late 6th century:
avar khaganate: I wonder what the afterlife is like
bulgar: yeah, I do too... you know what? I've got an idea. when one of us dies, he'll visit the other as a ghost and tell him.
time passes, bulgar and avar have a falling-out, bulgar becomes independent, marries onoghur, has a family, gets killed by khazar, etc...
it's sometime in the 1st half of the 9th century. maybe in the year of our lord 823.
the avar khaganate is about to fall asleep. copious amounts of wine have numbed the pain of his crumbling statehood. his prestige, his power, his bravado... they're all gone. is he going to live? will there be a leader who will unite his people and restore his glory? probably not. he barely has any strength to stand up. he's doomed.
he'd startled by a tug at his braids and someone yelling his name.
'YO AVAR'
*gasp* 'B-BULGAR! WTF!... DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT... wh-why u... didn't u... come earlier... I thought you died 150 years ago...'
'I was busy visiting my kids, and it's not like I can visit the mortal world whenever I want to'
'oh... I see... the afterlife... how's it like?'
'well... I have some good news and some bad news.'
'huh?'
'I'll start with the good news. so basically the afterlife is like this super rad steppe there are horses and yurts and tons of yogurt and kumis and there are those cool battles and wrestling matches and archery competitions and horse races'
'that's... awesome... but... the bad... what about the bad news?'
'...UR RACING TOMORROW.'