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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | [[WMG:[[center:[-'''ApocalypseHow'''\ |
| 8 | [[ApocalypseHow/Class0 0]] | [[ApocalypseHow/Class1 1]] | [[ApocalypseHow/Class2 2]] | [[ApocalypseHow/Class3A 3a]], [[ApocalypseHow/Class3B 3b]] | [[ApocalypseHow/Class4 4]] | '''5''' | [[ApocalypseHow/Class6 6]]\ |
| 9 | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX X]] | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX2 X-2]] | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX3 X-3]] | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 X-4]] | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 X-5]] | [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ Z]]-]]]]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ->''"Collision with a body 10 kilometers or more in diameter constitutes an extinction-level event, or informally, "a planet-killer." The resultant shock wave encircles the planet, a rolling earthquake well off the Richter circle, and converges at Australia. Even the most strongly reinforced subterranean bunker anywhere in the world would collapse. The tidal wave is as tall as the ocean is deep, and it moves over half the speed of sound, leaving behind a crater five miles deep where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge used to be. Meanwhile, the very chemistry of the biosphere would be disrupted, with nitrogen oxides precipitating in the form of acid rain over the next 10 years, poisoning every body of water on Earth. All life on the planet is wiped out, with the possible exception of simple anaerobic organisms inhabiting the deepest points of the South Atlantic, North Pacific, and western Indian Ocean floors."'' |
| 12 | -->-- "The Earth Will Shake," ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' [[note]]This, by the way, is the more optimistic of the two downer endings if things go completely to shit during this scenario[[/note]] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Planetary-scale Species Extinction of ''all'' multicellular life. The planet may be fit for re-habitation, but, in the meantime, there's nothing more complex than bacteria left. |
| 15 | ---- |
| 16 | !!Examples: |
| 17 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 20 | * ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': This is the theorized level of destruction caused by the [[MillionMookMarch Rumbling]]. [[spoiler:The Walls that protect humanity are not man-made, but in fact are made up of thousands, if not millions of mindless Titans the size of the Colossus Titan. The First King of the Walls erected them as a deterrent, threatening to use them to flatten the entire world and kill every single human, plant, and animal beyond the Walls. However, only the one with the power of the Founding Titan is able to wake these Titans and start the Rumbling.]] [[spoiler:Unfortunately for humanity, in Chapter 122, Eren Yeager unleashes the Wall Titans as part of his plan to save his people by exterminating all of humanity. Ultimately, however, it gets no further than 80%.]] |
| 21 | * ''Manga/RaveMaster'': Later volumes reveal that the world actually exists due to a ResetButton. Prior to it, the world was one human away from Class 5. This one survivor used the power of Star Memory to reset the world. [[spoiler:But, since reality got tampered, Endless was created to try and jerk the world back to the Class 5 it was.]] |
| 22 | * ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'': The story leaves it ambiguous just how severe the level of extinction is and it differs depending on it being either the manga or the anime. The manga sees the complete extinction of the entire human race at the hands of Chise with Shuuji being the only other survivor as he was spared before they both leave Earth together. The anime meanwhile ends with the complete annihilation of humanity as the world itself ends with Shuuji as the only survivor as Chise sacrificed herself to protect him. It is unclear how much other life survived, but with the state the world is in, chances are it is not much if any at all. |
| 23 | * ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': Hades' plans for Earth is to create an eternal "Great Eclipse", so that Earth will freeze over and all life will die, turning it into a dark world much like the Underworld. |
| 24 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': The future world, which is shown both in the series and [[Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime the movie]]. [[spoiler: Synchro Monsters overload Momentum, essentially recreating Zero Reverse on a much larger scale. By the end of Aporia's memories; of the four survivors, three are dead, leaving the partially/robotic Zone and no other sign of life on the planet]]. |
| 25 | [[/folder]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 28 | * ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': The author confirmed on Tumblr that if Ghidorah had completed its original campaign of global destruction during [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Mass Awakening]], then just about everything on Earth except for Ghidorah and basic bacteria would have eventually died out: humanity would have been actively wiped out by Ghidorah's orders and desires, the Earthborn Titans under Ghidorah's control would have eventually died once Ghidorah had no more use of them, and Ghidorah's hypercane would have engulfed the entire globe and turned it into a {{perpetual storm}}-battered waste. This fate already befell other sapient planets that Ghidorah destroyed before coming to Earth. |
| 29 | ** ''Fanfic/AbraxasEmptyFullness'' "Damnatio Memoriae" takes place during Ghidorah's StartOfDarkness, including when it wipes a sapient planet clean of all visible life for the first time. |
| 30 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/ClashOfTheElements'': After taking control of [[spoiler: Joe Dark]]'s body, the [[spoiler: Dark King]] set in motion events that would bring about one of these to [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Plit.]] |
| 31 | * Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos fanfiction ''Fanfic/ByTheFiresLight'': The story ends with the Slender Man calling in other [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] to take Earth as their own and boot off anything already on the planet. |
| 32 | * ''Fanfic/HoursVerse'': The prophecy for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt causing [[spoiler: the Earth to stop spinning]] at the end of ''Persona 2: Innocent Sin'' is a Class 5 apocalypse, and the Other Side is what's left: the only living beings to survive were the ones [[spoiler: in Sumaru City when Xibalba took off]], and now Earth is inhabited by the Children of Nyx and other demons. |
| 33 | [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Film — Animation]] |
| 36 | * This appears to be the level of fallout from the RobotWar in ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'' due to the mass-produced machines utilizing poison gas which supposedly killed literally ''everything'': people, animals and plants, and the mummified state of human corpses during the film's main time frame seems to suggest even pathogens were killed off. The homunculi and machines are the only animate things left in the aftermath. [[spoiler: The ending shows that bacteria have returned amid raindrops, starting the evolution of life all over again]]. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Film — Live-Action]] |
| 40 | * This is apparently what the Final Protocol used by the Necromongers does to every planet they visit in ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick''. |
| 41 | * This is the effect of the Doomsday Machine from ''Film/DrStrangelove''. [-[[SoundtrackDissonance We'll...meet again...]]-] |
| 42 | * ''Film/TheColony2013'': The GlacialApocalypse, caused by [[TheNightThatNeverEnds an artificially-generated global snowstorm ceaselessly blanketing the Earth's skies for many years]], has annihilated the Earth's natural biosphere, leaving survivors' heated bunkers full of refugees and (failing) crops and livestock as the last sources of life on the planet. Micro-organisms could be preserved under the ice in stasis, but the Earth outside humanity's shelters is otherwise dead and quiet. |
| 43 | * ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': It's speculated by Emma Russell in the film's {{novelization}}, and further confirmed by Monarch's projections in the novelization of [[Film/GodzillaVsKong the sequel]], that if King Ghidorah continued reigning over the Earth's Titans unopposed, then him commanding them to engulf the planet in a NaturalDisasterCascade and spreading [[WeatherManipulation massive superstorms]] globally would have thoroughly driven all life on Earth except for bacteria and Ghidorah himself into extinction within just a few years. Serizawa in the novelization speculates that even the non-alien Titans under Ghidorah's control will die eventually, and that Ghidorah will also enter and work on destroying the [[HollowWorld Hollow Earth]] once he's finished conquering the surface. |
| 44 | * ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'': It's implied that Godzilla going into nuclear meltdown would incinerate the atmosphere causing all life on the planet to perish. It's only due to [[spoiler:Junior absorbing the excess radiation and mutating into an adult Godzilla]] that prevents this from happening. |
| 45 | * ''Film/IndependenceDay'': The aliens' ultimate goal as PlanetLooters who devour every last natural resource on a planet before moving on means that if they win, they'll likely inflict this on Earth in the endgame. Based on their alternate EvilPlan in [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence the sequel]], it could've actually been a ApocalypseHow/ClassX once they were done with the Earth and ready to move on. |
| 46 | * ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': This will be the end result of the Blight, if not a ApocalypseHow/Class6: the micro-organisms which cause the Blight are consuming all plant life and nitrogen on Earth, which will ultimately render the planet unable to sustain any oxygen-breathing species at all. |
| 47 | * ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978'': Based on what we see of the "dying" planet that the aliens have finished stripping bare of resources and are leaving behind in the opening, multicellular extinction seems like the likeliest end result for Earth after the aliens have taken over in the DownerEnding. |
| 48 | * The [[PlanetLooters Precursors]] plan to trigger one on Earth in ''Film/PacificRimUprising'' by [[spoiler:blowing up the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire Ring of Fire]] through a violent reaction between Kaiju blood and rare earth metals prevalent in lava, causing a worldwide volcanic winter in the process. The PPDC puts a stop to it [[NearVillainVictory with literally seconds to spare]].]] |
| 49 | * This is the ''starting'' premise of ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' and initial best case scenario; then we find out the surviving humans wake up marooned on an ark after an (implied, though never elaborated upon) offscreen Class X event. It went FromBadToWorse when the personnel in charge [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went insane]] and left everyone in suspended animation for 900 years, where most of them evolved into [[ZombieApocalypse zombie-like creatures]] that feed on the living. Oh, and the [[TimeBomb ship's reactor]] is melting down. |
| 50 | * In ''Film/TheRoad'', the Earth's biosphere extinction has already occurred and the world is in the final stages of dying. |
| 51 | * The cheesy sci-fi classic ''Film/RobotMonster'' had the title baddie wiping out all life on Earth [[EvolutionaryLevels above insect level]], save for a family of humans who took a serum to counteract the invader's AppliedPhlebotinum. (The family lived [[ContrivedCoincidence a short walk away from the cave the alien was living in]].) |
| 52 | * When the Death Star uses its laser (at minimum power setting!) in ''Film/RogueOne'' on [[spoiler: the Holy City of Jedha]], the resulting blast sends a shockwave through the mantle that sends the ground ''peeling off the moon's surface''. The entire surface of the moon was probably ravaged as a result and won't be habitable for probably thousands of years without major terraforming efforts. Towards the end, [[spoiler:it's used once more against the under-siege Imperial Database Archives on Scarif, killing Imperial and Rebel troops alike, including Death Star co-developer Director Orson Krennic]]. |
| 53 | * In ''Film/SoylentGreen'', the documents obtained by Thorn's roommate Sol show that due to a combination of overpopulation, unchecked industrialization, and the accompanying climate change, the oceans are now unable to support life of any kind, including the plankton from which the titular product is supposedly made, with the final outcome likely being this or a Class 6. Upon realizing [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies what this means]], Sol [[DrivenToSuicide loses his will to live]]. |
| 54 | * The likely outcome if the ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' had succeeded in stealing Druidia's atmosphere, though some life may have survived in the oceans. |
| 55 | * The mostly-forgotten Japanese disaster epic ''Film/{{Virus|1980}}'' begins with the accidental release of a [[TheVirus virus]] that kills off all vertebrate life on the planet except in Antarctica, leaving pretty much only penguins and 800 or so scientists and base personnel. Then it goes FromBadToWorse thanks to a UsefulNotes/ColdWar doomsday machine. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 59 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov: |
| 60 | ** ''Literature/ThePebbleInTheSky'': Once the setting shifts to Earth in the far future, it's established that [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter Earth now has large areas of nuclear wasteland, and visitors from off-world wear lead-lined clothing]]. The radioactive planet is slowly becoming completely uninhabitable. |
| 61 | ** ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'': The protagonists trace clues back to [[EarthThatWas the lost homeworld of humanity]]. When they find it, the planet is still fatally radioactive, with no known lifeforms surviving. |
| 62 | * Creator/KurtVonnegut's novel ''Literature/CatsCradle'' ends with [[spoiler:the destruction of all life on Earth by a sample of "ice-nine", which causes all of the planet's water [[TheVirus to convert to ice-nine]], which has a room-temperature freezing point. Thus, all the water in the world freezes solid.]] |
| 63 | * Creator/LordByron's ''Literature/{{Darkness}}'' sees humanity destroy itself and all life goes extinct after the earth’s sun and all the stars in the universe go out. |
| 64 | * Frank Herbert's ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series, as well as the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson include the Obliterator weapon. This weapon was stolen from the Machine Empire by the Honored Matres and used in a SaltTheEarth retreat across the galaxy. They later use an Obliterator against Arrakis in an attempt to destroy the natural source of Spice and a number of their enemies (including Darwi Odrade, Sheanna, and Duncan Idaho). In the Dune sequels, the Guild Navigators use an Obliterator against Richesse at the behest of the Honored Matre rebels to cripple the Bene Gesserit. Although the use of the Obliterator destroys all life on the planet, it's later revealed that a number of the worms of Dune knew that the attack would come (being possessed with prescience thanks to Leto II) and survived the attack by burrowing deep into the planet's crust. |
| 65 | * In Creator/HPLovecraft's "Literature/TheDunwichHorror", Wilbur Whateley's journal contains several references to the Earth's life being "cleared off", presumably to make way for {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Averted... but possibly still on the agenda of any surviving ''half''-siblings of Wilbur's. |
| 66 | * Ethan I. Shedley's ''Earth Ship & Star Song'' begins with the premise that, despite largely successful efforts to ward off eventual extinction by environmental damage, the latest model projects only hundreds of years remain before life as we know it cannot be sustained even at minimum levels of consumption and entropy. The remaining humans alive decide to leave to escape this Class 5 destruction. [[spoiler:However, in performing the research necessary to leave in any meaningful manner, they "accidentally" visit Class X-2 destruction on another intelligent species, launching the main plot of the book of humans as fugitives.]] |
| 67 | * Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Literature/{{Evolution}}'' does a FlashForward near the end to the death of the very last lifeforms on Earth. This is so far in the future that the sun has begun to expand in preparation for its collapse into a white dwarf. |
| 68 | * In ''Literature/TheKillingStar'', by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski, all life on Earth above the level of bacteria is destroyed using a planet-wide relativistic bombardment. |
| 69 | * In the ''Literature/LadyAstronaut'' books, earth is hit with a massive meteor. The rest of the series deals with humanity's attempts to colonize space, because the climate change caused by the impact will eventually lead to a Class 5, including the seas ''boiling''. |
| 70 | * It happens so often to the Posleen, from the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'' series, due to uncontrolled population explosions, that they have a specific name for it. |
| 71 | * Clarke and [[Creator/StephenBaxter Baxter's]] book ''The Light of Other Days'' describes an enormous asteroid that's going to collide with the Earth; large enough that the heat released will more or less sterilize the face of the Earth, such that only the most basic bacteria can survive. It eventually transpires that [[spoiler:this had already happened once, billions of years ago, and the civilization that existed then hid away the life that would eventually evolve into us]]. |
| 72 | * In the backstory of the Mageworlds books by Debra Doyle, this happens to Entibor. |
| 73 | * Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/{{Narnia}}'' has the Deplorable Word, an incantation that instantly kills every living thing in the user's world except the user. Jadis of Charn used this long before becoming the White Witch; luckily, alternate magical laws seem to keep it from working on Earth or Narnia itself. |
| 74 | * [[spoiler:Ouranos]] of the ''Literature/OldKingdom'' trilogy has this as his main goal. And he's done it before to other worlds before becoming SealedEvilInACan. |
| 75 | * In ''Literature/TheRoad'', the Earth's biosphere extinction has already occurred and the world is in the final stages of dying. |
| 76 | * In ''Literature/SaturnsChildren'' this happens as part of the backstory. The robots who are left have enforced a strict quarantine on green goo and pink goo in the hopes that they can reconstitute the biosphere, particularly humans (they seem to be 3 laws robots and miss dealing with the first two). |
| 77 | * The ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] featured a prototype Death Star and the ''[[ComicBook/DarkEmpire Eclipse]]''[[ComicBook/DarkEmpire -class Star Destroyer]], both of which mounted a powered-down version of the Death Star's famous WaveMotionGun from ''Film/ANewHope'', which could "only" "crack the planetary crust" and would likely result in something like this. |
| 78 | ** Twenty years before ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' an experiment on the nature of life went wrong on Kiva and wiped out said life across the entire world, turning it into a GhostPlanet. From orbit it's charcoal-colored, landing on it reveals not so much as a blade of grass. The sentient natives ''sort of'' survived as [[OurGhostsAreDifferent vengeful wraiths]], eager to punish the one responsible -- since he's TheAtoner, he doesn't fight. |
| 79 | ** In ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'', the Sith release a SyntheticPlague on the Mon Calamari homeworld, killing off all life on the planet within a week. The dead are so numerous that their floating bodies can be seen from space, and the decomposition visibly turns the planet's oceans from blue to a sickly green. |
| 80 | * Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Sunstorm'' (second book in ''A Time Odyssey'') has the Firstborn redirected a planet and make it hit the sun around AD 0-10, which caused the sun to make coronal mass ejection , threatening to destroy the whole atmosphere. |
| 81 | * David Gerrold's ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' series is either Class 4 or Class 5. The Chtorr are gradually but inexorably replacing Earth's biome with Chtorr. The apparently inevitable result is the replacement of ''all'' life forms on Earth with Chtorr. [[spoiler: The invasion started at the microbe level, with plagues that devastated the majority of human population. As the invasion continues, more and higher level positions in the food chain are being replaced with Chtorr, with the possible exception of the worms, who appear to be top-tier predators. But since nobody knows exactly what the Chtorr is, it's hard to say for certain.]] |
| 82 | * The FinalBattle of Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming'' is expected to result either in this or Class 4 event. For obvious reasons, not many people want it to happen. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 86 | * The Season 6 finale of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' deals with [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Dark Willow]] attempting to burn the Earth to a cinder. Xander talks her down with the PowerOfLove. |
| 87 | ** The Season 1 finale had Acathla, a demon who would have sucked the world into Hell. This wouldn't actually have killed anyone -- just subjected them to an eternity of torment. |
| 88 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 89 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon "Aliens of London"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree "World War Three"]]: The Slitheen family wish to enact this on Earth to make a profit. By inciting a world-wide nuclear armageddon, they'll be able to sell off the radioactive "molten slag" left over as cheap fuel. |
| 90 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky The Poison Sky]]": The Sontarans plan to [[HostileTerraforming convert Earth]] into a factory clone world for themselves via [[AtmosphereAbuse flooding the global atmosphere with a thick, visible artificial gas]] that will feed Sontaran clone batches but will also choke the entire human race to death. |
| 91 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]": The Atraxi threaten to cause at least this (possibly a ApocalypseHow/Class6) by ''incinerating the Earth'' via OrbitalBombardment if Prisoner Zero doesn't vacate the human residence in time. |
| 92 | ** Desolation, the planet from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument "The Ghost Monument"]], used to be civilized, but has been wiped completely clean by [[spoiler:the Stenza, who forced the inhabitants to build them weapons and test them on the surface]]. The only living organisms remaining on the planet are flesh-eating microbes in the water. |
| 93 | * In the ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' serial "[[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E9E10TheTemptationOfSarahJaneSmith The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith]]", this is implied to be the fate of Earth in the AlternateTimeline where the Trickster "sucked the life out of the world" in the 1950s. London is a grim, barren wasteland devoid of any animal or plant life, and while some humans still exist as the Trickster's slave labor (using the remaining resources to build starships so he can invade other worlds), apparently the single small group who are seen are the very last humans. |
| 94 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has a number of cases of this: an atmosphere is burned off in [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration "The Chase"]], the Metrion Cascade killed everything on Rinax as detailed in [[Series/StarTrekVoyager "Jetrel"]], and if the whole thing wasn't a trap, the Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order attack fleet would have bombed the Founder's homeworld down to its core in [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine "The Die is Cast."]] |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 98 | * In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Splat book Elder Evils, this is the most likely worst case for two scenarios: |
| 99 | ** Father Lymic's attempt to create TheNightThatNeverEnds would, if not stopped, freeze the entire planet, making it uninhabitable by anyone except himself and his demonic brood. Even if the heroes win and restore the sun, the damage the Elder Evil has done would likely impact the world for generations to come, resulting in a Class 1. |
| 100 | ** Zargon's vile slime would likely cause all living beings to die in agony, leaving the world habitable only by the broods of Jubilex and Zargon himself. |
| 101 | * The "Destinations" setting in [[TabletopGame/HeroSystem "Post-Apocalypse Hero"]] takes place after a solar flare sterilized the Earth. [=PCs=] are among the few people who were far enough below ground to not be vaporized. Oh, yes, the total absence of plant life not only cuts down on food options but could thoroughly hose oxygen levels if you can't find a way to fix matters. |
| 102 | * Yet another ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' example: this usually happens to planets when Chaos, Tyranids or Necrons win. Not even unicellular organisms can escape their nightmarish campaigns. |
| 103 | ** Or if they lose, and someone calls on some of the less extreme forms of Exterminatus. (With the ''more'' severe ones, there isn't a planet left afterwards.) |
| 104 | ** Special mention to the ''Literature/IronWarriors'' short story "The Heraclitus Effect", in which Honsou uses an experimental ''agricultural aid'' to hyper-accelerate the growth of remnant Tyranid growths on [[spoiler:Tarsis Ultra]] -- out of ''spite''. |
| 105 | ** In ''[[Literature/ThousandSons Ahriman: Sorcerer]]'', the Thousand Sons unleash a hideously effective defoliant on the feudal planet Vohal, killing off all plant life within twenty-seven hours, thereby removing its ability to support life and condemning the planet’s population to a slow and horrible death by starvation or asphyxiation. Centuries[[note]] [[YearOutsideHourInside two years, from the Thousand Sons’ perspective]][[/note]] later, Vohal is a lifeless desert planet dotted with the dusty fortresses of its former inhabitants. |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 109 | * This is what happens to Lore at the end of the ''Doomwood'' saga in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'' if you choose to [[spoiler:betray Artix and allow Vordred to become the Champion of Darkness, allowing him to unleash the mother of all {{Zombie Apocalypse}}s on Lore by turning all life in the world undead]]. |
| 110 | ** The ''Doomwood II'' saga, and in particular the ''Adventure Quest Worlds: Zombies'' universe, has [[spoiler:Sepulchure actually unleashing one of these on Lore with his zombifying fog after killing Death. The way things are shaping up, the only people left in Lore who are still human are your character, Artix (who is the Champion of Darkness) and Gravelyn (who has just been revealed as the Champion of Light)]]. |
| 111 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Cytus}}''' backstory, a mysterious and incurable virus wipes out all sentient life on Earth, save for robots. |
| 112 | * ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'' has the eventual demise of Auriga, the planet the game is set, as one of its key themes. Each one of the factions that inhabit Auriga must find their own way to survive the coming apocalypse. |
| 113 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'' takes place during the buildup to a Class 5. [[spoiler:If the Purple Clan gets the [[PhysicalGod Indigo Child's secret]], the continuation and inevitable extinction of humanity and all other life is the [[MultipleEndings ending]]. There's a ray of hope in that it's said a new Indigo Child has been conceived... but the implication is that it's too late.]] |
| 114 | * ''VideoGame/FlightRising'' has ''two'' apocalypses in its lore. The first was caused by humans making a giant machine which blew up and accidentally brought the Arcanist into the world. The second was caused by [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds the Arcanist dicking around with the Shade]]. |
| 115 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': |
| 116 | ** ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' established that the Covenant's main mode of operation against human worlds is "glassing", a systematic bombardment of the planet's surface with plasma weaponry that vaporizes the ecosphere and reduces the surface to a uniform glassy mineral. As it takes hundreds of ships days to accomplish this, they only reserve it for particularly noteworthy targets, to make a statement. Later sources dial down the power of glassing a bit: the Covenant don't actually ''have'' the ability to 100% glass an entire planet and wage a large-scale war at the same time. The damage is still catastrophic, but it often leaves survivors who are able to survive on their ruined worlds for years afterwards (e.g. Kholo). And restoration of glassed planets is possible (e.g. Reach, Meridian), even if the process is still lengthy and arduous. |
| 117 | ** The UNSC have the experimental NOVA bomb, which was only deployed three times. In the first, it went off on a Covenant moon, and both destroyed the moon and scorched half the planet that the moon revolved around, effectively killing all life. |
| 118 | * ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic IV'' begins with two characters from the previous game meeting on the battlefield, and when their Artifacts of Doom touch, the atmosphere is instantly ignited, killing everyone except for a few people who managed to port to another planet or something. |
| 119 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', several races have Atmosphere Deprivation Weapons. These have the effect of setting the atmosphere ''on fire''. If only one or two are fired, it only results in a Class 0 effect (the size of a continent) -- however, it only takes a few to render the planet completely and permanently uninhabitable. It happens several times. |
| 120 | ** In the backstory, a vengeful [[TheEmpire Taiidan]] Admiral uses these on many populated Hiigaran worlds (though admittedly the Hiigarans had bombarded his planet with conventional weapons beforehand). He only stops because of a galactic outcry for peace. |
| 121 | ** In the first game, on the third mission, you [[spoiler:return to Kharak (your home planet) after your first Hyprspace run... only to find it [[DoomedHometown burning as a result of ADW bombardment.]] One of the most unexpected [[DoomedHometown Doomed Hometowns]] ever, and is also a real TearJerker. Sure, Kharak was a tiny, almost inhospitable desert planet... but it was home. Add to that the fact that almost the entire Kushan population was down there, leaving your Mothership and her fleet the last Kushan in the galaxy, and you really, really begin to hate the Taiidan Empire (who were responsible). Oh, and the reason? You broke a treaty that was ''four thousand years old'', stating you couldn't develop Hyperspace technology, that not one single Kushan even ''remembered''.]] |
| 122 | ** Then in ''Homeworld 2'', set 100 years after the events of the original Homeworld, [[spoiler:the Vaygr attack Hiigara with a massive fleet consisting of three [[KillSat Planet Killers]]. These are incredibly cool, but just happen to each carry a large payload of [=ADWs=], which they try to drop on Hiigara. You have to destroy the missiles before they enter the atmosphere, and then use the [[LostSuperweapon Sajuuk's]] WaveMotionGun to destroy them, because it is [[MadeOfIron the only gun that even has a chance of denting them.]]]] |
| 123 | * This is what will happen in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' if you fail to prevent the moon from completing its suicidal fall after the three-day time limit. |
| 124 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': anyone with a mid-sized ship and a handful of fusion torches can achieve this by attaching the torches to a sufficiently sized asteroid and accelerating it at the nearest planet. The fact that the asteroids usually have to be towed in from hundreds of millions of kilometers away makes it slow and comparatively easy to prevent if you have local space superiority (either by destroying the enemy ship before the crew can disembark, or by just picking off the crew and their building-sized torches on the asteroid with either your space guns or your own disembarked ground force). If you ''don't'', then even a handful of terrorists in a freighter can cause a planetary extinction. The krogan rendered several turian worlds uninhabitable this way during the Krogan Rebellions, which just [[BerserkButton pissed the turians off more.]] The ''Bring Down the Sky'' DLC focuses on stopping a group of terrorists from doing just that, and a scientist they took hostage describes what happen if you fail: |
| 125 | -->''X-57 is twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the Earth's dinosaurs. It would be like millions of fusion bombs striking at once. With the heat of the blast, a thousand kilometers away, clothes would ignite. There'd be global wildfires. Air shock will flatten everything for hundreds of kilometers. Terra Nova will die, Shepard -- not just our colony, the planet. There'll be a climate shift, mass extinctions, the ecosystem won't recover for thousands of years. Millions maybe.'' |
| 126 | ** Regular orbital bombardment can also accomplish this with more security, albeit it's more expensive. A lot of worlds you visit have planet descriptions that say they used to have sapient life but have now been rendered uninhabitable after a long period of bombardment by dreadnought-scale weapons. The implication is that the [[AbusivePrecursors Reapers]] were responsible. |
| 127 | ** According to Javik, the Protheans "burned hundreds of worlds" during their own version of the Rachni Wars. Given his wording and the instance of a Collector ship (derived from Prothean technology) reducing a city to slag in literally five seconds in ''Anime/MassEffectParagonLost'', it was likely accomplished with ship-mounted particle beam weapons. |
| 128 | * Lots of ways to get this in ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2''. Excessive bombing, especially with biological weapons ends like that. If you give Space Crystal a chance, it wipes your colony with Death Spores. When you fail to defend a colony from [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Space Amoeba]], it devours everything and, after it finished its lunch, every planet in the system is toxic forever (or until Class X variant is applied). |
| 129 | * ''VideoGame/Persona2'' ''Innocent Sin'': [[spoiler:Nyarlathotep wins as the planet is stilled, effectively wiping human civilization and most surface creatures off the face of Earth. The last remnants of humanity still exists in the Xibalba starship, but they drift endlessly in space and the possibility to rebuild the surface world is slim to none. Humanity is pretty much screwed... [[ResetButton but there's a way out]], if certain individuals are willing to pay the price...]] |
| 130 | * Considering that an {{omnicidal|Maniac}} [[EldritchAbomination dragon-thing]] [[GodOfEvil of supreme power and malevolence]] is [[TheBadGuyWins about to]] [[PlanetEater suck the world hollow]], this is the ''best''-case scenario for what [[NayTheist Defiant]] [[PlayerCharacter Ascended]] are [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong sent back in time to avert]] in ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}''. (It's quite possible, or even likely, that it's [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class6}} far]] [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX worse]] than that.) |
| 131 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'', one high level quest involves visiting an alternate world where one of these had taken place. Apparently, the society there was made of powerful mages who found the Stone of Jas, an artifact from which the gods draw their power. Usage of it advanced their society, but it also awoke the Dragonkin, who proceeded to burn everything. When the mages tried to use the Stone to defend themselves, it simply made the Dragonkin more powerful. "Your power is taken from the Stone. Our power ''is'' the Stone". |
| 132 | * In ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Baion]] plans to use Tartaros to initiate "CODA" early, it being a WorldSundering that would result in the [[WorldInTheSky floating islands making up the world]] being brought back down to the planet's surface, with all their inhabitants being fried to death as a result of passing through the volatile Plasma Cloud Sea. While Tartaros itself can only force the Shepherd Republic down to the planet, Yurlungur's dialogue indicates that the activation of CODA would result in all other Juno being summoned from their dimensions and doing the same to all the other floating islands scattered across the world.]] |
| 133 | * What happens to planets in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' if you don't kill infected creatures in time in some some Space Stage missions. Everything, except your colonies, dies. |
| 134 | * ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' sees the Protoss initially doing this to every single planet that the Zerg have colonized, wildlife or Terrans notwithstanding. |
| 135 | * The Neutron Sweep Planet Killer weapon from ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' fires a massive wave of radiation on the target world, killing everything on it. Given the sheer damage it does to the biosphere, that world takes a -30% Habitability penalty for the next decade, so some unicellular life survived it. |
| 136 | * As he explains right before the final boss fight, the Grandmaster from ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' plans to burn off all life on Earth so he can recreate life on it and become their true God. [[spoiler:Subtle hints in ''Strider 2'', set 2000 years after, seem to imply ''he succeeded''.]] |
| 137 | * ''VideoGame/TabulaRasa'' started off AfterTheEnd of human civilization on Earth with this. In the opening video, Sarah Morrison's voice over says "We never stood a chance?" Not the Bane's forces, the world militaries made quite a showing after the initial invasion. So rather than fight it out, the Bane ''[[ColonyDrop dropped Ceres onto Earth]].'' |
| 138 | ** Remember the Miracle Planet video? That was a simulation of an impact by a 500 km wide asteroid. Ceres is 950 km wide. |
| 139 | * ''VideoGame/UltimaVI'' and ''VideoGame/UltimaVII'' has the Armageddon spell, which annihilates all life on the planet except the caster and people with natural immortality. (The Xorinian wisps don't think it's very powerful since it can't affect parallel universes, and like to hand it out as a SecretTestOfCharacter. This is also why life in Britannia suffered a drastic setback 700,000 years ago...) |
| 140 | * The notorious Corrupted Blood Incident had the potential to do this to the entire ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' game world, and had it been intentional on the part of the developers, it clearly would have. Despite being a glitch [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow that was eventually repaired]], the effect it had on the game world was ghastly, leaving skeletal remains of [=PCs=] and [=NPCs=] alike strewn on the streets of the major towns and cities. (Oddly enough, actual epidemiologists and counter-terrorists have studied the incident for its implications of how human populations could react to a real-world epidemic.) |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': Lin's narration, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8OZswWXkw during the opening cutscene]], recounts how the people of Earth were caught in the crossfire of two warring alien races, and were forced to flee their planet's destruction. But the Ganglion caught up to them only two years later and destroyed [[ColonyShip their ship]], forcing them to crash-land on planet Mira. |
| 142 | [[/folder]] |
| 143 | |
| 144 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 145 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' any planet that will develop Sburb will be bombarded with meteors that are teleported away from Skaia during the Reckoning. These meteors start out extremely infrequent and small, but will grow in intensity and size until the players of the game are to enter the Medium. After that point, the meteors will easily wipe out any and all life on the planet. However, the game will also send Exiles from the Incipisphere, whose purpose is to recolonize the planet of the Heroes. |
| 146 | * At the end of ''Webcomic/{{minus}}'', minus brings everything in the afterlife BackFromTheDead. This causes all life on Earth (including the recently revived) to be crushed by the sheer influx of bodies. [[SubvertedTrope Life lives on in the spirit world, though.]] |
| 147 | * ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}''. When a group of Eebs is liberated from slavery, they decide to demonstrate how pissed off they are by raining telepathic fire upon planet Carpsellon and melting its surface to slag. [[spoiler:There end up being a few survivors: Red-9, the lone Eeb on Carpsellon's surface, is able to telepathically repel the fire, and several other characters are protected by being far underground when the fire comes.]] |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 151 | * This is one of the endings in ''{{VideoGame/One Chance}}''. |
| 152 | * The Website/SCPFoundation mentions a number of "_K class end of the world scenarios" (XK, NK, etc), most of which are kept vague because of [[NothingIsScarier [DATA EXPUNGED[=]=]]]. |
| 153 | ** The most prominent to be described in detail, [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-093 SCP-093]], is one of these, possibly a borderline Class 6. [[spoiler:And we know so much about it because it already happened.]] |
| 154 | ** One of these scenarios ends with every inch of the Earth [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-871 being buried under hundreds of miles of cake]]. No, really. Just because it sounds silly doesn't make it less deadly. |
| 155 | * ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'': The antagonist Turbo Mecha Sonic/Metallix causes this to befall [[spoiler:[[DeathWorld Mobius]] after {{colony drop}}ping the Death Egg onto it]] He more or less intends to do this to the Mushroom Kingdom as well. |
| 156 | * ''TabletopGame/TechInfantry'' has a the moon severely structurally weakened by having miniature black holes repeatedly fired ''through'' it, then a large starship crashed into the crater at a large fraction of the speed of light, shattering the moon into a billion pieces. The fragments of moon rock shower down onto the surface of the Earth, creating enough kinetic heating from the impacts to ''melt'' most of the surface of the Earth and boil the oceans. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 160 | * WordOfGod has confirmed that this would have been the ultimate result of Nightmare Moon's actions in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (as during TheNightThatNeverEnds the entire planet will inevitably freeze over), had she not been defeated. (The ''Pony Psychology'' fan work series has an entire chapter devoted to Celestia [[WhatTheHellHero lecturing Luna on the true consequences]] of the environmental and ecological effects of an endless night -- with frighteningly accurate scientific references and detail -- mostly in an attempt to quell the notion that Nightmare Moon might have been doing them a favor.) |
| 161 | * ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]'' has Ultron pulling off this when he managed what he couldn't in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' and launch Earth's nuclear arsenal (and probably hunting surviving humans as well, Black Widow and Hawkeye being possibly the last two survivors). And then comes Thanos, Ultron kills him to get the Infinity Stones, and with the knowledge they provide decides to wipe out life on a ''universal scale'', mostly through Class X planet destruction. [[spoiler:And once the Watcher makes Ultron realize the existence of a Multiverse, he intends to do this on other realities as well, forcing Uatu to aseemble a group of Guardians of the Multiverse to stop him.]] |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 165 | * Arguably, this might have happened to Mars and/or Venus. Some of the most extreme worst-case global warming scenarios see Earth heading this way too, although this view doesn't have widespread support among even climatologists. |
| 166 | * It's been estimated that Earth itself has experienced this several times (fortunately, all were at the time where life was only ''beginning'' to become complex before each event). |
| 167 | * This is the likely outcome of any asteroid strike of a sufficient size larger than a few miles across: Earth's surface would be burned away or covered in magma, and the only survivors might be archaeobacteria deep within the earth's crust. Worst news? It'll eventually happen, since the death of the Sun will have the same effect. |
| 168 | ** The first episode of the Creator/DiscoveryChannel miniseries ''Miracle Planet'' demonstrated this using an asteroid around 500 km in diameter (that's smaller than the diameter of the above-mentioned asteroid from ''Armageddon'') colliding with present-day Earth. |
| 169 | * If atmospheric carbon dioxide levels ever drop below 150 ppm, most photosynthesis will stop, plants will die, and everything that depends on plants will die. How close did Earth come to such a disaster, and how recently? Well, during the several most recent glacial periods of the current Ice Age, atmospheric CO₂ levels dropped to 180 ppm -- that's only 30 ppm away from Armageddon. These glacial periods happen about every 100,000 years and the last one was a mere 20,000 years ago. We're all damned lucky to be alive. A few multicellular organisms that don't depend on photosynthesis, such as the giant tube worms found near deep-sea hydrothermal vents, may survive, making this more of a class 4.5. |
| 170 | ** Not quite. There are plants able to make photosynthesis with just 50 ppm and even 10 ppm, with evolutionary pressure perhaps being able to produce ones that required even less, even if taking the needed carbon in other ways (association with fungi, becoming carnivorous, etc). Such low carbon dioxide concentrations are expected to be reached some hundreds of millions of years from now due to an increase of weathering brought by the increasing temperatures caused by an aging Sun, moment in which complex life will be FUBAR. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 |
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