The campaign against our enemies in the northeast and south had gone more than well, with our existing territories more than tripled. My lord and liege had granted me with many a fief and offered a few castles as well, although I only accepted one. My men and I, all of us elites among elites, would ride across the battlefields and lay waste to all who dared oppose us, especially on the open plains. Our seemingly meager numbers were often the deciding factor in many a battle, and we always left the sand and snow dyed red with the blood of those who stood against us.
Our khan reveled in our success, and threw many banquets at our main city. The first few were in good taste, but they quickly became unwelcome in my mind. Too often would I rush to the aid of my brethren only to see them ride past me, away from the battle with fresh news of another party being held. Time that should have been spent breaking the backs of our enemies and finalizing our hold on our new territory was wasted and whittled away on wine, women, and song.
I would not stand for it.
My men thirsted for battle and my axe was eager to taste the blood of our weakened foes. We rode to the last enemy stronghold to the south, a grand city amongst the desert sands, and began the siege alone. Our one hundred and some versus the thousand and some garrisoned at that one city. They called us mad, their sultan went so far as to offer leniency if we surrendered as he was impressed by our bravery. When we continued building our siege ramp, their forces sallied out to end the siege before it started.
That skirmish is when they learned our true power. They outnumbered us by at least two to one, and every man they sallied out to face us was sent back to them in pieces. The sultan grew desperate, continued sallying out his forces, and his despair only grew as we slaughtered them. By the time we actually moved to overtake the city, the sultan had already sent five hundred men to their deaths. We overtook the walls with ease, the glaives and axes of my men reaching over or crushing through the shields of our enemies. Our momentum only grew from there, and the stairs leading down onto the streets was soon over flowing with bodies. The outer streets claimed, we moved to the inner streets and rooted out some of the sultans straggling soldiers before finally bursting into the keep. The sultan saw fit to fight me himself. He was cut down with the rest of his soldiers.
We were victorious! The khanate had completely wiped out the sultanate with that final battle and with only a handful of wounded among my men. Pride swelled in my chest as I awaited a no-doubt fitting reward for our service and bravery. A few weeks went by before word reached me. The khan had seen fit to award the city and its taxes to... a different lord entirely. A lord who had wasted his time attending the khan's ill-timed parties. The khan hadn't even seen fit to take the city for himself. My name was not even brought up in the decision making process.
We defected to the nords the same day the news reached us, and in the end were almost solely responsible for the obliteration of the khanate that we had helped to thrive.