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This scenario's apocalypse was kicked off by [apocalypse].<br>Since then it's been [time].<br>This post-apocalyptic scenario is centered in [location], where [situation]. A remnant of the old world here is [remnant].
{apocalypse}
a deadly virus with extreme zoonotic properties that could infect just about anything with two or four legs
changing atmospheric conditions causing the formation of perpetual hypercanes that flooded much of the land and disrupted all sea traffic
the development of transcontinental sapping machines enabling nations at war to trigger volcanic eruptions at will in each other's territory, leading to a long and global sulphurous winter
chemical contamination triggering anti-mammalian hyper-aggression in the Earth's insect population, devastating in the initial loss of life and the mass pesticidal campaign that followed
collision of the Earth with unexpectedly dense chunks of dark matter - a series of meteor impacts without even the abillity to predict them
leaps in biotechnology allowing the creation of entirely artificial forms of life - useful in captivity, but utterly disruptive to ecosystems once they escaped
the simultaneous advancement of the internet of things and cyberwarfare leading to all digital and digitized technology becoming actively hostile towards human beings
the accidental creation of an aesthetically perfect image which causes immediate neural damage and addiction in those exposed to it, an image that could be reproduced by anyone with access to a paintbrush or simple graphics program
human minds being rewritten from birth by exposure to manipulative algorithms, until people acted more like algorithms than people, ushering in a fatal era of incompetence and volatility
the arrival of an extrasolar von Neumann probe carrying a nanobot payload meant to uplift humanity to alien standards, but damaged by radiation en route so that it merely mutated and deranged us
the exhaustion of key resources and disruption of nutrient cycles
geoengineering projects meant to stabilize the changing climate instead causing their own catastrophic runaway effects
a crazed trillionaire setting off a Malthusian super-weapon to massively reduce and sterilize the parts of the human population they deemed unworthy
the discovery of a censored and blasphemous book of the bible penned by the witch of Endor, which contained instructions on how to perform necromancy. Soon afterwards the world was overrun by the risen dead
a terrorist cult within CERN detonating exotic matter bombs at key points along Earth's magnetic field, creating vast regions of warped physics
a UFO being shot down - the technology looted and reverse-engineered from it tainted swathes of the world with extraterrestrial pollution, among other unforeseen side effects
a conspiracy theory that grew so dense and interconnected that it became like a cyst in the collective consciousness. When it ruptured it bled into the brains of many people, turning them into puppets for its narratives, and FEMA started rounding people up in camps, Russian agents took over the United States, and so on
artificial organs that drastically lengthened human lifespan and vitality, but had a shut-off ransom switch built into them by the company that developed them - a shut-off switch that triggered itself automatically due to faulty programming, leading to billions of deaths
the melting of the polar ice caps releasing star-beasts and space-plagues that had been frozen for eons
the majority of the human population disappearing suddenly and randomly
{time}
short enough that people still wake up screaming from nightmares of it
long enough that the facts of the apocalypse have faded into legend
three generations - grandchildren thrive in conditions their grandparents find abominable
an uncertain and highly debated length of time - there's a bustling and sometimes-violent business among historians over artifacts and records that can prove precise temporal measurements
long enough for the devastation of the apocalypse to be just a bad memory
scarcely a moment - chaos yet reigns
so long that the world before has become nothing more than the myth of a pre-fall Edenic utopia
a decade, on the dot
just long enough for the land, the flora, and the fauna to begin healing
long enough that successor civilizations have risen and fallen in the meantime
recently enough that nations, religions, and so have a straight continuity of before and after
too chaotic for anyone to bother keeping count of how long it's been since the apocalypse
long enough that the nature of the apocalypse itself, perhaps even its actual occurence, has become ambiguous
short enough that old world enemies are still blaming each other for everything going wrong
short enough that roving gangs of nihilistic cannibals are still a policy concern
enough time that pre-apocalyptic concrete structures have all crumbled
not that long in the grand scheme of things, yet the length is often exaggerated for political reasons
almost a hundred years, with mass hysteria being triggered by the upcoming centennial
long enough that opinions on joking about the apocalypse are evenly split between "to soon" and "in bad taste, but I'm still laughing".
long enough that a new calendar with the apocalypse as its year zero has been widely accepted
long enough that the languages spoken by the survivors would be barely comprehensible by modern speakers
{location}
Singapore
Abuja
Calgary
Porto Alegre
Brighton
Chiang Mai
Pyongyang
Port Moresby
Ourense
Isfahan
Bengaluru
Ulaanbaatar
Perm
Tunis
Honolulu
Sapporo
Jinan
Chicago
Damascus
Asunción
{situation}
a charismatic and autodidactic warlord is guiding a national reconstruction at swordpoint
infrastructure and the population were left relatively untouched. It is now the major regional power, and uncomfortably settling into being the nexus of an empire
the changed contours of geography and politics have made it a key node along a major trade route, prosperous yet subject to the intrigues of foreign powers
a gold rush economy has sprung up around treasure hunters following rumours of a vault holding precious old world materials and information
the anti-pope of the surviving Roman Catholic Church is attempting to set up their counter-Vatican
a mutant species of humanity better adapted to the post-apocalyptic world has evolved through saltation
a paramilitary order of rangers, once renowned for protecting the peace and prosperity of the people, has become corrupt and sided with robber barons to gut their smaller competitors
a tyrant has come to an agreement with a band of raiders, letting them prey on people to a limited degree so that their own abuses of power will be better tolerated
an eccentric scientist has gathered a cult of personality around themself and is requisitioning advanced technology, convinced that they can build a time machine and avert the apocalypse entirely
it's become one of two places struggling to be recognzied as the holy city of a new religion based around idols of the old world
the immortals Cain and Cartaphilus have settled, each believing that God has left the world in their care after rendering His judgement, with clashing visions for what that means
a democratic movement in reformist and revolutionary strains is rising against the dictatorial emergency powers that the goverment has retained
society's elites are being consumed by decadence while barbarians romanticized by the common people are gathering at the gates
society was kept running somewhat smoothly from the shadows by organized crime, but rivalries in the underworld have exploded and now their invisible war spills out into public awareness
society is stagnating under the rule of a web of guilds and aristocratic families
a slave-caste of warriors and administrators are sliding into secret rebellion
society is struggling to integrate refugees driven out by a disaster in a neighbouring region
explorers from a far-off land have started showing up and claiming the region as their own
an isolated and pacifistic commune is having to reckon with its ideals in the face of growing connections to the wider world
a primitivist mystery cult has been assassinating scientists, academics, and politicians in an attempt to prevent the technological development they see as inevitably leading to humanity's immiseration and self-destruction
{remnant}
that a generation ship which was launched shortly before things really hit the fan is projected to return in a matter of weeks, having failed in its mission to colonize a new home for humanity
a trove of philosophical texts that have just been uncovered, triggering an intellectual revolution
a radio which has made contact with the crew of a space station that has somehow miraculously survived in the void, granting people knowledge both useful and eldritch
the seed of yet another apocalypse which has laid resting - assimilatory nanomachines infused with uploaded human minds - set to sprout into a final end for humanity's remains unless reaped
eerily intelligent packs of stray cats with subtle yet sometimes deadly malice towards humans, carrying a modified toxoplasmosis that can warp the brains of the infected towards their feline ends
a cadre of super-soldiers who'd been cryogenically frozen and have just now been thawed
an extensive subway system, which is now mostly flooded but still useful as an artificial aquifer and as underground canals for submersibles
power lines that have been repurposed into a rapid mirror-based semaphore network
a highway system built of self-repairing materials, useful for foot traffic and the occasional operational motor vehicle
a fleet of solar-powered dirigibles used for shipping and bombardment
an arcology which was meant to be a perpetual sanctury, yet became a towering tomb as its life support systems failed only a few years after its activation. The place is surrounded by dreadful superstition, and those unlucky enough to live nearby claim to see shuffling, moaning figures within it on moonless nights
a cluster of high-altitude installations that can manipulate the region's weather
an archive where the brains of the world's greatest minds were meant to be preserved to guide later generations. However, corners were cut in the archive's construction - the brains have rotted, and the devices meant to allow them to communicate are in fact programmed with predictive algorithms that mimic what they might have said
a facility outfit with cutting-edge robotic surgeons that can fix about 90% of all the things that can go wrong in the human body
an infrasonic projection tower that can authour the dreams of everyone who sleeps within its range
a factory that can process any organic material into biofuel, which is typically used for funerals
transgenic herbs that produce medicine and narcotics
the baffling plague of "reincarnation syndrome", where people suddenly gain memories of pre-apocalyptic people, sometimes enough to overwrite their own personality with the deads'
a local ecosystem of autonomous and self-replicating military drones. Whoever figures out how to command the drones could set themself up as an invincible despot
a mechanical water purification plant that provides potable water to the region, yet is slowly winding down as nobody alive is quite sure how to maintain it
This scenario's apocalypse was kicked off by [apocalypse].<br>Since then it's been [time].<br>This post-apocalyptic scenario is centered in [location], where [situation]. A remnant of the old world here is [remnant].
{apocalypse}
a deadly virus with extreme zoonotic properties that could infect just about anything with two or four legs
changing atmospheric conditions causing the formation of perpetual hypercanes that flooded much of the land and disrupted all sea traffic
the development of transcontinental sapping machines enabling nations at war to trigger volcanic eruptions at will in each other's territory, leading to a long and global sulphurous winter
chemical contamination triggering anti-mammalian hyper-aggression in the Earth's insect population, devastating in the initial loss of life and the mass pesticidal campaign that followed
collision of the Earth with unexpectedly dense chunks of dark matter - a series of meteor impacts without even the abillity to predict them
leaps in biotechnology allowing the creation of entirely artificial forms of life - useful in captivity, but utterly disruptive to ecosystems once they escaped
the simultaneous advancement of the internet of things and cyberwarfare leading to all digital and digitized technology becoming actively hostile towards human beings
the accidental creation of an aesthetically perfect image which causes immediate neural damage and addiction in those exposed to it, an image that could be reproduced by anyone with access to a paintbrush or simple graphics program
human minds being rewritten from birth by exposure to manipulative algorithms, until people acted more like algorithms than people, ushering in a fatal era of incompetence and volatility
the arrival of an extrasolar von Neumann probe carrying a nanobot payload meant to uplift humanity to alien standards, but damaged by radiation en route so that it merely mutated and deranged us
the exhaustion of key resources and disruption of nutrient cycles
geoengineering projects meant to stabilize the changing climate instead causing their own catastrophic runaway effects
a crazed trillionaire setting off a Malthusian super-weapon to massively reduce and sterilize the parts of the human population they deemed unworthy
the discovery of a censored and blasphemous book of the bible penned by the witch of Endor, which contained instructions on how to perform necromancy. Soon afterwards the world was overrun by the risen dead
a terrorist cult within CERN detonating exotic matter bombs at key points along Earth's magnetic field, creating vast regions of warped physics
a UFO being shot down - the technology looted and reverse-engineered from it tainted swathes of the world with extraterrestrial pollution, among other unforeseen side effects
a conspiracy theory that grew so dense and interconnected that it became like a cyst in the collective consciousness. When it ruptured it bled into the brains of many people, turning them into puppets for its narratives, and FEMA started rounding people up in camps, Russian agents took over the United States, and so on
artificial organs that drastically lengthened human lifespan and vitality, but had a shut-off ransom switch built into them by the company that developed them - a shut-off switch that triggered itself automatically due to faulty programming, leading to billions of deaths
the melting of the polar ice caps releasing star-beasts and space-plagues that had been frozen for eons
the majority of the human population disappearing suddenly and randomly
{time}
short enough that people still wake up screaming from nightmares of it
long enough that the facts of the apocalypse have faded into legend
three generations - grandchildren thrive in conditions their grandparents find abominable
an uncertain and highly debated length of time - there's a bustling and sometimes-violent business among historians over artifacts and records that can prove precise temporal measurements
long enough for the devastation of the apocalypse to be just a bad memory
scarcely a moment - chaos yet reigns
so long that the world before has become nothing more than the myth of a pre-fall Edenic utopia
a decade, on the dot
just long enough for the land, the flora, and the fauna to begin healing
long enough that successor civilizations have risen and fallen in the meantime
recently enough that nations, religions, and so have a straight continuity of before and after
too chaotic for anyone to bother keeping count of how long it's been since the apocalypse
long enough that the nature of the apocalypse itself, perhaps even its actual occurence, has become ambiguous
short enough that old world enemies are still blaming each other for everything going wrong
short enough that roving gangs of nihilistic cannibals are still a policy concern
enough time that pre-apocalyptic concrete structures have all crumbled
not that long in the grand scheme of things, yet the length is often exaggerated for political reasons
almost a hundred years, with mass hysteria being triggered by the upcoming centennial
long enough that opinions on joking about the apocalypse are evenly split between "to soon" and "in bad taste, but I'm still laughing".
long enough that a new calendar with the apocalypse as its year zero has been widely accepted
long enough that the languages spoken by the survivors would be barely comprehensible by modern speakers
{location}
Singapore
Abuja
Calgary
Porto Alegre
Brighton
Chiang Mai
Pyongyang
Port Moresby
Ourense
Isfahan
Bengaluru
Ulaanbaatar
Perm
Tunis
Honolulu
Sapporo
Jinan
Chicago
Damascus
Asunción
{situation}
a charismatic and autodidactic warlord is guiding a national reconstruction at swordpoint
infrastructure and the population were left relatively untouched. It is now the major regional power, and uncomfortably settling into being the nexus of an empire
the changed contours of geography and politics have made it a key node along a major trade route, prosperous yet subject to the intrigues of foreign powers
a gold rush economy has sprung up around treasure hunters following rumours of a vault holding precious old world materials and information
the anti-pope of the surviving Roman Catholic Church is attempting to set up their counter-Vatican
a mutant species of humanity better adapted to the post-apocalyptic world has evolved through saltation
a paramilitary order of rangers, once renowned for protecting the peace and prosperity of the people, has become corrupt and sided with robber barons to gut their smaller competitors
a tyrant has come to an agreement with a band of raiders, letting them prey on people to a limited degree so that their own abuses of power will be better tolerated
an eccentric scientist has gathered a cult of personality around themself and is requisitioning advanced technology, convinced that they can build a time machine and avert the apocalypse entirely
it's become one of two places struggling to be recognzied as the holy city of a new religion based around idols of the old world
the immortals Cain and Cartaphilus have settled, each believing that God has left the world in their care after rendering His judgement, with clashing visions for what that means
a democratic movement in reformist and revolutionary strains is rising against the dictatorial emergency powers that the goverment has retained
society's elites are being consumed by decadence while barbarians romanticized by the common people are gathering at the gates
society was kept running somewhat smoothly from the shadows by organized crime, but rivalries in the underworld have exploded and now their invisible war spills out into public awareness
society is stagnating under the rule of a web of guilds and aristocratic families
a slave-caste of warriors and administrators are sliding into secret rebellion
society is struggling to integrate refugees driven out by a disaster in a neighbouring region
explorers from a far-off land have started showing up and claiming the region as their own
an isolated and pacifistic commune is having to reckon with its ideals in the face of growing connections to the wider world
a primitivist mystery cult has been assassinating scientists, academics, and politicians in an attempt to prevent the technological development they see as inevitably leading to humanity's immiseration and self-destruction
{remnant}
that a generation ship which was launched shortly before things really hit the fan is projected to return in a matter of weeks, having failed in its mission to colonize a new home for humanity
a trove of philosophical texts that have just been uncovered, triggering an intellectual revolution
a radio which has made contact with the crew of a space station that has somehow miraculously survived in the void, granting people knowledge both useful and eldritch
the seed of yet another apocalypse which has laid resting - assimilatory nanomachines infused with uploaded human minds - set to sprout into a final end for humanity's remains unless reaped
eerily intelligent packs of stray cats with subtle yet sometimes deadly malice towards humans, carrying a modified toxoplasmosis that can warp the brains of the infected towards their feline ends
a cadre of super-soldiers who'd been cryogenically frozen and have just now been thawed
an extensive subway system, which is now mostly flooded but still useful as an artificial aquifer and as underground canals for submersibles
power lines that have been repurposed into a rapid mirror-based semaphore network
a highway system built of self-repairing materials, useful for foot traffic and the occasional operational motor vehicle
a fleet of solar-powered dirigibles used for shipping and bombardment
an arcology which was meant to be a perpetual sanctury, yet became a towering tomb as its life support systems failed only a few years after its activation. The place is surrounded by dreadful superstition, and those unlucky enough to live nearby claim to see shuffling, moaning figures within it on moonless nights
a cluster of high-altitude installations that can manipulate the region's weather
an archive where the brains of the world's greatest minds were meant to be preserved to guide later generations. However, corners were cut in the archive's construction - the brains have rotted, and the devices meant to allow them to communicate are in fact programmed with predictive algorithms that mimic what they might have said
a facility outfit with cutting-edge robotic surgeons that can fix about 90% of all the things that can go wrong in the human body
an infrasonic projection tower that can authour the dreams of everyone who sleeps within its range
a factory that can process any organic material into biofuel, which is typically used for funerals
transgenic herbs that produce medicine and narcotics
the baffling plague of "reincarnation syndrome", where people suddenly gain memories of pre-apocalyptic people, sometimes enough to overwrite their own personality with the deads'
a local ecosystem of autonomous and self-replicating military drones. Whoever figures out how to command the drones could set themself up as an invincible despot
a mechanical water purification plant that provides potable water to the region, yet is slowly winding down as nobody alive is quite sure how to maintain it
Oh, these are good. Wonderful selection of regions.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I tried to get off the beaten path for them.
DeleteThese turned out really well, glad to see it worked out!
ReplyDelete