Shagad (シャガード Shagaado? ) is one of the supporting characters of the Heroic Legend of Arslan. He is a distant relative of Narsus and also an old friend who studied together at school. He resides in Gilan as a wealthy merchant.
Appearance[]
Shagad is described as a man with noble looking more than Narsus does, though his skin is tanned by the strong sunshine of Gilan. In the novel, his hair is described as curly. Later on, he gets a big scar on his right cheek.
Personality[]
He loves luxurious life and doesn’t care about slaves’ life. Though he used to have a reputation of intelligence and swordplay as high as Narsus had, he seems to just jealous of Narsus after they reunite.
History[]
According to Elam, he is a son of Narsus’s father’s sister’s husband’s cousin. He used to study together at the Royal Academy with Narsus.
When Shagad had a love affair with a mistress of a noble man, Narsus saved him from the trouble. Different from Narsus, he has never worked for the government. Instead, he changed his inheritance into jewelry and gold, and becomes a prodigal living in a mansion in Gilan. He owns a vast orchard and has 100 slaves work hard in it.
Plot[]
It is when Shagad is off to his villa with his mistress that the camp of Arslan arrived to Gilan. After he returns, Narsus visits him with Elam. Though they started a friendly conversation, it turns into an argument over the social system and they put an end to their friend ship. He tries to deceive them with false information and attacks them, but Narsus counterattacks him. He is captured and sentenced to be a slave for a year.
3 years later, Shagad is at the side of the king of Misr, Hosain III, as a guest advisor for the war against Pars. At this time, all he wants is to behead Narsus. Inspired by his scar on the right cheek, Hosain proposes an idea, which is to mold Shagad into Hilmes so that they will have an excuse to attack Pars. As he agrees to it, Hosain orders his men to burn Shagad’s face, which makes him holds a grudge toward him. Instead of a silver mask, Hosain makes him wear a full-face gold mask.
Some times later, Zandeh comes to Misr after hearing the news of Hilmes. At first, Shagad manages to pretend to be Hilmes and lets Zandeh train army, while he enjoys a luxurious time. However, Zandeh realizes that he is a fake and gets killed when he escaped.
After that, real Hilmes arrives; he pretends to be a different person and takes over Zandeh’s work. When Shagad’s grudge toward Hosain becomes so deep, he takes him as a hostage and try to get out of the palace. However, Hilmes and Fitna make this chance to take over Misr and have Shagad kill Hosain. When Hilmes hands him gold and frees him, he plans to take over the palace from Hilmes, and gathers soldiers. He attacks the palace when Hilmes is out for the northern district, but again, he is counterattacked by Hilmes with a strategy similar with that of Narsus. After uttering “ Narsus” with a deepest grudge, he is beheaded by Hilmes.