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Description
Gobryas was born some point in the 6th century BCE to Mardonius, a Persian from the region of Patishuvarish in what is today northern Iran. Not much is known about his early life, but he clearly had strong ties to the man who would one day become King Darius the Great. He was one of the six conspirators who assassinated the imposter Bardiya with Darius in 522 BCE. Reportedly, while struggling in the dark against the fake king, Gobryas urged a conflicted Darius to advance and stab away even at the risk of hurting his friend in the scuffle. A true bromance right there. Once Darius was king, Gobryas and his family were awarded prestigious positions and valuable marriages into the royal family. Gobryas himself was assigned to crush a rebellion of Elamites in 520 BCE, and would continue to serve the Achaemenids until at least 498 BCE, when he drops out of the historical record. He marched with his son, Mardonius, who was a major player in the war against the Greek city states. Mardonius himself was the product of a marriage between Gobryas and Darius's sister, and would later go on to marry Darius's daughter Artazostre because… gotta keep those recessive genes in the family, I guess.

Actually, an interesting note is that Gobryas's daughter bore Darius his eldest son, Artobazanes, who would later stir up a fuss when Darius was on his death bed in 486 BCE. Darius actually decided to elect his younger son Xerxes as his successor to the throne, because while Artobazanes was the oldest overall, Xerxes was the son of Atossa, daughter to Cyrus the Great. The PR associated with that purple blood is frankly impossible to ignore, and Darius was nothing if not an expert at manipulating public opinion. In Xerxes's own words, Artobazanes was born to Darius the Subject, and Xerxes was born to Darius the King. As far as I've been able to tell, no one really had the guts to argue against that, and the ascension of Xerxes was a peaceful one.

Design notes, Gobryas is depicted on both the Behistun Inscription and the tomb of Darius. And yeah, both look like the most generic Achaemenid noblemen you can imagine. A more modern illustration is the 1900 illustration "Struggle Between Gobryas and the False Smerdis" by Jacob Abbott. I assume it's meant to depict the epic display of bromance mentioned earlier, but I couldn't for the life of me find which person is meant to be who. I decided to just roll with the guy on the far right since you can actually see his face and I just like his silhouette more. Aside from that, I mostly improvised, kept it relatively simple. In the D&D game I ran, he was Darius's closest contact, and a completely upstanding officer of the law which the party definitely didn't have to bribe to get an inkling of information out of him whatsoever. I didn't see anything and neither did you.

Description
Gobryas was born some point in the 6th century BCE to Mardonius, a Persian from the region of Patishuvarish in what is today northern Iran. Not much is known about his early life, but he clearly had strong ties to the man who would one day become King Darius the Great. He was one of the six conspirators who assassinated the imposter Bardiya with Darius in 522 BCE. Reportedly, while struggling in the dark against the fake king, Gobryas urged a conflicted Darius to advance and stab away even at the risk of hurting his friend in the scuffle. A true bromance right there. Once Darius was king, Gobryas and his family were awarded prestigious positions and valuable marriages into the royal family. Gobryas himself was assigned to crush a rebellion of Elamites in 520 BCE, and would continue to serve the Achaemenids until at least 498 BCE, when he drops out of the historical record. He marched with his son, Mardonius, who was a major player in the war against the Greek city states. Mardonius himself was the product of a marriage between Gobryas and Darius's sister, and would later go on to marry Darius's daughter Artazostre because… gotta keep those recessive genes in the family, I guess.

Actually, an interesting note is that Gobryas's daughter bore Darius his eldest son, Artobazanes, who would later stir up a fuss when Darius was on his death bed in 486 BCE. Darius actually decided to elect his younger son Xerxes as his successor to the throne, because while Artobazanes was the oldest overall, Xerxes was the son of Atossa, daughter to Cyrus the Great. The PR associated with that purple blood is frankly impossible to ignore, and Darius was nothing if not an expert at manipulating public opinion. In Xerxes's own words, Artobazanes was born to Darius the Subject, and Xerxes was born to Darius the King. As far as I've been able to tell, no one really had the guts to argue against that, and the ascension of Xerxes was a peaceful one.

Design notes, Gobryas is depicted on both the Behistun Inscription and the tomb of Darius. And yeah, both look like the most generic Achaemenid noblemen you can imagine. A more modern illustration is the 1900 illustration "Struggle Between Gobryas and the False Smerdis" by Jacob Abbott. I assume it's meant to depict the epic display of bromance mentioned earlier, but I couldn't for the life of me find which person is meant to be who. I decided to just roll with the guy on the far right since you can actually see his face and I just like his silhouette more. Aside from that, I mostly improvised, kept it relatively simple. In the D&D game I ran, he was Darius's closest contact, and a completely upstanding officer of the law which the party definitely didn't have to bribe to get an inkling of information out of him whatsoever. I didn't see anything and neither did you.