Your Favorite Barbarian Invaders

The Apache. So badass that when the US invented the closest anyones come to flying death personified they named it after them.
Think about it, a small tribe pushed out of the Great Plains continously wreck's both US and Mexican soldiers so bad, that the US actually had to enlist other Natives to fight the Apache.
 
well, they did in the movie, I'll have to check the book to see if it was in there...
They do use mounted archery in the books as well, where they are specifically feared by the orcs for their accuracy at night. Also, I think it was just their language based off of the Anglo-Saxons (specifically the Mercian dialect Tolkien was more favorable to being from that region and all), otherwise they are more reflective of the Goths IIRC who were much more noted for their horsemanship than the Saxons ever were.
 
I would say by the time of Charlemagne they had ceased to be barbarians for a century or two.

Surely, the literacy of his court, the fact that "l" ruled an essentially Roman land and essentially invented the crusader ethic with massacres first religious purposes during his conquest of the Saxons.

Surely all of this suggest that Franks had mastered the arts of Civilization.
In the final analysis, isn't the mastery of the art of civilization to no small extent the ability to conceal one's barbarism from casual examination...at least, initially.
 
Hands down Turkish invaders in South Asia, and parts of the middle East. Many South Asian dynasties in both Pakistan, India, and even Bangladesh can trace their lineages to Turks. Hell I've met some people from India who can pass of as Uzbek 100%.
 
Think about it, a small tribe pushed out of the Great Plains continously wreck's both US and Mexican soldiers so bad, that the US actually had to enlist other Natives to fight the Apache.

And then ended up playing a crucial role in WWII as code talkers!
 
In the final analysis, isn't the mastery of the art of civilization to no small extent the ability to conceal one's barbarism from casual examination...at least, initially.

I'm not sure civilization is more 'humane' ultimately.

I've heard one definition of civilization being any society where the food is in some way locked up in some fashion, be it the store shelves of your supermarket or the grain stores of Pharaoh (or whatever ruler) so those in charge can extort labor.

Yeah, we've cured smallpox, but instead we die of diabetes from too much sugar or quietly commit suicide because our lives lack meaning. Of course smallpox is a creation of having too many people close together in the first place.

And the Middle East is a desert wasteland. 7000 years ago it was fertile and forested and lush. How many other parts of the world are in various stages of degridation?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my internet and my netflix and I probably don't know how to fend for myself without civilization (probably better than most city dwellers, less so than rural folk) and if you really want to change things or live differently there are many artifical obsticals. But seriously, is it wrong to wonder if we are 'better' than 'Barbarians'?

Speaking of favorite Barbarians, I would go with the Haudenosaunee who would qualify for invading their neighors in beaver wars, followed by the Norse, particularly the Iceland Norse.
 
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I’ve always been a fan of the Lombards, no real reason?, but it’s true.

yep. Especially the legend about how the original 'Longobards' got their name...

Basically it goes like this: If they needed to impress their enemies by sheer numerical superiority, their women would knot their long hair around their chins and then ride into battle alongside their men proudly brandishing their 'long-a-beards
 
The Scythians. I know most if them weren't even similar culturally but these bad motherfuckers slew Curbs the Great, caused the birth of Classical Sanskrit as a written language in India and remained the scourge of the Greek colonies for ages.
 
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The Scythians. I know most if them weren't even similar culturally but these bad motherfuckers slew Curbs the Great, caused the birth of Classical Sanskrit as a written language in India and reminds the scourge of the Greek colonies for ages.
They pretty much banged the Indus people, and out came us.
 
Definitely the Mongols, whenever i think of them i imagine the most powerful empire in the world relative to other contemporaries, and how fast it collapsed from the rapid conquest.

Second is Vikings. Because damn Vikings.
 
In honor of the show Vikings coming back on the 28th of this month I was wondering what is your favorite barbarian invaders? The Huns? The Visigoths? The Turks? The Goths? The Mongols? The Vikings? What did they do that you like about them? Bring about the end of the Roman Empire? Largest land Empire? Anyone and anything I missed?

I've never much liked barbarians. I've always identified more with the civilised empires that fought against them.
 
Vikings because they conquered Russia before Russia was Russia, found Canada before Canada was Canada, invaded England before England was England, and settled Greenland back when Greenland was greenland.
 
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