📓 notes/journals/2023_04_16.md by @forshaper ☆

Three [[steppe]] [[nomads]] who managed to unite several tribes into a single tribe are Abaoji of the [[Khitan]], Modu Chanyu of the [[Xiongnu]], and Tanshihuai of the [[Xianbei]].
- After [[uniting]] [[nomad]] tribes, such a [[ruler]] needs to get [[surplus]] [[energy]] from [[sedentary]] [[groups]] to keep the megatribe [[united]].
- Other newly united nomad tribes might simply displace a current ruler of an Empire.
- Some united tribes would go on to [[conquer]] a [[sedentary]] culture, though usually this only happens after they form an [[Empire]].
- [[Steppe]] [[Empires]] looked like autocratic states from the outside, but used [[collective]] consensus [[within]] the [[tribe]].
  - Tribes within the [[ruling]] [[tribe]] had [[economic]] [[autonomy]], the ability to [[move]] away if they didn’t like things, and the weapons to [[fight]].
  - The ruler would [[give]] [[gifts]] the heads of other tribes, who would then gift the people in their tribes to maintain their [[place]] in the [[flow]] of [[energy]].