History Main / AFTERTHEEND

->"''...it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter in human history.''"
-->-- ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' intro monologue

* "WebVideo/EndTimes" begins three months after a messy virus (that somehow involved gross swelling) wipes out most of the population past their mid-twenties.
* ''WebVideo/TheFinalMinutes'': ''Zombie Plague'' takes place years after the world was ravaged by the XMNV virus, and [[spoiler: the resulting nuclear apocalypse that rose from attempting to sterilize and destroy it]].

[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Something hugely nasty]] has happened to humanity. Be it nuclear war (which was once very popular but has gone out of vogue, in part due to the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar), ThePlague (which currently seems to be the most popular), natural disaster (which some view as the most likely to happen in the near future in RealLife despite nuclear war being far deadlier and still very possible), [[WorldWreckingWave supernatural disaster]] (usually the case with a SealedEvilInACan or missing CosmicKeystone), devastating [[GaiasLament environmental changes]] (which, in this kind of fiction, happen too quickly for civilisation to adapt), a ZombieApocalypse (also hugely popular these days), or an AlienInvasion (God help us if ''that'' one happens) - most (if not ''[[HumanitysWake all]]'') of humanity is gone.

* AfterTheEnd/WebOriginal

The result is generally that you have the remnants of humanity fighting to survive in a hellish and devastated CrapsackWorld full of SceneryGorn, [[GhostCity Ghost Cities]] and a lot of nastiness in every corner of whatever remains of past civilization. This environment is perhaps also a ScavengerWorld which may have pieces of SchizoTech and LostTechnology (or even WeirdScience) here and there, but also where people inevitably degrade down to DisasterScavengers and {{Crazy Survivalist}}s, for whom staying alive may well mean being ReducedToRatburgers or [[ImAHumanitarian worse]], especially if they're TooDesperateToBePicky. The world often becomes a PointsOfLightSetting, with enclaves of survivors separated by long stretches of wastelands and dangerous wilderness and connected by fragmentary and unreliable roads. If enough time has passed, those BornAfterTheEnd may hear stories of TheBeforetimes from those few who survived the catastrophe, trying to impress upon the children what [[GloryDays humanity was]] and still is capable of. Expect a FishOutOfTemporalWater who SleptThroughTheApocalypse to wake up to see their world changed. At any point in the setting an ApocalypticLog may be found to explain exactly why the world was devastated in the first place, and/or an ArchaeologicalArmsRace might break out to reclaim the old world's technology.

!!Examples

The result is generally that you have the remnants of humanity fighting to survive in a hellish and devastated CrapsackWorld full of SceneryGorn, [[GhostCity Ghost Cities]] and a lot of nastiness in every corner of whatever remained of past civilization. This environment is perhaps also a ScavengerWorld which may have pieces of SchizoTech and LostTechnology (or even WeirdScience) here and there, but also where people inevitably degrade down to DisasterScavengers and {{Crazy Survivalist}}s, for whom staying alive may well mean being ReducedToRatburgers or [[ImAHumanitarian worse]], especially if they're TooDesperateToBePicky. If enough time has passed, those BornAfterTheEnd may hear stories of TheBeforetimes from those few who survived the catastrophe, trying to impress upon the children what [[GloryDays humanity was]] and still is capable of. Expect a FishOutOfTemporalWater who SleptThroughTheApocalypse to wake up to see their world changed. At any point in the setting an ApocalypticLog may be found to explain exactly why the world was devastated in the first place, and/or an ArchaeologicalArmsRace might break out to reclaim the old world's technology.

The result is generally that you have the remnants of humanity fighting to survive in a hellish and devastated CrapsackWorld full of SceneryGorn, [[GhostCity Ghost Cities]] and a lot of nastiness in every corner of whatever remained of past civilization. This environment is perhaps also a ScavengerWorld which may have pieces of SchizoTech and LostTechnology (or even WeirdScience) here and there, but also where people inevitably degrade down to DisasterScavengers and {{Crazy Survivalist}}s, for whom staying alive may well mean being ReducedToRatburgers or [[ImAHumanitarian worse]], especially if they're TooDesperateToBePicky. If enough time has passed, those born after the end may hear stories of TheBeforetimes from those few who survived the catastrophe, trying to impress upon the children what [[GloryDays humanity was]] and still is capable of. Expect a FishOutOfTemporalWater who SleptThroughTheApocalypse to wake up to see their world changed. At any point in the setting an ApocalypticLog may be found to explain exactly why the world was devastated in the first place, and/or an ArchaeologicalArmsRace might break out to reclaim the old world's technology.

In any post-apocalyptic story created after the release of ''Film/MadMax'', it is almost assured that the obvious and natural way for the world to look after a civilisation-destroying cataclysm is "the Australian Outback". ''[[StandardPostApocalypticSetting There is no need to explain this. Global catastrophe turns the world into a gangster-infested anarchist]] WretchedHive [[DeathWorld Australia]]. It just follows logically.'' However, in any After the End story created around the 1950s, expect to see plenty of {{Nuclear Nast|y}}ies due to RuleOfCool. Additionally, if civilisation is depicted after a BizarroApocalypse, expect [[RealityIsOutToLunch things to be really strange]].