A series of three books, with three more on the way, by
Conn Iggulden which tell the story of the Mongol Empire. So far, it includes:
- Wolf of the Plains (2007) (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 Genghis Khan.
- 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 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.
The series provides examples of:
- The Alliance: What the Mongol nation starts off as.
- Bilingual Backfire
- Badass: Temujin, Yesugei, Bekter... Pretty much everyone who isn't Temuge.
- Black Sheep: Temuge, the only member of Yesugei's family who isn't a badass.
- Bring Me My Brown Pants: Borte wets herself when she realizes the Tartars are going to rape her. Again.
- Cain and Abel: Temujin and Bekter, Jochi and Chagatai
- Chocolate Baby: Jochi, possibly.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Killing one's enemies and raping their women is intentionally portrayed as honourable and good.
- The killing-one's-enemies part is still seen as honourable nowadays...
- The exact extent of this trope depends on who you talk to.
- Codes of honor differ and the Hordes From The East even at their best would hardly have behaved like a fairy tale Knight in Shining Armor. Being able to Rape, Pillage, and Burn without your enemy being able to do anything about it would likely have been considered a way to show off what a Badass Warrior you were by rubbing in your enemy's face what an incompetent Papa Wolf he was. They would likely have thought it "honorable". It was evil but unfortunately often times not only are humans warriors, they are often bastards. And before someone mentions it, yes that is a disgusting thought.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Genghis and Hoelun hit the airag pretty hard after Temulun dies.
- Eyes of Gold: Genghis Khan, and all but one of his children.
- False Retreat: One of the Mongols' favourite tactics.
- Final Battle
- First Name Basis: Variant - By the second book, Hoelun is the only person willing to refer to Genghis Khan as Temujin
- Five-Man Band
- Genghis Gambit: Fitting, since the real Genghis Khan is the Trope Namer.
- Grim Up North: The Tartars seem to thrive in the frozen wastes of Siberia. Possibly the Mongols themselves to the Chin.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Some of the Mongols' more horrible tactics, such as catapulting severed heads and the corpses of plague victims into cities, as well as Genghis Khan's rape of hundreds of women, are left out. The author does however mention habitual use of captured civilians (terrorized beyond all sanity by inventive executions and deadly forced marches) as living shields/cannon fodder when assaulting fortified cities
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Tartars are responsible for a fair bit more of the crap in Temujin's early life than happened in reality.
- Horse Archer: The Mongols
- Improvised Weapon: Temujin and Khasar kill men using armour scales.
- Mama Bear: Do not try to threaten Hoelun's children.
- Meaningful Funeral
- Meaningful Name: In reality, this is standard practise in Mongolia. The meanings of Temujin ('made of iron') and Genghis ('oceanic') have attention drawn to them.
- Nobody Poops: Averted. Hard.
- Parental Favouritism: Genghis Khan is unfortunately prone to this.
- Path of Inspiration: The shamanism as preached by Kokchu.
- Professional Killer: The Mongols go up against the historical Assassins.
- Rape as Drama: Borte is gang-raped by the Tartars.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Everybody as Yinchuan fort.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Genghis and Tsubodai do this to the Old Man of the Mountains.
- The Strategist: Tsubodai
- Take a Third Option: Can't break through the Great Wall of China? Unwilling to retreat? Send men over the even higher mountains.
- Tearjerker: Jochi's fate.
- Warrior Monk: Yao Shu.
- Worthy Opponent: Jelaudin, who understands Mongol tactics and is able to effectively counter them.
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