THE END OF THE BEGINNING

So, a rule of thumb for mountains is that the older they are, the shorter they get through the slow and steady process of erosion. The Hindu Kush mountains are 40 to 50 million years old, while the Appalachian mountains are about 480 million years old. They are, geographically speaking, old as balls.

This means that Appalachia is not big pointy rocky mountains. Appalachia is rolling hills, grass-covered plateaus, and long ridges, the sort of terrain that is difficult even for all terrain vehicles but can still be traversed on horseback. Heck, mule packs are used for disaster relief in Appalachia to this day because they can quickly get to places that vehicles can't.

Appalachia is also wide valleys and lowlands - in other words, choke-points, the sort of terrain that can become a tribute-printing machine faster than you can say "sedentary bandit theory."

And what's on the other side of those valleys and ridges? Kentucky! The epicenter of the old empire's horse culture! The flat and fertile grasslands of the Ohio valley, enough grass to graze the Khan's horses with hay left over for the winter!

Pay this townie no mind, his soft brain cannot understand the ways of transhumance. Today we shall begin the circuit, collecting tribute along the sacred trails of the 64 and the 81. Follow me, men! For the Khan!

*my retainer unfurls a massive war banner of Gold Ship (Red Strife), the official emblem of the Khan, as I pick up a traffic sign sharpened into a makeshift lance.*

*we have guns and stuff but I carry the traffic sign lance because it looks cool*

the ‘sovereign ranchers,’ a delirious patchwork of libertarians where every ranch is its own microstate and the typical way to spend an evening is getting into a shootout with your neighbors.

the Front Range confederation, formerly the Denver-to-Albuquerque urban corridor. It has a distinctly ‘marcher-lord’ flavor to it - a steady rhythm of military outposts, heavy industry, and college towns (in other words, nothing has changed).

the goddamn MORMONS

various indigenous nations which have an unofficial “I’ll ignore you if you ignore me” agreement with the Front Range confederation based on the mutual understanding that nobody on either side wants to be the idiot who says “the federal government will definitely keep their end of the bargain this time!”

So, a rule of thumb for mountains is that the older they are, the shorter they get through the slow and steady process of erosion. The Hindu Kush mountains are 40 to 50 million years old, while the Appalachian mountains are about 480 million years old. They are, geographically speaking, old as balls.

This means that Appalachia is not big pointy rocky mountains. Appalachia is rolling hills, grass-covered plateaus, and long ridges, the sort of terrain that is difficult even for all terrain vehicles but can still be traversed on horseback. Heck, mule packs are used for disaster relief in Appalachia to this day because they can quickly get to places that vehicles can't.

Appalachia is also wide valleys and lowlands - in other words, choke-points, the sort of terrain that can become a tribute-printing machine faster than you can say "sedentary bandit theory."

And what's on the other side of those valleys and ridges? Kentucky! The epicenter of the old empire's horse culture! The flat and fertile grasslands of the Ohio valley, enough grass to graze the Khan's horses with hay left over for the winter!

Pay this townie no mind, his soft brain cannot understand the ways of transhumance. Today we shall begin the circuit, collecting tribute along the sacred trails of the 64 and the 81. Follow me, men! For the Khan!

*my retainer unfurls a massive war banner of Gold Ship (Red Strife), the official emblem of the Khan, as I pick up a traffic sign sharpened into a makeshift lance.*

*we have guns and stuff but I carry the traffic sign lance because it looks cool*

Imagine the second Biden admin.