Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China, spared no expense in building a massive terracotta army to extend his reign into the afterlife. Many believe this to be a drastic waste of resources, but more than 2,000 years later, the army remains undefeated.

In a chance encounter in 1974, a group of farmers were digging for water when they came across a head made out of terracotta clay. Rather than come to the logical conclusion that there existed clay people whose civilization was destroyed by meteors, they contacted authorities who arrived on scene to further excavate the area, and thus began one of the greatest discoveries in modern time. It is unclear whether the farmers later died of thirst.

The army dates to around 210 BC, consists of more than 8,000 soldiers, and amazingly was not only built without the luxury of copy and paste, but each figure is also unique in his attire or facial features, leading some to conclude that each one was based on an actual soldier. If this is true, then these figures represent some of the luckiest ancient Chinese people, because if they had instead lived and died shortly after the BC era, they would’ve all gone to Hell for not having accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

The figures also vary in height, depending on their rank. The generals are the tallest, while the outhouse sweeper is no bigger than a garden gnome. Tourists who have seen the latter agree that he is absolutely adorable.

In recent years, terracotta soldiers and horses have traveled around the world to different museums in order to educate the public about Chinese culture, as well as perform general surveillance in case spectral forces of foreign countries decide to invade. If a ghost war does indeed break out, it promises to be filled with more special effects than World War II.