regional bureaucracy, keeping his nose clean and not making a blip on the big man's radar.

That is, until Cambyses died in 559 BCE, and Cyrus succeeded him as king of Anshan. The suspicious glances his grandfather Astyages kept throwing at him eventually turned into a war which lasted from 553 to 550 BCE. Unfortunately for Astyages, he proved to be very unpopular, and many of his court defected to Cyrus's side. Reportedly, Cyrus spared his grandfather's life, but still took the throne for himself, completely overhauling the Median Empire's organization into what we would now recognize as the Achaemenid Empire. With all his internal struggles sorted out, Cyrus could now focus on foreign affairs, chiefly his beef with the Lydian king Croesus. Croesus had stoked Cyrus's ire by attacking Persian cities, and that was a mistake. Cyrus was a military genius who knew how to appeal to the common people, indeed he was famous for his religious tolerance. More on that in a bit. Croesus recognized Cyrus's talent, though, and to err on the side of caution, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi on whether or not he should attack. The Oracle, in all her conveniently vague wisdom, foretold that if Croesus went to war with Persia, he'd destroy a great empire. An elated Croesus thus went headlong into a battle against the king of kings, and got his ass handed to him, never once considering that the "great empire" he would destroy was his own.

However, it's Cyrus's campaign against the other giant superpower of Mesopotamia, Babylon, which truly catapulted him into the immortal memory of history. Nabonidus, king of Babylon, and his son Belshazzar were not popular rulers, having come to the throne by conspiracy and usurpation. The clergy distrusted them, the people hated them, and it is even said that some totally random Jewish exile named Daniel quite literally pointed out the writing on the wall to Belshazzar as a warning from the heavens themselves that their reign was nearing its end. In 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great reached the capital city, and entered the gates with no resistance from the civilians. The Babylonian royals fled, and Babylon would become the crown jewel of Iran for the next two centuries. Famously, Cyrus allowed the Jewish priests, previously forced into exile from Jerusalem after their Temple was destroyed in 587 BCE, to return to their homeland and worship as they pleased. Cyrus understood that the only way to keep an empire loyal was to allow people to keep their cultures and traditions. The less of an asshole you are, the less likely people will want to overthrow you, who knew? When it came time for these priests to reconstitute their religious law and doctrine, a little known set of scrolls called the Bible or something, the king of kings got unyielding praise heaped upon him. Cyrus is thus the only individual in the Hebrew Bible on whom the esteemed title "Messiah" is bestowed.

With most of the known world under his control, and the most prosperous cities of ancient history at his fingertips, Cyrus settled back down into his throne and spent the next decade returning to a life of peaceful bureaucracy, only dragged out to deal with Scythian horsemen occasionally raiding from the North. Indeed, it is said that Cyrus ultimately met his end in battle with the Scythians, specifically the Massagetae. In 530 BCE, he had tried to secure peace with their amazonian queen, Tomyris, through marriage, but she rejected his proposal. Ouch. Thoroughly cockblocked, Cyrus switched to playing dirty. Specifically, he tricked the Scythian troops commanded by Tomyris's son into getting absolutely smashed on wine, leaving them wide open for attack and imprisonment. Tomyris's son, ashamed of his drunken weakness, committed suicide in the Persian camp. And hooboy was Tomyris absolutely livid. She raged into battle, decapitated the king of kings, and had his head stuffed into a jar of blood. Reportedly, she is said to have quipped that she had at last quenched the conqueror's thirst for blood. Jesus Christ, where's the Netflix series on this chick?

Design notes, the D&D campaign I ran took place in 526 BCE, so my party just missed the reign of Cyrus. However, because the legacy of Cyrus was such a crucial plot point to chapter 2 of the campaign, I went ahead and drew him anyway. There's actually surprisingly few contemporary portrayals of him, at least that I've been able to find. There's one famous image of him from the ruins of his palace in Pasargadae, which I believe is the source of inspiration for a famous modern headshot engraved in the 19th century (supposedly based on an Iranian painting of Cyrus, but unfortunately I haven't been able to actually track down the source of the engraving or the piece it is based on beyond that). So instead I took reference from more modern paintings based on the life of Cyrus, most heavily a 1775 tapestry titled "The Defeat of Astyages" by Maximilien de Haese. Cyrus's robes in that work are clearly anachronistic, probably based on Ottoman fashion, so I altered it to be a bit more accurate to the Achaemenid era. Certainly room for improvement, especially in the lower half, but I do find the colors quite pleasing at least. When it comes to such definitive characters in history, it can be hard to come up with an original design that feels like it matches their presence. I mean hey, at least it's a better outfit than just being a literal head pickled in a jar of blood.