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Description
Not much is recorded about Patizeithes in the history books. Herodotus calls him a magus (Zoroastrian priest), who lived during the reign of Cambyses II. If we are to believe Darius's propaganda- er, I mean… totally unbiased account which says that Cambyses murdered his own brother Bardiya and replaced him with a body double named Gaumata, then Patizeithes would've been the brother of this imposter. Apparently, Patizeithes was the brains of the operation, and after a certain point convinced the false Bardiya to revolt against Cambyses and claim the throne of Achaemenid Iran for himself, though the attempt failed and Darius usurped both kings. That's about all we know about Patizeithes, which is annoying for us as historians, but is exactly the kind of open-ended vagueness which makes him perfect as a minor D&D villain. In my campaign set in 526 BCE, I turned Patizeithes into a corrupt and disgraced magus who refused to convert to Zoroaster's reforms and give up his wealth. Driven by spite, zealotry, and a desire to avenge his mutilated brother, Patizeithes fell in with the main villains to orchestrate the plot to replace Bardiya with his brother. Unfortunately for him, once they no longer had use for him, the villains dropped him like a rock and made him take the fall when the party first began to unravel the conspiracy. They took him prisoner, and later Darius would demonstrate his… advanced interrogation tactics to try and get more info out of this poor sorry pawn. The party stepped in, moreso because they didn't want to see Darius take a step he couldn't come back from, and Patizeithes was spared, much as he probably wished he was dead after the beating he received and the fingers he lost.

Design notes, perhaps unsurprisingly, there's no art of a man who gets like two sentences in the entire historical record, at most. So this is another one I just designed whole cloth. I took heavy inspiration from the robes of modern Zoroastrian priests, combining that with depictions of magi from the late classical and medieval periods to flesh out the composition a little more. In the D&D game, I built his sheet all around smoke and mirrors, wanting to focus his build around a weaponized incense burner… which one of the players promptly looted when Patizeithes was arrested XD. Overall, I'm quite happy with this design, I think it's rather slick. May have been a little overkill for the design of a minor villain who really only existed to have that scene where Darius shows what he's capable of underneath his professional guise, but sometimes you just gotta go where the pencil takes ya.

Description
Not much is recorded about Patizeithes in the history books. Herodotus calls him a magus (Zoroastrian priest), who lived during the reign of Cambyses II. If we are to believe Darius's propaganda- er, I mean… totally unbiased account which says that Cambyses murdered his own brother Bardiya and replaced him with a body double named Gaumata, then Patizeithes would've been the brother of this imposter. Apparently, Patizeithes was the brains of the operation, and after a certain point convinced the false Bardiya to revolt against Cambyses and claim the throne of Achaemenid Iran for himself, though the attempt failed and Darius usurped both kings. That's about all we know about Patizeithes, which is annoying for us as historians, but is exactly the kind of open-ended vagueness which makes him perfect as a minor D&D villain. In my campaign set in 526 BCE, I turned Patizeithes into a corrupt and disgraced magus who refused to convert to Zoroaster's reforms and give up his wealth. Driven by spite, zealotry, and a desire to avenge his mutilated brother, Patizeithes fell in with the main villains to orchestrate the plot to replace Bardiya with his brother. Unfortunately for him, once they no longer had use for him, the villains dropped him like a rock and made him take the fall when the party first began to unravel the conspiracy. They took him prisoner, and later Darius would demonstrate his… advanced interrogation tactics to try and get more info out of this poor sorry pawn. The party stepped in, moreso because they didn't want to see Darius take a step he couldn't come back from, and Patizeithes was spared, much as he probably wished he was dead after the beating he received and the fingers he lost.

Design notes, perhaps unsurprisingly, there's no art of a man who gets like two sentences in the entire historical record, at most. So this is another one I just designed whole cloth. I took heavy inspiration from the robes of modern Zoroastrian priests, combining that with depictions of magi from the late classical and medieval periods to flesh out the composition a little more. In the D&D game, I built his sheet all around smoke and mirrors, wanting to focus his build around a weaponized incense burner… which one of the players promptly looted when Patizeithes was arrested XD. Overall, I'm quite happy with this design, I think it's rather slick. May have been a little overkill for the design of a minor villain who really only existed to have that scene where Darius shows what he's capable of underneath his professional guise, but sometimes you just gotta go where the pencil takes ya.