History Main / CataclysmBackstory

->''"First there was the collapse of civilization... anarchy, genocide, starvation... then we got ThePlague."''

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* This is the basis of ''FanFic/ChainsOfReality'''s backstory: Something was corrupting the original reality where the prototypes lived in, and it got so bad, Proto-Lincoln had no choice but to destroy said reality and create a whole new one from scratch.

* In N. R. Eccles-Smith's HighFantasy series, ''Literature/{{Dragon Calling}}'', the very first Manna Eruption wiped out half the continent of Koventh. The southern half, Valadae, was spared due to the Beacon Thrones being built in order to thwart the disruption of manna and re-stabilise its flow. One of the main driving plots of the series is the threat of the Manna Eruption re-igniting.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames:'' We never really find out what killed most of humanity and brought about the founding of Panem (though there seem to be lingering environmental consequences). We gradually learn a bit more about the [[GreatOffscreenWar more recent "Dark Days"]] when the Districts rose in (unsuccessful) rebellion against the Capitol, resulting in the institution of the Hunger Games.

* There are several Cataclysms in the background of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', most notably the sinkings of Beleriand and Númenor, which led to the decline of the Elves and the Dúnedain respectively.

* The Crusades in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', a bloody altercation wherein the Gears, led by the [[MonsterLord Commander Gear]] Justice, TurnedAgainstTheirMasters and set forth to KillAllHumans. Beginning in the year 2074 with Justice's revolt, the war lasted over a century, only finally ending in 2175 when [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar the Holy Order]] [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away Justice in an extradimensional prison]]. It's unknown how widespread the damage was, but America--the country responsible for starting the Gear Project--[[FallenStatesOfAmerica has fallen into ruin and is now simply known as A Country]] (Sol's stage in the original game [[SceneryGorn is that of a]] {{ruin|sOfTheModernAge}}ed New York City, complete with [[MonumentalDamage the severed head of the Statue of Liberty]]), London was once at risk of being razed by [[{{Kaiju}} a Megadeth-class Gear called Hydra]], and, in one of the very first acts of war, ''[[TheTokyoFireball the entire country of Japan was obliterated]]'', with the surviving Japanese being relegated to colonies and classified as "national treasures." What's worse, [[ForWantOfANail there exists]] [[BadFuture a timeline]] [[ForWantOfANail where]] [[spoiler:I-No [[TimeTravel goes back in time]] and [[ForTheEvulz manipulates events at a whim]], leading to the death of Ky Kiske at the Battle of Rome in 2173. This is treated as a ''worldwide'' DespairEventHorizon and causes the Crusades to extend at least into 2183, with Justice's daughter Dizzy taking charge of the Gears in her fallen mother's place]]. It's implied the fallout here is much, ''much'' worse.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' takes place in the aftermath of the Great War, a nuclear apocalypse that created the game's ScavengerWorld.

* ''WebOriginal/AscensionAcademy'': The Dark War was a brutal conflict that only lasted for five years but cost the world over 80% of it's total population to end. The Darkness and it's followers swelled in numbers dramatically after the Darkness was freed, and led by the Generals this army took much of the world. They were a large enough threat that the rest of the world, which had previously been embroidered in a World War, all united against this new threat. And even still they were not enough. It took an act of great sacrifice to finally seal the Darkness away and end this war.

-->-- OpeningNarration, ''Film/{{Cyborg 1989}}''

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** Averted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. The game's opening tells of a "Legendary Kingdom" that fell to a great evil - but what fate eventually befell it, no one knows. It turns out that the island cities of the Great Sea are the descendants of that doomed kingdom - but no one even remembers the cataclysm as a historical event, only as a legend.

* Traveling through Teyvat in ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' will give hints about a war that occurred 500 years ago that destroyed a kingdom that was somehow different from the ones in Teyvat. Chapter 1, Act IV eventually reveals that this kingdom was known as [[spoiler:Khaenri'ah, a nation so technologically advanced despite not being protected by any gods that its people were on equal footing with the gods who ruled Teyvat from Celestia. By the time Khaenri'ah was obliterated, its people were [[ForcedTransfomation turned into monsters]] who would become the [[AntiHumanAlliance Abyss Order]], several gods were killed in battle (with many others traumatized), and the [[PlayerCharacter Traveler]], who came to that world with his/her sibling, was sealed away until the beginning of the game]].

* Traveling through Teyvat in ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' will give hints about a war that occurred 500 years ago that destroyed a kingdom that was somehow different from the ones in Teyvat. Chapter 1, Act IV eventually reveals that this kingdom was known as [[spoiler:Khaenri'ah, a nation so technologically advanced despite not being protected by any gods that its people were on equal footing with the gods who ruled Teyvat from Celestia. By the time Khaenri'ah was obliterated, its people were [[BalefulPolymorph turned into monsters]] who would become the [[AntiHumanAlliance Abyss Order]], several gods were killed in battle (with many others traumatized), and the [[PlayerCharacter Traveler]], who came to that world with his/her sibling, was sealed away until the beginning of the game]].

* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'' and its [[VideoGame/EndlessSpace2 sequel]] take place long after the titular AbusivePrecursors engaged in the [[GreatOffscreenWars Dust Wars]], a series of conflicts which rendered the Endless largely extinct. Many of the younger races such as the Crawlers and Vaulters were nearly wiped out as collateral damage and many still bear scars, mental and physical, to remind them.

* In Myth/AztecMythology, the world has ended ''[[UpToEleven four times]]'' since the dawn of creation. In each one, a different God served as the sun and they had a hand in wrecking things. [[MultipleChoicePast There's also some variation depending on which version you follow.]]

** A smaller example is the eruption of the [=NightWings=]' volcanic home, which forced them to hide on a smoky, lifeless island for centuries. All the viewpoint characters that are [=NightWings=] were smuggled off the island before hatching, so despite the event's significance, readers don't know much about it.

* Of the "no one knows" variety in ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', something has caused Chicago to isolate itself from the rest of the world, turning the society into the five virtue-based factions in the story.

** The Doom of Valyria. The greatest civilization in the Known World was destroyed in a single day when the ground shook, the hills exploded, and the lakes turned to acid, turning the Valyrian peninsula into an archipelago. Except for the Targaryens -- [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who left Valyria a dozen years before upon receiving a vision of the cataclysm]] -- the dragonlords were killed, and the knowledge of the vast majority of Valyrian technology was lost. Perhaps the greatest impact, however, was the fall of the Valyrian Freehold, plunging Essos into [[ForeverWar a century of war]] that it has not gotten over completely over. Valyria is still uninhabitable; it is rumored to be a hotbed of demons and other things [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow men were not meant to know]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
** The Doom of Valyria. The greatest civilization in the Known World was destroyed in a single day as the ground shook, the hills exploded, and the lakes turned to acid, turning the Valyrian peninsula into an archipelago. Except for the Targaryens -- [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who left Valyria a dozen years before upon receiving a vision of the cataclysm]] -- the dragonlords were killed, and the knowledge of the vast majority of Valyrian technology was lost. Perhaps the greatest impact, however, was the fall of the Valyrian Freehold, plunging Essos into [[ForeverWar a century of war]] that it has not gotten over completely over. Valyria is still uninhabitable; it is rumored to be a hotbed of demons and other things [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow men were not meant to know]].

* The Doom of Valyria in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.

* The world of ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'' is recovering from a double-whammy of a toxic environmental disaster, and WorldWarIII. Sometime in the 2030s, a military skirmish resulted in the release of the the physics-defying [[DeadlyGas Collapse Fluid]] from a {{Precursor}} facility near the equator, which circulated into the upper atmosphere, contaminating and rendering uninhabitable most of the world around the equator. In the massive humanitarian crisis and rush to evacuate the affected areas, old political and military borders dissolved, and a new world with new superpowers and a drastically reduced population emerged. The loss of habitable land around the equator lead to hostilities over control of uncontaminated land, and this lead to a third World War. In the wake of these events, the reduced human population required a solution for labor if society was to continue, and so advanced robotics were developed, and over time improvements made so that these new "Dolls" could serve not just in labor, but in the military and eventually work civilian "jobs", leading to the game's main premise of [[RobotGirl Cute Robot Girls]].

* The Land of Ooo in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' was implied to be our world AfterTheEnd, with mentions of a [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons "Great Mushroom War."]] This explains why there are electronics in an otherwise MedievalStasis fantasy world, and the presence of RuinsOfTheModernAge. Season 5 finally just flat out confirms that the event was a thermonuclear war.

* In a number of chronologically earlier books of ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series, some characters wonder how a large area of space that has become known as the Sleeve of Emptiness formed. The area is noticeable against the backdrop of the rest of the galaxy, because it is a large stretch of space without any visible stars. Later on, expeditions are mounted to the area, which discover that all the stars of the Sleeve of Emptiness have inexplicably exploded about 3 million years ago, leaving behind charred remains of their planets, still circling what's left of the stars. Furthermore, alien ruins and artifacts are found on those worlds. It's not until later that the truth is discovered and made public. Apparently, the area used to be home to several star-faring races. Unlike humanity, they never invented portable hyperdrives and relied on a static PortalNetwork for intersystem travel. This proves to be their undoing, when they spot a large swarm of ancient spaceborne creatures dubbed "Forerunners" moving in their direction, attracted by starlight. The Forerunners are clumps of protomatter, whose origins are generally stated to be "the first lifeforms to appear in the universe" (except for one novel that claims that they were created by a powerful EnergyBeing and are indirectly responsible for all biological life in the galaxy). Forerunners have animal-level intelligence, and their only motivation is [[HordeOfAlienLocusts consuming matter (any solid matter will do)]] and reproducing (via a mitosis-like process). Without FTL travel, the ancient races had to find other means of surviving. The [[InsectoidAliens Insects]] and the [[StarfishAliens Logrians]] chose to flee en masse via the portals into [[HumanAlien Harammin]] territory only to be enslaved by them (who then used Logrian ingenuity and Insect labor force to surround their star cluster with a shell of gravity-bending generators that hid the cluster from view (thus removing themselves from the Forerunners' menu). Some Insects attempted to build a DysonSphere in order to hide inside it, but they haven't managed to complete it in time and fled. The only race that chose to stay and fight were the [[FishPeople Delphons]], who knew that, unless they were stopped, the Forerunners would cut a swath through their part of the galaxy, consuming all planets in their path, including those with nascent life (including a certain blue-green world with primitive anthropoids). Their only means of fighting the swarm was to trigger a nova-like explosion in their stars, which they used whenever the swarm approached. By the time the swarm was finally stopped, the Delphons had detonated all their stars and went extinct along with the Forerunners.