>>17906024
>blocks your path across the steppe
kind of generalizing too much desu
Northern Europeans could and did work well together for prolonged periods of time
they formed alliances and grand coalitions operating along a frontline of hundreds of miles long, they played politics with each other and the Romans/Sassanids, they had their own system of governance based on blood oaths and personal loyalty, as well as a fairly transparent judiciary where every man could make his case.