Flo's History

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...

Having a hierarchy is a fundamental part of any being living in a group to keep things a bit organized. In almost every system you have a clear leader calling the shots, a trusting figure (or as trusty as they get) that enforces the leader’s will, and then everyone else, sometimes broken down into the normal members and the ‘lower class’ encompassing the young, elderly, and new comers . There are some exceptions to this, like the penguins who, despite being highly social creatures living in large groups, don’t have any designated figures of authority. Of course, we humans also have developed complex systems of hierarchies, forming and evolving depending on time and cultures to create and end various classes. In Western Europe, for example, before the social revolutions of the Enlightening era, people were divided among the peasantry, artisans/merchants, and ruling nobility. However, each of these groups can be broken down into further sub-divisions, each having their own functions an...

History saw the rise of many, MANY, strong figures who turned the tide for nations, driven by their... well hubris, mostly. Unfortunately, many of these names have been lost, forgotten by history, because we focus so much of our attention on a select few. People like Amanirenas, Belisarius or even Baybar, deserve to stand beside Alexander, Nobunaga and Hannibal. This is why this posy will focus on the man who nearly brought down the Ottoman Empire, warlord turned emperor, Timur Tamerlane. Timur’s upbringing is worthy of an epic fantasy story. Born in Transoxania, a territory south-east of the Aral Sea and between the Jaxartes and Oxus River, fate really stacked things against our man. His people were a minor nomadic tribe in part of the Barlas Confederation, subject to the Chagatai Kanate. Living in poverty, a young Tomur lived on petty theft to sustain himself and his family until he was shot by a shepherd in the leg. This injury would permanently cripple him, leaving him with a limp...