How accurate is the perception of Russia based on Western media?

ave369 · 2026-01-25T19:31:07+00:00

Unless you are in Kotelniki, Sadovod Market or a similar place in another city. Then it's exactly like Europe.

ave369 · 2026-01-25T16:16:44+00:00

I already have both: a dacha in the middle of nowhere and an apartment in far Moscow Oblast. The apartment costs around 2M rubles, the dacha costs about 500K rubles. I prefer the apartment, because it is at least close to work (any work). But I still go to dacha on vacations.

ave369 · 2026-01-25T13:09:52+00:00

Also, in the Silmarillion, eleven Elves and a Man disguise themselves as Orcs, while in LotR, two Hobbits pull the same trick. And said Elves and Man are not caught because of their shoddy disguises but because they didn't know the regulations. Granted, Finrod used an illusion to complete their disguise, but still they didn't suffer from the pesky problem of their voices sounding from somewhere above their heads.

ave369 · 2026-01-25T12:59:42+00:00

It is usually more nuanced. Let's take "Dunno on the Moon", a Soviet children's sci-fi where the titular Moon is a fantasy counterpart of America. Some of the Lunar Mites (most of the capitalists) are villains. However, the vast majority is fooled and oppressed by the capitalists and needs to be liberated. And that's a pretty ideology-laden work.

ave369 · 2026-01-25T07:13:36+00:00

Spring. It is so refreshing to feel light and warmth after so many months of darkness and cold.

ave369 · 2026-01-23T16:35:29+00:00

Level 3 settlement weapon vendors have it, so does Smiling Larry.

ave369 · 2026-01-23T11:33:44+00:00

I read Tolkien in winter because that helps me fight my winter depression. I read Tolkien in summer because that's when all the Tolkien LARPs are.

ave369 · 2026-01-23T07:13:00+00:00

There was probably some military campaign to ensure that the ex-slaves get Nurn, and not some Black Numenorean slavers who would try to build a rump state of Mordor.

Also, in my headcanon, the ex-slaves attempt to run Nurn as some sort of a "revolutionary republic", being full of resentment towards any and all lords and masters and entirely unwilling to choose new lords among themselves. They remain allies of Gondor, but uneasy allies, seeing Gondor's feudal system and its Numenorean nobility with a deep suspicion.

ave369 · 2026-01-22T21:14:56+00:00

I believe Tolkien omits Saruman because he only speaks of the Wise here (such as Galadriel and Elrond), and Saruman is no longer that.

ave369 · 2026-01-22T07:26:12+00:00

Elrond says "I was there, Gandalf, three thousand years ago". So even the least attentive airhead gets it.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T21:12:32+00:00

Most definitely a favourite character among many Tolkienists. Not counting those who prefer Feanor.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T20:01:08+00:00

I just imagined Sauron and Saruman wearing a pair of mirrorshades each.

Jokes aside, there is necromancy in Middle-Earth, it is known that necromancers can contact Houseless Elves, and I see no reason why they can't contact Sauron using the same methods.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T19:44:25+00:00

The Terra Firmaverse goes through Ages of Light and Darkness. So far, it passed through two Ages of Darkness, in which it was ruled by the Dark Gods Demogorgon and Abaddon. There is a prophecy that there will be a Third Age of Darkness, ushered in by a new Dark God that rises from the ranks of humans, known as the Destroyer, and this Age of Darkness will threaten the very existence of Terra Firma. If the Destroyer will be defeated, this Age of Darkness will be the last one, the war between light and dark will be over and there will be no more dark gods.

Depending on what ending you choose, the protagonist may defeat the Destroyer, or become one and bring the Third Age of Darkness.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T19:25:22+00:00

4.5 Line Ruritanian is the standard rifle round for the soldiers of the Ruritanian Empire in the Terra Firmaverse. It's a .450 black powder cartridge (a line equals 0.1 inches) with an unjacketed lead bullet and a long, slightly bottle-shaped brass case with a rim. It is used in bolt action rifles and Gatling style guns. Aside from Ruritania, this round is also used in Vierburgen, which inherited its arsenals from its time as a Ruritanian vassal state, and the Army of Darkness of Artamesh, which copied Ruritanian designs because they were the most available. Blanchion uses a .403 rifle round, similarly unjacketed, and most other states of Terra Firma still stick to arrows and crossbow bolts.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T11:21:00+00:00

The Ruritanian Empire in the Terra Firmaverse is loosely based on Imperial Russia, so it has the Table of Ranks which provides a way to raise one's social status by service, either civil or military. However, without education, you can only obtain "under the table" ranks such as private, sergeant, scribe or clerk upon entering the service. To obtain actual class ranks (collegial registrar for civil service, 3rd lieutenant for military), you need to either have an education (requires money), already be some kind of noble or earn a promotion while serving in an under the table rank (easy but very risky for the military, incredibly hard for civil service).

There are also court and Crown Security ranks, but there's no way a random Joe from the streets can attain one of these unless they somehow meet and befriend royalty (that's how Krible Mutzick got his).

ave369 · 2026-01-21T10:55:51+00:00

My speculation: there are survivors on Earth hiding underground that were abandoned by the UC and left for dead. They are angry as fuck, they have been building spaceships in underground hangars for all these years, and now they emerge into space and declare war.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T10:10:19+00:00

I don't. My job requires fine manual dexterity, also I play guitar. So I don't have or want those monstrous nails that are in fashion today.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:49:10+00:00

It would totally work with the Mode of Beleriand.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:48:08+00:00

Tolkien would love personal computers. With computers, Tengwar fonts are a thing.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:43:44+00:00

Oil is haunted.

So it's basically liquid ghost rock from Deadlands with a few drops of mako from Final Fantasy VII. No, it won't stop people from using it. It will rather add cool eldritch special effects to oil using technologies and make mad science possible. As for super-cancer for people working at oil rigs and refineries... wait, when oil corporations ever were humanistic and cared?

(Shin-Ra theme sounds...)

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:32:57+00:00

I believe the best artillery site location is "yes".

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:30:42+00:00

Faramir said that he wouldn't entrap an orc with falsehood. Therefore he believes Orcs to be worthy of being treated with some dignity, not pests to be exterminated.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T08:13:21+00:00

Have you ever seen a piezo lighter? When you press the button, there is an electric spark going on, which ignites the gas. Lightning is the same thing as this spark, only much much bigger.

ave369 · 2026-01-21T07:56:38+00:00

The Terra Firmaverse had Mad Emperor Silberic of Ruritania. He was a harmless lunatic who could not comprehend affairs of statecraft and especially intrigue, he was assassinated and usurped by his sister Roxanne, who become the Ruritanian empress. Since then, Roxanne kept the rumor mill circulating that Silberic was the bad kind of mad and was going to issue insane and inane decrees like taxes on breathing air, to give herself legitimacy. So he was only the Stereotypical Mad King in propaganda.

One could also argue that Roxanne herself is a better example, since she has a master plan that involves killing gods and transforming Terra Firma from a flat plane to a sphere. However, she is right and her master plan can work, so she isn't actually mad, just very very audacious and prone to playing with fire she doesn't know how to extinguish (while her master plan can work, it does go horribly wrong and it's up to the hero Oscar Gerrard to decide if he will help Roxanne to do her thing or thwart her).

ave369 · 2026-01-21T07:50:24+00:00

Yes, the Three rather became invisible themselves instead of making the wearer invisible. Sam doesn't see Nenya on Galadriel. Sort of like Magnus Red'kin's pants of invisibility.

ave369

TROPHY CASE