18 June 2022

QHW, Day 18: Post-Apocalyptic

Humanity used to stand proud and tall. We transformed matter atom after atom with nanotechnology. We created AIs that thought at the speed of light. We made our children healthy and beautiful and clever and immortal. We reached for the stars. That was the Light.

But pride comes before a fall and the higher you rise, the harder your fall. Maybe it was a war. Maybe a natural disaster. An alien invasion. An insane omega psion. A simple mistake that turned the ubiquitous nanite clouds at us. We fell, and no one remembers the fall today. That was the Dark.

But now, the Dark is in the past and a bright future of reclamation and re-discovery looms near. People emerge from ancient vaults and arcologies, or finally dare to venture away from their hidden villages and sheltered towns. That which was lost will be found again.

What once were the city spires that reached so high above now all lies buried in toxic muck, yet both the treasures and the defenders of yore remain. Radiation and bioengineered super-plagues and insane medical nanites and other horrors released by a million past accidents and catastrophes threaten the intrepid pioneers. The land at large is ruled by mutants and insane technology, full of danger and wonder and excitement. Death is always near, but so is endless fame and untold riches.

What awaits in this brave new world? In the After-Dark?

The truth is, this was not the first time. There was another apocalypse before the last one, and more before then. If you dig deep enough, you will find ruins of hundreds, thousands fallen civilizations. Buildings buried by continental drift. No one remembers the years any more, as they no longer make sense to human mind. No one remembers the true cause for the cataclysms, for every time it was something different that brought humanity to its knees.

There was Dark, and there will be again. We shall rise and we shall fall, until the very ashes of past civilizations smother the Sun, already tinged red.

1 comment:

  1. Funny thing, when I started to write this, it was an Earth buried in past mistakes, but it ended up on a suspiciously upbeat note. I don't mind, though. This future is not yet bright, but more lighting up than fading. Humanity is not on its last legs, but rather on its knees just before standing up.

    The players are pioneers in a brave new world. They could be witnesses, or better yet instigators of massive changes. With old tech lying everywhere around, civilization will take huge leaps forwards. Where the game would start with several misfits from a poor wasteland village taking up clubs and axes to win their fortune in deadly ventures to the ancient chrome ruins, it might end with those misfits piloting a repaired spaceship looking for the lost brethren of humanity among the stars.

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