The provenance file on Ahriman

The provenance file for Ahriman. Nothing here is unsourced; that is what the file is for.

Provenance

1. The attestation. 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎, from the tradition's own record. On record: Zarathustra, Gāthās: Yasna 30 (the two spirits) and 45 (the better and the bad), Vendidad 19 (the temptation of Zarathustra), Greater Bundahišn, trans. Agostini & Thrope, The Bundahišn (Oxford, 2020), Boyce, Mary, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (1979).

2. The narrative record. The Two Spirits at the First Dawn — The oldest stratum of Zoroastrian scripture is not a battle story but a choice. In Yasna 30. The Assault on the Sky — The Sasanian Greater Bundahišn (ch. 1) narrates the attack.

3. The physical record. There is deliberately no archaeology of Ahriman: a cult of evil would have been unthinkable, and none existed. The material record is the scripture itself — the Avesta survives in manuscripts of a Sasanian archetype, the oldest substantial copy being the British Library's 'Avesta of 1323 CE'. The closest contemporary witness is linguistic rather than iconic: the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius I at Behistun and Persepolis name drauga, 'the Lie', as the cosmic enemy the king's order fights — Ahriman's essence without his name, some three centuries after Zarathustra. Sasanian iconography avoids his image entirely, and no sanctuary, altar, or votive has ever been identified with him. Evil's archaeological footprint is precisely an absence: the one god-shaped hole in Iran's religious landscape.

4. The current holding. The temple at /ahriman/, classified Tier 2. One decisive feature survives — a single, honest mark — which places the restoration in Tier-2: exact, and exactly labeled.

5. The documented resonances. Funerary & Memorial Services, Gaming, Fantasy & Entertainment IP, Astrology, Tarot & Esoteric Services — seats argued and weighted in the pattern atlas, read through the myths in this temple's Resonance File.

6. The primary sources. Avesta — Yasna & Yashts — the library this file answers to, open at the Sacred Texts collection.

7. The continuing record. Ahriman never had a cult — no sane theology worships the Lie — yet his legacy is immense. In New Persian ahriman became an ordinary word for devil, and in Zoroastrian liturgy his name is ritually cursed to this day.

At a Glance

• Restored name: Ahriman
• ASCII form: ahriman
• Meaning: "Evil spirit, destructive mind"
• Domain of influence: Evil, Destruction, Lies
• Pantheon: Zoroastrian
• Classification: Tier 2
• Original script: 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎
• Series: The Restoration Files, No. 11 of 548

The File Continues

Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.

Continue the series — previous file: Aganjú (read it here) · next file: AhuraMazdā (read it here).

The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.