Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Timur Should Have Eaten More Salad
It’s a lovely 💐 Springtime 🌷 Saturday before Rise of the Conqueror releases. Who doesn’t love an epic historical flick? 📽️
🥬 Salad 🥗
A sallet should consist of such herbs as are choice and wholesome. ~John Evelyn, Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets (1699)
Nothing says vernal bounty like a crunchy bowl of garden salad.
The one depicted in the header graphic looks absolutely scrumptious.
Varieties of lettuce, fresh spinach, radishes, cucumber slices and even some celery make for a mouthwatering and nutritious salad.
Me? I’m going to want some bleu cheese dressing on that bad boy, but as depicted you could eat it with no dressing at all.
🌏 Samarkand 🐫
Rise of the Conqueror 2026 | Official Trailer | Epic Historical Action Adventure
My somewhat cheeky post title comes from my contention that Timur might have been just a tad more clement if he had a bit more salad in his diet.
Granted, it’s hard to unify most of Central Asia in a post-Mongol Empire mode without the occasional pyramid of severed heads, but c’mon guy…
The thing about the great Emir was that he had Genghis Khan-level ambition but didn’t feel he had the street cred.
Without direct lineage to the Great Khan, he was trying to accomplish the same scale of empire while maintaining his perceived place in the social order.
What the fearsome warlord didn’t seem to clock was that if you wanted to be the BMOC, you needed to take it.
Timur suffered from a world-class case of impostor syndrome, so he propped up people with the correct lineage and played them like chess pieces in his overall empire.
Another thing that Timur ultimately got wrong is that he didn’t build his empire to endure.
It quickly shattered into a form he wouldn’t recognize, and it leaves one wondering what the damn point was.
If you’re going to spend a lot of time, effort and other people’s blood to create something, you’d think you’d want it to survive a generation or ten beyond your funeral.
I’ve always had an interest in Genghis Khan and Emir Timur as bookends of a particular age and culture, but if you’re not going to build it to last, what was the actual point of starting?
⚕️ Stabilisierungsschlafbett 🥼
For fast-acting relief, try slowing down. ~Lily Tomlin
Rob, what is that German gobbledygook?
It’s a recurring device in the Sentinels Chronicle that I’d love to have.
Kadusetech GmbH is an imaginary biotech company in my books’ universe that provides a bed with diagnostic and therapeutic functions.
The recurring biotechnician who operates it proves to be a love interest and interim sounding board for my looming antivillain while he recovers from an injury he can’t explain to her.
At the moment, she’s still on the plane back from Germany with no idea she’ll be encountering the same patient who broke her heart the week before.
That’s life in the Sentinelsverse…
That’s all for today. See you back on Wednesday for daffodils…