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Xerxes I, King of Kings of Achaemenid Iran in the 5th century BCE, has pretty much become the de facto final boss in the minds of Westerners looking back on classical Greece. Of course, Xerxes had a life outside of Greece and I think that's equally interesting, so let's delve into it. Xerxes was the child of King Darius the Great and Atossa, daughter of the legendary Cyrus. Much like the story of Dorieus I mentioned in previous entries, Xerxes was not actually the eldest of Darius's children, as he had another son, Artobazanes, by his wife prior to his ascension in 522 BCE. However, in contrast to the Dorieus story, the eldest son was passed over without much fuss. In Xerxes own words, Artobazanes was the first born of Darius the Servant, but Xerxes was the first born of Darius the King. This, combined with the purple blood of Cyrus running through his veins, made the PR of the decision frankly indisputable. When Darius died while preparing to campaign in Egypt in 486 BCE, Xerxes ascended to the Persian throne without anyone really raising a stink about it. Which was great for Xerxes, because he set out to finish the work his father had started. Once he subdued the rebellion in Egypt which had stressed his father to death, he turned to Babylon, where the natives were trying to install one of their own back into power. Xerxes would not have his authority challenged, and in response he had the great temple dedicated to the Babylonians' national god Marduk pillaged and razed. This was unusual for Iranian kings, who before had allowed locals to worship their gods however they pleased as long as they paid their taxes. It is unclear whether or not Xerxes was trying to enforce Zoroastrianism on a state level, a personal level, or just wanted to make an example out of some rebels.

Xerxes then turned his attention to those stuck-up Greeks who had thrown his ambassadors down a pit and slaughtered Persian citizens. From 484 to 481 BCE, Xerxes prepped his famous Immortals to march across the Hellespont. Literally. In order to avoid the poor climate conditions which had stalled his father's advance into Greece before, Xerxes had an enormous bridge constructed to bypass the sea route entirely. While most Greek states submitted to Xerxes, and indeed many of them had already been a friendly part of the empire for a generation or two, a coalition led by Athens and Sparta formed to oust the Immortals. The Spartan king Leonidas fell when trying to halt Xerxes's advance at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, which opened the way for the Persians to march forth and burn Athens to the ground. Xerxes at last had revenge for the ass whipping they gave his father at the Battle of Marathon some ten years prior. However, his top general, Mardonius, was killed the next year at the Battle of Plataea, and a grieving Xerxes decided he had accomplished what he set out to do anyways. He packed up, put a lackey in charge of dealing with the Greek War, and returned home to govern his Empire.

Little is known about the later years of Xerxes's life. We don't really get any information about him until his death in August 465 BCE. A member of Xerxes's bodyguard had come into prominence thanks to boring royal family drama behind the scenes. His name was Artabanus, and all he really needed to usurp the throne for himself was to get rid of the man in charge. He murdered Xerxes and his eldest son, Darius, and while he tried to bring the second oldest prince, Artaxerxes, around to his cause, this backfired heavily. Artaxerxes had Artabanus and all seven of his sons put to death, and managed to wrestle power back from any other scheming eunuchs that were eying the throne. A much later tradition from 2009 would name Xerxes's murderer as one of the first people to represent the whole sneaky-stabby-hooded-freedom-fighter-with-a-hidden-blade shtick. If you think it would've just been a lot easier to call that an Assassin, I agree, but I guess that would've required just too much hindsight for Ubisoft to work around.

Design notes, there's surprisingly not a lot of distinguishing contemporary artwork of Xerxes. There's one relief currently housed in the National Museum of Iran, which I used as a reference for his basic silhouette and facial features. Aside from that, most artwork I've found is extremely modern and/or unsourced. Thankfully, Xerxes is in the Bible! Kind of… the Book of Esther features an Iranian king named Ahasuerus, which most scholars tend to identify with Xerxes. However, it's clear that the Book of Esther is meant to be a comedic parody of the Persian Period written to spite the Greek Seleucid kings, not necessarily an accurate historical record. Nonetheless, Bible characters always get way more art than some probably even deserve, so while there's not a lot of art of Xerxes, there's plenty of Ahasuerus, and that's good enough for me. My main reference for his robes came from a 1888 painting, "Esther Denouncing Haman to Ahasuerus", by artist Ernest Normand. I supplemented the patterns from that design with the silhouette from an illustration in a 1881 book just called "La Civilizacion". Then just to add a little bit of extra royal taste, I used the necklace he's adorned with in a 17th century painting by Dutch painter Jan Adriaensz van Staveren. I'm actually really happy with how the complete composition came out on this one. This is one of those rare designs that I really feel is locked in for me. Everything can always be improved, of course, but for now, this will always be what Xerxes looks like in my mind. It's definitely not whatever the actual hell he's got going on in 300-

Description
Xerxes I, King of Kings of Achaemenid Iran in the 5th century BCE, has pretty much become the de facto final boss in the minds of Westerners looking back on classical Greece. Of course, Xerxes had a life outside of Greece and I think that's equally interesting, so let's delve into it. Xerxes was the child of King Darius the Great and Atossa, daughter of the legendary Cyrus. Much like the story of Dorieus I mentioned in previous entries, Xerxes was not actually the eldest of Darius's children, as he had another son, Artobazanes, by his wife prior to his ascension in 522 BCE. However, in contrast to the Dorieus story, the eldest son was passed over without much fuss. In Xerxes own words, Artobazanes was the first born of Darius the Servant, but Xerxes was the first born of Darius the King. This, combined with the purple blood of Cyrus running through his veins, made the PR of the decision frankly indisputable. When Darius died while preparing to campaign in Egypt in 486 BCE, Xerxes ascended to the Persian throne without anyone really raising a stink about it. Which was great for Xerxes, because he set out to finish the work his father had started. Once he subdued the rebellion in Egypt which had stressed his father to death, he turned to Babylon, where the natives were trying to install one of their own back into power. Xerxes would not have his authority challenged, and in response he had the great temple dedicated to the Babylonians' national god Marduk pillaged and razed. This was unusual for Iranian kings, who before had allowed locals to worship their gods however they pleased as long as they paid their taxes. It is unclear whether or not Xerxes was trying to enforce Zoroastrianism on a state level, a personal level, or just wanted to make an example out of some rebels.

Xerxes then turned his attention to those stuck-up Greeks who had thrown his ambassadors down a pit and slaughtered Persian citizens. From 484 to 481 BCE, Xerxes prepped his famous Immortals to march across the Hellespont. Literally. In order to avoid the poor climate conditions which had stalled his father's advance into Greece before, Xerxes had an enormous bridge constructed to bypass the sea route entirely. While most Greek states submitted to Xerxes, and indeed many of them had already been a friendly part of the empire for a generation or two, a coalition led by Athens and Sparta formed to oust the Immortals. The Spartan king Leonidas fell when trying to halt Xerxes's advance at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, which opened the way for the Persians to march forth and burn Athens to the ground. Xerxes at last had revenge for the ass whipping they gave his father at the Battle of Marathon some ten years prior. However, his top general, Mardonius, was killed the next year at the Battle of Plataea, and a grieving Xerxes decided he had accomplished what he set out to do anyways. He packed up, put a lackey in charge of dealing with the Greek War, and returned home to govern his Empire.

Little is known about the later years of Xerxes's life. We don't really get any information about him until his death in August 465 BCE. A member of Xerxes's bodyguard had come into prominence thanks to boring royal family drama behind the scenes. His name was Artabanus, and all he really needed to usurp the throne for himself was to get rid of the man in charge. He murdered Xerxes and his eldest son, Darius, and while he tried to bring the second oldest prince, Artaxerxes, around to his cause, this backfired heavily. Artaxerxes had Artabanus and all seven of his sons put to death, and managed to wrestle power back from any other scheming eunuchs that were eying the throne. A much later tradition from 2009 would name Xerxes's murderer as one of the first people to represent the whole sneaky-stabby-hooded-freedom-fighter-with-a-hidden-blade shtick. If you think it would've just been a lot easier to call that an Assassin, I agree, but I guess that would've required just too much hindsight for Ubisoft to work around.

Design notes, there's surprisingly not a lot of distinguishing contemporary artwork of Xerxes. There's one relief currently housed in the National Museum of Iran, which I used as a reference for his basic silhouette and facial features. Aside from that, most artwork I've found is extremely modern and/or unsourced. Thankfully, Xerxes is in the Bible! Kind of… the Book of Esther features an Iranian king named Ahasuerus, which most scholars tend to identify with Xerxes. However, it's clear that the Book of Esther is meant to be a comedic parody of the Persian Period written to spite the Greek Seleucid kings, not necessarily an accurate historical record. Nonetheless, Bible characters always get way more art than some probably even deserve, so while there's not a lot of art of Xerxes, there's plenty of Ahasuerus, and that's good enough for me. My main reference for his robes came from a 1888 painting, "Esther Denouncing Haman to Ahasuerus", by artist Ernest Normand. I supplemented the patterns from that design with the silhouette from an illustration in a 1881 book just called "La Civilizacion". Then just to add a little bit of extra royal taste, I used the necklace he's adorned with in a 17th century painting by Dutch painter Jan Adriaensz van Staveren. I'm actually really happy with how the complete composition came out on this one. This is one of those rare designs that I really feel is locked in for me. Everything can always be improved, of course, but for now, this will always be what Xerxes looks like in my mind. It's definitely not whatever the actual hell he's got going on in 300-