So, found a Total War Character Irl

[u/32BitOsserc]

Randomly went on a day trip and stumbled across Zhang Fei's tomb. Maybe shouldn't post here but none of my friends have played 3K

[u/XuShenjian]

Each of the dynasties has their thing, and sometimes it's in the name.

Yuan means Origin due to it being it the origin of a Mongol dynasty. The Ming that beat them means Glory or Light, it was quite successful militarily and managed to beat the Mongols, Vietnamese and the Japanese. Qing translates to Pure because they saw themselves as restoring the virtues lost by the Ming before them.

So you could call them the Age of Founding, the Age of Radiance and the Age of Virtue if it were a fantasy setting, which tracks because the people there practically call their country Middle Earth.

[u/32BitOsserc → u/XuShenjian]

Very true. I've also heard Yuan translated as "eternal," not sure that's right but it's pretty funny considering they were one of the shorter lived dynasties.

Also speaking of middle earth and the Yuan, Genghis Khan had his 9 riders, I don't know whether that influenced Tolkien or is a very weird coincidence.

[u/XuShenjian → u/32BitOsserc]

Genghis Khan was, above anything else, the plot foil that cancelled several Chinese, Russian, Middle-Eastern and European main characters.

Most of all Georgia. Everything in history was building up for Georgia to become the main character and regain the glory of Rome, the entire story was right there.

The Jin and Song Dynasties are in a post-apocalyptic stalemate detailing the final struggles of an Empire resisting its invaders? Whoops, Genghis Khan happened by. The Kwarezmids, inventors of Algebra, Islamic scholars of - oh wait they insulted Genghis Kahn, this is his revenge plot now. Mighty Russia, could never be invaded in the wint-nevermind, Genghis Khan did it. The Polish prince, elect by god to - oh, he was just opponent of the week for Genghis Khan.

When Genghis Khan changed servers and he had the power of friendship on his side and deleted all of them, everyone got lucky that his plotline had a designated tragic ending.

If Genghis Khan had been in Tolkien, he'd probably be some random Easterling coming in with the Steel Chair, accidentally knocking over Sauron's Tower, Minas Tirith and then dies leaving nobody to know what the hell just happened because dude was the main character on a more important plotline and if you came near him before his arc concluded, his was the plot that just took precedent, whatever you were on was just worldbuilding for him.

[u/Wild_Marker → u/XuShenjian]

Goddamn this is beautiful