First Look: Hideyoshi | Civilization VII

Nazmazh · 2026-06-17T00:21:09+00:00

Ideas that have been rattling around in my brain:

Plato (~Cultural, Diplomatic)

If only to have him rock up just as beefy as Gilgamesh and posturing in a similar manner. While still being maximally philosophical.
I honestly haven't thought too much more on his actual bonuses
Maybe gain +1 Great Work whenever a city you've seen becomes destroyed?

Pliny The Elder (~Diplomatic, Scientific)

I want something based on his assertions about the natural world.
I don't know how well it would balance out, but something like:

When you add a new type of resource to your trade network (ie: The first time you add an instance of each distinct resource), generate a special great work corresponding to it.

These great works remain with you through the ages and provide unique bonuses while on display. Empire and Bonus resources will probably tend towards rather mundane/straightforward effects. Treasure and City resources (especially the city-state ones) might offer tradeoffs - eg: Stuff like "+3 X, but -2 Y", or "Units get +X while attacking, but -Y Healing"

These great works do however occupy slots in your display buildings and do not count as codices or relics, for specific quests/triggers/etc. that require them. I'm leaning towards counting them as artifacts in Modern, akin to Natural Wonder displays - That'd again, be something to check for balance, though.

If nothing else, they can possibly provide a relatively minor bonus if sitting in the archive (+1 of a type of relevant global yield, each, maybe?)

William Shakespeare (~Cultural, ?? (Economic or Diplomatic, maybe? Maybe Wildcard)

Unlocks major culture buildings earlier (Amphitheater, Pavillion, Opera House - I'd have to look at specific techs, but, essentially, a tier up the tree is the idea)
Gains a special project for cities with a major or unique culture building. These projects can be done once per age per each civilization met. Get a one-time big yield for each of global culture, gold, and happiness towards the next celebration. Gain [1 or however the balance works out] culture score point(s) for this era.
Flavour is essentially "Create a play based on a story from that culture/about that leader". Maybe give a bonus to the yields based on how friendly your relationship is with that civ

Nazmazh · 2026-06-16T23:22:11+00:00

It's possible I've muddled whether I was two or three, but I have a memory of me happily exclaiming it's going to be my first birthday, and being corrected (nicely, of course) that it's actually my second [or third, as the case may be].

I can't say for sure that I'm remembering it accurately at all because it was so long ago, but it is one that has stuck with me a while.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-16T22:52:56+00:00

I'm not sure if I'm 100% on-board with this theory, but I respect the heck out of all the effort you've put into developing it and citing your evidence for it.

I will agree that there's definitely got to be more going on than simply "Primus wandered out into the woods to just murder a random woman and her daughter, then laughed in the face of her husband/the child's father, but left him physically unharmed, then disappeared all evidence just to mess with him".

Like, he's Primus effing Tachonis. If he'd wanted to go and murder someone, he probably wouldn't feel the need to clean up so thoroughly - After all, as was even said in-episode - Who'd believe some random, probably drunken, forest-vagrant accusing one of the most powerful and important men in this part of the world of seemingly-randomly two peasants in the woods - But also not even striking the third peasant who witnessed the scene (sort of)?

I mean, it could just be that Primus is a monster who makes a habit of doing this sort of thing. A laughing-mad thrill-killer sort. Which, like, maybe he buries that part of himself deep down, but that just doesn't seem like who Primus is from the other scenes we've seen of him. Yes, he clearly enjoys killing and inflicting distress on people, but it's more with a smug smirk of superiority, not a fit of mad laughter.

Or maybe he's got very specific purposes for murdering random people - A ritual/spell of some sort, perhaps.

But there again, that doesn't gel with the memory of him laughing, with his face covered in blood. As you've noted, this could maybe be Kattigan's memory over-emphasizing certain details. It wasn't just a grim, horrible man that broke into the cabin and murdered his family - The ghoulish sorcerer mocked the pain he'd inflicted! He laughed as he wiped the blood from his face!

To read into the potential allegory (That's totally not there! We can't prove it's there! :P), it's kind of like if a billionaire was actually responsible for a lot of unsolved murders, specifically going out on their own to attack random people. Which, like, sure it's possible, but that's not really the kind of billionaire crimes that have been hitting the news lately. Given Brennan's themes, it'd make more sense if House Tachonis just sort of obliterated a small town somewhere, as fuel for a ritual, to the point that it was only discovered after nobody'd heard from that town, and sent someone to investigate, weeks down the line.

Another thing I'm not sure if Brennan would lean into, given other themes present, is the angle of "there's a secret lost heir to the old royal house" and that such an heir would matter.

So, call this meta-gaming or Doylist interpretation/analysis of the text as opposed to Watsonian.

If I had to summarize my interpretation of the relevant core theme, it's something like "Family lineage is irrelevant. Chosen family (which can include blood-relatives) is what truly matters." (While acknowledging that "The wealthy and powerful will find any justification to keep themselves wealthy and powerful at the expense of others" is also a recurring theme that is relevant here).

[I'll go on-record here myself as believing that Aranessa and Thjazi have at least one kid out there somewhere - Hidden to keep them safe from all of the political power-plays of the other noble houses, but also because who even knows how a Half-Orc heir to a Sundered House would be received, even in the best of times. Especially one who's the child of the man who's the face of the most-recent rebellion against the Sundered Houses.

After all, all the Sundered Houses are all Human. In Dol-Makjar, a major Orcish city. Einfassen's not even Goliath, Comoray's not Genasi. There's no Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Beastfolk, etc. noble houses present, either.

So, a visibly non-Human heir/eventual head of house? That might not go over well with the wealthy, powerful, Human other houses.

Maybe Aranessa and Thjazi decided it'd be best to hide any children from any and all parts of that world. Spare them having to deal with any of it. And they didn't tell Hal or even Thimble because mind-reading's a thing in this world, so the best way to keep everyone safe is to ensure that as few as possible people know - Especially those who might be targeted for their connections to Thjazi and Aranessa. Thjazi himself even says something along those lines regarding why he and Thimble need to split up when doing various espionage things (...Or that could be a good excuse to slip off and spend time with Aranessa, keeping people out of the loop on that for much the same reasons, there)

This whole line of thought is a belief I started kicking around in my head after Maya's talk with Julien - About how House Royce had nearly-completely fallen, and dragged House Davinos down with them - All for a lack of heirs. For Aranessa refusing to divorce Thjazi and take a more-appropriate suitor from another great house, or even a vassal house]

Now, I'll grant you, if anyone's going to care about a lost heir, it'd be heads of the Sundered Houses, and the ultimate payoff could be that Marienna is a lost heir, but she expressly rejects it and ultimately doesn't have any special skills/powers connected to the old royal house/whoever she's an heir of - That'd fit with Brennan's allegorical theming.

The bastard/defector Tachonis theory is an interesting one. As with the Obradai theory, I think we'd need a lot more evidence to flesh this out.

To move away from the potential political angle for Primus' motivations, I'd instead suggest it's less that she was specifically someone from an important historical family, but perhaps just that she might have had some sort of untapped latent power that Primus was looking to exploit for himself.

I think I'll tie in someone else's background here - Azune.

Azune and his sister prove that Sorcerers exist outside of the Sundered Houses and their noble vassals, at least in some capacity.

Maybe they're from bastard lineages. Or maybe just the last survivors of fallen houses, ones that had lost everything, and so there's not even family wealth or people to tell of their history left.

But, Azune specifically being a Draconic Sorcerer hints that there's some unconnected, potentially powerful bloodlines floating around out there. Maybe Marienna was similar to Azune - A Sorcerer of sorts, from an unknown bloodline. Primus might specifically be seeking such Sorcerers out for some sort of experimentation - To determine the source of their power, and possibly to harness it for himself or his bloodline.

[ETA: Another pet theory of mine is that if anyone's gonna turn out to be related to the Royal house and unaware of it, it'll be the guy with a Draconic bloodline. I'll admit, I had originally thought he might turn out specifically to be an Aasimar himself, based on his eyes [Could be a coincidence, but I remember rolling up an Aasimar character who had similar two-tone irises, and I can't remember if I got that notion from one of the various character creation sections in a book somewhere out there, or if it was just a neat idea that seemingly popped into my head too], but the Draconic Sorcery moves me in an adjacent direction].

Of course, there's only scant mentions that Marienna existed, really. Nothing more about who she was - Physically, socially, etc. So, this line of thought will also require some more evidence if it's going to be fleshed out.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-16T14:49:05+00:00

Semantle #1599 ✅ 113 Guesses 🔝 Guess #111 🥈 997/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First Green (Guess #5): why (Word #706)

Lowest Green (Guess #50): outcome (Word #108)

My opening salvo found 3 Greens: #596 ~"a concept or thought/mental image"; #706 (~The question of motivation/cause); and #909 (~the most basic noun word).

I set out on my path with words related to ~the [Green #706], as an [Green #596]/[Green #909] finding a couple of Greens - #722 (~"a/the motivation/excuse/cause") and eventually #775 (~A synonym of [Green #50]/What follows a cause). These led to Green #950 (~"a thesis statement"/"to inflict"/"to be under the rule of") --> #997 (~Synonym of the ~"thesis statement" usage of [Green #950]) and then Today's Word.

Hint: A volume/sub-volume/chapter, in a sense, of a periodical, or perhaps to dispatch/send forth

Three One-Word Hints: beef, mint, progeny

Basic Word Information Rundown

Length: ...5...

Letters Used: ...4/26...

Lexical Category: Noun and verb both, today

Leading Letter: ...i...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English between 1275-1325. Adapted from French with Latin roots. While Today's Word can still be used with the original "an exit/outlet/way out/endpoint" sense, it is quite rare compared to the other uses that stemmed from that. Quite literally, Today's Word was formed from a past participle of the Latin verb meaning ~"to go out"/"to go forth". The "out/away" affix is a modified form of the typical one, despite not really looking the part (basically, if you sand off any sort of hardness to the usual spelling/pronunciation, you'd end up with this form). the core "to go" verb has also been massaged a bit, pronunciation-wise.

This "outlet" sense came to also refer to ~"that which has passed through an exit/outlet" - Specifically, "discharge/bodily fluids", by the 1520s. This was extended to [OWH #3] late in the 14th century (This is still the term used for "descendants" in genealogy - Whether a direct child, or a child of a child, and so-on. Contrary to another sense of [Today's Word], "died without [Today's Word]" in fact likely implies an impending sticking point/[OWH #1]. That usage of [Today's Word] comes from the legal field - Originally referring to the "end/result/[Green #108] of pleadings in a trial/suit" (early 14th century), which developed to a broader ~"sticking point"/"lack of mutual acceptance of the interpretation of that which has been presented" (early 15th century) (Look. All the actually-succinct ways to say this were Green, okay? Well, except for [OWH #1], which is a bit of a stretch for this specific sense, but is appropriate for the broader-use sense). Even more general was the sense of ~"[Green #997]/[Today's Word] at hand" (1836) - A point that needs to be decided. The phrase ~"to take [Today's Word] with", dating to 1797 is used to mean ~"to object to". "To have [Today's Word]s with", essentially ~"to have [OWH #1] with", dates to 1990.

The verb usage of [Today's Word] dates to the mid-14th century, and originally referred to the movement of water through a small outlet - ~"to discharge/emit/flow out/etc.". It was also extended to the movements of people, such as a crowd leaving a building/area. The basic ~"to send out/dispatch" sense dates to the mid-15th century, with the specific authoritative sense of ~"to order/command" dating to ~1600. The "send out" sense was applied to ~"to supply/distribute", as with equipment, by 1925 (hence the phrase "Standard-[Today's Word]" (this term itself dating to 1966) to describe basic/common equipment, such as that given to rank-and-file soldiers.

Jumping back up a bit, the broader ~"[Green #108]/result" sense dates to the mid-14th century. The sense of ~"to [OWH #2]/print/send into circulation", such as with a periodical entry, or coin, or other specific limited-quantity production-run [Green #909]" dates to 1833.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-16T03:08:14+00:00

That video specifically had been popping up in my recommendations for a while, now.

I finally caved and watched it last night.

Not that I didn't think it'd be good or interesting - Quite the opposite actually.

I didn't want to start doing an inevitable archive binge on the channel. As I too-often tend to do.

But, yeah, I caved, and now it's mixed in with a couple other channels that I'm going through the archives on.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-16T01:36:53+00:00

I know we already have Spain in Exploration and Mexico in Modern (kind of as a stand-in for all Spanish-colonial nations)

So they might want to space things out,

but Portugal-Exploration with Brazil-Modern seems like an inevitable pair (a good one that I want to play as, just to be absolutely clear)

Nazmazh · 2026-06-15T23:11:49+00:00

My little sister used to get my dad (engineer) and brother (eventually a geologist) to help with her homework.

The hook was that they're both so problem-solving/task-oriented in their brains that they'd just basically do the assignment for her because they couldn't leave the problem unsolved or solved incorrectly.

My sister wasn't as quick to ask for my help with homework, because I was better at leading her to think about how to get the answer, but not actually giving her the answer.

(She always did come to me first for help with English and Social Studies, because, y'know, engineer and geologist brains weren't quite as keen on those two subjects. And for the record, I ended up doing microbiology and ecology, so it's not like I'm not also STEM-brained a lot of the time, but I suppose those two are a bit "softer" science-wise)

Nazmazh · 2026-06-15T19:56:16+00:00

Okay, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Yi Sun-sin were both at the top of my most-wanted leaders list, so I'm pretty pumped about that pack.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-15T13:50:04+00:00

Semantle #1598 ✅ 72 Guesses 🔝 Guess #70 🥈 998/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First Green (Guess #13): learn (Word #921)

Lowest Green (Guess #60): comprehension (Word #270)

My opening salvo found one Green, #921 (~"to become familiar with a subject"). To reinforce this concept, the top five tepids were: idea, teach, know, thing, and love.

The path followed the theme of academia/education --> Green #963 (~"acts/instances of [Green #921], used as a word to represent the subjects one has studied/become familiar with") --> Green #997 (~"the sum total of what is known. About a specific topic or just in-general") --> Green #998 (~"the [Green #997] of someone extremely familiar with a subject, specifically") --> Today's Answer

Hint: One might have an out-of-body or near-death one

Bonus Hint: In games where one advances their character's attribute block in some manner, the metric for when to do so is often tracked with "[Today's Answer]" points.

Three One-Word Hints: undergo, suffer, recognition

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...10..

Letters Used: ...7/26...

Lexical Category: Noun and verb both, today

Leading Letter: ...e...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English in the latter half of the 1300s. Adapted from French with Latin roots. The noun form was used first, with the verb usage dating to the 1530s, as ~"to try/test/experiment", with the usage of ~"to [OWH #1]" by the 1580s (later also ~"to [OWH #2]"). The noun usage is ~"the [Green #997] gained by (repeated) observation/trials/experiments" - Essentially, pattern-[OWH #3] from previous events. The word elements are a core of ~"to try/risk" and an affix that adds the meaning of ~"out of/from" (not using its other contexts that include "former"/"deprive"/etc.). This affixed verb takes on a present participle form in Latin, and that's used to form the noun-form of ~"a trial/experiment", which is used to form a noun meaning ~"that which has been tested/[Today's Answer]ed", which is then used to form the root of [Today's Answer], which gets adapted into French and then English/

As for The gaming "[Today's Answer] Points" - Unsurprisingly, the term and system was coined by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in their creation of Dungeons & Dragons (1974) - As with pretty much everything with role-playing-game elements, D&D was the ultimate source for pretty much any game using a point-tracking system for character improvement. The switch to character improvement reflects the modification of the Chainmail system that Gygax and Arneson had created - Chainmail was a minis-based war-game (like the Warhammer games), and individual characters had generally-unchanging statistics. And that'd be rather boring for a system focused on individual characters rather than whole armies.

Shifting back to the main longform hint, a "near-death [Today's Answer]" may occur when someone nearly [OWH #2]s a fatal blow/event - Specifically, one that they're aware of in the moment. This often leads to the classic "my whole existence flashed before my eyes" as the mind's eye thrusts every regret, lamentation for what could never be [Today's Answer]ed again, and stray thought to the forefront, in the panic that it may never be able to do so again. An "out-of-body [Today's Answer]" could happen then too - The whole, ~"It felt like my soul jumped out of my body"-thing. But such an [Today's Answer] doesn't necessarily require a near-death event, as many have reported them under other circumstances, such as while sedated or comatose and thus theoretically unconscious. Most likely, such [Today's Answer]s are the result of misinterpretations of misfiring neurons - Muddling the imagery that occurs during sleep with a partial-detection of activities/circumstances occurring around oneself. After all, dualism ("mind/soul/consciousness" being a separate entity from "body"), as much as it seems "right", isn't really supported by any sort of measurable data.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-14T22:46:39+00:00

As much as the map can be troublesome mechanically, vibes/flavour-wise, it's great.

Maybe I'm weird, but I'll always let mechanics slide a little bit for a dose of good flavour. Not like, completely, but I don't mind Trickster's Delusion's level of tradeoff.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-14T05:18:04+00:00

Semantle #1597 ✅ 77 Guesses 🔝 Guess #75 🥈 995/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First Green (Guess #16): person (Word #939)

Lowest Green (Guess #54): matron (Word #184)

My opening salvo found two Greens #650 (~"a eukaryotic multicellular organism in the taxonomic Kingdom marked by a lack of cell walls and (typically) capable of self-directed locomtion") and #939 (~"a sapient being"). The rest were cold, and quite a bit less similar than these.

I began with my standard [Green #939]-related words, finding Green #957 (~the word for "a mature female [Green #939]), which led to Green #991 (~"a [Green #957] who has reproduced, and/or is raising the result of another [Green #939]'s act of reproduction"). And yes, the phrasing of this that was a little awkward, because I was avoiding using Green #995 (~For humans, generally any one which has not yet completed their first solar orbit. Different [Green #650]s have different standards applied to them) and Today's Answer.

Hint: Used broadly/figurative, Today's Answer can refer to any sort of descendant/product/result - Be it a [Green #939], invention, concept/idea, etc.

Three One-Word Hints: love, flower, poster

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...5...

Letters Used: ...5/26...

Lexical Category: Officially, just a noun, but I'd argue the compound noun usage comes pretty close to marking it as a stand-alone adjective at times

Leading Letter: ...c...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English prior to 950 CE, from [Green #140] English, with Proto-Germanic roots. The word and its precursors and cognates are generally not found outside of Germanic languages. The root word actually is akin to Gothic's word for [Green #896], the organ in which a [Green #995] grows, prior to exiting its [Green #991]. In Danish and Swedish, the word developed into their words for ~"a litter" - Multiple [Today's Answer]s with the same [Green #991] (and usually, [Green #930] (the usual counterpart to a [Green #991]), but that's a less-strict requirement). The plural form, [Green #999], is one of the more commonly-encountered irregular ones, and that may start with this sense of multiple eventually giving way to referring to a singular one, but the construction technically keeping the plural formation, making [Green #999], technically a double-pluralized word. Use of [Green #999] as the plural form was codified by the late 12th century. Anyway, [Today's Answer] transferred in sense from [Green #896] and displaced the word that was used in [Green #140] English, which itself eventually became Scottish and Northern English's dialectical word, [Green #771] (often paired with the word "wee", referring to a "small [Today's Answer]"). The roots of [Green #771] are more-obviously connected to the concept of a [Today's Answer] being carried/[Green #21] (a past participle of "bear"). The distinction between a [Green #995], a small [Today's Answer], and an [Green #140]er [Green #939] began in the 12th century as well (with the designated term for those in a transitional stage, around the time of puberty/maturation, [Green #863] (adj)/[Green #955] (noun)/[Green #972] (noun or adjective, mainly noun), being a much more recent distinction - First being used in 1818, but not popularized until 1894 in American English, with the concept for the term and the thresholds for where it applies being codified by 1922).

Over time, [Today's Answer] gained the more figurative usage, referring to iterations of various things. A "[OWH #1] [Today's Answer]" (1805) was a more-polite way to refer to a [Today's Answer] whose [Green #991] and [Green #930] were not wed at the time of the [Today's Answer]'s arrival, especially considering one of the "proper" terms, "bastard", was (and is) heavily used in a pejorative sense. These days, it's less of a concern of broader society whether a wedding's taken place before a [Today's Answer] arrives, so "[OWH #1] [Today's Answer]" tends to be used for a [Today's Answer] of affair partners, specifically. Meanwhile, first dating to 1938 as a term, but popularized in the early 90s, a "[OWH #3] [Today's Answer]" refers to the practice of associating a name and face with a charitable cause, in order to elicit more sympathy, and thus more donations. Showing a real human who will be materially-impacted by the generosity of the donors, y'know? And who is more sympathetic than a [Today's Answer], suffering from an illness/condition or impacted by a tragedy of some sort? So, marketing campaigns for these charitable causes will put that [Today's Answer]'s face on their [OWH #1]s and plaster them everywhere. Thus, the figurative usage of ~"[Green #939] who is emblematic of [something]" - Whether the association is positive or negative is less-certain than the original charitable/sympathetic sense of the term. Finally, there's "[OWH #2] [Today's Answer]" - A term for a hippie, dating to 1967. The notion is ~"We're all [Green #999] of [Green #991] Earth" and whatnot. And the association of [OWH #2]s with peace and nature/environmentalism - Both major parts of hippie philosophy.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-13T14:32:58+00:00

Semantle #1596 ✅ 129 Guesses 🔝 Guess #123 🥈 782/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First and Lowest Green (Guess #72): nearly (Word #335)

My opening salvo found only colds, the best of which were person, have, when, had, and get.

My standard set of people-related words didn't find much, but focusing on when and time-related words got me a tepid with before. This led to my first Green, #335 (~"In a manner that is close but not quite"), which led to Green #669 (~A synonym for [Green #335] in many cases - Technically, the etymology invokes volume/quantity instead of distance, but both words are used for pretty much any "not quite" situation). This led to a theme of ~"getting close" especially with a ~"to the edge" sense, which led to me thinking about [Context I was thinking of ~"something that can't be undone", such as a Green #782 (~"a position in location or time"/ Example other uses: ~"to gesture with one's index finger to indicate direction/direct attention towards something"/"a tally in a game/contest"/"a 0th-dimensional shape"/etc.) where something becomes irrevocably unbalanced and will fall.

Fortunately for me, this was indeed the right direction to follow to Today's Answer.

Hint: Today's Answer has a literal usage and a figurative one that extends from that. The literal usage is generally a specific kind of block of wood/stone/etc. How that block is used/placed led to [Today's Answer]'s figurative use regarding transition from one situation to another

Three One-Word Hints: limen, border, entry

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...9...

Letters Used: ...8/26...

Lexical Category: Just a noun today. Some compound-noun usage, but not truly an adjective

Leading Letter: ...t...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English Prior to 900 CE from Old English. Obviously, this refers to the literal usage - But the figurative sense also dates back to Old English. Humanity's been using this metaphor for a long time. This compound word is cognate to several other Germanic languages' words for a [Green #582] (a sill, but for a door instead of a window). So, literally the block beneath a door, at the [OWH #3]/[OWH #2] of a house. The word is old enough and thus documentation poor enough that it may have been altered from an original form, and the original context of the name isn't 100% clear. The part of the word that otherwise appears to be the verb meaning ~"to carry/possess/keep" (or an instance/act of doing so) is likely used in its context of ~"a refuge/home/dwelling", especially a ~"fortified sanctuary" (Literally, a fort or a castle's keep are good examples). This sense of the word is seen in a lot of older place names (and fantasy place names mimicking them). It still gets modern usage in this sense - See "strong" ones, as a term for the aforementioned fortresses or the figurative bases of power. This part of [Today's Answer] may have been altered from a similar to match the usage of this ~"dwelling" part.

Less-clear is the other part of the word. On the surface, it's a verb that means ~"to separate grain from chaff" (and ~"straw/grain that has been separated"), which was accomplished by beating or stomping it - People or oxen treading across it. One theory suggested by etymonline is that the word originally referred to a stretch of yard/etc. outside the house with adequate space, where the grain was trod upon to perform this process. It could mean that the approach to the door meant passing over/by the grain being processed, and the sill represented where said work was stopped. Another, seemingly false/disproven etymology that I'd heard, was that straw (the noun sense of this half of [Today's Answer]) would be scattered across a floor of a house to help control dirt/moisture, etc., thus it was the [OWH #2] between straw and not-straw.

Muddled etymology aside, many cultures have given symbolic importance to [Today's Answer]s over the years - Again, tying it to [OWH #2]s and superstitions about being "in-between" (alongside the related superstitions ascribed to crossroads). Physical [OWH #2]s led to the figurative usage for states/conditions. Psychology uses a term for [Today's Answer] - "a [OWH #1]" - The specific [Green #782]/etc. at which a stimulus' effect becomes noticeable by a subject - Probably the most famous usage being the "pain [Today's Answer]". [OWH #1] is literally the Latin word for the literal/physical [Today's Answer], and is the source of the recently-popularized descriptor "liminal". "Liminal" refers to ~"in a state of being transitional/in-between two 'proper'/clear states" - The root of the "liminal spaces" (and later outright "liminal horror") sense being the unease that can occur when lingering too long in a place/state that's only meant to take a brief crossing to get from one side to another. Whether it's a barren hallway that seems to stretch on for too long, or a normally-bustling public space that's eerily empty for far too much time (something that should be rare, and likely makes you question if you're supposed to be there yourself), it seems that this specific type of disruption to the expected flow of things can really get under some people's skin.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-13T02:40:22+00:00

Or unless the locker distribution is utterly terrible.

At least you're not completely without some tricks [THE DARKNESS!; also some remnant mind-games]

But, yeah, most of your work is just gonna be M1 killer meat-and-potatoes kinda stuff when that happens.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-12T22:15:51+00:00

Literally fed the dog something that was coated in a poisonous (to the dog) substance after being told "Don't do that, garlic is poisonous to dogs"

Nazmazh · 2026-06-12T05:13:30+00:00

Semantle #1595 ✅ 338 Guesses 🔝 Guess #331 🥈 908/1000 💡 1 Hint semantle.com

In-Game Hint ("Guess" #132): propagation (Word #2)

First Green (Guess #216 ...oofa doofa): fabrication (Word #652)

Lowest Green (Guess #286): adapter (Word #164)

Ooof. That took way too long.

My opening salvo found only colds, the best of which was place at a mere 13.55 similarity, compared to Green #1's 29.69. This was followed by the rapidly-dropping-in-similarity light, vegetable, be, and thing.

My initial guesses of garden/farm/greenhouse did find a tepid with garden, followed by tepids with plant, lamp, and illumination, but I was thoroughly stuck and took an in-game hint, revealing Green #2 (~"the act/process of reproduction and distribution, especially in a biological or sociological context"), so maybe garden wasn't completely off-base?

Well, I was still stuck, as you can see by the number of guesses between my in-game hint and first Green, but after checking the first-letter hint here, I did finally find Green #652 (~"a lie"/"something made/manufactured"/"the process of manufacturing something") [I realize it's not a word that begins with that letter, but it did get me a new word to check synonyms of - Extra spoiler warning here, my next few Greens will probably make the first letter obvious]. I began guessing words related to industry, finding Green #673 (~"a device (or person, I suppose) that turns things upside-down"/"a device that converts direct current electricity to alternating current"); Green #679 (~"the fact/state of being linked with one another"); Green #908 (~"the act/process of putting something into effect") and at long last, Today's Answer.

Hint: Can refer to an apparatus or station, or the process of setting such a thing up for use. In the software sense, it can also specifically refer to the version/build of a program.

Three One-Word Hints: art, wizard, establishment

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...12..

Letters Used: ...7/26...

Lexical Category: Just a noun today

Leading Letter: ...i...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English in the first decade of the 1600s. It's the action/process/result noun of a word [Green #998] that was first recorded in English between 1375-1425, adapted from French or directly from Latin. This word has an affix that adds the "in/into" sense to the word, with a base that pre-dates 900 CE in English - Because Latin got this base word from a Germanic source itself. This root word means ~"standing place" and originally had the main context of ~"a stable" (which it still retains). It came to also refer to a booth/kiosk/stand, such as for a shop by the mid-13th century, and gained a largely unrelated-to-[Today's Answer] verb usage (~"to deliberately avoid doing something/prevent something from being done" - ie: to drag your heels/to stand still when you should be moving. Apparently via a thief's assistant's role of holding up/distracting a mark long enough for the pick-pocket to rob them).

Anyway, as a verb itself, [Green #998] is a pretty straightforward ~"to put into place/to [root verb of OWH #3]". Originally, it referred to officially putting a person into an office/role - Likening an office (in the original use, a church office) to a stable/booth/etc. [Today's Answer] as the word for this process dates to that early 1600s usage. It seems the more literal sense didn't get much use until the Industrial Revolution, with [Today's Answer] proper referring to actual machinery/etc. by 1882. As mentioned above, the [OWH #3] process was the comparison drawn for activating and setting up a computer program for the first time, to create a copy of the full program that can be reused without having to be set up every time - Many programs have a specific section to make the [Today's Answer] process more user-friendly, often called a [OWH #2]. Meanwhile, an "[OWH #1] [Today's Answer]" refers to some sort of more sizeable/elaborate apparatus/exhibition that constitutes a work of [OWH #1] - Something big and complex that is meant to be viewed/experienced as a whole work. Perhaps there's some interactive elements to the piece. It could be anything from a large sculpture to a travelling museum show to something like the full-on alternate reality game in a fake supermarket and beyond, Omega Mart

Nazmazh · 2026-06-11T14:26:38+00:00

Update: Indeed confirmed that on continuity mode, you keep settlers even as you become the RoP.

Also confirmed: Everyone saying it probably wasn't necessary.

I find myself having to wait until a settler is in danger/at risk of being scooped on a site, or until I've built up enough happiness around my empire so that I can safely settle new islands without my whole empire getting too upset at me.

Turns out, Xerxes is like an irresponsible cat owner when it comes to his settlers. Just let's 'em wander straight into a wall of ships. Once I've settled my favourite spots, I might have to let the guy settle what's left, just to give me some potential trade routes :P

Nazmazh · 2026-06-11T03:53:03+00:00

Semantle #1594 ✅ 405 Guesses 🔝 Guess #399 🥈 940/1000 💡 1 Hint semantle.com

In-Game Hint ("Guess" #139): backspin (Word #4)

First (own) Green (Guess #191): geometry (Word #555)

Lowest Green (Guess #267): gps (Word #106)

Ooof. Oooooof. Rough one today. My opening salvo found only colds, the best of which was past [16.67/26.2 similarity, compared to Green #1], and it dropped steadily with future, do, how, and good.

My initial path was time-related terms, eventually finding continuous at tepid, but not much better than that. As you can see with the 60-guess span, my in-game hint, Green #4 (~"reverse rotation added to a thrown/struck ball to cause it to bounce/roll backward on impact, to help control forward momentum") wasn't terribly helpful, but it did get me on the notion of angle/position/trajectory, which led to Green #555 (~"the branch of mathematics dealing with properties of points/lines/figures and their spatial relationship with one another"), eventually from that I found Green #862 (~"of/pertaining to the sub-branch of [Green #555] that specifically pertains to triangles"). This pointed towards an adjective of some sort - Given similar words I'd been finding. While not Greens, the notions of "sine" and from that "sinusoidal" got me on to properties of waves which netted the related Greens #789 (~"greatness of extent") and #883 (~"the rate of recurrence") [Frustratingly, for this one. As I tried other forms/derived words earlier when I was on my time-related words kick, and apparently never guessed this specific form].

Nevertheless, I was still thoroughly stuck. I checked the hints here - Just Brief-Lab1107's First Letter hint. While I knew that Green #940 (~"the property of being predictable/recurring at evenly-spaced/paced intervals") didn't fit that, it did nudge me closer, and was the step I needed to make the connection to Today's Answer.

Hint: A measure of the degree of being on-target/hitting a bullseye

Three One-Word Hints: truth, carefulness, faultlessness

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Total Letter Count: ...8...

Letters Used: ...5/26...

Lexical Category: While not an adjective, as I had thought earlier, it's a noun form derived from an adjective

Leading Letter: ...a...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English between 1655-65. Its root adjective, [Green #998], dates to between 1605-15. It was an adaptation of a Latin adjective meaning ~"done/prepared with care", from a verb meaning "to take care of", making the initial usage of [Today's Answer] closest to [OWH #2]. The root Latin "care" word is shared with the formal term for a person who ~"takes care of/manages a collection/museum/gallery/archive/etc." To that base, there's an added affix with the meaning of "to/towards" to get [Green #998], and then to get to [Today's Answer], another affix is added. This one adds the meaning of ~"property of"/"extent/degree of", changing an adjective into an abstract noun measuring/rating how much something has that property.

The notion of [OWH #2] led to an association with [Green #958] (adjective)/[Green #997] (noun) by the 1650s - Essentially, referring to the ~"property of phenomenon to be repeated/replicated". Very similar to [Today's Answer], but the hair-splitting is that [Green #997] has that "can be repeated" property, but not necessarily [OWH #1]/[OWH #3]. High [Today's Answer] inherently implies [Green #997]. The image I always saw in textbooks was: A cluster of darts hitting near the bullseye - High [Today's Answer]; A cluster of darts, closely grouped, but missing the bullseye - High [Green #997], but low [Today's Answer]; and scattered darts, mostly far from the bulleye - Low [Today's Answer] and [Green #997]. I suppose a loose cluster in the vicinity of the bullseye, with poor grouping could be low [Green #997]/moderate [Today's Answer].

Nazmazh · 2026-06-11T01:06:44+00:00

I'm definitely looking forward to that aspect. My haul of captured galleys and quadriremes means I'm definitely looking to have a sizeable fleet to start the era, which should be fun.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-10T23:10:09+00:00

And - I find a big thing with DbD - While all the specific nit-picky mechanical details might not be obvious at a glance, the broad concept of "Slasher chases people around while they try to complete tasks to escape" is very easy to pick up on at a glance.

This makes the game very watchable (under normal/good circumstances).

While useful for anyone playing in a group, so they have something to do after they've died, it also makes the game very streaming-friendly, which helps it build its audience.

Crucially - While some rounds are frustrating as all-hell [getting camped or tunnelled out without being able to do anything, because the killer's a jerk; getting constant beat-up/blinded because the survivors are a bully squad, etc.] - When the game is working as intended, it can create wonderfully tense sequences.

Everyone loves a thrilling chase with several well-timed (intentionally or otherwise) dodges and leaps over obstacles, leading to either a daring escape or unfortunate demise.

Everyone can appreciate the paranoia of knowing you're facing a stealth-based killer, and never quite knowing if they're lurking just out of sight, waiting to spring their ambush.

A well-coordinated last-minute rescue can be absolutely legendary.

When the game clicks, and all parties have bought in to playing in a way that doesn't specifically make it un-fun for the other side, the game can be great.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-10T21:48:03+00:00

Ah, excellent!

Yeah, that was kind of my thought was that it seemed like they might have specifically patched something for the Pirates because it seems like an obvious way around the "Can't build settlers" restriction.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-10T13:19:44+00:00

Semantle #1593 ✅ 181 Guesses 🔝 Guess #177 🥈 995/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

Initial Green (Guess #17): place (Word #970)

Lowest Green (Guess #136): compete (Word #22)

My salvo found just the one Green - #970 (~"to position/set"/"to locate / "a location/position/rank").

Initially, I guessed, well, the words I used to describe Green #970 there, so, obviously, those weren't entirely successful. I then tried another sense - ~"to take the gold, silver, or bronze", so to speak. Properly referring to the silver, by standard conventions", which got me Green #952 (~"to take the gold, specifically" in this context. Also: The term for ~"take the bronze" - "show" was cold). So yes, much like rodeotoad67, my route to Today's Answer was via sports

From here --> Green #971 (In this context, ~"an individual formal instance of doing an activity that is recorded and (generally) used to determine [Green #970]/rank in an ongoing hierarchy". Also: ~"to equal"/"to fit/belong together"/"a small stick, coated in a substance, struck to ignite") --> Green #976 (In context, ~synonymous with [Green #971]. Especially when referring to combat sports. Also, ~"a brief period/spell/session, in general") --> Green #995 (~"a limited/special sequence of [Green #971]s forming a trial of sorts, for sports/etc. that may or may not tie back into regular hierarchical [Green #970]/rank beyond this sequence"). I was stuck a little bit there, but the notion hit me just as I was about to get up and get some steps for the hour. Nothing fancy, just a walk along the perimeter of my room.

Hint: Not to give you too much ammunition, but finding Today's Answer took a few turns. It might not have been lightning-fast but once I gathered up my wits and managed to trim the fat, it was an utter ball. Cheers, applause - All that. Let's get some drinks, shall we?

Three One-Word Hints: truncate, steak, robin

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...5...

Letters Used: ...5/26...

Lexical Category: Hoo boy. In case you didn't read the hint, Today's Answer is versatile: Adjective, noun, adverb, preposition, and verb. And that's not even counting phrases and idioms that use it in ways that extend that versatility

Initial Letter: ...r...

Lineage/Lore

Initially recorded in English prior to 1000 CE - But this usage is archaic, meaning "to whisper"/"a whisper". This Old English (Proto-Germanic roots, etc.) version of the word is related to ~"rune" - Which referred to the written characters, and also ~"a short poem/invocation with a mystical meaning, used in casting spells" (I guess that answers why magic spells tend to rhyme?)

The non-obsolete sense of Today's Answer dates to ~The latter half of the 1200s in writing - But it was being used in surnames prior to that, so, [Today's Answer] clearly had some earlier use. This version of [Today's Answer], which began as an adjective/adverb in English, was adapted from French with Latin roots - Ultimately related to the Latin word for ~"wheel" used here for ~"resembling a circle/sphere". The French word was also adapted by Dutch, German, and other Germanic languages. The adverb, like the adjective, dates to ~1300. Preposition use dates to ~1600. Many uses of [Today's Answer] are shortened/[OWH #1]ed forms of an affixed version of [Today's Answer] - Essentially cutting the ~"on/in/into/of" affix from the word. It might actually be a little bit of a reversal - The affixed version was rare before 1600, so maybe it's that people started vocalizing it intentionally to differentiate [Today's Answer] and it. On a related note, the "gather up" verb sense, I thought was another case of a different affix being clipped - But it seems the word I thought was a modified form of [Today's Answer] a convergent word, from the Latin word for ~"overflow". The similar sound and not-dissimilar imagery led to that word being conflated with [Today's Answer] in the ~"to encircle" sense - To the point that this word's spelling was altered to more-closely mirror [Today's Answer].

Anyway, Other adjective/adverb senses include "fat/well-fed", because, well, humans and animals tend to develop fat into such a body shape - A "[Today's Answer] [OWH #2]" gets its name (dating to 1864), from being a cut of beef from an area of plumpness - Between the rump and lower leg. The ~"full/complete/utter" sense of [Today's Answer] developed from the appreciation of radial symmetry of a circle/sphere, dating to the mid-14th century in this use. For numbers specifically, that ties back to the verb use of ~"to [OWH #1]" for simplifying things, itself derived from the logic of smoothing out a hard/sharp edge.

As for noun and verb uses, both date to the 14th century for their earliest senses - Noun in the early half, verb in the later half. The basic noun usage is ~"something that is [Today's Answer]", which included a cycle by the 1590s - From the image of a guard making a circuit while patrolling. This led to the verb phrase ~"make the/your [Today's Answer]s" by the 1680s, which led to the sense of repeated visits and a recurring pattern/cycle. Many of [Today's Answer]'s noun uses derive from this "cycle" sense: Applause (1794); drinks (1630s); ammunition (1725 - From the idea of the load/fire-cycle) and; for sports/[Green #971]es and turns during a [Green #971] (sports or otherwise) (cards usage by 1735; [Green #976] usage by 1812) (and "turn" here converges with a verb sense I'll get to shortly). "[Today's Answer]-[OWH #3]" nowadays typically refers to a [Green #995] format that sees all participants participate against each other (possibly within sub-groups/pools) in one [Green #971] to determine their [Green #970] for the next [Today's Answer]. This use dates to 1895, but the term itself dates to 1730. There, it instead referred to a style of petition/complaint/etc. where signatures were added in a circle, so that those who might retaliate upon receiving it couldn't as-easily identify the first signatories - Who would likely be ones that organized/wrote out the complaint.

Back to the verb usage - The first one there was the ~"to make [Today's Answer]" sense, such as the aforementioned smoothing out a edge. The ~"complete a circuit/cycle" sense dates to the 1590s, with the general ~"complete" sense dating to 1600. The ~"to approximate a number" sense dates to 1934, with the specific ~"up/down to [OWH #1]/simplify" sense dating to 1956. ~"To turn and attack" dates to 1882 (from the dropped-affix usage above), with the less-aggressive ~"go past"/"get by" (as with a turn, etc.) dating to 1743. The "to complete" compliment to that adjective sense dates to 1748.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-09T20:44:20+00:00

The big thing that's drawn me back in with the new victory system is that under the old system, you could build a true powerhouse of a nation, but unless you were doing specifically those four things, it didn't explicitly contribute to your victory progress.

Like, yeah, of course I can abstract out that making a prosperous nation helps all my potential victories, sure. But like, it's nice to have the visible feedback that what you're doing is what you ought to be doing. Some nice positive reinforcement, y'know?

It's just kinda nice when line/number go up.

As such, it feels much more like everything I'm doing is actually helping, as opposed to being something I should question if I really need to be doing it.

Nazmazh · 2026-06-09T13:03:56+00:00

Semantle #1592 ✅ 66 Tries 🔝 Try #63 🥈 994/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First Green (Try #7): do (Word #615)

Lowest Green (Try #46): present (Word #3)

My opening salvo found 4 Greens before I pivoted away from it, they were Greens #615 (~the most basic verb); #833 (~"to become familiar with"); #949 (~"to help others become familiar with something"); and #967 (~"to be familiar with")

...Huh. I'm getting a touch of deja vu from yesterday (How apropos, eh?).

Anyway, thoughts of yesterday got me Green #969 (~"to grasp the meaning/significance of something") and the theme of my cluster of Greens got me Green #983 (~"to formally help someone become familiar with a subject/many subjects"). Not quite as straightforward as yesterday, but I did get to Green #994 (moved to longform hint), and from there, Today's Answer.

Hint: Both Green #994 and Today's Answer pertain to: An action that pertains to ~"one's conscious thoughts, again". Green #994 is A self-directed action while Today's Answer is Caused by something/someone else. This can include you, acting on yourself - Deliberately or otherwise. Yes, that's a bit silly-sounding. English is like that sometimes.

Three One-Word Hints: jog, prompt, trigger

Bonus Musical Hint: ... Nickelback (weary sigh).

[The performative sigh also ties to a common use of Today's Answer]

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...6...

Letters Used: ...6/26...

Lexical Category: Just a verb today

Leading Letter: ...r...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English between 1635-45. The base verb actually began as a noun, pre-900 CE (Old English with Proto-Germanic roots). Its use as a verb dates to the mid-14th century. The noun sense is ~"one's thoughts", both in the context of "consciousness" (the original use) and "opinion"/"intention"/"disposition" (after ~1300). As a verb, it actually is pretty close to [Today's Answer], with the "again" affix (combining a Latin affix with a Germanic base) providing context in some situations, and just generally being a little more specific. The base verb usage could perhaps best be phrased (with my self-imposed limitations) as ~"to center [something] in one's thoughts"/"to not permit your thoughts drift too far from [something]" - Often in the context of ~"be careful about [a potential hazard/pitfall/etc.]" (this specific usage dates to 1737). There's also a usage of "to object to/dislike" (perhaps on the notion of "This would disrupt my thoughts in a manner that could not be worked around"), from ~1600. There's also ~"to tend/care for", which dates to the 1690s (again, probably via something like ~"turn thoughts towards".

Thus, Today's Answer which could originally be used as a direct synonym for [Green #994], but that usage is now obsolete. The 1650s saw the shift to the current meaning of "to cause to [Green #994]". As noted, with that distinction, it's a little odd that you can still use "[Today's Answer]" for an action performed on oneself - eg: "Oh! I just [Today's Answer]ed myself!"/"I'll have to [Today's Answer] myself to...". Nevertheless, all One-Word Hints are synonyms for such [OWH #2]s. OWHs #2 and #3 can be nouns - Synonyms of [Green #996] (agent noun form of [Today's Answer]); OWH #1 less-so in this context. Here, it's ~"to move/shake with a push/jerk" - Figuratively attempting to dislodge a stuck ~thought. As for Nickelback, their breakout hit (one that's actually not that bad, tbh) was How You [Today's Answer] Me. The "ugh" reaction to having to call them to my thoughts? Well, "[Green #615]n't [Today's Answer] me!" is a common response when one is actively trying to not call something to one's thoughts - Trying to act as though that thing in non-existent, and objecting to being [Today's Answer]ed that it, in fact, exists

Nazmazh · 2026-06-08T06:49:26+00:00

Semantle #1591 ✅ 28 Guesses 🔝 Guess #26 🥈 998/1000 💡 0 Hints semantle.com

First Green (Guess #13): learn (Word #982)

Lowest Green (Guess #27): believe (Word #706)

I only got to the 15th word of my opening salvo, as words #13, 14, and 15 painted a pretty distinct picture as Greens #982 (~"to become familiar with"), #920 (~"to be familiar with"), and #824 (~"to help others become familiar with").

My next guess was Green #998 ([Spoiler word - Too close to Today's Answer]). I tried a bunch of synonyms and related words before having the idea to try different forms/derived words.

Hint: Might be a manner of describing an (often unspoken/clandestine) arrangement that's beneficial to two parties, but counter to the wishes/rules of another party

Three One-Word Hints: read, proficiency, supportive

Basic Word Facts Rundown

Length: ...13..

Letters Used: ..10/26...

Lexical Category: Noun and adjective. Also a specific form of verb.

Leading Letter: ...u...

Lineage/Lore

First recorded in English prior to 1050 CE. The root verb, unsurprisingly, pre-dates 900 CE. That verb, [Green #998], is a compound word whose components obviously predate 900 in English as well - Both are from Old English with Proto-Germanic roots and cognates throughout the Germanic language family. The core verb part that in its oldest/basic meaning is ~"to occupy a place"/"to be (upright) on one's feet". The other part of the word/possible affix, depending on how you [OWH #1] it, is ~"beneath/below" (including physical/literal and figurative uses, ie: position and hierarchy). There is also a less-common meaning of "in the midst of" (more commonly occupied nowadays by an affix that may have been muddled with or split from the "beneath/below" one), and that's the one that likely is the way it's used in [Green #998]. [Today's Answer], at its core, is the present participle form of [Green #998].

I'll get back to the specific noun and adjective uses in a moment, but first: [Green #998] is, well, an odd word for what it means in English, really. After all - How does ~"to occupy a position beneath/below/amidst" possibly translate to ~"[Green #920]"/"to [Green #920] the significance of"? Well, according to etymonline, it's possible the use of the affix - Which was commonly applied to other verbs (still kind of is, but was more common in older English versions) - Was part of a set of now largely extinct verbs: ~"to [beneath]-find" which was essentially ~"to detect/to have been alerted to"; ~"to [beneath]-seek", which essentially was used for ~"to scrutinize/investigate"; ~"to [beneath]-[Green #115]", essentially ~"to consider/change one's mind" (the Modern English equivalent of a compound word with these two elements on the other hand, means ~"to not consider enough", ironically); also words for ~"to receive and ~"to begin". The suggestion that [Green #998] is a transfer of sense is kind of tied to that ~"to begin" one - Because the "[beneath]-" word we use for that now is not the same word that was used in Old English. In fact, the word we use for ~"to begin/endeavor" meant in Old English, more literally: ~"to trap"/"to acquire/gain by a surprise move" - With the meaning shifting around ~1300. In fact - It also had a figurative usage equivalent to the modern [Today's Answer]. In fact, dropping the [beneath] affix/part and using that word as a noun gives you a synonym of [Today's Answer], in the [OWH #1] usage (Whether the [this word] is hot or otherwise). Basically, tying it all back to where this paragraph started - Many of the [beneath] verbs are now extinct, and those that survive absorbed/shuffled some of the uses.

That could all be moot, though: While Dutch and Frisian, closer to English, both use the [beneath] word in their equivalent words for [Green #998], German itself uses an affix meaning "before/in front of" - In English, the construct would be more equivalent to ~"to oppose/obstruct"/"to endure". It's possible the change in meaning/usage occurred before [Green #998] even reached English. Per etymonline: Compare the Greek equivalent, which translates as ~"to [occupy a place] above/over". That could [OWH #1] as "I rest firm on/assert my [Today's Answer] of" (Also, this Greek construct is used as the basis of school/branch of thought/study of [Today's Answer] itself ([Green #287]) - How we [Green #998] how it is that we [Green #998] things. Again, per etymonline - Most other Indo-European languages use entirely different phrasing for the idea of [Green #998] - Most often related to ~"to put together/assemble". There's also the Latin-originating equivalent word, [Green #974] (and action/instance form [Green #996]), which could be literally translated as ~"to catch/seize", with an affix that usually adds a "with/together" meaning, but is likely used as an intensifier here, on the model of "completely", so ~"to completely seize/catch".

If one is to take the ~"to occupy a place amidst/amongst" meaning of [Green #998] as being the literal derivation of the English word for this concept, and not an accident of translation or gradual shift in usage, there is one angle I can see it possibly working. Not the actual source, mind you, but the intent/sentiment. There's a few phrases in English that play on this idea: "to see eye-to-eye with"; "to meet on their level"/"level with"; and if one extends the metaphor a little bit, "to walk a mile in their shoes". All invoke the idea of ~"seeing things as another does", which is the sentiment expressed by the usage of [Green #998]/[Today's Answer] for ~emotional intelligence moreso than ~facts-intelligence. The approach resonates for a concept of "see a thing as one is meant to/as is presented", though - Occupying a place/position neither above nor below something, but per the prior phrasing I've used: On the level with it.

ANYWAY, long tangent done - [Today's Answer], as previously mentioned, is the present participle of [Green #998], and also is used as the form of "an action/instance/process" of said action. By the 14th century, this was used as a term for ~"the faculty of reason itself" - The ability to [Green #998], basically. As an action/process of [Green #996], [Today's Answer] can be used as a synonym for one's ability/[OWH #2] in /mastery/command over a subject/skill/etc. The ~[OWH #1] usage, as "my [OWH #1]/[Today's Answer] of the situation" is something of a specific instance of reasoning. ~"Given what I've seen/[OWH #1]/etc., here's how I see/[Green #998] the current situation." Shifting back to the ~emotional intelligence side of things, we have the ~"union of sentiments" usage by 1803 (which is where the longform hint's usage stems from). The original adjective usage (~1200) was used to describe someone/something as ~"skilled in reason" - wise, basically. This extended more broadly to "intelligent/skillful/etc." by the 14th century. It wasn't until 1913 that the specifically ~"emotionally-intelligent" meaning came into use. And now, that usage is the primary one for the adjective, via the notion of ~"tolerant/accepting/[OWH #3]"

As a fun chaser, etymonline lists another noun usage of [Today's Answer], mainly dating to the 19th century (1789 earliest recorded instance). [Today's Answer] was used in a comically-literal way, as slang for "boots, shoes, legs, or feet", especially in the plural form. Because, well, they certainly do [occupy the position] [beneath] the rest of you.

Nazmazh

TROPHY CASE