What source(s) are you using? Been wanting to dig into central asia some more

Gotta recommend this one if you haven't read it yet, did a great job of laying out all the complicated factors that went into the FnI war and sets up the revolution nicely

I went looking for pictures and was not disappointed.

I haven't done my homework on the period, but perhaps "relegated (insert unit/descriptor term here)" might work better in being less clunky and making sense to some sports fans (at least Euros are familiar with relegation). Conveys some sense of lesser than, and isn't slamming suffixes together.