Tarkhan Khan

## ***Early Life***

Tarkhan Khan, Khagan of Humania, Grew up in the lonely steppes of Humania and was born on an unknown date. His father was a warrior and spent little time with him and his mother. This became true of his fatherhood as well, a fact he grew aware of more and more later in life. His tribe, The Yuraks, were known to act as mercenaries for much of Humania. He saw many battles in his young life, and the uncaring feeling towards his people by the leaders who paid for their services. Soon after he reached the age of Yurak manhood his father died, he had been ordered to suicidally charge the enemy as part of larger plan. Tarkhan always felt mercenary work was distasteful for his people afterwards.

## ***Khan of Khans***

The Khan of the Yuraks was an old friend of Tarkhans father, and was thus a friend of Tarkhan as well. He was a loyal retainer of him for many years, and even ended up marrying his daughter. He would have kept his life as a retainer for much longer, if not for the machinations of a rival Khan. The Khan had been a Yurak ally for a long time, but grew wary of their growing power over the years. After a great victory a feast was held, and that was when the scimitar struck. Tarkhan managed to escape the massacre by checking on the horses just before, but his Khan was not so lucky. He and all his family, including Tarkhans wife were slaughtered. He managed to hear the news from one of the few survivors. Tarkhan flew into a great rage and gathered his much larger tribe back into a fighting force. He slammed into their enemies at full force, quickly overwhelming them with numbers and ferocity. The betrayer was slain by Tarkhan himself, as well as his men. Tarkhans family consisting of a daughter, and three sons were now the most powerful family in all of the Yurak Tribes. Aditionally the only other powerful family that assisted him in this hunt, the Avskuro's, were also allowed to retain their positions within this united Yurak Empire.

## ***The Battle and Siege of Fredfurt***

Tarkhan was quickly elected leader of the tribe, as all the old heirs were slain in the fighting. He spent much of his life fighting other closely related tribes, and eventually became a regional power in the steppes. He became famous for his adaptation of firearms along with traditional bows in his armies. He eventually became the most powerful man in the steppes, the rest of the Khans joined in with smaller states in a grand alliance. A Chinikan Samurai, known as Honzo Makiyama, eventually grew to become the leader of the alliance, generally by "generous" donations to all the members. There was much tension along the borders, as many of the smaller tribes would raid each other regularly across the border.

It eventually lead to Tarkhan demanding an audience with the Chinikan leaders, which they eventually agreed to. Tarkhan brought his son Ivan, who he had always felt that the boy was strange, but he never had the time to converse with him about his strange and sometimes disturbing tendencies. He stewed on what he had done all this years, before arriving at the meeting place. All seemed to be going well, until the Chinikan diplomat had laid down a series of demands from Honzo

The aftermath was certain war, which Tarkhan was quite prepared for. Tarkhan and Honzo met on the open steppe, something Honzo would later regret. Tarkhan fielded an army numbering 92,000 men and being primarily made up of experienced Yurak Warriors and small contingents of other local tribes within the Steppes of Humania. Honzo's army was a conglomerate of different peoples and mercenaries, with 20,000 being pirates called in as reinforcements from an old friend of Honzo, and an additional 92,000 men of various mercenaries of Reichlandian, Yurak, and Chinikan Origin.

Tarkhan and his men moved across the steppe with haste, and attacked with ferocity and speed. Tarkhan was able to encircle the Chinika lord, and quickly showered the Chinikans Army with a hail of arrows. Hanzo, who was untrained in steppe warfare, was unable to counter Tarkhans encirclement and hit and run skirmish tactics. Within a few hours of the battle, Honzo's Army fled and retreated back into the city of Fredfurt suffering heavy casualties.

Tarkhan gave all the cities he came across a choice, either join him or die. After a few examples in his earlier conquest during the Unification of The Yuraks many understood the message, and most cities surrendered immediately. Honzo remained defiant remaining in his last city, although he managed to holdout for a nearly a year, he knew the situation was quickly deteriorating. One of Honzos retainers stole his treasury and ran to Tarkhan for protection, ever distasteful of treachery he ordered the girl to be immediately executed. Tarkhan later learned that his son Ivan ordered her to be beaten, tarred, and burned alive. Although not personally bothered Tarkhan still grew ever more fearful for his sons mental health. On March The 4th 1602 A.T.F Honzo and his last loyal retainer, Keiko, would escape the city at night and stow away on a merchant ship docked at a nearby costal village. The following morning, the cities garrison surrendered hoping to be spared. These hopes were quickly crushed as Tarkhan set his men loose on the city, for nearly 3 days his men raped and pillaged the city. Slaughtering indiscriminately and looting everything of value. The city was devastated, and only recovered years later after being repopulated by local Yuraks.

## ***The Capture of Reichland and The Rise of The Horde***

The decisive Yurak Victory against a foreign power of considerable size hadn't been achieved since the age of The Five Great Conquerors. Tarkhans host swelled to unheard of numbers, and soon tens of thousands of warriors began filling out the ranks of the Yurak Army. This was the initial foundation and start of the Yurak Horde. Although Tarkhans Army was quickly growing in size, he understood that he would both need to modernize and professionalize this army. Tarkhan started by organizing The Yurak Army into a proper military structure, with ranks, chain of command, and rules of conduct. Furthermore he began to modernize the Yurak armies by hiring foreigners to teach the Yuraks how to use gunpowder. Finally Tarkhan had established several mercenary contacts with The Acrabians, a more settled people from Orbis who were still regarded as being the second best horsemen in Nara, ranked directly underneath the fame and prowess of the Drazzanians. Finally in late 1602 A.T.F Tarkhan Khan created an official name of the Army, calling it The Red Horde, and he named his realm The Yurak Horde.

Tarkhan was met with no resistance or political push back from his rise to power, after the death of High King Barbarossa the continent was thrust into chaos. Many of the lords who had fought under the High King such as King Tyler Royston of Pola, King David Clement of Donnington, and High Lord-Commander Sigismund of Reichland were now seeking to fill that power for their own ideals. Tarkhan had begun to predict that the realm he controlled would not be sufficient enough to maintain his growing horde, and that whatever claimant of Barbarossa's throne won the upcoming civil war, would lay their eyes on his realm next. The weakest of the three claimants was High Lord-Commander Sigismund of The Reichlandian Army. Sigismund was close with Barbarossa, and thus he promised Barbarossa's wife he would take care of their baby and abdicate the throne once the boy came of age. Though Tarkhan considered Sigismund to be the weakest of the three lords, he was not hasty to underestimate the High Lord-Commander.

Sigismund was a seasoned warrior and commander, participating in some of the first campaigns conducted by Barbarossa. Furthermore he controlled the most populous and well defended city in all of Reichland. Not only was Sigismund inheriting Reichlandia, the Capital of Reichland, but also the personal army of Barbarossa. This Army number well over 100,000 men, and unlike most of the armies of the time was almost entirely made up of knights and various other professional soldiers. Tarkhans horde now numbered between 300,000-400,000 warriors and mercenaries, Tarkhan knew this numerical superiority meant nothing as the Yuraks were inexperienced in siege warfare on the scale required to besiege a city the size of Reichlandia. Tarkhan would begin his campaign, by ordering Khan Tolui Avskuro to sack the countryside surrounding Reichlandia. Any minor settlements, hamlets, estates, and nearby ports were to be destroyed along with all of their inhabitants. Furthermore the roads leading to Reichlandia were to be blockaded. The Court of Reichlandia was caught off guard by this lightening attack, as Tolui's small force, numbering under 5,000 warriors, managed to complete his orders within a month. The response from the Court of Reichland was delayed, as Sigismund was busy stabilizing the chaos that had plague the court following Barbarossa's death.

Initially Sigismund was led to believe this band was just an abnormally large bandit group, as Sigismund had little to no knowledge of The Yurak Hordes existence. It would become very clear within the following days that the raiders were affiliated with a much larger entity. Once Tarkhan was informed of Tolui's success he gathered a host of nearly 200,000 Warriors and marched to Reichlandia, leaving the rest of the Horde to defend the homeland under the command of Arayt Avskura. For the immediate siege Tarkhan was accompanied by his son, Ivan Bogun Hmelnitiski-Avskura. On July The 27th 1604 A.T.F Tarkhan Khan would lay siege to the city of Reichlandia, creating two siege camps. One was located in the west towards the main gate, and the other located towards the northernmost road that connected the city to a minor port settlement. Tarkhan positioned his son Ivan in the northern camp, and assigned him to only engage if an army was spotted coming from the north. Ivan was given a small detachment of 20,000 Warriors, and it was speculated that although Tarkhan feared reinforcements arriving from the East to come from the port, he mostly position Ivan out of concern his deranged son would cause a blunder during the battle. Sigismund was no fool and knew that the enemy he faced wasn't capable of the siege warfare techniques used in the east. However the safety of their walls would not protect them from the dangers of starvation. Thanks to Tolui Avskuros rampage across the surrounding countryside, the city's supplies dwindled within weeks as no new grain shipments arrived.

The situation grew desperate as the weeks dragged onto months, and by early November the situation worsened. Combining the starvation, the freezing temperatures, and the rampant disease, Sigismund had no choice but to rally his men for a sally out. On November 10th 1604 A.T.F, Sigismund rallied 130,000 men for a sally out. Out of the 130,000 men, 50,000 were professional soldiers and knights while the remaining 80,000 were conscripted citizens of Reichlandia. Sigismund ordered that only the professional soldiers and knights advance with him, while the remaining conscripts defended the gates and their northern flank against the Yuraks positioned north. The battle started when Tarkhan Khan moved forward 65,000 soldiers to meet this sally out. While the Yuraks still held the numerical superiority their quality in armor and weapons paled in comparison to the professional soldiers clad it steel armor and fielding steel weapons. Furthermore plague had also stricken the Yurak camps cutting down their numbers, as the Yuraks unaccustomed to siege warfare, paid little care to camp sanitation. Tarkhan Khan waited for the Reichlandian High Lord-Commander Sigismund to make the first move, when Sigismund ordered a charge Tarkhan Khan responded with a counter charge. The Cavalry of the two forces clashed first, and although the Yuraks possessed the better horsemanship, it was clear the armor and weapons of the Reichlandians was far superior. This caused the initial cavalry clash to fall decisively in the favor of the Reichlandians, and the situation worsened when the Yurak infantry and Reichlandian infantry threw into the frey. As the infantry situation mirrored the cavalry engagement.

The battle quickly began to fall into the favor of the Reichlandians, and soon the Yuraks began to engage into a full fledged retreat. The High Lord-Commander Sigismund ordered for his men to give chase, and for the next thirty minutes the Reichlandians began chasing the retreating Yurak force. This was the last stage of the battle the Reichlandians would see success, as soon the mounted Yuraks began breaking off from the retreating force. Tarkhan had lured Sigismund out into the open using a feigned retreat. Soon under orders from Tarkhan they horse archers began moving to the left and right flanks of the advancing Reichlandians, staying just out of melee range and firing arrows into the Reichlandian ranks. The Reichlandian advancing force, being primarily made up of heavy knights and medium-heavy professional infantry, was unable to respond to the horse archery tactics of the Yuraks. The Situation worsened when Tolui had arrived to the battlefield under orders to engage the right flank once the Reichlandians had begun their chase. With nearly 4,000 men Tolui had slammed into the Reichlandian Right Flank causing confusion and chaos within the Reichlandian Ranks. Furthermore an unplanned flank on the left was initiated by Ivan Bogun Hmelnitiski-Avskura. With 4,000 Warriors on the right flank, 20,000 on the left flank, thousands of horse archers slowly surrounding the advancing Reichlandians, Tarkhan Khan had ordered the rest of the retreating force to turn around and advance into the advancing Reichlandians. With the combined force the advancing Reichlandians were halted, and the battle quickly escalated to a slaughter.

Numerous groups of soldiers attempted to surrender but Tarkhan Khan ordered no quarter. By this stage of the battle Tarkhan Khan had entered the fighting himself, and personally fought Sigismund in a duel. The duel lasted for nearly twelve minutes, with both men slashing and hacking at each other. The fight ended when Tarkhan Khan, unable to pierce Sigismunds armor, knocked him off of his feet and strangled him to death. The conscripted force that was meant to stop Ivans attack on the left flank had panicked earlier in the battle, and fled into the country side after watching the professional army begin to become encircled, and the Yuraks advance from the Northern Camp. The field battle outside of the city ended on the morning of November the 11th 1604 A.T.F. With no one left to defend the capitol the Yuraks quickly began to devise plans to breach the gates, as the remaining civilian population refused to open the gates. On December the 4th 1604 A.T.F the city's gates were blown open by gunpowder explosives that the Yuraks had acquired from the Acrabians. Although Tarkhan wanted the capitol city to be left in tack to become his Hordes Capitol, he allowed his men to rape, loot, and pillage for three days as a reward for capturing the city. Tarkhans remaining force numbered 140,000 of his initial 200,000 (+5,000 from the countryside), while Sigismunds whole army of 100,000 of professional soldiers and knights was either enslaved, killed in action, or died of other causes. The exact civilian casualties of the siege were unknown, but it is said that they numbered well over 300,000+. During the pillaging of the city on the 5th of December 1604 A.T.F, Tarkhan breached the High Kings palace and personally slaughtered his family. Killing his steward, his wife, and his new born son. In Tarkhans typical brutal fashion he plunged a sword into Barbarossa's wife, intentionally making sure not to kill her. He moved to the baby's crib and picked up the infant son of Barbarossa by his head. With one swift clutch of his hand he crushed the baby's skull in front of the baby's mother. Making sure that was the last thing she saw before she died.

After executing the royal family, and ending the pillaging of Reichlandia. Tarkhan would move his capital from Bataar, to Reichlandia. Furthermore he incentivised many Yurak natives from the steppe to move to the city, offering free land grants and personally financing resettlement projects. What remained of the population of Reichland were treated as second class citizen, and were taxed higher and afforded less rights than native Yuraks. Furthermore the only was to be considered equal to the Yuraks was to marry into a Yurak family or server in the Red Horde. For several months Tarkhan would focus solely on rebuilding the city, moving Yuraks populations to the city, and hosting lavish feast and showing off the wealth he had acquired. In one of his final administrative decisions before his future conquest, he ordered for a road to be constructed from Reichlandia to Bataar. Seeking to connect the Yurak city to the Capitol with hopes of creating a series of linked cities for a empire spanning trade hub.

## ***The Sacking of Mordhau and Polanii Relations***

After spending several months recuperating his forces, and establishing a new Yurak Capital. Tarkhan looked east, and to his surprise the lords of the east once again did not bother to prevent his rise to power. The lords of the east had become preoccupied in their own internal conflict. With a large scale wars being fought for the control of the city of Goldpeaks. The three most powerful lords of the east, David Clement King of Donnington, Tyler Royston The King of Pola, and High King Odin Odin Afruthul of New Norkia, had all fought amongst each other during The Second Battle of Goldpeaks weakening their armies. Tarkhan knew that it was now his chance to strike, before he prepared to advance Tarkhan organized his realm. He left his son Aryat Avskura to govern Baatar, Nova Baatar, and Adelhiem; While his youngest son Taichu-Karha Avskura would be left to govern Fredfurt and Reichlandia. To prepare for the campaign Tarkhan hired a renowned bandit hunter and mercenary warlord named Walt Vanheesem, and ordered the Khans, Ivan Bogun Hmelnitiski-Avskura, and Tolui Avskuro to assemble as many warriors as possible; and to march to the border of Reichlandia and The Kingdom of Mordhau.

By December the 1st 1606 A.T.F, the Yurak Horde had amassed a horde of 570,000 men and begun to pillage the territories of The Kingdom of Mordhau. Within a month the Kingdom of Mordhau had fallen, the Yurak Horde had swept across every hamlet, estate, manor, and village within the Kingdom of Mordhau's territory destroying everyone and everything in their path. Within the final days of the great Yurak Scourge, The City of Mordhau had initially put up resistance. Tarkhan gave his customary offer of surrender, and mercy if they complied. The city's officials refused, but only a day later opened the gates and surrendered pleading for mercy. Although the city had surrendered, and even opened their gates out of good will. Tarkhan still ordered his men to sack the city, it was said that Tarkhan stated "For every chance i give, another will take it for granted. But how can you take something for granted that you've only been gifted once, and that can never be gifted again?" before joining in the pillaging himself. The following morning on January the 2nd 1607 A.T.F Tarkhan ordered that anyone left alive was to be taken as slaves and sent back to Reichlandia to assist in the reconstruction of the Yurak Capitol.

Mordhau laid in ruins and this was the final atrocity Tarkhan would commit before the lords of the East realized the threat he possed. Tarkhan had begun to receive information that The Lords of the east had ceased their infighting, and that a new King sat on the The Throne of Donnington. This new king, Alexander Clement, was young but well respected and powerful. Soon it became apparent that the lords of The East were coming together to form an alliance to prevent the Yurak Conquest of Reichland. Tarkhan knew that together, the Norks, The Polanii, and Donnington would be too much for the Red Horde to handle. Furthermore the combined military might, technology, and economies of these Kingdoms all trumped his own by ten fold. Tarkhan would assign several advisors and political analysts to assess which kingdom held the most discontent for the rest of The Eastern Alliance. Tarkhan was informed that The Kingdom of Pola held the most contempt for the members' of the Alliance. Tarkhans advisors informed him that the Polanii King had several border disputes with The Kingdom of Donnington, and that Tyler Royston was still seething about the trecharcy the Norks committed against him at The Second Battle of Goldpeaks.

After learning the news of Pola's discontempt with the rest of the members of The Eastern Alliance, Tarkhan dispatched an emissary with the hopes of establishing diplomatic communication. Tyler Royston quickly responded, offering the Yuraks to meet at a secret feast in the city of Polaniia. Tarkhan at first was uneasy about the offer, but accepted and met with Tyler Royston in person. The two quickly got along well and by the nights end brokered a deal. Tarkhan and Tyler Royston would enter a non-aggression pact, with Tyler Royston pledging not to assist the Eastern Alliance financially or militarily. To further protect the integrity of the deal, upon Tylers request, Tarkhan agreed to allow Tyler Royston to marry his daughter promising not to invade Pola. The deal was made with both parties accepting, and a wedding was planned in secret.