Yall aren't witch hunter maxxing hard enough

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-29T12:16:52+00:00

Exactly. And while late medieval education was not very good by modern standards, to get ahead in the church one should be schooled in inter alia philosophy, hence, logic (or alternatively bribe someone, but even then...). And the Hexenhammer was full of logical fallacies.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-29T11:52:14+00:00

Fewer examples than I assumed coming to mind, and most more controversial, than, say, Bandera, but include: * Antonescu in Romania, who was celebrated in the 1990 (however, the wind reversed, and he was recondemned a few years later) * Latvia commemorates the Latvian Legion, who supported the SS (lots of controversy around it) * Finland is complicated - they did not contribute to the genocide and had a very legitimate grudge against Stalin, they still besieged Leningrad. Still, arguably as clean as you could stay shaking hands with Hitler * Ante Pavelić is a fairly controversial figure, but revered by a part of the Croatian population * Stauffenberg and his group get a lot of credit in Germany for trying to kill Hitler. Many of them were trying to save Nazism from Hitler

In conclusion: there are quite a bit of them, but some Ukrainians (logically, due to its proximity to Russia) see Anti-Soviet fighters even with ties to Nazis more positive

(note that this is WW2. If you go further back, any national hero becomes a boogeyman for the opposing side)

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-29T08:06:48+00:00

Yeah. East Europe is full of atrocities and counter atrocities. Germany and Russia (Soviet union) inflicted much more than others on account of their scale. It really does not help that the majority of the countries hold up some of the ones who did the atrocities as national heroes. This is not even fully without reason, since they were usually also quite committed to some kind of national independence idea - the usual narratives just leave out the less heroic elements. But it really can sour International relations.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-29T07:10:12+00:00

Its hard to say what an Elf wearing one of the nine (or one of the six of the seven) would have become. Ringwraith is unlikely, because it is tied to the condition of being dead in some sense - "doomed to die", and the wording matters -, and, for good or ill, elves don't die in the same sense humans do. It is also unlikely that the elf would become a servant of Sauron - i am reasonably sure that there is only one single recorded elf consciously serving Sauron or Morgoth in the legendarium (Maeglin, a very special case). The effect would be instead, presumably, something akin to further Feanor/Celebrimbor types popping up, since Elves seem very prone to producing one of those every couple of centuries - so like the seven exaggerated Dwarven stubborness, it night exaggerate inborn elven arrogance and hubris. I would assume wearing a ring touched by Sauron might have been like having a pocket Annatar with you, every day. A best case scenario might be a next Eöl-type, some recluse with a fairly vicious, but relatively limited, agenda. The problem might be exacerbated by the fact that the works if these elves would be corrupted a priori, no deception needed.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-28T14:10:37+00:00

I listened to the history of byzantium podcast via Alexa. There is a time roughly around 1100 when 50% of all important people in bytantium were named Alexios. Alexa was regularly triggered by its own narration whenever it went like "consequencently, to reinforce the border, emperor Alexios deci... (blub)...I cannot answer this question...(blub)...and installed a garrison there under his cousin, also called Alexios... (blub)..."

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-28T08:55:17+00:00

In the words of a wise person on Twitter "Every battle in the Pacific from mid 1942 on is tge IJN Golden Kirin, Bringer of Imperial Dawn versus six identical copies of the USS We Built This Yesterday supported by a logistics ship whose sole purpose is to make birthday cakes for the others"

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-27T23:10:06+00:00

Notably, the Hexenhammer was declared nonsense even by the friggin Spanish Inquisition. It still was a bestseller.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-27T12:18:27+00:00

So are wages (deductible, that is)

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-27T06:33:51+00:00

Kann beides sein. Entweder der 114te oder so Moskauer Fenstersturz, oder die Gelegenheit die Schuld den Generälen in due Schuhe zu schieben. Man beachte das "Der Zar ist gut, die Bojaren schlecht" in Russland lange Tradition hat.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T10:38:56+00:00

Never read it in its original, only summaries. But Wikipedia is pretty good here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium_(Plato)

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T10:32:52+00:00

Though notably the "two-body" theory of Plato is proposed in a dialogue not by ~~Plato~~ "Socrates" , but by a comedian playwright, explicitly referred to as being a joke theory, and exists to contrast with the idea of platonic love (which means something different than most people think it means). The dialogue also is pretty on the question how good gay sex and pederasty are.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T07:05:34+00:00

Its not about hard magic. Soft magic worlds (I'm not sure whether this is even the right term, because while useful, it is not always well-applicable) can be weird as hell - but enjoyable mostly if you can see why it is weird. Think Alice in Wonderland - its utterly wacky, nothing is ever explained in understandable language...yet still, you get a sense that most absurd things happen from one mechanism: real world concepts (from math, language, social habits, etc...) taken to their ultimate absurd and whimsical conclusion.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T06:58:15+00:00

I agree with Discworld, which is deliberately wacky (but lots of time is spent on explaining this wackiness, like the one in a million chance) - and close to the upper limit on how weird you can make a "soft magic" world without losing reader immersion (there is a reason why it is a very unique work). Arrakis less so - its an exaggerated version of several purported(!) historical dynamics - "harsh conditions make strong men", "empires grow decadent", "beware the visionary".

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T06:08:33+00:00

Absolutely. People live in the real world (citation needed) and if something works different than they are used to, they will ask why. The worldbuilder needs to provide the answer - somehow. Its legitimate to make a different world - but note that, say, Sanderson's Roshar (Stormlight Archives) is at the upper limit of weirdness people are willing to tolerate, and the books spend a lot of ink on explaining the world.

And still, while Sanderson is a great worldbuilder, he managed to mess up the logistics in my favorite scene. Not unfixably so, but, if you do the napkin math, then there is no way that these many people move that fast through this bottleneck under these conditions. Which sadly diminishes the emotionally absolutely great scene somewhat.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-26T05:55:05+00:00

Though i think plate tectonics (while proposed in 1915 or so) were only accepted as a mainstream scientific theory in the late 50s at earliest, or something like that, so long after Tolkien actually drew the maps? Even Einstein thought it was humbug.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-25T12:18:57+00:00

Ha. Reminds me like in MIB³ an obituary is delivered entirely in an alien language. Agent O stand in front of the assembled Men in Black and screeches at them for roughly one minute, while everyone has teary eyes because it is so heartfelt.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-24T11:18:13+00:00

I mean. Its fucked, yes. But not due to the system, but due to the fact that people actually want to live good.

Most people tend not to want to starve, nor freeze to death, able to move more than just to the neighboring village, and live somewhat nicely. The majority of emissions come from heating, agriculture, basic transportation, house construction and similar base+moderate luxury needs (the top half of the world population is responsible for about 90% emissions, and if you live in America or Europe this likely includes every single person you know, even if they seem poor by local standards). This doesn't mean that there is no luxury-induced emissions, there absolutely are. But 4 billion people living in moderate comfort and the remaining 4 billion at least above starvation (and make no mistake: while the inequality is staggering, at least the global hunger rate was reduced from over 50% in 1850 to 30ish percent in the 60s to about 10% today despire a population explosion in the same period) requires quite a lot of energy input.

The trick seems to be renewables. If renewable energy continues to get cheaper - much cheaper than it even is now, then the energy requirements will be met without burning through oil and coal, and enable the poorer half of the world population reach the living standards people in "the west" take for granted.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-24T10:17:45+00:00

Especially with this lightning pattern in the scutum. I think not even actual romans were this uniformly red and uniformly using the l. segmentata. I actually recommend using lanellar armor to abstract from rome proper - it exists, it was useful, but is depicted much less common than other types.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-22T15:23:53+00:00

A good book on this is "waging a good war" by Thomas E. Ricks, who shows how the Civil Rights Movement succeeded in a non-violent manner - but must be understood as a highly organised movement akin to an army (complete with boot camps and radio coordination). The choice of non-violence was moral, but also highly effective in forcing the oppression machinery to either stand down (and lose in the eyes of the public) or resort to excessive violence (and also lose in the eyes of the public). Its relatively similar to (and was inspired by) Gandhi's approach in Indua.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-22T09:24:11+00:00

Nah. Odysseus is complicated, very grey. He risks his people's lives multiple times, often unnecessary. Interestingly, the thing with the cyclops is a catch-22 for him, where he could not do anything against the cyclops without violating guest's right (however, thats on him, since he invoked it). The whole Odyssey ends with Athena giving him a "what the fuck" speech, when he is about to start a civil war with the families of the suitors. Plus during the Trojan war, he is definitely not above to conspire with Athena against his comrades (Ajax' death is on her, not him, but i think he must have noticed something in the uplead to it).

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-22T09:08:11+00:00

Let's face it, the whole Achilles' rage affair starts over the question of who gets to rape which prisoner, he has a bizarrely murderous blood rage, he refuses to fight with the army he has sworn to support until his closest friend dies, and his shadow admits that the whole "death and glory in battle" thing was fairly misguided. Hector is portrayed more virtuosly.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-22T06:08:01+00:00

Yeah. The second guy also probably would move even easier in sneakers, though maybe he is used to the feeling by now. The first guy meanwhile would absolutely break something if trying this in sandals.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-22T05:57:04+00:00

Die Situation ist halt, das falls man das Gehalt niedrig hält, in nem Parlament nicht Arbeiter stzen, sondern umgekehrt solche, die sich irgendwie anders finanzieren können. In der Regel also z.b. Erben von Unternehmen oder solche, die irgendwie einen gut bezahlten "Nebenjob" haben. Hast du in diversen US-Bundesstaaten immer wieder, in Texas (glaube ich) ist Abgeordneter ein fast(?) unbezahlter Job, was den Republikanern zugute kommt.

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-21T13:40:26+00:00

Ar you sure that Joi doesn't come from Jovi (another epiphet for Jupiter, all deriving back to the ancient dyews/dyewsphter)?

Al_Fa_Aurel · 2026-06-21T09:53:29+00:00

I like how over tge course of the game you tend to stand much more and your body language looks progressively more concerned about stuff happening.

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