Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a lovely eurojank game where you play as a special-ed student who learns to swing a sword in Bohemia. It garnered attention upon its release for the lead dev's refusal to add Blak people to the game, for "historical accuracy", and he continued to play the chud after the game sold well. (Montage of various chuddy tweets from back in the day)

However, the upcoming sequel has been struck with disaster - a leak showing the darkest Muslim man in existence lecture the player about how good Islam is hit the web and created a frenzy. Additionally, there was a rumour about an unskippable gay love scene between the canonically straight main character and some random dude.

Naturally, this caused some panic among chuds. Was their hecking based Czech studio infiltrated? Where did it all go wrong?

They took to Twitter to pester the studio head, Daniel Vavra, to ask for clarification. Instead of an answer, they received non-responses in various forms

Turns out that we are once again in the middle of a rather bizarre "culture war", this time from the opposite side than usual :) So here's a statement, but I'd hate to spoil the plot of the game for the sake of it. pic.twitter.com/MDgbY7WD7A

— Daniel Vávra ⚔ (@DanielVavra) January 17, 2025

Finally, the silence was broken

5/10 KCD is an RPG, you are responsible for your decisions. If you want Henry to try a same-s*x adventure, feel free. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. All affairs are (and were in KCD1) purely optional. The characters are perfectly aware, that it was a forbidden sin.

— Daniel Vávra ⚔ (@DanielVavra) January 19, 2025

Yes, there is a proud Kang, and yes you will frick the bussy, and you'll like it darnit!

Responses have been measured and reasonable

Claims abound of plummeting preorder numbers and de-wishlisting

Mark Kern has also become an enemy of the state, claiming the game definitely isn't woke.

I can guarantee that none of these r-slurs were going to play it anyway, particularly because I've not seen anyone mention this particular line from Kern's review:

Combat is similar but easier than the first game

The real goyslop is in making the mechanics dumber so that hecking valid enbys don't cry when forced to learn a moderately interesting combat system.

Kill all kiwiggers

Is it possible?

No idea what I'm expecting here in terms of advice tbh.

I was involved with a man who I regarded as my soulmate, things were looking serious. We talked about marriage and the future.

He was from a Muslim background in the Middle East. I'd always been interested in his religion (Islam) and had been studying it. After a couple of years with him, I took the step of converting. Everyone in my family and friends were supportive as they knew it was my choice. There was never any pressure from him.

After converting, we scaled back on the physical side of things and both said it would be best to get married. I was all for this, loved him to bits and wanted my life with him and believed he felt the time.

Unfortunately, his parents back home in his native country had other ideas and wanted an arranged marriage to someone of their choice... After months of trying to make them see reason, he wasn't strong enough to stand by me. So I ended our relationship as I could see it was going to end in tears.

I feel so alone in Islam now. I live in a small semi rural area with no mosque, no community to speak of and I've been shying away from wanting to move on. I feel at a crossroads. There's no chance of meeting a Muslim man here. I feel so lost without him, although I feel ending it with him was the right thing to do as he'd never go against his parents' wishes. Even though he was almost 30 and well-educated.

I'm no so much looking for a husband.. It will take me a long time to get over losing him. He was the first man I ever really loved and imagined a life with. I'm just feeling a bit isolated in terms of being "the only Muslim in the village" so to speak. It's a small and very "white", middle-class community. My ex and I met at uni in a big city, where it's more common to see other Muslims and different nationalities.

I'm feeling so many different things, feel like he's thrown me under the bus. I made so much effort and sacrifice for him, changed my whole way of life and even aspects of my diet and appearance. Yet he couldn't even just stand up for me (with his parents) when it mattered. He claimed to be in love with me (I was his first), yet didn't feel able to have any firm discussion with his parents about marrying me and going through with it.

I feel that being Muslim, this would put non-Muslim men totally off me. Especially with all the negativity around the religion in the media and so on. I don't even have anyone to do Ramadan with, or even talk about the religion.

tfw only muslim in the village

also he absolutely knew he was eventually going to marry someone else, but as she said, they were engaging in the 'physical side of things' and moids will be moids if you let them do that

This post isn't meant to really get into the personal details of me dealing with intestinal candida (it sucked), but instead to serve as a good starting point for anyone also dealing with this or anything similar. Mainly this is because all the information that's easy to find is absolute dogshit and filled with terrible advice. All the actually correct info is buried in studies and guesswork. So this post serves to act as a nice handy collection of my personal findings and the sources that helped me.

First is finding out if you even have candida/SIFO, SIBO, gluten intolerance/celiac disease (if you get tested for this, make sure to have gluten for a few days before the test to avoid false negatives), and/or something else entirely. My symptoms included dry flakey skin on the face, sand like stool with white transparent pieces alongside it, a toenail infection that appeared from nowhere, and symptoms that got worse with whole grains compared to processed grains (whole wheat flour bothered me a lot more than white wheat flour).

It is worth keeping in mind that there are no reliable tests for this or similar ailments, so knowing exactly what you have is hard to pin down. Thankfully many of the long term fixes are the same, with only some stuff needing to be altered. The general rule of thumb is to introduce things one at a time and remove them if they start to bother you, this includes things like supplements as well as food.

I would also caution against prescribed solutions; they don't fix the underlying cause of your issues. All they do is buy time, and tax your liver in the process. Of course I don't think they are never helpful, just don't use them as your first option. The ones I tested are terbinafine (needed more than the 3 months prescribed, somewhat useful), itraconazole (made things much worse, avoid), fluconazole (slightly useful, didn't do much), and nystatin (safest and weakest of the ones I took, but by the time I was taking this things had progressed far enough that it wasn't effective. Do make sure to avoid the liquid solution though, it has sugar alcohol which will just make things worse).

With all that being said, here is a tier list of a bunch of things I tried with an explanation of why it helped/didn't help/made things worse. You will notice I list brands; this is not because I am a shill, but because the brand you buy does make a huge difference with all this. Sometimes I would try the same type of product from many brands, but one or two would perform noticeably worse.

God Tier

Member's Mark Organic Virgin Coconut Oil ()

Despite what my title says, if there is only one thing you add, make it coconut oil. Coconut oil has had by far the biggest impact on my recovery, and it's not even close. This is because coconut oil has saturated fatty acids that are excellent for killing bad stuff in your gut. The 2 most studied acids are C12 (lauric acid) and C8 (caprylic acid), however it is likely the other acids are also helping. All these saturated acids combined have 3 important abilities; they strip the biofilm from candida (this is what candida uses to make itself resistant to traditional antifungals, making coconut have strong synergy with other antifungals), they directly kill the candida, and they feed good bacteria to fill the void dead candida leaves behind (this ensures the candida has a harder time reestablishing itself). The only real downside is eating coconut oil (preferably room temp to ensure the acids don't break down) is nauseating and vile, thankfully the next item solves that issue.

Swanson EFAs Coconut Oil Made with Certified Organic Coconut Oil

Is this as potent as eating coconut oil straight? No. However it goes down a lot easier so is what I'd recommend you use if you don't find eating coconut oil enjoyable. I take 2 of these a day with good results, you can take more or less but I found that to be a good sweet spot.

Silk Organic Unsweet Soymilk ()

Soymilk has gotten a bad rep, mainly because the people who drink it look more like and less like . However this is undeserved imo, the belief that it negatively affects testosterone was debunked and it has a lot of benefits. Unlike basically every other plant-based milk, this one is high in protein making it good for keeping calorie intake high (hard to do when dealing with candida).

When it comes to candida specifically, I find that this specific brand of soymilk does suppress candida unlike most other milks I tried. I believe this is because this soymilk has gellan gum whereas other milks do not. I do believe the soy itself is helping though, as when I combine this brand of soymilk with soy protein powder (listed below) the candida killing ability is amplified. I believe this is because gellan gum acts as a carrier that helps the soy reach the small intestine intact, whereas other sources of soy without gellan gum breakdown before they can reach the small intestine. Since gellan gum is kinda a pain to find by itself (and even more of a pain to work worth), I suggest just buying this soymilk instead. I also find that things like coconut and ginger are more effective when I take them with this soy milk, again I'll assume the gellan gum is responsible. I try and have around 2-3 cups a day, preferably with my coconut and ginger.

365 by Whole Foods Market Unsweetened Original Soymilk

This is the only other brand of soymilk I could find with gellan gum, and sure enough this one also works great (though not quite as effective as the Silk). I find this brand also tastes better and is much cheaper than the Silk brand. So why do I not recommend this one? Because shopping at Whole Foods makes me want to . By all means though, if you live near a Whole Foods and don't hate shopping there (I don't know if I should envy or pity you), buy this brand of soymilk instead.

Swanson Premium Full Spectrum Ginger Root

When dealing with candida, you will probably find yourself dealing with bloating and general stomach upset. Ginger is godsend for dealing with this, as taking some throughout the day helps alleviate the bulk of these symptoms. This ginger root isn't very strong, but it's cheap as chips, so even taking twice as many compared to other brands you'll still come out ahead. I find taking 3-4 a day works for me, though this is something you can easily test yourself.

Swanson Premium Vitamin D3 - Highest Potency ( vitamin D levels have fallen, billions of IU must be absorbed)

Candida really hurts your Vitamin D absorption capabilities, or maybe having trouble absorbing vitamin D causes candida, or maybe both, hard to say. A study (link below) shows that the RDA for Vitamin D isn't high enough for many people. So adding a vitamin D supplement is worth considering. I personally found it had a massive benefit to me, especially when I started talking more than the RDA (I originally took 2000 IU a day). I take 10000 IU a day, which is an insanely high number that you almost certainly don't need (however I do, even 8000 wasn't enough). Start small, and increase by a little (2000 IU increments) as needed. If you can get frequent blood tests to track your vitamin D levels as you increase the dosage, even better.

Swanson EFAs High Concentrate Omega-3 - Mini Softgels ()

Most people are not getting enough omega 3s, however this isn't caused by just diet. People's ability to convert fatty acids into each other (and the efficiency they do it) seems to be dependent on genetics. Through trial and error, I found that my ability to convert ALA into DHA is remarkably poor, so even though I had a good amount of ALA in my diet the lack of direct sources of DHA became a problem. This most likely negatively reduced my testosterone levels and thus hurt my body's ability to regulate the candida in my gut. Unless you are eating omega 3 rich seafood frequently (you probably aren't), I suggest taking an omega 3 supplement. This one is derived from Alaska pollock, which has much more DHA than EPA. However, you probably want a supplement that is more balanced, so you probably want to take a supplement that uses anchovy, sardine, mackerel, and or krill. Try different kinds of omega 3 supplements and see what works for you, this one requires more trial and error than most supplements I've found. I take 3 of these a day, which is a lot, but necessary with how little DHA my body seems to be able to make naturally. Do keep in mind to not take more than 2g total of fish oil a day, as that can cause digestive issues.

Useful

STRAGE (pronounced fa-yeh, not straggy ) Total 5% Yogurt

Adding yogurt to your diet once you start to recover (don't take it until you see an upward trend, the sugars can cause issues) is a good idea. It's not necessary, but I find eating some yogurt every other day helps keep things regular. STRAGE yogurt is one of the best, and it's cheap. It seems that however they make the yogurt seems to keep more of the cultures alive than other brands, which is ideal. STRAGE also makes some of the best tasting yogurt in the budget segment, which is nice.

STRAGE BestSelf Lactose Free Plain Low-Fat Greek Yogurt

If you cannot have lactose for whatever reason () this is a great yogurt to have. I find it's not quite as powerful as the regular STRAGE (maybe because it doesn't have the parchment to keep the yogurt moist?) but when the alternative is nothing, this yogurt will do.

MYPROTEIN - MYVEGAN Pea Protein Isolate Powder

Pea protein tastes like shit, it is by far the worst tasting protein powder (with only hemp protein being close). However it seems to do a good job at managing candida, most likely due to the same compounds that make peas green. If you can stomach the stuff, this is worth adding to your diet. Do be mindful that it's high in iron, which might be a bad thing depending on what your iron levels are and what else you eat. I eat 13g of this a day in a smoothie (recipe listed below).

Spinach (and all other dark leafy greens)

Spinach has the same candida fighting powers as pea protein does, and is much more palatable. I suggest eating it raw, as that preserves the most amount of the candida fighting compounds. Just like pea protein, spinach and other dark leafy greens are high in iron, be careful. I eat 50g of this a day in a smoothie (recipe listed below).

Swanson Ultra Goat Whey Protein Concentrate Powder - Pasture Fed

Goat whey is shockingly awesome. It tastes great, is easier on the stomach than cow whey, and has good candida fighting power. The only real downside is price and shelf life, I suggest signing up for Swanson emails and waiting for a good discount (more than 30% off) to buy. Don't stock up, as this stuff has one of the shortest shelf-lifes I've seen in a protein powder. I eat 12g of this a day in a smoothie (recipe listed below).

Swanson Premium Oregano Oil 10:1 Extract

Oregano oil is one of the few recommendations the health blogs get right, it is very effective. Combine it with other candida killing stuff to prevent the candida from forming a strong biofilm. It isn't the most effective candida killer, but it certainly doesn't hurt to add to your diet, so it's an easy addition. I take one of these a day.

Nature's Way Premium Herbal Peppermint Leaf Capsules

Peppermint doesn't really do anything for SIFO, however it's great against SIBO which you might also have. SIBO also tends to emerge in those recovering from SIFO as bad bacteria fills the void the candida leaves behind. For these reasons it's worth taking some form of peppermint, just to be careful. This brand however is overpriced and not very strong, I instead recommend the next supplement.

Swanson Premium Peppermint Oil with Rosemary and Thyme - Enteric Coated

This peppermint supplement is way stronger than the Nature's Way brand one, and the enteric coating ensures it is more effective when it reaches the small intestine. I don't think the rosemary and thyme do anything, but they don't hurt either. I take 1 one of these a day.

Swanson Superior Herbs Milk Thistle - Features 80% Silymarin

This one becomes God tier if you take any of the liver taxing prescription antifungals. Your liver can get absolutely hammered by these drugs, and milk thistle is a great supplement to keep your liver working at it's best. If you don't take any prescription antifungals, the value of milk thistle is questionable, however it doesn't hurt to add. I take 1 of these a day.

Pure Encapsulations Magnesium (glycinate)

Magnesium glycinate has really only one job, make you go. When taking some antifungals, you may find yourself having trouble using the restroom, magnesium glycinate helps with this. Excess magnesium works as a laxative, so take 1 when you can't go.

Swanson Premium Activated Charcoal

Do not take these preventatively, they can mess up your gut and prevent other things from working. However these are nice to have as backup for whenever you get food poisoning. This is because getting food poisoning is a wonderful environment for candida to return, and charcoal puts a stop to that. Take 1 or 2 of these immediately after you start to feel the effects of food poisoning. The next day, take extra coconut, ginger, and probiotics (if you take any) to help your gut biome recover.

Klaire Labs SFI Health Saccharomyces Boulardii Probiotic

Saccharomyces Boulardii would be God tier, however it conflicts with almost every other thing on this list, and all those things combined are more effective than this one probiotic strain. Saccharomyces Boulardii does a great job at killing candida though, it produces C8 (caprylic) acid while it's inside your intestines, which is amazing. Saccharomyces Boulardii dies really easily though, especially to coconut. Thus it's probably best to not bother taking this, unless you have a coconut allergy (like my mom), then it's your best hope. Of all the brands of Saccharomyces Boulardii, this one is the best, both in terms of efficacy and for not having FOS/inulin/acacia gum/chicory root (this stuff feeds candida like crazy, avoid at all costs).

Meh/Mixed

Losing weight

When I first started tracking my weight when dealing with all this, I was 200 lbs. I dropped all the way to 145 lbs in just a few months (I was losing about 5 pounds a week). This did not improve or hurt my candida situation, and was entirely caused by my inability to eat any carbs during that time. I do believe it is very important to have a healthy weight, and losing the pounds absolutely helped me in other ways. However, it had literally no effect on my gut health, so don't think losing weight should be a goal when it comes to candida (especially if you are already at a healthy BMI). However, losing the weight really wasn't hard. If you are having trouble losing weight, cut all carbs from your diet (your body doesn't need carbs) and enjoy the lost pounds. If you find this too difficult, stop being a fricking baby and get it over it fatty.

MCT Oil

My initial research showed that C8 (caprylic) acid was the most important compound for killing candida, so I tried MCT oil to replace coconut oil. This didn't work, coconut oil is way more effective and it isn't even close. However it doesn't hurt to add this if you need more fat/calories in your diet, just know you should combine it with coconut oil, not replace it.

H‑E‑B 15g Protein Nonfat Greek Yogurt – Plain

I tried this yogurt alongside a bunch of yogurts, I found this one just wasn't as effective as other yogurts. Worth trying if you don't like/can't find STRAGE yogurt, but I really do suggest trying that one first.

Higher Harvest by H‑E‑B Dairy-Free Coconut-Based Yogurt – Unsweetened Plain

Just like the other HEB yogurts, this one just wasn't that effective. I assume that HEB just doesn't keep the cultures as alive as other brands like STRAGE, so it isn't as effective. Not bad by any means, just meh.

STRAGE Creamy Dreamy Cream Dessert - Stracciatella

Honestly this is here just so I can b-word about this flavor from STRAGE. This flavored yogurt has so much lemon juice (I presume for freshness) that I can't taste anything else. I'm pretty sure it has the same efficacy as the normal STRAGE (besides the fact this yogurt has added sugar), I just wanted to complain about the taste.

Boars Head Sauerkraut ()

Sauerkraut is one of those foods that food blogs and health sites often recommend. I found it did jackshit. It didn't make things worse, but with how god-awful this slop tastes, I suggest avoiding it.

NOW Foods Soy Protein Isolate - Natural Unflavored

Shockingly ineffective, I presume because the soy compounds break down before they can reach the small intestine, as this does work when combined with gellan gum soymilk. I suggest trying soymilk with gellan gum first. Only add this if you want more soy (), or you want a good complete protein powder with no sugars that isn't pea protein.

Meyenberg Goat Milk

Goat milk does work, however the insane price and the really short shelf life make adding it to your diet a huge annoyance. If you have a great source of goat milk, sure, go for it. It just isn't worth the hassle for most people though, just buy goat whey.

NOW Foods Olive Leaf Extract

I tried this, and noticed literally no difference. It might work, but I really doubt it does anything.

Swanson Superior Herbs Olive Leaf Extract

I tried this brand to see if the NOW brand one was just too weak. This one is certainly stronger, but again, it didn't do anything.

Swanson Ultra Alpha Lipoic Acid

This didn't do anything for my candida, it did make my hair have more volume () and nails stronger, which was a weird benefit. However, it didn't do anything candida related. This would probably be more effective if you don't have the same fatty acid conversion issues I have, but still, why deal with the extra step when you can just have an omega 3 supplement?

Swanson Premium Bee Propolis ()

I felt this did literally nothing. Apparently propolis only really does stuff if it's gathered from a local place so it has compounds adapted for your local climate. I have no idea if that is true, because it's shockingly hard to find local beekeepers that sell the propolis.

Swanson Premium Garlic Oil Concentrate - Triple Strength

Another product that I noticed had literally no effect.

Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Saigon Cinnamon

I noticed literally no effect when adding this to my smoothies, then I saw the consumer reports article about how cinnamon has lead and stopped taking it. I noticed no difference.

Central Market All-Natural Smooth Peanut Butter – Unsalted ( TFW Jimmy Carter Marsey)

Most food blogs and many health sites say that you should avoid peanut butter. This is bullshit and Jimmy Carter slander. Digging deeper shows that one source advised against it if you have candida because you might have a peanut allergy. I'm sorry, if you have peanut butter frequently and just now realized you have an allergy; you are a braindead r-slur. You actually probably want peanut butter, because peanut oil blocks iron absorption (good if you have a lot of food with iron like myself), peanuts are a good source of fiber (hard to get safe fiber with candida), and have a nice amount of protein. If you cannot have peanut butter, God has abandoned you, don't blame the candida.

Central Market peanut butter is my recommendation, it tastes good, has a nice amount of oil, has no fillers (frick you Skippy), and isn't expensive.

Sprouts Creamy & Unsalted Peanut Butter

Another good peanut butter if you don't live near an HEB/Central Market. Plenty of oil, no fillers, and tastes good. Do avoid the organic Sprouts peanut butter though, it tastes worse and costs more.

Swanson GreenFoods Formulas Seaweed Vegetable Complex

Another supplement that didn't seem to do anything. It also has a lot of iodine, so that could be a problem. Best to not take this one imo.

Nature Made Men's Multivitamin 50+ Tablets

It's a good idea to get a multivitamin, as your body has trouble absorbing vitamins when you have candida. Also, you will probably be avoiding food sources of some nutrients anyway, such as vitamin C/fruit. However this one just isn't very good, and is the only multivitamin I have found that goes out of stock frequently, which is kinda a pain when you should be taking this daily. I haven't tested many multivitamins, as many have CoQ10, prebiotics, whole foods (some of which feed candida), and iron, which should all be avoided if you have candida. I do have a couple I want to test, but it takes months before I feel comfortable passing judgement.

WestSoy Organic Unsweetened Plain Soymilk

This brand of soymilk doesn't have gellan gum, so it's efficacy is reduced. Shame, as this soymilk tastes way better than the Silk soymilk and is shelf stable.

Member's Mark Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

Almond milk is a net neutral with candida. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't help. If you want a milk for smoothies and the like but can't/won't have soymilk, this is your best option. This brand isn't any better or worse than others, they are all the same as long as they are unsweetened. I recommend this one because it is really cheap, which is nice.

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almondmilk

Same as the Member's Mark, what brand of unsweetened almond milk you buy doesn't matter.

365 by Whole Foods Market Unsweetened Almondmilk

The best tasting almond milk I have tried, so my recommendation if cost is no object and you are fine shopping at Whole Foods.

Filtered milk

This is the only product listed here I haven't personally tested. However, if you must have cow's milk, make sure it's the reduced sugar/filtered milk. Galactose feeds candida a lot, so it's best to minimize how much milk sugar you have. Don't confuse lactose free with reduced sugar, lactose free milk merely replaces the lactose with more galactose, which is actually worse.

Bananas

Bananas are a real crapshoot; they are either a net negative or positive depending on how much candida you have in your gut. My recommendation is to avoid them until you don't see any signs of candida, then reintroduce bananas slowly.

Bad

Chobani 14g Protein Non Fat Plain Greek Yogurt

Chobani yogurt has an additional culture that most other yogurts don't have, L. Rhamnosus (). This strain seems to be a favorite for candida, and I found that candida likes to feed off of this strain. Avoid all Chobani yogurt, and not just because Chobani yogurt sucks.

Higher Harvest by H‑E‑B Dairy Free 12g Protein Yogurt – Unsweetened Plain

For whatever reason, this specific HEB yogurt gave me severe bloating. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the corn starch. Avoid.

Blueberries

This is when I realized the low FODMAP diet is bullshit, not because sugars aren't the problem (they often are), but because the source for FODMAP is a complete sham. You will often see blueberries as low FODMAP, but according to actual data, they are quite high in fructan which I'd hardly consider low FODMAP. Best to avoid fruit until you start to recover, and avoid berries most of all.

Cranberries

Despite having less fructans than blueberries, I found these had the same issues that blueberries had with functionally no difference.

Disastrous

Lactose free milk (doesn't matter what kind)

Lactose free milk is something I saw some sites recommend, and shows the person (or AI) writing that article is a moron. Lactose free milk is the single worst milk you can have. This is because galactose is one of candida's favorite sugars, and lactose free milk has a ton of galactose due to the galactase enzyme they add. This enzyme turns the lactose into additional galactose, which is horrible if you have candida.

Central Market Icelandic-Style Skyr Low-Fat Yogurt – Plain

For whatever reason, this specific yogurt gave me extreme issues. Problems literally lasted a week. Caused by the unique strains added to this yogurt that normal yogurt does not have. Avoid at all costs. I have no idea if other skyr yogurts also cause the same results, no way am I testing that though.

Levels Grass Fed Whey Protein Powder, Vanilla Bean

This cow's whey gave me a great deal of issues. I am unsure if it was the stevia, the monk fruit, the cow whey, or something else. All I know is that it gave me issues, best to avoid. I de plan to test unflavored hydrolyzed whey at some point, as it would have less milk sugars and no fillers. However hydrolyzed whey is very expensive, and I am happy with the protein powders I use already.

Anthony's Organic Pumpkin Seed Protein Powder ()

I actually have tested pumpkin seed protein and I am pretty sure it's fine. However this specific brand should be avoided at all costs. I bought some to try and it was horrid, the seeds were burnt cause it to be bitter, and it gave me mild food poisoning. I reached out to the company and they offered a refund and then ghosted me lmao. Thankfully Amazon got me my money back, but I would avoid this brand at all costs after they pulled this nonsense.

NOW Foods Betaine HCl

HCL is one of those things many sources recommend, and I have to disagree. Despite not having enough stomach acid, HCL gave me nothing but issues. It gave me nausea, and burning stool. That's not to say it can't work for some people, but I'd look at other things first and only use this if you have actually been tested for stomach acid levels and don't have enough.

Swanson EFAs Black Cumin Seed Oil

Black seed is another often recommended cure for candida. I found it made it worse, not better. However black seed did help me sleep better, so do take a look at taking some if you have insomnia.

Sadaf Black Seed | Nigella ()

Some sources say the food version of black seed is easier on the stomach so I tried some. Nah, still gave me issues, did taste nice though.

Swanson Ultra Zinc Carnosine - Featuring PepZinGI

Some say candida is caused by zinc and copper deficiency, what they don't say is that if you are not deficient taking zinc or copper will just make your candida worse. Candida uses these minerals to build biofilms, avoid.

Swanson Ultra Albion Copper

See the zinc entry above, avoid.

Florastor Probiotic

I have tried many Saccharomyces Boulardii probiotics, this is literally the only one that made things worse. They claim to use a potent patented strain, that in reality, I think is shit. They add lactose and claim they add it because it's vital for efficacy, I have a sneaking suspicion it's because the strain is so weak it would die without the sugar. Avoid, take a different Saccharomyces Boulardii probiotic if you want to go that route.

Swanson Probiotics Lactobacillus Rhamnosus with FOS

I have a feeling that Lactobacillus Rhamnosus feeds candida, I can't be 100% certain because I have really only tested 2 things with this strain, however both made my candida worse. This product also has FOS, which will make your candida worse, avoid.

NOW Foods NAC

NAC is something a lot of people recommend, however I believe recommending this is borderline negligent and potentially dangerous. NAC does work, but the side effects are too numerous to ignore. NAC causes extreme changes in mood, it causes your heart to be taxed, and seems to be potentially addictive. I took this for only 3 days and noticed these effects near immediately, and thus stopped. Concerningly, I noticed minor withdrawal symptoms after I stopped taking it. If there is only one takeaway from this post for you, it should be this: AVOID NAC AT ALL COSTS.

FOS/inulin/acacia gum/chicory root

These are found in a wide variety of products, from probiotics to protein bars, so make sure to read ingredient labels to avoid these. These are all prebiotics that feed candida and over bad stuff like crazy, if you find you can't have chicory root, this is most likely why. Make sure to avoid these, the effects don't last awhile, but they are potent.

Smoothie recipe

A smoothie is a great way to deal with candida, here is my recipe that I have modified to be as effective at suppressing candida as possible (ingredient order is the order I put them in the blender carafe, yes it matters):

50g of spinach (use a scale)

25g of protein powder (I use 13g of pea protein, and 12g of goat whey, but feel free to use whatever you like. I suggest avoiding flavored powders and incomplete proteins though.)

2 cups of soy milk that contains gellan gum (can swap for almond milk, but soy is better)

1 tbsp peanut butter (make sure it's well mixed, you want a good amount of oil, but make sure to leave some for when you get to the bottom of the container)

optional 1 banana (only add if you know fruit is fine, fruit can make candida worse at the early stages)

Blend together at a high speed (too slow and the spinach won't incorporate properly)

That's it, pretty easy and effective, take with coconut and ginger for best results.

Frequently asked questions:

Will I be able to go back to regular foods? Probably. Once I started getting my omega 3 levels up and taking coconut regularly, I was able to go back to eating like normal with only a couple exceptions. I still avoid food with FOS/inulin/acacia gum/chicory root, and I can't go crazy with carbs (150g a day is about my limit, but you shouldn't be eating more than that anyway tbh), but otherwise I am able to have food with no issues.

How long does it take to recover? Impossible to say, as it depends on what the underlying issue was. I found it took about 3 solid months after taking omega 3 for me to be able to eat normally again, and I predict it will take about 8 months for my gut and muscles to go back to normal. However, it only took about a week for all my symptoms to go away without eating carbs, so if you plan to stay keto you should recover pretty quickly.

How does one get candida? No one quite knows yet, I suspect I got mine from taking antacids for too long, being born from c-section, and not having enough omega 3s, but it's impossible to be certain. We might know in a decade or two, but it's still a mystery for now.

Why did you bother writing this? Honestly, I doubt anyone here will find this information useful, but you never know. The main reason was because all the articles and blogs talking about candida are comically wrong and I wanted to call them out. Many still tout the low FODMAP diet, probiotics, and prescription drugs, which I found made things worse, not better. If even one person finds this post helpful, mission accomplished, as even one post like this one would've saved me a year of issues.

Why do you not recommend probiotics? (This is for you, @MouthFarting). As emerging studies are starting to reveal, the bacteria and fungus (you have both, and hundreds of kinds!) in your small intestine are specifically adapted to you as an individual. What this means is that any product with probiotics you take will not be as effective compared to instead supporting what you already have, due to both decreased adaptability and variety. This is why coconut is so powerful; it kills bad stuff while also feeding good stuff at the same time. These native probiotics were given to you by your mother via natural birth and breastfeeding. This means if you were only fed formula and/or born from c-section (I was born from c-section, and always had digestive troubles even at a young age) your native gut biome is at a disadvantage and needs help. Giving probiotics to infants (Visbiome has a specific product for infants that is very promising, doesn't help us adults though lol) can prevent this, but giving them to children and adults won't work the same way. We aren't exactly sure why this is the case, but we know very little about the small intestine anyway.

What about poop transplants? (@AnnoyinTheGoyim) This is a real thing that seems to work for some patients, and do nothing for many others. The main reason seems to be, as explained above, that transplanted poop just can't adapt to the small intestine as they have an outsider's disadvantage. Theoretically a transplant from your mom might be more likely to work, but that carries all sorts of practical complications and is untested at scale. It's also worth keeping in mind that we do not know much about the small intestine, we have hundreds of strains of bacteria and fungus in our gut, but scientists still don't know just how many and we don't know most of them. This is because 99% of all the total bacteria/fungus in our small intestine are from only an estimated 40 strains, yet those remaining hundreds of strains seem to have an outsized impact. We simply do not have the cowtools to examine these strains in detail before they break down and die. There is also a deep concern that just putting things in peoples butt without knowing exactly what we are doing could create the next Ebola or aids, which is probably best avoided. So, for now poop transplants are a rare procedure used sparingly, they will most likely be replaced with a potent suppository or enteric coated oral capsule once we identify and isolate more strains.

Any other tips? Buy a food scale and bathroom scale, seriously. Keeping track of exactly what you eat and how much you weigh is super helpful, helped me a lot when testing various things. I also suggest drinking filtered water and avoiding fluoride toothpaste, new studies are showing that fluoride causes havoc on your gut, and is probably one of the main causes of candida in the US. Switching away from fluoride toothpaste helped a ton, though it took months to notice. Finally, avoid consuming tea tree oil, it's toxic, yet some toothpastes have it and some sites recommend it anyway...

Sources

Below are the various studies, sources, and papers I used to help find what items deal with candida, keep in mind that just because it is a study does not mean it is 100% accurate. However these studies do help shed a light on not just what works, but why it works.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.148.suppl_1.14841 good study on why current RDA for Vitamin D3 is bupkis.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aac.02323-19 explains why Gellan Gum might be a super useful tool for delivering stuff to the small intestine intact.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10302699/ a general-purpose study, the parts talking about omega-3, vitamin D, and vitamin E are particularly intriguing.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10113668/ a study talking about the antifungal effects of stevioside (a compound found in stevia).

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/card9-deficiency the reasons why some people develop candida and others don't is still largely unknown. However CARD9 might be one of the causes, this page is a good starting place for learning about the genetics side of things.

https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/other-nutrients/essential-fatty-acids#sources in my opinion, this is the definitive resource for learning about essential fatty acids. It explains how each works, and also breaks down what foods have good amounts of each kind. Most sources only give total amounts of fatty acid, so having a source that breaks down the amounts into specifics is invaluable. The link should take you straight to the sources of fatty acids section, which is a great place to start imo.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/familial-candidiasis/ another basic page that just explains that sometimes recurrent candida seems to be genetic, also a good starting point for learning about the genetics side of things.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8893526/ study that tested the antibacterial and antifungal abilities of 10 essential oils, useful when looking at healthcare and beauty products to buy.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9357398/ this study tested the biofilm disruption capabilities of essential fatty acids and how that compared to just using fluconazole. Really shows how important the biofilm is when it comes to killing candida.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10820302/ you might be familiar with the low FODMAP diet, this study helps show just how bullshit that diet is. Mainly because the group that lists what foods are low and high FODMAP does not provide hard data or any actual evidence that the foods they test are high/low FODMAP. Turns out a lot of that data is wrong, as this study shows. The most interesting example found in this study is that brown rice is actually higher FODMAP than any other kind of rice tested (4x more fructan than the 2nd highest rice).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559102/ while it turned out fructose was not the issue, this study does help shine a light on how genetics plays a big factor in all of this.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9631991/ a good summary on the efficacy of fluconazole, and how the standard 3 months prescription is simply insufficient for dealing with fungus.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31215785/ another general-purpose study about candida and how diet plays a role.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10865912/ it turns out candida is a huge problem for those with artificial implants, as this article elucidates.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7161696/ a neat paper about how candida operates and a good insight into how and why it's so dangerous.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/M22-3469 a doomer study that proves that candida is becoming more common, concerningly we don't know why.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_oil#Composition_and_comparison the Wikipedia article for coconut oil is surprisingly detailed and provides a nice breakdown of the ratio of different fatty acids in coconut oil.

!effortposters

Literally took months of work, even if I only wrote this in a day.

@TomfooleryButNewYear

You wanted to know about supplements, this probably isn't exactly what you are looking for, but do check out black seed oil, coconut oil, ginger root, vitamin D, and www.swansonvitamins.com (not sponsored lol, they just have great prices and save me literally hundreds of dollars. Do wait for sales, they have them all the darn time and are often 35% off all Swanson brand stuff or higher.)

@KILL_EVERYONE

I await your upkong, even if you won't read this.

@Qar

And here is your effortpost, enjoy and don't forget to not vote!

a computer fast enough and with enough storage to not make editing a pain. It's helping me brush up on my editing and content management skills - something I had once, but back in 2004-2008 during the pre-HD days of Final Cut Pro and miniDV formats. What I'm saying is that I'm really happy I dropped nearly $4k on a computer to spend a month editing cute raccoon videos.

Any input on the editing?

For those of you who are sick of raccoons - I'm sorry. It's a phase and I know it's intense but I have a feeling it won't last much longer and I'll latch onto something else. Until spring when the raccoons come back.

We're playing the turboneurodivergent Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV that replicates world history. !g*mers

Part 1 Part 2

Part 3 Part 4

Part 5 Part 6

Everything is going cool, the Roman Empire is at its near peak historic borders.

I just settled my first Roman American colony in Columbia, South Carolina.

My Spanish vassals can now travel the ocean and have settled their first colony in Puerto Rico.

I've landed an explorer in Australia, the intrepid Down Under Dan, ready to traverse the outback.

I just hope all these mongols on my border aren't up to anything

FRICK

Ethiopia is vassal to the Mongols so they attack Nubia/Egypt. I really dislike these cute twinks

Kilwa (Swahili) are vassals to the Mongols as well, I was sending a boat to Africa to try to capture slaves for New World plantations, they can attack them instead.

And with 90%+ odds to survive the boat goes down Guess they're stuck there

I briefly forget how cavalry works and almost lose Khalpe

We successfully repel the main invasion force and get a new general in Rome, Traianus

Him and Scipio Africanus I send to the city Padua. @Ubie Promise I'll attach the next general and have him fight in the field I'm focused on getting Wonders built in Rome and Padua has strong production, I want to turn into a new military center, building a Military Academy as well.

Fun fact that blue southern tile I JUST NOW noticed is a "Lagoon" land tile and can be developed, not a coastal tile I really am bad at video games

The Mongols tank our stability basically just by existing. We have -10 Foreign due to Bad Relations and it's mostly their fault.

The Khan is ready to talk peace, then I screw it up and get greedy and unsuccessfully try to kill another one of his Keshik units

Next turn thoughever with a little more harassment towards him and his vassals he's open to talk again

No way he's pawning that piece of shit city off on me I counteroffer

And we are at peace

We can even go for a Defensive Pact now

Ultimately pointless because they collapse soon after

Then this region becomes independent Iran under the Safavid Shahdom

And the fall of the Mongols allows China to reform as the Tang Dynasty

We've researched Representation which advances us to the Industrial era (in 1424AD!) and gets us a new Great Statesman, Quintus Hortensius

These guys are new to DoC and I haven't really shown them off before but there's a few things we can do with them. They can "Resolve Crisis" and stop all city unrest empirewide, reform a government without revolution/anarchy, build an administrative center to reduce maintenance, or be settled for espionage and commerce. We're just gonna hang onto this guy for now.

We then research Scientific Method, obsoleting our religious monasteries and enabling the possibility for Secularism

Secularism even has its own religious victory if we wanted an Atheist World Order

As we are first to research we get a Great Scientist. We have enough different Great People now for another Golden Age if we want. We'll hold onto these people for now.

Clermont constantly revolts. France (Province of Gaul) is kinda unstable too and it's affecting my stability. Fortunately it's nowhere near as bad as it was when the Mongols were around.

I decide to liberate Clermont and help France out.

Down Under Dan has finished mapping out all of Australia. Beginning to settle our first colony.

Australia is rich with rare strategic resources, and since we destroyed England on accident, it's ours to colonize. We're starting with Adelaide.

It's of course outside our historic expansion zone but we can take the penalty. Australia is not a civilization yet ingame as well so it will never become independent nation. Tbh, Australia and South Africa as civilizations are currently the biggest gaps in the game imo, but it's still in development

We gain our first slave when Muscogee attempt to raid mines outside Columbia, and can put them to work at a Slave Plantation

It's hard to tell, but that sumovab-word is returning TWO full bags of commerce (10 )

Our stranded African raiding party is successful in tracking down some natives to enslave as well

^{(pls ignore that they are European heavy swordsman units, I think this is a cosmetic oversight)}

History is so fun

Slaves are pretty valuable if a civilization wants them, Turkemenistan for example keeps coming buy asking to buy these guys I captured

Sometimes this can be used as a great metagame strategy, for example trading technologies to the Mande and Congolese for slaves, which you then sell to Europeans for money or other technologies. But we're making ~150 gold per turn so we don't need that shit

When one of the Swahili cities gets captured by natives we can use our little raiding party to free it, repairing our relations and foreign stability a little.

Plus we get more slaves

We can send these slaves to our new Australian colony to work in the coal mines

The Dutch spawn in 1580AD, sadly another Protestant power

As expected, since the English are kill and I'm only colonizing the south they colonize New York.

Also notice that I've expanded to Nashville

I've mentioned this, but this is a new map and unfortunately the dynamic city name mapping isn't complete. In DoC on the old map I'm pretty sure this would have been named Nieuw Amsterdam since the Dutch founded it

It breaks my heart that this isn't New Amsterdam I would literally cheat and rename it but it just seems to get renamed back to its default.

Although they're Protestant, after sending some missionaries we're able to pay them to convert.

and then immediately steal back the money we gave them

Now the only major European Protestant power is Sweden, who refuses to budge. Since the Netherlands have renounced their heresy we're willing to sign a Defensive Pact as well.

We're full on in the Industrial Era now.

Now is a good time to burn some Great People for a Golden Age as we're getting factories, power plants and railroads up across the empire

Padua as our military center is complete, with a Military Academy and Ironworks. We're pumping out promoted riflemen with leadership every turn

Marrakesh is our naval center, having built the wonder Trafalgar Square in it.

Corporations are starting to spread. Unlike the weird gimmicky implementation in base game corporations spread naturally in civilizations that allow them. Corporations piss citizens off and will start to get a LOT of angry faces in modern times. Lead developer Leoreth is kind of a Marxist I think. He's also pretty abrasive. This mod is an impressive achievement so he's earned the right to be as eccentric as he wants but I should find some of his rants at other developers in a future installment, they're hilarious.

Free Enterprise at this point is definitely more profitable than Regulated Trade, even as beastly as the city of Rome is. We have an extra Statesman left over from discovering Representation so we may as well use him to reform the whole government.

With Democracy and a Constitution we now are the Roman Republic once again. The Great People boost from Democracy will be great during our Golden Age.

Excess resources benefit corporations and all this industry spreads unhappiness and disease, so now's a good time for my vassals to start pulling their weight.

By now we've recovered our horrific Foreign Stability with strong vassals and the elusive Good Relations

Spain is booming, having colonized Texas and the incredibly helpful Panama Canal. France is not so much They've only built Speightstown. I'm going to give them some old galleons and maybe a settler to help them out.

Finally, with some assistance they settle New Orleans

We're getting warnings that we're close to the domination limit on population. It's feasible we could go for a Domination win. But I still want Space

Coming soon: America

Next

https://old.reddit.com/r/IsraelPalestine/comments/1iduh13/al_jazeeras_arabic_documentary_about_the_war/

Al jazeera

https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/1idp1ly/when_and_why_christians_first_demonized_muhammad/

a lot of dummies about to get decapitated

https://old.reddit.com/r/anime_titties/comments/1idtdxm/hamas_has_confirmed_that_its_military_chief/

Hamas fanboys cope that their hero is dead

https://old.reddit.com/r/UnitedNations/comments/1idvcco/netanyahu_furious_about_chaotic_handover_of/

Defund the un

https://old.reddit.com/r/IsraelPalestine/comments/1idpszo/israel_did_not_commit_the_crime_of_genocide/

Israel isn't committing genocide but they should down boy

https://old.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/1idrw4g/five_thai_hostages_released_by_hamas_after_over/

Thai cucks

https://old.reddit.com/r/Jewish/comments/1idor7i/dont_know_where_i_can_stand_anymore/

American leftist Jews cope that they suck and are about to die

https://old.reddit.com/r/IsraelPalestine/comments/1idrh8y/palestinians_are_innocent_their_leaders_are_not/

I'm not bothering with this one

They are using BMI to come to this conclusion. The index which puts heavily muscled people in the obese category...

No. That literally does not happen. You need to be roided to the gills eating 6 full meals a day and working out nonstop to even get close to being obese via muscle.

Was reading up on these protests trying to find any updates and was fascinated:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/canadas-trudeau-says-us-far-right-misinforming-muslims-lgbtq-schools

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-progressive-left-discards-muslims-as-un-canadian

Holy shit trudeau literally said the teacher who said it's uncanadian to be homophobic was in the wrong

Muslims are gonna win this thing and erode every liberal values, ppl are so afraid of being racist they let you do whatever to women, gays or any other minority

So it should be no surprise at this point that I'm obsessed with morbid topics and that I'm generally a demonic person who deserves no love. However, I still crave a gf to care for and have s*x with. The way things are looking, it seems like I'll be an incel for the rest of my life but there's a work event in early February and I'm hoping maybe I'll meet a cute white girl there and we'll get married and have babies. It's a long shot, but I don't have many options. Don't act like I've never tried. I've been rejected in real life, and it's a non-starter online. As soon as anyone sees my face IT'S OVER. And this is not even considering the fact that I'm 156cm. It never began and I'm so depressed that I'll have to face the future sexless, loveless, and without anyone to care for me. The reality of it is brutal and I live it every day. I want a girlfriend so badly but I don't know how to get one. This year I've dedicated myself to finding a gf. I'll try any strategy that I haven't already and I'll accept every rejection that comes my way. The truth is I need love.

But that's not the topic of this post. Instead, I'd like to discuss one of the worst massacres in USA history - the Uvalde school shooting. The event took place on 24 May 2022 at Robb Elementary School. In total, there were 22 deaths (including the perpetrator) and the victims were around 10 years old. The perpetrator is Salvador Ramos. Here's a picture of him.

I know you're itching to jump into the main events of the day, but there is some backstory we need to cover first before we get to the bloodshed. So I suggest you get yourself something to drink or nibble on because this is going to be a long post going into intricate details. Before we continue, there is something I want to share. I'm still in love with my friend Sarah. Sometimes I send her loving messages, and she responds politely but it is obvious she only sees me in a platonic light. Sometimes she just ignores me completely. Am I being a creep?

I don't know why I keep torturing myself like this. I can't stay away from her even though I know I can't have her. My life is a tornado of broken emotions. I'd also like to mention that I've quit benzos and ambien. It's over. I have no more prescriptions. There are no pills in my house. I am free. I still crave the pills but I know that the time has come to leave them alone and continue with normal life. I can't go my whole life blacking out every other day. Now I only vape weed.

It's also worth mentioning that I've been enjoying Starfield recently. It's a really good game to get immersed in. I have no idea why people hated the game so much. There's plenty to do and it nails it's atmosphere really well. I like travelling to different planets and exploring new landscapes. I also think the story is well-written and I like Sarah Morgan very much. I think consumers are finicky and they don't really know what they want. Starfield is a perfect game and anyone who thinks otherwise is a deformed cuck.

Tell Me About Uvalde

I should start by mentioning I have never visited Uvalde. However, when the mass shooting occurred, I was obsessed with everything to do with Uvalde which allowed me to amass considerable information on the area and its history. The small town was established in 1853. It is located near the border, which means it faces trouble from a lot of border jumpers escaping from police. Consequently, it is not uncommon for schools to go on lockdown as police attempt to track down these criminals. Yes, people who enter a country illegally are criminals and I stand against illegal immigration.

It's worth highlighting how small Uvalde is. It has a population of roughly 15,000, making it an incredibly tiny town. Despite how small the town is, it has a robust police force with 39 police officers, 2 animal control officers and 11 civilian employees.

Slightly unrelated, but I need to go to work now and it's raining heavily. I'm already a nervous driver so it's going to be super scary to drive when it's raining so hard but I'm going to do it anyway. I hope nothing bad happens. I'll stop here to get ready for work and continue writing this piece at work because I'm basically getting paid to do nothing at the moment.

Whew, made it to work safely. It was a rather uneventful drive except when I stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let folks pass, some cars decided to overtake me. They're buttholes, they should have waited. Nobody respects pedestrian crossings anymore. You're supposed to stop if there's somebody there. Frick off with your car elitism.

Now back to Uvalde. As you can imagine, the town has a high Latinx population, with about 78% of its population identifying as Latinx. and nearly 20% identifying as white. Within Uvalde, there exists a few schools but the one we're concerned about is Robb Elementary. Located on 15 Old Carrizo Road, Robb Elementary was a school created in the 1950s and it was a part of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Due to white flight, the school had a population of over 90% Latinx.

Despite its small police force, the cops received a wealth of training. The city of Uvalde spent 40% of its budget on the policing department during 2019-2020. Furthermore, following the horrific Santa Fe shooting, Texas had given UCISD a $69,141 grant to improve security measures. I'm sure this would go to good use. The Chief of Police of the UCISD Police Department was Pete Arredondo.

So Who is Salvador Ramos?

So here is where things get a bit spicier, as we get to talk a bit about our killer. Salvador Ramos was born on 16 May 2004 in North Dakota. It's insane to think that kids in the 2000s are already shooting up schools. On an unrelated note, one time, I was talking to a younger cousin of mine and he asked what music I was into and I replied that I like hip-hop. He asked me what artists I like, so I responded Lil Wayne, Kanye, etc. and he said "oh those old rappers." Imagine my shock. He started naming the rappers he was into and I didn't know who the frick they were. Who the frick is Pooh Shiesty and the Shiesty Gang? What is Ice Spice? Frick this shit, I'm 29 and I already don't know shit about pop culture.

Back to Salvador Ramos. He lived in Uvalde from his early life and he attended Robb Elementary. He did not enjoy his time there and he was bullied mercilessly because he was poor. It is also reported that he had no friends. I was also bulied and have no friends. Just thought I should mention, no reason. He never finished school because he was dismissed in 2021 for having excessive absenteeism, which I don't understand. "You stay away from school for so much, we're going to punish you by letting you stay away from school forever!" Proper punishment would have been forcing him to go to school.

Now, from his teen years, it was evident that there was something not quite right with Salvador Ramos. He had fits of anger, and he was known to abuse animals, including cats. This isn't negligible, as it is a known fact that many many serial killers begin their tomfoolery by killing animals first. If you want to see him hold a bag of dead cats, you can follow the link below:

https://nypost.com/2022/05/30/new-video-shows-texas-school-shooter-salvador-ramos-holding-bag-of-dead-cats/

Cats are good because they take of pests. If it wasn't for the domestication of cats, humans would have never had the agricultural revolution. Therefore, it is bad to kill cats. One time, when I was a child, there was a kitten in the garage. My dad didn't see it and he ran it over.

Salvador Ramos didn't keep his sick shit to himself and he would go on an app called Yubo where he would threaten women with r*pe and abuse because I guess he found it funny. He would also threaten to commit a school shooting, something he would stay true to. Several people reported his account, but no formal action was taken which is an indication of just how lax moderation is on some sites. For this reason, I believe that the moderator to user ratio should be 1:1 and everybody should have a moderator observing their every move because there are just too many chuds out there and it's getting out of hand.

Salvador Ramos didn't spend all his time on Yubo. You see, he had plans of making money. He didn't need too much money, just enough to enact his dastardly plot. So he got a job at Wendy's. There, he mostly stuck to himself but he nevertheless gained the reputation of "school shooter" because he always wore black and had long, black hair. Personally, I think this is discriminatory. There is nothing wrong with wearing black or having long, black hair. This is like someone assuming I smoke weed because I have dreadlocks (I do smoke weed, but that's not the point). I hate stereotyping and I believe you should judge a person by the content of their character.

Although Salvador Ramos initially lived with his mother, they had a fight over the wifi, which caused Ramos to move to his grandparents house. It's not mentioned, but I KNOW it was about porn. Salvador didn't want the wifi cut off because that would snip his porn supply and he didn't want that. It's that simple. Anyway, now that he lived with his grandparents, he had a little more privacy and a bit more freedom. He would ride around with his friends shooting cars with BB guns and eggs. Of course, Slavador couldn't drive so it was his friends that were handling the wheel. In case you're wondering, Salvador was generally described as a quite person, although he could get aggressive at times. It should be noted that many of these descriptions come from his mother who has been very supportive of her son even after the disastrous events that took place in Robb Elementary.

So where was I? Right, I was discussing the past of Salvador Ramos. Of course, he had a girlfriend. Everybody but me has a girlfriend. Life is so fricking unfair. His girlfriend describes him in sweet terms and she was trying to change him to be a better person. He was also in contact with a 15 year old in Germany. This will be important later.

Salvador Ramos Begins His Evil Plan

Don't mean to spoiler you here, but Salvador ends up killing a bunch of kids. To do so, he needs a little planning. So he's living with his grandparents which means he has minimal expenses. Hence, he gets to save all the money he's earning from Wendy's. Imagine going to work as a fry cook for months just so you can save up money to kill kids. This guy is a sick frick. Fueled by pure hatred. He needed guns, so he asked his sister to do it for him. His sister refused, but this wouldn't be enough to deter Salvador Ramos. He waited until his 18th birthday and on that very day he went to Oasis Outback where he purchased a Smith & Wesson semi automatic rifle. A few days later, he purchased a Daniel Defense weapon.

His grandparents found out about the guns and they demanded that Salvador Ramos get rid of the gun because the grandfather had a felony so he was not allowed any firearms in the house. Of course, Salvador Ramos did not listen and he simply hid the guns. Salvador Ramos was intent on causing as much mayhem and carnage as possible. Having two semi-automatic weapons wasn't enough for him, so he installed a hellfire trigger to his Smith & Wesson. This is basically a device that increases the rate of fire of the weapon. Up until this point, there is no evidence that Salvador Ramos had ever fired a gun before.

The other day I watched this movie called Disgruntled Employee and it was about a male worker that worked in an office with all female workers. The workers were mean to him so one day he locks the building and he r*pes them all. The acting is terrible but I watched the whole thing from start to finish. Overall, a 2/10 movie, would not recommend. Have any of you watched this movie?

Now a gun is darn near useless without ammunition, so Salvador Ramos made sure he stocked up with so many bullets that you should think he was going to war. He purchased 1,657 total rounds of ammunition and in his sick, twisted mind, none of if was going to go to waste. To carry all this ammunition, he acquired a tactical vest, but the vest did not include ballistic protection. This is another detail that will come into play later. A day before the shooting, he called his sister crying talking about how he wanted to die. This was an ominous sign of things to come.

So we have a suicidal kid that kills animals, hates the world, is known as a school shooter, and has guns. What could go wrong?

Salvador Ramos Enters Robb Elementary

So is there any way this massacre could have been stopped? Well of course. Salvador Ramos had terrible opsec and he posted pictures of his guns online days before the attack. A little more than a week before the attack, he posted a message stating "10 more days" to which someone responded "Are you going to shoot up a school or something?". Salvador dismissed this and told them to stop asking dumb questions. The final opportunity to stop this atrocity came on the day of the attack. As previously stated, Salvador had a female friend in Germany. He told her that he was about to shot his grandmother. Then he told her he had shot his grandmother, then he informed her that he was going to shoot up a school.

The girl responded flippantly, not believing that Salvador Ramos would do anything of that nature. Well, she was punished for that shit, and she was found guilty of failing to report planned crimes. Well, everything he texted was true. He got into an argument with his grandmother over him not finishing high school, and Salvador Ramos responded by shooting his grandmother in the face. After that evil deed had been accomplished, he got into his grandparent's Ford F-150 and made his way to Robb Elementary which wasn't too far away. However, you should remember that Salvador Ramos did not have a driver's license so he was driving erratically. His driving was so bad that he crashed into a concrete ditch. If you look at the map, it's kinda clear that he just couldn't handle that corner due to inexperience.

He was slightly injured, but he was also in murder mode so this did not slow him down. A nearby funeral home heard the commotion and went outside to see if they could help. They were rewarded with a volley of bullets from Ramos, causing the two men to flee. One of them fell down but they luckily weren't shot. It's a blessing that Salvador Ramos didn't know shit about handling guns because he could have killed way more people if he had the aim of someone like Payton Gendron. The two men called the police and reported the incident. So, at about 11:28am, the police already knew there were was a shooter near the school. Keep that in mind.

Stumbling, he made his way to the school and scaled the fence. At this point, all was not lost. There were still a few opportunities to stop this mass shooter. A school resource officer had received the 911 call and headed to the school but instead of pursuing Salvador Ramos, he pursued an innocent teacher! This goes to show that the school resource officer knew nothing about the students he was protecting, as he couldn't even identify the teachers of the school. Disgusting. This mistake ended up costing several children their lives. Another opportunity came when a police officer was passing and he caught sight of Ramos. He had clear view to shoot Ramos. However, he chose not to because he was waiting for permission from his supervisor. Consequently, he didn't take the shot.

After entering the school grounds, Salvador Ramos entered the school through the West-facing entrance. A teacher had closed the door, but it did not lock as it was supposed to do. Salvador, crazed and murderous, began firing shots at 11:32am but it took until 11:43am before the school was placed into lockdown. Now, as I said, the area was used to illegal immigrants leading to lockdowns, and not everyone had heard the shots, so initially, the lockdown wasn't taken seriously. But it was very, very serious.

It should be noted at this point that it was graduation day for Robb Elementary, and after the graduation event, the children were allowed to either go home or spend some free time with their friends at school. Some kids chose to go home while others stayed behind and watched a movie.

Salvador Ramos Does a Very Naughty Thing

Now Salvador Ramos is in the school. He only brought one of his guns onto campus (the Smith & Wesson) and he wanted to shoot humans. He barged into room 111 which was being taught by Irma Garcia who was watching over 11 students. He said "Goodnight" to Irma Garcia before he fired shots at her, causing the children to scream in horror. But they would not be spared from the violence. Salvador Ramos then aimed his guns at the children at began firing at them. All 11 children in the room died. It was said that some of the kids suffered from "overkill" meaning that he shot them a ludicrous amount of times to the point where they were unidentifiable. He was having fun being a sick frick. He then entered room 112 which was adjoined to room 111 and began opening fire in there.

The inhabitants of room 112 had heard the shooting and the teacher Arnulfo Reyes told the children to hide under the desks. He regrets this because he feels like he turned his students into sitting ducks. However, this was the training he was given in the eventuality of a school shooting. After shooting Mr Reyes, he started shooting the children. Some of them hid while others, like 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo played dead and covered themselves in the blood of their dead students. What the frick.

According to the surviving students in room 112, the Ramos played sad music during the whole ordeal. Ramos probably thought the event would be over quickly, but he would be sorely mistaken. He heard the voices of the police on the other end of the door and he shot at the door, making the law enforcement flee. That was about the last time they approached the door for over an hour. So what did Salvador Ramos do in a room full of dead kids for over an hour? Well, this information is hard to gather. Some students say he was playing sad music. He also decided to shoot some kids again, and he tried to enter room 109, but the door was jammed shut so he shot through the window.

So Ramos sat around, waiting for a showdown with the cops. Afterall, Ramos was suicidal and it's likely he wanted to die by cop, but he wanted to kill a few pigs before that. But they would not engage with him which left him with plenty of time to come to terms with his deeds.

A common question is: how did any kids survive? He had over an hour to double-tap every single body. I think the answer to this is that Salvador Ramos is an idiot. He literally got outsmarted by a bunch of 10yos. They hid under the table, smeared themselves in blood, and that was enough to convince Ramos that they were dead.

Conclusion

I was going to include the conclusion to the event, how Salvador died, what happened to the school, how the parents responded, and how the police completely bungled the response, but the internet is being poopy at work and I realise that it would need it's own longpost to do the topic justice so I'll break this up into two parts.

This year I want to have a girlfriend so bad I'll do anything. I just don't know where to begin. I just want a kind girl that will love me and have s*x with me but it seems like an impossible thing to do. It's so unfair. Everyday I see people with girlfriends and the one common factor is that they're all taller than me. Nobody wants to date someone who is 156cm. It is over. I can't masturbate my whole life and try to live off imaginary girlfriends. Something has got to give. I don't know what to do. I'm so depressed. Sorry for the repeat Hollys. Like I said, the internet is poopy so it's hard to search for new ones.

Also, should I continue messaging Sarah?

We're playing the turboneurodivergent Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV that replicates world history. !g*mers

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Last time, on LPC4DoCF, the Roman Empire had started to fracture. It's 624AD and after a barbarian onslaught, the Kingdom of France declared itself independent. We reconquered Clermont and spared them. Egypt and the Levant have seceded and joined the rising Abbasid Caliphate. Not on our watch

First and foremost. Per @Ubie request I am starving the Irish to death. They get one cow pasture as a food source until I build a mine for them to toil in and the rest are to work directly on building boats until they perish.

Our stability is now Shaky now that the Golden Age is over and done with. Expansion and Economy is not negative, but not good. Foreign is bad of course (it always is) and Military is suffering a little because of our barbarian wars. Domestic is our only saving grace as we have compatible, modern civics and Catholic religious unity.

We have room to expand. Obviously. We just lost most of our eastern territories

Most of my army in this territory got evacuated to Knossos in Crete. I don't have means to transport them yet so they're on a little island vacation for now.

A long time ago I conquered the Kingdom of Nubia, rivals of Aksum. Aksum were pretty ungrateful little b-words about it, but it's been good land and it's now really paying off for me. Nubia did not secede, so some of my troops were able to evacuate there. This gives me an opportunity to quickly retake Egypt from the south.

First turn and with our cavalry we've already retaken Waset, the holy city of Islam. Easy! Muslims btfo

Oh wait

Oh holy mother of Christ

I now know what it feels like to be on the other end of a "Stack of Doom"

Our reinforcements land, but it's not enough. I'm going to die

But suddenly they pull back. I send my spies to take a look.

All the beautiful Roman Roads we built are being used by the enemy, and apparently they got distracted by Persia. Thank the Lord. This will give us time to retake Egypt and regroup our army.

One of our missions to the Mande finally succeeds, so we have another Catholic civilization along with us and the French.

St. Peter's Basilica in Roma serves as the Apostolic Palace from the base game, which is basically the religious medieval U.N. We control the Pope basically, so we have influence over diplomacy in the Catholic world. Since there's actually a Catholic presence in the world now, we can put something to a vote. We call for a crusade against the Abbasid.

Neither of them want this, but with our control over the religion they don't actually get a say. The crusade is on.

We can even team up with our ancient frenemies of Persia. We've always been in something of a cold war with them, but Turkey is a bulwark to Greece, so helping reinforce their cities is in our interest. Plus our espionage network in Dorylaion has been pretty valuable

Our espionage reveals that after some butting of heads their military strength is about equally matched with Persia, overall. And we are way stronger than them in totality They just have their army consolidated.

FINALLY the lazy butt Persians research Civil Service and cause us to fail the third Historic condition. Reminder this is intentional, I want a Space victory.

Civil Service was the only technology I had available to research at this point so it's about time.

We've helped them out so much that they're now pretty advanced, technologically ahead of schedule and researching stuff we don't have. With our spies in Dorylaion we can just steal anything they discover thoughbeit

By the time the Arabs return with a host of Ghazi we're ready for them, we've retaken Egypt and reinforced the army. They have a slight terrain advantage but we can soften them up with our gunpowder artillery

We're victorious With a Great General too

After having researched Commune we can now have this guy build an "Armory" as well to speed up production. Roma is still benefiting from the Flavian Ampitheater so we're going to build on there and churn out superbombards and supercavalry

^^^lol he's clipping into the background

Harun al-Rashi is now willing to sue for peace. He's willing to offer us Jerusalem unharmed or even convert to Catholicism. Some intriguing options here but no We're conquering these frickers and taking Mesopotamia.

We're going to have more problems to deal with though

The Moors are about to spawn in Iberia as well.

I haven't seen one of these unique civ spawning warning messages yet, I think they only show for civilizations in your vicinity (maybe I missed the French one?). It doesn't really make sense here if the Arabs hadn't conquered North Africa and the Umayyad Dynasty don't exist. but whatevs the messages are really cool

Regardless, we're about to be beset on both sides by muslims

As well as Christians

Again... Muslim control? but again

I have an army in the west ready to fight these both the Spaniards and the Moors, but... I'm going to let them go

In fact...

France is mechanically capable of becoming a vassal now, but capitulation is tricky. You need to batter an enemy into submission in a war until they feel it is hopeless. Unfortunately we don't have much room if France has two cities - if we conquer Bordeaux and besiege Paris and they refuse to capitulate, we're kinda stuck.

Right now they won't voluntarily swear fealty because we're "too powerful". Pretty sure they will still capitulate if forced.

Spain is still in the "Rise of the Spanish" and can develop for now. When the "Rise of the Spanish" event is over I might invade and try to get them to capitulate. If they go to war with the Moors first I'll join them. The Moors usually build an Islam specific wonder in Cordoba, if we can capture it it would rule.

So for now I'm going to let western Europe secede and develop independently, and the Catholic world are now all my friends

I liked Tarragona but the Silver mine it had is now exhausted so it's less valuable anyway. The one thing that sucks is that muslims now control the Strait of Gibraltar and west Mediterranean, so our mobility is reduced.

I'm focused on eastward expansion instead anyway.

We liberate Ohrmazd-Ardashir from Arab control for our Persiabros.

Gets us some brownie points, and the city was outside of our expansion zone and not really that desirable. If the map is coherent at all, yellow is a "Contested Zone" while red is strictly foreign. Agarum is the furthest south in our contested zone. The Abbasids are willing to surrender it peacefully at this point.

England is about to split. We'll gonna let them go too.

We're back to Stable. The economy has been a rollercoaster with our conquests but this has been offset by trade route buildings that start becoming available around medieval times. Most notably we now actually have Good Relations and positive foreign stability I didn't know such a thing was possible. I guess all the liberation has worked out

Before there are more European powers on the map, we may as well invade France now. The only other European nation is Spain and they don't like them that much, so they won't be annoyed.

Charlemagne probably thinks we're schizo

Success! France will now capitulate.

The Kingdom of France is now the "Province of Gaul". They are our semi-independent b-word, we can direct their research, they join our wars, and we can sometimes demand resources. With Bordeaux they will still be able to colonize. We'll just have to help them out in technology a little.

The Mali Empire will voluntarily vassalize as well, but unfortunately for our Malibros we don't really want them. There's only room for five vassal civilizations. We do want to maintain good relations though when the slave trade starts tho.

Spain has declared war on the Moors, so we'll take our army from France and join them to retake our western territory. They didn't get a chance to build any wonders, oh well.

We might as well make this into another crusade

IT'S ON

Reconquista time

As we retake land we start to get overextended. Time to whip neighbors and enact population control

Cordoba is defended by a Great General, Abd al-Mu'min. This is the first time we've actually gotten to fight one in combat.

Morocco goes down

And frick it, let's go take Hungary too, there's a nice gold mine

Right after Morocco's defeat this crazy b-word declares war on me

Apparently Spain is dead set on completing the Reconquista and Catholic Roman controlled Cordoba isn't good enough.

She's very stubborn and refuses negotiations even after I retake Tarragona and pillage the heck out of her land.

Only after taking her capital and forcing her to relocate her palace to Santiago does she surrender.

I was going to liberate Cordoba anyway She is now a vassal with France as the "Province of Hispania".

Islam has been thoroughly BTFO. There are no more muslim states in the world. The Moors are dead and the Arabians collapsed when Turks took Mecca. We now control from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Sudan and Iraq, with two vassal provinces.

We're Solid stability but getting a little too big for our britches and risking a correction. Fortunately I have a couple Great People I've been sitting on who can trigger another Golden Age should it be necessary.

Other rising threats are coming - I think the northern Italian city states are going to attempt to split off around 1100AD, and the Ottoman Empire is going to reconquer all my middle eastern gainz around the 1200s.

We already have technology to start exploring the New World but the Aztecs haven't even been born yet. That will have to wait until 1300~. I want Roman conquistadors

Part 6

Post your favorite tracks, shit on each other and prove your tastes supreme.

Fornäs reformulates these types slightly to suit his own purposes. The first he terms "social authenticity, since it uses criteria taken from the level of collective group interaction" and the second he calls "subjective authenticity, since it focuses on the relation between an individual performer and/or listener and her own mind and body, as a state of presence." Both, he points out "stress either source or reception authenticity, with textual authenticity as a silent presumption."

"The third form," he writes, "could be defined as cultural or meta-authenticity, since it moves within (and derives legitimacy from) the level of the symbolic expressions ('texts') themselves." Unlike the first two types, meta-­authenticity deals with the authenticity of texts themselves rather than that of their producers or audiences.

I identify as a...

And what did your libshitism get you, femoid?

I'd prob get beaten up but no way I'd back down to a couple of BIPOCs in dalli. At least they'd get deported for beating me up(probably not but a man can dream )

BIPOC foids also behave like that?

AAP's chud arc part 2.0?

BTW here's NYT giving them a BJ

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/world/asia/india-delhi-schools.html

You can literally do anything as long as you identify as lib left

I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker.

Checkmate, egg prices.

Shadow the hedgehog is a half alien, artificial creation who uses he/him pronouns despite canonically having the soul of a little girl.
His entire arc is about rejecting what he was made for and choosing a purpose for himself even if the world is against him.
He's not transphobic https://t.co/1h9nc6eWXX

— Space Rat💙💫 (@galaxylover06) March 1, 2024

Clearly, this vidya is unoptimized trash. It couldn't be that my 1000 series card is nearly a decade old now. No, no, it's Id that have let themselves become jeeted and r-slurred. I don't want to play anything my 1080 can't run... BUT I ALSO REALLY NEED TO PLAY DOOM DORK AGES. But since I can't it's shit and a flop. Gigaflop! If I keep calling it a flop it definitely will flop. No I do not have sour grapes.

Daily Brazilian thread

Anyways come laugh at poorstrags and thirdies.

We're playing the turboneurodivergent Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV that replicates world history. !g*mers

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

With the research of Logistics technologically the Roman Empire has reached the Renaissance age. It's 1015AD so we're quite advanced, almost a full age ahead of medieval Europe

Persia isn't even matching us anymore but China has researched one technology we haven't (Printing Press).

We already have a spy settling east to take care of that

We're already discovering Brazil, interacting with the natives and fighting panthers

We prove that the world is round when we discover Japan

In Rhyes and Fall if you found a city in the Renaissance you get a bunch of free buildings. In Dawn of Civilization it's the same, but settlers in a new age can also be used to rush buildings that would have been provided otherwise. Here we can build a bunch of stuff for free with "Rebuild", including a library and a forge. We'll need these because Poland just spawned, hello Poland

Athens has historically been our Great People city since it's conquest, though Rome is catching up. We've had a Great Prophet born here, Eusebius.

We're sending him to Jerusalem to found the Temple of Solomon.

This will let us then build the Dome of the Rock, which will boost the output of St. Peter's Bascilica in Rome.

When we discover Economics we get a free Great Merchant (Marcus Crassus), and with Economics we can have him build a Stock Exchange in Rome

After the Dome of the Rock is built, St. Peter's Bascilica is maxed out at 40 gold per turn.

Rome turns a 150+ gold profit per turn

England is coming for Ireland.

We go straight for London, after capturing it they become the "English Government in Exile" but still refuse negotiations.

Really wish the AI was prone to settling just one more city in England It's kind of annoying that London controls its entire English core.

When a European or Christian civ researches Academia, the Protestant Reformation begins and Europe erupts in war. Since we're already fighting England, now is a good time to do it. Protestantism is founded in Rhegium.

We can adopt Protestantism, allow Protestantism to spread, or stamp it out. After all the work I've put into Catholicism you should know what I'm gonna pick.

England joins the Reformation, as expected. Portugal and the Norse join them. France probably would have if they weren't under my boot. Austria (the Holy Roman Empire) and Poland do not, fortunately.

The Italian Maritime Republics are supposed to spawn in 1167AD. In a normal medieval game they spawn in north Italy and found Florence, taking Milan and Padua with them. I was afraid my two core cities were going to secede and I would need to reconquer them, but the 1167AD date has passed so apparently not. I can focus on the Reformation wars.

The Austrians have claimed Denmark, blocking Norse access from Birka. The Norse have a port from Nidaros but I'm not too worried about them, we might need to be ready for a little naval harassment. They're at war with England, so there's not a risk of them reinforcing them.

With espionage I can see the Portugese army in Lisbon. It's big (see unit icons at the bottom)

In fact, they're one of the stronger military powers right now. Ethiopia is also up there too, interedasting

If I don't take care of them they could frick up my vassal Spain, so while waiting my main army to arrive I reinforce their cities with troops from Tarragona and Alicante.

A couple good wonders are becoming available, to get them up I think it's time to expend my Great People for a Golden Age.

The Ottomans should be coming too so I want to need to start getting gunpowder units up everywhere to properly fight these guys:

England collapses If they had just been willing to surrender I would have returned London to them. I maybe should have taken their city in Scotland instead, but I really wanted them to capitulate.

This is going to screw up world history a little There will be no British Raj. The United States spawns assuming there are European colonies there, there will still probably be some but not in the same way. We might get a Dutch New Amsterdam instead of New York.

We already have an explorer in America. Maybe we could even colonize it

At least Alfred did well with his time running London. He's given it a Great General and a Great Engineer. It's still in our historic expansion zone so I think we'll keep it. Ireland is not, so I might set it free.

By the time my army arrives at Lisbon, Portugal is willing to surrender, but as it's the "Rise of the Portugese" they can't capitulate. I figure I will allow peace so I can properly focus on the coming Ottomans.

But suddenly, something extremely strange happens.

Byzantine leader Basil I appears out of nowhere

Apparently Persia collapsed. Right after I lost 500 gold investing espionage against them

And Turkey has become the Byzantine "Empire of Dorylaion". I had no idea this was a thing.

This is the city that the Persians burnt down when I first conquered Greece, rebuilt, and I helped defend from the Arabs. It's been a valuable espionage center for centuries. What a journey it's been

A few turns later we become the "Western Roman Empire", but no cities want to secede. It's not the Eastern Roman Empire, it's just this weird made up new "Dorylaion empire". Fascinating Regrettably they do choose to become Pr*test*nt

My spy sees that Genghis Khan has arrived and the Chinese are fukt

After China collapses they start mopping up the remnants of Persia too

...and harassing my new Byzantinebros

Notice that Mazaka is in revolt, when mongols are the gates the citizens panic

We're still stable but have outdated civics - apparently the culprit is Merchant Trade.

Time for a revolution.

Regulated Trade has stability and general gameplay synergy with Bureaucracy. I'll miss my Despotism whip but Monarchy will further boost our stability.

Thalassocracy's benefits are negligible especially as more towns are popping up (Roma is working 3 towns and 2 fishing boats for example so we'll lose 1 commerce), and it no longer has a stability benefit with Merchant Trade. There's not much point to colonize too much but Colonialism will be fun anyway. We'll get some slaves and slave plantations up

So many High upkeep civics and losing the free units from Vassalage is gonna hurt. But it's a very stable combo and Roma is so profitable that focusing all commerce to the capital might outperform the costs.

Sure enough, once the revolution is settled it turns out to be profitable. With Rome pumping out 275 gold per turn we're making 5 gold a turn at 50% research funding instead of losing 6.

Around 1280AD the short lived Empire of Dorylaion collapses.

No Ottoman Empire ever appearaed I'm guessing the weird Turkish Byzantine Empire in their place prevented it.

I guess we can go ahead and mop up Turkey now.

We finally have unified borders and we're back to being the "Roman Empire" instead of the "Western Roman Empire".

The mongols right on my nuts are a little worrying tho. When Temujin asks me to fight Kievan Rus I have no problem doing so, any little thing to potentially keep this guy off my back.

I take Tarnopol and call it a day before setting it free. Later the mongols take Kyiv and Sweden France scoops up Tarnopol

Since Spain and France are our provinces we technically have Trajan's borders now!

Oh except Poortugal. Whatevs. What a beautiful empire regardless

I was really expecting a big civil war and conflict with the Ottomans, it really does appear that the weird Byzantine state blocked them from spawning. This is very good for us. But if the mongols invade, as they're prone to do, it could be trouble.

For now, time to look towards the new world

I accidentally discovered the Inca, spreading disease to them

Mexico is controlled by Toltecs, predecessors of the Aztec. No conquistadors for either It might only be available to colonial European powers.

I've given my vassal France and Spanish technology to colonize, so they should get started soon

Since I accidentally killed England, I can take care of colonizing America instead

I think I'm going to colonize the Deep South so we can set up some tobacco plantations

And I've got a crew headed to Africa for some labor

Australia will be next and should be uncontested

Till next time Civ4bros

Part 7