Name of the Province People:Khargat Khanate
Name of your liege:Elbek Khan (long may he ride!)
Position:As nomadic pastoralists, the territories inhabited by the Khargats has of course varied over the years and continues to do so. Originally the Khargat tribes came from cold and dry steppes beyond the northern mountains, but climate change, tribal wars, and invasion by other nomadic groups drove them into what is now Emperiat. In their wanderings large hordes have ventured through the territories of more or less all of the northern provinces and even a few of the southern ones.
When they first invaded the realm they came into contact with the predecessor state of what is now Belintash, and conquered a large swathe of its lands along the mountain border. To this day they hold those grassy foothills under a tight grip and it is that region that is their stronghold. Those hills alone cannot and do not offer enough fertile land to sustain all the Khanate's herds and people, but if ever they went to war it would be in those hills that the hordes would fall back if they had to and defend most fiercely. In this region are also the mountain passes hat the Khargats first used to invade the south, and so the region is of strategic importance as it allows exclusive control over what few trade routes exist to the northern lands beyond the Stormpike range.
Specialty:The first thing that comes to mind when one mentions the Khargat tribes has always been great hordes of smelly, wild, and barbarous horsemen. Khargat warriors have a (not underserved) reputation for being vulgar, merciless, and undisciplined and yet still they inspire terror. Before the days of Khargat subjugation they were seen as devils that could vanish like smoke on the open plains only to reappear without warning and defeat armies ten times their size through the use of strange tactics and unparalleled horsemanship. Though the mythical aura of terror and invincibility that shrouded the Khargats is now gone, they are still hardened warriors and their military support has played a major role in every largescale war in the past six or seven decades. Khargat horse archers and lancers maintain a fierce rivalry with the Knights of Dieuporteille; the two parties each vie for a place in the empire's vanguard and the reputation for the greatest cavalrymen.
The next thing that might come to mind concerning that Khargats are their traders, whose caravans are a familiar sight to near every major city of Emperiat and then many foreign places in the faroff corners of the world. The Khargat merchant tradition is as old as their raiding and slaving one, and so they have a way of turning a profit no matter what goods they peddle and how far. The Khargats have almost monopolized the slave and spice trades in Emperiat, but furthermore have large stakes in the salt, silk, livestock, and precious metal and gem trades. As such, being on the Khanate's good side brings much benefits in the form of wealth and luxury goods, though brutally taxing Khargat trade routes is an equally viable way to profit from these caravans.
Lastly, the Khargats have always been nomads and pastoralists. They travel in the company of friends (thousands of them) and their camps are great, sprawling seas of white yurts with massive herds of livestock everywhere to be found. The sheer volume of livestock that the Khargats control is staggering, and between all their roaming hordes they probably have as many horses, goats, cattle, and sheep as most of the other provinces put together. While much of the products of these herds go toward sustaining themselves, they still are the largest supplier of meat, leather, and wool within the empire.
History:In the days of old, the great hordes of Khargats had kept to their ancestral lands north of the so-called Stormpike Mountains, though their trading caravans wandered to the farthest reaches of the world. They came back with salt and gold, yes, but also with tales of all the exotic lands that they had discovered. As a result, they knew of the lush lands south of the mountains, ripe for plunder, and yet hardly any of the southerners so much as knew that there was a land beyond the reaches of the seemingly impassable mountains.
So when tides of Kharigits surged out out of the mountains, they descended upon the unprepared and unsuspecting southerners like locusts unto a field of wheat. Countless thousands of the steppe nomads crossed through the mountain passes and into the south. They came looking for blood, glory, slaves, plunder, and grazing lands. When the great hosts of pagan savages rode down the mountain slopes with the bloodied scalps of their enemies hanging proudly from the sides of their horses, words could not describe the terror that they brought. With no home but the saddle and no desire to occupy conquered lands for long, they did what was pragmatic and simply razed every settlement that they came across.
Emboldened by their success, as time moved on they dared to launch raids and forays deeper and deeper into the south. (to be continued)
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