Akbar’s Hunt
The court hunts of the Mughal Empire in 16th-century India were remarkably gameable affairs, where the army beat the bushes to gather a forest’s worth of animals into a ring for courtiers to fight. They were also tools of geopolitics, used to quell rebellions before they arose. Money changed hands, hunters fought tigers and elephants, […]
More NPC Foibles from the Mughals
In my last post, I wrote about the character foibles of two of India’s Mughal emperors and how those foibles can make good quirks for memorable NPCs. Today I’m doing the second half of that thought with their successors, the last three of the truly great Mughals: the patron of the arts Jahangir, the mismanager […]
NPC Foibles from the Mughals
Back in 2020, I wrote two posts about character foibles of Roman emperors that made good quirks for NPCs. Now I’m going to do it again with the Mughal emperors of India, who were just as quirky and gameable! Skipping over Babur, the first Mughal emperor (who has his own five-part series), this first post […]
Weird Treasure: Letters of Introduction
In the seventeenth century, an Iraqi named Elias al-Mûsili traveled throughout Latin America, armed with a thick stack of letters of introduction from some very prestigious people. With these letters, he was welcome just about anywhere ruled by Spain – and he accumulated more letters as he went. Historically, letters of introduction were boilerplate, a […]
Andrew Battel: Pirate, Convict, Merchant, and Mercenary
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Families Turned Detective in Edo Japan
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An Investigative Dungeon Crawl in the Royal Art Mine
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The Hidden Treasure of Bahadur Shah & Ultraviolet Grasslands Review
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The NPC Guest List at Babur’s Last, Greatest Party
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Cotton Mather’s American Ghosts
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Chasing Your Boss’ Mirror-Universe Twin Through Punjab
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The Secret Peasant Book Club
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NPCs from Christine de Pizan’s City of Ladies
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Terrible Mountain Travels in 16th-Century Afghanistan
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Family Strife and Secret Language in the Fall of Gao
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