DEZH
The Citadel · A Shāhnāmeh Tower-Defense
Hold the road from the gate to the town while the host of Dīvs pours down it — a defence drawn, pixel by pixel, from Ferdowsi’s Book of Kings.
چو ایران نباشد تن من مباد “When Iran is no more, let my body be no more.”
The citadel holds, or it doesn’t.
Every wave marches the same winding road. You decide where the towers rise, when the horns sound, and which champion of legend walks out to meet the horde.
Raise Persian defenders on the plots beside the road — a bowman’s tower, a fire-altar, a frost-house, a siege-engine — and summon each wave early when you have the nerve, for the gold rewards the bold. Brand your towers with masteries and socket them with runes; read each Dīv’s trick and answer it.
When the line bends, send a champion: Rostam to block the throat of the road and rise again on a Simorgh’s feather, Ārash to loose a single arrow across the whole field, Kāveh to raise the blacksmith’s banner and set every tower ablaze. Seventeen chapters carry you the length of the Shāhnāmeh — from the mountain gate of Alborz to the brazen fortress of Esfandiyār.
A whole kingdom to defend.
Chapters of the Shāhnāmeh
From Zahhāk’s serpents to Afrāsiāb’s sorcery and the tragedy of Sohrāb — the Book of Kings, played from the walls.
Towers, deeply grown
Each climbs to a branch, then a mastery, and takes socketed runes and targeting orders.
Foes, each a puzzle
Flyers, splitters, shades, armoured brutes, and bosses that break the rules — every one wants a different answer.
Champions of legend
Rostam, Ārash, Kāveh, Gordāfarīd, Zāl and Siyāvash — each with a level, an ultimate, and a legend.
Trials that never rest
Endless with its Ascension Ladder, a seeded Daily, and a prestige Weekly on its own leaderboard.
The Court’s own games
Between sieges, take a seat at Shatranj, Nard, Dōz and As-Nas — and answer a rival vizier by post.
Conquest of Persia
A permadeath march across the provinces, each battle staking the whole campaign.
Ads. Pay-to-win. Assets.
No ads, no gates you can buy past — and not one image file: every pixel is generated in code.
Walk the length of the Book of Kings.
Seventeen illuminated chapters, grouped as the epic tells them — each with its own battlefield, verse, and beast out of the dark.
Down the mountain gate
“When the world grows dark with demons, light your fires higher.”
The Road from Alborz
The horde descends the mountain gate.
The Marsh of Mazandarān
Swift things hunt in the wetlands.
Zahhāk’s Shadow
The serpent-king takes the field.
The Haft Khān of Rostam
“In Mazandarān the very reeds have teeth — count your arrows twice.”
The Peak of Damāvand
Where Fereydun chained the serpent beneath the snow.
The Plains of Tūrān
Fast raiders and a dragon from the dunes.
The Cavern of the Dīv
Things swarm from the black and split when struck.
The Seven Labours
Lion, desert, dragon, sorceress, marsh, camp — and the White Dīv.
To the brazen fortress
“His body brazen, his eyes alone unshod — strike where the sorcerer’s craft could not.”
The Oxus Crossing
The river bridge, one straight throat.
Bijan’s Pit
Free the prisoner at the field’s heart.
The Sorcerer-King
Afrāsiāb himself. End the war.
The Brazen Fortress
Esfandiyār, invulnerable — save to a marked blow.
The Tragedy of Sohrāb
A young champion leads Tūrān’s van, searching for his father. When he staggers before your walls and a golden token flashes on his arm, the game gives you the choice Rostam never had — finish the battle, or call out and ask his name.
“Each asked the other’s name, and neither told — so the spear spoke for both.”
Six heroes out of legend.
Summoned to the field for a price, they level as they fight and unleash an ultimate all their own.
Your towers, and the host that comes for them.
The defenders
Grow them deep. Level one to three, choose a branch, crown it with a mastery, then socket runes and set a targeting order.
The horde
…and Akvan the wind-demon, Sang-Dīv the living rock, Sohrāb, Esfandiyār and Afrāsiāb — seventeen in all, each with a trick the last one didn’t have.
When the campaign is won, the siege goes on.
Campaign
Seventeen chapters and the Sohrāb tragedy, at Normal, Pahlavān or Dīv-e Sepīd — three stars each.
Endless
No last wave. Climb the Ascension Ladder as the horde compounds against you.
Daily Challenge
One battlefield, one elite affix, the same for everyone that day. How deep can you hold?
Weekly Trial
A week-long Endless run at Pahlavān and above, on its own leaderboard.
Conquest of Persia
A permadeath march across four layers of provinces — every battle stakes the run.
Ordeals & Farr
Stake self-imposed burdens for glory, and spend your Farr on a permanent research tree.
A whole games-room of Persia, built in.
Ferdowsi credits the wise vizier Bozorgmehr with the invention of nard, and the reading of chess. Dezh keeps their court — five games, playable solo or by post against a friend.
Shatranj
شطرنج
Old-rule chess against the court’s viziers, up to Bozorgmehr himself.
Nard
نرد
The ancestor of backgammon, dice and doubling and all.
Dōz
دوز
The miller’s game — three in a row, then a hunt.
As-Nas
آسناس
Persia’s bluffing card game, ancestor of poker.
Court by Post
بازیِ نامه
Chess and nard, one move at a time, against a distant friend.
Not one image file.
Every Dīv, every tower, every star in the night sky and every tile of kashi-work is generated in code, on a SwiftUI Canvas, the moment it’s drawn. There are no textures, no sprites, no photographs anywhere in the app — just mathematics and a Persian palette. The tile beside you was drawn the same way, in your browser, right now.
One kingdom, on every screen you own.
Spatial on Vision Pro
The whole battle stands on your table as a war-board — walk around the horde, reach in, and place a tower.
iPhone · iPad · Mac
One SwiftUI codebase, laid out for a phone in the hand, an iPad on the table, and a Mac window on the desk.
Game Center & iCloud
Leaderboards and achievements for the trials, with your Farr and stars carried across your devices.
Made to be played by anyone
Reduce Motion, a colour-blind aid, and a full sound toggle — the citadel opens its gates to everyone.
No ads. No pay-to-win.
You can leave a tip if the tale moved you — a handful of chips, never a gate. Nothing you buy wins a battle.
Persian to the bone
Shahnameh verse, kashi tilework, the Derafsh Kāviānī and the Farr of the kings — history as game design, not decoration.
The horde is on the road. The gate is yours to hold.
هنر نزد ایرانیان است و بس“Skill belongs to the people of Iran alone.”
Dezh is an independent game inspired by Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh. All art is procedural — generated in code, with no asset files — as is this page.