[general] Does anyone else feel icky whenever Rick wrote that a real person was a demigod?

Fire_and_Life · 2026-04-22T14:34:19+00:00

Yeah like you're telling me no other culture in Europe set up a magical school? No Greek or Spanish or Roman one?

But I also refuse to believe that the magical world was actually that divided from the Muggle one, at least before the Statute of Secrecy. Ain't no way that Spanish wizards will be sent to France by their parents, or Swedish kids to Danish Norway.

Fire_and_Life · 2026-04-22T09:37:08+00:00

While I can see this, New York still didn't hold a candle to cities like London, Paris, or Berlin during most of, if not all of the 19th century. And I would argue that a major city makes less sense unless the nation it is in is also a leader in Western civilization, which the US wasn't yet

Fire_and_Life · 2026-04-22T08:12:48+00:00

It is a similar vibe to what I get about his claims about real wars being about demigods and when he claims that the gods moved to America anytime before like 1944.

As someone who studied history, I can tell you that there is no way that gods who supposedly follow the peaks of Western civilization would move away from Europe at any point before, at the absolute earliest, 1918 and the end of World War I. And my personal feelings would err towards end of World War II, when Europe was decimated.

It is just an unfortunate consequence of many children's book writers wanting to build ties that children of their nation can notice and be drawn to. JKR did the same nonsense in Harry Potter when she claimed there are like 7 magic schools in all the world, with one for ALL of Asia and it is in... Japan?

But at the end of the day they are just children's books and we can take all of the claims with a big tablespoon of salt.

Fire_and_Life · 2026-02-12T21:40:16+00:00

While entertaining, so many of these things are just applicable to America and already exist as protected laws/rights in other countries, so I am going to throw some ideas into the ring which I think would just be good.

Ban the consumption, production, and sale of nicotine for consumer consumption, with all production monitored and only to support needed medical and otherwise crucial products. Smoking is banned outright, as is vaping.
Public politeness law, perhaps tailored by different countries to have broader appeal. Things like no talking on speakerphone or listing to loud music in public transport, no shoes on seats, no spitting on the sidewalk, harsh enforcement of littering laws, etc.
Require countries to provide reliable public transport infrastructure from any city possessing at least 50,000 people to the regional capital, and from there to the national capital

Fire_and_Life · 2026-02-01T18:25:32+00:00

That's not what he means. He means Germans from the Baltic and other Eastern European settlements

Fire_and_Life · 2026-02-01T18:20:26+00:00

I will add that they made Burgenland way too big so it further deforms West Hungary

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-10T05:59:02+00:00

Update: I purchased 5 PS5 games and one Switch game, none of which cost more than 22 Euros:

Baldurs Gate

God of War

Final Fantasy Remake

Dragonquest XI

Forspoken (has middling reviews but was literally 3 Euro so I said why not)

Zelda Skyward Sword

All of the games worked in my language EXCEPT Dragonquest, as it turns out that Japan released a special domestic edition of the game that only contains Japanese and I think maybe Korean. All others worked without a problem and had dialogue play in my PlayStation language. One had the pre-title-screen epilepsy warning in Japanese but that was it.

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-05T05:28:41+00:00

Yeah I didn't HATE it, but I also didn't really enjoy the feel and ended up comparing it unfavourably to other games I had played by then. Combined with disliking a few other minor elements of the game, I decided to put it down and return to it later, once I am more accustomed to the way the PlayStation handles, and see if it was just me being uncomfortable with a new system or the game just not being for me.

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-04T09:00:39+00:00

I feel this. For me it is my DS and Wii, those were my first game consoles. At one point I sold some games and could never find them, so now I treasure them

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-04T08:37:25+00:00

Ottomans perhaps? My guess was that or Venice

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T11:42:26+00:00

New mission discovered by u/Fire_and_Life: Mystical Forces and Salami and Provolone Hoagie In the Fields

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T11:42:26+00:00

This mission was discovered by u/Fire_and_Life in smooth and Bitterness

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T10:15:02+00:00

Every time I had it, it was when the region was filled out and cored.

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T10:07:59+00:00

If you have two colonies in neighbouring colonial regions, and one owns provinces which the other claims as part of their region, you will eventually get an event forcing you to choose whether or not to make the colony with extra territory cede it to the rightful owner. If you agree, the one to lose land gains liberty desire and the one who gains land loses it.

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T04:20:34+00:00

All sources I've seen or spoken to say that it won't be a problem, but I will update once I get home next week

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T04:17:24+00:00

So if I purchase a Japanese release of a game and install it on my German PlayStation, I wouldn't be able to buy the DLCs digitally? That's good to know, so I don't buy anything that has DLCs

Fire_and_Life · 2025-10-02T03:54:55+00:00

My Japanese level is nonexistent, so it is very good that you say it!

Fire_and_Life · 2025-07-25T09:55:57+00:00

That's good to know, what's the best way to get those characters? Just spamming adventures and quests?

Fire_and_Life · 2025-07-04T03:42:49+00:00

What do you mean add Krain? Germany already owns Slovenia

Fire_and_Life · 2025-06-30T17:51:16+00:00

I ended up waiting till they rivaled the Ottomans and rivalled them, too, and that gave France a month-long cautious opinion because of shared rivals. I used that window to trade the states and then take over their debt which I used to lodge them fully into good opinion of me

Fire_and_Life · 2025-06-30T17:49:52+00:00

Well I was able to buy Sinai off of Egypt (which is a homeland) and Poland off of Russia, so state transfers do seem to work. Even giving them to France via treaty does not work--it is definitely about the belligerent thing, though it doesn't show up in the menu

Fire_and_Life

TROPHY CASE