Quote:>sigh< Mongols... Have you ever heard of the Manchus? Seljuk? Turks? Scythians? Huns? Avars? Parthians? Sarmatians? Not to mention the eventual conquering of the area by Russian Empire?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. And duh.
The Manchurians are incorporated into modern China. Are they going to space to show up their age old enemy, themselves? I think not.
The Seljuks, Scythians, Parthians, Sarmatians and Avars are all to the west, not the north. "Turks" is a gigantic linguistic group, members of which were north of China, but most of which weren't.
If you say the "ages old barbarian nemesis from the northern steppes," you pretty much mean the Mongols, or at a stretch, the Huns. However, since there are no more Huns, that leaves the Mongols.
The Russians are Slavic agriculturalists with a hint of Scandanavian thrown in. They are neither migrating Europeans (in the sense of moving towards China, anyway) nor are they nomadic barbarians.
-Jester