1. TwinkleToes

    TwinkleToes New Member

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    A little help with the setting

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by TwinkleToes, Jun 16, 2015.

    I have just started writing on this project and the idea behind it is a world destroyed by war ( not going into details of what happens ), but chemical warfare caused the destruction of the world and the change in the ecosystem and I just need a few ideas of what the world would be like.

    I already have the basic stuff, such as Bandits, Wildlife, Limited resources. But I feel I need a little bit more to make it seem a little bit dangerous.

    Can someone give me a idea or two?
     
  2. terobi

    terobi Senior Member

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    Well, have a look and see what effects various types of chemical weapons do. Does it simply destroy, or might it disfigure or mutate people? Might the chemicals have affected something mundane and made it deadly - water sources perhaps, or even intensified acid rain to the point where it's deadly?

    Was the war worldwide, or are certain places more heavily affected and others safer - might there be entire regions which have been turned to desert because nothing can grow there anymore?

    How long ago was this war? The world immediately after is likely to have different sangers than one that took place hundreds of years in the past...

    And, are there any of those terrible weapons left, and whose hands might they be in?
     
  3. The Mad Regent

    The Mad Regent Senior Member

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    Well if it's chemicals you got stuff like polluted natural water supplies, deformities and tumours, still births, cannibalism, and radiation, maybe?

    If you brainstorm the ideas with pen and paper you will come up with tons.

    Hope this helps.
     
  4. sidtvicious

    sidtvicious Contributor Contributor

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    I'd suggest reading the fallout from chemical/biological/nuclear warfare and accidents. Plenty of sites to work from. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl are a few well known examples.

    Things to consider are also the types of weapons you're saying "destroyed" the world. If it was chemical or biological, was it some sort virus or just a chemical agent like mustard gas? What were the symptoms? If it's nuclear are resources annihilated or are you describing a point where the land is attempting to recuperate and things are still whole but not contaminated.
     
  5. TwinkleToes

    TwinkleToes New Member

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    Thank you for your quick replies, it has helped me brainstorm further and I am also looking into how the earth would've changed depending on when it happened.

    It is worldwide, Eastern vs Western, at the moment I might change it as I have a few different ideas.

    I have thought of having the world slowly recovering, such as small amounts of greenery, I will look into the fallout from chemical/biological/nuclear and I will brainstorm them together and the see what I like for the setting.

    Thanks once again.
     
  6. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    If there are only small amounts of greenery, I think that you have a big problem with food. How long ago did this happen?
     
  7. TwinkleToes

    TwinkleToes New Member

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    I'm planning on putting it about 13 years later, maybe a longer, I already have lack of resources. Any ideas on food that could grow unhindered?
     
  8. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    That depends on the details of the destruction. If you assume that there's some arable land left, just not much, then the crops of interest might be the ones that produce the highest number of calories per square foot. In United-Statesish climates, I believe that "pounds of food per square foot" is led by staked tomatoes, but I'd bet that potatoes are ahead of them in terms of calories per square foot. Potatoes also, surprisingly (at least to me when I read it) have a meaningful amount of protein, Vitamin C, and other important things. If you're stuck in the zombie apocalypse, save some of your potatoes for seed.

    Potatoes also store well without refrigeration. They're fairly drought tolerant. They're easy for an amateur to grow without a lot of knowledge, equipment, or infrastructure. They don't demand too much fertility. They're tolerant of a fairly wide range of temperatures, though that tolerance isn't unlimited. If it's plausible for them to survive the chemical attacks, they would likely be a very important crop. Of course, don't forget the Irish Potato Famine...

    There may be other tubers with a similar utility that have similar advantages, and might feel more exotic.

    If the chemicals destroyed most insects, insect-pollinated crops are gone. That includes a very large percentage of fruit.

    Edited to add: Most meat would be gone. It's inefficient ; the land needed to keep a cow alive, even just on grass, would be used for food. And feeding grain to an animal would be breathtaking, murderous (given all the people that would be starving) extravagance.

    Human urine and manure would probably be very precious, for fertilizing crops.

    Really, I would suspect that in thirteen years everyone would be dead. But since that wouldn't make much of a book, you'll have to choose the compromises with likelihood. Heck, that dragon movie got away with people growing staked tomatoes with no direct sunlight, and I'm the only one I've ever heard complain about it. They should have been growing potatoes.
     
  9. TwinkleToes

    TwinkleToes New Member

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    The only thing about potatoes are that after they have been harvested you need to plant something else in that soil to put back the nutrients ( or so says my local garden centre ) but I will look further into it, thank you for your time, I will think of ways around it.
     
  10. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    It's not just potatoes that require crop rotation and fertilization--that's true of essentially any crop, both for nutrients and to keep from planting a crop into a bed that's filled with the diseases and pests from that same crop last year.
     
  11. sidtvicious

    sidtvicious Contributor Contributor

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    Also like to point out that raw potatoes can have alkaloids if grown improperly/exposed to too much Sun. Can make you sick. Source: had a dog eat three slightly green sun touched red taters and got very sick.
     
  12. Shadowfax

    Shadowfax Contributor Contributor

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  13. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, has a fair bit of material about food gardening in hard times. "Hard times" don't include a chemical apocalypse, but they do include some discussion of the Little Ice Age.
     
  14. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I'm not sure exactly what the focus of your story will be, but you might make it a lot easier on yourself if you kill off the human population without destroying the land and environment. There is always the old 'virus' idea ...like the Survivors TV show, made in the UK. The original Terry Nation version, and the more recent partial remake. The world really does collapse, but only people are directly killed. Like with any virus, some survive and some don't get it. But there is economic collapse. However, there are lots of resources available as well, at least for a while.

    I can't help but wonder what would happen to the world's population if the internet/satellite systems we depend on suddenly went off. Off permanently, or even for an extended period of time. Most businesses would fail. Communication would fail. Heating, electricity, water supplies, transportation would fail. Hospitals would be unable to function. That's another (possibly very realistic) scenario that would leave natural resources—and the potential for small-scale food production— untouched.
     
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  15. TwinkleToes

    TwinkleToes New Member

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    Thanks for the responses, I will look into it all deeper. I will also make changes to my plan.

    I think the idea of a virus is overdone, to me personally, but I won't dismiss it if I can get something different out of it.
     

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