Prelude to Paladin

Surprise! Cleopatra, Egypt's most famous pharaoh, was actually Greek. She ruled from Alexandria, a city founded by her Greek predecessor, Alexander the Great. And since then, her family was acting as the "face of Egypt", while secretly living Greek lives, isolated from any Egyptian cultural interference!

In this sense Cleopatra was a bit of a rebel as she apparently took interest in the language and culture of her subjects. She was the first in her family to do so in about 300 years. Too bad she was also the last.

When Abraham Lincoln entered the world, the Republican Party was just a twinkle in the eye of history. The Republican party emerged from the ashes of the Whigs party, which dissolved itself not being able to take a position on slavery.

Lincoln didn't just join the party; he became its poster child, snagging the title of first Republican president.

Before Ieyasu, Japan was broken into hundreds of kingdoms, all fighting against each-other.

Plot twist: Japan's "great unifier" isn't just one person - it's a trio! The unification process got started by a brutal warlord named Oda Nobunaga. Oda had 2 wingmen: Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. After Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi got the "crown" and Ieyasu only became shogun after his death.

Ieyasu outlasted the other two, proving that in the game of thrones (Japanese edition), it's not about who unifies first, but who unifies last.