Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanguinemetaldawn" data-source="post: 2378132" data-attributes="member: 23390">The horse culture was probably the single most important aspect.Another important aspect was their technology...though they were "steppe barbarians", they had technology others did not...read the last paragraph here...<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirrup" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirrup</a>In addition to effective use of stirrup and tack, the composite bow was important.  Making one is actually a very difficult process, consisting of several materials (Bone, horn, wood, and the like) glued together.  The effective result is a small powerful bow (that can be used from a horse).So mass formations of mounted archers were a hassle, as I am sure you can imagine.Really they were the best fast/mobile missile troops the world had ever seen to that point.This didn't make them particularly good at anything else, and they had to incorporate non-nomads (i.e. Chinese turncoats) into their armies to deal with any fortifications.Each Mongol warrior would typically have more than one horse, and if they were starving, they would drink blood from the viens of their horses.  Kumiss is a fermented/alcoholic "beverage" made from mare's milk...fermented horse milk.  And they lived off of livestock they herded.  Naturally, this kind of life made them accustomed to traveling far.  The Mongol's culture was basically defined by the horse.  As a people of nomadic pastoralists, this shouldn't be particularly surprising.Ultimately, while they were effective in a military sense, the Mongols didn't really leave much of a lasting impression on the world.  They didn't contribute anything in the way of philosophy or reason or science, in agriculture or architecture, in writing or art, in government or law, or anything at all really.The greatest impression was probably with the Russians, who were themselves a barbaric people, and assimilated some of their ways while ruled by the Golden Horde, before they threw off their yoke.It took almost a century for the Mongols under Qublai to conquer the Sung (Chinese empire) and that rule lasted about a century before they were overthrown by the Ming.  Those Mongols are now trying to avoid being annexed by the PRC, and they still herd animals and live in Yurts.  Its actually pretty pathetic.The greatest impact the Mongols had was probably upon the middle east, as Turkic peoples were driven en masse into Iraq and Anatolia.  The Mongols were stopped by the Egyptians (Ayubbids, I believe)  The Seljuk Turks hammered the Byzantines and would eventually come to rule Greece and the Balkans (and what we call Turkey), and threaten Europe for centuries.  Timur il-lenk/leng/liang (Tamerlane) claimed succession from the Mongols/Turks, but his "empire" collapsed shortly after his death.Many Muslims blame the degeneracy of their culture upon the Mongols and Timur.  The "Glory days" of Islamic empire basically predate these invasions.  The Turks were an Islamic power for centuries after, but all they had was military power...not the culture, poetry, architecture, science, and so forth of their Egyptian, Persian, and Arab forebears.  For example, the greatest Turkish mosque was actually a Greek Church, the Hagia Sophia, with some minarets put on top and called a mosque.  It is now a museum.Ultimately, the Mongols had an impressive military and little else.</blockquote>

Verification