This is the Uzbek desert. It's big, hot, barren, and mostly flat. Too helpless to defend itself, it's an Ottoman province. Alas, the Russians have been trying to claim it for decades.
Somewhere far out here, far from any civilization, an archway stands alone. It's a horseshoe arch. For Turkic Muslims, it's a culture hearth. Alas, many have given up on it.
With that said, there is one very unlikely personality, within Turkish Islam, who hasn't. And he lives in Constantinople.
Today, though, his royal chariot rolls across the desert highway, drawn by camels. The camels are slow-going...but at least that's stable enough for his Imperial Majesty.
That's right; the sultan of the Ottoman Empire still visits the Mahdi's Archway in the Uzbek desert. He believes that, very soon, the Turkish nation will have what it needs to claim the Earth for Turkey, and finally put down anyone who dares proclaim their flag of higher quality than the pan-Turkic one.
In the chariot, time passes slowly. Sultan Abdülaziz sips strong coffee. His eunuchs drop horseshoes into the pot, before serving it to his Imperial Majesty. (It's a preparing tactic, that the eunuchs have recently picked up from the gunslingers of the American Wild West...)
On either side of the Sultan, one of two of his concubines sit, giggle, and flirt with him. To him, they'd be like lap dogs...if only Muslims weren't racist against dogs, wolves, foxes, and all that are kin to them.
With his concubines, he plays cards. Their inept bimbo-like manner of fumbling and dropping the cards, and failing to remember the much-repeated rules of the games, hardly amuses his Imperial Majesty as much as it did before he ascended to the Ottoman throne...
And, he smokes cigars. For this, his eunuchs open the chariot windows, choking as they go along.
At long last, the chariot arrives. They're in the middle of the desert.
The chariot door opens. A ramp is lowered, by the eunuchs. The Sultan descends, and takes a scimitar with him. A brute of a Turk offers to go with him. Abdülaziz refuses his company. This is very hard for him to do; he must do it alone.
In goat-steps, he crosses the desert. It's a very expansive desert. In over a century, a lot of great men would be inspired to shoot music videos out here... Alas, as extravagant as the Sultan's visions can be, some dinars are better spent on public necessities...
It's a long walk. Some of his Imperial Majesty's clothes start to itch...
At long last, he gets to the Mahdi's Arch. It's tall. It's not quite as high as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but it's high enough. Ultimo could probably walk through it without having to do the limbo.
Leading up to it, phoenix sculptures sit on perches. Every now and then, their eyes glow with ginger light...
At the base of the arches' steps, a fire pit lies. It's used like an altar; or was, rather, the last time anyone traveled through that arch. From time to time, an eternal flame burns in it. It answers to a faithful visitor...
Abdülaziz stands over the fire pit, holding a bouquet of white flowers, from the paradise garden at his palace. He's ready to implore the Mahdi for help, on behalf of all Turkic and Turkish subjects, free and held captive by other bastard nations' greed, everywhere on the planet.
Within the arch, a strange smoke billows. Alas, it never leaves the confines of the archway, on either side. It just keeps billowing. And it circles back into the emptiness of the Arch.
Inside, voices whisper. Sometimes they're pleasant; other times, they warn.
In Turkish, Abdülaziz prays to the jinni, cherubs, and seraphs that attend to this shrine. He calls upon them to summon the Mahdi, bring him to Earth, and become the imperial power that Turkey needs that the merely human Sultan can never be.
Around, a desert wind blows. Abdülaziz's lucky it doesn't become a sandstorm.
Inside the arch, the voices ooh and ah in amusement. In its center, a white light flickers...
In the pit, the eternal flame lights. Abdülaziz smiles, and drops the bouquet onto it. Within a moment, all of their green and white are consumed. It's over as soon as it begins.
After that, the eternal flame goes out. Only a pile of ashes remain of Abdülaziz's flowers.
Please understand; Abdülaziz loves his faith, and his nation, enough to assassinate himself for it. But sometimes, like in these moments, he's tempted to question the sanity of his own loyalty to Allah, if not his nation...
Abdülaziz's shoes are off. He backs away from the pit, circles it, and stands before the Arch. The Arch glows, with golden light, in his presence. It seems threatened. Alas, Abdülaziz kneels, bends over, and worships the sacred ground atop which Allah's precious servants have tread...
Within the Arch, the gold light fades, and the smoke returns. It whispers, many times, "thank you," in Turkish, to one of Allah's most loyal servants in humanity's sector of the Marvel multiverse.
Nervous, and feeling a bit sold short, the Sultan commences his return journey. He puts his shoes back on, at the threshold, and makes the long way back to his chariot.
Within the Arch's smoke, something stirs. And subtly, something takes up the lit silhouette of a phoenix, with its wings spread...