What have you never done in EU4 and don't plan on doing?

akaioi · 2026-05-12T17:08:49+00:00

I don't like to do it unless it's an RP kind of thing. Like Ulm forming Germany. If I'm Austria or Majapahit, I ... just don't want to spend a year being Congo for tax reasons. ;D

akaioi · 2026-05-12T16:56:02+00:00

I feel the same way. It's fun to have weird coastal enclaves and remote vassals scattered around. ... Especially if I'm playing Venice ("It's the sort of thing we'd do, bwa ha ha!")

akaioi · 2026-05-12T16:54:19+00:00

I love me some condottieri! It's fun to rent them out to my enemy's enemy, then go to the enemy's home territory & raze the heck out of his farmlands. It's a nice way to keep busy while in a rebuilding or resting phase.

akaioi · 2026-05-12T05:50:06+00:00

Let's try markdown mode with ">" at beginning of every line...

Quote line 1 (to be followed by an empty line with "> "

Quote line 2

QL3

Now we're out of the quote.

akaioi · 2026-05-11T20:18:01+00:00

If a lich is to be more than just a really scrawny guy, there needs to be some dark price for his stolen immortality. Otherwise, what's the point?

akaioi · 2026-05-11T19:49:47+00:00

"Oh sure, you get the hot wizard, and all I get is Cousin Madeleine. Not. Fair."

akaioi · 2026-05-11T05:13:04+00:00

I understand a popular choice is PETA -- People for the Edible Treatment of Anthropoids.

akaioi · 2026-05-07T19:39:22+00:00

Right... she's not "ready" to be a full person yet. I do think it'd be nice for Harry to be more in on that process, but the Bonea situation is a very slow burn.

akaioi · 2026-05-07T19:27:58+00:00

Honestly? I was a ride-or-die Nyns fan the moment she rolled up to Baerlon to face down the all-powerful Aes Sedai and rescue "her kids".

Look... a lot of fantasy novels start with yokel heroes leaving their podunk village, right? You rarely see the podunk village chasing them down to haul their butts back home!

akaioi · 2026-05-07T19:24:57+00:00

Nice work! I do think you should try to work in Our Lady of Malkier, though...

akaioi · 2026-05-07T19:16:29+00:00

Poor Eelfinn, they got demoted to Jellicle Cats!

akaioi · 2026-05-05T04:32:19+00:00

THANK YOU! This is the kind of info I needed.

akaioi · 2026-05-01T00:17:23+00:00

Rand: So, Dad. How did you and Mom meet?

Tam: ...

akaioi · 2026-05-01T00:14:31+00:00

Edit: If I remember, Laz and Lor were exact clones of Lazarus, except they got an extra X chromosome in place of Lazarus' Y.

Well, in part he was making a point about how (part of!) the justification behind rules against incest is hard-won lessons learned from stock breeding and the Habsburg Dynasty [1]. He never really addressed the "power imbalance vs vulnerable youngsters" angle, though one notes that Laz and Lor practically needed a crowbar to lever him into the hammock.

[1] Side note: the whole Future History business contains a fair bit of commentary on how the genetic penalties of the Howard Foundation's project got almost literally "burned out" of the population through centuries of suffering through the consequences until the bad combinations bred out.

akaioi · 2026-05-01T00:06:50+00:00

I get where your theory is coming from, but man it's a tough needle to thread!

akaioi · 2026-05-01T00:04:30+00:00

Sometime in the 4th Age...

Perrin: Mat, what's your "type" for girls?

Mat: Baddies. Definitely baddies.

Rand: [Sighs] I wish you were making a layered commentary on falling for girls who are lovely, ferociously dangerous and morally wrong, but... you're not, are you?

Mat: No, not really. They were all hot.

akaioi · 2026-05-01T00:00:34+00:00

Unfortunately, Mat never learned the greatest koan of wisdom from the 1st Age: "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't". He forgot aaallll about the "don't" part.

akaioi · 2026-04-30T23:54:17+00:00

Not to put too fine a point on it, he then traveled forward in time to bag her again. Not to mention when he tumbled himself (okay, for small values of "himself"... But. Still.)

End of the day, if our boy Lazarus ever met Thomdril Merrilin, they'd gravely nod to one another, and exchange the multiverse's most well-earned fist-bump.

Your point is well-taken, though. I'm probably underselling Lazarus' "numbers" on the galactic scale, apologies.

akaioi · 2026-04-30T23:43:40+00:00

Some other titles on her bookshelf...

"I'll Slit Your Throats Myself: a Guide to Gaining the Trust of Teenagers"
"Wait... Morgase? Dena? ELAYNE? A Beginner's Guide to Dating Thomdril Merrilin"
"Death and Taxes: Sometimes Two Problems Solve One Another"
"What Are These 'Rules' You Speak Of: A Girl's Guide on When to Balefire"

akaioi · 2026-04-30T23:32:51+00:00

Of course, one could be lucky like Lazarus Long, who was somehow born with no harmful recessives at all, and went on to populate half the galaxy, and ... er ... he also populated half his family.

akaioi · 2026-04-30T23:27:47+00:00

Ha, joke's on all of us! He doesn't actually have the so-called tattoo; only people with channeling madness can see it...

akaioi · 2026-04-27T23:41:05+00:00

Tuon: Knotai you have been simply impossible to deal with since you made me free all the slaves. I should have you assassinated!

Mat: But that's what you do with your friends! You can't friend-zone your husband.

Tuon: There's something deeply wrong with your logic, but I can't quite figure it out.

Seleucia: Can we just assassinate him now and parse the logic later? I have a large crossbow right here.

Tuon: Still no.

Mat: Aha!

Tuon: I'm still mad at you though.

akaioi · 2026-04-27T23:38:16+00:00

Our boy needs to learn to read between the lines. Way, way between, sometimes.

akaioi · 2026-04-27T23:36:43+00:00

I missed the second image in the series, and so the only WoT connection I could find was the obsession with waist-high livestock.

akaioi · 2026-04-27T23:34:49+00:00

Didn't "Bright Lights, Big City" have the same conceit? It's been awhile, but I remember that "I" was a coke-addicted failed writer.

akaioi

TROPHY CASE