[BtS] Civ of the Week: Tocharistan 2016-10-05

Civ of the Week is a “project” aiming at bringing you a new, fresh, exotic, and most of all, random, civ every 1-2 weeks, from all corners of the globe, from the Vietnamese to the Mittanni to the Iraqis. Each civilization features full civilopedia text entires, 1-2 leaders with unique game and diplomatic attitudes (they're not simply a copy of another leader!), a UU, a UB, unique diplomacy music, and full graphics.

The purpose of Civ of the Week, then, is three-fold:

1. To bring you random civs that would probably not have been chosen as civilizations first of all, and to provide a new, more exotic, more interesting experience in choosing civilizations.

2. To promote more knowledge of lesser-known peoples, cultures, and histories.

3. Make more civs for the totally awesome Civ Gold mod.


Otherwise, then, enjoy!

[FONT=&quot]Leader:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Ban Chao (Imperialistic, Financial)

UU: Silk Road Caravan (-10 hammer cost, Can enter rival territory without starting war)

UB: Well (Granary) (+15% gold)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Starting Techs:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Mining, The Wheel[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Credits:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Walter Hawkwood and Woodelf (building), NikNaks (button), Methyl Orange (LH)[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Description: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Tocharians were the eastern-most speakers of any Indo-European language who settled in the Tarim Basin (in what is today’s Xinjiang province of China) sometime during the second millennium BC. Probably related to the Persians and the Persian-speaking nomads, the history of the Tocharians has largely been a mysterious and subject to much debate, intertwined and oftentimes confused with the history of neighboring nomadic tribes such as the Kushans, the Huns, and the Turks.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]By the common era, the Tocharians were the master of many of the key Silk Road trading centers in the Tarim Basin. Here, they established several small kingdoms centered around these cities, such as the Kingdom of Kashgar and the Kingdom of Turfan. These kingdoms had contacts with all the civilizations that traded along the Silk Road, such as the Greeks, the Persians, and the Chinese. Due to scanty records, it is not certain whether the Tocharians were or were related to several nomadic hordes such as the Yuezhi or the Kushans, for example.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Tocharian region came under Chinese dominion for much of the first few centuries of the first millennium CE. Chinese generals and officials such as Ban Chao established various protectorates and provinces in the region, effectively subjugating the Tocharians as vassals of the Chinese Empire. This was to have an important effect on Chinese culture, as ideas from the Middle East and India flowed into China, particularly Buddhism. The Tocharians were said to have been devout Buddhists, and many scholars believe that it was they who helped spread Buddhism to China (and, indirectly, most of East Asia).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Tocharians managed to survive until the 600s and 700s CE. By then, after years of constant fighting between powerful groups such as the Muslim Arabs, Turks, Tibetans, and Chinese, the Tocharians mysteriously vanished from the historical record. They most likely were assimilated into the local population. Nevertheless, the Tocharians hold an interesting position in the history of the world. Not only were they the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language, but they played a key role in transmitting resources, ideas, and people along the illustrious and exotic Silk Road. [/FONT]