The 'Eastern Horde' which erupted out of the East in -297 and went on to conquer the area now known as
Sankhar as well as many other lands east of the
Blue Sea is often thought of a group of unruly barbarians whose military
victories were achieved by ferocity and numbers. In fact they were a highly disciplined army whose tactics had
been refined in their many wars with Kadia, a land whose culture had many aspects they admired. Although they
didn't build in stone (not advisable for nomads) and had an oral rather than written culture (again the best option
for nomads) they were a highly sophisticated people.
It is said that the Great Khan, the general who led the Horde, spent the first part of his life fighting
a civil war in his homeland of Khazin. Having won that war and consolidated his grip on the country at the age of 40 years of age he decided to continue his life of conquest. Ignoring the Khazaks traditional enemies (Kadia) to the south he
turned his attention to the west where the
Logath and the
Sagath tribes dwelt. As punishment for giving succour to his Khazak
enemies he conquered both those peoples and both incorporated them into his army and forced the whole of each tribe
to migrate west, claiming their former lands for his own people.
His initial conquests were frequently brutal and he razed two cities to the ground in the area now known as
the Eastern Khanate. This had the effect of spreading terror as his army approached and caused many of his
potential opponents to surrender without a fight. A key part of his success was the speed his army of nomads
could travel often arriving before his opponents had mustered their forces properly. Within two years he conquered
the nomadic tribes of the steppe east of Sankhar and any cities that stood in his way. In -297 he started
the conquest of the Marwhini defeating the eastern Marwhini tribes
before they had a chance to unite and forcing the army of the western tribes to sue for peace.
At this point the Great Khan himself set up camp just north of
Shrel Kain and gave most of his attention to statecraft rather than leading his
armies personally. Some see this as a reason for the famous victory of the
Reets over the Horde at the Crossings of Falkar but accounts of the battle
suggest it was more of a stalemate and at the subsequent negotations the Reets had to concede territory in
order to secure the peace treaty that the desired.
Tammarik surrendered to the Horde without a fight and having secured their
western border with Reetland the following spring the Horde poured into Aratola.
In general the statecraft of the Great Khan contained much to be admired and some of the political entities
he created still exist to this day (Greater Khazin, the Eastern Khanate and Sankhar). Perhaps because of his lack
of sympathy for city dwellers, however, the Southern Khanate which was created over the next few years as the Horde
conquered Aratola,
Fenghast, the Raj and the
Sirayn Basin is seen by historians as a political failure. The prime aim (and certainly the prime result) of these conquests was the looting of the rich southern cities and the theft
of many of their cultural treasures. This may have enriched the Khazaks but led to a background of almost continual unrest in the southern province.
In -266 the Great Khan died and two years later an attempt to capture the southern city of Petta was defeated
marking the end of the southern expansion of the Empire. Ironically the defeat which was partly enabled
by the Nubian Empire lending the city a company of war elephants was also the result of the Horde falling for
one of its own favourite strategies, a feigned retreat. In -192 infighting among the descendants of the Great Khan
led to the Southern Khanate dissolving into several smaller provinces and by -73 the last of the Khazak rulers
in the area had fallen.
The rest of the Empire survived until 43 when a war with Kadia led to troop withdrawals from the provinces.
Subsequent unrest led to Sankhar seeing its opportunity and securing independence in 57. The Eastern and Western
Khanates followed within a few years. The Khazaks, however, were still a potent military force and in 323 they succeeded in putting a descendant of the Great Khan upon the Ivory Throne of Kadia. Sadly the Khazak dynasty lasted
only to 437.