Civilization-Destroying Catastrophe

All right, in a fantasy story I'm writing, the backstory features a Magitek civilization on a Crystal Spires and Togas level, and a disastrous series of events results in the complete annihilation of this civilization, to the point that a full rebuild would be impossible. This catastrophe results in the southern half of the empire's former dominion becoming completely uninhabitable, save for dangerously mutated creatures that lie within the area; the northern half, on the other hand, is able to get back on its feet and develop working (though not friendly) countries and civilizations after some time, though none are on the same level as the old one. The question I have is, just how long would it take for a civilization about the size of the United States to recover from an apocalyptic event like this, to about an early Age Of Exploration- Late Middle Ages level of civilization?

edited 4th Sep '11 4:00:15 PM by tropetown

It probably depends on the exact nature of your catastrophe.

Large scale tectonic and volcanic events (think several Mt St Helens scale events in the space of a century or so) could probably get back to that level in less than a century, at least once the political situation stabilised.

It was a manmade (well, elf-made) disaster; it started off with a religious schism, which turned into a civil war, which resulted in an unexpected magical reaction which destroyed the source of power for the civilization and wiped out everything in the southern half of the area. Think of a nuclear disaster on a country-wide scale, and you'll have an idea.

edited 5th Sep '11 8:34:31 AM by tropetown

Hard to say. We don't know just how advanced they got, and just how much tech and knowledge survived the catastrophe. Basically, we don't know how good their tech was before and after the disaster. I reckon you can just wing it if your technology is considerably different from Earth's.

Otherwise... we had about 15 centuries to go from the very basics of civilization to the Age of Exploration, I think? So just subtract from that as you see fit.

A lot might depend on how much technical knowledge small communities built by scattered survivors can salvage and maintain.

I suspect if the governments and economies of the U.S. and its states completely collapsed today, there would be a race against time by some groups to rebuild before the infrastructure, books, and surviving artifacts from the old empire are completely gone, and others preying upon them. If the "preservers" won and united, society might begin to bounce back in less than a century. If they lost it could take much longer. The odds would be against them, I think.

edited 6th Sep '11 7:12:06 PM by FrodoGoofballCoTV

That's what I thought too; as it was, the destruction caused by the loss of this magical artifact (which was a one of a kind relic from an age where Physical Gods channeled the energy and wishes of Eldritch Abominations... long story) would have rendered the rest of their Magitek useless, except in small pockets. Eventually, there was going to be a Master Race of elven survivors who would brutally conquer the south of the habitable zone, but would be beaten back and have their empire reduced to a Crystal Spires and Togas city, the refugees spreading in a diaspora all through the southern lands. However, depending on how long it would take for civilization to return, the idea may become implausible.

The level of technology, since magical advancement has replaced modern science, would be comparable to a somewhat futuristic society, however, the advances would be of a different nature than the ones we have here on Earth. How much would be left is what I am trying to determine; like I said, the south was completely annihilated, but the north remained comparatively untouched. I'm considering actually having the north be unconquered through the old civilization's history to explain why it wasn't completely annihilated, though the question after that becomes why would such a powerful, conquering, technologically superior nation allow this region to survive.

edited 6th Sep '11 10:05:58 PM by tropetown

Maybe it wasn't worth it?

And now that the cataclysm happened and the northern country is unscathed, what would stop it from annexing the south? That would make the rebuild and recovery one hell of a lot faster.

I think that's a new record for thread necromancy.

Doesn't stop it being an interesting idea, I suppose there's a few good explanations for why the situation of the survivor states stayed the same allowing them to develop.

Maybe the sheer scale of the disaster, along with the layout of the country and the location of the new "Northern States" just make them very hard to get to from anywhere else; imagine if the only land route to the north of said country was the now irradiated South, and the survivors who fled north took refuge in inland mountains where the air was cleaner. In this situation it would be incredibly hard to find the settlements after sailing around, if sailing around is even possible, and by land would require a forced march across a huge barren wasteland filled with danger. The difficulty of even reaching the North might even convince other nations that even if people had made it out, the land was too harsh for and civilisation to survive, and they might come to believe that there's nothing out there after all.

Dont overlook the power of taboo. Those Southern lands are cursed. Cursed I tell you!