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Yamata No Orochi - The Demon Serpent of Japan

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Before the arrival of outside religions, like Buddhism, Christianism or Islam, Japan had developed it owns believes and mythology called Shintoism. A polytheist religion, their pantheon of beings where called the Kami which referred to gods as much as demons and monsters. Among them stood the dragons, which while keeping the reptilian nature of their western cousins remained completely different. Instead of being fire breathing winged lizards hoarding treasures and tormenting the mortals, Eastern Asian dragons took on a more serpentine form and acted more as forces of nature, being both benevolent and oppressing . Among them stood one in particular , named Yamata no Orochi, known for being an evil creature who tormented a family being eating the daughters one at a time every years ... okay so level of epicness we’ve seen better but anyway. The elderly couple, completely out of their depth against such a terrible beast, could do nothing but watch their daughters being devoured ye...
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Cucuteny Trypillia - Builders of Mega Cities

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Early history generally focuses on the civilizations close to the cradles of civilization, like the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East or the Yangtze Valley in China. But civilization quickly spread out of these regions and saw the rise of many interesting cultures that evolved in their own ways. One such great example is the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe. The Cucuteni lived mostly in the region of western Ukraine, first emerging from the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains. Like most other early civilizations, these people started as nomadic tribes adopting a semi-sedentary lifestyle, building temporary houses to stay in for a prolonged period of time before moving on. Around 5500 BC, the first permanent settlements appeared close to rivers to have a source of both drinkable water and clay, a major resource in Cucuteni culture. This would be when farming and herding took off, cultivating wheat, rye, and peas while domesticating cattle for the most part, with swine...
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Hattori Hanzō - The Samurai Ninja who Served Tokugawa Ieyasu

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The Sengoku Jidai is one of the darkest and most brutal periods in Japanese history, with only the country’s entry into the industrial world coming close. A time of complete chaos and warfare, it was started by the collapse of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Even if they would live on for most of this period, they really had no control whatsoever over anything. Things were kicked off by the Ōnin War , a civil war started over a succession crisis, because of course this is the number one issue when shit hits the fan. The participants in the conflict, the Yamana and Hosokawa clans, fought for influence at the court, and while the latter would prove victorious on the field, in reality, both sides pretty much destroyed each other. What followed was a century of bloodshed, betrayal, and destruction on a scale that made the War of the Five Kings from A Song of Ice and Fire look like a Dr. Seuss storybook. If you know the minimum about Japan’s history, you know this period would end with the rise...
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