#khanate campaign

[whencyclopedia]

Möngke Khan

Mongke Khan was ruler of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368 CE) from 1251 to 1259 CE. As the third Great Khan or 'universal ruler' of the Mongols, Mongke would oversee administrative reforms that continued to centralise government and ensure he had at his disposal the resources to successfully expand the empire further into China in the east and as far as Syria in the west. His reign was the last of the Mongol khans to oversee a unified empire before its definitive break-up into several khanates ruled by competing descendants of the man who had founded it all, Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227 CE).

Genghis Khan's Descendants

In December 1241 CE Ogedei Khan died, having laid down the foundations for a governable empire that now spanned the whole of Asia. He was succeeded by his son Guyuk in 1246 CE after a brief stint as regent by Ogedei's wife Toregene. Guyuk's reign as the third khan of the Mongol Empire would last a mere two years. Guyuk had never been a popular choice, and many nobles, whose loyalties were divided amongst Genghis Khan's descendants, disputed the decision, hence the delay in his nomination after Ogedei's death. It is likely Guyuk was poisoned by a rival in 1248 CE and, perhaps not coincidentally, his death staved off a planned assault on the western part of the empire which had not supported his claim to the throne.

Once again, the empire's throne was empty and the descendants of Genghis Khan squabbled to see who would be the 'universal ruler' or Great Khan. A prime candidate was Mongke, born in 1209 CE the son of Tolui (c. 1190 - c. 1232 CE), the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Mongke had campaigned in southern Russia and eastern Europe with success along with other Mongol commanders from 1237 CE to 1241 CE. Specifically, he had been in command of that wing of the Mongol army that successfully attacked the Kipchaks (aka Cumans) north of the Caspian Sea. After his capture, the Kipchak chief Bachman refused to kneel before Mongke and so was cut in two pieces for his lack of obedience.

Mongke's candidacy for Great Khan was supported by Batu Khan, who represented the House of Jochi, This clan group had been headed by Batu Khan's father Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan, but he had died in 1227 CE just before Genghis. Another impediment to this side of the family was that Jochi had been born while his mother had been in captivity and so his legitimacy as a true descendant of Genghis Khan was always disputed by other branches of the family. Perhaps for this very reason, Jochi's family had been given the lands in the far western part of the Mongol Empire but they remained the greatest rivals to the House of Ogedei, and the unruly Batu was the principal reason why Guyuk had been planning a campaign there.

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[moodymisty]

As for my boy the Khan, his kinks would be more his type in ladies. Besides obviously having a breeding kink (he is based on the man with 9 legitimate children with his beloved Empress, Börte, and who, after she died, had 6 consequential junior wives and numerous concubines) and size kink (he is described as one of the taller Primarchs), I think he would be into formidable people.

In the 13th century, Mongolia was at the height of its power under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors. The Mongol Empire, which began with Genghis Khan’s unification of the Mongol tribes, expanded rapidly to become the largest contiguous empire in history. This period was marked by significant military conquests, administrative innovations, and cultural exchanges across Asia and Europe. However, while the male warriors and leaders of the empire are well-documented, the contributions of Mongolian women, particularly those of noble or royal lineage, played an essential role in the empire’s success and stability.

One of the most notable female figures from this period was Sorghaghtani Beki, a Kereit princess and the wife of Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. After Tolui’s death, Sorghaghtani managed the affairs of her household and became a powerful political figure. She was instrumental in the rise of her sons, particularly Kublai Khan, who later became the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China. Sorghaghtani was known for her astute political mind, fostering alliances through marriage, and ensuring that her sons were well-educated, which was crucial for their future roles as leaders. Her influence was such that she is often credited with shaping the policies that helped maintain the cohesion and expansion of the Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan’s death.

Another significant female figure was Töregene Khatun, the widow of Ögedei Khan, Genghis Khan’s third son and his successor as the Great Khan. After Ögedei’s death, Töregene effectively took control of the empire as the regent for her son, Güyük Khan. During her regency, she consolidated power and managed the vast empire, demonstrating her capability as a ruler. Her reign is notable for her diplomatic efforts, including interactions with European rulers, and for supporting cultural and religious diversity within the empire.

Khutulun, a niece of Kublai Khan and the daughter of Kaidu, a powerful ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, stands out as one of the most remarkable women in Mongolian history. Born around 1260, Khutulun was renowned for her extraordinary physical strength, her skills in wrestling, and her prowess as a warrior. Khutulun was undefeated in wrestling. According to historical accounts by various Muslim scholars like Rashid al-Din and al-Qashani,she would only marry the man who could defeat her in wrestling. Many suitors tried, but none succeeded, which added to her legendary status. Some stories suggest that she amassed a significant herd of horses as a result of her victories, as she demanded horses from any man who lost to her. Khutulun was a formidable military leader. She often accompanied her father, Kaidu, in his military campaigns. She had a role in running the government of her khanate and the army. She did eventually marry her father's bodyguard and had many children together. However she and her family, after being pushed away by her brothers, were most likely killed in 1307 by raiders from the Chagatai Khanate.

The Khan wants somebody who could match him. He wants a strong-willed, intelligent consort who would rule for him while he ran off to war. He literally just wants to be with somebody who's the exact same but the opposite gender. That's his kink. Himself but with a pussy and tits 😭😭 (I am not very good at these things, could you suggest more?)

As an apologize in regards to my yapping (I am a historical nerd currently obsessed with Medieval Asian and Middle Eastern history), I send this to express regret 😔

https://x.com/nomadaesthetic/status/1821312574362677486

https://x.com/nomadaesthetic/status/1827440103351882085

we welcome all forms of Khan propaganda here, friend.

[almatycitybestcity]

ablai khan decapitates trump for his campaign to retake the lands taken by the dzungar khanate

vote ablai khan 2028

[mapsontheweb]

The Shibanid (Shaybanid) Conquests, 1500-1510.

by u/Swordrist

This is my attempt at covering an underapreciated area of history which gets next-to no coverage on the internet. Here's some historical context for those uneducated about the region's history:

Grandson of the former Uzbek Khan, Abulkhayr, Muhammad Shibani (or Shaybani) was a member of the clan labeled in modern historiography as the Abulkhayrids, who were one of the numerous tribes which were descended from Chingis Khan through Jochi's son, Shiban, hence the label 'Shibanid' which is used not only in relation to the Abulkhayrids who ruled over Bukhara but also for the Arabshahids, bitter rivals of the Abulkhayrids who would rule Khwaresm after Muhammad Shibani's death and for the ruling Shibanid dynasty of the Sibir Khanate.

After his grandfather's death in 1468, Shibani's father, Shah Budaq failed to maintain Abulkhayr's vast polity in the Dasht i-Qipchak, as the tribes elected instead the Arabshahid Yadigar Khan. Shah Budaq was killed by the Khan of Sibir and Shibani was forced to flee south to the Syr Darya region when the Kazakhs returned and proclaimed their leader, Janibek, Khan. Shibani became a mercenary, serving both the Timurid and their Moghul enemies in their wars over the eastern peripheries of Transoxiana. After the crushing defeat of the Timurid Sultan Ahmed Mirza, Shibani succeeded in attracting a significant following of Uzbeks which formed the powerbase from he launched his conquests.

Emerging from Sighnaq in 1499, Muhammad Shibani captured Bukhara and Samarkand in 1500. In the same year he defeated an attempt by Babur (founder of the Mughal Empire) to take Samarkand. Over the course of the next six years, Shibani and the Uzbek Sultans conquered Tashkent, Ferghana, Khwarezm and the mountainous Pamir and Badakhshan areas. In 1506, he crossed the Amu-Darya and captured Balkh. The Timurid Sultan of Herat, Husayn Bayqara moved against him however died en-route and his two squabbling sons were defeated and killed. The following year he crossed the Amu-Darya again, this time vanquishing the Timurids of Herat and Jam and subjugating the entirety of Khorasan east of Astarabad. In 1508, he raided as far south as Kerman and Kandahar, however he moved back North and launched two campaigns against the Kazakhs, but the third one launched in 1510 ended in his defeat and retreat to Samarkand at the hands of Qasim Sultan.

The Abulkhayrid conquests heralded a mass migration of over 300 000 Uzbeks to the settled regions of Central Asia from the Dasht i-Qipchak. They heralded the return of Chingissid political tradition and structures and the end of the Persianate Timurid polities which had dominated the region for the last century. It forever after changed the demographic of the region. His reign was also the last time Transoxiana was closely linked with Khorasan, as following the shiite Safavid conquests the divide between the two regions would grow into a permanent one.

In 1510, Shibani faced his end when he moved to face Ismail Safavid, who was making moves on Khorasan. Lacking the support of the Abulkhayrid Sultans, who blamed him for their defeat against the Kazakhs earlier that year, he faced Ismail anyway, where he was defeated, killed and turned into a drinking cup.

Shibani's death caused a complete reversal of the Abulkhayrid fortunes. Khorasan and the rest of his empire fell under Safavid dominion. However in Khwaresm, Sultan Budaq's old rivals the Arabshahids expelled the qizilbash and founded their own Khanate, based first in Urgench and then Khiva. In Transoxiana, Babur lost the support of the populace when he announced his conversion to Shiism and his loyalty to Shah Ismail, which allowed the Abulkhayrids to rally behind Shibani's nephew, Ubaydullah Khan and expel the Qizilbash. Nonetheless, the Abulkhayrids would never again hold as much power as they briefly did when led by Muhammad Shibani Khan.

[irithnova]

Mongolia and his sons (The Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate)

What was Mongolia's relationship with his children (golden horde, Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate) like? I say those three Khanates because I see Mongolia himself being the personification for the yuan, however he existed far before the yuan was established. I don't think he was born as a result of the Yuan, just that he was both the rep for himself and the yuan. I have a post explaining my reasoning.

This post is going to be quite historically dense.

The Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, and Ilkhanate were all part of the Mongol Empire that started in the 13th century. The Golden Horde was in the west and led by Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. The Chagatai Khanate was in Central Asia and led by Chagatai Khan, Genghis Khan's second son. The Ilkhanate was in Iran, Iraq, and Central Asia, and led by Hulagu Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan. These khanates were all made by conquest and were run by different members of the Mongol family. The Mongols allowed local rulers to keep some power but still had to answer to the Great Khan, who was the top leader of the Mongol Empire.

The first of the three to be born was Chagatai Khanate was founded in 1226 by Chagatai Khan, the second son of Genghis Khan. Golden horde was next, which was founded in 1242 by Batu Khan, son of Jochi Khan who was Genghis Khan's first son. The Ilkhanate was last, established in 1256 by Hulagu Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan.

Historically speaking, the relationship between the other Khanates (Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, and Ilkhanate) and the Yuan Mongols (the yuan dynasty wasn't established until later in 1271, so technically I'm talking about the east Asian Mongols here however I'll simply be referring to them as the yuan Mongols throughout this post) started off well due to their shared ancestry and the Mongol Empire's practice of allowing local rulers some autonomy.

This is true for when Mongolia's sons were first born too. I believe they appeared a few years before the official establishment of their respective kingdoms.

As I've already established, golden horde was the first to be born. When it comes to the names that Mongolia have them, it looks like this

Golden horde - Ogtbish: Not at all

Ilkhanate - Khunbish : Not human

Chagatai Khanate - Khenbish : Nobody

All these names sound similar and have similar meanings right? But why would Mongolia give them names that mean "nothing?"

In short, these names were given to children to ward off bad spirits, almost like giving a kid a name like "not this one".

Mongolia gave his children these names to protect them in a way. Mongolia's childhood itself wasn't ideal (no nations really is) and he didn't really have any set person or people to take care of him, so it did feel lonely (not that he didn't have friends but they were never permanent obviously). He practically jumped at the idea of being able to have sons/children that he could take care of and who could rule alongside him. All nations know that different factions of their kingdoms rising usually is never a good sign, and at first, it was at the back of Mongolia's mind. That only made it bite him harder in the ass later.

During their early lives, Mongolia was more present for them than when they were older. Obviously because they were babies/very small children so he felt more obligated to take care of them. However, despite Mongolia wanting to be there for them because he knew what it was like to have no one, when they got older, he became less involved.

This is a bias from his own life seeping in, subconsciously he saw them began to mature and thought "oh well when I was that age I had a much harder life so maybe it's not bad if I just focus on campaigning a lot now lol" and yeah, when it came to personal relationships, this put a strain on them, especially with Ogtbish (golden horde). He felt like Mongolia didn't do enough to defend him against Khenbish (Chagatai), who would antagonise him and his legitimacy as a Khanate. This is due to Jochi, Genghis' eldest son, being speculated to be of a different father (it was Jochi's son Batu Khan who established the golden horde). Ogtbish and Khenbish's strained relationship reflects the strained relationship between Jochi and Chagatai (Genghis' second son who was the ruler of the Chagatai Khanate). On the otherhand, Khenbish (Chagatai Khanate) was frustrated at Mongolia for recognising Ogtbish (golden horde) as a legitimate kingdom and son in the first place.

Ilkhanate (Khunbish) joined in on the teasing against the golden horde however it was never as vitriolic as Chagatai's bullying. He was the more chill one of the brothers however he did feel a bit left out of the dynamic (even if it wasn't ideal) as he felt as if Mongolia was spending too much time trying to make Golden Horde and Chagatai get along. Kinda like a neglected youngest sibling.

Though Mongolia cared about them, he was similar to Genghis himself in a way that he was very much occupied with campaigning rather than parenthood. Let's not forget that Mongolia himself was quite mentally young at the time too, being physically and mentally in his late teens/early twenties. Though, when he did spend time with them, it would often be about Mongolia teaching them what it meant to be clever rulers and warriors.

Mongolia cared about them nonetheless, and he was uncharacteristically shortsighted as to the future of his empire in regards to it being split into different khanates (as I said before, usually never a good sign) and pretty much let them reign in their own lands, as long as they answered back to him. That didn't last particularly long.

Historical context:

After the death of Möngke Khan in 1259, the Mongol Empire split into four parts due to fighting among his relatives for the title of leader. The four parts were the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in Southwest Asia, and the Yuan dynasty in East Asia.

Möngke Khan's brothers Hulagu and Kublai fought for the title of Great Khan, leading to a civil war. Kublai emerged as the victor and became the Great Khan, but faced challenges from his cousin, the ruler of the Chagatai Khanate (one example of inter-khanate conflict and I will touch more upon this later), and from his brother Ariq Böke. Kublai's army defeated his opponents and he became the ruler of the Mongol Empire.

These four parts pursued their own interests and fell apart at different times. Although some of them asked Kublai to confirm the enthronement of their new leaders, the four parts functioned as independent sovereign states. The Ilkhanate and the Yuan dynasty had closer diplomatic relations, but military cooperation between all four parts of the Mongol Empire never happened again.

The Yuan dynasty had nominal power over the other three khanates, but conflicts and border clashes persisted. The four khanates remained separate states and eventually fell at different times.

Historically speaking , there are a myriad of factors that lead to the other Khanates splitting from the yuan. One factor was that the Yuan dynasty was based in China and had a different culture and way of life compared to the other khanates. This made it difficult for them to understand and relate to each other.

When I say this, this isn't me implying that the Mongols of the Yuan were sinicized, they weren't. The Mongols of the Yuan adopted and improved upon Chinese systems and even adopted some parts of Chinese culture, however they still retained their own identity. They created a caste system which put them on top and Southern Chinese on the bottom, imperial letters were written in Mongolian etc.

So basically, Mongols had conquered different regions with their own unique cultures and traditions.

The Mongols did try to impose their own cultural and religious beliefs within their own khanates to an extent, but they were met with resistance, especially in regions where Islam was the dominant religion.

For example, many of the Yassa laws that applied to Mongols of Mongol religion like Tengrism (established by Genghis Khan himself) were incompatible with the Muslim way of life for example (thought they did allow for some degree of legal pluralism, allowing people to follow their own religious laws in some cases).

It was difficult to manage such diversity. However we should remember that the Mongols were more religiously tolerant than other empires, and so allowed people to practise their beliefs for the most part. This was more for pragmatism rather than being open minded, but it was better than other empires nonetheless. This was also another factor in why the other Khanates became so different from their father; leniency towards the locals continued practice/culture and eventual assimilation to the culture.

The different Khanates got into conflict with one another, and competed for resources and power, which sometimes resulted in conflicts and wars (e.g, Berke-Hulagu war, the Golden horde vs the Ilkhanate).

The Mongols were essentially a minority trying to rule over many different groups. There are other reasons why it eventually fell, and to blame it all on this is an oversimplification, but I just wanted to elaborate on this reason in particular.

This is brief and is a bit of an oversimplification, but here are other reasons why the Mongol Empire divided and fell:

1) The empire was vast and the Yuan Mongols were stretching their resources too thin

2) Again, with the vastness of the empire, it made it difficult for yuan Mongols to keep control over such a vast land, this made it easy for the other khanates to question and challenge the yuan's authority

3) The Yuan dynasty suffered quite a few military losses which weakened the power and prestige it once had

4) The Yuan couldn't even control itself as they did not win over the loyalty of the Chinese people

5) As the Yuan dynasty weakened (because of the reasons above and also, inflation, natural disasters, bad economy, incompetent leaders), local elites took this as an opportunity to seize power.

The next part is going to be quite historically dense. It's following the timeline of each Khanate and how each eventually disintegrated. This is to give more context as to what I'm saying.

Golden horde (Ogtbish):

1242: Batu Khan founds and governs the Golden Horde in Russia.

1236-1242: Mongol armies launch offensives across western Asia and Europe.

1238: The Mongols invade Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia.

April 9, 1241: Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia, leads an army that is defeated by the Mongols near Legnica.

April 10-11, 1241: King Bela IV of Hungary's army is defeated by the Mongols at the Battle of Mohi.

1251-1259: Mongke Khan rules over the Mongol Empire.

1257-1266: Berke rules the Golden Horde.

1260-1264: Kublai Khan engages in a civil war with his brother Ariq Boke for control of the Mongol Empire.

1262: Nogai leads the Golden Horde to victory over the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Terek.

1266-1280: Mengu-Temur rules the Golden Horde.

1271: Nogai's Golden Horde forces invade the Byzantine Empire.

1299: Nogai, the de facto leader of the Golden Horde, dies.

1313-1341: Uzbeg rules the Golden Horde and makes Islam the state religion.

1327: Uzbeg switches the Golden Horde's allegiance from Tver to Moscow.

1342-1357: Janibeg governs the Golden Horde.

1362: The Golden Horde is defeated by the Lithuanians at the Battle of Blue Waters.

1380: The Russians defeat the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo, turning the tide against Mongol rule.

1380-1395: Tokhtamysh briefly revives the Golden Horde as its ruler.

1382: Tokhtamysh and the Golden Horde pillage Moscow.

1465-1481: Ahmed becomes the last major ruler of the Golden Horde.

1480: The Russians decisively defeat the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Ugra River.

Chagatai Khanate (Khenbish):

Around 1227 to 1242: Chagatai Khan, the namesake of the khanate, holds the throne.

1242: Chagatai Khan dies, leading to a series of successions.

1251 to 1260: Mongke Khan is the leader of the Mongol Empire. During this time, Queen Orghina serves as regent of the Chagatai Khanate.

1260 to 1266: Alghu Khan becomes the ruler of the Chagatai Khanate.

1260 to 1264: Kublai Khan and his brother Ariq Boke fight for control of the Mongol Empire in a civil war.

1264: Alghu Khan marries Queen Orghina, who was once the regent of the Chagatai Khanate.

1266 to 1271: Baraq Khan is the khan of the Chagatai Khanate.

1270: Abaqa of the Ilkhanate defeats Baraq at the Battle of Herat.

1271 to 1275: Marco Polo embarks on his famous journey across Asia to China.

1272 to 1301: Qaidu II dominates Central Asia and installs khans to rule the Chagatai Khanate.

1273: Abaqa sacks Bukhara, a city within the Chagatai Khanate.

1318 to 1327: Kebek Khan rules over the Chagatai Khanate.

1331 to 1334: Tarmashirin Khan becomes the khan of the Chagatai Khanate.

1347 to 1363: Tughlugh Timur is the final khan of the Chagatai Khanate before it disintegrates following his death.

Ilkhanate (Khunbish):

1251-1259: Mongke Khan reigns as the ruler of the Mongol Empire. In 1253, a Mongol army led by Hulegu invades Persia and the Middle East, leading to the defeat of the Ismailis in Persia in 1256.

1258: The Mongols conquer the Abbasid Caliphate, sacking Baghdad and murdering the caliph during the campaign.

December 1259: The Mongols capture Aleppo in Syria after besieging it.

1260-1265: Hulegu rules the Ilkhanate, which dominates Iran and neighboring territories. During this time, Kublai Khan fights a civil war with his brother Ariq Boke for control of the Mongol Empire.

1262: Golden Horde forces under Nogai defeat the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Terek.

1265-1291: Abaqa rules the Ilkhanate from, followed by Ahmad Teguder from 1282 to 1284, and then Arghun from 1284 to 1291.

December 1288: The Ilkhanate agrees to a trade deal with Genoa.

1291-1304: Gaikhatu rules the Ilkhanate from

1291 to 1295, followed by Baidu in the same year. Ghazan then rules the Ilkhanate from 1295 to 1304, during which time he converts to Islam.

November 1299: The Ilkhanate briefly captures Mamluk-controlled Aleppo and Damascus, but the Mamluks ultimately defeat the Ilkhanate army in Syria at Marj al-Suffar in 1303.

1304-1316: Oljeitu rules the Ilkhanate from

1304 to 1316, followed by Abu Said from 1316 to 1335.

1322: The Ilkhanate and Mamluk Sultanate sign a peace treaty.

1335: The Ilkhanate disintegrates into smaller states following dynastic disputes.

Yuan dynasty (Mongolia/Baatar):

1268: Kublai Khan renews the Mongol attacks on China's Song Dynasty.

1270: The Mongol Empire conquers a portion of northern Korea.

1271: Yuan dynasty is established.

1274: The first invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan's forces ends in failure.

Late 13th century: Marco Polo serves in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty's administration.

1276: A Mongol army captures Lin'an, the capital of China's Song Dynasty.

1277: The Mongols/Yuan Dynasty launches an invasion of Burma.

1279: The Mongols secure their conquest of Song Dynasty China by defeating them in the naval battle of Yaishan.

1281: Kublai Khan's second invasion of Japan fails.

-1281: The Mongols/Yuan Dynasty invades Vietnam for the second time.

1286: The Mongols/Yuan Dynasty re-invades Vietnam.

1292: A Mongol/Yuan Dynasty naval force attacks Java.

1355: Zhu Yuanzhang takes charge of the Red Turbans Movement, a rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty.

1356: Zhu Yuanzhang takes control of Nanjing, a crucial city in China.

1360: Zhu Yuanzhang defeats Chen Youliang at the Battle of Poyang Lake, solidifying his position as a rival rebel leader.

1367: Zhu Yuanzhang defeats Zhang Shicheng, another rival rebel leader.

1368-1644: The Ming Dynasty reigns over China.

1368: Zhu Yuanzhang establishes himself as Emperor of China, using the reign name Hongwu.

1370: The last Yuan Dynasty emperor, Toghon Temur, dies in Karakorum.

So, what did Mongolia think of all this? While he enjoyed seeing how they took after him in terms of their military achievements, he was not pleased when his sons stopped regarding him as an authority figure in their lives. In 1304, there was a peace treaty among the four khanates that gave power to the yuan, however this did not have the strong backing as previous Khagans. They essentially began to function as separate states and, as I've pointed out before, they even came into conflict with each other, and never co-operated in military campaigns after a certain point.

As we can see, the Mongolia did keep in closer contact with the Ilkhanate initially, and this is (usually) when it came to scientific and cultural developments, so when he looks back on things now, he usually looks back on Ilkhanate the most favourably out of his sons (not by a huge margin though).

On Ilkhanate's personality, as I've said before, he felt left out of the (not exactly ideal) dynamic of Mongolia, golden horde and Chagatai Khanate because he felt as if Mongolia spent a lot of time trying to make them get along, however this doesn't mean that Mongolia neglected him. In general, Ilkhanate was quite relaxed personality wise and was arguably the most studious out of his brothers (though they were all intelligent). Being a bit closer to his father than his brothers later in life made him feel a bit better about the earlier relationship he had with Mongolia however like his brothers, he stopped answering back to his father eventually.

Mongolia saw/sees Ilkhanate as the easy son, the child that didn't really give him a headache for the most part. However Mongolia wrongfully would vent his frustrations about his brothers onto him because of this, almost parentifying him in a way. But it's important to note that Mongolia himself was young during this time too so he didn't exactly know better.

Ilkhanate was the first of his sons to die, however during this time, the Yuan dynasty was already in decline, so Mongolia could not mourn him (or Chagatai) properly during that era. I will talk about how exactly Mongolia mourned them later on.

On Chagatai Khanate, Chagatai was a bit more fiery compared to Ilkhanate, and quite stubborn about his beliefs; this was similar to Mongolia's personality at the time. Chagatai initially tried to prove himself more loyal/respectful to his father, and perhaps outcasting the golden horde was part of his attempt to do so. His loyalty to his father was shown through the culture of the Chagatai Khanate, which was the Khanate which retained its Mongolian cultural roots the most (remained largely nomadic until late 15th century). Like the others though, he too, broke away from his father's authority.

Mongolia saw a lot of himself in Chagatai Khanate personality wise, and was fond of him and still fond of his memory. However Chagatai Khanate did give him the most headaches when it came to his fighting with his brother. Chagatai Khanate's stubborn personality probably now gives Mongolia insight as to what it was like for others to deal with him at the time.

Okay let's get onto the most famous of the brothers, Golden Horde. Mongolia has quite a few feelings about him. Out of all of his brothers, he was the most aloof/introverted, however this isn't me saying that he was shy. Mongolia cared deeply about the golden horde, however the golden horde felt like Mongolia didn't love him enough, because although he chastised Chagatai Khanate for bullying him, he could not or did not fully stop it. Due to claims of Jochi, the father of Batu Khan, being not of Genghis' lineage, the golden horde already was insecure about his legitimacy as part of the greater Mongol Empire. He felt different from his brothers in that way and also personality wise, he was more introverted and so could not relate much to his brothers. While initially he sought approval from his family, he eventually learned to detach himself from them. Mongolia took notice of this, and while he tried to reign him in again, Mongolia felt as if he didn't do enough to make the golden horde feel supported (probably didn't, he busied himself with campaigns and then the yuan). Golden horde was the first to stop answering to his father, and was the longest lasting out of all of his brothers.

Looking back on him now, Mongolia feels a mixture of admiration, regret and, a few centuries ago, anger. This is true for all of his sons, as he is proud of what they were able to achieve and their legacy. However it's especially true for the golden horde, the Golden horde being the most famous out of all the Khanates other than the yuan.

Earlier, I talked about how Mongolia grieved the death of his sons at the time of their deaths. When it came to Ilkhanate and Chagatai khanate, they died during a time in which the yuan was beginning to decline. Because of this, Mongolia could not fully mourn their deaths. Also, let's not forget that Mongolia felt anger towards them for disregarding not only the authority of the Yuan, but his authority as a father, and blamed their disobedience for the decline of his empire. Yes, the division of the Mongol Empire was the beginning of the end, and inter-khanate warfare didn't hell, but there were a myriad of reasons as to why it fell. Mongolia knows this now and at the time he knew it too but was in denial.

I'll use the Esen Buqa–Ayurbarwada war as an example of inter-khanate warfare that took place in between them. This was a conflict between the Chagatai Khanate led by Esen Buqa I and the Yuan dynasty led by Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan (Emperor Renzong) and its ally the Ilkhanate under Öljaitü. The Yuan and Ilkhanate emerged victorious (adds to the reasons why Mongolia remembers Ilkhanate most favourably), but peace was not achieved until Esen Buqa's death in 1318.

There were a number of inter-khanate wars that took place which soured Mongolia's relationship with them at the time (and relationship with each other). This only further the degradation of their relationship with each other. Mongolia was unable to fully control them again despite attempts.

Let's get to the 15th century, when the golden horde finally died. Mongolia was still in conflict during this era, but the golden horde died quite a bit later than his brothers. Though Mongolia thought of Ilkhanate and Chagatai khanate from time to time, it was when his last son died that he finally tried to reflect on it. His feelings by now were a lot more forgiving as time had passed, almost like he was looking back with rose tinted glasses, especially when they were younger children. Memories of when they were children is what brought him the most sadness. This doesn't mean that he was blindly positive about them though.

I think this quote says everything and the mentality behind this quote is how Mongolia deals with his complex feelings towards his children for the most part:

"No nation has friends, only interests." - Charles de Gaulle.

This quote rings true when you see the conflicts the khanates got into with each other, and Mongolia acknowledges that he was short sighted in thinking that his sons would be extensions of himself, ruling alongside him, when in fact they were their own personifications who, like him, had their own goals and interests. This mentality is what made him let go of his bitterness towards them upon remembering them; it's just the nature of being a nation.

Nowadays he doesn't dwell on them too often and he accepts what's happened, he doesn't live in the past. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have some moments, like, if he goes into a store and the cashier looks eerily similar to one of his sons or he hears someone speaking with a voice that's similar to one of his sons he'd probably be a bit taken aback.

If someone asks him about them he'd talk more about their achievements and personalities to be optimistic, but if someone asks him how he feels about him outlasting his own sons he would probably feel a bit uncomfortable answering it. It's not something he dwells on and it's not because he's trying to hide it, but asking anyone about their feelings about their dead children is a bit uhh well personal to say the least so he's reacting like anyone else would to that question.

When it comes to his son's personalities, it's almost as if they were mirrors of him.

Depending on the era/circumstances/situation, he can be aloof like, golden horde, stubborn like Chagatai Khanate and chill like Ilkhanate. Though all of his children broke away from him in the end (not saying they somehow managed to get rid of their Mongol roots lol), the influence of their father still shone through in their personalities.

Talking about the parallels Mongolia shares with his predecessors, this was both similar and vastly different to what happened to Xiongnu and his sons.

I'm basically incorporating @absolvtely-barbaric 's canon into mine right now lol. Chanyu, the ruler of the Xiongnu, his lands were divided after his death amongst his sons. This is similar to what happened to Genghis Khan and his sons. Xiongnu purposefully created his sons to carry on his lineage. Mongolia also hoped that his sons would carry on his rule or rule beside him. Both Xiongnu and Mongolia taught their sons about what it meant to be good rulers and warriors. And both Xiongnu and Mongolia both lost control of their sons.

However, unlike Xiongnu, Mongolia did not purposefully create his sons, they were born out of circumstance. Xiongnu saw his sons more as more of a power/political tool, whereas Mongolia, at least wanted to, be more fatherly towards them. Sorry, I love drawing parallels between Mongolia and his predecessors lol.

This is the post that the Xiongnu headcanons come from https://www.tumblr.com/absolvtely-barbaric/187052482856/for-more-background-information-on-the-xiongnu?source=share

So, in short, nowadays, Mongolia looks fondly back on them, and while he does have moments of remorse, he doesn't dwell on what happened and there is no anger left, just acceptance.

[stjeanluc]

Suleiman the Magnificent,

Suleiman the Magnificent, also known as Suleiman I or Kanuni (the Lawgiver), was one of the most influential rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Reigning from 1520 to 1566, he presided over the empire's golden age, expanding its territories and cementing its position as a dominant global power.

Born in 1494, Suleiman ascended to the throne at the age of 26. He inherited an empire that was already formidable, but under his leadership, it reached new heights of military, economic, and cultural prowess. Suleiman's reign was marked by significant territorial expansion, with conquests stretching from Hungary in the west to Iraq in the east, and from the Crimean Khanate in the north to Yemen and North Africa in the south.

Suleiman's military campaigns were not merely about conquest; they were strategic moves to secure trade routes and establish Ottoman dominance in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. His naval forces, led by the famous admiral Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, challenged European powers and secured Ottoman control over vital maritime trade routes.

Beyond his military achievements, Suleiman was a patron of the arts and culture. His reign is often considered the zenith of Ottoman artistic expression, architecture, and literature. The famous architect Mimar Sinan flourished during this period, constructing magnificent structures like the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, which stands as a testament to the grandeur of Ottoman architecture.

Suleiman was also a skilled poet, writing under the pen name "Muhibbi." His verses, along with those of other court poets, contributed to a rich literary tradition that flourished under his patronage. This cultural renaissance extended to other arts, including calligraphy, miniature painting, and textile production, all of which reached new heights of refinement and sophistication.

As a statesman, Suleiman earned the epithet "the Lawgiver" for his comprehensive legal reforms. He oversaw the revision and codification of Ottoman law, balancing religious Sharia law with secular regulations. These reforms touched on various aspects of Ottoman life, from taxation and land management to criminal justice, and helped establish a more organized and efficient administrative system.

Suleiman's reign was not without challenges. He faced internal power struggles, including the execution of his grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha and his own son Şehzade Mustafa, decisions that have been debated by historians. Despite these controversies, Suleiman's legacy as a strong, just, and cultured ruler endured.

By the time of his death in 1566 during a military campaign in Hungary, Suleiman had transformed the Ottoman Empire into a global superpower. His reign marked the apex of Ottoman influence, leaving an indelible mark on world history and shaping the geopolitical landscape of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East for centuries to come.

[stuartbramhall]

Dividing the Empire: A Tale of Four Brothers

Episode 11 Dividing the Empire: A Tale of Four Brothers The Mongol Empire Dr Craig Benjamin (2020) Film Review By the time Chenggis Khan’s grandson Mongke became Great Khan in 1251, the empire built by Ogedei (Ogedei Khan’s Western Campaigns) had built had disintegrated into independent warring khanates. Mongke tried to unify them by appointing two extremely skilled central administrators…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.5 (before 1860)

AD 25 – Guangwu claims the throne as Emperor of China, restoring the Han dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin dynasty. 70 – Fires resulting from the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem are extinguished. 642 – Battle of Maserfield: Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria. 910 – The last major Danish army to raid England for nearly a century is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians. 939 – The Battle of Alhandic is fought between Ramiro II of León and Abd-ar-Rahman III at Zamora in the context of the Spanish Reconquista. The battle resulted in a victory for the Emirate of Córdoba. 1068 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari. 1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. 1278 – Spanish Reconquista: the forces of the Kingdom of Castile initiate the ultimately futile Siege of Algeciras against the Emirate of Granada. 1305 – First Scottish War of Independence: Sir John Stewart of Menteith, the pro-English Sheriff of Dumbarton, successfully manages to capture Sir William Wallace of Scotland, leading to Wallace's subsequent execution by hanging, evisceration, drawing and quartering, and beheading 18 days later. 1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn. 1460 – The Kingdom of Scotland captures Roxburgh, one of the last English strongholds in Scotland, following a siege. 1506 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Crimean Khanate in the Battle of Kletsk. 1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. 1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place. 1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England, carrying would-be settlers, on its first attempt to reach North America; it is forced to dock in Dartmouth when its companion ship, the Speedwell, springs a leak. 1689 – Beaver Wars: Fifteen hundred Iroquois attack Lachine in New France. 1716 – Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718): One-fifth of a Turkish army and the Grand Vizier are killed in the Battle of Petrovaradin. 1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true. 1772 – First Partition of Poland: The representatives of Austria, Prussia, and Russia sign three bilateral conventions condemning the ‘anarchy’ of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and imputing to the three powers ‘ancient and legitimate rights’ to the territories of the Commonwealth. The conventions allow each of the three great powers to annex a part of the Commonwealth, which they proceed to do over the course of the following two months. 1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run. 1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place. 1796 – The Battle of Castiglione in Napoleon's first Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars. 1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore. 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Konstantinos Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces in the Battle of Samos. 1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.

[cyberbenb]

Crimea Unravelled: a Deep Dive Into the History, Russian Occupation, and Ukraine

Nestled on the northern coast of the Black Sea is a region steeped in an intricate web of history and cultures: Crimea. From ancient civilisations to imperial conquests, this peninsula has witnessed the rise and fall of empires. However, following Russia's controversial annexation of Crimea in 2014, the region was thrust back into the spotlight.

This investigative article aims to peel back the layers of Crimea's past and examine the reasons behind Russia's occupation.

A melting pot of civilisations

Dating back to antiquity, Crimea's history boasts a rich mosaic of civilisations. Ancient Greek colonies flourished along its shores, leaving behind architectural marvels and cultural artefacts that still echo through time. The Scythians, a nomadic warrior society, traversed the steppes, leaving behind burial mounds and fascinating artefacts that continue to be unearthed by modern archaeologists. Subsequent to the Greeks, the Byzantine Empire asserted its dominion over the peninsula, which was then followed by waves of invasions from the Mongols, Genoese merchants, and the Ottoman Turks.

Crimean Khanate and the Tatars

In the 15th century, the Crimean Khanate emerged as a formidable power, established by the remnants of the Golden Horde. Under the leadership of the Khans, the Tatars, who were descendants of the Mongols, played a pivotal role in shaping Crimea's identity. Thriving as a powerful centre for trade and diplomacy, the Crimean Khanate forged alliances with various European powers while simultaneously engaging in the lucrative slave trade with the Ottoman Empire.

The Russian annexation and imperial machinations

In 1783, the Russian Empire annexed Crimea under Catherine the Great, extending its dominion over the region. This act marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship between Russia and the Crimean Tatars. The Tatars faced discrimination and deportation as the Russian authorities sought to establish an overwhelming Russian presence in the region.

The Soviet shuffle and transfer to Ukraine

In the 20th century, during the Soviet era, Crimea underwent yet another shift in political allegiance. In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, transferred Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The move was mostly symbolic, as both Russia and Ukraine were integral components of the larger Soviet Union. Little did anyone foresee the ramifications of this administrative decision, which would later play a pivotal role in the Crimea crisis.

2014 Crimea annexation

In 2014, the world watched with bated breath as Ukraine went through a dramatic political uprising, known as the Euromaidan revolution, resulting in the ousting of the then President Viktor Yanukovych. Seizing the moment, Russia covertly orchestrated a series of events that led to the annexation of Crimea. Russian troops, camouflaged as local militias, took control of key strategic points across the peninsula, while a contentious referendum was hastily organised.

Referendum farce and international outcry

The so-called "referendum," held under the prying eyes of Russian military presence, purportedly indicated that an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted in favour of joining Russia. However, serious doubts were raised regarding the vote's legitimacy, as the timeline between announcement and execution was conspicuously short, leaving little room for a fair and impartial campaign. Additionally, international observers were denied access to monitor the proceedings, and the ethnic Tatar and Ukrainian communities largely boycotted the process, considering it a sham.

Reasons behind Russia's occupation and Russian propaganda

Taking into account the geopolitical, military interests and Crimea's strategic location, providing access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean is crucial for Russia's military and naval power projection. Home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the city of Sevastopol, is a vital warm-water port for the Russian Navy.

Russia claimed it intervened "to protect the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea from the alleged Ukrainian nationalism," despite the fact that there was no substantial evidence of widespread discrimination against Russians in the region.

Citing the region's historical ties and centuries-long presence of Russians on the peninsula, Russia asserted a right to "correct historical injustice" and safeguard its compatriots.

In the run-up to and following the annexation, Russia launched a massive propaganda campaign to legitimise its actions. State-controlled media outlets disseminated misleading information, claiming that Crimeans were "being oppressed by the new Ukrainian government" and that the annexation represented a "reunification" with Russia. These narratives aimed to shape public opinion and manufacture a sense of consent, both at home and abroad.

The geopolitical chessboard

Russia justified the annexation by citing the need to protect its compatriots while also preserving historical and cultural ties with Crimea. Additionally, the strategic importance of Crimea's Black Sea ports, particularly Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, bolstered Moscow's case. However, many Western nations, along with Ukraine, condemned the annexation as an illegal violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, citing international law and treaties.

The human tragedy

Beyond the geopolitical intrigue, the annexation has had dire humanitarian consequences. Ukrainian loyalists faced persecution, with some being subjected to arrests, forced disappearances, and alleged torture by Russian forces and local collaborators.

The Crimean Tatars, who had only until recent repatriated to their native land, after years of exile during the Soviet era, experienced renewed oppression under Russian rule, thereby further exacerbating pre-existing historical wounds.

Crimea belongs to Ukraine: legal and historical aspects

The 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine occurred within the Soviet Union, making it an internal administrative decision. When the USSR dissolved in 1991, Crimea became an integral part of independent Ukraine, with internationally recognised borders.

In addition, Crimea's history and cultural ties with Ukraine stretch back centuries, with significant Ukrainian communities residing in the region. The Crimean Tatar population, an indigenous ethnic group, also has deep-rooted ties to the land.

Furthermore, the United Nations Charter and international law uphold the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia's annexation of Crimea violated these fundamental principles, and the international community widely condemned the action.

To conclude, Crimea's tumultuous history and the 2014 annexation have left a trail of unanswered questions, with the scars of the past and the uncertainty of the future continuing to haunt the region. As geopolitical tensions persist, the international community remains divided over Crimea's status, leaving the peninsula in a perpetual state of limbo.

While the global stage grapples with this intricate puzzle, the people of Crimea endure the consequences, trapped in a maelstrom of historical, political, and territorial complexities. Until a satisfactory resolution is reached, the fate of Crimea remains a tragic tale, lost in the labyrinth of history.

[metashinsegi]

THE GOLDEN HORDE 欽察汗國

The Golden Horde was a state founded by the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and was located in the territory of modern-day Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. It was established by Batu Khan（巴圖 ，沙皇拔都）, a grandson of Genghis Khan（成吉思汗）, after the Mongol conquest of the Kievan Rus.

The name "Golden Horde" is believed to have come from the color of the tents of Batu Khan's army, which were said to be made of golden silk. The Horde was also known as the Kipchak Khanate or the Ulus of Jochi, after Batu Khan's father, Jochi（朮赤）.

During its early years, the Golden Horde was a loosely organized confederation of tribes and clans, with Batu Khan as its supreme leader. The Horde was divided into several territories, each ruled by a different Mongol prince or warlord. These territories were often in conflict with each other, and there were frequent power struggles between the different Mongol princes.

Despite this internal strife, the Golden Horde was able to maintain its dominance over the region for several centuries. It became a major center of trade and commerce, and its cities such as Sarai, Bolghar, and Kazan became important cultural and economic hubs.

The Golden Horde was also known for its military prowess, and its armies were feared throughout the region. They conducted raids and campaigns as far west as Poland and Hungary, and as far east as China.

In the late 14th century, the Golden Horde began to decline due to internal conflict and external pressures from other powers such as the rising Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the expanding Timurid Empire. The Horde split into smaller khanates, and by the early 16th century, it had been conquered and absorbed by the expanding Muscovite state, which became the core of the Russian Empire.

Today, the legacy of the Golden Horde can still be seen in the culture and history of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, and in the various Turkic and Mongol peoples who trace their ancestry back to the Horde.

[mariacallous]

It’s been one year since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, but residents of Crimea have been living under Russian occupation for nearly a decade. And while Moscow’s oppressive policies and arbitrary arrests have affected people of all stripes, there’s no question that the peninsula’s Crimean Tatar population has been disproportionately targeted. Dozens of Crimean Tatars have been arrested on charges of “extremism,” while many more have been forced to leave the peninsula altogether. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s proxies in Crimea cracked down on local Tatars even harder; human rights advocates have compared the mobilization campaign there to genocide. Meduza explains how nine years of Russian occupation have affected the Crimean Tatar population, and how Moscow is forcing this group to fight a war against the country it considers its own.

Chapter 1

Occupation

A standoff on the eve of the invasion

On February 26, 2014, less than a month before the annexation of Crimea, two groups of roughly the same size met outside of the Crimean Parliament building in Simferopol. Altogether, there were more than 12,000 people in the crowd. The first group, headed by then-Crimean State Council deputy Sergey Aksyonov (now the head of Russian-occupied Crimea), contained supporters of the pro-Moscow party Russian Unity who wanted a referendum on the peninsula’s status. Their opponents, led by the Crimean Tatar Mejlis (an official representative body of Crimean Tatars in Ukraine, along with the Qurultay), had come to prevent the parliament from meeting to discuss the republic’s secession from Ukraine.

“We said, ‘Don’t schedule a [parliamentary] session, don’t blow up the situation in Crimea,’ because it was clear yesterday that the session had been scheduled with a single goal in mind: to initiate Crimea’s withdrawal from Ukraine,” Mejlis Chairman Refat Chubarov said that day.

At that point, a massive influx of Russian troops had arrived in Crimea six days earlier, while residents who supported Russia had joined the “Crimean self-defense forces” — volunteer units that Aksyonov had created with Russia’s support. Their main goal was to keep supporters of the Maidan Revolution away from government buildings. A cordon of Ukrainian police officers was also stationed outside of the Crimean parliament building to maintain order.

Nonetheless, the gathering turned violent. Approximately 30 people were injured, and two people died: 21-year-old Igor Postny had a heart attack during the demonstration, and senior citizen Valentina Korneva was trampled by the crowd. Both were advocates of Crimea joining Russia. Four years later, Crimea’s Russian-installed parliament would posthumously award Postny and Korneva “for defending the Crimean Republic.”

Many Crimeans consider the February 26 demonstration to mark the start of their resistance against Russian occupation. The scheduled parliamentary session didn’t occur that day; not enough deputies were present to constitute a quorum. The following day, however, Russian soldiers without identifying insignia seized control of Crimea’s government buildings. Sergey Aksyonov was declared the speaker of Crimea’s Council of Ministers, and less than a month later, on March 17, he became the head of the region. Crimean Tatars have been facing repressions from the Russian authorities ever since.

Schism

According to human rights advocate Afize Karimova (whose name has been changed at her request), Crimea Tatars’ disloyalty to the Russian authorities is “linked to historical memory” — memory of the Crimean Khanate’s economic collapse that was artificially induced by the Russian Empire in the late 18th century, the pressure on Muslim clergy and the forced emigration of Crimean Tatars to Turkey in the early 20th century, and the 1944 mass deportation and the execution of the Tatar intelligentsia under the Stalin regime. For Crimea Tatars, the 2014 annexation of Crimea was not an anomaly but a continuation of centuries of oppression.

Still, some Crimean Tatars supported Russia even after the annexation, including, for example, Russian State Duma deputy and former Crimean Tatar Qurultay member Ruslan Balbek. In 2019, he went as far as to say that Crimean Tatars are still faithful to the oath they pledged to Catherine the Great in 1783, when Russia first annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Balbek called the oath a “precursor” to the 2014 referendum.

Pro-Ukrainian Crimean officials have essentially disowned Crimeans who have taken the side of the Russian authorities. Permanent Ukrainian Presidential Representative in Crimea Tamila Tasheva told Meduza that people like Balbek are “collaborators” who don’t deserve any dialogue. “They’ve betrayed their people, and [they’ve betrayed] those whom the occupiers killed, tortured, or imprisoned,” she said.

In addition to local politicians, the Russian authorities have received support from the Spiritual Directorate of Crimean Muslims, a religious organization that selects Crimean Tatars’ religious leader. The position is currently held by Mufti Emirali Ablayev, who first took the post in 1999, and retained his position after Crimea’s 2014 annexation. “For 30 years, we lived and moved in the same direction, and now we find ourselves in a different system. Some people like it, and some people don’t. But on the whole, there are no problems. There are misunderstandings, but that’s inevitable. These problems are fixable,” Ablayaev said in a 2016 interview about repressions against Crimean Tatars.

Crimea has effectively undergone a religious schism: Mustafa Dzhemilev, who served from 2014–2019 as the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for the affairs of the Crimean Tatar people, has accused the Spiritual Directorate of Crimean Muslims of betraying the “aspirations and ideas of Crimea’s Muslims.” At a meeting in Kyiv in November 2016, a group of delegates from various Crimean Tatar organizations decided to create a new Spiritual Directorate of Crimean Muslims and elected Aider Rustemov, a former editor from a Ukrainian Muslim publishing house, as the new mufti. Unsurprisingly, the pro-Russian Spiritual Directorate called the new organization illegitimate.

Rustemov said the same thing about his accusers. “By definition, there can’t be [mufti] elections in occupied Crimea, because it’s occupied territory. Emirali Ablayev isn’t reelected — he’s appointed by the [Russian] FSB. All of this is illegal from a legal perspective and from a religious perspective. Emirali Ablayev is a traitor to his own people,” said Rustemov after Ablayev retained his post in 2018.

The repressions begin

About a year after the February stand-off, eight Crimean Tatars were arrested in Simferopol for taking part in the demonstrations. Among them was Mejlis Deputy Chairman Akhtem Chiigoz, who was charged with organizing mass riots and sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2017, after he had spent three years in behind bars, Chiigoz was extradited along with fellow Mejlis leader Ilmi Umerov to Turkey, which has long supported Crimean Tatars and considered them compatriots due to their Turkic roots. According to Mustafa Dzhemilev, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally lobbied for Chiigoz and Umerov’s release, though Erdogan hasn’t commented publicly.

By the time Chiigoz and Umerov left prison, the Crimean Tatar Mejlis had been declared an “extremist organization” by the Russian-installed Crimean Supreme Court. At one court session, Crimean Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya called Mejlis leaders “puppets” and claimed that “big Western puppeteers” were using Crimean Tatars as a “bargaining chip.”

The “extremist” designation gave Russian security forces free rein to repress Crimean Tatars. According to Mejlis First Deputy Speaker Nariman Dzhelyalov, approximately 15 activists from the organization have disappeared since 2016, and to this day, none of them has been found. Crimea’s Russian-installed Investigation Committee has claimed that “there is no mass disappearance of Crimean Tatars on the peninsula.”

In 2017, Mejlis leaders filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, and it began reviewing the case in 2021. Also in 2017, in a response to a claim from Ukraine, the International Court of Justice demanded an end to Russia’s persecution of Crimean Tatars, but the Russian authorities ignored the ruling.

A majority of Mejlis members were forced to flee Crimea. Many of them managed to go to Ukrainian-controlled territory, including former Mejlis Chairman Refat Chubarov. “In Kyiv, they maintained their composition, and they continue to work. They actively collaborate with the Ukrainian authorities on issues related to their people’s rights,” Permanent Ukrainian Presidential Representative in Crimea Tamila Tasheva told Meduza.

The pipeline explosion case

One of the roles of Tasheva’s office, which was first established in 1992, is to provide support to Ukrainians who have stayed in Crimea despite the repressions from Russia. One of those people is Mejlis First Deputy Speaker Nariman Dzhelyalov. According to Tasheva, he worked for years to support political prisoners on the peninsula, including by attending their trials. “In 2021, [however], after he visited the Crimea Platform summit in Kyiv, Russian security forces arrested him and charged him with sabotage,” Tasheva said.

In late September 2022, Crimea’s Supreme Court sentenced Dzhelyalov to 17 years in prison. Prosecutors claimed he orchestrated an attack on a gas pipeline in southeastern Crimea in August 2021. Initially, Crimea’s Interior Ministry reported that a pipeline had been “damaged,” but on September 4, the authorities accused Dzhelyalov and two other activists of “blowing up” the line. That same day, 60 Crimean Tatars staged a protest outside of the Crimean FSB building in Simferopol. Police arrested 40 of them.

Lawyer Nikolai Polozov, who represented Dzhelyalov in court, stressed to Meduza that prosecutors didn’t offer a single piece of firm evidence in the “sabotage” trial. According to investigators, Dzhelyalov organized the attack, while the other two activists planted the explosive device and detonated it.

To support their case, prosecutors relied in part on testimonies from Dzhelyalov’s co-defendants, brothers Asan and Aziz Akhtemov, who later reported that FSB agents had tortured them with electric shocks to extract confessions.

Nariman Dzhelyalov said the following in his closing statement:

The criminal proceedings against me, an activist of the Crimean Tatar National Movement, a Qurultay delegate, and the first deputy speaker of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, are intended to outlaw and label as “terrorism” Crimean Tatars’ entire system of representative institutions. And, in so doing, to open the way to mass repressions against Ukraine’s indigenous people.

Nikolai Polozov said that he, too, believes the Russian authorities intend to declare the Crimean Tatar Mejlis a “terrorist organization” — rather than just “extremist” — in the foreseeable future:

The Mejlis isn’t just a few dozen people who are elected to serve as a governing body. It’s a system that has regional, city, and village divisions; it’s several thousand people, all of whom will be categorized as “terrorists” if the Mejlis is declared a “terrorist organization.” The [full-scale] war has interrupted these plans somewhat, but it hasn’t affected the work of the repression apparatus.

According to Polozov, the case against Dzhelyalov and the Akhtemov brothers was fabricated for one purpose: to intensify the pressure against Crimean Tatars, who have shown a lack of loyalty to the Kremlin since the start of the occupation. Meanwhile, the Kremlin began opening numerous cases related to another Islamic movement, which, unlike the Mejlis, has already been declared a “terrorist” organization: Hizb ut-Tahrir. The Russian authorities have sentenced dozens of Crimean Tatars to jail time on terrorism charges for allegedly being active members of the organization.

chapter 2

‘Terrorists’ and lawyers

No weapons, no explosives

Russia’s Supreme Court first banned Hizb ut-Tahrir back in 2003, putting it in the same category as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Moscow’s not alone in considering the organization a terrorist group; it’s also banned in Germany and multiple Arab countries. At the same time, Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects violence as an acceptable means of achieving its goals and has never taken part in even a single known terrorist attack anywhere in the world.

In Ukraine, Hizb ut-Tahrir remains legal, and members regularly held public events in Crimea until 2014, including conferences, seminars, and training sessions about religious and political topics. As a result, human rights advocate Afize Karimova told Meduza, it’s fairly easy for the Russian authorities to find Crimean residents with connections to the group. “Furthermore, we [human rights advocates] are certain that many intelligence officers who previously worked in Ukraine’s security forces switched over to the FSB after 2014, which caused Ukrainian Security Service materials to end up in the hands of Russian intelligence agencies.”

Of the 106 Crimea residents arrested since 2015 on charges of cooperating with Hizb ut-Tahrir, 104 have been Crimean Tatars. Not one of the defendants was in possession of any weapons or explosives.

The Russian-controlled Spiritual Directorate of Crimean Muslims has supported Moscow’s policy regarding Hizb ut-Tahrir. Its press secretary, Zera Emirusein, has called the pan-Islamist organization “a cancerous tumor on the body of the Crimean Tatar people,” and he has accused its participants of “destroying the national identity, language, and culture of the Crimean Tatars”:

In 2014, when the first arrests began, Mufti [Emirali Ablayev] asked the security forces to implement a moratorium [on prosecuting Hizb ut-Tahrir members]. They gave them two years, and during that time, the [pro-Russian] Muftiate conducted outreach work with adherents [of Hizb ut-Tahrir]; [they explained to them] that in Russia, the party had been declared a terrorist organization and that they could be jailed for it. Some people went to the mainland, to Ukraine, others went underground, and others continued their activities in the open. Naturally, arrests followed.

Human rights activists and lawyers divide the cases against Crimea residents for Hizb ut-Tahrir affiliation by region: law enforcement often arrest a group of residents in a certain part of Crimea and call them “a local terrorist cell.” In some cases, multiple groups have been “found” in the same area; in 2017–2018, for example, eight people were arrested for their alleged membership in the “second Bakhchysarai group” and given prison sentences between 13 and 19 years. The group included teachers, activists, and business owners.

The largest group of alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members so far has been the “second Simferopol group.” The case against them has 29 defendants, four of whom are still being sought by the authorities; the other 25 have already been convicted. Because the group is so large, the case was divided into five subgroups. The first subgroup includes the alleged “organizers” of “terrorist activity”: journalist Remzi Bekirov, attorney Riza Izetov, construction workers Farkhod Bazarov and Shaban Umerov, and plumber Raim Ayvazov (who was charged only with “participation” in the organization).

All five defendants denied the charges and called the case politically motivated. Raim Ayvazov has claimed that in April 2019, as he tried to leave Crimea, FSB agents caught him and tortured him. The officers who arrested Aivazov haven’t commented on the allegations.

“The powers that be, hiding behind anti-terrorism and anti-extremism laws, destroy all dissent. Our politically motivated case, just like the cases against hundreds of other Crimean Tatars and Crimean Muslims who have either been convicted or who are in prison awaiting sentencing, are prime examples of that,” said Remzi Bekirov in his closing statement in March 2022.

All of the defendants from the Remzi Bekirov’s subgroup were given between 15 and 19 years in prison. The last sentences in the case against the “second Simferopol group” were handed down in January 2023; all five of those defendants were given 13 years in prison each. One of them, 62-year-old Servet Gaziyev, had a stroke before her sentence and now requires constant medical care, which she hasn’t received in prison. Another defendant, a 60-year-old disabled man named Djemil Gafarov, died in prison on February 10, 2023.

Since the Russian authorities began prosecuting Crimean Tatars for alleged involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, only one person has been acquitted: journalist Ernes Ametov, a defendant from the “second Bakhchysarai group.” His case was subsequently returned to the courts, however, and the police arrested him again on the same charges in May 2022. Seven months later, Ametov was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In 2021, the peninsula witnessed its first known case in which the attempted arrest of a Crimea resident on charges of involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir turned deadly. Simferopol FSB agents broke into the home of Uzbek citizen Nabi Rakhimov. According to law enforcement, Rakhimov opened fire first, forcing the officers to use their weapons in self-defense. The lawyer representing Rakhimov’s wife, Sokhiba Burkhanova, later told journalists that during an interrogation, police tried to blame Rakhimov’s death on the couple’s 15-year-old child.

Rakhimov’s body hasn’t been returned to the family, and the officers who shot him are reportedly now fighting in the war. After Rakhimov’s death, Sokhiba Burkhanova was arrested for violating Russian immigration rules, and she’s currently being held in a deportation center in Krasnodar. Her children are living with family friends.

The most recent arrests of Crimean Tatars on Hizb ut-Tahrir-related charges came on January 24, 2023, in Crimea’s northern Dzhankoi district. The following day, six defendants appeared before a Simferopol court, which placed them in pretrial detention centers for two months, pending hearings. When more than 30 Crimean Tatars gathered outside the courthouse in a show of support, police officers arrested them, and a judge jailed everyone for 10 days on charges of “the mass simultaneous presence of citizens in public places resulting in a violation of public order.”

Streets with no men

The widespread persecution of Crimean Tatars that began after Russia annexed Crimea has affected women in distinct ways. In 2018, Anastasia Moiseyeva, a lawyer from the group CrimeaSOS, said the authorities’ targeting of women was on the rise, calling it a “new trend in Crimea.” In August of that year, for example, Crimean Tatar poet Aliya Kenzhalieva was charged with “rehabilitating Nazism” for poems that criticized the war in the Donbas. Several days later, she was released due to a lack of evidence.

A more common charge against Crimean Tatar women is “inciting hatred or enmity.” For example, the Russian authorities opened a case against a woman named Gulsum Aliyeva in 2018, flagging her Facebook posts about Crimean political prisoners. The case was dismissed in January 2019, but Aliyev has since been arrested multiple times on the same charges.

But many more Crimean Tatar women have suffered from the Russian repressions without being the target of criminal charges themselves. When Crimean men are arrested, they leave their families without fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons — and often, as a result, with no income. In parts of the peninsula with large Crimean Tatar populations, human rights advocate Afize Karimova told Meduza, there are entire streets with no men left.

Meduza spoke to several Crimean Tatar women whose husbands were convicted of alleged involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement about how their lives have changed. Their names have been changed for security reasons.

A woman named Emine recounted how her husband’s arrest negatively impacted her entire family’s health. She says her father-in-law was hospitalized in February 2023, though doctors have been unable to reach a definitive diagnosis. At the same time, her mother-in-law’s diabetes has gotten markedly worse in recent months, and traveling to Rostov-on-Don, where her son’s trial is taking place, is difficult for her.

“We wanted a child for a long time; we went from doctor to doctor,” Emine continued. “When our dream finally came true [and I got pregnant], FSB agents stormed into our home. The stress caused me to lose the baby. My husband didn’t know until we saw each other briefly in the remand prison.” Emine is currently awaiting her husband’s sentencing.

The husband of Dilyara, another woman who spoke to Meduza, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2021. Since then, she’s been raising four children on her own.

“When they arrested my husband, our youngest daughter wasn’t even a year old yet. Before that, I kept our house running and cared for our children, and my husband worked to support us. The rest of the time, he tried to help me out however he could. After his arrest, that arrangement was destroyed: [now I have] four children in my arms, a husband in prison to worry about, work, and elderly parents [both mine and my husband’s] to support,” said Dilyara.

At first, she says, the “constant pressure” kept her from falling into despair, but she was always exhausted, sometimes even falling asleep while driving. Before her husband’s arrest, the family spent a lot more money on their children’s education, but after she became the family’s sole breadwinner, she had to remove the kids from most of their after-school programs.

All of the women who spoke to Meduza said that Crimean Tatars have provided each other with moral, material, and legal support since the start of Russia’s occupation. The Crimean Solidarity movement, an organization of activists, lawyers, and family members working to assist political prisoners on the peninsula, has launched the Crimean Childhood project, where volunteers help Tatar children whose fathers are incarcerated by taking them on vacation and running clubs and art classes for them.

Chapter 3

Mobilization

‘I didn’t wait to become cannon fodder’

Seidamet Mustafayev is a 49-year-old psychology professor and a Crimean Tatar activist from Simferopol. In 2014, he was fired from the university where he taught for expressing his pro-Ukrainian beliefs, but he nonetheless chose to remain in Crimea. Mustafayev told Meduza that he’s been threatened multiple times in the years since Russia annexed Crimea — “not just with criminal prosecution, but with physical violence.” Most of the threats, he said, have come from “bots on social media,” but not all of them. “There was one situation where some people drove up to me, opened the window [of their car, and] promised they would ‘take me out’ if I didn’t shut up,” he told Meduza.

After losing his job, Mustafayev created a Facebook page to connect with other Crimeans who opposed Russian occupation. Mustafeyev says he had no desire to leave the peninsula; like thousands of other Crimean Tatars, he’d already lived the first part of his life in exile in Uzbekistan, where the Soviet authorities deported his ancestors.

In 2022, however, he was forced to emigrate. In the summer, he and his 21-year-old nephew were summoned to a local military enlistment office for medical exams. They ignored the orders and remained in Simferopol. On September 21, however, when Vladimir Putin announced mobilization in Russia, Mustafayev and his nephew felt they had no choice but to flee. They left through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, ultimately reaching Germany.

“When I found out that I might be sent to serve as cannon fodder in a war against my native country, I didn’t wait around for a draft order. I got my nephew out, too. They definitely would have taken him — he fit all of their requirements,” Mustafayev told Meduza.

Mustafayev said that practically all of the Crimean Tatar men he knows have received draft orders since the start of mobilization. “They even tried to take 60-year-olds, but their lawyers managed to defend them,” he said, adding that most of the people he knows managed to “get out in time.” Several days after the start of the draft, leaving Crimea effectively became impossible due to police checkpoints on the roads.

The Russian authorities haven’t released official data about the number of people drafted from Crimea, but local activists told Meduza that Crimean Tatars received a disproportionate number of draft orders compared to other Crimeans.

Crimea’s Russian-backed authorities have vehemently denied these claims. On September 24, Crimean Military Commissar Evgeny Kutuzov said that reports of “only one nationality” being drafted were false and had been “planted by Ukraine.” Two days later, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev reported that about 2,000 people in Crimea had been called up, and that they had served in the army “while still under Ukraine.”

According to calculations by CrimeaSOS, however, approximately 90 percent of the draft orders issued in Crimea went to Crimean Tatars. It’s unclear how many of those people were sent to the front. Meduza was unable to find other specific data about the number of draft orders sent to Crimean Tatars, and the Russian authorities haven’t commented on mobilization among the peninsula’s Crimean Tatar population.

But Permanent Ukrainian Presidential Representative in Crimea Tamila Tasheva’s description of Russia’s mobilization process is consistent with the data provided by CrimeaSOS. She told Meduza that “hundreds” of draft orders were issued in areas with high concentrations of Crimean Tatar residents. “For the already small Crimean Tatar population, these kinds of steps by the occupiers could be disastrous. To avoid mobilization, people have gone into hiding or left Crimea for other countries,” she said.

‘Shells don’t choose their victims’

According to human rights advocate Afize Karimova, many Crimean Tatars view mobilization as a new stage of oppression by the Russian state. Lawyer Nikolai Polozov calls the draft a violation of Article 51 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits occupying powers from using the population of an occupied territory for military purposes during wartime:

This speaks to the systemic actions of the Russian authorities, and of the genocide against the Crimean Tatars who for nine years have refused to accept the occupation and who have remained loyal to Ukraine. The same pattern can be seen in Russia’s other regions — in the Far East and in Siberia, where it’s predominantly ethnic minorities who are being mobilized.

Mobilization in Crimea effectively ended in mid-October, and many Crimean Tatars have returned home, Tamila Tasheva told Meduza. She also noted that the total number of people who have left the region since 2014 isn’t especially high — according to her office. “Only a few thousand” moved away, she said.

“During the mobilization declared by Russia, the number of people who fled Crimea increased, but not for long. I’m certain that as soon as the danger of being drafted into the army passes, people will return. Crimean Tatars always return home — we don’t have another motherland outside of Crimea,” Tasheva said.

Activist Seidamet Mustafayev told Meduza that he won’t return to Crimea until it’s been liberated by Ukraine — something that many have begun to see as a possibility since Ukrainian forces retook control of the Kherson region.

Even Crimea’s occupation authorities have begun preparing for potential combat on the peninsula itself by conducting inspections of basements and bomb shelters. But the idea of Russian and Ukrainian troops fighting in Crimea makes many residents uneasy. Human rights advocate Afize Karimova told Meduza that she wants Ukraine to regain control of the region but stressed that “you should never be enthusiastic about war or see it as something inspiring.” “Combat on the peninsula will mean a great loss of human life. Shells don’t select their victims based on political or civic views; they don’t take into account how a person viewed the annexation of Crimea,” she said.

But at the same time, she said, real change won’t be possible until Crimea is liberated:

If you imagine [the repressions] continuing at roughly the same rate for several more years, then the most active segment of the Crimean Tatar people will be destroyed. People understand that the only thing capable of fundamentally changing the situation is political change on the peninsula. And despite the threats and the risks that war will bring, people are waiting for these changes.

[whencyclopedia]

Ögedei Khan

Ogedei Khan (aka Ogodei) ruled the Mongol Empire from 1229 to 1241. He was the third son of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), the empire's founder. Ogedei's accomplishments included creating a new capital at Karakorum, establishing a system of regional governance and taxation, and defeating the long-time enemy of the Mongols, the Jin state of northern China.

Ogedei Khan enjoyed many other military victories in Western Asia from Afghanistan to Georgia, and the great cities of the Bulgars and Rus were sacked as his armies swept ever further west and attacked Poland and Hungary. Just as the Mongols seemed about to sweep through Europe, the invaders returned home following news of the Great Khan's death of either a stroke or organ failure in December 1241, most likely brought on by one of the heavy drinking bouts for which he was infamous.

Early Life & Succession

Ogedei was born, c. 1186, the third son of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. He had three brothers: Jochi, Chagatai (Chaghadai) and Tolui (Tului). Like them, Ogedei assisted his father on several military campaigns, notably against the Khwarazm Empire from 1219 to 1225. Before he died of natural causes in 1227, Genghis Khan had instructed that his empire be divided into four khanates with each of his sons ruling one of them (although Jochi would predecease his father in 1227). Ogedei was selected to rule above his siblings as the Great Khan or 'universal ruler', a position he was formally awarded in 1228 at the kurultai conference of Mongol tribal chiefs (which Ogedei at first refused but then accepted in 1229). Genghis, meanwhile, was buried in secret in the vicinity of the sacred mountain Burkan Kuldun, and Ogedei sacrificed 40 slave girls and 40 horses to accompany his father into the next life.

Ogedei was a surprising choice for khan because he already had a reputation for often being drunk. He was chastised for his drinking by his brother Chagatai but, not being unaware of the problem, Ogedei did offer to have a supervisor check how much alcohol he drank and to limit the number of cups per day to a specified number. Ogedei then made sure he was always served his favourite tipple in very large cups. Neither had Ogedei shown any great particular promise as a military commander. He was, however, likeable and willing to take the advice of his more senior ministers and commanders, essential qualities in the complex web of Mongol clan politics. Most importantly of all, he was his father's choice and Genghis Khan was now already seen as a deified spirit whose word was law. Thus, Tolui, who had been acting as regent, handed over the reins of government to Ogedei and a new era of Mongol rule began.

Continue reading...

[superoffbatter]

Actually reasonably balanced??? I imagine picking them for different things.

Like, setting out for some event or quest or story in the zee itself, like Evolution or anything that's going to need checks: Salt to ensure success.

Going to Court or Khanate or some other moneymaking thingy I just need to do and leave: Storm to save actions.

A long campaign of piracy where I ravage ship after ship for money and diamonds: Stone to endure as much as humanely possible

FBG moving into their boon era made me think about other potential uses for them, and it gave me this idea! a very infrequent card which you can encounter anywhere in the zee, unlocked with Renown: The Docks 25 and no Blessed by the Zee:

and the resulting boons:

[bleating-heart]

It is in the Nature of Dreams to End

Agatha remembered first meeting Kai. A giant cat with a lopsided smile sweeping the outside of a monetary up the tallest mountain she'd never wanted to climb. Dressed in a bright orange that clashed against his red-orange fur, a voice that sounded so hopeful, and sharp as a rack, she found him an oddity even amongst the other orevious-lycanthrope guards.

Did she really have time to dwell on him once the sounds of the training monks and Master Zhu Zhu rang high above the walls and a bell alerted everyone "HAE-SEONG IS A DRAGON WATCH YOUR ASS"? In all her honesty? No. Even stranger, but fantastic sights of martial students in perfectly synched rows, ceremonial oil lamps, heavy incense smoke rolling from burners would keep her attention first and foremost.

The second time Kai was forced to the front of her focus, was the fated death of the now Celestial Coatl, Master Zhu Zhu at the hand of his most treasured, and ultimated failed, student; the Black Dragon Lieutenant Sheng-Kai. The tiger Lycanthrope had let out a mournful cry and literally punched the doors of the monastery in outrage of the loss of his master. Agatha had remembered all too well the wail and reaction, as it was something that she too carried with her at the decimation of her village.

She had seen herself, and her body moved on its own.

The battle was long and difficult and very nearly fatal, but thanks to some overripe cranberry juice and the support of some bonded friends, everyone walked away from the encounter. For the third time that day, Kai had made himself a forefront thought in her mind. He had taken Hae-Seong's silvered scythe and severed Sheng-Kai's head from his body, throwing it into the entry way and smirking to himself, asking the others to mount it as a trophy on the walls. Zhu Zhu appeared to them as the last of his energy faded, congratulating them on their victory, and thanking Kai for watching over his students, as the monks made the decision for the Tiger to lead them after the passing of the old celestial.

Some miscommunicating on becoming a 'rider' of the man, and nearly convincing a disciplined man to drink, the team and their new feline member set off on their war path to right the wrong of Hae-Long.

They were inseparable from that moment. As two who worked in perfect synch, as two who supported one another, as two dim bulbs who made a whole halogen with their powers combined. Agatha was surprised when things started becoming... Charming? The gentle rumbling of tiger purrs and Kai drifted to sleep as she nestled into his side, his stupid laugh anytime anyone made a joke about 'mounting', his teasing agreement of Hae-Seong's insisting of her ownership of him... Him rushing into battle as long as she was at his side... His whispers of stories and old scribes when she woke with night terrors... How steady his heart beat was.

Was. Now wasn't that a funny word.

Agatha remembered nothing of how she awoke on the ground of the cliffside the had ascended from to get the the Cloud Giant's palace. She remembered a flash of lightning, and ultimate blackness. She had remembered the white hot feeling of regret as the world was torn from her as the blue dragon has leveled them exactly as Sheng-Kai had what seemed like so long ago. Hae-seong was sick at his stomach as he tried his best not to vomit as he replayed what happened to the Khan, and Keyon was nursing his panic attack when Agatha heard a phrase that made her blood run cold.

"Where's your tiger friend...?"

Almost as if fate was testing her, the final nimbus floated down with the limb body of the tiger-- no, the man, she wanted to see so badly. He didn't make it... There was nothing the Storm Spirit could do. Almost as if on cue, a hand placed itself on her shoulder. She felt nausea overtake her and she turned to see the spiritual figures of Zhu Zhu and human Kai, both clad in their robes, giving her the reassurance he was in a good place. Her voice cracked, barely above a whisper;

"Give him back, you asshole..."

Kai looked as if he was laughing as he faded from her view for the final time. Without hesitation, Hae-seong had turned to the others and told them he needed to start burial rites. Agatha stayed for a moment too long, as she was gently ushered back towards the group as Kai's body was gathered up. Where were they taking her friend...? She couldn't leave him right now, what if he wakes up...

Hand maidens in the Blue Dragon Palace helped her clean up and got her into a new set of clothes as the day came to a close. She didn't see Keyon for the rest of the night, and Hae-Seong had to spend a lot of time on his own preparing for the funeral that was to follow the next day. Agatha could hear him on and off of the sending stone, breaking the news to Kao-Kao, Li-Jiang, and Lu-Bu as well as touching base with Fizz and the Kobolds. She tried to find some comfort in it, knowing that the rest of their traveling family was still okay, but she still felt sick.

Agatha couldn't sleep that night. The room was too cold, too quiet... Too empty. All of the pillows in the world could fix the hurt she felt in her heart. Thoughts swirled together and soon became deafening in the silence;

I was supposed to protect him! I had one job! It's my fault he's dead! Why was I so fucking mean to him on the way there? It was over something so stupid! I'm supposed to be the one who goes!! I AM SUPPOSED TO KEEP THEM ALIVE!!

She forbids herself to cry, so the frustration takes itself out in another way; screaming. The halfling forces her face into one of the pillows she tried to build up into a nest and screams until her throat is raw.

The next morning comes, and the funeral begins. The court is all in mourning garb, and Hae-Seong starts the wake. He speaks of Kai fondly and highly. His accomplishments, his support, his dreams...

But Agatha knows them better than anyone ever will. This whisperings of Kai and how he wanted to change this land for the better, how proud he was that he could go back to the monks and grow with them, how Master Zhu Zhu had blessed him... How admirable it was she kept fighting for those who couldn't fight for themselves, how forgiveness comes with time and healing... How he would stay with her until she was sleeping. At the time, she found it stupid. He should wait up for her because she obviously would eventually go back to sleep. He didn't need to do all of that for her.

As the wake began to wrap up, Agatha found herself staring into the middle space of it all. Her anger was starting to become numbness as she started to internalize it all. The mutual care they had for eachother was something she should've treasured more while she had it. Sure he was fucking weird, but so was she. Hell, so were Hae-seong and Keyon... And Jinsei. Even the stupid horse was weird. He fit with them so well, it was wrong to see him not amongst them.

They moved to the coast line, the sun beginning to dip below the horizon, stars littering the fire colored sky. They had placed Kai's body in a vessel with ceremonial dried herbs and kindling as they pushed him out to sea, the water lazily pulling him into her depths. An arrow was lit and now knocked, as a court member offered the ceremonial weapon to Agatha. She felt the anger surface again as she refused to send the arrow to Kai to finish the rite.

"Why would I set my friend on fire?" She would mumble, but Keyon stepped up to finish the job. A well placed Ray of Scorching sent the boat into flames as the court of the blue dragon Khan lifted their heads and saluted the fallen with a timed breath of lightening. Hae-Seong has tried to comfort her with the reassurance of him being on the celestial plain, as was shown to him by Osmar, but she offered nothing in return. The dynasty born knew all too well the loss of Eros, so he let her be.

"If it's any consolation, I'll be finishing up the last of our plans and cleaning up the wake site. You're more than welcome to come and talk if you feel like it."

"Cool. I really don't feel like it."

Hae-Seong just nodded and left her be. He was wiser than to press her.

Agatha had returned to her room almost immediately after and crawled back into her nest. The night was bright with a full moon, and the soft light was pouring into her window along with the sound of waves. Blackness eventually overtook her, though where she arrived next was a mystery to her.

A soft light that felt almost fuzzy as she walked across a grassy knoll that was nearly as plush as fur surrounded her accompanied by the scent of incense she thought she'd forgotten all about. Her Auburn hair swirled around her as a guest of wind pushed her in a direction to go, following a newly formed oath lined with white pebbles through high, red orange temple gates. She felt her pulse quicken as she saw a figure waiting for her on the other side of the gate, clad in an orange robe with red wooden beads adorning his neck. A lopsided grin with a chuckle that sounded like purrs. She bolted to him, losing her footing as she passed through the gate, strong arms catching her before she got the ground.

"Woah! Don't tell me you've forgotten how to walk! Has riding tiger back spoiled you?" Kai teased, helping her to her feet.

"Really? Right now you're gunna do this?"

Kai couldn't help but laugh again at her as she scolded him for his intentional phrasing. He didn't have much time here, but the time he did have, he wanted to make it count. He knew what his death would mean for them, so why not leave on a higher note?

"You can't leave me, you know that right? It's too soon it's too much you can't leave me, you asshole!" Agatha feels the nausea overwhelm her again and hot tears sting at her eyes as they threaten to fall. Kai frowned and placed a tentative hand on her cheek, not knowing quite what to say.

"I know... Even if you forbid me to go, I cannot hold a place here in the world. I was given a chance to say goodbye, and I wanted to make the most of it," he starts, trying to choose his words carefully as the halfling woman knits her grows even tighter together as she shakily reaches up to cover hsi hand with her own.

"I am with Master Zhu Zhu now, and free from my painful curse of lycanthropy! I may have left the monastery in a bit of a tight spot, but I will speak to them before I leave this plane for the last time. It was an unfortunate end, but with the sacrifice of Jinsei, it wasn't in vain. It was just what date had decided for me, and I have made peace with that."

"You're dead because I was too stupid to move us in time to avoid the fucking lightning, Kai. It's my fault... All over again...!"

Kai frowned, wincing at the accusation. He hadn't expected her to take it so harshly, though he guessed he shouldn't be surprised.

"Agatha--"

"Don't."

"I'm sorry it had to be this way... It's not your fault."

"Shut up, Kai!!"

"Please."

The firm tone took her off guard, but she looked up at him to finally meet his eye. He looked as hurt as she felt, and it honestly made it worse. However, she took this as a sign to shut up herself and let him finish.

Kai gently pulled away from her and reached up, removing the beads from around his neck.

"I promise, you are destined for greatness. We have seen how your fate unfolds, and I swear you will be all of the good you want to be. I wish I could tell you, but it's not my place. Besides, I know you hate spoilers." He winks, Agatha not being able to help the half chuckle that falls passed her lips.

He slips the beads over her head, the heady smell of the monastery incense filling her nose as he does.

"I will always be with you. What kind of faithful steed would I be if I left you stranded?" She's about to argue when his lips cover hers. It's soft and almost feels unreal, but Agatha returns it nonetheless. It lasts but a moment before the larger man breaks away to rest his forehead to hers.

"I'm afraid it's time for me to go. Don't forget me when they're singing songs of your glory, alright?" He laughs, stepping back from her.

"Okay... Goodbye, Kai..." Agatha whispers, her world beginning to haze over as she's enveloped in the mist of waking. Kai waves to her as he faded from her for the last time.

"Goodbye, Agatha."

--

Agatha wakes to the sounds of rapping on her door.

"Miss Agatha? Breakfast is served. Your place at the table is being requested so they can start the war council."

She grunts back to the handmaid, dismissing her as she pulls herself up from her nest, still clad in her mourning garb.

It was a vivid dream and a strange one, but she supposed it offered her some kind of closure of--

What was that smell?

She sniffed a few more times before looking down, grasping at her chest. Red wooden beads...? Her voice cracked as a chuckle of realization rumbled in her throat. She guessed he remembered she liked to keep mementos... He really was an asshole, but she supposed he wouldn't be him if he wasn't.

Though she really didn't want to move, she scooted herself out of the bed and dressed herself in her common clothes for the morning. She tucked the beads into her tunic and headed out the door. Though she really didn't want to say goodbye, she supposed she would just have to accept that she had something to keep her motivated to keep fighting. It was selfish to force Kai to stick around in a world he was finished in. It was time to face the day, as her adventure in and of itself, was also drawing to a close.

After all, it is in the nature of dreams to end.

[blueiscoool]

A Rare 18th-Century Chinese Scroll Sells for $65M

A rare 18th-century scroll has become one of the most expensive Chinese artworks ever to sell at auction.

The 61-foot-long artwork fetched 414 million yuan (almost $65 million) when it went under the hammer in Beijing on Sunday.

The handscroll is the work of Xu Yang, who was recruited as a court painter by the Qianlong Emperor in the 1750s. It depicts scenes in Beijing during the aftermath of military campaigns to consolidate the emperor's power in China's west -- conflicts that would later form part of his so-called "Ten Great Campaigns."

Although often titled "Settling Down the Western Regions and Presenting Prisoners," the work was simply given the English name "Figure" by Poly Auction, the Beijing-based auction house behind the sale.

The detailed handscroll begins at Beijing's Zhengyang Gate and passes through Tiananmen Square, with the city's residents pictured alongside lines of guards and flag-bearers. The scene ends at the entrance to the Forbidden City where the artwork was once mounted, according to Poly Auction.

The artwork was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor to mark his success quelling various uprisings, including his destruction of the Dzungar Khanate, a nomadic empire that once covered parts of Central Asia and the present-day Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The handscroll had previously broken the auction record for classical Chinese art when it fetched 134 million yuan ($21 million) in 2009, according to state media. It is now the third most expensive classical Chinese work ever to go under the hammer, a Poly Auction spokesperson confirmed, with the current record held by Wu Bin's "Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock," which sold for 512.9 million yuan ($80 million) last year.

Hailing from Suzhou, a city just west of Shanghai, Xu was known for depicting key moments in imperial history as well as urban life in China, though his sense of perspective and figuration were influenced by European art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains some of the 12 handscrolls Xu produced to mark one of the Qianlong Emperor's famous tours of southern China.

By Oscar Holland.

[reddus-sideblog]

Pathfinder Update: Favours Owed: The Bostadt Boogie (Part 1)

So, I’ve talked here and there about “early Pathfinder” from back when we started the campaign (much to everyone’s bafflement), and before I started making Pathfinder Update posts. So, as our GM is now moving and will be occupied with that for the next couple of weeks I will fill that hiatus time with our exploits in the past, and tell you all about how our heroes met. I will be lightly editorializing this, to make some of the pieces fit together a bit better, but without further ado, let’s start...

Our story begins in Bostadt. Bostadt is a beautiful city-state founded upon both sides of a strait that connect the Western and Eastern Seas, and is a key piece of societal structure in this world (think if Venice was built at the Strait of Gibraltar, controlling all trade that goes through it). Bostadt’s kingdom consists of both sides of the strait, with an enormous bridge spanning the strait, that was constructed by the stone giants of the Western lands long ago. This great bridge delineates between the upper city (the North shore) and the lower city (the South shore). The upper city is the seat of the kingdoms’s rulers, it’s government, and the city’s upper class, and as it continues inland the Northern borders come to touch the steppe lands of the Eternal Khanate. On the South side of the strait the lands continue downwards to the central continent, eventually reaching the border with the Southerlands and the arid shrublands therein.

Our story starts at around noon one early summer day. Outside of a tavern and inn named the Silver Stag that sits next to the boardwalk that sidles along the lower city side of the Bostadt Strait an express charter carriage arrives. A single, rather tall person in a deep blue duster with a matching, wide-brimmed hat, and a bandanna drawn over their face dismounts, bringing a musket with them and their luggage into the tavern. It’s relatively early in the day and the bar is consequently empty, with the only people present being a female sylph and an efreet lady sitting at a table to one side, both looking over seemingly identical letters. The stranger in blue sits at the bar and takes off the bandanna to reveal her burned up face, and talks with the short, silver-haired elven barkeep about a letter she’d had received from one “Reoh” (ray-oh), who’d said to meet him here at this bar on this day at this time. Vera, the Silver Stag’s proprietor, informs Miss Tisiphone Eriny, the stranger in blue, that the other two back there were here for a similar reason.

The letter from Reoh informed Tisiphone, and most likely the sylph and the efreet, that he was incredibly worried about a conspiracy that might be gripping Bostadt, and that he urgently needed our help before it worsened. Vera informed Tisi, as he had the other two, that Mister Reoh probably would not be meeting us here, as he was arrested for assassinating Bostadt’s Minister of War, and would soon be facing execution. Tisi was not particularly happy about this, even if her relationship with Reoh was perhaps not the best one. This also meant that the whole of the upper city was on lockdown, as the royal forces had the bridge and all gates in and out of that section of Bostadt closed up while the investigation into the affair went on. Reoh, of course, was being held in the royal jail up on the upper side of the city.

The door of the bar swung open and a large blonde man wearing a heavy cuirass and and a big sword, and having styled his hair into a pompadour. He sauntered over to the half-elemental girls over at the table (efreets are half fire elemental and sylphs are half air elemental) and starts talking big about his whole “magic licenses” racketeering gig. He was, essentially, trying to get these two to pay him to allow them to use magic. Tisiphone watched the scene with disinterest, putting her musket up on the bar while she looked on. The conversation got heated and the sparks started flying, apparently this guy was a local gang leader going by the title “Blonde Lightning” and he enjoyed a tidy business of racketeering around the market part of the lower city. The beatdown began as the sylph and the efreet tag-teamed the Blonde Lightning. Tisiphone, for her part, bought a whiskey on the rocks and continued watching. Soon the idiot was practically thrown out of the bar by the girls, and Tisiphone was done with her drink. Tisiphone introduced herself to Kii and the efreet. Vera pointed the three ladies towards Zarzis, a dark elf that was in charge of a dungeon in the lower city, she had a fair amount of power in the city’s underworld, and might be able to help them sneak into the upper city.

So  this “dungeon” was not “a” dungeon, but rather “The Dungeon”. It was a club for those with specific tastes, and, indeed, Zarzis was the “dungeon master”. After some finagling we managed an audience with Zarzis in the depths of her underground establishment (it’s likely that this place was in fact a real dungeon some time ago, and for all the silk, rugs, and other accoutrements brought in, it was still a deep set of stonework gaols). She sat on her regal throne of pillows and silk, not even getting up to talk to us. Zarzis had a proposition, we capture Blonde Lightning and brought him to her, alive, and she would provide entry into the upper city.

This was largely amenable, but along with this exchange the dark elf crime lord asked us to bring a letter of hers to Mister Vera. Once outside Kii burned the letter, and Tisiphone was a bit unhappy at this, as Southerlanders are a bit uptight about the sacredness of postage. Kii was ultimately right in this manner, and when the group stopped by the Silver Stag once more to get intel on Blonde Lightning, Tisiphone informed Vera about the letter’s existence and the sudden magical conflagration that had consumed it. Vera seemed wary about the whole thing, giving a gay little elven sigh, but it was getting late and he would be busy tending the bar soon.

Tisiphone, Kii, and the efreet lady took to the market area where Blonde Lightning and his goons had set up shop. The area was a marketplace (having closed down for the day) with a large tree growing in one corner between a few shops. This large tree was host to a house that was built in its bows (apparently this place had once belonged to a wizard), which was the Lightning gang’s hideout. Tisiphone called out Blonde Lightning and his gang, who were all too glad to appear. The other gangsters took to the half-elemental girls, and with a single, deafening shot Tisiphone took out Blonde Lightning, sending him crashing to the ground from the tree as he was making to climb down and engage the women with his broadsword. (This was my first attack roll of the campaign as Tisiphone, and I immediately critted Blonde Lightning terribly enough that the GM was like “uh...he’s out of the fight now” because of the insane damage gun crits do)

After dispatching the other gangsters, and patching up the sorry sod, Tisiphone clapped him in manacles and brought the unfortunate to Zarzis. The dark elf was otherwise occupied, but we more or less barged our way in, revealing that indeed she was not a dark elf, but a full on drider. She was initially less than pleased, but was rather delighted at the appearance of the rival gang leader in chains. The other person in the room, beyond the captured Blonde Lightning,  and the women made his presence quietly known. Vera was tied up in silk, and seemingly at the drider’s mercy. Apparently Zarzis had not taken kindly to the incineration of her mail and had sent out her servants to take what she wished. After some terse negotiation the silver-haired elf was rescued from The Dungeon, and restored to his rightful place in the Silver Stag (and the girls got free rooms for the night there).

The next evening our way into the upper city was available to us. Under the cover of night the 3 ladies took a small boat across the straight, and entered a secret entrance way into the upper cities sewers. In short, it reeked. Kii complained about the smell and Tisi told her to “suck it up, princess”. The importance of Miss Eriny calling Kii “princess” would not become apparent for sometime.

The sewers were filled with partially decayed undead. Their vile existence was soon cut short by gunfire and magic, but there were some truly tremendous and terrible unliving things down there, and some sort of decrepit dark idol that was likely the cause of the infection. As much as Tisiphone could not stand such things, and Kii was no fan of such dark magic, the time was late, their wounds were mounting, and Tisiphone had only so many bullets and so much lantern oil.

However our efreet companion begged to differ, and set off down that other tunnel, to take on the idol and it’s enthralled corpses. That was the last we ever saw of her, but I can only hope that she put an end to it. After some twists and turns Kii and Tisiphone ended up coming out of a forgotten catacomb entrance that led into a workshop. The owner of the shop, a stone giant (likely living here since the bridge’s construction) was a bit surprised to see someone at such an hour but accommodating all the same. The stone giant was a kindly sort, and though a very effective weaponsmith his true love lied in sculpting. Tisiphone and Kii sought to have their weapons attended to by the master craftsman, and aside from that, Tisiphone commissioned the giant to make a large (4 foot tall) statue of a horse (as a gift to her family when she finally returned to the Southerlands). After this Tisiphone and Kii found a place to stay for the night and got what little rest they could.

The next day came, and the girls struck out (after picking up their weapons from the stone giant), looking for clues about Reoh. They asked about, finding whomever they could, and asking about the situation and circumstances. At a certain point we came across a purple hair catfolk being quite literally tossed out of an inn, with the owner yelling at him for not paying up his share. Tisiphone and Kii watched the spectacle, and decided to ask him if he knew anything about the situation with Reoh. To the lady’s delight he actually knew Reoh! He had come to Bostadt, as he too had received a letter, and had intended to make it to the Silver Stag, but got caught on the city’s North side when the lockdown hit. So we took our newfound friend for lunch to wring out any information that we could from him.

Thus Tisiphone and Kii came to know the catfolk as Lora’sae Valka, a "renowned” alchemist, the proprietor of Valka Tinctures, and, in time, a lifelong friend. Unsurprisingly, Tisiphone payed for his lunch.