Have you settled on a theme, yet? It sounds like a post-mad max like world or Fallout 4-esque. I'm assuming no magic either before or after the cataclysm and modern tech before.
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It's hard for me to think of just one theme. I can tell you what I want to show in this work. I mentioned special groups and the plot is going to be coming from within them, so naturally will see different relationships between the members and, as I mentioned, the environment and culture of these groups are completely different, therefore I want to show how despite all of that, these members still face the same problems within themseves.
Yes, no magic before of after the cataclysm, but modern tech will be present after (no too futuristic). The closest it gets to abnormality is that reality feels really altered in some regions (that might have happened after the cataclysm and the problem the regions face might have something to do with this occurrence).
Btw, the style of the landscapes and places is more of Metro 2033.
edited 19th Sep '17 2:07:16 AM by kay-na
Post apocalyptic conditions don't last forever. Either the environment stabilizes, the people adapt, or the people die off. If I'm reading your setting right then you should be well into the rebuilding phase and this will end up playing out a lot like Fallout with small groups of survivors turn into city states and eventually nation states. New industry is on the rise and technology has begun moving forwards again.
Kind of a post-dystopian setting. It's an interesting time politically, socially, economically, and technologically.
Politically, it's an ideal time to start empire building. If you can get two settlements to pool resources you can force a third into submission. Pool those three and you can conquer a fourth. You don't even have to force some city states, simply promising protection and access to trade would win over some smaller villages. Large nations are evolving and meeting.
Economically, you've got trade picking up as the appearance of larger nations means that settlements can now specialize. This poses the question of currency and eventually banking.
Socially, art and patronage is coming out as people have the money to bother.
How are they producing water, food, fuel, and progeny?
I've been working on an idea for my future TV series and not even two days through I've already encountered one question I cannot think the answer to. I'm hoping someone will be able to join me in a discussion and help me think of something.
The idea I have is not a plot, but the setting of the plot itself. I'm going to be very obscure, excuse me. So, the setting is an alternate-earth, not linked to our own (much like game of thrones, it's earth-ish but not exactly). Apocalypse happened a long time ago (so for the people there, the "apocalypse" is just a period mark, like "before and after christ" for us). But the world doesn't function like ours does, so it's basically a wasteland all along. Known "world" is split into west, east, north and south. Let's call those 4 parts - regions. Every region is completely different: different culture, government and regime. But they all have one thing in common - a problem, that forces every region to make special groups, which are different in their methods, but face the same problem. These groups are critical for the world. My question is: what problem do all these 4 regions face in a somewhat post-apocalyptic environment?. I want it to be action-ish, but not using over-used tropes like zombies or monsters. Here are some facts, that might be useful: 1) since the post-apocalyptic environment forces people to evolve in terms of survival - medical, technical and mechanical knowledge is more common (f.e. prosthetics are more common, so the problem of the regions might be the reasons why they became more common), 2) one of the regions has a high fatality "score", it comes to the point where seeing a corspe on the street is not something unusual. If you have any ideas or are willing to discuss the matter, please comment.
edited 19th Sep '17 1:23:41 AM by kay-na