As the Alani ride into battle, bloody scalps displayed proudly on their saddles, few can dispute their reputation for unsurpassed ferocity.
The division of the Roman Empire has unshackled the East, allowing it to take control of the Roman world.
As the world stands on the edge of chaos, the Franks hover between two roles. As destroyers - or inheritors of the Roman legacy - they are on the cusp of realising their full potential.
The aura of terror surrounding the Huns is so great that their enemies are barely able to conceive that they are also human beings.
The Ostrogoths' wanderings through Roman lands belie their origins as a powerful empire.
The Sassanids are the latest in a line of Persian empires stretching back almost 1,000 years.
Their distance from the heart of the Roman Empire shrouds the Saxons in mystery, granting them the freedom to pillage and conquer as they please.
Abandoned in their hour of need by their Roman allies, the Vandals find themselves at a turning point in their long quest for southern lands.
The reluctant arbiters of barbarian vengeance, the Visigoths have sworn to repay the Romans in full for decades of abuse at their hands.
The Western Roman Empire is on the very edge of catastrophe.
