Recent content by Lord High Executioner

I realise that I shouldn't, but... "Patterned cloth with crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming simple or complex rectangular patterns" is not something that only the ancient pagan tribal Celtic pagan ancient tribesmen could invent. (That's tartan.) Nor is wearing...

I am not entirely certain it was anywhere near as busy while Korea was the "hermit kingdom" (a phrase coined in 1882 specifically in reference to Korea) and looking at the map its location doesn't quite scream "maritime trade goes here" Singapore-style. That's a curious way to describe it...

I think I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that, yes, people engaging in acts considered evil, practising evil magic and worshipping (as opposed to appeasing or at times turning to, which I've been given the impression is the more general polytheist approach) evil gods were not...

So... Not around the the time of the Meiji Restoration...

Question for clartification: By "around the Meiji restoration" (1868) do you mean something like intervening in the Boshin War (1868-1869), by which time the various Japanese armies had an increasing amount of modern firearms and all other Great to Moderate powers would likely go "Oh, no, you...

Considerably smaller than either. Quick check suggests about three quarters of Spain, and three fifths of France.

It'smaller than California or, to use a European example in order to remind Americans that not all Europeans are Massachussetts-sized like Belgium, Sweden. Also, by the time phrases like "never modernises" and "non-Meiji" becomes relevant to the implied/assumed POD, guns were very much not...

And that difference is relevant to the statement "Since Christianity appealed to Roman slaves it is not unlikely that it could also appeal to Roman urban/industrialised labourers" how? Even if we don't add "...and this might affect how Christianuty develops or branches"?

If memory serves, slaves were among the more notable groups of "early adopters" of Christianity in the Roman Empire, with the implication/speculation that something like that was one of its attractions.

So was Charles I's...

For a more contemporary comparison, The Finnish Civil War (lasting roughly 4 months in 1918) saw about 10 000 killed (just) in combat, according to Wikipedia and with a population of a little over 3 000 000.

While it is a bit unclear with Sanrio/Hello Kitty products showed up when, Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and had her first anime series in 1989... And that, in turn, was not the first anime (or Japanese TV show) that was aimed at children or, to some degree, selling toys and merchandise. Not...

Thank you. Although, once again "early D & D is rubbish" is less of a hot take and more "a truth generally acknowledged". Is it the Holmes or the Moldvay edition that is described as "the first version you could actually play without having it explained by someone who already knew it"?

I think the argument tends to be more along the lines of whether science fantasy (or specifically Star Wars*) is part of science fiction, part of fantasy or something of its own. *I get the impression that at least some other this-should-be-called-Science-Fantasy stories and settings tend to...

Using that reasoning most of science fiction, even a lot supposedly hard science fiction, is fantasy, which is arguably true but makes any discussion of what constitutes the fantasy genre pointless. Science fiction is very much about "scientific noises". (Obligatory-random Hark, A Vagrant strip...