A Mythic History

Mazdeanism starts with the birth of its founder, the prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra), over six hundred years before the birth of Christ. Zoroaster was born to the virgin Dughdov and when he was born he laughed rather than cried. He was raised as a priest on the very edge of the Persian Empire.

After a period of meditating on the world in a sacred cave, Zoroaster was visited by God (called Ohrmazd), and from this came the Zoroastrian holy hymns, the Gathas. Zoroaster spent the next ten years preaching his new faith, traveling as far as the rising sun in the east, and throughout Persia. At age 42, Zoroaster converted the great Persian Emperor Vishtaspa after performing a great number of miracles. Zoroaster was murdered in the city of Balkh by warriors of the Turanian Tribe while he prayed at a fire temple.

With imperial patronage the Mazdean faith, under the guidance of Zoroaster's discipline Osthanes, quickly grew to become the preeminent faith in Persia. The priests of Ohrmazd were known as mobeds, and they held the secrets of Zoroaster: how to understand the movements of the heavens, control spirits, and unlock the secrets of the natural world.

Under the Achaemenians and Parthians, the mobeds expanded their religion and practices into the west, and many great philosophers from the Hellenic world traveled to learn the secrets of the Zoroastrians.

A downturn for the faith came with the invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great. Temples, sanctuaries, and icons of the Mazdeans were plundered and destroyed. The priests who defended their holy places were slaughtered; their scriptures were burned. The Seleucid period

that followed this time was one of despair for the Mazdean faithful. Persecuted, they saw their temples turned over to false gods, devils, and magical spirits. Their holy teachings were dispersed throughout the world for the impious and unbelievers to read and use.

The Zoroastrians regained their strength under the Sasanids, and came into conflict with the powerful Roman Empire and the Mercurian priests. During this period, the Mazdeans and their priesthood were in furious conflict in the western provinces with the Mercurians of the Roman Empire. Mobeds marched with Persian armies in Syria and Palestine, calling down angels and spirits, and giving their generals prophecies and visions of the future. These conflicts, however, were peripheral to the true struggle of the mobeds, which was principally a war against the followers of Ahriman, the Mazdean Devil.

Zoroastrians under Islam

The rise of Islam in early seventh century spelled the end of the Zoroastrian dominance of Persia. Large numbers of Mazdeans converted to Islam after the defeat of the Sasanid Empire by the Islamic armies. This conquest is known among Mazdeans as "the ruin and devastation that came from the Arabs."

For the Muslim overlords of Persia, Ohrmazd is one and the same as the God of Abraham; the Zoroastrian scriptures are in the same category as the Torah and the Gospel, and Mazdeans are considered "people of the book" (dhimmis). Zoroaster himself is thought of as a prophet. Despite this, a large body of laws has been instituted to enforce the social and legal inferiority of the dhimmi in the community. Zoroastrians particularly are (unofficially) discriminated against, called gabars ("infidels") and accused of fire and devil worship. Over the years many Zoroastrians have converted to Islam.

Most Zoroastrians who have not converted have moved to remote and poor areas of south central Iran. Increasingly they are migrating further east to unknown lands. Despite this, Arabic has not displaced the local language, and the Iranians maintain distinctly Persian cultural practices. The ancient glories of the Achaemenian era, and the heroes who antedated the first Persian Empire, were preserved in countless tales, poems and stories. The Persian national epic Shahnameh, written by the poet Ferdowsi in the 10th century, is still widely read and recited in the 13th century, and details the mythological and historical past of pre-Islamic Persia, including a history of Zoroastrianism.

For much of the history of Mazdeanism, there existed a religious institution, composed of hierarchies of priests supported by the emperor. It was not until the high priests Tanser and Kartir under the Sasanids that there existed a formal Mazdean Church with an explicit hierarchy under the direct theological and spiritual rule of the high priests.

The mobeds that ran the Mazdean Church also engaged in the suppression of rival "false" faiths that were prevalent in the empire, including Christianity, Manichaeism, Judaism, and other exotic faiths from the lands to the east. This practice continued until the end of the Sasanid dynasty.

The Mazdean Church was as thoroughly destroyed as the empire that supported it, although the institution of the priesthood survived. The priesthood is hereditary, rather than open to any who wish to become priests.

The remaining institution is collegiate in nature, with no single prelate to firmly resolve doctrinal disputes. As the Mazdeans are so few, so dispersed, and mostly persecuted, there are few theological or doctrinal disputes of significance.

Zoroastrianism is one of the least well-known world religions; translations of its ancient texts are contradictory and their interpretations open to debate. Textual and archaeological evidence is scant, and there is little consensus among historians and theologians on many elements of their history or beliefs.

Zoroastrianism is also a living faith, undergoing internal debates about its own origins. The history of Zoroaster, the religion he founded and the nations that adopted that faith as their state religion is open to debate and interpretation. This chapter seeks to be respectful to this venerable living faith and its adherents. This is also a gaming resource, so the most "mythic" of the various legends, histories and interpretations are more often than not used as authoritative.

A Note on Names

Zoroastrian names have at least four differing versions: the old Avestan, Middle Persian, Parsi (the Persian spoken in the 13th century), and Latinized names. This chapter uses the Avestan names more often than not, but the Parsi names are given in parentheses where appropriate. Some figures, such as Zoroaster, have their Latinized names only. "Zoroastrian" is used interchangeably with "Mazdean".