History Literature / Conqueror

* BadassInCharge: Temujin, first of raiders in the North, then of the Wolves, then of Mongolia, and then of Chin, Koryo and Khwarezm.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: How Temujin becomes Genghis Khan.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Fleeing the Mongol hordes, the Cumans take shelter in Hungary, converting to Christianity in exchange for protection. As a price of protection, their fighting men, approximately 40,000 in number, were expected to help defend Hungary against the Mongols. Unfortunately, the Cumans were treated as second-class subjects, subjected to hate crimes (including murder) which went unpunished, which culminated in the murder of their leader, Köten. This led the Cumans to desert en masse right before a critical battle, costing Hungary any chance of victory. (In RealLife, things were not nearly so black and white: according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, it was the Cumans who were given special treatment, permitted to rape and rob Hungarians with impunity. The resulting resentment on the part of the populace reached a boiling point when it was discovered that the invading Mongol hordes included Cumans (who had been forcibly conscripted by the Mongols). It was this that led to the rioting in which Köten was killed.)

* FinalBattle

* FiveManBand
** TheHero: Temujin/Genghis
** TheLancer: Kachiun
** TheBigGuy: Khasar
** TheChick: Temuge (also TheSmartGuy to an extent)
* FourStarBadass: Temujin, Tsubodai, Jochi, Jelaudin... the books are saturated with them.
* GenghisGambit: Fitting, since the real Genghis Khan is the TropeNamer.

* BilingualBackfire
* BadassGrandpa: Arslan. Temujin too in the later chapters of Bones of the Hills.

* BarbarianHero: Temujin.

Essentially the Mongolian equivalent to ''TheSaxonStories'' by BernardCornwell (one of the authors who have inspired Iggulden).

* ''Empire of Silver'' (2011) ([[MarketBasedTitle Published in America]] as ''Ogedai: Empire of Silver''): Ogedai, Genghis' grandson, hasn't assumed the title of Great Khan even though his claim is the strongest; he also suffers from a weak heart and his brother, Chagatai, intends to wrestle the rulership from him. Tsubodai, Genghis' old friend and comrade, will also lead the Mongol armies ever further into the West, fighting the Russian Empire and the Templar Knights.
* ''Conqueror'' (2011): The last book in the series, it follows the reigns of Guyuk Khan, son of Ogedai Khan, and Mongke Khan, Guyuk's cousin, and the military deeds of Kublai, brother to Mongke Khan, against the Sung Empire (southern China, nowadays) as he is forced to change from a scholar to a warrior and leader of men.

** Genghis Khan's contentious relationship with [[ChildByRape Jochi]]. Though there was suspicion about his paternity in RealLife, he was definitely not a "Tartar bastard" as described in the series (Borte was abducted and raped by Mergids, NOT Tartars). By all accounts, Genghis treeted him as his first son, but there are signs of an estrangement in later years.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Fleeing the Mongol hordes, the Cumans take shelter in Hungary, converting to Christianity in exchange for protection. As a price of protection, their fighting men, approximately 40,000 in number, were expected to help defend Hungary against the Mongols. Unfortunately, the Cumans were treated as second-class subjects, subjected to hate crimes (including murder) which went unpunished, which culminated in the murder of their leader, Köten. This led the Cumans to desert en masse right before a critical battle, costing Hungary any chance of victory. (In RealLife, things were not nearly so black and white: according to TheOtherWiki, it was the Cumans who were given special treatment, permitted to rape and rob Hungarians with impunity. The resulting resentment on the part of the populace reached a boiling point when it was discovered that the invading Mongol hordes included Cumans (who had been forcibly conscripted by the Mongols). It was this that led to the rioting in which Köten was killed.)

* AnimalMotifs: The only thing that could possibly contend Conqueror in the sheer ''quantity'' of wolf-related metaphors is the SpaceWolf omnibus. Iggulden's previous series about UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar also featured wolf motifs.

The '''Conqueror series''' is a sequence of novels written by Conn Iggulden which tell the story of the Mongol Empire. They are:

* '''Wolf of the Plains''' (2007) ([[MarketBasedTitle Published in America]] as ''Genghis: Birth of an Empire''): Follows Temujin, son of Yesugei, as he is banished from his tribe and goes on to not only survive, but begin to unite all the people of Mongolia, becoming UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan.
* '''Lords of the Bow''' (2008): Having crushed the Tartars and united the Mongols into a single nation, Genghis Khan turns his attention to the tribes' traditional oppressors, the Xi Xia and Chin (Jin, aka Jurchen) empires in what is now northern China.
* '''Bones of the Hills''' (2008): Xi Xia and Chin are under Mongol domination, but Genghis Khan's ambassadors to Khwarezm are tortured and killed. The Mongols move against the Arabs in revenge, and their armies reach as far west as Russia.
* '''Empire of Silver''' (2011) ([[MarketBasedTitle Published in America]] as ''Ogedai: Empire of Silver''): Ogedai, Genghis' grandson, hasn't assumed the title of Great Khan even though his claim is the strongest; he also suffers from a weak heart and his brother, Chagatai, intends to wrestle the rulership from him. Tsubodai, Genghis' old friend and comrade, will also lead the Mongol armies ever further into the West, fighting the Russian Empire and the Templar Knights.
* '''Conqueror''' (2011): The last book in the series, it follows the reigns of Guyuk Khan, son of Ogedai Khan, and Mongke Khan, Guyuk's cousin, and the military deeds of Kublai, brother to Mongke Khan, against the Sung Empire (southern China, nowadays) as he is forced to change from a scholar to a warrior and leader of men.

* AnimalMotifs: The only thing that could possibly contend Conqueror in the sheer ''quantity'' of wolf-related metaphors is the SpaceWolf omnibus. Iggulden's previous series about [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]] also featured wolf motifs.

* BlackSheep: Temuge, the only member of [[BadassFamily Yesugei's family]] who ''isn't'' a {{badass}}.

* {{Badass}}: Temujin, Yesugei, Arslan, Jelme... Pretty much everyone who isn't Temuge. But Temujin stands out, being able to beat the First Sword of Kaifeng in a fight in heavy armour he's unaccustomed to, throttle men easily, lift a man above his head and break his back over his knee, and able to fight one of his best soldiers to a stand still in old age.
** BadassGrandpa: Arslan. Temujin too in the later chapters of Bones of the Hills.
** BadassArmy: The Mongol army under Temujin, the Jihadis under Jelaudin.
** BadassInCharge: Temujin, first of raiders in the North, then of the Wolves, then of Mongolia, and then of Chin, Koryo and Khwarezm.
** FourStarBadass: Temujin, Tsubodai, Jochi, Jelaudin... the books are saturated with them.

* AnimalMotifs: The only thing that could possibly contend Conqueror in the sheer ''quantity'' of wolf-related metaphors is the SpaceWolf omnibus. Iggulden's previous series about [[GaiusJuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]] also featured wolf motifs.

* RuleOfDrama: Tolui and Sorhatani's marriage. In the stories, it was practically a ShotgunWedding, after fourteen-year-old Tolui got sixteen-year-old Sorhatani pregnant. In RealLife, however, it was an ArrangedMarriage for political reasons, which took place when Tului was only eleven.

** Tsubodai is spelled as Subotai elsewhere, like in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' and ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan the Barbarian]]'' (1982).

* BringMeMyBrownPants: Borte wets herself when she realizes the Tartars are going to rape her. Again.

** Genghis Khan's contentious relationship with [[ChildByRape Temuge]]. Though there was suspicion about his paternity in RealLife, he was definitely not a "Tartar bastard" as described in the series (Borte was abducted and raped by Mergids, NOT Tartars). By all accounts, Genghis treeted him as his first son, but there are signs of an estrangement in later years.

* '''Wolf of the Plains''' (2007) ([[MarketBasedTitle Published in America]] as ''Genghis: Birth of an Empire''): Follows Temujin, son of Yesugei, as he is banished from his tribe and goes on to not only survive, but begin to unite all the people of Mongolia, becoming GenghisKhan.