History ApocalypseHow / Class2

* Unsurprisingly, the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'', a BadFuture caused by Charles Xavier's accidental death, starts with ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} attempting to destroy the human race, resulting in the planet becoming {{The Social Darwinist}}ic hellhole, with humanity being hunted by mutants, and Apocalpyse's minions trying to destroy any civilization. UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica is ruled by Apocalypse and his followers, and the Human High Council is confined to {{UsefulNotes/Europe}} and North Africa. Much of the world is devastated by war, with Avalon the only safe place.

* While the series started out with some aspects of civil order still around, the ''Film/MadMax'' films wind up here by the end.
** The implied nuclear war happened between the first and second movie. The first took place in a {{dystopia}}, but civilization was still intact.

* ''Literature/TheAsteriskWar'': In the wake of an extinction-level event known as Invertia, the entire world has turned into a {{Dystopia}} led by a MegaCorp. Entire countries have been forced back to a system of monarchic rule or even reduced to slums, because it would be profittable for said MegaCorp. The only place that isn't a [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Location]] is the Asterisk city, used primarily as a stage for very dangerous martial arts duels and tournaments among superhuman teenagers.

* In Mary Gentle's ''The Golden Witchbreed'', [[{{Precursors}} the eponymous species]] who inhabited the planet of Orthe created a virus called Ancient Light, which could sterilize the entire planet of all organic material and fuse the terrain into a glass-like substance. Luckily, it was stopped, and only some parts of the planet were affected. The Witchbreed survived only as a few hybrids in one of their outposts and most of their advanced technology was lost, while their slave race rebuilt medieval-level civilization in the unaffected regions.

* Stephen King's ''Literature/TheStand'' -- the flu has wiped out almost everyone (we see only the situation in America, but it is confirmed several times the pandemic was global), but the forces of good and evil are [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive calling the survivors]] to two cities, and once they begin to gather it turns out there are thousands. The potential for abuse of abandoned power sources is a main issue, suggesting that after evil is defeated humanity will get right back on its feet in terms of technology (which actually [[ParanoiaFuel worries]] some of the [[LuddWasRight protagonists]]). In the end, [[spoiler:God sets off a nuke in the evil city]] (perhaps surprisingly, more an example of ChekhovsGun than DeusExMachina), and the folks in the good city appear to [[spoiler:be starting right down the road to rebuilding the old civilization, warts and all]].

* ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' is set on Athas, once a beautiful fantasy world, now rendered mostly inhospitable desert due to years of magic misuse and genocidal warfare. Most people live in a dozen or so City-States each ruled by a tyrannical sorcerer king, or they live outside in hunter-gatherer tribes and roving warbands. Metal-working is a lost art, a pathetic iron mine that would not even be considered worthwhile on another world is a priceless resource here that City-States would go to war over, so most weapons are made of bone, wood or obsidian (with mechanics for breakage). Horses have been extinct for millennia and nobody remembers them, and other flora and fauna have been twisted into perverse mockeries of their old selves; bears are gigantic clawed monstrosities with insectoid carapaces. Wizards are feared and hated for the destruction their art caused the world and so must hide their activities and disguise their powers as psionics (the 3E ''Expanded Psionics Handbook'' was largely built off of ''Dark Sun'', though it made no open mention of the setting). Reading is prohibited among commoners and literacy is punished with death, slavery is commonplace, bloodsports are ubiquitous, and slave gladiators are prized possessions. ''Dark Sun'' describes a horrible, deadly, despoiled world where only the strongest survive, combining the swords-and-sandals grit of old gladiator films like Film/{{Spartacus}}, the sword-and-sorcery dark fantasy of Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian, the planetary romance pulp adventure books of Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, and a dash of ancient Mesopotamia for flavour.

* ''TabletopGame/MutantFuture'', a close-as-you-can-get-it retroclone of ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'' that uses the Labyrinth Lord rules, is likewise set after a massive nuclear holocaust.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'': The Great Rain of Fire, a planetary cataclysm that devastated the world 3000-odd years ago, knocked human and elven civilization from scifi-grade technology back to savagery. The exact nature of the weapons Evergrun's elves and Blackmoor's humans threw at each other is unknown, but nukes were probably the ''least'' of them, as their conflict was so violent that it ''changed Mystara's axial tilt''. Note that this same event rates as a Class 3 for some of the other races that were around back then, and that still others only subverted a Class 3 because the Immortals preserved some of them in the Hollow World.

* In ''VideoGame/BloodRayne2'', an vampire apocalypse takes place when Kagan's Cult develops a gaseous substance that allows vampires to walk under daytime, causing them to emerge from the shadows and enslave humanity. While its implied to be a Class 0 Apocalypse, as the whole event appears isolated to one unnamed city, according to Severin all of civilization has crumbled in question of hours and the ending shows that humans were reduced to a few underground pockets lead by Brimstone Society.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' gives the player the option to instigate a non-lethal Class 2: because [[spoiler: all global communication and technological infrastructure is being routed through Area 51 so TheConspiracy can control it, destroying the facility sets everybody back a few centuries]].

* "VideoGame/FarCryNewDawn takes place seventeen years after a total nuclear war destroyed the world. Multiple countries, like Isreal and North Korea, are totally gone and no superpowers still exist. Much of the world is now scavenging societies and large areas of the world are so irradiated they're uninhabitable.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' has this on an interstellar scale: [[spoiler: An ''entire arm of the galaxy'' was cut-off from the main civilization by alien invasion. Cue a utter collapse of infrastructure, and a fall into barbarism and witchcraft, hard enough that Enroth, the world Heroes 1-3 and Might & Magic 6-8 takes place on is overall at a late medieval/early renaissaince level ''more than a thousand years after said Silence'', with Heroes 4's Axeoth apparently ''even less'' developed before the Enrothians arrived.]] Though the worlds ''Might and Magic I'' to ''V'' takes place on appears to be exceptions (there is evidence to suggest the primitivity of the cultures are intentional on the part of the designers rather than this trope); evidently the Ancients don't let such minor issues as the spoilered part stop them from grandiose planetary-scale experiments.

* ''VideoGame/{{RefleX}}'' ends with the Raiwat army that's been at war with Earth retreating, the ZODIAC units destroyed...but due to ZODIAC Ophiuchus duking it out with the ZODIAC units and causing massive collateral damage in the process, the Earth and its population have been destroyed so badly that it takes millenia before humanity can re-develop the technology to reach the orbital Mechanized Temple again.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory Toba Catastrophe]] is an event that may have happened about 75 thousand years ago, when a supervolcano reduced human population to 10,000 individuals total. There's a lot of tantalizing evidence that this may have happened, but no absolute proof. In fact, evidence from a 2018 scientific [[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248417302750?via%3Dihub study]] states that the supervolcano event may have not reduced the human population that drastically and may have had little-to-no effect on African humans, potentially making this a Main/DiscreditedTrope.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory Toba Catastrophe]] is an event that may have happened about 75 thousand years ago, when a supervolcano reduced human population to 10,000 individuals total. There's a lot of tantalizing evidence that this may have happened, but no absolute proof. In fact, evidence from a 2018 scientific study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248417302750?via%3Dihub) states that the supervolcano event may have not reduced the human population that drastically and may have had little-to-no effect on African humans, potentially making this a Main/DiscreditedTrope.

** This is what happened after the [[GreatOffscreenWar War]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI of the Magi]].

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Shadowbringers'' entails preventing this on Hydaelyn by preventing a ApocalypseHow/ClassX scenario in The First. [[spoiler:As revealed in ''Shadowbringers'', the Calamities that plague Hydaelyn (aka: "The Source") coincide with the destruction of one of thirteen parallel worlds, and the subsequent influx of vast quantities of aether into Hydaelyn. In this case, the destruction of the First would cause an overabundance of [[LightIsNotGood light aether]] into Hydaelyn. At the same time, the [[TheEmpire Garlean Empire]] would deploy a biological weapon known as "Black Rose" in desperation as they face defeat in their war with Eorzea. The light aether would amplify the toxic effects of Black Rose to such a degree that the entire planet would be poisoned. Societies would collapse as people die ''en masse'', with the survivors reduced to roving tribes fighting over increasingly scarce resources, and Hydaelyn's heroes (including [[PlayerCharacter the Warrior of Light]]), unable to help, since they will all be long dead.]]
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' has entire cities laid to waste, with Xen wildlife taking over and Earth under complete control of an interdimensional empire. It's unknown how few people remain, but the fact that there's still a resistance movement 20 years after the Seven Hour War implies that there's still hope, even when there's EverythingTryingToKillYou and the infrastructure is undergoing decay.

* ''FanFic/FalloutEquestria'': The main story is set after a near-total total collapse of the world's previous societies and nations caused by a war similar to the one seen in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series.

* This is the setting for the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' universe. After [[WorldWarIII global thermonuclear war]] wipes out civilization and much of the human population, a post-nuclear {{Zeerust}}-filled AWorldHalfFull provides the backdrop for the games. Social organization is tribal in most cases and only the New California Republic even approaches [[Literature/GunsGermsAndSteel Jared Diamond]]'s definition of a "state".

* ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man X6}}'' begins with the Earth being devastated by the collision of the Eurasia space colony. Despite Zero canonically destroying the Colony by flying a space shuttle into it, enough fragments of Eurasia hit the Earth to cause severe environmental damage and pollution, bad enough to force humanity underground while the Reploids work the surface to make it habitable for humanity again. This has consequences for the rest of the series (and the following ones).

* Unsurprisingly, the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'', a BadFuture caused by Charles Xavier's accidental death, starts with ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} attempting to destroy the human race, resulting in the planet becoming {{The Social Darwinist}}ic hellhole, with humanity being hunted by mutants, and Apocalpyse's minions trying to destroy any civilization. North America is ruled by Apocalypse and his followers, and the Human High Council is confined to Europe and North Africa. Much of the world is devastated by war, with Avalon the only safe place.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIV'' shows an example that dips into, or hints at a Class 2. Vohaul took over the supercomputer which controls every technology related aspect of Xenon and more, and turned it against the population. Not only was the casualty toll extremely high, once Vohaul is defeated and the supercomputer outright formatted, it is unknown if this completely crippled Xenon technology or not, and society has already outright collapsed because of the computer's revolt. However, Roger Jr. says that rebuilding will be done, even if it takes time.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s second major plot arc features two settings that took place after Class 2s as the first two story chapters:

* Franchise/{{Halo}}:

** Come ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', and [[HellOnEarth the demons have found their way to Earth]], with most of humanity slaughtered, the world's cities reduced to rubble, and the remnants of humanity struggling to fight back. It would've become a ApocalypseHow/Class3A had the [[PlayerCharacter Doom Slayer]] not showed up in time.

* The UrExample is the various Great Flood myths that appear in various cultures. Western tropers are probably most familiar with the Judeo-Christian version in the Literature/BookOfGenesis, but ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' was earlier, making this OlderThanDirt.

* Creator/LRonHubbard's ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' has only 30,000 humans left, but the other trillions of beings left in the Universe can be hired as needed to rebuild the world, as the Earth's people more-or-less own the Galactic Bank and hundreds of thousands of unused colony planets.
* In Literature/TheBible, The Great Tribulation. Exact numbers are unknown, but the description "Mortals will be rarer than the gold of Ophir," combined with Revelation detailing the fact that over half of the population will die from the war, famine, plagues and various other disasters, and most of the Christians will be beheaded, burned or starved to death, while none of the unbelievers survive Armageddon means that you could expect maybe one out of a thousand people who enter the Tribulation to come out alive, perhaps a bit more. As the Second Coming immediately follows, the difference between live and dead humans at that point becomes inconsequential.

* ''Literature/{{Cell}}'', by Creator/StephenKing. An unexplained phenomenon causes cell phones to emit a [[BrownNote Pulse]] that turns their users into violent berserkers. While we never see the world outside the New England area, it's implied that the Pulse affected cell phone users all over the world.
* In the twist ending of ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'',[[spoiler:it turns out that the eponymous city is an underground enclave built to weather a series of nuclear wars and deadly plagues. The outside world has regressed to pre-industrial levels. However, the people are still fairly well off, and, with the help of the Emberites and a few caches of LostTechnology, are starting anew by the end of the series]].

* ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' by John Wyndham. The light from a meteor shower renders most of the human race blind, leaving them vulnerable to carnivorous walking plants that sting you to death and eat your corpse, and reproduce rapidly. Don't bother watching the [[Film/TheDayOfTheTriffids 1962 film]] which conveniently has a HappyEnding when they suddenly discover that the Triffids [[spoiler: can be killed with sea water]].

* In ''Series/TwelveMonkeys'' the world is at this state thanks to the plague and headed for Type 3.

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Deconstruction of Falling Stars", its shown that humanity all but wiped itself out in a massive civil war, several decades after the Shadow War. In a direct homage to ''Literature/ACanticleForLeibowitz'', it's revealed that at one of the monks shown is a Ranger in direct contact with [[TheFederation the Interstellar Alliance.]]
* The plot of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' -- [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 both series]] -- is based on a multiple Class 2, the Cylons all but wiping out humanity's twelve planetary colonies and pursuing the pathetically small number of survivors through space.

** The Reapers in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E8FathersDay "Father's Day"]] erased almost all traces of human life to fix a paradox in time, if left unchecked reaching a Class 3.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]], the Daleks killed off every human on board the [=GameStation=] apart from Rose, and firebombed the Earth, shifting its continents, making it ''at least'' a Class 2.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock "Gridlock"]], the mood drug Bliss mutated, wiping out all life on New Earth apart from the undercity of New New York, which was safely quarantined by the Face of Boe.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]": The Master and the Toclafane's AlienInvasion has apparently caused this within a year. After the AlienInvasion exterminated 10% of the Earth's population, the Master is now the unquestioned Lord and Master of the entire Earth and the remaining humans are effectively his and the Toclafane's slave labor. TV no longer works and technology has regressed severely, the Master has carved monuments to himself all around the world, and the Toclafane have converted the entire south coast of England into a spaceship-constructing shipyard. Later, we hear about the ruins of New York, the fusion mills of China, the radiation pits of Europe, and the entirety of the ''islands of Japan'' being burned with everyone on them. Thankfully, the whole apocalypse suffers a ResetButton by the episode's end.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2009ASDreamland Dreamland]]"; from the sounds of it, the Viperox inflict this class of devastation on every world they successfully conquer (possibly a ApocalypseHow/Class4 in terms of the non-sapient biosphere). The Doctor states the Viperox "savage and decimate" every attacked world, but also that there's a good chance that there could well be ''something'' (if not much) left of the Gray aliens' homeworld for them to live on and salvage after the Viperox attacked it. The Viperox's plan is to "tear [planet Earth] to shreds" for humanity as soon as their TeethClenchedTeamwork is at an end.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], [[spoiler: the Master does this in a very creative and, admittedly, totally awesome manner: by turning (almost) the entirety of humanity into ''carbon copies of himself,'' giving rise to, aptly named, "The Master Race". We all get better shortly afterwards, though.]]
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon "Day of the Moon"]], [[spoiler:we learn that the Silence have occupied the Earth since the age of fire and the wheel. Canton Delaware and the Doctor trick the Silence into post-hypnotically ordering their own destruction through a message in the 1969 moon landing. As there are probably remote corners of the Earth where people haven't seen the Moon landing videos, it's unlikely to be a Class 3.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "A Taste of Armageddon", Kirk threatens to use "General Order 24" which is this caused by [[DeathFromAbove Orbital]] [[NukeEm Bombardment]]. May range as far up as Class 6 (the order is to destroy ''all'' life on a planet, and the upper destructive limit of a Constitution-class starship given time to work over a planet is never firmly established), but Class 2 is the minimum.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' TV series implies this has occurred, at best. At worse, it's a Class 3a in the making.

* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'' has humanity defeated and imprisoned in a medieval tech level for 5000 years. The guardian [=AIs=] have a reset option of killing off 90% if the humans get troublesome.

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' takes place 900 years AfterTheEnd. The events of the series all take place in Europe due to it being the only inhabited continent.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':