Backstories for my Belle Époque imagi-nations: The Emirate of Khyberistan

During early 1990 my career was in a state of flux. I was working for the Inner London Education Authority (better known as the ILEA) as a Post-16 Education Coordination and local vocational education advisor, but as the ILEA was about to be abolished, I had no idea what was going to happen to me. For a time I was ‘handed over’ to the local authority (then known as the London Borough of Greenwich) which had taken over control of education in the Borough, but it was obvious that great changes were about to be made and my job was going to disappear.

I had hoped that I might be made redundant (the redundancy settlement was extremely generous, and I would have been able to pay off our mortgage and put a substantial amount of money in the bank), but Greenwich decided that they would not allow anyone to be made redundant due to the handover. In the end I was offered a job as a Housing Officer … for which I had no training whatsoever! Luckily for me, one of the headteachers I worked for needed someone with my skills, and I was offered a temporary (and later, permanent) contract to become Head of Careers and Technical and Vocational Education Coordinator.

Whilst all this was going on, I took my mind off my troubles by painting a batch of 15mm Irregular Miniatures Dervish Infantry. Over the years these figures have seen sterling service as Dervishes, Arabs, Pathans, and Afghans, and I decided that after such long and distinguished tabletop careers, they should be renovated as part of my Belle Époque project and be used to form a small native army, the Khyberistani Army.

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The Emirate of Khyberistan

Khyberistan is a small mountainous country that is ruled over by an hereditary Emir. It’s people mainly rely on hunting wild animals for their meat, subsistence farming for their fruit and vegetables, and goat herding for their milk, cheese, and wool, and the wool from Khyberistani goats is renown for its softness, warmth, and water-resistance. The local tribes also trade small quantities of gold and precious gems with the outside world, but in general, foreigners (i.e. anyone who is not a Khyberistani) is viewed with suspicion.

The flag of the Emirate of Khyberistan.

The population is split into three main tribes, each of which comprises a number of family clans. Although blood feuds between clans and tribes occasionally break out, the Emir usually arranges for them to be resolved by a system that is akin to trial by combat. Each side chooses a champion, and they are pitted against one another in a series of tests (e.g. killing a mountain lion), which if both survive, culminates in a duel to the death with knives.

Because almost every male Khyberistani is a hunter, they are all marksmen, and a large number of small artisan metalworkers are able to produce copies of imported rifles that are indistinguishable from the originals.

Each tribe provides troops (mainly infantry but also including some light artillery) to defend the county when called upon by the Emir. They generally operate as individual tribal columns and have their own supply units. The Emir has a small full-time bodyguard that includes obsolete fortress artillery, and these act as a garrison for the fortress that protects the nation’s capital, Khyberpore.