Rostam · Chapter 5 of 8
Esfandiyar
A prince no weapon marks · One opening · A debt incurred
He won, and the poem began counting down.
The poem's second tragedy mirrors the first. Esfandiyar, whom the epic tradition treats as effectively invulnerable except at the eyes, is sent by his own father to bring Rostam back in chains — a demand Rostam can neither accept nor honourably refuse. They fight, and nothing Rostam does marks the prince. The Simurgh then tells him where the one opening is and what using it will cost: whoever kills Esfandiyar is marked for his own end. Rostam puts a double-headed tamarisk arrow into the eye, and the poem treats the victory as a debt rather than a triumph.
- Nothing marked him
- One opening
- A price accepted
Unlocks in-game at Ascension tier 1.
