On the survival of shamanism in the Orient and the ramifications thereof
Concerning the Central Asian kingdom of the Oirats
Concerning the Central Asian kingdom of the Oirats
Few people remember that between the meteoric rise of the first great mongol empire and its revival in an altered form, there was a period during which the Mongol dynasties the world over were in decline, and, though the barbarian Hordes were still feared, they were no longer banging at the gate demanding to be let in.
Though the threat of destruction at the hands of a savage band of steppe-warriors led by a fearsome and merciless khan has waned, the conquered peoples still guard themselves more carefully than before, certainly when dealing with outsiders. But they did not only cower in fear of their oppressors, they were not only influenced by them, they also left their own mark, they fought back, and reveled in the defeat and destruction of their overlords as at last they achieved some measure of self-rule. Most of these attempts went unchallenged, the decadent descendants of the savage horse nomads being either unable or unwilling to deal with the demands of an empire. One such revival of the native culture however, that attempted by the Cathayan emperor, failed spectacularly.
It succeeded in its initial goal, that of driving the Yuan dynasty out of China. When the emperor attempted to establish dominion over the Mongolian steppe, however, he began a process that would lead to a new vigor in the Mongols. If not a new golden age for the nomads, it was at least a silver age, of great importance in its own right though perhaps not measuring to the standard set by the budding empire’s immediate predecessor and the greatest of the barbarian empires.
I have set out to tell this history, and intend to do so to the best of my ability, there being as yet no concise history on the subject of the rejuvenation of the Mongol state, a subject matter which remains of vital importance to a clear understanding of our modern world, and of the lens through which we view it.
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“It’s no good. It won’t work. You sound like you’re writing from fifty years ago. That era is gone. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a war in between now and then. The Great War, the war that ended war. You, though you don’t look it, are a relic of the past. You’re going to have to start over. Revise the whole thing, start from scratch, do anything. I don’t care how you do it, just make this garbage into something that can be read, that would be useful. None of these flourishes, none of this narrative, none of that. A rendition of the facts, a recounting of your sources in plain, simple language. I don’t mind if you add maybe a footnote here or there to give your opinion, but you are to keep the primary document clear, and free of this clutter. Understand?”
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This will be a game play AAR, though it may not currently seem like it, played using IN 3.2b, no mods and default settings. I will be playing as the Oirat Horde.
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