I’m a first time mum and my beautiful girl is 3 months old now. She is a cat napper and will never nap more than 35 minutes, each day changes from if she’ll let you put her down for a nap or if it has to be contact. She’s mostly good at nights, although getting her to stay asleep and not treat bedtime as a nap can be hard but once she is finally asleep she’ll usually only wake once, recently though it’s twice a night. I’m struggle mentally with the demand of breastfeeding. I have no supply issues, but she feeds on demand so usually every 60-90 minutes, sometimes we’ll make it 2 hours. She feeds only for 5-10 minutes but she’s very efficient at draining the breast so I assume that’s why her feeds a short. I express only once a day as we have to give her probiotics in a bottle to help with her gas. At the moment she is very fussy/needy. She will feed every 60 minutes, my nipples are wrecked, I’m so touched out, she’ll only nap on me or my partner, I either have a baby hanging off me or a pump. I’m struggling because I don’t want to give up breastfeeding but sometimes I really f*cking want to. Formula seems easier and then I can receive more help. I won’t be the only one who can put her to sleep at night or the only one who can feed her. She comfort sucks, so if she wakes up after 15 minutes in a nap, she won’t go down again until she has boob in her mouth and is like 1 min and she is asleep again. She won’t take a dummy/pacifier, I’ve tired 7 different ones and at this point I’m wasting money. Please tell me it gets easier and better. I’m exhausted. I’m beating myself up that she gets comfort from me and that I get touched out by giving it. It makes me feel like a bad mum - I just feel all the weight is on me. This really is just a rant. Thank you. 😭

Yep, another prompted story I wrote a few years ago, just here in the hopes I can work up motivation for later. I got sick of writing this one (I never intended to take more than a few hours on it) and I think by the end it shows, but I am marginally proud of some of the writing.
******
The first time, and the second, and the third, the trip had felt wrong. The company seemed too austere, the destination strange and foreboding, the ship too cramped. Claustrophobia is common for our kind, said to be a remnant of our past as grazing herbivores; cramped quarters and limited visibility are a poor substitute for open grasslands, where predators can't approach without being seen. But on a junkheap like the Scroungehound I think even cave dwellers would get anxious.
In any case, the first few times I made the trip to Earth, it had felt wrong. After a dozen expeditions, I no longer felt that apprehension, but I could tell the newcomers on the crew were feeling it. Maelorn was constantly at Kajath's throats, and Valish stayed in her quarters for cyrra on end, burning up her compensation on calming holovirons. Even the swarmnode was in a bad mood; I suspect she was undergoing a protandrous phase. By the mercy of the Great Attractor I didn't have to help clean up any unfertilized eggs. Still, they were all newcomers, and tensions would undoubtedly be more amiable once we reached Earth. It was a once-before-consciousness-upload opportunity for most xenoarchaelogists. Every foal- or grub, or hatchling, or what have you- knew those famous ruins, the chemical cloud patterns, the fossilized forests.
In the meantime I tried to make the most of the voyage scratching on a nerve-duller patch and staring out the hologlass at the white streaks as stars passed us by. Earth awaited.
*******
It was as beautiful and as ugly as I remembered from the last dozen trips. Like an ulcerous pearl from a Skranalid. Once upon a time Earth had been a brilliant blue with wisps of cloudlets, rugged continents settled by only a few tens of billions; now the marble was a mess of neon colors and graying, dead oceans.
My assembled assistants, peering through the vidscreen, regarded our destination with relief and, for one or two, not a little disappointment.
"It's... really not what I expected," Maelorn chattered, head tentacles wriggling nervously.
"It is a bit underwhelming at this distance. You may find it more appealing down on the surface."
"Are we going now?" Kajath asked, voice a harmonious rumbling through multiple throats.
"Yes, I believe so. A quick preliminary jaunt, to get the blood flowing- or lymph," I added quickly, seeing the swarmnode begin to object. "No serious surveying today, that can wait for when we're better rested."
That seemed to perk them right up. I did my best to suppress a smile.
*****
The shuttle touched down on Earth's surface, none too gently. Even without tongue flicking, I could taste the excitement.
"Alright," I said, voice tinny through the rebreather. "If anyone experiences any malfunction whatsoever in their life support or their ceptor interface, they're to report it immediately. As always, safety is paramount. Stay within sight of the group at all times unless specifically permitted, and if permitted, stay within comms. Are we all understood?"
A few affirmative gestures; Kajath hummed, Valish's beak clicked. The swarmnode's jellied compound eyes changed color.
I paused for a moment, unable to resist a theatrical flourish. "Alright. Disembark."
******
"What was this settlement called?" Maelorn asked over the comm.
"Instructor spent several lectures on it. And it was one of those discussed in the briefing. Anyone know?"
Quiet for a moment, nobody wanting to admit how little of the reading they'd finished.
"Vaygess?" Valish commed, hesitantly.
"Excellent. Good attempt at the pronunciation, too; we can't be entirely sure, but we think that's fairly close."
I think I saw her preen a bit, while Maelorn looked slightly sullen. Still, everyone was too enraptured with the expedition to care much.
"Not a particularly large settlement, compared to others on this continent. But it was frequented by millions of the dominant life forms."
"Some kind of temple?" Maelorn asked.
"A typical first guess for many researchers. And not impossible, but hard to prove."
Exploration took another two cyrra before we reached the edge of the survey boundary. I contemplated turning us back to the shuttle when Kajath longingly suggested we investigate one of the temple-structures. I could tell he wasn't alone in wanting to. Although it was hardly regulation, I had to admit other crews had done similar things before, and I felt my resolve waver a bit.
"Alright. Only for a moment. It hasn't been recorded yet, so take extra pains not to damage anything."
******
The antechamber was vast, full of banks of strange, primitive machines. Each was tall, positioned before a seat, and has some sort of viewing screen with three small panels on it. Although I was embarrassed to admit it, I couldn't imagine what kind of ritual function such machines could possibly serve.
My assistants were clearly in awe. Deservedly so, perhaps. They were the first life forms in this structure in perhaps two krotaans.
"Professor?" commed Valish.
"Yes?"
"This might not be the time, but... Lectures never mentioned what exactly happened to this world. It wasn't in the briefing either." I sensed the others become interested even as they wandered the temple.
"Oh? You're quite certain of that?"
"Yes," she said, not fully masking a hint of uncertainty.
"Well, you are correct. It's not fully understood what happened. Most likely it was a protracted event, generations of atmospheric pollutants, conflicts involving crude fission-based weapons. But ecological specialists believe the final spark in the pyre-"
I was interrupted. There was a hideous cracking sound and several yelps of terror that set my hearts pounding. The structure's floor had given way under Maelorn. He had fallen into some sort of subterranean room beneath the floor.
******
We were all at the edge of the hole in moments, unable to make out anything below in the low light except some scattered debris. I cursed myself quietly. Maelorn must have been fooling around- why wasn't I watching? Why had I allowed this unauthorized exploration? There would be an inquiry from the Council. Even worse if Maelorn was hurt.
I was suddenly aware of how alone we were on this planet. The nearest help was on the Scroungehound in orbit. We might not even be able to reach them for help. I could neither leave Maelorn alone while some of us went for the shuttle, nor send others alone while I stayed with him. There was no help for us out here. I quelled the urge to panic.
We tried to raise Maelorn by comm several times. On the third or fourth he finally responded, groggily.
"Are you hurt?" I asked.
"I... no. I'm fine. Just shaken. I can stand fine. No injury. I must have done something-"
"Never mind. Can you find a way to hoist yourself out?"
"I don't think so. But I think I see a stairwell leading back up. I... there's something down here with me."
My brain failed to process that fully. For some reason I assumed he meant something alive. "That isn't possible," I protested.
"I mean I can hear humming. See some sort of machinery."
I could make out no such thing in the dark, but Maelorn had better night vision. I vacillated a moment, uncertain whether to worry about getting him out or probing his discovery further. "Can you join your visual feed to ours?"
"I'm not sure... I'll try."
Momentarily a small panel on our vis-screens lit up to show us Maelorn's visual feed, as lit up as it could be. My hearts nearly stopped. I could see what he meant. Through the debris was a stretch of some sort of glowing blue material. It couldn't be... this close to the survey boundary, and nobody had detected it?
Maelorn commed again. "Should I investigate?"
Valish and Kajath and the swarmnode were all looking at me expectantly. The proper answer was no; safety was paramount. Getting Maelorn out was priority. We had already tested protocol too much. Still... this could be the most significant discovery in a dozen Earth expeditions.
"Fine," I said at last. "But be extremely careful."
The panel on the vidscreen changed as Maelorn advanced. I saw his stubby arm shove debris aside. The blue glowing thing was more visible now. At first I could not understand what I was seeing. But... yes. It was some sort of crude, primitive cryosuspension tube. And there was a human being inside it.
*******
It took some very creative tinkering with a tubule of nanostructors to haul Maelorn... and, of course, the cryopod. Cyrra later we were all whole and hale aboard the Scroungehound again, none the worse for our experience, but stunned with disbelief. All of us- myself, the students, even Carth the pilot, staring at the frozen human.
"What exactly is the protocol for this kind of thing?" Maelorn asked, trying to sound humorous.
"There is none," I said. "Not precisely. We've found suspended specimens before, but never from a totally extinct species. We never expected Earthers to have access to this kind of technology. Most surviving samples of their infrastructure have been comparatively primitive. It might be the case that the wealth differentials were significant enough that such advanced technology was restricted to the very highest echelons of society."
We mulled that over for a moment. The Earther looked... oddly menacing, somehow. Everything about it- how the limbs jointed, the shape of the eyes, the shape of the teeth, the texture of the skin and the hair. I had seen reconstructed skeletons, but this was different somehow. I had always prized myself on meeting new discoveries eagerly and with open mind- I believed as a scientist I had excised all fear of the unknown from myself. But I could not suppress some disquiet about the thing in that tube.
"Sir?" Kajath asked, choir-voice raised. I realized he had been trying to get my attention for some time.
"Yes?"
"You never finished your lesson planetside. How did these things die out? How could this one have survived."
I swallowed. "Well. Nobody knows for sure. But some specialists believe there was some sort of disruption in the ecology of the planet. The dominant life forms were... being challenged for their dominant place in the food web, possibly by another indigenous life form. Something mutated by the conditions on the planet, perhaps. The conflict grew so great that the entire chain of life on the planet was disrupted. Entire linchpin species went extinct, maybe through fission weapons, maybe because the rival life form was an effective enough predator to eliminate entire ecosystems. It's only speculation, of course."
"So this one froze itself?"
"Well. Perhaps in the last days of this struggle, it retreated into cryosuspension in an attempt to wait the whole affair out."
That gave us all a moment to think.
"We... you must all be very tired. It was a taxing expedition. Best we get some sleep for now, and when we awaken we can contact someone on the Prime Science Council. They may choose to redefine our mission parameters, or send another ship to pick this up... or something else. We shall see."
I tried to show an optimistic smile for everyone, but the unease in the group was palpable. With no particular hurry, we drifted off to our sleeping quarters.
None of us thought it necessary to keep watch on the thing in the tube. It couldn't go anywhere. The thought never occurred to us.
******
For whatever reason, I did not set the REM-projector on lucid that night. Instead I allowed myself to dream naturally, disturbing, unsettling dreams, in which the Earth-thing in the tube featured prominently. I jolted awake only 3 cyrra into my slumber with Kajath and Carth shaking me.
"What?" I asked, groggy and angry. "What is it-"
"The pod!" Carth growled. "It's hissing! It seems to be opening!"
Panic forced me awake. I bounded into the commons area where we had left the cursed thing. Carth and Kajath and Valish and the swarmnode were behind me. Maelorn was already in the commons, cowering. My first thought was the young fool must have opened it himself, eager to inspect his little discovery.
"What have you done-"
I realized Maelorn was paralyzed with fear, aware of me but not turning to face me. One outstretched limb pointed to the cryopod. It was not opening. It had opened.
We stared in hushed awe as the human, freed of the suspension fluid, glucose-drips still hooked into major veins, writhed in senseless half-sleep. It was making noises. Horrible, disturbing noises that shook me to my core.
I advanced, gently pushing Maelorn behind me. "H... hello," I said. "Are... can you hear me? Are you awake?" What are you thinking, fool? He won't understand you. But he might be able to tell from my tone and body posture that I was not a threat, and I had to say something.
"Hello! Earthman. We are not a threat to you. We... we're archaeologists. Scientists. Are you well?"
I realized that the thing in the tube was still writhing. Not with grogginess. With pain. A thought occurred to me. We believed this frozen Earther was a wealthy example of the species who had retreated from the horrors of natural devastation. But it might be otherwise. Perhaps this thing was not a refugee from the cataclysm, but a victim- a patient taken for study.
That thought entered my head just as the mosquito- proboscis dripping red, eyes staring soullessly, buzzing with angry fury, ripped its way out of the human's torso. The humans had been at war with their most vicious natural competitor- a competitor that had grown too powerful for them to possibly resist. And now it was here.
Attractor help us all.

Im making this comment to show how car dependency and SUV's kill people for people who don't want to believe that it does Just today as of writing this me and my mom where driving to target just so we can get some supplies. when we were at the edge of the street that leads out of our neighborhood we saw a kid or adult under a SUV that was ran over on where you turn in to a parking lot. Well we stood there in shock and then went to target and when we came back the ambulance was there and investigators and we saw the person under a white cover witch means he died. Now the city I live in is Houston which for those who don't know is one of if not the most car dependent city and the newer neighborhoods and suburbs are only making the problem worse. I was on a call yesterday with my friends that live in a newer part of Houston that was probably built just 10 years ago at best while mine was built in the 80's and 90's and the were complaining how were the live is impossible to walk anywhere and I have been there and i can say to get to the nearest store you have to take a long route through the neighbor hood that takes 20 minutes by foot to get to a best buy and right out their neighborhood is a 8 or more lane highway. and I said that where i live is very car dependent and there were telling me how lucky i was to live where i can walk to a grocery store by just taking a simple easy route. I say this to show even though in some places the need for a car has weaken in many places like Houston the problem has gotten worse and that SUV's are killing machines and i personally think that kid would have survived if he didn't get hit by an SUV and it was a normal car.
If you see this comment on other videos it's just to spread the word.

From Ch 2 of The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous:

Of all the historical forms of money I have come across, the one that most resembles the operation of Bitcoin is the ancient system based on Rai stones on Yap Island, today a part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Understanding how the large circular stones carved from limestone functioned as money will help us explain Bitcoin's operation in Chapter 8. Understanding the remarkable tale of how the Rai stones lost their monetary role is an object lesson in how money loses its monetary status once it loses its hardness.
The Rai stones that constituted money were of various sizes, rising to large circular disks with a hole in the middle that weighed up to four metric tons. They were not native to Yap, which did not contain any limestone, and all of Yap's stones were brought in from neighboring Palau or Guam. The beauty and rarity of these stones made them desirable and venerable in Yap, but procuring them was very difficult as it involved a laborious process of quarrying and then shipping them with rafts and canoes. Some of these rocks required hundreds of people to transport them, and once they arrived on Yap, they were placed in a prominent location where everyone could see them. The owner of the stone could use it as a payment method without it having to move: all that would happen is that the owner would announce to all townsfolk that the stone's ownership has now moved to the recipient. The whole town would recognize the ownership of the stone and the recipient could then use it to make a payment whenever he so pleased. There was effectively no way of stealing the stone because its ownership was known by everybody.
For centuries, and possibly even millennia, this monetary system worked well for the Yapese. While the stones never moved, they had salability across space, as one could use them for payment anywhere on the island. The different sizes of the different stones provided some degree of salability across scales, as did the possibility of paying with fractions of a single stone. The stones' salability across time was assured for centuries by the difficulty and high cost of acquiring new stones, because they didn't exist in Yap and quarrying and shipping them from Palau was not easy. The very high cost of procuring new stones to Yap meant that the existing supply of stones was always far larger than whatever new supply could be produced at a given period of time, making it prudent to accept them as a form of payment. In other words, Rai stones had a very high stock‐to‐flow ratio, and no matter how desirable they were, it was not easy for anyone to inflate the supply of stones by bringing in new rocks.
Or, at least, that was the case until 1871, when an Irish‐American captain by the name of David O'Keefe was shipwrecked on the shores of Yap and revived by the locals.
O'Keefe saw a profit opportunity in taking coconuts from the island and selling them to producers of coconut oil, but he had no means to entice the locals to work for him, because they were very content with their lives as they were, in their tropical paradise, and had no use for whatever foreign forms of money he could offer them. But O'Keefe wouldn't take no for an answer; he sailed to Hong Kong, procured a large boat and explosives, took them to Palau, where he used the explosives and modern tools to quarry several large Rai stones, and set sail to Yap to present the stones to the locals as payment for coconuts. Contrary to what O'Keefe expected, the villagers were not keen on receiving his stones, and the village chief banned his townsfolk from working for the stones, decreeing that O'Keefe's stones were not of value, because they were gathered too easily. Only the stones quarried traditionally, with the sweat and blood of the Yapese, were to be accepted in Yap. Others on the island disagreed, and they did supply O'Keefe with the coconuts he sought.
This resulted in conflict on the island, and in time the demise of Rai stones as money. Today, the stones serve a more ceremonial and cultural role on the island and modern government money is the most commonly used monetary medium.

I'm thrilled to join this vibrant community of wax whisperers, wick wizards, and scent sorcerers. I've been captivated by the mesmerizing glow and enchanting aromas of candles for as long as I can remember. There's something truly magical about creating candles with your own hands and filling your space with their warm ambiance.
I've always found solace in the gentle flickering light of a well-crafted candle, and now I'm here to connect with like-minded individuals who share the same passion. Whether you're a seasoned candle maker with years of experience or a curious beginner ready to embark on this creative journey, Candlesau is the perfect place to immerse yourself in the art and craft of candle making.
I'm excited to explore the vast world of candle making techniques, from the classic container candles to the elegant pillars and even the whimsical novelty shapes. I'm eager to dive into the realm of fragrances, discovering captivating scent combinations and learning the art of blending oils to create unique aromas that transport us to another dimension. And of course, I can't wait to learn more about the materials and supplies, experimenting with different waxes, wicks, dyes, and containers to achieve stunning results.
But more than just the technical aspects, I'm thrilled to be part of a community that shares experiences, troubleshoots challenges, and celebrates each other's achievements. Together, let's embark on this journey of creativity, learning, and inspiration. Let's laugh at candle puns, support each other through wax mishaps, and celebrate the beauty we create with every pour.
I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you, learning from your expertise, and sharing my own experiences along the way. Together, let's illuminate the path of candle making and let our creativity shine bright!
So grab your melting pots, dust off those molds, and join me as we delve into the wonderful world of candle making here at Candlesau. Let's light up this community and create something truly extraordinary!
Keep the flames burning,

First, a thank you.
Thank you all for sticking with me through my hard times, and for supporting my works even across multiple subreddits.
The time spent writing for you guys has been some of the best in my life.
I truly look forward to every day with you guys.
++++++++++++++++
Event: Fatebringer's folly.
Alter name: Kal'tsit, the final judgment.
Class: caster, DPS, survival
Branch: Phalanx caster. Deals arts damage. Does not attack when ability is inactive. Strong defensive stats.
Talent: Observer's focus. Kal'tsit TFJ can be deployed on ranged or ground tiles, and becomes a 3 block when on the ground. After not being damaged for 10 seconds, Kal'tsit TFJ gains one stack of focus every 2 seconds. Each stack of focus increases DEF and RES by 5%. Stacks up to 10 times, Kal'tsit TFJ loses 1 stack every 5 seconds when at max stacks, and will not begin gaining stacks again until lower than 5 stacks.
E2 talent upgrade: DEF and RES bonus increases by 1% per stack (1st stack in 5%, second stack is 6%, and so on) and each stack gives an extra 5% ATK.
Default ability, auto recovery, manual: DEF and RES +45%. Attacks deal an extra 50% of ATK as physical damage. Ranged enemies will prioritize attacking Kal'tsit TFJ.
E1 ability, passive: A balanced fate. -50% DEF and RES. Kal'tsit TFJ enters attack mode every 10 seconds and returns to neutral mode after 10 seconds, while in attack mode, Kal'tsit TFJ deals 500% ATK to all enemies in range once every 2 seconds (5 times per attack mode). While in neutral mode, Kal'tsit TFJ heals all allies in range for 50% of ATK with the same intervals as her attacks.
E2 ability, defensive recovery, auto: Destiny's decision. Summons a Monst3r on the nearest unoccupied ground tile, prioritizing tiles with enemies on them. Monst3r has 50% of all Kal'tsit TFJ's stats and can attack in a 3x3 range. Only 2 Monst3rs can be in play at once, any ability activations when 2 Monst3rs are already on the field turn into a burst of 300% arts damage around Kal'tsit TFJ. (If a Monst3r dies withing 3 tiles of Kal'tsit TFJ, trigger the arts damage burst.)
++++++++++++++
Appearance:
Deployed, Neutral mode: Kal'tsit sits cross-legged on her tile, her eyes are closed and she strokes the head of a tiny monst3r.
Deployed, Attack mode: Kal'tsit stands up and raises a hand towards the sky, palm up. Streaks of arts energy crackle downward into her hand, then towards her target.
++++++++++++++ Voice lines and event story:
While fighting reunion, Kal'tsit and the doctor are separated from the rest of the team by a deep and dark sinkhole. After falling to the bottom, Kal'tsit finds herself surrounded by originium infected creatures and burdened by an unconscious doctor.
Defeated in battle: "Dammit, how did I not see this coming?!"
After defeating the monsters, Kal'tsit finds that she is unable to escape back the way they fell. Shouting to the other operators at the top of the pit, Kal'tsit receives no response.
Sub 3 star outcome: "that wasn't good enough doctor, you should try again with a new strategy."
As she ventures deeper into the caverns, Kal'tsit observes that the originium corruption in the area is far beyond anything she has seen before. Deeper and deeper, the caverns have no end.
Mission failed: (very weakly) "Was this... our fate? Doctor... I'm sorry..."
As she trudges through the darkness, Kal'tsit begins to lose her sense of time. That would probably bother her more, but she is already bust worrying about the fact that the doctor hasn't woken up yet.
After what felt like days, Kal'tsit stoppes to rest, slumping against a wall to rest. Within moments, she falls asleep.
Appointed as assistant: "Do you mind if I rest in here for a moment? You were looking for me? I suppose that works out well then, you give me a resting place and I'll give you advice."
Upon waking up, Kal'tsit finds that she is alone. The doctor has disappeared, and now she has the worst headache ever.
Kal'tsit calls out for the doctor as she stands, only to be hit by a wave of nausea that knocks her to the ground. As the nausea washes over her a d the headache gets worse, Kal'tsit begins to see things.
Strange things.
Post-E2 mission failed: (Kal'tsit stares blankly, as if looking right through you.) "Doctor... the end... it calls to me. How should I... anwser?"
When the strange shadows and whispering voices subside, Kal'tsit is left shaking where she stands. Her strong demeanor shatters as the stress of the situation finally gets to her. She cries out for her friends, Amiya, Warfarin, Bibeak, Filonic, and even the doctor.
As her tears fade, Kal'tsit opens her eyes to find herself in a bed within a blindingly white room. As she tries to stand up, an ear splitting scream startles her. Warfarin and Gavial rush to her side.
Idle: "... you've falled asleep haven't you... oh doctor, whatever will I do with you?"
Kal'tsit learns that she had been the one to fall unconscious after falling into the pit, and realizes that what she had experienced was a feverish coma induced by the originium in the pit.
Trust tap: "Doctor, I know I've already said this, and don't act very grateful, but... thank you, for being staying with me."
With a new outlook on life, Kal'tsit changes her toon, becoming more involved in the affairs of Rhoads Island and spending more time with the other operators and staff members.
Trust 200: "Well, that's the last of today's work. Doctor, we're done here, right? Shall we go have lunch after this?"
+++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++
If a player completes every level with 3 stars while using OG Kal'tsit in every mission, the final level will yield an extended version of the final cutscene.
In this cutscene, Kal'tsit's silhouette can be seen standing on a rooftop, her silhouette traced against the Rhoads Island skyline. Sharp spikes of originium erupt from the ground around her. Begind Kal'tsit, the doctor, Warfarin, and Gavial are slumped against a wall, harsh injuries evident all across their bodies.
In a ring surrounding her, various operators point their weapons at Kal'tsit, each wearing a terrified expression. Off in the distance, in the skyline, several giant monst3rs can be seen wreaking havoc on the buildings.
The dialog reads as follows:
"The play completed. The actors unmasked. The final judgment has now been passed. Our final dance done, our meeting adjourned. Doctor, how shall your truth be turned?"
"K-kal'tsit, you need to stop this!"
"Fear not, my doctor. For the end comes near. No more pain, no more suffering, no more turmoil or fear."
"Amiya! Get back! Something is wrong with her!"
"Kal'tsit! Listen to me! Please!"
Kal'tsit turns to Amiya and the doctor, but the look on her fave is inhuman.
"Isn't it beautiful? Everything will begin again. The infected, oripathy, reunion. It will all go away."
"Kal'tsit!"
Kal'tsit begins to rais her hands, preparing to use her arts. The doctor and Amiya run to their old friend, wrapping their arms around her in an attempt to stop whatever is coming.
As everything turns white, the entire scene plays quickly in reverse, stopping at the point when Kal'tsit wakes up in the white room. Then the original scene plays as usual.

One event I've been curious about lately is the Battle of Steel, because, of the four generally accepted battles that will start TWOW I get the feeling this one is maybe the... least discussed by the fandom? It maybe doesn't have the frantic energy and emotional buildup of the battle of ice, or the ominous supernatural mysteries of the battle of blood, or the complexity of moving pieces and action of the battle of fire.
To be sure that's not to say its a boring battle by a long shot! And there are some good general premises floating around - the Golden Company will hold at Storm's End and rally banners to them, Aegon will prevail in the end then move to King's Landing... these are fairly safe I think, and in line with the plan laid out to us. But I'm interested to hear some of the specifics... what will the battle actually look like and what mid-encounter complexity and twists might we expect?
That's it - that's the question, but I've included some additional information and points below to ponder as well only if you are so inclined... if not skip it I guess and answer below, interested to hear people's thoughts!

Accounting of the Golden Company and Tyrell Forces

From what I gather the status of the Golden Company started off with something like 10,000 in Volon Therys, which included: 1,000 archers, 500 knights, and 500 squires, and many more common fighters. Additional to men this also included 2,000 horses for the knights and squires, and 24 elephants.
But only a little less than half of that force makes it to Cape Wrath with a bit more trickling in each day. So around 5,000 men... which includes 600 archers specifically (further split into roughly 200 crossbowmen, 200 eastern double curved horn-and-sinew bowmen, 150 Westerosi big-yew longbowmen, and 50 Summer Islanders with goldenheart great bows). And maybe using the general rule of thumb of half, something like 250 knights and squires each?
We are told though that the Golden Company are originally low on horses, although Aegon does come in with an additional 100 from the main camp to Griffin's Roost after its capture. Also troops are ransacking villages for any horses and even oxen they can find to bolster their ranks. And only around 3 of the elephants were recovered from the original two dozen. Though there are rumors of some in the Rainwood (but those might be the same ones)? And perhaps more are still stranded offshore on the islands...
These forces are able to capture most of the Cape Wrath peninsula - including Griffin's Roost, Rain House, Crow's Nest, Mistwood, and probably the Wylde Stronghold before leaving remnant forces behind and joining up to capture Storm's End (via guile - which may involve masquerading as Stannis' forces to get inside the gates). But that does not include Weeping Town, the main port town in the region, which still flies Tommen's banners. And given the geography, perhaps Stonehelm in the southwest could still be with Tommen too? Outside of the mainland, the Golden Company has also taken the islands of Estermont, Tarth (likely), and half of the Stepstones.
Marq Mandrake leads a force of around 500 additional men (noted to carry none of the missing archers) who were dumped on Estermont and have taken Greenstone. He is instructed via raven to commandeer local boats to travel to the peninsula to join the main force and bring any high level hostages - likely including Lord Eldon Estermont, and Arianne's good friend, Sylva Santagar. Some have wondered if they may have nabbed Eldric Storm who was in a hideout in Lys as well, but its unclear if they would have known where to look, and at least according to the ADWD Appendix (which is included post-landing)... Eldric is still in Lys.
On to the incoming force under Mace Tyrell... we know a lot less. However, the general consensus to many is that the Golden Company probably won't be able to take them on directly in open field which seems to hint towards them having a larger and more well-equipped force. Even Tyrion when first pitching the idea to Aegon agrees that they shouldn't expect to win in a direct fight, but that the tactic should be to hold out and call their banners until Dany can get to Westeros with her dragons. This is actually Mace's third time fighting Storm's End, so its kind of his thing I guess. Though he usually ends up in a passive siege situation creating a city of tents outside and setting up mangonels and trebuchets to uselessly lob stones at Storm's End's impenetrable walls (while his dear friend Paxter Redwyne's fleet typically starves off the castle from reinforcements at sea). Or as Cersei so eloquently puts it "His sigil ought to be a fat man sitting on his arse."
But this time Mace won't have the Redwyne Fleet to cover his assault, given that they are occupied with defending Oldtown from the Ironborn. The Golden Company likely doesn't have much in the way of ships either since most of the Volantene merchants ingloriously dumped them ashore and left. So the sea belongs to neither side for now - and much of it is actually infested with pirates and raiders. Including Aurane Waters' stolen Royal Fleet, who has taken up residence in the Stepstones. This provides him the opportunity (whether he takes it or not) to play a key role in the fight if he decides to leave the pirate life and join the Golden Company by doing something like bringing them food (like Davos did to Stannis) or helping escort Dany to them. And that might be his best chance to get back if he's burned bridges with Cersei and Stannis. I'm assuming the food situation at Storm's End is probably not too great, since its already been supplying Stannis' garrison throughout the previous siege.

The Environment

But maybe one of the coolest less discussed aspects that the Battle of Steel just might bring to the table is its environment - there's good reason to suspect this won't be just two armies clashing it out on a sunny grassy plain. As mentioned by Haldon in Arianne's released Winds material the constant drizzling rains have already turned the roads to mud, so we can suspect the same on the battlefield. Muddy terrain could even out advantages from heavily armored opponents, or hinder horses and siege weapons which would churn up the ground. You might be able to hide stakes in there too. A great example of this in play historically is the Battle of Agincourt in the Hundred Years War. The thick mud was instrumental for the less equipped English to avoid defeat against more heavily equipped French force - trudging through the terrain up to your knees in armor would find you quickly fatigued and if knocked to the ground in a scrap you'd have a difficult time getting back up. There are reports many would even drown in their helmets...
We've dabbled in the Stormlands before but we've never really seen it in true form - what it gets its namesake from - the massive autumn storms that form up in the Summer Sea and gather strength crashing headlong into the cliffs near Storm's End. And its the right time of year for it.... as we've heard time and again from several characters. And with perhaps one of the biggest winters on the horizon, this storm season may be truly catastrophic with hurricane force gales and sleet and rain during the fight. Given the general storm direction from south to northwest it may favor the archers under Black Balaq having the wind at their backs for range.
On the other hand, this would make Shipbreaker Bay (and even most of the Narrow Sea) particularly dangerous for resupply or travel. An already notoriously dangerous stretch, made even moreso by scattered reports of rampant piracy. This actually might work to Mace's advantage in the case open warfare does turn into a siege... as the storm would basically be holding what he can't without Redwyne's assistance. This could potentially effect Arianne's trip, Aurane, Marq Mandrake's reinforcements, or even Haldon and Lysono trying to leave Griffin's Roost.
Aside from Storm's End there might be interesting secondary battles at places like the griffin's throat at Griffin's Roost, a narrow exposed ridge leading up to the castle which we are told can hold out against a much larger force with even a small garrison. Red Ronnet may be tasked by Mace to try to recapture his home, though Haldon and Lysono do have his family hostage there.

Aegon's Bold Strategy

All that said though I actually believe the Golden Company might be taking a risk with trying to meet Mace out in the field.... which seems to be Aegon's intent, instead of using Storm's Ends biggest advantage - its defensive fortifications. I suppose they do always have that to fall back to though, and maybe they can destroy some of the siege effectiveness early on.
My fear though is that Aegon seems to be kind of hotblooded and eager... he's got a touch of young pride to him that might get him into trouble.
Remember it was Aegon that pitched the idea of riding to Westeros to the Golden Company (even if he borrowed it from Tyrion), and he also wanted to lead the troops directly to take Storm's End. Now he wants to lead the troops against Mace Tyrell as well. Even aboard the Shy Maid he was eager to stay aboard and fight the stonemen though the entire enterprise would have been undone if he got slain. And what happened when he finally met one? He froze up... unable to draw his sword... until Tyrion saved him. All the academic knowledge of battle and sword arts he's been learning fled when met with the brutal reality. Will he fair better this time?
Now I don't believe Aegon will die in the field against Mace... but I do think its possible he may get injured and the initial battle might be pushed back resulting in a true siege. Given we are approaching a second Dance of the Dragon, this could have a faint resemblance to another Aegon (the II's) experience at the Battle at Rook's Rest which led to him suffering severe burns and leaving him bent to the point of using a crutch and in constant pain. Which had a toll on his later personality and outlook. We also see Robb get injured in his own campaign, which opens him up to being tended by Jeyne Westerling and breaking his initial marriage plans to the Freys. Could something similar happen? I don't know.

Anders Yronwood in the Battle of Steel?

One of the X-Factors to the Battle of Steel I'm most excited about is the Dornish troops under Anders Yronwood's command stationed in the Boneway though. This is one of the geographically nearest forces to the Stormlands (in fact the Boneway exit basically puts them right at Summerhall) and they wouldn't have to travel through much of King's Landing occupied territory to join the Golden Company if desired. They are bored and eager for vengeance, hate the Lannisters, and Arianne has ravens on standby that could set them loose with just the right word... dragon
Even without Arianne's go-ahead Anders Yronwood has a lot of reasons to join the fight anyways. The Yronwoods were actually one of the few named houses loyal to the Golden Company during Bittersteel's rebellion, so they have a history of support. They also have a storied rivalry with the Dornish Marches in the Stormlands. The Dornishman and the Highgardeners despise each other too: Mace in particular has a pretty condescending view of them: probably in part because Oberyn crippled Willas in a tourney. Mace meanwhile plots to break up the marriage between Myrcella and Trystane to find her a 'better match.' Olenna calls Ellaria 'the serpent's whore' while in King's Landing. And Tyrion picks up a new joke from Mace's men-at-arms about the Dornish ("How many Dornishmen does it take to shoe a horse? Nine. One to do the shoeing, and eight to lift the horse up.")
Furthermore, Dorne has never been as unified as it seems as Doran thinks: "Dorne was an angry and divided land, and Prince Doran's hold on it was not as firm as it might be. Many of his own lords thought him weak and would have welcomed open war with the Lannisters and the boy king on the Iron Throne."
The Yronwoods are the second strongest house and only tentatively loyal to Doran, and its been secondary houses with a lot to gain in the past that were ones that often joined with the Blackfyre Rebellions. They also have a rivalry with the Fowler's (who are guarding the Prince's Pass). One can only imagine what Anders, the Bloodroyal, will do once he gets news of Aegon showing up alive and Mace of all people riding out to meet them. Or of news from King's Landing that Cersei lied about Gregor, or that they intend to break up Trystane's betrothal.
So regardless of Doran's support Anders Yronwood just might go in anways, and be the last minute hero the Golden Company needs to shift the tide.
Though of course the other big factor is news of Quentyn and Cletus deaths arriving from Essos, given that Anders was really a father to both... If Aegon is intent on allying with Daenerys this could ruin their newly formed relationship, As Dany may be painted very unfavorably in that story. It may also cause Anders to reassess his loyalty to Doran Martell. So he's a very interesting option in all this to say the least!

So what do you think?
~Thank you for Reading!!~

CW: Gore, corpses, immolation and combat
Physically transcribed memory: Michael Perst, Civilian
Date [standardized human time]: October 26th, 2136
I stand silently with my group, noticing the light rain and chill in the air. I'm glad I bundled up, so I turn my attention to Cilmora and Ellem. They seem to be deep in conversation about their experience on earth and how beautiful it is, if only it were on better terms. I look over to Alexander; he seems to be talking to the group of UN soldiers that we’re attached to. He seems to be trying to tell some sort of joke to them; the corner of my mouth pulls into a smirk.
As it stands, our group of four is attached to a UN strike team solely based on the fact that we’ll be treading into territory that has confirmed sightings of multiple scattered federation escape pods. To top it off, there was a chance there could be a downed federation transport cruiser with even more federation troops on the Nebraska and Iowa border. I grimace at the thought, hoping that nothing escalates further.
I’m pulled from my thoughts, feeling someone tugging at the hem of my jacket. I instinctively snap my head to my right and lock my gaze onto the brightly colored venlil in my party before I can attempt to correct myself. Ellem’s reaction is almost instantaneous. Shrinking down on herself and flinching at my response, she begins to weakly punch out a response.
"T-transport is r-ready to leave, s-sorry I didn’t mean to do t-that to you!" An almost pleading tone is layered at the end of her sentence.
My expression softens, and I only glance at her. I still can’t shake that tense feeling from my mind since I’ve arrived here. I feel terrible for her, and to apologize for something so simple. I let out a sigh. "I’m the one who should be apologizing, Ellem; you did nothing wrong." I was just stuck in thought and lost track of time. I’m just jumpy, that's all." I gave a closed smile.
She calms down and nearly returns to her bubbly self. We idly chat as we make our way to the transport truck to make our way to the outskirts. I sit myself beside Cilmora, and Ellem takes a seat to my left. The truck begins its journey, and only the sound of the tires rippling across the fresh rainfall is heard. Ellem turns to me, and at the corner of my vision, it seems like she wants to ask a question but stops herself. She has an odd look on her face, but her tail seems restless.
I make sure not to look directly at her. "What's on your mind? It looked like you wanted to ask something." She looks up at me and says, "Yes, I wanted to ask what you were thinking about that gave you that look." A puzzled expression crosses my face, and I ask her what she means.
She fidgets a bit. "You were like that for [20 minutes] just standing still with this look; I finally had enough courage to look at your eyes. And it was as if you weren’t there; it was nerve-racking. You looked like a mannequin.."
Anxiety ricochets inside my chest, but I don't show it. Instead, I let out a laugh to play the entire thing off. "Yeah, you’d be right; I just get that look when I’m really thinking about things. Truth be told, I don’t have an explanation as to why; I just do." This seems to put her at ease; her tail is no longer sporadically fidgeting as it was. "What I was thinking about is pretty important, so I’ll tell you."
I explain this not only to Ellem but also to the rest of the crew. I was running before and after, hoping that this would be just a normal recovery effort. Overall, I’m just getting a bad feeling about it, and I hope no one gets hurt. "That's all I’ve been thinking about; just make sure you guys stick close and keep your vests on."
They all give off a nod, and before I can go back to sitting in silence, Cilmora speaks up. "I mean, with all these predators here, I feel pretty safe if anything were to happen." Some cheers from various UN soldiers on the transport sound out. "You know how to fight Michael, so I think we should be all good," Alexander says with a grin.
After a while, the truck stopped and allowed us all to disembark from it. From the looks of it, we’re in the rural offshoots of the city. Scanning the area, I see a couple of houses that lead into a small residential park, and across from that, I see a small school. We decided to split into two squads; the opposite squad will slowly go through the residential area and take the transport truck with them, while the squad I’m with will check the school and surrounding businesses. Before we head out, the squad leader in the group I’m with advises us all to make sure our communications are working. As a final check is made, we set out on the mission.
As we slowly made our way around the back of the school, I press-checked my rifle. Making sure everything is set and clear, I continue in the back of the group. Making sure that Ellem, Cilmora, and Alexander were sandwiched between the UN troops and myself. As we round another corner, the squad leader motions for us to stop. We all freeze and look over to what appears to be a soccer field, which appears to be an abandoned escape pod. From the UN troops reaction, I’d wager they’re federation in design.
With my suspicions confirmed, I take a ragged breath and carry my rifle at a low stance. The squad lead advises the other team of what they’ve found; they radio back and advise they’ll rendezvous back to assist. However, they say it could be a bit as they’ve already found civilians. They give the all-clear to move forward, and eventually we do. We begin to move again and make our way to a set of double doors, I can’t help but shake this odd smell. It almost smells like barbecue?
I instinctively shoulder my rifle and aim it towards the field and the escape pod, attempting to ignore the smell, only barely catching it when the wind blows at a certain angle. Scanning the field, I notice patches of what appears to be burnt grass adjacent to the crash site. Maybe something caught fire after the crash, and I noticed a rather large burnt patch. I turn the knob on my variable zoom scope, and I can see it more clearly, and I wish I hadn’t.
My heart hitches into my stomach, and my mouth becomes painfully dry as I begin to sweat. Before the group can enter, I yell in a hushed tone through gritted teeth, and the group freezes and looks back at me. I’m still staring, my eyes glued to the horrible sight in front of me. The body is burnt to a crisp, producing more carbon than human. Their lips and eyes curled in a frozen scream as the last thing they felt was being burned alive. The wind blew against me, and I got that smell again.
I quickly moved over to the squad leader. "There's a burnt corpse somewhat near the shuttle; it's human." I say it as calmly as I can, and his eyes lock onto mine as a shocked look spreads across. I wordlessly hand him my rifle and point to where he should look. He does so, and the same emotions I’m feeling flood over him. He silently hands me my rifle, advising everyone to stay together. He quickly radios into the other group and advises them that there are active exterminators on site.
At the mention of exterminators, the feeling of the room changed dramatically. Especially from Ellem and Cilmora, Ellem seemed uncomfortable with the idea that these exterminators were present. If they did that, then it’s only a matter of time before we run into them. Something that weighed on my mind was: what species in the Federation breathes fire?
We quickly moved into the school, making sure to stick close. We were in a side hallway that led to an ever-larger one with classrooms on each side. Papers and supplies were littered everywhere, along with abandoned book bags and more. Thankfully, it looks like everyone left in a hurry; however, there's no telling if anyone's been left behind. We begin to check the classrooms and search for any civilians.
As time passes, we check the last classroom in the hallway; everything seems to be normal, or as normal as an abandoned school can be. As soon as we’re about to exit the classroom, our radios beep to life as the other squad radios back. It sounds like the other team is being engaged as the sounds of gunfire and yelling can be heard. "Squad 2-2, this is Squad 2-1. Be advised we have engaged the enemy in the suburbs near the public pool break, be advised we are under heavy suppressive fire. The area is crawling with hostiles. Can you rendezvous to assist, over"
Just as the squad leader was about to key up a response, we all froze as we heard a group of muffled voices in the atrium down the hall. I looked at my group, and then to the soldiers, the squad leader hesitated for just a moment before keying up. "Negative, positive contact with the enemy; I repeat positive contact with the enemy, over."
I glance over to my group and say, "Stay here; we will call you when we need you. This is going to get dangerous, so we will let you know." Alex was about to say something before Cilmora cut them off. "What? We didn’t volunteer just to hide in a room when stuff goes bad; we’re coming with you!" she said just above a whisper. My eyes narrow towards her. "Fuckin aye, fine, just stick behind us when it kicks off." They all nod, and I turn my attention to the soldiers. We quickly formulate a plan, and that plan is to overwhelm and blindside them.
Quietly, we all shifted out of the room. The voices grow louder, stealing a peek at our mysterious friends. I glance over and see them. Most of them are wearing full body suits of some kind; three of them are those bird people; if I remember correctly, they’re Krakotls; and two of them look like squid people. I can’t seem to remember what they were called. It dawns on me that the weapons they have are flamethrowers. A shiver runs down my spine as my brain connects the dots.
I glance over at the soldiers, steel my nerves, and try to control my breathing. Everything I’ve done so far is coming to a point, popping up here even though I’m out of my element. I need to come out of this. There's so much in the world I haven’t seen or done; I don’t know why I’m here, but maybe it was to do something good.
One of the soldiers readies what looks like a flashbang; they pull the pin holding the handle before finally bending around the corner and tossing it as close as they can to the group. Even though we weren’t close to where it was thrown and we were behind cover, the resulting concussive force could be felt in our chest. And the sound that ripped through the corridors was matched. I silently thanked myself for my hearing protection as the squad leader gave us the signal.
The first thing I could see upon leaving our safe haven was how the federation troops were reeling from the flashbang. Completely disoriented, we took our chances to fire upon them. I sighted in on one of the krakotls that was fumbling with their flamethrower. I zero in on what I assume is a liquid canister.
One
Two
Three
Three rapid shots: two to the canister and one to their head Before they drop to the ground, the canister detonates, showering the group in a rain of fire. I site in the next two, it seems they neglected to grab their suits helmets; ear-piercing screeches from the group bounce off the tile.
One
Two
Three
Before the second bird could even ready their flamethrower at me, screaming and wailing as they attempted to put out the flame that encompassed their head, another rain of hellfire emitted from the blast. Physically feeling the warmth that was emitted from the fireball fueled me to continue. I focus my efforts on one of the squid people.
One
Two
Three
Two positive center mass shots, with one clipping what would be considered their dome, the UN troops finishing off the rest. As I’m about to say something, the fire sprinklers rupture, causing the alarm to sound. It seems the flamer shots were a tad too messy, I’m about to say something to the rest of the group, but I’m cut off.
An arc of energy crashes above me, missing its shot. I quickly look down an opposite hallway and see federation troops; thankfully, none of them appear to have flamethrowers. The squad leader yells a command to take cover. I slam my shoulder into a corner edge, giving me an optimal view of the threat down the hallway. Different shades of energy race down the hallway, slamming into walls and edges. I quickly peeked out.
One
Two
Three
More have arrived; is this the ship that was mentioned?
One
Two
Three
I hear a yelp of pain emit from behind me. I quickly regain cover and look back to see that Cilmora was hit; thankfully, it looks like it barely clipped her. A rich blue color drips from her leg. "Are you okay?" Behind her cover, I can see her nod through gritted teeth, and Ellem immediately begins to treat her. Rage begins to boil inside of my chest. These were the first people to introduce me back into the world, ones that I could call friends. My hands tighten around my rifle, and my breathing becomes sharper as things feel like they’ve slowed down. I peek from my cover.
One
Two
Three
Two are down, center mass through and through.
I break cover and race down the hallway into a classroom; thankfully, it seems that we’re pushing them back a bit. I peak once again.
One
Two
Three
Three this time, their bodies make a wet smack as they hit the ground. I sprint to the adjacent class room to repeat the process.
One
Two
Three
My body feels like someone else is piloting it, I’m no longer me at this moment. I can hear the rest of the group pushing up as well, I’m close enough to see their faces, and I can see their fear?
One
Two
Three
I’m at the end of the hallway, on the right, it has a small hallway to lockers like the one we entered through. I began to break and make my way towards the last one, and before I round the corner, I hear them yell something to me.
"YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE MY ALIVE, YOU FILTHY FUCKING PREDATOR, I’M NOT SOMEONE'S FUCKING DINNER!"
I ignore it, and round the corner, my thoughts are linear.
One
Two
..Three?
The squid person slumps over, all center-mass shots. What draws my attention is the grenade in each of his hands, no longer tied to his grip. I noticed their spoons beside his body; my reaction was delayed due to the tunnel vision. I attempt to retreat and yell for the rest of the group to take cover. Before I can fully round the corner, they detonate, sending me soaring in the air. I can feel the shrapnel enter my body. What do I do? Is this it?
My legs are in the air, and I need to control where I land. I can’t breathe; I can’t do anything. Am I going to die? I can hear Ellem yelling my name. I can hear Cilmora yelling for help; where's Alex?
Too many thoughts enter my head; I’m confused. Maybe if I try and turn this wa-
​
And then I land; my head impacts the tile with a sickening CRACK.
​
First - Prev - Next

So, I had quite a few messages from people asking when I was going to update this to include chapter 4 and finally it was released on download in the UK (29th) so I could finally watch it and get around to it because I haven’t seen it until now. I’ve kept the original timeline here because I’m quite happy with it and I’m just adding on Chapter 4. I will add someone messaged me that during chapter 3 when the assassins are getting the kill order to kill John there’s a brief shot of an assassin’s phone saying the date was December. I’m happy to go with this because I think the first 3 films are set around October-November time but we see no x-mas stuff anywhere in chapter 1 to 3 so its debateable if you want to call this an x-mas film like Die Hard. Also, I watched an interview with the director this morning and he states that he thinks the first 3 films are about a week and a half but wasn’t certain which I feel gives my timeline some authenticity and accuracy.
​
P.s Ive had to break this down into two parts because the character limit is 40,000 characters and ive gone well over that
Warning Major Major spoilers for these films are here because I detail out the plot as I go.
A couple of assumptions are made. Fights scenes are probably longer than we seen on screen and often because of the pacing of the film we don’t need to see John get from point A to B. Conversations also probably took longer than we see if they are walking from area to area and discussing things. Location distances also take time to get to and from places and I don’t know where locations in New York and around the world are so I’ve made a lot up at a best sort of guess. Sometimes I’ve used what I think when there’s no real reference in the film to how long something took for instance for the time of day, I’ve looked at the skyline in the background and estimated what time of day it is judging by how much sunlight there is. Basically, I’ve guestimated a lot. Chapter 4 was a lot harder as they kept moving countries and places and its probably longer than I’ve made it. Also, some of the fight scenes are longer than the time they actually show in the film (6 minute fight is 13minutes in the film) so take everything with a pinch of salt.
TLDR: The films start in the mid-late autumn judging by the scenes that we see.
John Wick 1 starts on Monday Day 1 at 6am and ends Saturday Day 6 at 3.45am (6 Days).
John Wick Chapter 2 starts on Monday Day 8 at 10pm and ends Friday Day 13 at 5pm (5 Days).
John Wick Chapter 3 starts on Friday Day 13 at 5pm and ends Sunday Day 22 at 7.05am (9 Days).
John Wick Chapter 4 starts on Monday Day 205 at 7.20 pm (6 months later) and ends unofficially on Thursday Day 221 at 6.11am (when John passes out (16 days)) and officially at Thursday Day 228 12.00pm (23 Days).
John does have periods of down time and rest so it’s safe to assume he goes to the toilet in that time and maybe brushes his teeth once in a while
The first Film starts on a Monday. Not because there’s any reference to days of the week in the films (there wasn’t that I could find) but because, in my opinion, nothing good ever happens on a Monday.
John Wick Chapter 1
Monday Day 1 6am.
· John in his bathroom and has a flash back of his wife’s illness and death (assumption is made that this has happened over the past 6 months or so).
· Funeral of his wife. Marcus arrives “Just checking up on an old friend”.
· Wake at Johns house.
· People leave say 8-9pm ish
· Daisy the Dog is delivered and John reads Helens letter.
· John and Daisy got to bed at 10.54pm (clock on the bed).
Tuesday Day 2 6am.
· John wakes at 6am.
· Get the paper and the dog goes to the toilet, coffee and breakfast.
· Gets in car
· Getting petrol (assumption its about an hour after they’ve left prob around 8am) and meets the Russians arrive. Losef meets John “I love dogs”, “Beautiful car how much?”, “Not for sale.” “Not this bitch”. Victor arrives “You have a good day sir”.
· John leaves for the airfield- Crazy driving trying to/not to kill himself.
· Next scene is evening (don’t have time base upon previous night) in bed so assumption was that he went to be around 11pm.
Wednesday Day 3 Early am.
· Dog wakes John early am.
· John goes downstairs – Russians attack john, smash his stuff and kill the dog “Sleep tight bitch”.
· John wakes probably an hour or so later and cradles the dog.
· John buries the dog early am (judging by the skyline)
· 6.19am the alarm gets turned off.
· Angry cleaning with flash backs.
· Russians take Johns car to Aureilo’s garage (assumption is made that its around 8am and that it takes at least an hou maybe 2 to get there. Seeing as they stole it before 5am I assume that they took it for a joy ride and did doughnuts for a while first). “I want new vin numbers and new papers”- “Where did you get that car?” (John most likely still cleaning at this time) “Get it out of my shop” “We own you” Aureilo slaps Losef “Viggo not going to like this”.
· 5pm deduced from John leaving in car in next scene it’s probably taken all day to clean up and then he had to get the bus. John arrives at Aureilos garage after taking the bus “Is it here?”, “It was.”, “Losef Tarasov nicked it.”, “Viggo’s son?”, “I need a ride.”.
· John leaves in borrowed car around 6pm.
· Evening, not long after, Aureilo gets a call from Viggo (skyline time of day deduction) “I heard you struck my son. May I ask why?”
· Viggo to Avi “Have you seen my son?”.
· About 7.30pm Losef arrives (most likely he spent all day stashing the car with his uncle from John Wick 2 and hanging out).
· Viggo beats Losef. “What did I do” “That fucking nobody was John Wick” Explanation of the Bogey man and killing 3 men with a pencil.
· At the same time John is at home and goes into the basement with a sledgehammer smashes the floor and gets his equipment.
· 30 mins later Viggo gets his phone book and calls John. John hangs up.
· Viggo tasks a crew.
· John has a shower and suits up.
· Viggo sits by the fire.
· Juging by the light its 10pm ish when the kill crew arrives. (This doesn’t quite work because the house exterior shot is quite bright but when the crew arrives its dark night).
· The crew attack John and John kills the crew (due to films cuts to keep the action it probably takes about 20 minutes. Time enough for a noise complaint to be made).
· Jimmy the police officer arrives at 10.30 “Evening John”, “Noise complaint”, “You working again John?”.
· John goes downstairs and makes a dinner reservation for 12 (the amount of people he’s killed not the time).
· Assumption is made that it’s 1 hour for Charlie and the clean up crew to arrive at about 11.30.
· Assumption it takes 2 hours to clean the house of blood and bodies.
Thursday Day 4 1.30am
· Clean up crew leave about 1.30am.
· Viggo is still in front of the fire and is informed of the failure of the kill crew. The contract is put on Johns head for $2Million (the light in the room shot is bright he’s prob been there all night debating if he should put out the contract)
· Assumption is 6am John loads bags into car and drives to the Continental.
· Judging by the light its around 8am Viggo arrives at Marcus’s house whilst he’s cutting veg and juicing. “Would you kill John Wick for $2 million?”.
· Marcus cleans and polishes his guns after Viggo leaves.
· John arrives at the Continental at 8.30am (assumption).
· Perkins greets John. Concierge (Charon) “I have you for 2 nights sir”.
· Cuts to evening say 8pm assumption is John had some sleep.
· John looks at video of his wife and then goes downstairs to the bar and sees Winston “Johnathan as I recall wern’t you the one tasked to doll out the beating?”.
· (At the same time) Viggo learns that John is at the Continental “We have a contact there who is willing to take him out for us”.
· John is still talking to Winston. “Have a drink and relax…for now.”.
· John goes to the bar “It’s been 5 with change”. (Length of time John’s been a free man and Viggo has been in serious business learned).
· John gets Losef’s location with his drink “Compliments of the house”.
· John leaves the bar at 8.15 (assumption all this took 15 mins)
· John goes upstairs and suits up and we learn Losef is being guarded in a nightclub.
· John arrives at the nightclub. I’m assuming that it took an hour to suit up and 45 minutes to get to the club therefore its around 10pm-10.15 pm.
· John gets the drop on Francis the big bouncer that’s lost weight and gets inside.
· John kills Victor and lots of people in the spar area.
· John makes his way upstairs and enters the pool area where Losef is. This is most likely on the top floor. The way the films cuts means it probably took 30-45 mins to get up there and find him its about 11pm.
· John kills lots of people.
· Losef runs onto the dancefloor.
· John kills lots of people on the dancefloor, atrium and balcony.
· Losef escapes in a car driven by Gregori.
· John leaves with a phone call to Losef. (the fights probably took 30 mins so its around 11.30pm.
Friday Day 5 12.15am.
· John arrives back at the Continental 45 minutes later at 12.15am. “Is the doctor in?”.
· Assumption is the Doctor took 20 minutes to arrives and 30 minutes patching up John the time is probably around 1.05am
· Marcus arrives on the roof opposite and gets John in his sights.
· John tries to sleep.
· Perkins enters the room.
· Marcus shoots the pillow warning John.
· Perkins and John fight “Viggos giving me $4 million to break hotel rules”. The phone rings as the concierge rings.
· John beats Perkins and answers the phone (noise complaint).
· Marcus leaves.
· Perkins tries to crawl away. Pekins tells John about the Little Russia Church front.
· Harry holds up John “Catch and release”.
· Cut to Morning of Day 5. Bright light indicates its around 9am. John is at the Church who takes the pills for fully mobility, then kills lots of people and destroys the vault stash using the priest (probably takes about 30minutes).
· John leaves and then goes to a roof top to wait.
· No indication of how long until Viggo arrives I assume its an hour so the time is 10.30.
· Viggo arrives and kill the priest. Perkins escapes and kills Harry at around the same time).
· John attacks Viggo as he leaves the church.
· John Wick kills a lot of people
· John gets hit by a car, knocked out and captured by Viggo and wakes up tied to a chair in the church. The fight was about 10 minutes he’s been unconscious about 20 minutes so the time is 11pm “Yeah I’m thinking I’m back”.
· Marcus has already arrived (no idea when) and shoots the thugs chocking John. John escapes, kills other thug, frees his hands, runs out, chases down Viggos car killing thug driving it.
· Viggo gives up his son and pull the contract on John. (whole thing probably took 5 minutes).
· Cut to Losef in a Brooklyn safehouse. Not knowing where John actually is let’s say it took him an hour to go straight there so the time when John arrives is 12.05.
· Judging by the fact that explosives are set and it takes time to get into position its probably 12.45
· John kills guard and snipes Gregori playing COD at 12.45pm
· John snipers lots of people.
· John kills guard watching Losef.
· John kill Losef at 1.00pm
· Viggo finds out Losef is dead probably 30 mins later at around 1.30pm “Make the arrangements”.
· Cut to John checking out of the Continental (It’s only been 1 night). Prob took him an hour to be there and an hour to clean up and pack however when he leaves its getting dark so he probably fixed himself up and rested for a while and so the time is around 5pm.
· John gets a new car and meets Marcus around 5.30-6pm “How many times do I have to save your ass?”.
· Perkins watches them and turns Marcus in (assumed but likely).
· Cut to night so 8pm ish. Marcus walks home and Viggo and his thugs surround him.
· John driving home gets aphonecall on his mobile from Viggo. Shows scene of Viggo having bruised knuckles from beating Marcus so assume 1 hour has passed (9pm).
· Marcus tries to escape. Perkins wounds him and Viggo kills him so Marcus dies around 9.15pm “Well played old friend”.
· John turns the car around and Viggo leaves “Fuel the chopper”.
· 45 mnutes-1 hour later John arrives at Marcus’s house (10.15pm).
· Concierge calls Perkins who watches John arrives.
· John finds Marcus.
· John leaves (not shown and Perkins leaves)
· Perkins arrives (no time reference so assume 30 mins) to meet the concierge and has her membership to the Continental revoked at 10.45pm. Clean up crew arrives.
· Couple of minutes must have passed. Ohn is called by Winston to tell him where Viggo is.
· John drives like a nutcase and crashes into Viggo at docks probably 45 minutes away so it’s 11.30.
· John kills many people with his car and guns.
· Viggo tres to kill John with his car and the stands waiting for him. “No more guns John. No more Bullets”.
· John kills Viggo 5 minutes later. The whole fight from his car arriving to Viggo dying was about 30 minutes so the time is 00.05am on Day 6.
Saturday Day 6 00.05am
· John kills Viggo at 00.05am “Be seeing you John.”.
· John gets up and leaves taking Viggos cars.
· Opening scene of John crashing into the vets. John is unconscious. He could have been out for a while so im assuming 3 hours because it’s still night.
· John breaks into vets and treats himself (probably 30 minutes).
· John rescues his dog (another 10 minutes).
· John leaves and walks home with his new dog at 3.45am on Saturday Day 6 since his wife’s funeral.
John Wick Chapter 2
John Wick Chapter 2 starts with him chasing down a motor cyclist whilst he looking for his car. We know that this film is a direct continuation of the first film so we can assume that a little time has passed for him to heal, bond with the dog and make investigations into where his car is (this is probably because he’s not the type to stop for anything judging by the first film). Assuming that he took a day to rest and make investigations its probably been 2 days since the end of John Wick so we start on Monday Day 8 since his wife’s funeral at 10 pm because its night in the opening scene and it all fits nicely with the idea that the first film is a week long.
Monday Day 8 10pm
· John chases down biker in Aureilo’s borrowed car. (We never actually see what became of it in the first film because he gets a new car due to “Last nights unpleasantness” with Perkins in the first film as he checks out. Probably takes about 30 minutes.
· John hits the biker, takes the gold card and heads to Abrams Warehouse. He arrives say 30 minutes later.
· “My fucking nephew killed a dog and stole a car”. John arrives, kills thugs and looks for his car (30 mins).
· John calls Abram “You have my car”.
· John finds the car and takes it back.
· John uses his car to try and escape and kill people.
· John kills lots of people (approx. 30 minutes has passed).
· John makes peace with abram at 00.00am.
· John leaves and takes his car.
Tuesday Day 9 7.30am
· Johns car is wrecked and he gets home in the morning. Judging by the light I’d say early morning. We know he lives about 2 hours from the city so assuming it took 7 hours and 30 mins (shown in a later scene) to get home because his car was barely crawling up the driveway (being a man of focus he was getting that car back).
· John goes and cleans up. The clock on his table says 7.30am. Showers and sleeps.
· Next scene is Aureilo arriving to pick up Johns car. I’m assuming its mid to late afternoon around 4.30pm. John is playing with his dog and we have a continuity error here because in John Wick 1 the dog was a puppy and here it is clearly an older dog but ‘Im choosing to ignore this because movie land reasons.
· Cut to next scene. John cleans up his suit and sorts out the basement from the first film. He makes cement and it probably takes him 3 hours so time is 8pm.
· Santino arrives at 8pm (its night out). Coffee and conversation about markers (probably 20 minutes).
· Santino leaves and blows up Johns house.
· John sees his house burn at 8.30.
· Cut to fire engine still fighting the fire so say the response time ect is about 30 mins later. Jimmy the cop is here “Gas leak?”.
· John leaves with the dog and walks off.
Wednesday Day 10 9am.
· John arrives at the continental early morning (looks around 9am so he walked for 12 hours as busses probably aren’t running and he’s a man of focus). “How good to see you again so soon Mr Wick”.
· John meets with Winston and converse about Santino D’antonio and the marker.
· 10 minutes later John boards the dog with Charon the concierge. John leaves for the national gallery.
· Probably 30 minutes to the gallery he gets frisked and meets Santino.
· They talk about the job for 10 minutes “My hands”.
· John leaves and travels to his deposit box “59.035” say another 30 minutes to get there.
· He suits up (another 30 minutes) “happy hunting Mr Wick”.
· Next scene hes in Rome so assuming an hour to the airport. Google tells me New York to Rome direct is an 8 hours and 15 minutes flight and an hour to the continental of Rome meaning total travel time is 10 hours and 15minutes because he had no delays or hold ups and everything happened perfectly because its movieland and therefore assuming every part of his trip was flawless. Rome is 6 hours behind New York (thanks to google again) so John arrives at his destination at 2.25 pm Rome time which fits with the film.
Wednesday Day 10 8.25pm USA, 2.25pm Rome.
· John is observed by Ayres the mute woman arriving at the Continental. “Welcome to the Continental of Rome”.
· He meets the manager “are you here for the pope?”.
· Next scene John is getting supplies and equipment. He must have checked in so I assume its an hour later.
· Suit, Guns and catacomb plans must have taken some time, Rush suit could have taken an hour to measure and 4 hours to make, Guns must have taken an hour along with the catacombs “Mr Wick do enjoy your party”.
· Ayres watches John leave 3 hours later.
· John suits up that night say 8pm Rome time (Which is Thursday Day 11 2am USA time)
· John enters the catacombs and takes about an hour and 30 mins to reach his target whilst leaving his weapons around.
· Gianna enjoys her party and meets Mr Riconi and then leaves to freshen her makeup.
· 10.30 Rome John meets Gianna in the bathroom. They talk for 10 minutes and she slits her wrists. John shoots her and leaves.
· John bumps into Cassian “You working?” they shoot each other and John runs.
· John kills a lot of people escaping.
· Cassian find Gianna.
· John gets to catacombs and meets Ayres “Loose ends?”.
· John kills a lot of people It takes about 30 minutes for John to escape the catacombs from killing Gianna.
· Cassian tries to run John over. They fight and crash through the window of the Continental. They wernt far from it so its assumed Joh had been walking for 20 minutes and they were fighting for 10 mins. Hey crash through about 11.40pm Rome which again fits with the film.
· In the bar they talk for about 5 minutes. Cassian leaves and Ayres is there as John goes to bed “Not if I see you first”.
· Its about 00.00am when Santino phones. John hangs up on him. Santino calls the exchange and puts a bounty on John. John phones the desk and says he’ll check out in the morning. So all this makes the time Thursday Day 11 0.005 am Rome and Thursday Day 11 6 am USA. The text messages go out at this time because they would have done it then and there was no delay despite this being shown in a later scene.
· Next scene is early AM assumed around 6am because that’s when John usually gets up so its Thursday Day 11 6am Rome and 12pm USA. John sorts his stuff and is escorted out by the manager “May you have a safe journey Mr Wick”.
· It takes 10 hours and 15 minutes to get back to New York making it 10.15pm. Cassian is seen in New York so it’s assumed he got the contract text and headed to the airport straightaway to beat John back knowing he wouldn’t be able to get him in Rome.
Thursday Day 11 10.15pm.
· Santino completes the marker book “you stabbed the devil in the back”.
· John walks through Chinatown and the train station, kills lots of people (some with a pencil) and finally faces Cassian on the tube where he stabs him in the Aorta as a professional courtesy. Judging by how beat up he is and how many people he faced it probably took him 2 and a half hours.
Friday Day 12 00.45am
· John escapes 2 assassins at the train station and gets taken by the homeless man to the Bowery King.
· Its early am say around 7 am when John wakes up. Hes had medicine and has been patched up so therefore its Friday Day 12 7am. John and the king talk for an Hourish “$7 million Dollars gets you 7 rounds”.
· John leaves for Santinos coronation.
· John arrives at the NYM meausum Mirror art exhibit . No way to judge it so im guessing it took 3 hours having traveled by tunnels and sewer making it about 11am.
· Santino sees john.
· John kills lots of people probably takes about an hour.
· Santino escapes and runs to the continental John kill Ayres at 12.00pm
· John follows Santino to the Continental which probably took an hour to get to as Santino was eating and waiting for John.
· John arrives at the hotel and kills Santino at 1pm whilst eating lunch “What have you done?”.
· John leaves, collects his dog and goes home.
· The next scene is a bit difficult to place John sits in his ruined house looking at his wifes necklace and its raining. He could have walked for 12 hours but its more likely (as he’s in the next part of the scene) that the concierge took him and waited for a call. This doesn’t quite fit as the conversation about the dog staying with him implys that he had just arrived but im assuming that john was mute the whole way there in the car. “Would you be so enclined”.
· They travel back 2 hours (2 hours there 2 hours back) which makes it exactly 5pm when they reach Winston.
· Theres a continuity error here as John Wick 3 starts at 5pm but Winstons watch clearly shows 4pm in this scene I imagine his battery has died an hour before is all I can think of.
· Wick and Winston talk and John gets a marker and the starts running “I’ll kill them all”.
· Here ends John Wick Chapter 2 Friday Day 13 at 5pm.

They were slowly making their descent towards the verdant planet below. Earth, according to their people back home. The long lost home planet of the humans that preceded them in the ancient times. According to the annals it was a planet on the brink of atmospheric collapse, caused by centuries of unmitigated disastrous handling by their ancestors. They had abandoned the place to seek refuge among the stars and, whether they deserved it or not, they had found it. This was the first mission of many that were send to scout the situation on the planet. The dream had always been to one day return. Most of human history here had been lost and what remained was often written in forgotten languages. Yet, to the crew of the ship, it immediately felt like home.
As the landing gear his the soft ground covered by lush green undercover, the crew packed their necessities. They would sleep in the spaceship at night, but venture as far as they could during daylight. Trying to map the ancient cities and industrial complexes, that were pictured in the ancient texts. With a rumble through the metal flooring, they knew they had truly arrived. The hatch opened and provided a path to this forgotten world.
The first thing the crew noted, was the overabundance of forest around them. On the imagery back at home, this world was depicted as largely barren. Here everything was covered in thick layers of overlapping growth. The air buzzing with life that in no way resembled what they were prepared for. No sign of the large geometric skylines of the cities, not the fast gray fields of asphalt. Oxygen meters cited an abundance of oxygen. Which was somewhat remarkable, as ancients legends spoke of a lack of clean air being on of the reasons for the great migration. The party set out on food, through the field of trees and bushes.
Every now and then they’d find an overgrown structure that hinted at ancient settlers. The architecture was brutish, pragmatic, but not dissimilar from the architecture at home. That recognition sparked a sense of belonging inside. This place was strange, but also recognizable. In the same way you would recognize a square shaped out of negative space. There were signs of pre-migration human civilizations to be seen here and it was oddly beautiful.
The crew had wandered further than intended, distracted by the sights. The regional star was dropping below the horizon, casting longer and longer shadows through the already dark forest. The stumbled upon what looked to be a large underground complex. Large steel hatches closed of a concrete structure. It was easy enough to shatter the decayed lock and chain. The loud sound of snapping metal echoing through the eerie silence that had accompanied the departure of light. They had enough supplies to spend the night in this bunker, albeit not ideal. One of the party stepped in first, flashlight held in front of him he slowly stepped down the staircase into the darkness. It was less deep than they had anticipated. After about twenty meters they hit the ground floor. One of them tried the switch, more out of curiosity than expectation, but the lights in the complex turned on, to everyone’s surprise. That must have been some reliable power generator they installed in here.
They strolled across rows and rows of barrels. Steel drums, all yellow in color, positioned carefully. It almost seemed like a piece of art or something. Each of them carrying a label. Yellow with a thick black outline and in the middle a black trefoil made out of triangles. None of the records back at home had carried knowledge of these symbols. But if this place was so well preserved, they must have been important. They decided to roll one of these barrels out of it’s socket and pried open the lid, careful not to damage it. The walls of the thing were much thicker than they had looked from the outside. It was a thin steel sheet bolted to thick lead on the inside. That explained why the things were so heavy. The barrel was filled with a thick resin like substance, carrying pieces of something that radiated a beautiful luminescent green. Out of curiosity they switched of their flashlights and in the dark they could truly admire the artistry of this barrel. It was like looking upon the stars in the sky, but in a barrel. Captured galaxies they would call them.
They'd spend the rest of the night opening more of these containers. Each of them containing more ore less the same. Some in different colors, some with less and some with more of those pretty stars. They had decided to give up on sleep and take the day off tomorrow. This discovery told them something real and unknown about their ancient ancestors. Each of the crew giddy about what the others at home would say to this wonderful discovery. They weren’t exactly getting tired, but carrying those barrels must’ve taken a toll on their bodies. Exhaustion, in the form of a terrible headache and muscle ache set in. It was also deceptively hot in this bunker as some of our crew began to undress to cool down from the intense sweaty fevers they were experiencing. It was when one of them started vomiting that they decided it was time to leave the discovery rest for now and try and get some sleep. They could carry one of those barrels to the ship the next morning and examine it there. They all dozed off, exhausted, in pain and feverish, but at home.

I CANNOT make a deepwoken build properly and this is why.
Every single fucking time i try to make a build, I plan it perfectly. I beat small angry mexican men for fun and get me that black diver outfit, I do EVERYTHING. EVERY SINGLE TIME IM ABLE TO GET TO THIS POINT BUT I HAVE TO GO TO THE DUKE BOSSFIGHT. I NEED TO GET THIS BELL AND I KEEP ON DYING BECAUSE OF IT. every singe time its a repeat of this.

1. get through his mansion
   
2. see the duke (stare in awe for 5 minutes)
   
3. listen to his dialogue (instantly charmed and stunned)
   
4. die by his beautiful strong hands
   
5. make fanfiction of him
   

EVERY SINGLE TIME I END UP MAKING FANFICTION OF THE DUKE OF ERISIA. I COME BACK TO MY SENSES HOURS LATER, REREAD IT AND DELETE IT, HES JUST WAY TOO FUCKING HOT. I SEE HIM AND LISTEN TO HIS DIALOGUE AND ITS FILLED WITH SO MUCH FUCKING CHARISMA, EVERY SINGLE TIME I READ IT I AM WET. HE HAS MAXXED OUT BOTH CHARISMA AND INTELLIGENCE AND BECAUSE OF IT I CANNOT PROGRESS, I GO TO OTHER THINGS THAT CAN HELP ME WITH BELL PROG AND CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT HOW DUKE IS SO MUCH BETTER AND EITHER JUMP OFF THE NEAREST LEDGE OR RUN BACK TO HIS MANOR
I AM MANIC
​
PLEASE HELP ME

DISCLAIMER: I just want to write a few thoughts to the current state of Mittelafrika and make some propositions. MAF is probably one of my favorite countries in KR, due to its massive size and potential. I love the focus tree but I see that there is still a lot of potential. I haven't read that there are any reworks for MAF planned, and yes, I'd love to learn to mod for the sole reason of expanding MAF.
1. Leaders Göring as leader is somewhat a KR classic but if you read about him, the KR Göring doesn't fit into the KRTL. In OTL, Göring was radicalized after the war by the defeat and a speech of an Austrian Painter, which got him fascinated with his party. This didn't happen in KRTL. Göring would be still strongly influenced by his father, Heinrich Ernst Göring, the first Reichskommissar of Deutsch-Südwestafrika, who was strongly involved in protecting the local natives, creating protection areas especially for the natives that were previously targetted at by Europeans. So there is no reason for Göring to become such a maniac as he is portrayed in KR (except if there is actually good lore what happened to him but I haven't seen anything about that yet). In my opinion, the starting leader of MAF should be Solf, who will then go down in the Kenyatta-Solf-Affair, or alternatively Heinrich Albert Schnee, the last OTL governor of Deutsch-Ostafrika. The other remaining leader options are all good, but Göring should be a more moderate one, while the someone truly radical, like Franz Ritter von Epp should replace him as the "evil" leader.
2. Map I like the way MAF is made up the way it is, especially the change that it doesn't reach all the way up to Liberia was not only a nice gameplay balance but also a good idea as to not overextent the already overburdened MAF. What I'd love to see more would be the immediately visibility of the former non-German colonies not being fully integrated. So that would be: * British Protectorates as loose puppets (Kenya, Uganda, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Nigeria and the Gold Coast) of MAF, since MAF only moved in after the syndicalist revolution in Britain, to protect these colonies (and to connect the colonies) * French Equatorial Africa and Congo as seperate but stronger integrated puppets * direct control only over the original German colonies: Deutsch-Ostafrika (including Ruanda, Urundi and Bukoba), Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Togo and Cameroon That would show the situation better, that MAF is still trying to integrate these areas (more or less successful), which will be one of the bigger struggles in its gameplay.
3. Foci Personally I like the the current focus tree a lot, also the Cape to Cairo Railway is a beautiful feature. But it has got a lot of potential, especially looking at the recent big focus trees of other nations. MAF is struggling with many problems at once, since it was mainly a prestige-project and not an economical reason to create it. So the focus tree could divide into following parts: * Military tree - self explanatory * Administrative tree - MAF is a massively administratively overburdened entity which can barely assess what it actually contains, due to the lack of communication means and the vast landmass it entails. This could be combined with a strong national spirit debuff which would get reduced and turned into a buff, thanks to thorough German bureaucracy * Economical tree - the colonies are far from self-reliant and most of their wealth gets exported to the Reich, leaving them economically weak. The economic tree could slowly build up the economy, organizing better plantations and mines, sending more prospects out to find more ressources. A choice could then be made to either increase the exports to Germany (in terms of factories and constant supply shipments, becoming the Kaiser's favorite colonial administration), reducing the exports to increase MAF's own power (not in favor with the Kaiser) or trying to balance it. * Integration tree - this one ofc takes care of integrating the earlier mentioned puppet administrations or eventually leaving them at self-governance, for a price (receiving resource-rights, factories, weekly manpower, etc). The integartion could be done slowly and careful, ensuring a smooth transition, or rough and fast, which can lead to a revolt of the puppet (and the others eventually joining too). * Political tree - Classical political trees that pursue the HoS' agenda, depending who came up on top, following the Kenyatta-Solf-Affair. Imo, the current setup is already nice, needs just some more love. The DKG favors doing everything for the Kaiserreich while trying to maintain stability. The NKR tries to become more independent while exploiting the continent much harsher and the Selbstverwalter will try to become independent with the harshest means, trying to look eye-to-eye to the Kaiser. The democratic options would try to give the other Europeans as well as the Natives more rights, equal to the Germans, at the cost of a weaker economy.
4. Miscellaneous The Bush-War is a nice piece of lore that I'd keep and its consequences, especially if you want to annex the Portuguese colonies, you'd make the overextension debuff even worse. I never liked the current native revolt, that all rise up very fast at once without having any communication means to actually agree on something like that. There should rather be a similar system like in the Ottoman Empire with the resistance. The democratic leaders would profit from keeping them low, while the more radical leaders would struggle with it. Should MAF be distracted by a war, these high resistance areas could rise up. MAF should also receive more expansion options, right now it can only receive the French areas south of the Sahara and Bechuanaland can join them if it secedes from South Africa. But I'd like to see more options, like being able to also have South Africa eventually join (or annex them) or even expansion into Egypt?
If you're reading this, you made it through my babbling, so thanks for taking your time and just let me know what you think! I don't know if the Kaiserdevs would accept someone volunteering for that, or if they want to have more suggestions but I'd love to work or help with all that.

February 2001: It’s a bright new era for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. After years of mediocrity and flirts with relegation in the 1990s, a new ownership group is taking over from that cheapskate Alan Sugar. Meet your new overlords in English National Investment Company and your new chairman, Daniel Levy! Its sure to be a great start of a beautiful journey!
May 2001: Finishing 12th is not what you would call ideal. No European football. Not to mention bowing out in the FA Cup Semis and League Cup third round. Enjoy this new manager in Glenn Hoddle.
2001-02 : Sol Campbell signed with our eternal rivals in Arsenal! Levy didn’t offer him a new contract? What?? Doesn’t he know those Gunner clowns can’t be taking our players like that? We also finish 9th but made the League Cup final. It helps having the return of our goal scoring phenom in Teddy Sheringham. Adding Gustavo Poyet helps too. Still no European football.
2002-03: The best way to fight back into the elite is to have more goal scorers right? Welcome Robbie Keane from Leeds United! A crafty piece of business on our end! Him and Sheringham power us to…10th place. The fuck? And third round exits in the Cups…
2003-2004: Glenn Hoddle is underachieving! Get rid of him. David Pleat can surely handle the task at hand. Nope, we finished 14th…and still no trophies. But hey check out our shiny new forward in Jermaine Dafoe.
May 2004: Sol Campbell becomes a key contributor to Arsenal’s Invincibles season and wins the Premier League title. Does it feel cold?
2004-2005: Here’s our new manager in Jacques Santini ~goes 5-4-5~ ok never mind. Here’s our REAL new manager in Martin Jol, much more quality. He’s got the gusto and know-how to guide us to 9th and no trophies. At least Jermaine Defoe was the club top goal scorer…and Ledley King is coming into his own.
May 2005: Our other eternal rivals Chelsea win their first Premier League thanks to that outlandish manager Jose Mourinho and oligarch Roman Abramovich. All they do is buy players whenever they please. Pfft, that won’t be sustainable, they’ll come back to Earth eventually.
2005-06: Martin Jol has been a massive improvement to our fortunes. No trophies yet but we’re back in Europe. It’s good to be back in the UEFA Cup, think of the tv revenue. 5th place is a nice finish. Robbie Keane and newcomer Mido carried us to this spot. We should be keep them around for a while. Bringing in experienced talent like Edgar Davids and this young defensive midfielder in Tom Huddlestone helps. And check out our new record signing in Jermaine Jenas.
2006-07: Michael Carrick is a great defensive midfielder but Manchester United want his services. Here, take him. Edgar Davids is also much too old to be playing Premier League football. Our loss is also our gain with 15 million quid in the books. Let's invest that into a brand-new world class striker in Dimitar Berbatov. And Carrick's replacement in Didier Zokora certainly helps us...but we finish 5th again. No tropies either...at least European football?
2007-08: Jermaine Dafoe and Mido are gone. We need to replace them. Darren Bent seems like a good idea. But who the hell is this young left-back named Gareth Bale? Why is he worth 14 million pounds? Whatever, we need depth, he probably won't be much. Snap up this Jonathan Woodgate guy, too, someone has to help Ledley King here!
Oct 25, 2007: So you sacked Martin Jol at halftime against Getafe because reasons? Maybe if you stopped selling all his good players the division wouldn't have started. The fans are not pleased about this at all. Smooth them over with Juande Ramos from Chelsea.
League Cup Final 2008: All this leads to an 11th place finish, but fear not - YOU WON THE LEAGUE CUP! The first trophy since 1999, a true triumph. Certainly Spurs can aim higher now right?
2008-09: Juande Ramos is a fraudulent piece of shite that doesn't deserve to work in North London. We've promptly canned him for the legend that is Harry Redknapp. Just look at him inspire us to...8th place. We made the League Cup Final broken glass window and we've lost to Manchester United. And sold them Berbatov because money. This is shit. Enjoy this new midfielder signing in Luka Modric. He'd only become one of the best players in the world, nothing too crazy. Oh and Robbie Keane is back. So is Jermaine Defoe! Yay?
2009-10: A full season of Redknapp ball has led to a glorious prize! 4TH PLACE! Tottenham Hotspur will be playing under the lights on Tuesday and Wednesday! Play the music....THE CHAMPPPIONS! All it cost was loaning out Keane, selling Bent, and bringing in Peter Crouch. What a team we have forming. This Aaron Lennon kid is turning into quite the player. Oh and that Gareth Bale kid we paid a premium for? Yea, he's playing left winger now.
2010-2011: Champions League football requires Champions League talent. Quickly, let's eye up cheap deals for Rafael van der Vaardt, Sandro, and William Gallas. The attacking front of Crouch, Bale, Defoe, van der Vaardt, and Roman Pavlyuchenko powered us to 5th. It’s been a tough test balancing these nights. But did you see our massive victories against both Milan teams? I think we'll be back here in no time. Is it really a bad season without winning any trophies?
2011-12: A critical season. Harry Redknapp's contract is set to expire and Daniel Levy hasn't really been known to give coaches pay raises unless they merit it. Unfortunately, Peter Crouch is too old to keep around. Off to Stoke City with you, lad, thanks for that night at the San Siro. Bringing Emmanuel Adebayor from the exile of Manchester City should be a like-for-like swap. It all powers us to finish 4th again! HUZZAH! Another season of Champions League revenues! But still no Cups to take home.
2012 CL Final: Unfortunately, Chelsea did something incredible and won the Champions League in the most chaotic final in recent memory. Thus, for finishing 4th, you get Europa League football...god I hate Chelsea.
2012-13: Gareth Bale is becoming an elite winger without elite help. We've also decided to do something ridiculously unpopular and sell Luka Modric to Real Madrid for huge money. van der Vaardt is also out the door to Hamburg. The revenue brings in Hugo Lloris, Mousa Dembele, Clint Dempsey, and Jan Vertonghen. Under the plucky Andre Villas-Boas we finish 5th and go back to Europa. But our Cup showing was even more abysmal this season. Gareth Bale potted 21 goals...oh god he's next to go isn't he?
2013-14: The worst day has come. Gareth Bale has been sold to Real Madrid. He's joining up with Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo. The money reinvested brings in Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, and the meme known as Roberto Saldado. Andre Villas-Boas' tenure was short-lived. Tim Sherwood is a former Spurs lad, surely he can lead us to greatness. If you call 6th place and no trophies greatness.
CL Final 2014: Luka Modric and Gareth Bale become key contributors to Real Madrid's Decima in the Champions League. Bale also scores one of the best goals of the campaign in the Copa Del Rey against Barcelona. The fans are pissed at Daniel Levy and ENIC.
2014-15: We've been knocking on the door of the elite English teams for a few seasons now. Time to put up or shut up. Tim Sherwood, you are not that guy pal. Mauricio Pochettino, welcome to Spurs. Here's the plucky academy kid in Harry Kane. Please get him firing, our striker woes are well-known. You want to sell Gylfi Sigurdsson and Sandro for this League One prospect in Dele Alli? Ok if you say so. Who the hell is Eric Dier and why do you want him? Culminating in a fifth place finish and League Cup final. Harry Kane scored 21 goals though...whoa.
2015-16: Defense needs an upgrade. Let's buy this experienced Belgian in Toby Alderwaiald. Him and Vertonghen played together before, surely it will work. We also need a left winger. How about Hueng-Min Son? He's been torching defenses for Leverkusen, he can surely do it here. The top teams are having a down season, now is the time to strike. We can smell the Premier League title in our grasp.
Final Matchday 2016: They finished third in a two-horse race after Leicester decided to have the greatest sports story ever play out in real life. It seems like a missed opportunity, but there is plenty to build on. Poch's team is coming together. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose are molding into elite fullbacks. The Belgians and Lloris are brick walls. Harry Kane is becoming a world-class striker. He even won the Golden Boot! They just need a little bit more to get over the trophy drought.
2016-17: Ok this is the year. We made it back to the Champions League, but this will be the last year at White Hart Lane. It's much too old for this modernizing football club. We need a really big stadium to bring in that sweet matchday revenue like our rivals. And I'm talking REALLY big, the best in all of England. It would be nice to fill it with some Champions League revenue and some silverware no? Well, seems like we finished 2nd and didn't win any Cups...AGAIN. But hey, Harry won the Golden Boot again! Dele Alli took serious strides in becoming a generational talent. Progress is progress amirite?
Final Matchday 2017: Chelsea win their 4th Premier League title since Abramovich took over. At least you finished above Arsenal again...that's a win isn't it?
2017-18: Kyle Walker has been sold to Manchester City because we like money over glory. Don't worry, we have a solid replacement with Kieran Trippier. We'll use the Walker money to bring a new defender in Davinson Sanchez from Ajax and right winger in Lucas Moura from PSG. Oh and for the hell of it, here's Serge Aurier from PSG too. Glorious depth. We still don't have a reliable backup striker, but how about a cheap deal for the aging legs of Fernando Llorente. He was good in a past life right?
Nov 1, 2017: By God, we've done it. We've slain the evil empire in Real Madrid. It's hard to believe a team of this size and caliber could scar the kings of Europe. Surely the only way is up from here.
March 2018: Nope, the knockout stages pit you up against a thunderous Juventus team that makes you their English bitch. Giorgio Chiellini goes on to make one of the most overused memes in all of football Twitter. "Iz di history of di Tottenham..."
Final Matchday 2018: Respectable 3rd place finish behind Manchester United lads. Too bad no trophies to go with it. Sigh... what else is new? We finished above Arsenal again...yay? Meanwhile, Kyle Walker is part of the Centurion Manchester City team...I need more liquor.
2018-19: Harry Kane is starting to get impatient. He needs to start seeing some silverware soon. Hueng-Min Son is emerging as a top forward in the league. Dele’s dropped off a bit but it’s just a blip, nothing to worry about. Jan and Toby are rock-solid at the back. We have a plucky solid squad, filled with some high-end talent but we didn't get any reinforcements in the summer...what the fuck? You do realize squads transition every season, ENIC? Where's Poch's reinforcements? Why did you sell Mousa Dembele mid-season, he was still useful! Oh dear god, what have they done? Oh that’s right…the new stadium. It’s still not done yet is it?
UCL QFs 2019: This is massive test. We managed to beat Barcelona in the group stage, and cake-walked through Dortmund in the Round of 16 but this is a new beast. We're up against the defending PL champs in Man City. Harry is hurt but we've got Sonny, Lucas, Chrisitan, Dele, and Fernando to make up for his goals. A huge pen save by Hugo on Aguero keeps us in the tie. Son puts us up 1-0 in the first leg. Going to the Etihad without Harry, it's a tight affair. Son and Sterling trading goals, Fernando kneeing in the go-ahead, Bernardo Silva pulling one back, 4-3 Man City, and seeing out the final whistle. Away goals take us over the line. Onto the Semis!
UCL SFs 2019: This Ajax team downed Real Madrid. They're gonna walk all over us. At least in the first leg. The second leg is a masterpiece. Lucas scored not one, not two, but THREE away goals to push us to glory! Gas up the bus boys, WE ARE GOING TO THE UCL FINAL!!!!
UCL Final 2019: What the actual fuck? How was that a handball on Moussa Sissoko??? IT HIT HIS BLOODY SHOULDER! You gifted this match to Liverpool, UEFA! (This is the moment that broke Tottenham Hotspur) And why the hell didn't Lucas start the game? After that fantastic hat trick? I don't care if Kane was fit to play, this is massive managerial blunder. Maybe this is the summer things start to change. All we got for this was a runner-up medal. At least we finished 4th in England. BUT STILL NO MOTHER FUCKING TROPHIES! writer proceeds to smash his laptop in the process
2019-20: The UCL Final should be a springboard for another potential title charge. Poch is calling out ownership for not wanting to give him signings. They only fumbled the Paulo Dybala signing, surely we can still trust Levy and ENIC right? Here's Giovani Lo Celso instead and Tanguy Ndombele to shore up the midfield. Here's our replacement for Danny Rose in Ryan Sessegnon. Unfortunately, Chrisitan Eriksen wants out and we let his contract run down. He leaves in January for basically nothing. Results are starting to flounder so Poch, pack your furniture and get out of our house. Meet our new manager: Jose Mourinho, the Special One. Just nobody tell Daniel he's been sacked infamously by both Chelsea and Manchester United for being a toxic presence. At least the new stadium is ope---ah fuck, it's COVID. An injury-plagued campaign culminates in a 6th place finish, but still no trophies. Another finish over those Gunners though! Why aren't you fans happy? We can't spend money, don't you see we didn't get any matchday revenue???
FA Cup Final 2020: Even though we finished above them, Arsenal take home an FA Cup with a squad arguably much less talented than Spurs. It was also against Chelsea...who finished above you. Can someone drive me to the nearest cliff please?
2020-21: A full season of Mourinho-ball. Tensions are starting to run high. Kane is pissed at the direction we're going. Jan Vertonghen and Kieran Trippier are gone. Dele Alli forgot how to play football under Jose. We need a new center-back...too goddam expensive. Let's convert Eric Dier to CB and have play back there, what's the worst that can happen? Fans aren't happy at all. I know the solution: you kids remember Uncle Gareth?? He's baaaaack! Sure, he's in his early 30s and a shell of himself but he's won 4 UCL titles and scored that fabulous bike kick in 2018. He's still class. Here’s a bunch of mid table players in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Matt Doherty, and Joe Rodon to supplement the team.
March 2021: Europa League is quite winnable. Surely nothing bad will happen like you losing to a team who's manager is in prison for tax fraud. breaking glass sounds you fumbled a 2-0 agg lead to Dinamo Zagreb...who's manager was in prison for tax fraud. You're fucking pathetic you know that?
April 2021: Jose Mourinho is a dinosaur of English football. Look at him playing park the bus tactics while we can't defend score. Let's get rid of this cancer before it spreads. Who cares if it's six days before the League Cup Final against City? Why can't Ryan Mason see it out?
EFL Cup Final 2021: It's not a blowout loss, but it's clearly an overmatching. City run rampant on Spurs as they lift the trophy they basically own at this point. Fans are calling for Levy's head. In fact, they were calling for it as early as the FA Cup loss to Everton in the fourth round.
Final Matchday 2021: Jose refused to play Gareth Bale. Looking back that was a terrible decision. Bale and Kane power us to a 7th place finish. We finish above Arsenal again. It's a successful season in ENIC's checkbook. And there's still European football to play. Harry Kane wins another Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for most assists. We have to keep him around.
May 2021: Kieran Trippier and Christian Eriksen become key contributors to Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan's respective title wins. In other news, Juan Foyth wins the Europa League with Villarreal while on loan. Does that sound familiar?
CL Final 2021: Chelsea find another way to win another Champions League title, despite sacking a manger midway through the season and having misfiring forwards. And it was against Man City…who we beat every now and then.
2021-22: We need a director of football to help us match up to our rivals better. Fabio Paratici built Juventus in the most dominant club in Italy, surely he can replicate that in England. No we won't hire Paulo Fonseca and his 7 assistant coaches, way too much payroll. And no, you can't hire Gennaro Gattuso for his derogatory comments. Wait, where the hell is Harry Kane? Ahh I see he wants to be sold to Man City. HA! Doesn't he know he just signed an extension? Son has too, so if Harry wants to play hardball let him. Quickly, hire Nuno Espirito Santos as our fail-safe. He's not what we wanted but we fucked up so we're fucked now. Wait, how can we be so critical of ourselves? CHECK OUT THIS GLORIOUS STADIUM!!!!
Nov 2021: Nuno is terrible, he's lost 5 in a row. Who cares if we beat Man City on opening day? Get him out NOW! Get Antonio Conte in. It's another former Chelsea manager to restore our standing in the club.
Final Matchday 2022: HUZZAH! After a turbulent season, losing to wifi-password named clubs in the Conference League then getting kicked out of it for COVID reasons, Conte calling us out in the media multiple times, we galvanized ourselves to a 4th place finish. We're back, and it's thanks to the Juve rejects in Cristian Romero, Dejan Kulusevski, and Rodrigo Bentancur. Son won the Golden Boot, a true testament to his development at Spurs. Back on track. But still...no trophies. Another finish above Arsenal...they should just make a team award for that at this point.
2022-23: A full season of a happier Conte should lead us to silverware. Let’s not dawddle, start making signings. Richarlison always victimized us at Everton, let’s bring him to back up Kane. Yves Bissouma did the same at Brighton and we do need a batter box to box midfielder. Him too. Ivan Perisic on a free for Conte’s wingback. Surely our defense is fine in the hands of Romero, Dier, Clement Lenglet, and Ben Davies. And Djed Spence because reasons.
April 2023: It’s been a terrible season. From having our best start to a season since 1967 to bottling game after game after game. Tepid football, lack of inspiration. Despite small triumphs like winning the Champions League group stage and mugging Manchester City of points again, they have failed miserably again. Son’s form is gone. Richarlison doesn’t know how to score. The defense is wide open. It implodes after giving up 3 goals to a bottom table Southampton after being up 3-0. Conte is furious, criticizes ownership again, and is canned back to Italy. Fabio Paratici was also banned by FIFA for cooking Juve’s books. To make it worse, Arsenal was leading the top of the table and almost won the title. Thank the football gods for Man City and their oil money franchise. That means nothing as the season prolapses, we fall out of European contention, and finish 8th. No manager, no director football, toxic fanbase crying out for changes. I have now developed heavy drinking. "ZE DON'T WANT TO PLAY FOR SOMETHING IMPORTANT! 20 YEARS THERE IS THE OWNER AND NEVER WON SOMETHING!"
UEL Semi-Final 2023: Did I mention this gets worse because it does. A couple seasons back, Spurs swapped Erik Lamela and 25 million for promising Spanish youngster Bryan Gil from Sevilla. Gil was never favored by Nuno or Conte, with the Italian basically exiling him from the team unless he had no other choice but to play him. Gil would be loaned back to Sevilla where he assisted Erik Lamela's game-winning goal in stoppage time to book Sevilla a place in the Europa League final. I want to drink bleach...
Twenty-three years of failures and memes, Tottenham look like a lost club. All the shiny toys, but nothing to show for it. Champagne expectations with a beer budget. Does the ownership really value profit that much? Daniel Levy always insists his goal every season is to win a trophy. But how do you do that without attracting top talent? They squandered a window in 2019 and can’t remake the glory. They've made signing after signing that are inconsistent or not at the level to win trophies. It feels like they value cheap deals rather than actual talent. It's killing the club. Kane has been a legend at the club but he’s ready to move on. I don’t blame him, his career is incomplete with some hardware. But the future looks bleak. What will Spurs do next? Will they do a full rebuild and risk the possibility of no European football? Or will they try to win at least one trophy before Kane's contract is up?

It's well worth a read, though I'm not sure exactly how well the late nineteenth-century anthropology holds up today. (Maybe somebody more knowledgeable than me can weigh in.)
The long and short of it: Engels examines how the structure of the family in a given society is contingent upon it economic and technological conditions, considered in terms of linear stages of development from "savagery" to "civilization." Group marriage, elective pair bonds, and matrilineality are typical of "primitive" societies, while ones that develop large-scale agriculture and specialized crafts tend towards patrilineality, driven by concerns over property rights:

We now leave America, the classic soil of the pairing family. No sign allows us to conclude that a higher form of family developed here, or that there was ever permanent monogamy anywhere in America prior to its discovery and conquest. But not so in the Old World.
Here the domestication of animals and the breeding of herds had developed a hitherto unsuspected source of wealth and created entirely new social relations. Up to the lower stage of barbarism, permanent wealth had consisted almost solely of house, clothing, crude ornaments and the tools for obtaining and preparing food – boat, weapons, and domestic utensils of the simplest kind. Food had to be won afresh day by day. Now, with their herds of horses, camels, asses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, the advancing pastoral peoples—the Semites on the Euphrates and the Tigris, and the Aryans in the Indian country of the Five Streams (Punjab), in the Ganges region, and in the steppes then much more abundantly watered of the Oxus and the Jaxartes—had acquired property which only needed supervision and the rudest care to reproduce itself in steadily increasing quantities and to supply the most abundant food in the form of milk and meat. All former means of procuring food now receded into the background; hunting, formerly a necessity, now became a luxury.
But to whom did this new wealth belong? Originally to the gens, without a doubt. Private property in herds must have already started at an early period, however. It is difficult to say whether the author of the so-called first book of Moses regarded the patriarch Abraham as the owner of his herds in his own right as head of a family community or by right of his position as actual hereditary head of a gens. What is certain is that we must not think of him as a property owner in the modern sense of the word. And it is also certain that at the threshold of authentic history we already find the herds everywhere separately owned by heads of families, as are the artistic products of barbarism—metal implements, luxury articles and, finally, the human cattle—the slaves.
For now slavery had also been invented. To the barbarian of the lower stage, a slave was valueless. Hence the treatment of defeated enemies by the American Indians was quite different from that at a higher stage. The men were killed or adopted as brothers into the tribe of the victors; the women were taken as wives or otherwise adopted with their surviving children. At this stage human labor-power still does not produce any considerable surplus over and above its maintenance costs. That was no longer the case after the introduction of cattle-breeding, metalworking, weaving and, lastly, agriculture. just as the wives whom it had formerly been so easy to obtain had now acquired an exchange value and were bought, so also with the forces of labor, particularly since the herds had definitely become family possessions. The family did not multiply so rapidly as the cattle. More people were needed to look after them; for this purpose use could be made of the enemies captured in war, who could also be bred just as easily as the cattle themselves.
Once it had passed into the private possession of families and there rapidly begun to augment, this wealth dealt a severe blow to the society founded on pairing marriage and the matriarchal gens. Pairing marriage had brought a new element into the family. By the side of the natural mother of the child it placed its natural and attested father, with a better warrant of paternity, probably, than that of many a “father” today. According to the division of labor within the family at that time, it was the man’s part to obtain food and the instruments of labor necessary for the purpose. He therefore also owned the instruments of labor, and in the event of husband and wife separating, he took them with him, just as she retained her household goods. Therefore, according to the social custom of the time, the man was also the owner of the new source of subsistence, the cattle, and later of the new instruments of labor, the slaves. But according to the custom of the same society, his children could not inherit from him. For as regards inheritance, the position was as follows:
At first, according to mother-right—so long, therefore, as descent was reckoned only in the female line—and according to the original custom of inheritance within the gens, the gentile relatives inherited from a deceased fellow member of their gens. His property had to remain within the gens. His effects being insignificant, they probably always passed in practice to his nearest gentile relations—that is, to his blood relations on the mother's side. The children of the dead man, however, did not belong to his gens, but to that of their mother; it was from her that they inherited, at first conjointly with her other blood relations, later perhaps with rights of priority; they could not inherit from their father, because they did not belong to his gens, within which his property had to remain. When the owner of the herds died, therefore, his herds would go first to his brothers and sisters and to his sister’s children, or to the issue of his mother’s sisters. But his own children were disinherited.
Thus, on the one hand, in proportion as wealth increased, it made the man’s position in the family more important than the woman’s, and on the other hand created an impulse to exploit this strengthened position in order to overthrow, in favor of his children, the traditional order of inheritance. This, however, was impossible so long as descent was reckoned according to mother-right. Mother-right, therefore, had to be overthrown, and overthrown it was. This was by no means so difficult as it looks to us today. For this revolution—one of the most decisive ever experienced by humanity—could take place without disturbing a single one of the living members of a gens. All could remain as they were. A simple decree sufficed that in the future the offspring of the male members should remain within the gens, but that of the female should be excluded by being transferred to the gens of their father. The reckoning of descent in the female line and the matriarchal law of inheritance were thereby overthrown, and the male line of descent and the paternal law of inheritance were substituted for them. As to how and when this revolution took place among civilized peoples, we have no knowledge. It falls entirely within prehistoric times. But that it did take place is more than sufficiently proved by the abundant traces of mother-right which have been collected, particularly by Bachofen. How easily it is accomplished can be seen in a whole series of American Indian tribes, where it has only recently taken place and is still taking place under the influence, partly of increasing wealth and a changed mode of life (transference from forest to prairie), and partly of the moral pressure of civilization and missionaries. Of eight Missouri tribes, six observe the male line of descent and inheritance, two still observe the female. Among the Shawnees, Miamis and Delawares the custom has grown up of giving the children a gentile name of their father's gens in order to transfer them into it, thus enabling them to inherit from him. (...)
The overthrow of mother-right was the world historical defeat of the female sex. The man took command in the home also; the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude, she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production of children. This degraded position of the woman, especially conspicuous among the Greeks of the heroic and still more of the classical age, has gradually been palliated and glozed over, and sometimes clothed in a milder form; in no sense has it been abolished.

The short version of the conclusion: if the tangling up of property relations, economic brass tacks, reproduction, and romantic/sexual love has warped relations between the sexes, then the passage from capitalism into socialism and communism will allow men and women to stand on more equal footing. There's no point in smashing any patriarchy because there's no patriarchy to smash: just a period of historical development that needs to be brought to its conclusion and sublated by the next phase.

In any case, therefore, the position of men will be very much altered. But the position of women, of all women, also undergoes significant change. With the transfer of the means of production into common ownership, the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair; society looks after all children alike, whether they are legitimate or not. This removes all the anxiety about the “consequences,” which today is the most essential social—moral as well as economic—factor that prevents a girl from giving herself completely to the man she loves. Will not that suffice to bring about the gradual growth of unconstrained sexual intercourse and with it a more tolerant public opinion in regard to a maiden’s honor and a woman’s shame? And, finally, have we not seen that in the modern world monogamy and prostitution are indeed contradictions, but inseparable contradictions, poles of the same state of society? Can prostitution disappear without dragging monogamy with it into the abyss?

Again, short answer: yes. Engels maintains that the revolution won't deliver us all unto polyamory, but to happy and uncoerced monogamy:

Full freedom of marriage can therefore only be generally established when the abolition of capitalist production and of the property relations created by it has removed all the accompanying economic considerations which still exert such a powerful influence on the choice of a marriage partner. For then there is no other motive left except mutual inclination.

I wonder.
Been reading this lately. Thought I'd share some bits as conversation starters—and as a rebuff to the latest episode of "nobody duz Marxism no more."

Hi all. FTM, gave birth 5 days ago to my beautiful baby boy. I was preparing for breastfeeding by expressing colostrum from week 36 (not every day though) and freezing it in case of emergency. Labor was long but uneventful until it came time for the placenta to come out - no amount of drugs could release it, the umbilical cord broke off when they pulled on it, and I had to be rushed to the OR where I haemorrhaged almost 2 litres of blood. As a result, I missed the ‘golden hour’ that everybody tells me is so vital for breastfeeding success. Instead I got maybe 10 min. of skin to skin before being taken away from my newborn child.
Ever since it’s been a struggle. He latched and nursed a few times with a nipple shield (given to me by a nurse on day 1), but I find it annoying to use and he keeps knocking the damn things off. Since yesterday however he started refusing even the shields (and my right breast). He is often frustrated at being put in a feeding position (both laying down, sitting and cradling him, and the rugby hold) and screams like a banshee even before I can offer him the nipple, no matter if he’s very hungry or very calm and just displaying hunger signals beforehand. I’ve tried latching at every feed, but he literally fights me and just cries, seemingly forgetting about eating altogether. Because I’m worried about my milk supply and his health I’ve been using the saved colostrum as well as hand expressed milk to feed baby, using a syringe, a spoon, and the cup method (though it looks like I’ve been doing that wrong too). He is gaining weight because I’m expressing almost round the clock when I’m not actively feeding him / changing him / soothing him but I really want to breastfeed like a normal person, and not feel like I am a total failure as a mom for not even being able to latch my own child when everybody I know has had zero issues.
Anyone else’s baby have issues latching? How did you overcome this? Can I even fix the mistakes I’ve no doubt made?

Try as I may, I have never been able to get into journaling. Maybe it’s my hatred for my handwriting, perfectionist mentality, lack of dedication, creativity, etc. I’ve seen so many beautiful journals, each unique and creative. I feel inspired to start the journaling journey! I’d love any suggestions as to how to get started, ways to stay motivated and interested, where you find supplies and inspiration, and even if there is a method or format you follow for your journaling, etc.!
I’m so glad I found this sub 🥰