City States of the Silk road

[James the Red]

The Tibet preview mentions City States of the Silk road, and I know absolutly nothing about them. Are some of them on the map or are these city states west of Tibet?

And who were they exactly? (if we know)

If there are some on the map since there are only a few "rebel" settlements, I imagine that most of these City states are apart of the starting factions. Can we expect anything different from these settlements further along the line in the mods development?

[Yayattasa]

They were mostly Turkic/Soghdian. They ended there when the Xiongnu and Xianbei moved westward in the III-VI centuries.
The Tarim basin was fertile, but the surrounding enviroment is really harsh, so it was quite deserted apart from a few prominent cities. The Chinese conquered the region several times in history.

[Yayattasa]

Oh, in the 12th century the Liao Dynasty (Khitans) governed over them.