Mithridad Sasanzad was the second-born daughter of Shahanshah Hormizd, eleventh of that name, and due to her disinterest on helping administrate the realm, and the fact she wasn’t expected to inherit, in 1948 BSE she was sent as a ambassador to the queendom of Francia, almost at the western edge of the known world. She was relatively successful at that job, and while there, she married the son of a local noble, and had two foals: Ardashir and Kshayareš. She remained at her job until her sister, also named Ardashir, died foalless in 1972 BSE and she had to return to Equestria to assume the crown. Her disinterest for government issues hadn’t abated in her time as ambassador, which led her foals to take care of most of her practical duties once they had learned how to do these tasks; In the year of the return of Luna, Ardashir was associated as a co-ruler, the seventeenth with that name.

_Before that, Ardashir had married the ealdorhengest of Istakhr, Arsaces Šokhšalvar