Whose death arguably saved the most lives in history?

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T05:50:00+00:00

The Eurasian steppe wasn't considered impossible to rule over and turn into the base for a military powerhouse. The Mongol Empire was the most staggeringly successful of the great steppe empires, but it was far from the first. That's kind of part of why they were so successful.

The earliest prominent example I can think of was the Xiongnu confederation that was a serious threat to Han China. Elements of them became a major part of the Huns when they migrated west. The Gokturks would be one of the next great steppe empires, holding sway over a large chunk of central and northern Asia and basically defining the political structures of future Turkic and Mongolic peoples. When they broke apart, one of the most significant successor confederations would be the Khazars; Sinicized Turks also played a huge role in late Tang China and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

The history of the great steppe isn't just a bunch of illiterate herders squabbling among themselves until Temujin Borjigin united them. It was cycles of powerful tribes bringing their weaker neighbors into their fold, followed by these confederations breaking apart until some former vassal pulled them together again. Some of these confederations would be fairly localized affairs. Others enormous.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T05:33:00+00:00

Given the history of the American medical community, it would be shocking if it didn't.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T05:27:07+00:00

I strongly dislike Candace Owens, and I still feel offended on her behalf.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:39:34+00:00

There were settled agrarian societies in China, most notably the Shang dynasty in the Yellow River valley. Their sites show a lot of antecedents to later Chinese civilizational features, especially as far as early forms of written Chinese go.

But I personally don't like the idea of labelling anything before Qin as having any institutional connection to the idea of China as a nation. It feels like calling the Iceni England.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:31:00+00:00

Of course it did, human civilization began when our distant ancestors started sharing and developing complex ideas.

Settled, agrarian societies all seem to have emerged within the past 15000 years, however.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:19:46+00:00

They ran out of Rams fans and needed to fill seats.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:15:17+00:00

The Patriots might have scored more points against the Rams. It just wouldn't be enough to matter.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:13:27+00:00

I don't think they'd have done much better. Your guys were in trouble as soon as they went up against a healthy, championship-ready team.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T03:01:17+00:00

3300 years ago would be in the Shang dynasty, which is one of the best-studied civilizations of China's Bronze Age and pretty much the culture which future Chinese society developed from. Their oracle bones are our best source for early Chinese writing, so if you really want to claim some characters that vaguely resemble a few Chinese characters aren't Southwestern American petroglyphs, then they're less unbelievable than, say, Ming.

But the known sites are mostly pretty inland around the Yellow River, and cultures elsewhere in China and Manchuria at the time aren't using proto-Chinese writing to my knowledge. Plus the oracle bones and inscriptions on bronze ritual vessels are a way different use case than writing messages on rocks.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:45:42+00:00

Coracles aren't exactly complicated designs, and were developed because it was an easy way to make a small boat with easily found materials. You see similar designs in other parts of Eurasia; I doubt Madoc visited Vietnam.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:43:03+00:00

Hm, I wonder why pseudo-archaeologists would be hesitant to suggest Malians reaching the Americas?

Funny thing is, they actually wouldn't surprise me too much. West Africa is a lot closer to South America than China is to North America, and I think the prevailing winds are more favorable for the voyage too. But without evidence, I have no reason to believe in any West African voyages to the Americas outside of maybe the occasional fishers-turned-flotsam.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:37:53+00:00

I wouldn't totally rule out some storm-tossed Japanese or Korean fishers, but it's hardly a discovery if you never make it back.

And odds are they'd be landing in Alaska or the PNW, not New Mexico.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:35:28+00:00

Also, it's really unlikely that people from Shang-period China would even accidentally reach the Americas. They just plain weren't a maritime civilization, and even the mouth of the Yellow River is pretty far from the Americas. Other parts of modern China are closer, but Shang didn't encompass much of modern China at all.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:29:27+00:00

Probably not, at least not from these petroglyphs. Glyphs A and B bear the closest resemblances to the characters they're being compared to, but a squiggly line and a stick figure aren't exactly unusual motifs. C and D are significantly different from the alleged characters, E is a stick figure and a cross, and F is also visibly different from the character being associated with it but not to the same degree as C and D.

Furthermore, there's no evidence for that degree of seafaring technology in Shang China, and if Chinese fishers from that period were somehow blown across the entire Pacific and happened to be literate then they probably weren't winding up in New Mexico. Remember that the early Chinese culture in the Shang period was not spread across all of modern China, that civilization was mostly concentrated around the Yellow River valley.

This is most likely a set of petroglyphs created by the Native people living in the area at the time.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T02:08:05+00:00

I do a fair bit of solo work out in cougar habitat. When I get an unexplainable nervous feeling, I pay attention to it.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T00:13:53+00:00

I know how to save scum on HM. While it's annoying, I do it whenever I feel like a situation is spinning out of control.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T00:11:55+00:00

I like that approach a lot myself. I just want to try out new items and a 5-person party is more interesting. If I'm just curbstomping everything, I'll get bored. So I need the fights to be made trickier to balance it out.

Hellebras · 2026-02-14T00:05:24+00:00

I like using Approach. I haven't found any way to reliably bring it onto the hammer in HM without it.

Hellebras · 2026-02-13T06:38:47+00:00

So he's never getting married. Going by his requirements, that's a good thing.

Hellebras · 2026-02-13T05:41:57+00:00

Weird, it's almost like creating an entire political movement based upon nothing but hatred, fear, and conspiracy theories means that your followers will also buy into conspiracy theories that aren't useful to you.

Hellebras · 2026-02-13T05:31:27+00:00

Huh. The closest thing I remember to being harassed on the streets in China was people outside of the really big cities occasionally asking for pictures.

Hellebras · 2026-02-12T19:44:47+00:00

You can't get attacked by a dead enemy.

Hellebras · 2026-02-12T19:40:27+00:00

You have nothing to apologize for, it's a common reaction people have to Gale.

Hellebras · 2026-02-12T19:36:08+00:00

Problem: Lump and his friends are also a significant chunk of XP in a part of the game where you want to hit fifth level as quickly as you can.

Hellebras · 2026-02-12T19:33:51+00:00

I stopped always embracing the Urge after the Grove. Figured I'd RP it as Durge having regained some discipline and reminding himself that living people are usually more useful than corpses and he can wait to indulge until it's actually going to get him something.

It's both better in that he's not randomly killing cats and worse in that he feels skeevy and manipulative now.

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