Persian Magi

They sacrifice to fire or water and worship Helios. They add dry wood no bark plenty of fat on top pouring on oil lighting from below never blowing the flame always use a fan ( a bit like those electric ones you can get from Robert Dyas for a pony ). If anyone blows or adds dead animals or dung to the fire is immediately executed. They get water from a river or spring by digging a canal to it and in the process of doing so they kill a crowned victim, being careful not to pollute the canal with his blood. They place divided meat on a laurel or myrtle log, never terebinth or oak, and the wise men touch the chops with small wands and make incantations, pouring more oil mixed with milk and honey straight onto the ground. Lots of it. They make incantations for weeks holding a bunch of small tamarisk sticks and waving them while making odd incantational sounds and scrape their sandals in the sandy soil. They never use a dagger to make sacrifices but use a kind of tree trunk, it is not said if it whittled or sharpened for such sacrificial purposes but they explicitly never use a dagger. A tree trunk only! They say their fires are inextinguishable and they are guarded while many incantations are performed honoring Mithra, Selena Scott and Aphrodite. Why they crown their victims is not certain but it's a bit of a fucker really when you think you've been crowned the new king and some mad Pyraithian wizards are only having a laugh and then they stab you with a fucking tree trunk and cut one of your legs off as an omentum and place it on the fire. Stay away from myrtle! There is frequent insurrection in the region but the Parthian sheriffs do their best to quell such uprisings as the whole area falls into the great Parthian empire.