alternate steppe scenarios late antiquity?

In Late Antiquity, what seemed to sedentary civilizations like an avalanche of nomadic invasions, mostly from Central Asia, began.

There are ample discussions about climate, imperial policies and internal development attempting to explain this. I know our knowledge is limited.

There have been many alternate scenarios on the seam of steppe and Empires, e.g. Practical Lobster's great Rise of the White Huns, but does anyone have an idea for a steppe-internal PoD which would make a difference to world history? Do they all just lead to differently named hordes appearing at the Gates of the Empires? Or would it indeed make a difference if, say, a differently structured group than OTL prevailed in, say, Sogdia?

any ideas?
 
The Cimmerians in Assyria, not much is known about them however.

The Cimmerians are too early for what OP wants, I guess, they were from the Bronze Age, weren't they?

I guess perhaps another Iranian-speaking people like the Sarmatians, or early Turkic (proto-Altaic) groups from Central Asia. Regarding Late Antiquity, I don't know, but after the 8th Century there are various more well-known nomadic nations that rose and fell, and could have gone different ways.
 
I always contemplated the ramifications of Andragoras, Seleucid satrap turned monarch of Parthia, decisively defeating the Parni, either incorporating them into his own forces or forcing them to go westward. You would have an additional Hellenistic kingdom in the east, bordering Bactria, waiting for Seleucid authority to wane so they can expand. And you have the Parni migrating westward...
 
What I'm interested in is: what could have taken the place of Huns, Hephtalites and Göktürks in the 4th to 6th centuries? These three griups were pretty different among themselves already; could even more Radical differences be possible, and if So, which and on what grounds?
 
There are some theories, that they were related to Thracians.

It's darn hard to say, since we don't seem to have much solid ground about their language and culture. And we also don't really know much about the Thracians. It is worth noting that (some) Thracians may indeed belong to a branch of Indo-European that is close to Indo-Iranian (possibly closer than Greek). But, again, there's little we know for certain here.
 
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