20th Century Khan - A Timeline!
- Thread starter The Federalist
- Start date
Vault-Scope
Banned
Wouhou!
The Russian support could still be, but for the nationalists. With shorter war, Spain could be more participative in WW2 or at least friendly to The Baron after it.
The Russian support could still be, but for the nationalists. With shorter war, Spain could be more participative in WW2 or at least friendly to The Baron after it.
Goldstein
Banned
A division of the nationalist side would only result in more chances for the republicans to win. Hamburger's option makes more sense IMO.
I've decided to stop this TL, start another thread in the future and reinvent the TL from there. I've also decided to chnage the name of the TL to "Of Khans & Buddhas". How does that sound? Does anybody have other suggestions for a new name?
Anyway, here's a tentative introduction to the new TL. Please comment!
OF KHANS & BUDDHAS
The Baron’s assets in the winter of 1918 consisted only of a cold, barren, inhospitable, strip of land surrounding the frozen Lake Baikal. The nearby villages housed a population of less than 2,000 and they were being wiped out by famine, war and the cold winter. The forces he commanded were a mere ragtag band of rogue Cossacks, bandits, mercenaries and common street thugs, accompanied by an elite, often drugged, handful of self-proclaimed Buddhist mystics who believed themselves to be “crusader monks”. Driven by a supreme loyalty to the Baron and a peculiar ideology that gave them a mandate to kill with Buddhist love and compassion, they were the fiercest warriors but engaged in battle less than they terrorized the population, burning down villages and massacring innocents by the hundreds. The Baron was one among many warlords, petty and prominent, scattered throughout all of Russia. Their breed, whose loyalties still lied with the extinct monarchy and every pointless tradition and backward value it stood for, were seen by the world as hopeless in the face of the inevitable, titanic tide of Revolution. The Baron and his breed were on the verge of extinction.
Half a century later, at the time of the Baron’s disappearance from the world in 1968, he would leave to his successors an Empire that stretched from the Meuse to the Mekong, from the Urals to the Himalayas, from Gaul to the Gobi, from the Kremlins of Moscow and St. Petersburg to the Pagodas of Rangoon and Mandalay. In these five decades, he would make Buddhism a major force in the world. He would reverse the effects of the Russian and Chinese revolutions, restore the Caliphate and breathe life into the National Socialist and Traditionalist movements of Germany and Italy. He would spill the blood of more than a 100 Million of his own people, and alter dramatically the ethnic and demographic makeup of several regions of the world. He would accomplish these terrible feats through a monumental series of genocidal horrors and atrocities on a scale never before seen. And the ultimate result of it all was the joining of Europe and Asia into a single, cohesive, political entity, something that had never been done since the time of the man the Baron had believed himself to be a reincarnation of, Genghis Khan. In fact, he had effectively outdone his previous incarnation in creating the largest continuous land empire in history.
But how did a petty Siberian warlord rise to conquer the world and become “Khan of Eurasia”? This is the question that continues to baffle historians, even those who have studied extensively the Baron’s political, military and spiritual career. There is another question, however, from the annals of history that is a direct parallel to the first one. It is a question, just as baffling with an answer just as elusive. It tells the same tale of conquest and destiny. In much the same fashion, it defies the rules of historical convention. In the center of the Baron’s vast domain, are the mighty, Mongolian Steppes. Seven hundred years ago, it was inhabited by scattered tribes of nomadic horsemen who the world looked down upon as barbarians. How did they come to conquer the world?
Anyway, here's a tentative introduction to the new TL. Please comment!
OF KHANS & BUDDHAS
The Baron’s assets in the winter of 1918 consisted only of a cold, barren, inhospitable, strip of land surrounding the frozen Lake Baikal. The nearby villages housed a population of less than 2,000 and they were being wiped out by famine, war and the cold winter. The forces he commanded were a mere ragtag band of rogue Cossacks, bandits, mercenaries and common street thugs, accompanied by an elite, often drugged, handful of self-proclaimed Buddhist mystics who believed themselves to be “crusader monks”. Driven by a supreme loyalty to the Baron and a peculiar ideology that gave them a mandate to kill with Buddhist love and compassion, they were the fiercest warriors but engaged in battle less than they terrorized the population, burning down villages and massacring innocents by the hundreds. The Baron was one among many warlords, petty and prominent, scattered throughout all of Russia. Their breed, whose loyalties still lied with the extinct monarchy and every pointless tradition and backward value it stood for, were seen by the world as hopeless in the face of the inevitable, titanic tide of Revolution. The Baron and his breed were on the verge of extinction.
Half a century later, at the time of the Baron’s disappearance from the world in 1968, he would leave to his successors an Empire that stretched from the Meuse to the Mekong, from the Urals to the Himalayas, from Gaul to the Gobi, from the Kremlins of Moscow and St. Petersburg to the Pagodas of Rangoon and Mandalay. In these five decades, he would make Buddhism a major force in the world. He would reverse the effects of the Russian and Chinese revolutions, restore the Caliphate and breathe life into the National Socialist and Traditionalist movements of Germany and Italy. He would spill the blood of more than a 100 Million of his own people, and alter dramatically the ethnic and demographic makeup of several regions of the world. He would accomplish these terrible feats through a monumental series of genocidal horrors and atrocities on a scale never before seen. And the ultimate result of it all was the joining of Europe and Asia into a single, cohesive, political entity, something that had never been done since the time of the man the Baron had believed himself to be a reincarnation of, Genghis Khan. In fact, he had effectively outdone his previous incarnation in creating the largest continuous land empire in history.
But how did a petty Siberian warlord rise to conquer the world and become “Khan of Eurasia”? This is the question that continues to baffle historians, even those who have studied extensively the Baron’s political, military and spiritual career. There is another question, however, from the annals of history that is a direct parallel to the first one. It is a question, just as baffling with an answer just as elusive. It tells the same tale of conquest and destiny. In much the same fashion, it defies the rules of historical convention. In the center of the Baron’s vast domain, are the mighty, Mongolian Steppes. Seven hundred years ago, it was inhabited by scattered tribes of nomadic horsemen who the world looked down upon as barbarians. How did they come to conquer the world?
Names
"Lord of Winter"
"Blood, Steel, & Snow"
"Tranny Reborn"
"From Still Ashes"
"Age of Unreason"
"Lord of Winter"
"Blood, Steel, & Snow"
"Tranny Reborn"
"From Still Ashes"
"Age of Unreason"
Thanks for the interest!
But I'll probably continue this TL sometime after I've gotten far enough with my new Ottoman TL.I love this time line and I hope at some point its continued, its going to be interesting to see what happens, I can see a world in the 1990's in which anything remotly tied to the Baron, East Asia, Buddhism, or anyone who comes from any core and complacent part of the Barons Empire are openly treated with hatred and disdane by the rest of the world as well as anything tied to Japan being given the same treatment. The lands under the Baron's rule will be much worse off then those even under the Soviets, the Empire will be in the eyes of the west (which will not be what we consider the west today but most likely just a very firmly American dominated North and South America) the ultimate evil and anything tied to it will seem like something Satan would have craped out.
In a post empire world (if it ever falls apart) I could see the US and its allies not giving a rats ass about the areas of the world dominated by the old empire the whole of Europe and Asia will be swallowed in the flames of death and bathed in a sea of blood that makes anything seen in OTL seem like childs play. This world will be a dark and terrible place, I would enjoy seeing the plot brought to a close.
In a post empire world (if it ever falls apart) I could see the US and its allies not giving a rats ass about the areas of the world dominated by the old empire the whole of Europe and Asia will be swallowed in the flames of death and bathed in a sea of blood that makes anything seen in OTL seem like childs play. This world will be a dark and terrible place, I would enjoy seeing the plot brought to a close.
BUMP FROM THE GRAVE!!!!
I received a PM asking me if I still remember this TL and the answer is; yes, but the future of this TL is a bit shady. I am sure I want to continue it with a new incarnation sometime in the future and the new title of it will be "For Khan and Khanate!", (you know like when they say "For King and Country!") but I just want it to be better then what was already wriiten here and that means doing a lot of research which I've fallen short of. Just be sure that sometime in the far future I will post "For Khan and Khanate!" and it will be great. Anyway, here's a "lost update" that I never posted, dealing with the Baron's war with the Mongolian merchants. It's not a continuation of the TL, just a "lost update".
The Merchants’ Banquet
(Circa 1924)
The fiercest opposition to the Baron’s rule came from Mongolia’s corrupt merchant class, who found their power greatly stifled by the new government’s policies. This influential oligarchy possessed a stranglehold over the country, dominating all aspects of its commercial and economic life. The Mongolian people were heavily burdened by their oppressive control of prices for common commodities, their impossible debt policy, in which unpaid creditors could threaten to kill themselves landing their debtors in prison for attempted murder, and their virtual enslavement of Mongol laborers and their families. Often working outside the power of the ruling regime, whether it be the that of the Khan’s or of the Chinese, they bypassed government influence mainly through the bribery of senior officials. But the Baron’s men were incorruptible in their obedience to their leader. To them, the most tempting material bribes were nothing compared to the promise of Enlightenment offered by the Baron and the OMB.
Perhaps the most influential of the merchants was a man named Yajlu Bandimbaar or more commonly known by his nickname, Yajlu the Decadent. Born to wandering nomads in Bayangol Province, he made way to Urga as a young man and made a fortune in the fur trade, soon establishing himself as one of richest and most powerful merchants in the capital. He raised an army of thugs and bandits, and soon expanded his business with protection rackets, arms smuggling operations and prostitution. In regard to the last one, it should be noted that his empire of brothels and whorehouses, was met with the approval of the syphilis-ridden monastic class, to whom he often supplied the best specimens. In his palatial estate in Urga and his hunting retreat by the Selenge River, he possessed a vast harem of Mongol, Chinese, Uyghur and even Russian concubines.
The Baron sought to build an alliance with Yajlu when he sent a delegation to meet with him but was refused. After several skirmishes between the OMB and Yajlu’s men on the streets, the Baron dropped all attempts at an alliance and declared war on him and the merchants. He sent twenty-five OMB officers into the wealthy commercial district where the merchants resided and they formed a procession, chanting slogans warning the merchants of the consequences of their disobedience. They stopped outside Yajlu’s estate and made the most noise there. Two days later, a wooden ox-cart wandered into OMB headquarters. It was covered by a red blanket and produced the most disgusting stench. When the blanket was lifted, it was revealed to contain the twenty five severed heads of the officers who were sent to Yajlu. It was difficult for those around the Baron to discern whether the expression on his face when he saw this gruesome sight, was that of disgust, humiliation, anger, or awe and amazement, or was it simply something like “I should have thought of that!”
A letter was published in the newspapers of Mongolia where the Baron and his government seemed to surrender to the merchants. “It is evident that any more interference by the state in the affairs of the merchants would obstruct the commercial progress of Mongolia and ultimately it would be in the best interests of both the state and the people to let Mongolia’s high finance continue in their activities unrestrained.” He invited one hundred and sixty of Mongolia’s wealthiest and most powerful merchants, including the likes of Yajlu the Decadent, Dargun the Dazed (Mongolia’s top Opium magnate) and Byambin the “Goatfucker” to a great banquet, to be held in a grand yurt, in the sandy steppes outside Urga. On the night of August the 10th the Baron met and shook hands with all of them, including Yajlu whom he bowed to. He then made a speech to the merchants in which he effectively conceded defeat. He then mysteriously disappeared for the night as the merchants enjoyed the food, wine and women supplied by the Baron.
The yurt rested on a wooden foundation, the upper part of which contained wooden walkways. OMB agents silently and clandestinely stalked the walkways as the night went on and as the banquet slowly descended into bacchanalian revelry, the entrances to the yurt were shut with wooden walls, barriers and barricades erected outside the grand yurt’s openings. The merchants’ bodyguards outside were corralled by a much larger legion of OMB men. As soon as the yurt was completely sealed, the OMB men opened fire with their Thompson machine guns on the merchants below. An unrelenting storm of bullets rained down on the merchants and killed dozens in the first few seconds of the massacre, including Yajlu whose bullet-ridden corpse was discovered “stuck in the middle of intercourse with a concubine”. They lobbed grenades and flaming cocktails. Swordsmen armed with katanas were dispatched below to behead those who tried to escape, and for those who had managed to make their way out of the yurt, they were met with waiting machine guns that opened fire immediately. All one hundred and sixty were killed.
The next morning, the Baron issued a decree declaring all the vast properties and estates of the massacred merchants to be government property and the OMB immediately set about seizing them and arresting all remaining merchants and their subordinates. Yajlu’s estate was turned into the “Palace of the People’s Nirvana”. The massive economic black hole left by the merchants , which could have thrown Mongolia into bankruptcy, was easily filled by a new class of “technocrat-bureaucrats”, mostly Russian and Japanese “supervisors” and “managers” from the Far Eastern Republic, who amalgamated and managed the seized properties as one giant government corporation, subservient to the Baron’s economic apparatus in the FER. This new class of technocrats would also begin training native bureaucrats, to form the backbone of a native economic ministry, lowly Mongolian clerks who would rise to higher government posts on the basis of merit, as the Russian and Japanese technocrats would later graduate and take the place of the old merchants during the Privatization of the late twenties. Thus, the massacre at the Merchants’ Banquet could be seen as the event that signaled the transformation of Mongolia from a corrupt, dysfunctional, oligarchic medieval economy into the thriving, modern, industrial, economy it would become within the next two decades.
Please comment!
I received a PM asking me if I still remember this TL and the answer is; yes, but the future of this TL is a bit shady. I am sure I want to continue it with a new incarnation sometime in the future and the new title of it will be "For Khan and Khanate!", (you know like when they say "For King and Country!") but I just want it to be better then what was already wriiten here and that means doing a lot of research which I've fallen short of. Just be sure that sometime in the far future I will post "For Khan and Khanate!" and it will be great. Anyway, here's a "lost update" that I never posted, dealing with the Baron's war with the Mongolian merchants. It's not a continuation of the TL, just a "lost update".
The Merchants’ Banquet
(Circa 1924)
The fiercest opposition to the Baron’s rule came from Mongolia’s corrupt merchant class, who found their power greatly stifled by the new government’s policies. This influential oligarchy possessed a stranglehold over the country, dominating all aspects of its commercial and economic life. The Mongolian people were heavily burdened by their oppressive control of prices for common commodities, their impossible debt policy, in which unpaid creditors could threaten to kill themselves landing their debtors in prison for attempted murder, and their virtual enslavement of Mongol laborers and their families. Often working outside the power of the ruling regime, whether it be the that of the Khan’s or of the Chinese, they bypassed government influence mainly through the bribery of senior officials. But the Baron’s men were incorruptible in their obedience to their leader. To them, the most tempting material bribes were nothing compared to the promise of Enlightenment offered by the Baron and the OMB.
Perhaps the most influential of the merchants was a man named Yajlu Bandimbaar or more commonly known by his nickname, Yajlu the Decadent. Born to wandering nomads in Bayangol Province, he made way to Urga as a young man and made a fortune in the fur trade, soon establishing himself as one of richest and most powerful merchants in the capital. He raised an army of thugs and bandits, and soon expanded his business with protection rackets, arms smuggling operations and prostitution. In regard to the last one, it should be noted that his empire of brothels and whorehouses, was met with the approval of the syphilis-ridden monastic class, to whom he often supplied the best specimens. In his palatial estate in Urga and his hunting retreat by the Selenge River, he possessed a vast harem of Mongol, Chinese, Uyghur and even Russian concubines.
The Baron sought to build an alliance with Yajlu when he sent a delegation to meet with him but was refused. After several skirmishes between the OMB and Yajlu’s men on the streets, the Baron dropped all attempts at an alliance and declared war on him and the merchants. He sent twenty-five OMB officers into the wealthy commercial district where the merchants resided and they formed a procession, chanting slogans warning the merchants of the consequences of their disobedience. They stopped outside Yajlu’s estate and made the most noise there. Two days later, a wooden ox-cart wandered into OMB headquarters. It was covered by a red blanket and produced the most disgusting stench. When the blanket was lifted, it was revealed to contain the twenty five severed heads of the officers who were sent to Yajlu. It was difficult for those around the Baron to discern whether the expression on his face when he saw this gruesome sight, was that of disgust, humiliation, anger, or awe and amazement, or was it simply something like “I should have thought of that!”
A letter was published in the newspapers of Mongolia where the Baron and his government seemed to surrender to the merchants. “It is evident that any more interference by the state in the affairs of the merchants would obstruct the commercial progress of Mongolia and ultimately it would be in the best interests of both the state and the people to let Mongolia’s high finance continue in their activities unrestrained.” He invited one hundred and sixty of Mongolia’s wealthiest and most powerful merchants, including the likes of Yajlu the Decadent, Dargun the Dazed (Mongolia’s top Opium magnate) and Byambin the “Goatfucker” to a great banquet, to be held in a grand yurt, in the sandy steppes outside Urga. On the night of August the 10th the Baron met and shook hands with all of them, including Yajlu whom he bowed to. He then made a speech to the merchants in which he effectively conceded defeat. He then mysteriously disappeared for the night as the merchants enjoyed the food, wine and women supplied by the Baron.
The yurt rested on a wooden foundation, the upper part of which contained wooden walkways. OMB agents silently and clandestinely stalked the walkways as the night went on and as the banquet slowly descended into bacchanalian revelry, the entrances to the yurt were shut with wooden walls, barriers and barricades erected outside the grand yurt’s openings. The merchants’ bodyguards outside were corralled by a much larger legion of OMB men. As soon as the yurt was completely sealed, the OMB men opened fire with their Thompson machine guns on the merchants below. An unrelenting storm of bullets rained down on the merchants and killed dozens in the first few seconds of the massacre, including Yajlu whose bullet-ridden corpse was discovered “stuck in the middle of intercourse with a concubine”. They lobbed grenades and flaming cocktails. Swordsmen armed with katanas were dispatched below to behead those who tried to escape, and for those who had managed to make their way out of the yurt, they were met with waiting machine guns that opened fire immediately. All one hundred and sixty were killed.
The next morning, the Baron issued a decree declaring all the vast properties and estates of the massacred merchants to be government property and the OMB immediately set about seizing them and arresting all remaining merchants and their subordinates. Yajlu’s estate was turned into the “Palace of the People’s Nirvana”. The massive economic black hole left by the merchants , which could have thrown Mongolia into bankruptcy, was easily filled by a new class of “technocrat-bureaucrats”, mostly Russian and Japanese “supervisors” and “managers” from the Far Eastern Republic, who amalgamated and managed the seized properties as one giant government corporation, subservient to the Baron’s economic apparatus in the FER. This new class of technocrats would also begin training native bureaucrats, to form the backbone of a native economic ministry, lowly Mongolian clerks who would rise to higher government posts on the basis of merit, as the Russian and Japanese technocrats would later graduate and take the place of the old merchants during the Privatization of the late twenties. Thus, the massacre at the Merchants’ Banquet could be seen as the event that signaled the transformation of Mongolia from a corrupt, dysfunctional, oligarchic medieval economy into the thriving, modern, industrial, economy it would become within the next two decades.
Please comment!
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Also, here's an eerie photograph of the Baron, accompanied by his mission statement. This photograph BTW is also used as his official portrait as President of the Far Eastern Republic. Imagine having to stare at this everyday when you're at work or in school.
"In Asia there will be a great State from the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the shore of the Volga. The wise religion of Buddha shall run to the north and the west. It will be the victory of the spirit. A conqueror and leader will appear stronger and more stalwart than Jenghiz Khan and Ugadai. He will be more clever and more merciful than Sultan Baber and he will keep power in his hands until the happy day when, from his subterranean capital, shall emerge the King of the World."
- The Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg from Beasts, Men and Gods (1921)
Wyragen-TXRG4P
Banned
Yes!
Khan of Eurasia, that is just too awesome to be ignored.
I can imagine yalju beeing horribly burned, with his blackened face still twisted in an expression of unbearable agony.
Perhapse he could have been still alive, giving the Baron the joy of personally redeeming him, if that is not too cliché.
A time by which Military Buddhist Scientists have already worked for decades on genetically and technologically engineering humans, to produce better soldiers-monks and later, even greater leaders for the Eurasian Khanate.
Khan of Eurasia, that is just too awesome to be ignored.
I can imagine yalju beeing horribly burned, with his blackened face still twisted in an expression of unbearable agony.
Perhapse he could have been still alive, giving the Baron the joy of personally redeeming him, if that is not too cliché.
A time by which Military Buddhist Scientists have already worked for decades on genetically and technologically engineering humans, to produce better soldiers-monks and later, even greater leaders for the Eurasian Khanate.
Either that or Eurasia is a big, burning pile of radioactive ruble. We'll see.A time by which Military Buddhist Scientists have already worked for decades on genetically and technologically engineering humans, to produce better soldiers-monks and later, even greater leaders for the Eurasian Khanate.
Wyragen-TXRG4P
Banned
Ragnarök, nuclear fimbulvinter?
Have you ever read The Secret of the Swordfish or heard about this guy?
Either that or Eurasia is a big, burning pile of radioactive ruble. We'll see.
Have you ever read The Secret of the Swordfish or heard about this guy?
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Praise from the author of Viva Balbo!HUZZAH!!! It's ALIVE!!
Edit: Genghis meets Godfather! Love it!
Know, kind sir, that I hope to model the future incarnation of this TL in some ways on your Fascist epic, though it will be nowhere near as extensive or in-depth, because there is so little written about the Baron's life. After all, he was only dictator of Mongolia for about six months (though it would go down as six of the craziest months in that country's modern history). Anyway, I guess that just leaves more room for creativity.Yes I have heard of Mr. Ricardo Montalban, though I don't see what he has to do with the Baron von Sternberg.Have you ever read The Secret of the Swordfish or heard about this guy?
Anyway your reference to Ragnarok is close to what could happen late in the Baron's rule, though think more of Buddhist eschatology.Praise from the author of Viva Balbo!
And the irony herein is that this TL and Dr. Strangelove's NSCW were the TL's that brought me to actually stop lurking and start posting...and inspired the format of Viva Balbo.
So thank you for the reciprocal praise!
Also, I can fully sympathize with the lack of info on the main character. There are only two English language books on Balbo, and one basically lifts 90% of its text from the other.
Of course with both figures being so much larger than fiction it gives us leeway to use dramatic tropes and plots and still come across as plausible actions by the person. Nothing we could come up with is likely to be more fantastic than what they did OTL, in other words!
Falkenburg
Monthly Donor
Beasts, Men and Gods
Just finished reading this TL, having found it through another posters' kindly referencing it in response to a query about the Baron.
Most enjoyable but disappointing that it fell into abeyance.
I hope this concept finds a new place upon the AH Wheel of Life as the Baron and his shenanigans deserve their place in the sun.
However this turns out I just wanted to say thanks for the story to date.
Regards,
Falkenburg
Just finished reading this TL, having found it through another posters' kindly referencing it in response to a query about the Baron.
Most enjoyable but disappointing that it fell into abeyance.
I hope this concept finds a new place upon the AH Wheel of Life as the Baron and his shenanigans deserve their place in the sun.
However this turns out I just wanted to say thanks for the story to date.
Regards,
Falkenburg