The Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 210, The Scourge of the Gods, part one.

So, I survived camping in the woods with all my ninth graders, and today we're going to change tack about a group

just as savage as your average ninth grader, but with slightly better personal hygiene. As an aside,

I did pick up a wonderful mucold from one of the ninth graders over the trip, so if I sound a little

congested or stranger than usual, that's why. But that's not really worth dwelling

on because this week we're going to start another short series on something that quite a few

of you have asked for, and one that I would be remiss not to deliver because it's a damn good

story and a damn important one. It begins in the kind of place you wouldn't imagine an important story would, in 1162 on

the wide-open steps of Mongolia.

There a son was born to the head of the ruling clan of the Mongols, a warrior named Yasuge.

That boy was known at birth as Temujin, though that's not the name that would make him

famous.

Young Temujin would be tried in a series of conflicts that would consume most of his life.

He would murder one of his own brothers for stealing from him, and would be cursed by his own

mother for it.

He would see his wife, a beautiful and wise

woman named Borte, captured by his rivals, and would go above and beyond to rescue her.

He would swear an oath of blood-brothership with his closest friend, Jamucha, and would then see

their friendship rent asunder as neither man was prepared to be second to the other.

Tamugin ultimately executed his old friend.

Ultimately, Timujin would do something never before done.

Unite the warring clans of the Mongols and join them together in a new alliance under his leadership.

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