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#1 The Assyrians, a people of the flat alluvial plains, were city-dwellers who had spread terror and extermination as far as Egypt. They had always seen it as their duty to flatten resistance in the wilds beyond their borders.

#2 The Zagros Mountains were a source of wealth for the Assyrians. The mountains were a mishmash of different peoples, Aryans and aboriginals, with the Medes ruled by a quarrelsome multitude of petty chieftains. Foreign occupation by imposing a unitary authority on the region began to encourage the fractious tribes to cohere.

#3 The Median Empire, ruled by Astyages, was based around Ecbatana, a palace in the Iranian plateau. It was the crossroads of the world for trade, and the Medes found themselves subjects of a despot nearer to home.

#4 The Medes were a devout and ethical people, who valued visions of doom. They knew that creation was full of darkness, and they were duty-bound to kill any creatures that might be the visible excrescents of a universal shadow.