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If you haven't noticed, of all animals Ashina most resembles a wolf.
Hidden for tedious information (holy):
[hide]Ashina (Chinese: 阿史那, Modern Chinese: (Pinyin): āshǐnà, (Wade-Giles): a-shih-na, Middle Chinese: (Guangyun) [ʔɑʃi̯ə˥nɑ˩], Asen, Asena, etc.) is an alternative spelling of Asena (asenā), which means Wolf according to some Chinese folks, and the name for Female Wolf according to belief of many people in Turkey.
The legend is that after a fierce battle (god knows who fought with whom), only an injured young boy survived. A she-wolf found the injured child and nurtured him back to health. What a grateful boy, because he later banged the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-human half-wolf boys in a cave. One of them took the name Ashina, and “in front of the gate to the camp the Türks placed a standard with a wolf’s head on it, so as to show that they had not forgotten their origins” . (Sinor, “Legendary Origin,” 224-25, see also 233-35 and Golden, “Imperial,” 42-43) Ashina became their leader and founded the Ashina clan that ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires.
Under their leadership, the Göktürks rapidly expanded to rule huge territories in north-western China, North Asia and Eastern Europe (as far west as the Crimea). (http://www.turkeyodyssey.com) "Of all the astonishing experiences of the widely dispersed Jewish people none was more extraordinary than that concerning the Khazars." (Nathan Ausubel in Pictorial History of the Jewish People,1953) "…the Khazars too claimed the status of a Chosen Race, who made their own Covenant with the Lord, even though they were not descended from Abraham's seed." (Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, p. 66).
That is one kick-ass clan.
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And if you haven't noticed, Ashina's design is largely inspired by both Nausicaa and Kushana.
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After reading Nausicaa I did some research on Kushana and learned about the Kushana empire. Then I figured about the Ashina:
"The Western Turks, ruling trough scions of the (Ashina) royal clan or older Hephthalite, Kushana and Irana subregimes, controlled the territory between the Syr and the Amu with the entrepots of the Chinese trade, Samarqand, Bukhara and others."
History is certainly interesting. A large part of my stories is based on those.
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