Part 7/15:
The enduring legacy of the steppe is rooted in its geography: dry, harsh, and forbidding. On these open expanses, city-building was impractical, so survival depended on mobility and resilience. This environment fostered a warrior culture that was both egalitarian in some respects yet highly hierarchical and totalitarian under strong leaders—the kind of society that could defeat vastly larger sedentary states with ease.