Tolui

Born around 1191 to Genghis Khan and Börte, Tolui matured into what contemporaries judged the finest warrior among his brothers. He commanded forces during the first invasion of Jin China starting in 1211, then cemented his standing in the Khwarazmian campaign: dispatched to Khorasan in 1221, he took Merv, Nishapur, and Herat with efficiency so brutal that chroniclers recorded millions dead, figures modern scholars call inflated but still markers of unusual savagery. When Genghis died mid-1227, Tolui became regent under the Mongols' youngest-son inheritance custom, overseeing the burial and the empire's administration. The two-year wait before his brother Ögedei's coronation in 1229 may have reflected Tolui's own ambitions, though he ultimately swore loyalty. He joined Ögedei's successful campaign against the Jin in 1230, but died in late 1232 under murky circumstances - officially during a shamanic ritual to lift a curse from his brother, though whispers of alcoholism or poison persisted. His widow Sorghaghtani took his estates and built the power base that seated their son Möngke as khan in 1251.