For those toying with the idea of a rather exotic, yet original, 'very South-Eastern European Imagi-Nation', the Ossetians en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossetians provide a fascinating model: direct descendants of the Alans (and thus of the Sarmatians and Scythians en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians ), still speaking a tongue related to Ancient Iranian, and an islet of (rather mixed with old paganism link ) Christianity in islamized Caucasus.
Visually they would not differ much from other ethnical groups of the Caucasus. meaning that in 15mm the Khurasan 'warriors of the Caucasus' (not yet on their on-line store?) would fit, but , for an Imagi-Nation, one could 'harvest' widely.
The 'heavy' cavalry of their neighbors the Circassians looked very Late Byzantine-like link -still on sketches from the Napoleonic period, and this peculiar dress was worn in parade by the Circassian squadron of the 'Tzar's escort' until WWI.
(*Very* interesting blog about historical cavalrymen, mainly Poles:
dariocaballeros.blogspot.com ).
On the other hand, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Turcomans… from the Late Renaissance to the time of Michel Strogoff
could be added to the mix
(these colorful cavalrymen stroke the 'Western' imagination during the Napoleonic wars, so their early 19th C. version probably appears in some Napoleonic ranges).
A very original feature of their ancestors -which could well have survived in such a Post-Alan en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alania Imagi-Nation,- was that their women could (seemingly more often than not were) *warriors* link
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A tradition in full revival, actually
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linklinkRemember that Trajan fought Sarmatians in modern Romania, so a post-Sarmatian, Ossete-like Imagi-Nation does not have to be located as far East as the real Ossetia. [Not to mention that Alan veterans were settled by the Romans over most of Western Europe…. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans : I reckon 18th C. Brittany or England would be unlikely locations!]
Btw, many Alans were blond-haired, and a Varangian input -they roamed the Black Sea- would not have weakened the trend; to survive until the 18th C. this Imagi-Nation has probably to be rather isolated…
paints brigs for the British fleet.
