Ports of the Erythraean Sea
The Indian Ocean has been a hub of trade as far back as we have records. Merchants have long traveled its coastlines and—in ancient eras where leaving sight of land was often a death sentence—taken advantage of its predictable annual monsoon winds to cross the ocean itself in long, daring journeys. While we know ancient […]
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 […]
The Uncertain Truth Behind Thugee
The word ‘thug’ arrived in English in the early 1800s to refer to a specific kind of bandit operating in India. The concept of ‘thugee’ (the practices of thugs) soon lodged itself in the Anglophone popular consciousness, spawning media like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But real-life thugee was very different from the […]
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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Chasing Your Boss’ Mirror-Universe Twin Through Punjab
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Jashodaben Modi
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Post-Pirate Politics in a Mughal Port
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Chand Baori
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The Wonders of Sir John Mandeville (Asia)
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Extraordinary Folkloric NPCs
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The Marquis de St. Jacques and 1-Year Anniversary
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House-to-House Combat Encounter from 1756
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