Turkestan

Driven to the edge of the known galaxy while wrestling with a sentience inextricably connected to her own, Kalaiapi discovers a mysterious colony of enslaved bio-automatons and must battle to protect fragile lives from a malevolent planet, warring galactic imperia – and even entropy itself. Against the cold abyss of malevolent nature, what chance does one Corsair have?

I'm publishing a book! I'm self publishing a book! For the last nine years, I've been working on the first book in a space opera series and I am very excited to say I am almost done and will be putting it out by the end of September. If you are a sci-fi lover and like grim but optimistic, sophisticated, occasionally gory post-human adult-level novels that cover topics like consciousness, AI, space snails, and what it means to be human, please sign up for my mailing list and I'll send you updates! Plus the cover art is a stunning original piece by a hometown artist!

just venturing a guess, but you're probably looking at circassian/adyghe and other North Caucasus victims of Russian conquest and genocide in the region around the period you're asking about. circassians are stereotyped in turkey and the Levant as being blond and beautiful people. whether or not that's true, they're a lot fairer skinned/haired than most other black sea region residents.

made a friend on my way back from shahdag (at Quba) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuBrAXsA_lIo8vOHMglaumT0QtkPtJvlbqZ8XM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=s5knxe4fx04x