Mongol.
A vast gathering of tribes in the northern grasslands.
They were not a single tribe, but hundreds upon thousands of small and medium-sized tribes gathered together.
In the past, however, this place had suffered beneath the trampling hooves of the Jin Jurchen Heavy Cavalry, which stood at the pinnacle of the world's heavy cavalry!
Crushed beneath the Iron Pagoda Cavalry and the Kuaizi Horsemen, the Mengwu tribes had submitted.
They supplied the Jurchens of the Jin Kingdom with horses, trained hunting falcons, cattle, sheep, and other food!
They had become a dependency of the Jin Kingdom!
But as the human path revived.
Beneath the embrace of Eternal Heaven, a slave's child was born!
The child's mother held him high on horseback and faced the sky:
"From this day forward, your name will be... Borjigin Temujin!"
In the Mengwu language, Temujin meant eagle of the sky!
When he was six, Temujin's tribe was attacked by a hostile tribe. Every child taller than a wagon wheel was slaughtered!
But Temujin was fortunate enough to survive. He became a slave!
That same year, farther south, the Jin Dynasty's cumbersome imperial system had begun to show signs of disintegration under the Song Dynasty's economic pressure.
At the same time, the Southern Song regime was also tottering beneath the Jin Kingdom's feeble attacks!
The following year, the small nation of Western Xia launched a lightning assault on Southern Song and seized two cities!
After suffering abuse at the hands of numerous slave owners, Temujin escaped through a chance opportunity!
He sought refuge with his uncle's tribe, the Kereyid!
More than a decade passed.
Temujin now had complete control over the Kereyid tribe!
He had also annexed many smaller tribes.
Among them was the very tribe that had slaughtered his people all those years