Could a settled/sedentary empire have controlled Central Asia, or is it always doomed to be dominated by Horse Nomads in pre-modern times?
The empire doesn't have to be local or based there - Persia/Iran managaging to keep control of it works too - but that would be cool.
There are some OTL examples of settled/sedentary peoples in Central Asia - the Oxus Civilization, some cities founded along the Silk Road - but they all were either way too weak and small to really control anything or they were crushed by Horse Nomads.
The empire doesn't have to be local or based there - Persia/Iran managaging to keep control of it works too - but that would be cool.
There are some OTL examples of settled/sedentary peoples in Central Asia - the Oxus Civilization, some cities founded along the Silk Road - but they all were either way too weak and small to really control anything or they were crushed by Horse Nomads.