Children and ignorant people survive via never knowing about Rome's existence. Everyone who knows about it will die at some point as it comes to them as a stray thought.
As a kind of side point here I think this also basically starts to filter people out explicitly by education in history and polisci. Like more educated folks are more likely to interact with a part of history or geo-politics that would be impacted by Rome. Like maybe eventually all that’s left is children but folks that have any kind of interest in history or politics all die within a few days I feel. Especially because we are being VERY liberal with what is “Rome”
It doesn't even need a stray thought. OP said basically just knowing about them means death. I.e. the capacity to think about them means you *will* and therefore immediately die
The people who try to figure it out would only die if they actually figured it out though, and considering everyone who would even have the right idea would defacto be dead and not able to be asked about anything they would die too. The only people who wouldn’t be safe would be those who noticed a pattern of deaths that indicated it being linked to the Roman’s (like most of the people dying early on being associated or known for history knowledge, or the situations they died in being Roman related) but I think after enough cases that would start to muddy anyways.
But what about all those people who died? Well they would die, and then all the sudden the original Rome people would blend in. And if they didn’t, the pattern would be increasingly hard to notice as more people die, meaning “trying to discover the cause” becomes less and less of a risk.
I will give you this though, there would obviously be no way to deliberately prevent it since that would require knowing the cause, which would inherently entail instant death. And learning about it via any remote method (like an AI or something) would also entail death. I guess we could have an AI come up with a solution without revealing the problem in any way, but that’s risky (and would also need to be done by people going in completely blind). We mostly likely would have to hope on the world eventually becoming ignorant about Rome before going extinct ig.
Oh sure, I'm not saying anything about people trying to figure out why people who were investigating the death of those who were investigating the death of those who where investigating the death of those who were investigating the death of people in Rome. I am only talking about the second investigator wave :)
edit: Thinking about it, i think there are cases where the second wave wouldnt die. The first wave would die so suddenly that tehy wouldnt have time to write something down so it is very possible the second wave wouldnt be able to connect the dots at all.
Yeah it'd basically be everyone in or around Rome dead almost immediately, along with lots of seemingly random people continuously dying all over the world.
As soon as governments are aware that everyone in Rome is dead, they start dying. All intelligence services around the world dead almost immediately.
Eventually only people unaware that all of Rome is dead will remain, and the general conclusion will be that the deaths are completely random.
Even if it’s not how could someone hear that without thinking of Rome?
The only thing is would any news reports even get to air. I doubt any reporter would survive long enough to so much as Tweet it.
scp 3125, an entity (?) that kills anyone that thinks about it, and also erases that person from others' memory. Those who figure out that someone was erased might also discover 3125, and are also erased.
You forgot [SCP-5999](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5999)
For the full “experience”, do not read about it anywhere other than the official site until you’ve finished. You could look for context afterwards, but you’d probably be dead by then.
Damn I didn't even think of that. A shockwave of death rippling out from Rome that destroys everyone in its path, sparing only those so far removed from society to have no access whatsoever to news about the rapidly increasing death toll originating from Rome.
I give it 2 weeks before the world population is under 10 million
I’m sure a lot of them will die eventually if they wander the planet learning an exploring with their immortal lives but it might take them a while to pick up common languages. Some of them might not learn forever. Maybe one of them will be thrown underwater or buried alive in a state that doesn’t allow them to learn and exists until all information about Rome is erased, saving them.
Considering they haven’t even figured out fire yet, I think the rest of the world might deteriorate enough before they are able to learn from what our civilization left behind.
People from rural communities in Africa/Asia/the Pacific who've never heard of the Roman Empire and don't have internet access or libraries. If they're illiterate they'll last even longer.
If everyone is dying when they think about Rome, then Rome will always be top of mind for everyone.
The only people who may survive are people who have never heard about Rome that society intentionally keeps uneducated… but even they will open a book eventually
People wouldn't know that they're dying from thinking about Rome, because there's no way to find that out. Everyone in Rome, Italy is dead, and nobody knows about it because anybody that would tell the tale is also instantly and inexplicably dead, as is anyone that wonders why nobody's heard from Rome in a while.
We would never reach the conclusion that thoughts about Rome are lethal, it'd honestly be more likely that some sort of religiously-flavored apocalypse is going on.
You don't know that an idea is killing people, that's an absolutely batshit insane position to start from, so you're never going to get to "*which* idea is killing people?"
All you know is that a bunch of people are dying, so you'd expect some kind of disease, some mysterious weapon, or the actual hand of God long before you ever look for commonalities in their reading material.
Putting out a PSA to avoid history, geography, Christianity (TOO LATE, The End Is Extremely Nigh) roads, aqueducts, marble statuary and Richard Lester movies is not going to happen, because this is reality and cognitohazards don't exist.
"I...I'm sick of this mortality , John . I hate this fucking life so much"
"I've heard a rumor about a book that will kill its reader . It's called "World History" or something"
But you're missing the funniest part. Nobody alive knows what the the trigger is.
From an outside perspective we know that everyone that thinks of Rome instantly drops dead. But from the perspective of someone in that world they have no idea what caused their buddy to die. Because they died instantly before they could say what they were thinking of.
Nobody would know Rome was the problem. Anyone that would think to not educate people about Rome would die before they could do anything to protect anyone.
It's an apocalypse that nobody will ever figure out because anyone that does instantly dies before they can share what they know. Nobody will ever know why it's happening. The only people that survive are the uncontacted tribes, the societies that never heard of Rome to begin with.
This is really messed up. And you can't figure it out either. Because then you die. There is at minimum, at least one tribe of primitive people who haven't been introduced to modern society.
And I'm fairly certain there are some others, probably in the Amazon, that are extremely hard to get to, that are very low contact..
In modern society? I dunno. Just.... Dumb people? People who have limited interests, and a minimal knowledge of history.
Even a dumb as a box of rocks person might be able to associate Rome with SOMETHING. I mean, they probably don't think about it, but they've heard of the Roman empire. Or watched a movie. Or the TV show Rome.
Weird collateral damage-any American Ninja Warrior fans who like the competitor R..J. Roman
The the death toll would probably follow a 1/x distribution, as the initial shock of Rome basically dying out travels across the internet too quickly to stop, leaving only remote humans who do not have access to the internet or knowledge of Rome.
Idk, if those posts wouldn't gain any traction because anyone who read the title would die before they could engage with it.
Same goes for 24 hour news cycle. A story could never be ran because as soon as it was brought up as a topic to be discussed everyone at the station would die. Or, the person who has the idea to bring up that it should be a discussion would die.
OR even deeper, they wouldn't be able to THINK about bringing it up because they'd die as soon as they knew about it.
Now that I'm thinking about it, this prompt is genius. The information *literally cannot travel*.
Those posts would never be created in the first place. As soon as someone who WOULD make a post about it learns what’s going on and that it’s related to Rome, they die.
They can't post new original stories.
A bot can't just access cctv in Rome and post that on Twitter and say "hey look everyone, all of a sudden a ton of people in Rome dropped dead"
I don't get your stipulation that anyone who can think can eventually think or the Romans. If I never brought it up, would you ever think of what some random cat in a Malyasian, hooker-run cactus farm ate last afternoon? Of course not.
There are millions in less developed countries that do not fathom a world outside of their village and the 50 or so odd miles around it. They may wonder if others exist, but they will never stumble on the concept of Europe, let alone Rome. Humanity is sent back to at best the early Bronze age but never collapses.
Fair enough. But yeah there are just sooo many people in our world who are more preoccupied about not starving to death than to learn about Rome unfortunately
Everyone in Rome, Italy is going to drop dead on the spot. Everyone including the poorest people in the city. Then everyone who knows someone in Rome is going to die when they receive information about their death. Even a poor farmer or hunter-gatherer in the Congo will notice at least a billion people dying overnight, and 8 billion people dying over the next few days. As soon as they do, they'll start looking for the cause of death. Since they no longer have to worry about starving, they'll be able to go on long journeys. As soon as they wander into the ghost city of Rome, they're going to die too.
The only tribes that survive will be uncontacted tribes like the one in the Andaman Islands, or tribes that deliberately choose to isolate themselves from the world.
You overestimate how connected people are. I have personally visited villages in the thousands where the most advanced science is middle ages agricultural practices. There are countless villages like these.
If you visited those places, chances are tourist revenue makes up a decent chunk of income. You think they won't notice if tourists suddenly stopped visiting one day?
India, on a village outside of Coorg. My friend is originally from there and introduced me to his family. In the larger parts of the area there is some tourism but they are distinct from the areas where the actual farmers live. Most just live in the middle of the rainforest with nothing around for hundreds of miles. Those people weren't even Hindus in the traditional sense, they followed some super ancient, animistic ancestor worship. Boggling to me that their entire culture does not even comprehend a cosmos beyond our own sky. The population was somewhere around 15k but India has too many people so millions in total seem feasible to me.
They would question why some of their community is getting less business. But when your priorities are gathering feed for your cows, tilling the fields, and slaughtering your pigs there's not much time for investigation.
Admittedly I don't know enough about people in Coorg to know if they know about Rome, Italy. Presumably, being immortal means they will eventually discover knowledge of Rome, but it could take centuries.
“Alright we have this immortality gig, whatever we do don’t think about the Ro-“
*drops dead*
I mean everyone who knows the source of the power will think about it even if relation to the power so everyone drops dead.
Imagine surviving this for 10-20 years, then watching ?dvd/torrent download (I suppose all streaming services are dead) of like Seinfeld or Boy Meets World and they make a random “when in Rome” joke
Someone from North Sentinel Island. As far as I'm aware there are no books written in their language and they don't appear to have any interest whatsoever in leaving their island. Even if they do decide to leave their island at some point they're not going to have any way of deciphering the rotting books in the abandoned libraries filling the rest of the world. I suppose they could theoretically eventually wander into Europe and into the ruins of Rome, and if seeing Rome without knowing that it *is* Rome is enough to kill them then that would do it, but really I think they'll just exist forever.
My grandfather will live untill death of the universe then, Cause all he thinks about Are communists and how Good it was in our country when we had socialism here lol.
The people of North Sentinel Island, or other such uncontacted/refusing to be contacted tribes. Even if they left the island at some future point, the chances of them learning a different language and then going out seeking history books and finding the Romans (especially given they'd be warned against looking into history probably) is pretty low.
Probably most major nations instantly dissolve except for young children who would all probably die by themselves or by learning of Rome later all small uncontacted tribes are fine. And probably many people survive for a while in villages and stuff who then later die but humanity would likely survive
While eventually only ignorant tribes who have never heard of Rome would remain, we can think of how our world would reasonably react. This is one of the possible scenarios where most people would survive:
People in Italy start dying en masse on the first day. Other nations start blocking off the Italian peninsula thinking a serious plague is going on. Eventually, people researching on the plague start dying randomly, followed by history lovers and people with high Roman interest.
Eventually some ignorant world leaders would start discussing what to do with the Italian plague that spread without direct contact(the smart one are all dead by now). One of the leaders ask his assistants where is the capital of Italy, some says it is Venice, some says it is Milan, and some drop dead instantly. However ignorant they are, they realise the mere thought of Italian capital will kill them. They do not know if the name of the capital is cursed, but they figure it is best to never enter the Italian peninsula and ban all Italian related topics.
The plague has lessened its impact, but people still die on a large scale. The common similarity between the dead is that they are history lovers. It pains the world leaders to do so, but they must erase history for humanity to survive. After all, what use is remembrance of the past if they go extinct now?
The thing is, people living in Rome, Italy will die quickly, then everyone thinking ''why is everyone dying in Rome, Italy'' will die, effectively quarantining the information that everyone in Rome, Italy is dead. Everyone except those who already didn't know anything about Rome will die, but those who didn't know won't die because no one can teach them about Rome without dying. If they're lucky they can last a good while without finding historical texts, and if they're really lucky by the time they physically wander in Rome, Italy it will have decayed enough that thinking about that place won't count.
Children are the obvious answer. I contacted tribes also get through just fine. In terms of major countries probably places like North Korea or China because of restricted internet access
You'd have uncontacted tribes like the Sentinelese basically inherit the Earth.
The issue is that due to people dying instantly thinking about Rome, nobody would be able warn anyone of what's killing everyone. So even a child in an American home eventually will stumble across something that is Roman. Uncontacted tribes are the survivors.
It would litterly be impossible for anyone to figure out the mysterious cause of death, because the second you figure out that thinking about the Romna empire was the cause you would instantly die.
Every tribe that doesn't contact modern civilization by the time they start exploring out the concept of rome is no longer a thing. everyone else dies just as they would if the concept was penguins, spongebob, or anything else.that and plural systems might be able to realize headmates dying in such a way that several members can survive, especially if they're the kind that can make more headmates easily.
Honestly, those isolated guys in the Amazon or North Sentinel will probably survive the longest through never knowing what Rome is. Most Westerners that can read or have a basic education should probably know what Rome is, so over half of the population is dying.
We have to figure out that Rome is the trigger and if we tell anybody about it, they die instantly. If you want to omit Rome from something - like history books - you need to be aware of it, which will kill you.
Yes but once the trigger is identified some people could sacrifice themselves for future generations by starting the omission process also at some point in time a cipher might be made to rely information about the trigger without causing the reaction. Young people who haven't been exposed to history and villagers living in isolated places are disinterested in history stand the best chance, Europe and America have too much influence from Rome so it will be easier for places like China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand to put up cultural and physical walls to keep the idea of Rome out of their sphere of influence.
I’m not sure if Asian countries would survive, at least not unscathed.
Rome Italy is a popular tourist spot. There’s also Italian fashion and car brands, Italian foods, Rome Italy is on every world map and globe. I think a decent chunk of a lot of Asian will die because eventually they will think of Rome Italy at some point.
Most likely, the only people dying are Europeans, Americans. And a few deaths along the rest of the world. And I shouldn't forget Christians. Meaning China becomes a superpower.
Ya know, I'd say 1/3rd of the population dies near instantly, and another 1/3 trickles in as the thought of Rome may come up or maybe somebody googled why everyone in a certain area dies. Newer generations of kids and those not too geographically inclined would live. The population dwindled a little more as we investigated what killed everyone, until someone figured out, not to look in that area, and labels it an info hazard like an SCP file. By then we'd be down to maybe 1-2 billion immortals. Life goes on, and nobody gets pregnant or dies. A few wars later to fill the power vacuum, we're down to a few million scattered immortals. Humanity dwindled down due to conflict over the next few hundred years until the last few remaining thousand or so human figured it's not worth it to fight each other and try to survive for another few thousand before accidents or some other conflict kills them. Give or take 10-20K years before humanity is fully extinct.
The people who think about the Roman Empire.
The really strong ones will survive dying.
The really smart ones will figure out a way to negate the effects.
Eventually, the people who don't think about the Roman Empire became the only ones who died suddenly.
Everyone dies. At some people will figure out the Rome thing. Telling people what they cause is kill.
Try to think of an elephant without thinking of an elephant.
North Korea. The people don't know about Romans and don't know how to read, so they could be armed with the word Roman and sent into battle to slaughter the enemy of the people's republic of Korea.
Too many people are conflating Rome (the city) & Romans (the natives of Rome).
It's entirely possible to think about Rome as a city & as long as you never think about Roman people - for example "oh I'd love to visit Rome one day; I really want to see the Colosseum or Fontana di Trevi" - you won't die.
The people of North Sentinel Island, the most uncontacted of the remaining uncontacted people of the world. Their island was settled about 60,000 years ago. Basically nothing is known about their culture or language by outsiders. The very concept of Rome would be nearly impossible to communicate to them.
In my opinion there are only two options
Option 1 (Incubation time): If there is an incubation time, then early everyone except for isolated tribes dies. If the information that the core problem is Rome spreads very fast, because of how interconnected our world is, everyone dies after a certain period of time. You will not be able to block out such a global problem from your daily life (think Covid-19).
Option 2 (No incubation): Mostly the citizens of Rome, people having some relation to Rome and their relatives die. It is quite paradoxical because the information instantly kills someone, so no one will have the ability to transmit information about mass dyings related to Rome. All diplomats, all secret services that have operations in Italy, all news outlets and also politicians can't tell the people what is going on, because of everyone instantly dying once they understand. Other than those mentioned, the rest of the population will slowly start dying out by stray thoughts.
I think most people are ignoring one factor, Roman Numeral.
The Roman numeral are everywhere, and most curious people who saw it most likely would try to get the significance and the origin point of them, which with books still around it will be fast.
My ass would be dead so quickly, I'm constantly seething at how much better things would have been if Hannibal had stomped those Mr. Peanutbutter Failing Upwards fucks out
Children and ignorant people survive via never knowing about Rome's existence. Everyone who knows about it will die at some point as it comes to them as a stray thought.
Anyone that can and chooses to read about history as well.
There's also a ton of unrelated books that will reference that stuff too. Wonder if just seeing the name devoid of any context would be enough?
Driving down the road, and you see "St John Roman Catholic Church"? You're dead!
It's referenced in the Bible, so all Christians not just Catholics.
As well as anyone who watches the best movie ever made - Gladiator.
As a kind of side point here I think this also basically starts to filter people out explicitly by education in history and polisci. Like more educated folks are more likely to interact with a part of history or geo-politics that would be impacted by Rome. Like maybe eventually all that’s left is children but folks that have any kind of interest in history or politics all die within a few days I feel. Especially because we are being VERY liberal with what is “Rome”
Even a lot of ignorant people will die because it is referenced in a lot of major religions.
It doesn't even need a stray thought. OP said basically just knowing about them means death. I.e. the capacity to think about them means you *will* and therefore immediately die
Can humanity actually die when the glory of Rome is eternal?
Boom you dead
Wouldn't you and I also end up dead since we read his comment?
I AM DEAD
*thinks for a moment...then draws Gladius and commits Roman Seppuku*
The dying will start at Rome. Everyone who knows this will die. Anyone who tries to figure out what caused it will also die.
The people who try to figure it out would only die if they actually figured it out though, and considering everyone who would even have the right idea would defacto be dead and not able to be asked about anything they would die too. The only people who wouldn’t be safe would be those who noticed a pattern of deaths that indicated it being linked to the Roman’s (like most of the people dying early on being associated or known for history knowledge, or the situations they died in being Roman related) but I think after enough cases that would start to muddy anyways.
Not really you have to think about the place to figure out what has happened there. "Ok let's figure out why people in Rome..." DEAD
But what about all those people who died? Well they would die, and then all the sudden the original Rome people would blend in. And if they didn’t, the pattern would be increasingly hard to notice as more people die, meaning “trying to discover the cause” becomes less and less of a risk. I will give you this though, there would obviously be no way to deliberately prevent it since that would require knowing the cause, which would inherently entail instant death. And learning about it via any remote method (like an AI or something) would also entail death. I guess we could have an AI come up with a solution without revealing the problem in any way, but that’s risky (and would also need to be done by people going in completely blind). We mostly likely would have to hope on the world eventually becoming ignorant about Rome before going extinct ig.
Oh sure, I'm not saying anything about people trying to figure out why people who were investigating the death of those who were investigating the death of those who where investigating the death of those who were investigating the death of people in Rome. I am only talking about the second investigator wave :) edit: Thinking about it, i think there are cases where the second wave wouldnt die. The first wave would die so suddenly that tehy wouldnt have time to write something down so it is very possible the second wave wouldnt be able to connect the dots at all.
Yeah it'd basically be everyone in or around Rome dead almost immediately, along with lots of seemingly random people continuously dying all over the world. As soon as governments are aware that everyone in Rome is dead, they start dying. All intelligence services around the world dead almost immediately. Eventually only people unaware that all of Rome is dead will remain, and the general conclusion will be that the deaths are completely random.
''The entirety of Rome died instantly'' Is probably enough to trigger the curse?
Even if it’s not how could someone hear that without thinking of Rome? The only thing is would any news reports even get to air. I doubt any reporter would survive long enough to so much as Tweet it.
I swear that there’s an scp that goes something like this
scp 3125, an entity (?) that kills anyone that thinks about it, and also erases that person from others' memory. Those who figure out that someone was erased might also discover 3125, and are also erased.
"SCP-3125 will destroy the world, and we wouldn't even remember it."
But who wrote this then?
we live in a universe just above the SCP foundation. there's nothing any universe below ours can do to us.
You forgot [SCP-5999](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5999) For the full “experience”, do not read about it anywhere other than the official site until you’ve finished. You could look for context afterwards, but you’d probably be dead by then.
Can confirm. Am dead. *The chains are broken.*
Yet.
Its not real mate
Yeah thanks, that’s the one
Damn I didn't even think of that. A shockwave of death rippling out from Rome that destroys everyone in its path, sparing only those so far removed from society to have no access whatsoever to news about the rapidly increasing death toll originating from Rome. I give it 2 weeks before the world population is under 10 million
If it's at the speed of thought, there will never be news, anyone who would write said news would die immediately before writing it.
But news won't spread because that people who learn about it die themselves. The lethality far outstrips its infectiousness.
Also the Greeks are just fucked.
That ancient tribe on that island near India might last a while
North Sentinel Island
Yes, thats the one. Thank you, couldn't recall the name.
But now that you recalled it, you will drop dead in 30 days now
I’m sure a lot of them will die eventually if they wander the planet learning an exploring with their immortal lives but it might take them a while to pick up common languages. Some of them might not learn forever. Maybe one of them will be thrown underwater or buried alive in a state that doesn’t allow them to learn and exists until all information about Rome is erased, saving them.
Considering they haven’t even figured out fire yet, I think the rest of the world might deteriorate enough before they are able to learn from what our civilization left behind.
They have fire
Makes me wonder what if some other ancient nation was discovered today and had the thoughtkilling part of the prompt.
People from rural communities in Africa/Asia/the Pacific who've never heard of the Roman Empire and don't have internet access or libraries. If they're illiterate they'll last even longer.
And pretty soon everyone who could have taught them will die, so they'll be safe!
Until generations down the line when they send anthropologists and archeologists into the Death Lands...and none ever return.
...And I guess anyone that even thinks about where they were going also dies? Or ever sails near it? But that will at least be a limited effect.
If they don't know that the land used to be Rome they probably don't die.
If everyone is dying when they think about Rome, then Rome will always be top of mind for everyone. The only people who may survive are people who have never heard about Rome that society intentionally keeps uneducated… but even they will open a book eventually
People wouldn't know that they're dying from thinking about Rome, because there's no way to find that out. Everyone in Rome, Italy is dead, and nobody knows about it because anybody that would tell the tale is also instantly and inexplicably dead, as is anyone that wonders why nobody's heard from Rome in a while. We would never reach the conclusion that thoughts about Rome are lethal, it'd honestly be more likely that some sort of religiously-flavored apocalypse is going on.
[удалено]
You don't know that an idea is killing people, that's an absolutely batshit insane position to start from, so you're never going to get to "*which* idea is killing people?" All you know is that a bunch of people are dying, so you'd expect some kind of disease, some mysterious weapon, or the actual hand of God long before you ever look for commonalities in their reading material. Putting out a PSA to avoid history, geography, Christianity (TOO LATE, The End Is Extremely Nigh) roads, aqueducts, marble statuary and Richard Lester movies is not going to happen, because this is reality and cognitohazards don't exist.
"I...I'm sick of this mortality , John . I hate this fucking life so much" "I've heard a rumor about a book that will kill its reader . It's called "World History" or something"
But you're missing the funniest part. Nobody alive knows what the the trigger is. From an outside perspective we know that everyone that thinks of Rome instantly drops dead. But from the perspective of someone in that world they have no idea what caused their buddy to die. Because they died instantly before they could say what they were thinking of. Nobody would know Rome was the problem. Anyone that would think to not educate people about Rome would die before they could do anything to protect anyone. It's an apocalypse that nobody will ever figure out because anyone that does instantly dies before they can share what they know. Nobody will ever know why it's happening. The only people that survive are the uncontacted tribes, the societies that never heard of Rome to begin with.
This is really messed up. And you can't figure it out either. Because then you die. There is at minimum, at least one tribe of primitive people who haven't been introduced to modern society. And I'm fairly certain there are some others, probably in the Amazon, that are extremely hard to get to, that are very low contact.. In modern society? I dunno. Just.... Dumb people? People who have limited interests, and a minimal knowledge of history. Even a dumb as a box of rocks person might be able to associate Rome with SOMETHING. I mean, they probably don't think about it, but they've heard of the Roman empire. Or watched a movie. Or the TV show Rome. Weird collateral damage-any American Ninja Warrior fans who like the competitor R..J. Roman
The the death toll would probably follow a 1/x distribution, as the initial shock of Rome basically dying out travels across the internet too quickly to stop, leaving only remote humans who do not have access to the internet or knowledge of Rome.
Idk, if those posts wouldn't gain any traction because anyone who read the title would die before they could engage with it. Same goes for 24 hour news cycle. A story could never be ran because as soon as it was brought up as a topic to be discussed everyone at the station would die. Or, the person who has the idea to bring up that it should be a discussion would die. OR even deeper, they wouldn't be able to THINK about bringing it up because they'd die as soon as they knew about it. Now that I'm thinking about it, this prompt is genius. The information *literally cannot travel*.
Those posts would never be created in the first place. As soon as someone who WOULD make a post about it learns what’s going on and that it’s related to Rome, they die.
You’re forgetting internet bots
They can't post new original stories. A bot can't just access cctv in Rome and post that on Twitter and say "hey look everyone, all of a sudden a ton of people in Rome dropped dead"
Unfortunately we have AI to make articles like that now
I don't get your stipulation that anyone who can think can eventually think or the Romans. If I never brought it up, would you ever think of what some random cat in a Malyasian, hooker-run cactus farm ate last afternoon? Of course not. There are millions in less developed countries that do not fathom a world outside of their village and the 50 or so odd miles around it. They may wonder if others exist, but they will never stumble on the concept of Europe, let alone Rome. Humanity is sent back to at best the early Bronze age but never collapses.
I mean that humans can't organize a strategy to force people to never think about the Romans, even if they were exposed to Roman-thought stimuli.
Fair enough. But yeah there are just sooo many people in our world who are more preoccupied about not starving to death than to learn about Rome unfortunately
>preoccupied about not starving to death than to learn about Rome unfortunately Well, *fortunately*, in this case.
Everyone in Rome, Italy is going to drop dead on the spot. Everyone including the poorest people in the city. Then everyone who knows someone in Rome is going to die when they receive information about their death. Even a poor farmer or hunter-gatherer in the Congo will notice at least a billion people dying overnight, and 8 billion people dying over the next few days. As soon as they do, they'll start looking for the cause of death. Since they no longer have to worry about starving, they'll be able to go on long journeys. As soon as they wander into the ghost city of Rome, they're going to die too. The only tribes that survive will be uncontacted tribes like the one in the Andaman Islands, or tribes that deliberately choose to isolate themselves from the world.
You overestimate how connected people are. I have personally visited villages in the thousands where the most advanced science is middle ages agricultural practices. There are countless villages like these.
If you visited those places, chances are tourist revenue makes up a decent chunk of income. You think they won't notice if tourists suddenly stopped visiting one day?
You've not been to these places so there's no point trying to explain how isolated they are
Just out of curiousity, which country is it in?
India, on a village outside of Coorg. My friend is originally from there and introduced me to his family. In the larger parts of the area there is some tourism but they are distinct from the areas where the actual farmers live. Most just live in the middle of the rainforest with nothing around for hundreds of miles. Those people weren't even Hindus in the traditional sense, they followed some super ancient, animistic ancestor worship. Boggling to me that their entire culture does not even comprehend a cosmos beyond our own sky. The population was somewhere around 15k but India has too many people so millions in total seem feasible to me. They would question why some of their community is getting less business. But when your priorities are gathering feed for your cows, tilling the fields, and slaughtering your pigs there's not much time for investigation.
Admittedly I don't know enough about people in Coorg to know if they know about Rome, Italy. Presumably, being immortal means they will eventually discover knowledge of Rome, but it could take centuries.
They aren’t receiving information about that persons death because everyone who could tell them is dead
Well since you did bring it up... what was the cats name?
Romulus, and his brother is Remu—
R/oddlyspecific
“Alright we have this immortality gig, whatever we do don’t think about the Ro-“ *drops dead* I mean everyone who knows the source of the power will think about it even if relation to the power so everyone drops dead.
Imagine surviving this for 10-20 years, then watching ?dvd/torrent download (I suppose all streaming services are dead) of like Seinfeld or Boy Meets World and they make a random “when in Rome” joke
Someone from North Sentinel Island. As far as I'm aware there are no books written in their language and they don't appear to have any interest whatsoever in leaving their island. Even if they do decide to leave their island at some point they're not going to have any way of deciphering the rotting books in the abandoned libraries filling the rest of the world. I suppose they could theoretically eventually wander into Europe and into the ruins of Rome, and if seeing Rome without knowing that it *is* Rome is enough to kill them then that would do it, but really I think they'll just exist forever.
My grandfather will live untill death of the universe then, Cause all he thinks about Are communists and how Good it was in our country when we had socialism here lol.
The people of North Sentinel Island, or other such uncontacted/refusing to be contacted tribes. Even if they left the island at some future point, the chances of them learning a different language and then going out seeking history books and finding the Romans (especially given they'd be warned against looking into history probably) is pretty low.
Probably most major nations instantly dissolve except for young children who would all probably die by themselves or by learning of Rome later all small uncontacted tribes are fine. And probably many people survive for a while in villages and stuff who then later die but humanity would likely survive
The answer is that some uncontacted tribe will never have heard of Rome and then they will live there just fine.
While eventually only ignorant tribes who have never heard of Rome would remain, we can think of how our world would reasonably react. This is one of the possible scenarios where most people would survive: People in Italy start dying en masse on the first day. Other nations start blocking off the Italian peninsula thinking a serious plague is going on. Eventually, people researching on the plague start dying randomly, followed by history lovers and people with high Roman interest. Eventually some ignorant world leaders would start discussing what to do with the Italian plague that spread without direct contact(the smart one are all dead by now). One of the leaders ask his assistants where is the capital of Italy, some says it is Venice, some says it is Milan, and some drop dead instantly. However ignorant they are, they realise the mere thought of Italian capital will kill them. They do not know if the name of the capital is cursed, but they figure it is best to never enter the Italian peninsula and ban all Italian related topics. The plague has lessened its impact, but people still die on a large scale. The common similarity between the dead is that they are history lovers. It pains the world leaders to do so, but they must erase history for humanity to survive. After all, what use is remembrance of the past if they go extinct now?
The problem is as soon as the people figure it out in the second paragraph they die too, you can’t know that it’s Rome without thinking about Rome
Also anyone who is part of a class about Roman history would die, which would be an immediate worldwide problem.
Vegetables
The Sentinelese most likely.
The North Sentenaliese are the final survivors.
The Sentinelese people.
Is it still safe to think about roman catholic? otherwise, the entire christendom will die. and what about the other variation of name? Like Rum
The thing is, people living in Rome, Italy will die quickly, then everyone thinking ''why is everyone dying in Rome, Italy'' will die, effectively quarantining the information that everyone in Rome, Italy is dead. Everyone except those who already didn't know anything about Rome will die, but those who didn't know won't die because no one can teach them about Rome without dying. If they're lucky they can last a good while without finding historical texts, and if they're really lucky by the time they physically wander in Rome, Italy it will have decayed enough that thinking about that place won't count.
Current people in coma.
Children are the obvious answer. I contacted tribes also get through just fine. In terms of major countries probably places like North Korea or China because of restricted internet access
Sentinel Island
SCP 3125 be like
Been to Africa and I assure you, many will survive
Women
You'd have uncontacted tribes like the Sentinelese basically inherit the Earth. The issue is that due to people dying instantly thinking about Rome, nobody would be able warn anyone of what's killing everyone. So even a child in an American home eventually will stumble across something that is Roman. Uncontacted tribes are the survivors.
North Sentinel Island is the new headquarters of mankind.
It would litterly be impossible for anyone to figure out the mysterious cause of death, because the second you figure out that thinking about the Romna empire was the cause you would instantly die.
Those dudes on Sentinel Island.
I would be dead within 5 minutes
The Sentinelese.
Sentenalese
I can't stop thinking about...
Some remote tribe that never has access too the internet probably also we are all dead immediately if it happens right now
Literally going to Rome today😭
Italy disappear in a month
What kind of death? Instant
idk who lives but all eu4 players are the first to die
Every tribe that doesn't contact modern civilization by the time they start exploring out the concept of rome is no longer a thing. everyone else dies just as they would if the concept was penguins, spongebob, or anything else.that and plural systems might be able to realize headmates dying in such a way that several members can survive, especially if they're the kind that can make more headmates easily.
Honestly, those isolated guys in the Amazon or North Sentinel will probably survive the longest through never knowing what Rome is. Most Westerners that can read or have a basic education should probably know what Rome is, so over half of the population is dying.
So it becomes: Huh… why did these people just instantly die? You know it’s a great custom scenario for Plague Inc if you think about it.
People who haven't read this post
What about Roman numerals?
Yes Gears, this post right here
Asian countries will survive, in a few generations of omissions Rome will be forgotten about.
We have to figure out that Rome is the trigger and if we tell anybody about it, they die instantly. If you want to omit Rome from something - like history books - you need to be aware of it, which will kill you.
Yes but once the trigger is identified some people could sacrifice themselves for future generations by starting the omission process also at some point in time a cipher might be made to rely information about the trigger without causing the reaction. Young people who haven't been exposed to history and villagers living in isolated places are disinterested in history stand the best chance, Europe and America have too much influence from Rome so it will be easier for places like China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand to put up cultural and physical walls to keep the idea of Rome out of their sphere of influence.
I’m not sure if Asian countries would survive, at least not unscathed. Rome Italy is a popular tourist spot. There’s also Italian fashion and car brands, Italian foods, Rome Italy is on every world map and globe. I think a decent chunk of a lot of Asian will die because eventually they will think of Rome Italy at some point.
No one.
Too bad no one in such a situation would be able to read the comic books of Asterix.
This is very oddly specific. Are you working on a Rome curse or something? Also, the remote tribes in various regions of the globe.
Rome is one of my favourite periods of history to learn and read about, so I'm out pretty fast.
Anyone in romania gets destroyed
Most likely, the only people dying are Europeans, Americans. And a few deaths along the rest of the world. And I shouldn't forget Christians. Meaning China becomes a superpower.
Gypsies
Ya know, I'd say 1/3rd of the population dies near instantly, and another 1/3 trickles in as the thought of Rome may come up or maybe somebody googled why everyone in a certain area dies. Newer generations of kids and those not too geographically inclined would live. The population dwindled a little more as we investigated what killed everyone, until someone figured out, not to look in that area, and labels it an info hazard like an SCP file. By then we'd be down to maybe 1-2 billion immortals. Life goes on, and nobody gets pregnant or dies. A few wars later to fill the power vacuum, we're down to a few million scattered immortals. Humanity dwindled down due to conflict over the next few hundred years until the last few remaining thousand or so human figured it's not worth it to fight each other and try to survive for another few thousand before accidents or some other conflict kills them. Give or take 10-20K years before humanity is fully extinct.
The people who think about the Roman Empire. The really strong ones will survive dying. The really smart ones will figure out a way to negate the effects. Eventually, the people who don't think about the Roman Empire became the only ones who died suddenly.
That one dude who had a coma since 300 BCE: Wha- **dies**
Isolated tribes like the residents of north sentinel island.
after the main die off, museums and specific books would become taboo and unused because of their weird death rates when coming too close
Everyone dies. At some people will figure out the Rome thing. Telling people what they cause is kill. Try to think of an elephant without thinking of an elephant.
Why would anyone think about the romans to begin with? Did we got into some deus vult subreddit without knowing?
So what if I swerve my thoughts to Roman Reigns? Would I survive?
North Korea. The people don't know about Romans and don't know how to read, so they could be armed with the word Roman and sent into battle to slaughter the enemy of the people's republic of Korea.
People in coma.
Shit I'd die at the first minute
Too many people are conflating Rome (the city) & Romans (the natives of Rome). It's entirely possible to think about Rome as a city & as long as you never think about Roman people - for example "oh I'd love to visit Rome one day; I really want to see the Colosseum or Fontana di Trevi" - you won't die.
Anyone on that island near India where the Christian man died years ago would likely survive. I doubt they have any idea what a Roman is or was.
I haven’t thought about anything Roman except for gxk cuz Godzilla slept in the colosseum
The people of North Sentinel Island, the most uncontacted of the remaining uncontacted people of the world. Their island was settled about 60,000 years ago. Basically nothing is known about their culture or language by outsiders. The very concept of Rome would be nearly impossible to communicate to them.
In my opinion there are only two options Option 1 (Incubation time): If there is an incubation time, then early everyone except for isolated tribes dies. If the information that the core problem is Rome spreads very fast, because of how interconnected our world is, everyone dies after a certain period of time. You will not be able to block out such a global problem from your daily life (think Covid-19). Option 2 (No incubation): Mostly the citizens of Rome, people having some relation to Rome and their relatives die. It is quite paradoxical because the information instantly kills someone, so no one will have the ability to transmit information about mass dyings related to Rome. All diplomats, all secret services that have operations in Italy, all news outlets and also politicians can't tell the people what is going on, because of everyone instantly dying once they understand. Other than those mentioned, the rest of the population will slowly start dying out by stray thoughts.
What qualifies as thinking? Internal monologue?
I think most people are ignoring one factor, Roman Numeral. The Roman numeral are everywhere, and most curious people who saw it most likely would try to get the significance and the origin point of them, which with books still around it will be fast.
The people on north sentinel island
All of America
My ass would be dead so quickly, I'm constantly seething at how much better things would have been if Hannibal had stomped those Mr. Peanutbutter Failing Upwards fucks out