When the King of Phoenicia plotted to murder his sister, Queen Dido of Tyre, over her claim to the throne, she gathered a force of loyalists and occupied the harbour at Tyre. Knowing she couldn't stand up to the full force of the Punic military, she embarked on a voyage to find a new homeland. She arrived on the shores of North Africa, and with a little diplomatic trickery, she managed to con the King of the Berbers out of a vast plot of land along the coast. She built a city on this land and named it Carthage. The name Carthage was derived from the Punic words meaning "new city."

Carthage quickly became a naval power that dominated the Mediterranean for centuries. They started forming colonies all over the coast of North Africa, and on some Mediterranean islands within their sphere of influence, including Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, and Sicily. Their most ambitious colonial adventure was the Iberian Peninsula, in modern-day Spain. They called their first Iberian colony Carthago Nova, or New Carthage. Reminder that Carthage itself translated to New City.

Centuries passed, and the Carthaginian Empire fell to the Romans. The people were displaced or enslaved, their capital was burned to the ground, and an amount of salt equivalent to the annual output of a League of Legends addict was rubbed into the Earth around Carthage. Other cities still stood however, Carthago Nova among them. The city eventually became known as Cartagena, and it was an important city in Spain for a while. When they started colonizing Central and South America, they, like many of the other European powers, began naming colonies after existing Old World cities. One of the Spanish colonies in modern-day Columbia was named New Cartagena. Again, reminder that Cartagena used to be Carthago Nova. Which was New Carthage. Which itself was New City.

New Cartagena. New New New City.

A name almost as redundant as this entire post.

There may be a world war. Two super-blocs developed practically overnight, and at this point, 99% of nations involved are alligned with one of the two. "The Alliance" is being led by Austria, England, Prussia, and the Ottoman Empire, while "The Coalition" is led by France, Spain, Poland, and Burgundy. Initially, the two tried to establish a peaceful resolution, but as it's become increasingly clear that the interests of both factions are completely incompatible, tension is building.

Keep in mind the game hasn't even started yet. We're almost in a state of Cold War, plotting around each other's actions to provoke a violent response. Byzantium, a nation that hold vital Ottoman lands, is now being supported by Coalition forces. Naples, a minor power within The Alliance who has the support of Austria, has demanded Spain to cede Sicily to them or face war. Poland is scheming to seize important territory in Eastern Prussia. It's shaping up to be a bloodbath within the first few hours.

Oh, and I'm the Pope. Somehow.

So I'm in a group chat on Discord where we do mostly strategy games. A little while ago, we organized a big multiplayer game of Europa Universalis 4 for this weekend.

Now this is going to be BIG. We already have nearly a hundred people, and more are joining every day. We even have some YouTubers involved, and five different people are going to be streaming or recording the event in some way. In the Discord, we have special voice channels for different regions of the world so that nearby players can conduct negotiations more easily, and some of the larger alliances even have their own voice channels.

And it took less than three days for all of this well-structured diplomacy to devolve into homoerotic roleplay.

I love this community.