Part 9/15:
The Toxic Symbiosis: Nomads and Civilizations
While the nomads were destroyers, they also depended on the civilizations they destabilized. Nomadic tribes often acted as merchants, raiders, or both, relying heavily on trade networks that connected China, Persia, India, and Europa. Their mobility enabled them to collect wealth from the settled worlds, yet their tactics also incorporated brutal conquest—mass slaughters, enslavement, and terror—that devastated cities and populations.