📌 Author's Note:Based on many comments I've received, I want to clarify something: Chapters 6 to 10 show the modern Cyrus's(Kourosh) reflections (while Kourosh is currently a newborn) on his historical predecessor, Cyrus the Great. The purpose of these chapters is both to familiarize readers with the actual historical events and to show how Kourosh's thoughts will eventually shape his decisions and the policies he will adopt. These sections are laying the groundwork for his future choices — and the point where his path will start to diverge from real history.
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Little Kourosh, nestled in the warm embrace of his mother, Mandane, and resting in the peace of his wooden cradle, let his mind drift like a boat on the waves of time, submerged in the sea of history. He thought back to his own infancy; a time his small body had no experience of, but his soul, filled with the knowledge of the twenty-first century, was familiar with its terrifying details. He envisioned his grandfather, Astyages, the mighty king of the Medes; a king whose outward splendor and power concealed a shadow of fear and madness. Kourosh's mind traveled to the night before his mother Mandane's marriage, when Astyages had awoken from a horrifying dream. In that troubled vision, he saw a raging, uncontrollable flood gushing forth from his daughter's womb, a torrent that engulfed not only the high palaces of Ecbatana but all of Asia. This nightmare had stolen the night's peace from the king and planted the seeds of a deep, unknown terror in his heart.
Astyages, his forehead drenched in sweat and his eyes gleaming with terror and sleeplessness, immediately summoned the Magi to the stone palace of Ecbatana in the dead of night. The grand hall of the palace, with its massive stone columns and walls adorned with ancient reliefs, had a mysterious and heavy atmosphere in the middle of the night. The torches cast a flickering light on the serious and dignified faces of the Magi, who, with their white robes and tall hats, seemed to have come from another world. The king, with a voice that trembled slightly and his breath coming in short gasps, shared the details of his ominous dream with them and hastily demanded a precise interpretation of this devastating vision. In every word, he revealed his fear of an unknown fate.
The Magi, after consulting and interpreting the celestial signs, predicted with a certainty and a tone as if they spoke for the gods themselves: "From your daughter, a son will be born who will take his grandfather's throne and become the unrivaled ruler of Asia." This prophecy, which confirmed the king's nightmare and turned all his hidden fears into reality, doubled Astyages's terror. It drove him into an unprecedented madness; a madness that made him determined to change his inevitable fate at any cost and to eliminate this threat of an unborn infant. The ominous shadow of this prophecy weighed heavily on all the king's future decisions and pushed him toward ruthless actions.
To escape this grim fate and elude the grasp of destiny, Astyages devised a plan that, in his own mind, was clever and flawless. He knew well that if he married Mandane to one of the powerful and influential nobles of Media, the child from this union could easily gain the necessary support to rebel and overthrow his rule. Such a marriage could give rise to a new power within Media that would shake the foundations of his government from within. Thus, the Median king made a decision that seemed prudent on the surface: he would give his daughter, Mandane, in marriage not to one of the powerful princes or generals of Media, but to Cambyses, the king of the Persians and ruler of the region of Anshan.
Astyages considered Cambyses a quiet, peace-loving man, and powerless compared to the influential nobles of Media. In his private thoughts, he saw Cambyses as a man content with ruling his small tribe in Anshan, with no greater ambitions. "This man has neither a great army nor influence among the great tribes of Media. His son, if one is born, will remain obscure in his father's shadow and will never become a threat to my throne." He believed that a marriage to such a man would pose no danger to his throne, and for this reason, he considered him a suitable choice to shatter the Magi's prophecies.
Astyages, with a foolish pride and an illusion of absolute power, thought to himself: "It is impossible that from this incompetent and harmless individual, someone could be born who could threaten my throne." This false belief was rooted in the pride and delusion of limitless power that had blinded Astyages to the truth. He was so convinced of the military and political superiority of Media over Persia that he never thought a serious threat, especially from a vassal kingdom he deemed weak and incapable, could be directed at his rule. It was this same foolish notion and miscalculation that set the Median king on a path where he, unwittingly, helped to bring about his own fated destiny. This decision acted as a double-edged sword; on the surface, it freed him from fear, but in reality, it planted the seeds of his downfall in the soil of another power.
Following this fateful decision and its execution, Mandane, the beautiful princess of Media, set off for Persia and began a new life alongside Cambyses. The bridal caravan, with a splendor befitting a Median princess, traveled from Ecbatana to Anshan. Astyages watched the caravan from a distance with a satisfied smile, as if a burden was lifted from his shoulders with every step the caravan took. A year passed since this event, and Astyages sat happily and at ease in his palace in Ecbatana. With pride, he believed he had deceived fate and escaped the ominous shadow of the prophecy. A false sense of peace had settled in his heart, a peace that made him oblivious to the hidden truth.
The Median king was unaware that the seeds of his overthrow were sprouting thousands of kilometers away from his capital, in the land of Persia. He did not know that fate, with its unknown complexities, had taken another path to fulfill the Magi's dream; a path that would not only lead him to his downfall but would also lay the foundations for a new empire that would rule the world for centuries. This negligence was Astyages's greatest mistake; for he had underestimated the power of destiny and did not know that even his smallest decisions could lead to the greatest transformations.
Little Kourosh, in the depths of his mind, vividly imagined this bitter yet ironic scene from history. He saw a grandfather who, out of fear of his grandson's future power, sends him to a distant and, in his view, safe place. But this oblivious king was unaware that this very distance and upbringing in a different and seemingly harmless environment would not only save his grandson from the clutches of death but would also make him stronger and wiser for his future role: the founder of an unparalleled empire. This destiny, while appearing bitter and cruel, was a sign of a will greater than that of mortals; a will that shaped the course of history with an unparalleled subtlety and guided the hands of kings, unwittingly, toward the fulfillment of a greater destiny. These were the first complexities of fate that Kourosh understood, complexities that prepared him to take the helm of history.