#farkhad

[redhairedfish]

my own design of Farkhad, which I came up with a long time ago but only drew in 2019 (in the second pic he has a hair clip but cause of his curls it is invisible)

[eielaitsellensa]

THE BACHELOR SLEEPS

[jukjujada]

i’ll se you again in 25 years.

[thanatika]

the thing about farkhad is that it works best thematically if he's older. like a full generation older than the stamatins, old enough to be their dad. which, due to the conflicting insane timeline of the polyhedron being built when the stamatins were either 19 or 24, means that farkhad still could have been early 40s when he died. a bit younger than victor, but a generation older than the stamatins.

the thematic relevance of this is on two levels. for one thing, the game already has a major focus on things being inherited from one generation to the next, the passing of the torch, new vs old, etc etc. the plot of the game (patho classic) ends with three different groups, each led by a young person, each claiming that "we're going to make things different and better than the way they were run by the previous generation". the plot of the game begins with a disaster triggered by the polyhedron, which was built by andrey and peter. it only seems fitting in a circular way that they would have chosen to end farkhad's life on a similar justification.

and it's especially fitting given that all three of them are artists. i'm not a trained art historian or anything so i don't have the proper terminology, but i do think that art tends to be talked about in a generational way: cycles of popularity, going from the avant-garde new thing to the common standard to obsolete, younger generations rebelling against what they saw their parents enjoy and creating something different, older generations refusing to see new and experimental things as "real" art. and then you kill a guy.

[rathologic]

Who tf is farkhad 😭

he's just this guy, you know? 🔽

Farkhad, so called after the Persian literary figure Farhad who famously built a staircase, is an architect (not-)appearing in the Pathologic franchise.

Fundamental Farkhad Facts:

"Farkhad" isn't his real name; we don't know his real name.

Farkhad is dead long before the player arrives.

Farkhad was employed by the Kains to build the Stillwater and the Cathedral.

Farkhad had his own vision for expanding the town over the bank of the Gorkhon River, which conflicted with the Stamatins'.

In Pathologic, the cause and manner of Farkhad's death are ambiguous. Grace is the only person who ever refers to him as "Farkhad" in dialogue (to say that he likes the color red); notably, the Stamatins don't! Peter describes him as follows:

A guild fellow of mine… his ardour was disproportionate to his talent… You see, he nearly convinced the rulers to grant him that side of the river for his project… Yes, he deserved to die. But I didn't kill him… [...] They say he fell down from a great height and broke his neck. That's how he died. I've also heard a rumour that he got lethally intoxicated with bad twyrine…

He has an elaborate tomb in the Graveyard with the following memorial (original left; translation by Halfgild Wynac on the right).

Pathologic 2 got rid of basically all the interesting ambiguity here by having Peter confess without provocation that he and Andrey killed Farkhad (Day 4). In addition to Peter, Eva refers to him as "Farkhad" in dialogue. If Peter dies, the player is given a quest to give Andrey a key from him with "F." scratched into its surface, presumed to be related to Farkhad (although we never see the payoff of this).

A talented corpse. A capable architect, though far below my league. He built the Cathedral. My brother and I built [Farkhad's grave]. Killed him ourselves, buried him ourselves.

Farkhad is popular in fanon largely because of "Fourfold Bullet", a mistake character dynamic between him and Andrey-Daniil-Peter where he's like, a seductive twink/apparition in dream-spaces/polyvalent metaphor. He doesn't have any canon appearance, but is often drawn as Persian due to the story of his name -- which rules (but often strikes me as poorly handled with the above fanon where your One Persian Guy is smoking "exotic" drugs and exists only in sexually charged relation to white men). farkhad in myyy heart is old and balding.

Bonus Non-Canon Farkhad Fact (it's from the p1 Bachelor alpha but doesn't appear in the final game): Simon originally gave the Stillwater to Eva's mother Vera when Vera was young, so Farkhad probably finished building that one some 30+ years ago. See previous paragraph!

[meirimerens]

pathologic fest day 30

"We Are Behind You"

Lumières, rideau. On applaudit [...] en coulisses ! À la régie !

[ghibbuu03]

thanatos

(hello!! This is a re-upload since my previous acc was blocked)

[princewonderous]

Farkhad backstages

[nonelyrabbers]

ты попадешь в китай, а я в индийскую тюрьму

[goddidntdothis]

Lucifer at the Gates

[jukjujada]

🐈‍⬛ 🎀

[yourfavoritedistortion]

I’ve created a monstrosity

[obscurecrows]

corpsecenic arquitecture

[princewonderous]

I lived bitch

[kodzun]

Sewn Together

Made from the same fabric, stuffed with the same stuffing. A visitor from afar at his last journey.

[danvolodar]

On pearls of wisdom

The one thing I love the most about fandoms is that sometimes you just get insight you'd have no other way to glimpse through them.

For instance, I would've totally taken Farkhad's name in Pathologic at face value if not for someone mentioning off-hand that the name on the obelisk is likely a pseudonym referring to the Persian tale of Khosrow and Shirin.