Barren History, Part One
Imagine a world that ran out of oil. A world where nature fights back. A world where global warming is no longer a minority report. A world about to implode into chaos.
They saw it coming, and they knew what to do. Ten years was all it took to build the Eden ships - great fleets of massive space faring vessels to ferry the brightest of mankind into the depths of the unknown. And on that very day that many came to remember as the day of the Great Exodus, they left.
What followed was confusion, which rapidly escalated into full scale chaos. Apocalypse hit and hit hard - tsunamis the size of mountains crashed into South East Asia; earthquakes of unmeasurable magnitudes rocked the entire world; blizzards, floods, volcanoes and the rest of nature’s arsenal were unleashed upon humanity in the years that followed. But these weren’t the factors that killed mankind. No, humans are resilient and resourceful, and even against the daunting forces of nature some would be able to find ways to survive. No, mankind’s greatest enemy is still the same - themselves.
As the world leaders left, order crumbled and collapsed. Around the world people began to realize that the game had changed. All forms of governance gave way to anarchism, and every man began to fight for themselves. The first year was still bearable, as many struggled to keep the society alive in various ways. But then they reach the breaking point, and societies eventually snapped.
What followed was a period familiarly known as the dark ages, where mankind wiped itself out. It was a long and terrible era, an era of fear and chaos, and an era of uncertainty. Civilization had hit the reverse gear in full speed, eventually stepping aside to allow mankind to focus on survival first. For to those who survived the dark ages, they emerged to find that the world had not stopped and waited for them.
Mother nature had moved on, and left them behind. Animals evolved to suit the new climate, and plagues began wiping out the rest of humanity. All it took was a couple of decades to effectively erase all traces of the old civilization from the face of Earth, and upon this desolated land the survivors attempted to pick themselves up and play the new game.
And survived they did, in small clans and tribes, pooling their resources and manpower. The dark age passed, and the destruction was so complete that not many could remember of what happened before that era. Consumed by the new overpowering need for survival, mankind started anew - for where ancient technologies had been lost to the sand storms, mankind created new ones to suit their needs.
And upon this new world they call Barren, the cycle began anew.