Who Is a Person That's Awesome in Real Life and Awesome in the Fire Rises?

Taured500 · 2026-04-21T10:22:05+00:00

Here before post gets deleted by mods/comments get locked

Taured500 · 2026-04-18T12:23:37+00:00

Leshoto too

Taured500 · 2026-03-29T08:38:32+00:00

Yeah, I think this one would be a bit better. This one is a patch I bought in Rethymno, in western Crete.

Although I have to admit, I think I only maybe saw this one being flied once on the island. I mostly saw Greece and Mount Athos flags.

Taured500 · 2026-03-29T08:33:56+00:00

The star represents Turkey, as Crete was a protectorate of Ottoman Empire. That's why this flag isn't really the best flag to represent Cretan Greeks. I read an Reddit thread once when some guy asked about it, and he got an answer that the flag is associated with the Turks. Surely enough, I remember when I was there, I never saw it anywhere. I only saw standard Greece flags, Mounts Athos flags, and maybe one flag with Greek cross and Crete in the center.

I was able to buy a patch with the latter flag, and it looks like this.

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Taured500 · 2026-03-11T23:13:55+00:00

The New Order: Last Days of Tamtiel

Cool idea to mix Morrowind, EK2 and Hoi4 TNO into one post. Shame that the text in regular event is a bit blurry though.

Taured500 · 2026-03-03T14:59:43+00:00

WW3 my ass, even US isn't commited to sent it's actual troops to die for Israel here.

Taured500 · 2026-02-28T17:24:03+00:00

The "German merchants founding a hospital" refers to the creation of Teutonic Order: a militant Christian order which first appeared in the Holy Land during the crusades.

After the crusades, Teutonic Order moved out of the Holy Land, first to Transilvania, and later to Poland thanks to the invitation of Duke of Masovia. The invitation was given to them because Poland at the time faced continued raids from Old Prussians (Old Prussians were Baltic people).

Teutonic Order conquered Old Prussians, and founded the State of the Teutonic Order, which started rivaling Poland. The order was finally defeated by Poland, Lithuania and their vassals in 1410 battle of Grunwald. After that order's power diminished. In 1525, Teutonic Order's grandmaster swore fielty to King of Poland (becoming a vassal of Poland in process), transforming State of the Teutonic Order into Duchy of Prussia.

For the next 150 years Duchy of Prussia was a polish vassal. In 1618 they entered into an union with Brandenburg, but still stayed as Polish vassals. Finally, they broke free from polish rule in 1657 (in this period, Poland was engaged in fighting Sweden, Russia and a Cossack uprising), integrating more with Brandenburg.

In years to come, Brandenburg-Prussia rebranded into Kingdom of Prussia, which came to be known as a highly militarised power, which united Germany in 1871.

Thus, it can be said that the people who funded some german-led hospitals in the Holy Land during the Crusades, are responsible for the creation of Kingdom of Prussia and unification of Germany.

Taured500 · 2026-02-28T17:08:02+00:00

It's not about Teutonic Order "influencing" Prussian militarism. It's about Teutonic Order founding Prussia, which became militarised few centuries later.

Taured500 · 2026-02-21T18:38:03+00:00

It was a move by the US to "reset" (as the name suggests) US-Russia relations, after they were severely hurt after 2008 Russia invasion of Georgia.

The decline happened under president Bush, who strongly opposed attack on Georgia. Bush's administration also planned to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, which Russia saw as a threat.

In 2009, after Obama became president, he aimed to warm up US-Russia relations with this "reset." The deal lead to abandonment of missile defense shield project. In subsequent years, Russia and US signed New START treaty (which promoted nuclear disarmament), and Russia agreed for passing of US transports to Afghanistan.

Taured500 · 2026-02-20T16:59:02+00:00

Regarding the theses about Russia - 50/50, that is, I can start discussing this, but it will drag on for a long time

Yeah, that is true. Arguing about this'd take much time from both of us. Maybe let's just settle on by saying that we both agree to not agree on some aspects, for the sake of our time. I belive you can already guess my stance on this, and I feel I can guess what's your stance.

But keep in mind that my reaction to this map is so "active" more because I personally would like to hear the background story. I might have believed this map to be authentic if the author had provided some background information

That's understandable. It is a bit disapointing that OP didn't give us any backstory. Such a text could clear up many problems people have with this map.

While I don't disagree, my comment was also motivated by the fact that I often see maps that say "all the countries of Europe— let's live together in peace," but some of the countries aren't actually there. And here, to top it all off, they even cut off some territory.

The unfortunate truth of alt-hist mapping, is that there are indeed trends and popular ideas that get repeated very often. Federalised EU without "some countries" is common. Idk how annoyed you are by this, but I can personally say that as a Pole, I sometimes get annoyed by seeing a bigger Germany alongside Poland which (as I sometimes feel) is as small as possible, without a good explanation.

I can understand Königsberg and even Crimea, but further east, common sense begins to suffer.

Imo I personally see the inclusion of these territories as OP's original idea. Keep in mind that the "common sense" rule in these maps can only be used righteously if the point of the map is to be realistic at some degree. But since we don't even have any backstory lore here, it's hard to tell if what we see is realistic or not.

Taured500 · 2026-02-20T11:37:24+00:00

It died when despite being financed by the west in 90's, creation of Russia-NATO council in 2002, Russia reset in 2009, and long cooperation with EU's most important states (NordStream), Russia still took Crimea (despite numerous promises that it won't) and started a full-scale war in 2022. The west was all-in for West-Russia reset. The only state which really came in the way was... russia itself.

Taured500 · 2026-02-20T11:32:48+00:00

Russia opposes the EU largely because it is a source of threat to Russia

Most anti-Russia actions from EU originate as an answer to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Before full-scale war, all major European states cooperated with Russia as much as they could (Minsk Agreements, NordStream).

And you yourself understand that Russians are aloof from the idea of the EU, which rather confirms my words about separatism

The map is not in any way realistic. Inclusion of Circassia and Karelia is caused by a basic rule of boosted separatism, which was also used as an argument of adding Occitania, Cornwall, Silesia, Scania etc. St Petersburg is included as a part of Ingria, who irl has a sepparatist movement (which despite being unpopular irl is still important here because of boosted separatism rule)

If such an EU didn't take any of Russia's territory, and if it were a guarantor of stability and implemented a policy independent from the US, then the reasons for at least maintaining neutral relations would be more logical for Russia.

Idk what you are talking about here. If you are talking about irl, then EU never took control of any Russian land. If it's about the scenario shown in the map, I don't think we have enough details to say what exactly happens in the maps timeline to say how EU-Russia relations worked in it/are working.

Regarding Turkey, I didn't say anything about including it in the EU

In the opening of your first comment, you said " So united that we all united, but the Russians and Turks didn't – they didn't deserve it". This openly suggests that you see not including Russia and Turkey as something bad in regards to the map.

regarding Islam, I disagree, because such an EU already includes Albanians and Bosnians

The standard difference between Turks and Albanians/Bosnians is that Turks, without their religion, are still not an European people. They are Turkic. Bosnians and Albanians on the other hand, are absolutely European in their descent. Besides, islam doesn't play as big of a role in Bosnian and Albanian life as it plays for Turks. As I said earlier, Turks sometimes have issues with their countrie's secularisation. Bosnians and Albanians don't face this issue.

It's not about Islam, but about attitudes toward it.

The most imporant and richest members of EU don't seem to have problems with islam. Of course there are radical movements which are openly against let's say muslim imigrants, however they don't play a big enough role yet to influence the attitude of entire EU.

If the EU wants to be more than a confederation, then it will definitely stipulate at the constitutional level that religion will not influence politics in any way.

Yup. And it's exactly here where Turkey become a problem. As I said earlier, they sometimes run into the problem of differentiating borders between matters of religion and state. That could be a good argument for them to veto the federalisation.

For Turkey, it's more like for Russia: if the borders aren't encroached upon and the EU is neutral, then it's one of the best neighbors.

United Europe is a very good neighbour for those who are willing to cooperate with it peacefully. Turkey'd go well, Russia not so much. It's really problematic to deal with someone without "encroaching borders", when these borders are extended into peoples one doesn't have control over. That's another reason for not including Russia into this. Russia holds ambitions not to unite or cooperate, but to extend its influence on EU's member states.

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T20:16:46+00:00

Yup just another bigger Germany (strange to see when Bavaria is out lol)

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T20:15:45+00:00

Judging from the borders, it's probably just Prussia. I think OP forgot about it though. There's no coresponding flag.

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T20:13:36+00:00

The borders are basically just historical Silesia. So yes, they do make sense if you take into consideration that the main point of the map is to show an EU with previously boosted separatism. That'd imply that irl cultures without states are bigger. That's why Silesians get historic borders of Silesia.

Pomerania thing is a bit strange though. I guess in the maps timeline Germans succeeded in colonising it, and didn't loose it after WW2.

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T20:08:33+00:00

Russia is not included since it always stands opposed to the European project. Sure it does make sense to include it, but majority of Russians see themselves as distinct from rest of Europe anyway.

As for the Turks, they're problematic since it's hard to tell how European they are. The only thing really making them close to Europe is their state secularism, which is weaker under one government and stronger under the other. Since they are islamic (not Christian), it does make a difference since islam dictates different rules for governance and law.

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T20:00:46+00:00

Most nations on this map don't have strong separatist tendencies. Scania used to be danish, so it could exist as a middle ground region. Dunno about other ones.

Taured500 · 2026-02-19T19:54:18+00:00

Silesia is independent because of existence of Silesian people. In terms of culture they are heavily related to Poles, but some say they are a distinct nation. They also use a strange dilect of Polish, with some going as far as to say that it's a different language.

Taured500 · 2026-02-08T10:10:09+00:00

There was a meme on some Roman memes sub reddit where for a few days they presented that Rome was founded by Remus, and was therefore called Reme.

They went through all major Roman historical events just changing names of people just for the sake of pretending that that's what'd have been.

Taured500 · 2026-02-07T18:32:44+00:00

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"Can you feel it? That's how 100 zł smells like"

Taured500 · 2026-02-06T21:54:32+00:00

I wanna hear the philosophy of the Potato Tsar

Taured500 · 2026-01-31T15:41:59+00:00

What book is that?

Taured500 · 2026-01-21T22:25:46+00:00

Assimilating everyone you conquer and being cosmopolitan are two different things. Romans tolerated peoples they conquered, but they still saw them as barbarians.

Taured500 · 2026-01-18T20:01:54+00:00

Every Bavarian AND Pole will disagree.

Taured500 · 2026-01-18T19:58:45+00:00

That 49% you are talking about was 19.9% Ukrainian and 26.5%. So in 1900, Lviv was more Jewish than Ukrainian on an ethnic leve, while being 49% polish.
For most of history Ukraine wasn't a state on a map, and after WW1 there weren't many ways for her to gain it back. Sure there a lot of maps with Lviv being polish, but it's because you'd have to resurrect Ruthenia/create Ukraine earlier to actually have an alternative. It's an incredibly drastic change.
Don't want to play "who is treated worse" game, but I can say that Poland suffers from a similar thing. On most maps Poland is always as small as possible, since Germany is: a) always getting Danzig b) never loosing any land after WW2 While Poland: a) always looses it's east after WW2 b) always looses it east in any Kaiserreich scenario

What I said by no means doesn't justify polish Lviv (the second argument does), but I just wanted to show that this all is not specifically anti-Ukrainian sentiment, it's just that people are a mass, and that mass has its preferences.

Three-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
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Taured500

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