Ethnogenesis
History
Who Were the Alans?
The Alans were an Iranian-speaking nomadic people who emerged from the vast sea of grass stretching from the Caspian to the Black Sea. Roman writers grouped them with the Sarmatians — that loose confederation of horse-peoples who had replaced the Scythians on the Pontic steppe — but the Alans outlasted that name and carved their own identity into history. They spoke an Eastern Iranian tongue related to Persian, worshipped gods of war and sky, and measured wealth in horses, cattle, and the gold ornaments that adorned their weapons and their women. What set them apart was their cavalry: armored lancers who could shatter infantry formations and fight other nomads on equal terms.
Unlike many steppe peoples who flared briefly and vanished, the Alans endured for nearly a millennium. They fought Romans and befriended them, fled the Huns and joined them, scattered across Europe and regathered in the Caucasus. When the dust of the Migration Period settled, Alans had left descendants in places as distant as Brittany and the mountains of Georgia. Their name survives today in the Ossetians, who still speak a language descended from Alanic and remember traditions stretching back to the open steppe.
Homeland and Way of Life
The Alan heartland lay in the grasslands north of the Caucasus Mountains, between the Don and Volga rivers — a landscape of rolling steppe broken by river valleys where winter camps could shelter from the wind. This was horse country: endless pasture for the herds that were both livelihood and military power. Families lived in felt tents that could be packed onto wagons and moved with the seasons, following grass from summer highlands to winter lowlands. Cattle provided milk, meat, and leather; sheep gave wool for the felt that insulated against bitter steppe winters.
But the Alans were not purely pastoral drifters. They controlled trade routes connecting the Silk Road to the Black Sea ports, extracting tolls and trading surplus horses to settled peoples who needed cavalry mounts. They knew the mountain passes through the Caucasus — the Dariel Pass especially — and could either close them to invaders or guide merchants through for a price. This strategic position made them valuable allies and dangerous enemies to the empires that bordered the steppe. Rome paid them as mercenaries; Persia negotiated with them as powers worthy of respect.
Warfare, Power, and Limits
Alan warfare centered on the mounted lancer — a warrior armored in scale or mail, carrying a long two-handed lance called the kontos, trained from childhood to fight from horseback. These were not the light horse-archers of the eastern steppe but heavy shock cavalry who could charge home and break enemy formations with the impact. Roman observers noted their terrifying effectiveness: a line of Alan lancers, horses armored as well as riders, building speed across open ground before striking like a hammer. Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that almost all Alans were warriors, that they judged a man's worth by his kills in battle, and that they treasured the scalps of enemies as decorations for their horses.
Yet heavy cavalry needed open ground. In forests, mountains, or siege warfare, the Alans lost their advantage. They raided rather than conquered, dominated the steppe but could not hold cities. When the Huns swept westward in the fourth century — lighter, faster, with composite bows that outranged Alan lances — the steppe equation changed. Some Alans submitted and joined the Hunnic horde; others fled westward, carrying their skills into a Europe hungry for cavalry.
Beliefs, Customs, and Society
Alan religion belonged to the Iranian tradition: a sky-god who watched over oaths, a war-god to whom swords were planted in the earth as shrines, reverence for fire and sun. They worshipped without temples, offering sacrifices under open sky in the manner of all steppe peoples. A naked sword thrust into the ground became an altar; warriors swore oaths upon it, knowing that broken promises would bring divine vengeance. The sword-cult impressed observers from Rome to China — a god you could carry with you, requiring neither priests nor buildings.
Society organized around clans and war-leaders, with status earned through martial prowess. Women enjoyed freedoms unusual in the ancient world: Alan women rode horses, owned property, and could fight alongside men when necessity demanded. Marriage involved bride-price negotiated between families, but a wife was partner rather than property. Hospitality was sacred — guests received protection even at cost to the host — and blood-feuds could bind clans to generations of vengeance. The Alans judged age harshly: an old warrior unable to ride was shamed, and some sources suggest the elderly chose death over dependency.
Contacts, Conflicts, and Legacy
The Hunnic invasion of the 370s shattered Alan unity but spread their influence across the world. Those who fled westward joined the great migrations that transformed Europe. One group crossed the Rhine with Vandals and Suebi in 406, eventually settling in Gaul and Hispania — the region of Alençon in Normandy may preserve their name, and Alan cavalry served post-Roman warlords from Brittany to the Loire. Some scholars trace Arthurian legends of mounted knights to the Sarmatian and Alan cavalry stationed in Roman Britain, though this remains debated. Another branch accompanied the Vandals to North Africa, vanishing into that kingdom's collapse.
Those who remained in the Caucasus rebuilt their strength after the Hunnic Empire crumbled. The Alanian kingdom flourished through the early medieval centuries, controlling the mountain passes and converting to Christianity through Byzantine influence. They allied with the Khazars against Arab invasions, traded with Byzantines and Georgians, and maintained their horse-warrior traditions even as they built stone fortresses in the mountain valleys. The end came in 965, when combined Rus' and Khazar attacks destroyed their lowland power. The Alans retreated into the high Caucasus, where their descendants — the Ossetians — still live today, speaking the last surviving descendant of the Scythian-Sarmatian-Alanic language family, guardians of a heritage three thousand years old.
Abilities
In Glory of Civilizations, the Alans embody steppe cavalry mastery and the mobility of a people whose homes moved with them. The strength bonus for cavalry on meadows reflects their lance-armed horsemen who dominated open grassland warfare. Replacing a white cube when defending captures the resilience of warriors raised from birth to fight — Alan defenders extracted blood for every inch of ground. Gaining cavalry through government technologies represents how their political organization centered on military capability.
The ability for peasants to explore unexplored provinces reflects Alan ranging habits — families who scouted new pastures, traders who probed unknown routes, the wandering life that scattered their people across three continents.
Alans I
with 
has +1 strengthon the meadow
of your 
,gain 1 available
to unexplored 
to explore them
FAQ
Do I randomly draw the white cube I replace when defending?
No. After bag preparation, you simply take any 1 white cube from the bag and replace it with 1 cube of your color. No random drawing is involved — you choose which white cube to remove.
If only my peasants are engaged in a defensive battle, can I still replace a white cube?
Yes. The ability triggers when defending, regardless of which unit types are involved. Peasants defending alone still benefit from this ability.
How many movement points do peasants spend to explore an unexplored province?
2 movement points. Since peasants cannot march and have only 2 movement points total, they can only explore provinces directly adjacent to their starting hex. They must be positioned next to the unexplored province before moving to explore it.
If I have no Barracks when I research a government technology, do I still gain cavalry?
No. You gain 1 "available" cavalry, which requires the supporting structure (Barracks). Without Barracks, cavalry is not available to you. Building Barracks later does not grant retroactive cavalry for technologies already researched.