Was the median empire even real...

You have to remember that Herodotus was literally the first narrative historical source we can turn to for anything from that period. The reason we have so much evidence on the Persians is purely because of their interactions with the Greek world. The Medes were destroyed as an independent force many decades before the Greeks even encountered Persia. We barely even have written sources from the massive Persian Empire apart from say the Bisitun inscription and Cyrus Cylinder.

That map is almost certainly a meme.

But we still do have the beshitun inscription and the Cyrus cylinder for the achaemenids, plus a bunch of minor documents and archaeological sites like Persepolis. None of that seems to apply to the medes

The issue with Herodotus is his tales about the foundations and origins of the Medes which is based off his own hearsay and antecedence. Factual information talking about vassal Mede rulers answering to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and working with the Neo-Babylonians do exist in Babylonian, Assyrian, and Jewish sources.

I accept that the Medes exist and had some sort of state but that the median empire didn't exist

>None of that seems to apply to the medes

The Medes didn't have some grandiose elaborate imperial capital that was purpose built like Persepolis or the centralisation and imperial ceremony and formality that would have made stuff like that common enough that we'd have been able to find it.

We shouldn't just pretend that the Median Empire were anything like the Persian Empire other than being from a somewhat similar part of the world. It was merely the Greek worldview that meant things work in cycles, are symmetrical and have a sense of purpose. The Median Empire would fall, to be replaced with something similar, to be destroyed and replaced with something else. Herodotus colours everything from that century.

Many kinglets and vassal kings answered to the Medes so I really doubt they weren't a signifigant power, especially since they were regarded on the same standing as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Egyptian Kingdom, and Lydian Empire at the same time. And the rest of those powers wouldn't have freaked out after the results of the Persian Revolt.

So I feel like consequence and causality would indicate they were a significant macro-state/nation/empire for the other three to make a pact against the rising Persians/Achaemenid dynasty.

>Median Empire were anything like the Persian Empire
You mean besides being another Persian tribe who shared the same royal family and bloodlines as the Achaemenids? Only reason their empire wasn't as established as their successor was the fact it was relatively less than a century in its duration and the Medes never got to really establish themselves.

Hell Persepolis didn't even exist until third Achaemenid emperor, Darius the Great, decides to establish a ceremonial/administrative capital for the Persians.

Is that really a thing that they do? I mean you have to be illiterate to take that from the passage that, iirc goes something like "The Medes used to call themselves Aryans until Medea came to them and they renamed themselves".

Snowniggers always want to steal Aryan away from Iranians so yeah /pol/acks are quite guilty of that shit.

Really? I don't think I've ever heard reports of many kings outside Iran mentioning the Medes

Yeah click the second link in the OP post and scroll to the bottom

It was pretty average if you ask me

What are some good books about the medians?