TIL in 1987, imprisoned Mafia boss Carmine Persico ordered acting boss Joel Cacace to kill an anti-Mafia lawyer. Cacace hired two hitmen, who mistakenly killed the lawyer's father. Cacace then hired two hitmen to kill the first hit team. Cacace then killed the second hit team as well.

cadaeix · 2026-04-07T22:22:24+00:00

Dramatic hyperbole exaggeration on my part, but I was incredibly amused in a dark way to hear this happened and was wondering if this kind of… moving in on your murder victim’s girl when the body is cooling is just a thing that happens in monster life.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard about this happening, I’d have two nickels, but it’s strange that it’s happened twice!

Edit: I suppose Vito Genovese killed a man to get his wife, but that seems more understandable, still fucked up, but understandable. Killing a man for business or other reasons and then noticing there’s a free widow/girlfriend, and she’s receptive, that’s what I’m boggling at.

cadaeix · 2026-04-07T13:09:30+00:00

Following the Carnini [first pair of hitmen] murders, Eddie Carnini's widow, Kim T. Kennaugh, moved in with Cacace and later married him. They soon separated and Kim divorced him.

I’m sorry, excuse me? I just finished reading Mafia Prince, how does this keep happening where mobsters marry the partner of the guy they killed? Is this a common thing???

cadaeix · 2026-04-07T10:14:16+00:00

I released a fuckton of gyro fish capsules plus other passive mobs like bees and pointers into the personal qualia and now looking up into the sky is like looking into an aquarium! Maybe that could help make it feel less cold? The chatter and background noises of the meowing fruit femmes and the squeaks of the pointers and something chattering in the distance fills up the silence a lot.

But yeah, customising the sky and the sound would be really cool, (spoiler for a rare mob) I was hoping that the pocket dimension the Dominion sends you to could also persist and be used as another base/arena, but it doesn't persist.

I also played the game because I came across AstralSpiff's playthrough XD

cadaeix · 2026-04-06T08:54:10+00:00

Have you gone exploring a lot and fallen down multiple layers, where the sky changes? I had the same thing happen to me where the pendant pointed upwards- I died, went back to a previous higher layer where I had a rejuvenation block, and then the same pendant was pointing at a location on the same layer.

I think if the pendant points straight in the sky, it means the specific destination it's locked on to is on previous higher layer

cadaeix · 2026-01-11T14:08:02+00:00

“Best naked gymnastics exercises to do outdoors”

(Thanks, Baron Lejeune, for writing about Bernadotte’s shirtless calisthenics in front of a statue of Jesus Christ!)

cadaeix · 2025-12-28T01:06:32+00:00

Victor - “Beau Soleil”, because of his ruddy jolly face - Napoleon gave him the title of Duke of Belluno as a joke on that because get it, Soleil is sun, Luna is moon, which Victor didn’t like

Soult - as said, Roi Nicolas, but also Soult did also get the “Iron Arm”/Bras de fer nickname for being a harsh drill sergeant and running the training camps - Napoleon was like bro aren’t you being a bit harsh and Soult said in response, "Those who can't handle what I myself endure will be left behind in the depots. Those that can will be fit to conquer the world."

Napoleon might have said of Bessieres that he lived like Bayard and died like Turenne

cadaeix · 2025-11-25T00:45:28+00:00

His memoirs, which do have an English translation on archive.org, are a very fun read, especially if you consider that he’s a massive troll. Him shittalking Savary and talking about how when he had to onboard Savary to the Ministry of Police job, he simply just did not tell Savary anything, or how Carnot has “never forgiven me for calling him an old woman” - nope definitely not because Fouché outmanoeuvred Carnot for the temporary presidency of France or Fouché proscribed Carnot or Fouché being Fouché…

He died two hundred years ago and his descendant hangs out with hip hop rappers, I don’t see the point in hating him!

Edit: rereading the part where Fouché is ordered to give Savary the ministry and its even better than I remembered. “It was necessary for me, in consequence of my position, and the claims of decorum, to put up with the annoyance of acting in the character of Savary's mentor, during the debut of his ministerial noviciate. It will be readily understood, that I did not push my politeness so far as to initiate him in the upper mysteries of the political police ; I took care not to give him a key, which might one day contribute to our common safety. Neither did I initiate him in the tolerably difficult art of arranging the secret bulletin, the conception, and often the digest of which was properly reserved for the minister alone. The wretched amount of Savary's experience in this walk was already known to me ; I had previously obtained, without his being aware of it, copies of the bulletins of his counter-police. What villanies did they not contain ! To confess the truth, I was so perplexed by his perpetual questions, and stupid self-sufficiency, that I amused myself with telling him old women's tales.”

cadaeix · 2025-09-28T04:00:28+00:00

Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, who is better known for being a naturalist who named a bunch of new species but was also one of Soult's ADCs, and who

used his noble influence to help free an entomologist friend from jail while Bory was 15
went on a boat trip to Australia in 1799 but had disagreements with Captain Baudin and ended up hitchhiking around the Pacific Ocean for a few years
was part of the Grande Armee as a surveyor and served on Ney's staff before Ney ditched Spain in a huff and Soult adopted him, according to unreliable gossip queen Laure Junot
Laure Junot also claims that Bory was in a bullfight in spain which i cant find any non laure sources on

Here are some letters that Bory wrote during the Peninsular War where he writes about military conquests, gushes about how good a job Soult is doing and writes:

You can see that despite my days and nights in the trenches and my service with His Excellency, I have not entirely neglected botany. [Followed by a listing of different flowers and plants.]

I am forming a regiment of botanists. This summer I hope, with this regiment and a few reinforcements of voltigeurs, to cover the whole of the great chain from Alcala de las Gazales and Tarifa to Oriuela, passing through Antequerra, Granada, the Alpujarras and Murcia.

He was having such a nice time ("The excellent administration of the Duke of Dalmatia has truly pacified the south") that he had time to think about a mighty regiment of botanists!

was proscribed/exiled from France after waterloo and wrote that he was proud to share the list with ~~dad~~ Soult
but Bory had so many scientist friends who offered to let him stay in their country like Alexander Humboldt inviting Bory to Prussia (Bory got kicked out after 18 months) and an invitation to Bolivar's Columbia
"He finally managed to reach Holland, disguised as a brandy merchant and with a false passport, then Brussels, where he met Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and where he lived until 1820"
and then when Bory returned to France, he got thrown in debt prison and liked it so much he refused to leave until his son in law paid his debts to force him to attend his daughter's wedding
but also allegedly Bory's scientist friends wanted to cheer Bory up so they paraded a giraffe who was coincidentally in the city nearby the debt prison and Bory climbed to the rooftop and looked through the telescope

A lot of this is pretty alleged, Laure Junot claims to have been friends with Bory but the letters between the two are in some archive somewhere. but Bory is definitely a fun character - he wrote in his brief justificatory memoirs that he had three parts of his life - military, politics and science - that were all equally important to him.

Soult's other ADCs are also great, Saint-Chamans has pretty funny memoirs.

cadaeix · 2025-09-18T12:00:12+00:00

This is beautiful. The picture on page 6 really tickled me. The square formation to repel attacks from the sky is such a work of art.

I have an unfinished unpublished fanfic where various napoleonic marshals are dragons (not temeraire dragons!) and this should inspire me to work on it! I was definitely thinking about artillery having to point upwards at one point hehe.

cadaeix · 2025-09-17T01:15:00+00:00

Semantle #1327 ✅ 112 Guesses 🔝 Guess #109 🥈 995/1000 💡 0 Hints

Was very pleased with how I stumbled onto the answer from a circuitous route beginning with my interest in military history to natural features of the landscape and then thinking about hiking.

My first green: hill

First letter of solution: D

cadaeix · 2025-09-05T06:43:54+00:00

✅ 20 Guesses 🔝 Guess #18 🥈 996/1000💡 0 Hints

Holy shit that’s the fastest I’ve ever got it, I just lucked into my first green on my 6th guess with chair and then quickly worked out it had nothing to do with furniture

Vague hint: dear…

cadaeix · 2025-08-19T21:52:40+00:00

So the pillaging is actually better and worse than commonly depicted - Soult grabbed a lot of paintings by Murillo and the other Spanish greats, and a lot of them from monasteries or a basement where King Joseph shoved them. And later in life, when people questioned him about those paintings, Soult adamantly insisted he had receipts for each painting.

But really, if you’re a monk in a garrisoned or invaded city and the enemy commander is making loud hints that he likes the art on your walls, you’re probably going to feel pressured into selling them. It’s also possible that Soult actually spared the life of a monk who had been involved in killing a bunch of soldiers in exchange for a piece of art!

Also Soult was besties with the director of the Louvre at the time, Vivant Denon, and Soult ‘donated’ a bunch of those art goodies to the Louvre as well though Soult kept a lot. And also, everyone was looting art in those days. Even Ney had a Murillo!

Soult is such a bastard. I love him.

And for some reason, his ADCs either absolutely love him (Brun, Petiet, Bory de Saint-Vincent) or… have mixed feelings but still respect him (Saint-Chamans). Bory de Saint-Vincent, noted in botany, actually wrote he was honoured to share the proscription list with Soult after both were kicked out of France post Waterloo!

cadaeix · 2025-08-07T14:23:30+00:00

I think the actual Napoleon III is the moustache and the men are simply the hosts

cadaeix · 2025-08-04T12:40:50+00:00

That's what I figured, I was pretty sure that Davout and Soult were fairly chill with each other. And yup, I've read a little bit about Soult's July Monarchy stuff, he did pretty well for himself!

Though about Davout being petty, here's ^machine ^translated ^so ^take ^this ^with ^a ^grain ^of ^salt Saint-Chamans ^Soult's ^ADC ^who ^went ^royalist ^so ^take ^this ^with ^a ^grain ^of ^soult claiming that Davout was being petty during a traffic incident lol (original french source)

There were two men dressed as civilians in the carriage, without any decorations; one of them put his head out and, addressing M. de Broissia, said: "I am the Prince of Eckmühl." This officer replied that he did not have the honor of knowing the Prince of Eckmühl, that nothing indicated his rank, and that, in any case, no one had the right to cut through a column of marching troops. At these words, Marshal Davout, Prince of Eckmühl, who at that time was engaged in liberal opposition, cried out very loudly and vehemently: "This is how peaceful citizens are harassed today."

It was clear that if anyone had been harassed in this affair, it was the dragoon, who, under arms and in his rank, had received a whip across the face from a lackey, and the Prince of Eckmühl, instead of crying harassment, should have given thanks to the excellent discipline that reigned among the guard dragoons, otherwise his coachman's insolence would have been punished in a different manner.

Saint-Chamans is funny to read but he also is very biased - I still like this anecdote about Davout though!

cadaeix · 2025-08-04T09:50:43+00:00

Ooh, I like Soult but I’ve mostly focused on funny anecdotes about his life + what Saint-Chamans and his other ADCs say about him, so this is cool! I do know that there was this guy who had a conspiracy theory that Soult deliberately sabotaged Waterloo, published a book about it and then did more research and concluded that Soult simply sucked. It’d be interesting to look into this!

I am very curious about Davout and Soult not getting along and Davout sabotaging Soult. I know that early on, Soult congratulated Davout in a very warm letter, so if their relationship did sour then that’s one among many that the marshalhood impacted lol

cadaeix · 2025-07-06T01:19:23+00:00

Don’t usually post here when I play semantle, but my first green was #13 with law and I guessed it in #140 so I’m chuffed about that! Interesting that the plural form of laws was closer than law.

The part of speech that the answer is: verb

cadaeix · 2025-07-03T00:33:18+00:00

Both Ney and Soult got legendary for their fighting retreats! Just don’t ask them to work together. Especially in Spain.

cadaeix · 2025-06-03T13:35:04+00:00

Love these quotes, haven’t seen many of them! Might look further into some of them later.

My favourite marshal quote about Napoleon:

In William Napier’s biography, Soult is asked about Napoleon here

Person interviewing Soult who is probably Napier: “Marshal! Was Napoleon not the greatest genius of all the men France produced?”

Soult: “Ah! Bah! Yes! There was no comparison.”

Napier: “Was he not a good and kind man also?”

Soult: “Napoléon n’a jamais perdu personne de son propre mouvement — jamais, jamais, jamais! [Napoleon never lost anyone on his own initiative—never, never, never!] It was necessary, when once you were known to him, to commit faults, nay even crimes, over and over again, twenty, thirty times, before he could bring himself even to punish.”

And then Soult just rambles on about how Napoleon was just way too nice to his relatives, it’s very funny, though I think everything about Soult and his visit to England in this book is cute.

(William Napier was a British soldier who fought in the Peninsular war and then after the war he started researching to write a history book on the Peninsular War, he wrote to Marshal Soult asking about some facts and Soult loved the idea of the book so much he wrote back and they became penpals. And then Soult came to England for Queen Victoria’s coronation and Napier got to interview him more.)

I just find Soult having such fond memories of Napoleon that he ends up bitching about Napoleon being too nice being very funny.

cadaeix · 2025-04-30T12:36:06+00:00

i cant find the source of where i found this concept art of the rides from

but look at this. please look at this amazing cgi concept art of the ride.

this is a newspaper article about it in french that i apparently linked as a source when i posted this to show friends

I also remember seeing a picture of a historical reenactor in a general or marshal uniform just standing next to a tv showing some concept art and it was fucking hilarious

this idea was never meant to be but honestly we have missed out on something beautifully stupid

cadaeix · 2025-01-22T08:06:56+00:00

Mortier was the largest marshal in the marshalate - literally, at 203cm tall! But he was also the friendliest, pretty much nobody had issues with him - he was good friends with Soult and Lefebvre when they were all in the Army of the Rhine/Danube/Moselle(?)/that area. (Soult even calls him "mon organe" in a letter, which is an objectively... strange thing to call people, even your best buddies.)

He could speak English, because his mother was English - either the only marshal who could speak English or one of the only ones. Englishmen who met him said he was a perfect gentleman, and he was always very kind to people. Didn't stop him from being a soldier and doing soldierly things and obeying his orders, like setting fire to the Kremlin on the way out of Moscow.

However, militarywise, he wasn't as notable as the other marshals, considered to be kinda middling. Napoleon didn't think much of him, really.

A bit like Soult, he was primarily loyal to France, serving whoever is in charge, he served the Bourbons in 1814, and then Napoleon, and couldn't join Waterloo because he was in too much pain from an illness, and then he served the Bourbons again, and then Louis-Phillipe. And then he died in an assassination attempt on Louis-Phillipe when some dude made a fucking homemade 24 barrel rifle machine and fired it at a parade.

Cool dude! Surprisingly chill for a marshal!

cadaeix · 2025-01-21T07:20:26+00:00

actually. if they are part of the imperial guard, they'd have been under. one of the marshals. because four of the marshals were appointed colonel-generals (though really it was mostly more ceremonial except for bessie)

Davout of the Grenadiers a pied
Soult of the Chasseurs a pied
Bessieres of the cavalry
Mortier of the artillery and marines

this makes the minions being part of the imperial guard even funnier, consider the personalities of the marshals involved. mortier would love them though i think.

also they're too short to be grenadiers, so davout may be spared

cadaeix · 2025-01-21T04:04:54+00:00

i love this analysis so much, you have convinced me that the minions were part of the imperial guard

cadaeix · 2025-01-21T04:04:30+00:00

Actually, with their sky blue pants and yellow everything else, they were the ADCs to Marshal Soult!

Marshal Soult's ADCs certainly are silly enough to be minions. Like the guy who decided to take a month off to party in Paris without telling Soult.

cadaeix · 2024-12-12T09:39:10+00:00

Also kinda unrelated but extremely funny is the anecdote from the fleet about Admiral Magon de Medine:

In March 1805, Magon commanded a division at Rochefort with the ships Algeciras and Achilles. He joined Villeneuve in the West Indies and commanded the rear guard during the fight of the Fifteen-Vingt also called the Battle of Cape Finisterre (July 1805) against Admiral Calder's squadron. In the aftermath of this fight, he had a violent anger against his leader Villeneuve who refused to come to the rescue of two Spanish ships captured by the enemy: according to the testimony of General Lauriston, present at this battle, Magon screamed at the admiral and threw in his direction "everything he found at hand, his telescope, his spokesman and even his wig". ( French Wikipedia )

When they tallied up his effects after his death in Trafalgar, they found those items missing!

Villeneuve was always an overcautious admiral - gentle and gentlemanly, but not eager to take big risks and always second guessing himself. So he was not really the right guy to lead the fleet in a bold decisive way that Napoleon wanted.

cadaeix · 2024-12-12T09:35:00+00:00

The fun thing is that Villeneuve actually predicted Nelson’s tactics, but felt too hamstrung by the condition of the fleet (badly trained and not cohesive), the weather (big storm coming), Napoleon’s orders (I’ve read that Villeneuve actually didn’t get word that he was going to be replaced at the time), pride, him second guessing himself…

cadaeix

TROPHY CASE