Reddit mentions of The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition, Volume 1

I rarely find anybody out in the world who is as passionate about history and games as I am, much less on this forum. I didn't even know what reddit was until my girlfriend talked me into checking it out; I came up with the old forums and used to learn a lot from people with similar interests in the early 00's but ever since having children I've mainly been away from any form of social media or messaging boards. But because I learned that reddit has subforums for such particular interests, I've stuck around, but have certainly noticed the level of general intelligence to be about what kept me from partaking in online discussions for so long initially. But that's ok, because occasionally I'll find somebody from somewhere out in the world like you and those brief but deeply meaningful encounters of sharing passions with a stranger make it worth it, and truly there is much to learn here if one is willing to tolerate the gross amounts of tedium and juvenille humor.

What you said about Alexander is precisely how I feel about him; I've read more than one account of his life (from the shorter 'moral essays' of Plutarch, the accounts of the wars in general of Diodorus Siculus, to the lengthier rivals of Arrian like Quintus Curtius Rufus) and even where you can tell there has been exaggeration, the key points of his life for which we can be absolutely certain of are literally on the level of a legend or myth, not so disimillar to those epic figures of the Icelandic Sagas! Like you, my interest in history is broad; I'm not a specialist, in fact I dropped out of high school and spent most of my twenties in crippling heroin addiction before I got my shit together and sought help, but I've had a voracious appetite for books since I was a child and have never stopped obsessively learning.

Asides from those general Mediterranean ancient historical cultures, I am also deeply interested in the Scandinavian both pre-history and Viking era (currently reading the Heimsrkingla, in fact!), the numerous Turks and origins of the 'barbarian' tribes like the Scythians and the Alans and general Eurasian steppe cultures (especially when we get ancient or medieval accounts from the likes of missionaries of merchants of the shamanic religious beliefs), the Huns and the Khanate Empires, the Spanish conquistadors and the original conquests of Mexico and Peru (am a huge fan of histories of Francisco Pizarro), the nomadic Lapps and the Kievan Rus, the Islamic Caliphate and the entirety of the Cruades from both angles, &c I could go on of course, but each of these cultures are those of whom I've recently read accounts of and thoroughly enjoy learning about. Quite possibly if I had to narrow down the single most pertinent book that covers a huge amount of most of my historical interests in as comprehensive and detailed a manner possible, it would be the Yule-Cordier edition of Marco Polo's Travels. Its available in a 2 volume edition of some nearly 1,700 pages for very cheap paperback prices online, I'm currently re-reading it right now (along with Runciman's 3 volume History of the Crusades) for the third (!) time, and I learn more every time I pick it up. Seriously, if you are interested in any of those cultures, this book draws its sources in the notes (which alone constitute probably 1,300 of those pages) from works taken from all around the world, from the ancients like Pliny and Herodotus, to obscure Arabic and Persian, Indian and Malay Archipelago, Chinese ancient and modern, native and missionary, &c. I just cannot recommend it highly enough, unless of course you're already familiar with it, lol.

https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Marco-Polo-Complete-Yule-Cordier/dp/0486275868/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/144-8087320-6111126?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486275868&pd_rd_r=77d672fa-0ec1-467b-b0fe-1b89b1094821&pd_rd_w=3i7wo&pd_rd_wg=Ir1Ng&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=J7KKJVZ3617N198564E8&psc=1&refRID=J7KKJVZ3617N198564E8

Also, thank you for expressing that you feel simliary about the original Fallout games. I have a passion for them which I very rarely find shared by other people, at least not in person, and its frustrating that still 20 years later so many people go on completely oblivious to what they are missing, content to play the Bethesda games, or even New Vegas without having any notion to whom Cass is referring, or Marcus, or Tabitha and the Nightkin, the Followers of the Apocalypse, the Bozar gun and or 'That Gun', the references to the families of New Reno, and so on. If you don't mind sharing, might I ask you where you're from? You express yourself perfectly well for not being a native English speaker. I'm from Philadelphia in the US.

So if you are unwilling to accept Marco Polo's eyewitness testimony, what would be a "verifiable source" to you?

I assume none of these qualify.

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/20/7_of_the_most_amazing_women_youve_never_heard_of_partner/

http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/khutulun/

http://deadliestfiction.wikia.com/wiki/Khutulun

http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/70535980643/khutulun-the-wrestler-princess

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/10/badass-ladies-of-chinese-history-khutulun/

http://www.mythofhistory.com/Khutulun.htm

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/roundtable/the-wrestler-princess.php

http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-History-Mongol-Queens/dp/0307407160

All these people must just be making this up, right?