NPCs out of History *

1. Another pile of historicals

   #41

   This came from a list of great historical names that you want to use as a character's name.
   
   
   Saxo Grammaticus
   (estimated. 1150 - 1220) was a Danish medieval historian of whose life practically nothing is known. The sixteen books of Danish history of this time, known as the Gesta Danorum, are attributed to him, and also contribute our principal evidence of his own existence.
   
   We know he was a "follower" of Archbishop Absalon, which probably means he worked in the Archbishop’s administration; his exact status is not determined. He might have been a clerk. But there were references of him doing a number of things. He was an average adventure, someone who did everything, but never got historical credit.
   
   Maximinus Thrax
   The first of the "soldier-emperors," Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus spent all three years of his reign on campaign. Although Rome's senatorial elite was eventually able to bring about the downfall of this non-aristocratic emperor, the victory was only a temporary check on the rising importance of the military in the third century.
   http://www.roman-emperors.org/maxthrax.htm
   
   Gunnlaug Ormstunge (worm-tongue):
   A skald, and the center of Iceland's second most famous saga (behind Njål's saga.)
   
   Ravn (Raven):
   His nemesis.
   
   Eirik Blodøks (Blood-axe):
   Norwegian king, brother of HÃ¥kon the Good, mostly famous or being just that, and killing a good amount of people in his way to the throne.
   
   Magnus Lagabøter (Law-rebuilder):
   Norwegian king, who spent much of his time tinkering with and improving the laws.
   
   Odd Kolbiter (Coal-Biter):
   Don't ask me. BTW, Odd is a genuine Norwegian name, with no relation to the English word.
   
   Ajax
   Ajax was the son of Telamon. He was a Trojan War hero on the side of the Greeks. When Achilles was killed, his armor was to be awarded to the next greatest Greek hero. Ajax thought it should go to him. Ajax went mad and tried to kill his comrades when the armor was awarded to Odysseus, instead. Athena intervened by making Ajax think cattle were his former allies. When Ajax realized he had slaughtered the herd, he committed suicide as his only honorable end
   
   Hannibal
   Hannibal (from Punic, literally "Baal is merciful to me", 247 BC – 182 BC) was a politician, statesman and military commander of ancient Carthage, best known for his achievements in the Second Punic War in marching an army )with elephants) from Spain over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy and defeating the Romans at the Battles of the river Trebia (218 BC), Lake Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC). Hannibal is universally ranked as one of the greatest military commanders and tacticians in history, alongside Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Frederick the Great, Genghis Khan and Napoleon, and only a few others.
   
   Seleucus Nicator ("The Conqueror"), Seleucus I (surnamed for later generations Nicator, Greek: Sέλeυκος Νικάtωρ) (c. 358 BC–281 BC), Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great. In the wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and Seleucid Empire. This is the Empire of the East, that was the ancestor of the Persian Empires. He is said to be Alexander's greatest general.
   
   Naram-Sin
   Naram-Sin, grandson and successor of Sargon of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith. He was the first Mesopotamian king to claim divinity, and the first to be called "King of the Four Quarters". He traded with the Indus Valley civilization in current Pakistan (see Meluhha) and controlled a large portion of land along the Persian Gulf. Naram-Sin expanded his empire by defeating the King of Magan at the southern end of the Persian Gulf and conquering the hill tribes northwards in the Taurus Mountains. He built administrative centers at Tell Brak and Nineveh.
   
   Shah Jahan
   Moghul emperor of India and builder of the Taj Mahal. The name Shah Jahan comes from Persian "The Ruler of the World". Shah Jahan is best known as the builder of the Taj Mahal, a shrine to his Persian second wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Ornament of the Palace") whom he married on 10 May 1612, at the age of 20.
   
   Richard Blood
   The real name of legendary professional wrestler Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. I guess Blood was too evil sounding.
   
   Crazy Horse
   He was a respected member of the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe and is noted for his courage in battle. Crazy Horse was recognized among his own people as a visionary leader committed to preserving the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life and leading his people into a war against the take-over of their lands by the White Man.
   
   Frederick Barbarossa AKA Fredrick the First
   Frederick I was the elected king of Germany (1152) and crowned Holy Roman Emperor (1155). He was also Duke of Swabia and King of Italy. As son of Duke Frederick II of Swabia (German Schwaben) and Judith of Bavaria, from the rival House of Guelph (or Welf), Frederick descended from Germany's two leading principal families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's princely electors as heir to royal crown. He is known for good strong leadership and the third crusade.
   
   Klemens Wenzel von Metternich
   He was an Austrian politician and statesman and perhaps the most important diplomat of his era. Considered an unreliable liar and an amatory dilettante by many of his contemporaries, Metternich has earned the admiration of succeeding generations for his deft management of foreign policy, although his reactionary domestic policies still remain controversial.
   
   King Hartha-Canute
   Hartha-Canute, the father of Gorm the Old who became king of Denmark around 917. OR Hartha-Canute, the son of Canute the Great who ruled Denmark and England briefly in the mid-1000s.
   
   Gilles de Rais
   Gilles de Rais (1404-1440) was a French aristocrat, soldier, and at one time, a national hero. He was later convicted of torturing, raping and murdering hundreds of children; along with Erzsébet Báthory, another sadistic aristocrat acting more than a century later, he is considered to be a precursor to the modern serial killer. He was a noted occultist (as was Bathory) known for diabolic rites.
   
   Saladin (1137 or 1138–1193)
   His name means -The Righteousness of the Faith. Saladin was a 12th century Kurdish Muslim military general who founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria. In fact he managed to maintain power in Egypt even though it changed leadership on the average of once every three years. He was also renowned in both the Christian and Muslim worlds for his leadership and military prowess. He was said to be able to take on whole units of men. He was also know, even in Europe, for his chivalry and merciful nature during the Crusades. He and King Richard had a friend foe relationship, as the two great men understood each other. If it wasn't for the fanatical and less reasonable nature of both their sides, the two would of not only forged a peace in the holy lands, but an alliance of both kingdoms.
   
   Skanderbeg (George Castriota) (1405-1468), Skanderbeg is the most prominent figure in the history of Albania. He was a descendant of the Kastrioti family, a respected family of princes in Albania. As was the requirement, he was sent to the Ottoman as a hostage. There he was trained in military matters. After serving in their forces, he returned to Albania and opposed the Ottomans. He gained papal favor by doing such. While eventually Albania fell to the Ottomans after his death, he managed to keep it free in his lifetime.

2. Historicals I want to enter in someday

   #42

   http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Esoteric_and_Occult/Personalities/
   
   would all be good people to do....
   Wells, HG and Borroughs w are interesting, but not that.
   
   Alexander The Great
   Julius Caesar
   Marco Polo - Everybody knows this great adventurer.
   Livingston - The famous African explorer.
   Ali Bei - One of the best european explorers in Africa and middle east.
   Walter Raleigh - The first explorer who look for the "El Dorado".
   Edmund Hillary - The first who reach the Everest.
   Ernest Shackleton - Artic adventurer.
   Roald Amundsen - The first who reach the South Pole.
   Thor Heyerdahl - He did the Peru-Polynesia journey with the Kon-Tiki.
   Cristobal Colon - The oficial America´s dicoverer.
   Magallanes - Round the world sailor.
   Africa: Livingstone, Ali Bei (add Stanley (central Africa), Speke (first european in Lake Victoria), Burton (fisrt european in Tanganika Lake) , Baker and his wife (dicovered Lake Alberto) and Pedro Páez Xaramillo, spanish and first european who saw the fountains of Blue Nile in Ethiopia.
   
   Polar zones: Shackleton, Amundsen (add Bering, Barents, Ross (both, uncle and nephew), Erik the Red, Franklin, Peary (first one in North Pole) and Scott) (well, i really like this subject, that's why...)
   
   America: Colon (add Nuñez de Balboa, Cortes, Alaminos, Hudson, Lewis and Clark, Hernando de Soto...
   
   Everest: Hillary (and don't forget Tensing!!!)
   
   Pacific and south pacific: Vasco de Gama, Alvaro de Saavedra, Wallis, Elcano, Robert Burke (and don't forget William Wills!)
   
   and why not? N.Armstrong, J.cousteau, J.Oyarzabal, Y.Gagarin, Eesti
   
   www.arkadien.org/adventurers.htm
   
   Henry Bollingbroke - another alleged diabolist
   
   Copernicus - a few peoples' favourate name of all time
   
   Stonewall Jackson
   
   Fighting Joe Hooker
   
   Buffalo Bill
   
   Shoeless Joe
   
   Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin : the Mad Monk
   
   Jack the Giantkiller (From the fable Jack and Giant Beanstalk)
   Edward the Black (The Black Prince)
   Alcindor
   
   The Roman poet Catullus had a character named "Peniculus" -- which meant both "Broom" and "Little Penis". Can't make this stuff up.
   
   Actually, Romans liked to give each other rude nicknames. "Biggus Dickus" ain't too far off the mark.

3. NPCs out of History

   #43

   Ann Beverly- Mother of sex pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Most famous for acquiring the heroin on which her son overdosed, and (allegedly) knocking over his urn and scattering his ashes in Heathrow Aeroport.
   
   Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky- Ukrainian-born Occultist and founder of the influential Theosophical movement.. Traveled to New York and India, and claimed to talk to Ascended Masters, beings of great spiritual knowledge.
   Among other eccentricities, kept a stuffed baboon in spectacles to mock Darwinism and, apparently, tried to convert actual Hindus to Hinduism.
   
   Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin- I'm amazed that this guy was only just mentioned. famously hard-to-kill Russian mystic, held considerable sway over the upper echleons of Russian Society, and the Royal Family in particular, in the last days of the Tsarist Monarchy despite his notorious womanizing and alcoholism. Claimed to be able to treat the Tsarevich's hemophillia. Survived being stabbed and having a tree knocked down on him, before prince Felix Yusupov and two accomplaces managed to kill him by a combination of poison, gunshot, beating, and being shoved into a frozen river through a hole in the ice. He allegedly predicted the Bolshevik Revolution if he was assassinated.
   
   Felix Yusupov- Flamboyant Russian nobleman, helped organize the murder of Rasputin. Fled to france after the Revolution, taking the equivalent of millions of dollars in art and jewelry with him. Sued MGM for making a movie about the murder (interestingly, it was for their portrayal of his wife as Rasputin's mistress, rather than Felix himself as a murderer). Claimed to have seduced King Edward VII whilst in drag.
   
   EDITED TO ADD
   Edgar Allen Poe- In addition to being famously Drug-addicted and melancholic, the author of short stories was also an accomplished hoaxter, producing at least one fictional autobiography and writing a series of newspaper articles claiming, in all seriousness, to document a trans-atlantic baloon flight.
   
   Ambrose Bierce- famously cynical writer; topographical surveyor for the Union in the American Civil War, rescued a wounded comrade while under heavy fire at the battle of Girard Hill; became a newspaper columnist and got his employer, William Randolf Hearst, in hot water after he (allegedly) called for the Assassination of PResident McKinley in an anonymous poem. Disappeared in Mexico in 1913 after leaving a tour of Civil War battlefields to join up with Pancho Villa's army.

4. I think we're forgetting some highly-important Africans...

   #44

   Sundiata Keita (Adapted from Wikipedia)
   
   Sundiata Keita or Sunjata Keita (meaning the Lion King)(c. 1190 - c. 1255) is a semi-historical hero of the Mandinka people of West Africa and is celebrated in the Epic of Sundiata as the founder of the Mali Empire.
   
   Sundjata is also known by the name Sogolon Djata. The name Sogolon is taken from his mother, the buffalo woman (so called because of her ugliness), and Djata. In the rapidly spoken language of the Mandinka, the two names were merged to become Sondjata of Sundjata or Sundiata. The last name Keita is a clan name more than a surname.
   
   The story of Sundiata is primarily known through oral tradition, transmitted by generations of Malian griots.
   
   In the Epic of Sundiata, Naré Maghann Konaté (also called Maghan Kon Fatta or Maghan the Handsome) was a Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court. The hunter predicted that if Konaté married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Berté and had a son by her, Dankaran Toumani Keïta. However, when two Traoré hunters from the Do kingdom presented him an ugly, hunchbacked woman named Sogolon, he remembered the prophecy and married her. She soon gave birth to a son, Sundiata Keita, who was unable to walk throughout his childhood.
   
   With the death of Naré Maghann Konaté (c. 1218), his first son, Dankaran Toumani Keita, assumed the throne despite Konaté's wishes that the prophecy be respected. Sundiata and his mother, who now had given birth to two daughters and adopted a second son from Konaté's third wife Namandjé, suffered the scorn of the new king and his mother. After an insult against Sogolon, Sundiata requested an iron rod from the blacksmith Nounfari, which he used to pull himself upright and walk for the first time. Nonetheless, the hatred of Sassouma Berté and Dankaran Toumani Keita soon drove Sundiata, his mother, and his two sisters into exile in the Mena kingdom.
   
   Meanwhile, Soumaoro Kanté, cruel sorceror king of Sosso, attacks the Mandinka kingdom, causing Dankaran Toumani Keita to take flight in fear. The oppressed Mandinka people now send for the exiled Sundiata. Forging a coalition of neighboring small kingdoms, Sundiata wages war against the Sosso, finally defeating Soumaoro Kanté at the Battle of Kirina (c. 1240). Soumaoro Kanté disappears in the Koulikoro mountains, and Sundiata assumes the title "Mansa," "king of kings," as the first ruler of the Mali Empire.
   
   Sundiata Keita established his capital at his home village of Niani, near the Malian border of present-day Guinea. Though he converted to Islam, Sundiata also exploited local religion, building a reputation as a man of powerful magic.
   
   Sundjata was not an absolute monarch despite what the title implies. Though he probably wielded popular authority, the Mali Empire was reportedly run like a Federation with each tribe having a chief representative to the court. The first tribes were Mandinka clans of Traore, Kamara, Koroma, Konde, and of course Keita. The tribal council was in charge of checking the Mansa's power, enforcing his edicts among their people, and selecting the successor (usually the Mansa's brother or sister's son).
   
   Sundiata Keita died in 1255, probably of drowning. Tradition holds that he died while crossing the Sankarini river, where a shrine remains today. He had three sons who succeeded him to the throne of the Mali Empire: Mansa Wali Keita, Ouati Keita and Khalifa Keita. The famous West African ruler Mansa Musa is his grandnephew.
   
   Sundiata is possibly identical with Marijata, also celebrated as founder of Mali empire in one or more pieces of oral history recorded by the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in the late fourteenth century.

5. More Africans...

   #45

   Mansa Musa
   
   Mansa Kankan Musa I or Mansa Musa [] a 14th century king of the Mali Empire. He is remembered for his fabled hajj and as a benefactor of Islamic scholarship.
   
   Musa was the grandson of the founder of the Mali's Empire, Sundiata Keita, and ruled over Mali while it was the source of almost half the world's gold. Musa was a devoted Muslim and Islamic scholarship flourished under his rule. With Musa as a benefactor, Sankore University in Timbuktu reached its height. Craftsmen and especially Islamic scholars came from all over the Muslim world to receive a free education at Sankore's guilds and madrasas.
   
   Musa is, perhaps, most famous for his hajj. As part of his pilgrimage to Mecca, Musa gave gold away generously. When he passed through Cairo, he gave out so much gold that it took at least 12 years for the price to recover. The Arab historian al-Umari records that Musa was so generous that he ran out of money and had to take out a loan to be able to afford the journey home. Musa's hajj, and especially his gold, caught the attention of both the Islamic and Christian worlds.
   
   He was succeeded in 1337 by his son Maghan and in 1341 by his brother Suleyman. The Mansa-Ray are the 8th generation of Mansa-Musa that travelled out of Mali to the Western Coast of Africa to help spread peace, justice and the teachings of Mansa-Musa. They never returned to Mali. Most can be found in countries like Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

6. And of course, who could forget...

   #46

   Shaka Zulu
   
   Shaka (sometimes spelled Chaka) (ca. 1781 - ca. 22nd September 1828) is widely credited with transforming the Zulu tribe from a small clan into the beginnings of a nation that held sway over that portion of Southern Africa between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His military prowess and destructiveness have been wildly exaggerated, as has the cohesion of the 'state' he created. Nevertheless, his statesmanship and vigour in assimilating some neighbours and ruling by proxy through others marks him as one of the greatest Zulu chieftains.
   
   Shaka was probably the first son of the chieftain Senzangakhona and Nandi, a daughter of a past chief of the Langeni tribe, born near present-day Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal Province. The Zulus had a practice of uku-hlobonga — a heavy-petting, safe-sex practice, that got out of hand in this case. Though conceived out of wedlock around 1781 (not 1787 as most accounts speculate, though there is little secure evidence), he was not, as the legend has it, disowned by his father or chased into exile. His parents married normally, and he was certainly not named after an intestinal beetle, though the insult became common later; he was probably named Mandhlesilo at this point. He almost certainly spent his childhood in his father's settlements, is recorded as having been initiated there and inducted into an ibutho or 'age-group regiment'. The tale of bullying by his Langeni cousin Makhadama is almost certainly a metaphor for later troubled politics between them. In fact, he did not exact revenge on the Langeni later, but largely peacefully allied with them. Most sources attest that only as a young man, when succession disputes surfaced, did Shaka conflict with his father and defect to Dingiswayo and the Mthethwa, to whom the Zulu were then paying tribute
   
   It was probably Dingiswayo who named Shaka thus, with reference to the striking of an axe. Dingiswayo called up the emDlatsheni iNtanga (age-group), of which he was part, and incorporated it in the iziCwe regiment. He served as a Mthethwa warrior for perhaps as long as ten years, and distinguished himself with his courage, though he did not, as legend has it, rise to great position. Dingiswayo, having himself been exiled after a failed attempt to oust his father, had, along with a number of other groups in the region (including Mabhudu, Dlamini, Mkhize, Qwabe, and Ndwandwe, many probably responding to slaving pressures from southern Mozambique) helped develop new ideas of military and social organisation, in particular the ibutho, inaccurately translated as 'regiment'; it was rather an age-based labour gang which included some better-refined military activities, but by no means exclusively. Most battles before this time were to settle disputes, and while the appearance of the 'impi' (fighting unit) dramatically changed warfare at times, it largely remained a matter of seasonal raiding, political pressures rather than outright slaughter, the extent of which has been hugely exaggerated. The idea that more powerful armies caused the Mfecane, or (Mfengu), migrations - conquest, disrupted societies fleeing, and in turn using the same military techniques to destroy other societies, that caused other wars and more displacement - must now be thoroughly questioned and modified; violence climbed over a period of half a century before Shaka, through multiple causes, and really exploded only after the white invasions of the late 1830s and after. The 'Mfecane' is now being discarded as a concept, and relatively few of the migrations can be directly or solely attributed to the Zulu.
   
   On the death of Senzangakona, Dingiswayo aided Shaka to defeat his brother and assume leadership in around 1812. Shaka began further to refine the ibutho system followed by Dingiswayo and others, and with Mthethwa support over the next several years forged alliances with his smaller neighbours, mostly to counter the growing threat from Ndwandwe raiding from the north. The initial Zulu manoeuvres were strictly defensive, and mostly Shaka preferred to intervene or pressure diplomatically, aided by just a few judicial assassinations. His changes to local society built on existing structures, and were as much social and propagandistic as they were military; there were very few open fights, as the Zulu sources make clear. Shaka is often said to have been dissatisfied with the long throwing assegai, and credited with introducing a new weapon - the Iklwa, a short stabbing spear, with a long, swordlike spearhead. It was named, allegedly, for the sound made as it went in, then out, of the body. Shaka is also supposed to have introduced a larger, heavier shield made of cowhide and to have taught each warrior how to use the shield's left side to hook the enemy's shield to the right, exposing his ribs for a fatal spear stab. In fact, such tactics had been long in use, and the Zulu continued to use throwing spears, too.
   
   Much has been made of the story that to toughen his men, Shaka required them to discard their leather sandals, forcing them to train and fight in bare feet. This was not the case. However, it is probably true that Shaka's troops practiced by covering more than fifty miles in a fast trot over hot, rocky terrain in a single day so that they could surprise the enemy. Young boys from the age of six up joined Shaka's force as apprentice warriors (udibi) and served as carriers of rations and extra weapons until they joined the main ranks. This was used more for very light forces designed to extract tribute in cattle, women or young men from neighbouring groups; they preferred this surprise tactic to open battle, in which they were, contrary to popular impressions, as often unsuccessful as they were victorious. There is virtually no evidence that Shaka actually invented new tactics, or participated in battles after he became 'inkosi' or chieftain. There is only one instance in the evidence that the so-called 'horns and chest', or 'bull's head' formation was used (in 1826 against the Ndwandwe), in which event the two 'horns' accidentally ended up stabbing each other!
   
   In the initial years, Shaka had neither the clout nor the kudos to compel any but the smallest of groups to join him, and he operated under Dingiswayo's aegis until the latter's death at the hands of Zwide's Ndwandwe. At this point Shaka was so under-resourced that he was forced to flee southwards across the Thukela river, establishing his capital Bulawayo in Qwabe territory, with Qwabe help. He never did personally move back into the traditional Zulu heartland. In Qwabe, Shaka was able to intervene in an existing succession dispute, and help his own choice, Nqetho, into power; Nqetho then ruled as a proxy chieftain for Shaka. This was the pattern, so that the bulk of the so-called Zulu kingdom at this time was ruled by almost entirely independent but friendly chieftains, including Zihlandlo of the Mkhize, Jobe of the Sithole, and Mathubane of the Thuli. These peoples were never defeated in battle by the Zulu; they did not have to be. Shaka won them over by subtler tactics of patronage and reward. The ruling Qwabe, for example, began re-inventing their genealogies to give the impression that Qwabe and Zulu were closely related in the past - a handy fiction. In this way a greater sense of cohesion was created, though it never became complete, as subsequent civil wars attest.
   
   Hence the idea that Shaka 'changed the nature of warfare in Africa' (or even in his corner of southern Africa) from 'a ritualised exchange of taunts with minimal loss of life into a true method of subjugation by wholesale slaughter', is a wild exaggeration. There is virtually no evidence in the Zulu sources that any such slaughter occurred - with the solitary exception of a renegade unit, the iziYendane, who went on a horrific but geographically limited rampage south of the Thukela, against Shaka's orders; when he learned the truth, he killed off the leaders and disbanded the unit. Some of them consequently conspired with his half-brother Dingane to assassinate Shaka.
   
   In 1816, after the death of his father, Shaka had seized power over the then-insignificant Zulu clan. Though he was boosted in by the Mthethwa, and his brother Sigujana was killed, the coup was relatively bloodless and accepted by the Zulu. Shaka still recognised Dingiswayo and his larger Mthethwa clan as overlord after he returned to the Zulu, but some years later Dingiswayo was ambushed by Zwide's amaNdwandwe and killed. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Shaka betrayed Dingiswayo. Indeed, the core Zulu had to retreat before several Ndwandwe incursions; the Ndwandwe were clearly the most aggressive grouping in the sub-region.
   
   Shaka was able to form an alliance with the leaderless Mthethwa clan, and was able to establish himself amongst the Qwabe, after Phakathwayo was overthrown without much of a fight, if any. With Qwabe, Hlubi and Mkhize support, Shaka was finally able to summons a force capable of resisting the Ndwandwe (of the Nxumalo clan). It is asserted everywhere that his first major battle against Zwide of the Ndwandwe was the Battle of Gqokli Hill, on the Mfolozi river. In fact this battle is a pure invention of E A Ritter's: there is not a single scrap of evidence in preceding literature and records that it ever happened. One minor scrap is attested to, known as the 'kisi' fight, in which a night fight occurred; Shaka is said to have told his troops to use the password 'kisi' to avoid stabbing each other; the outcome is unclear in the sources. This is the sole example of a tactic being suggested by Shaka.
   
   The decisive fight eventually took place on the Mhlatuze river, at the confluence with the Mvuzane stream. This is very well attested in Zulu accounts, with only minor variations in detail. Shaka feinted a retreat,then caught the lightly-equipped Ndwandwe on the river bank and inflicted a resounding defeat. The Zulu force pursued the invaders to Zwide's capital, but failed to capture the chief. In fact, the Ndwandwe remained formidable; Zwide and his general Soshangane (of the Shangaan) moved off north, to inflict further damage on less resistant foes and avail himself of slaving opportunities, and Shaka later had to contend again with Zwide's son, Sikhunyane, in 1826.
   
   The increased military efficiency led to more and more clans being incorporated into Shaka's Zulu empire, while other tribes moved away to be out of range of Shaka's impis. The ripple effect caused by these mass migrations would become known (though only in the twentieth century) as the Mfecane. Some groups which moved off were (like the Hlubi and Ngwane to the north of the Zulus) impelled by the Ndwandwe, not the Zulu. Some moved south (like the Chunu and the Thembe), but never suffered much in the way of attack; it was precautionary, and they left many people behind in their traditional homelands. It is often asserted that Mzilikaziof the Khumalo was a 'general' of Shaka's, who fled; but there is no evidence for this, or that there was a major fight. Mzilikazi moved away with a small group, and his path into Zimbabwe over twenty years was impelled by forces which had nothing to do with Shaka at all. The Jere and Msana groups under Shoshangane and Zwangendaba, who were allied to Zwide and moved north after the Mhlatuze fight, were never attacked by Shaka, and probably moved more to take advantage of slaving opportunities in Mozambique than out of fear of the Zulu. Hence the term 'Mfecane' is falling into disfavour with scholars.
   
   This is not to say that the Zulu did not themselves show aggression or competence. Shaka was clearly a tough, able leader, the most able of his time, and during the last four years of his reign indulged in several long-distance raids. Two were against the Mpondo to the south, an increasing vector of his attention (Shaka moved his capital southwards even further in 1827, to Dukuza); the first, in 1824, was a failure; the second in 1828, only partly successful. A raid against Macingwane of the Chunu, possibly in 1825, is virtually the only one which conforms to the stereotype of the large Zulu army inflicting a serious defeat on another large force. A totally unauthorised raid, led by Dingane against Matiwane of the Ngwane in 1826, was a disaster; and so was an ill-explained foray towards Delagoa Bay in 1828, the so-called 'Balule' campaign. Only in 1826, against Sikhunyane, was there an unqualified victory which allowed Zulu sovereignty to be extended (though again under a proxy ruler, Maphitha). In no case does there appear to have been widespread slaughter, and the record is at best mixed. The 'nation' was cobbled together under difficult circumstances and with patchy success - and there was always internal dissention to deal with.
   
   When the walls fell, Dingane and Mhlangana, Shaka's half-brothers, appear to have made at least two attempts to assassinate Shaka before they succeeded, with support from Mpondo elements, some disaffected iziYendane people, and the white traders at Port Natal (now Durban). The details must remain controversial, including the exact date (late September 1828). What is clear is that Dingane was obliged to embark on an extensive purge of pro-Shaka elements and chieftains, running over several years, in order to secure his position. A virtual civil war broke out. Dingane ruled for some twelve years, during which time he was obliged to fight, disastrously, against the Voortrekkers, and against another half-brother Mpande, who with Boer and British support, took over the Zulu leadership in 1840, and ruled for some 30 years. Later in the 19th century the Zulus would be one of the few African peoples who managed to defeat the British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana.

7. NPCs out of History

   #47

   Aaron Burr- American lawyer and politician, famously killed president Alexander Hamilton in a duel, then conspired to found his own empire in what is now the American Southwest.
   
   And a pair of distant relatives of mine,
   
   Red Hugh Roe O'Donnell- Irish chieftain, kidnapped at the age of sixteen by the english. Escaped five years later to lead an Irish uprising against the English, but was ultimately defeated at the battle of Kinsale. Died in spain several years later while attempting to seek aid for the Irish cause, probably of the plague, despite persistent rumors of poisoning.
   
   Niall Garve O'Donnell- cousin of the above, sided with the english when Red Hugh was declared chieftain instead of him. Later fell out of favor with them and died imprisoned in the tower of london

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