Tear Jerker / Beyond Earth

• The general state of Earth is quite heartbreaking. Even more than a century after the Great Mistake, it's clear that the world will never recover. War, famine, disease and poverty are rampant, laying low once-great nations and pushing others to collapse entirely. Humanity continues to live with the consequences of its mistakes, in some cases continuing to repeat them.
  • Climate change has claimed much of humanity's cultural heritage, with entire cities having been lost to the seas and the sands. Others have been reclaimed by nature, standing as monuments to humanity's hubris. If anything, the situation depicts the Purity ideology in a newly tragic light; humanity has lost so much to the Great Mistake and its consequences that they'll fight to preserve what little is left.
  • While salvaging the situation isn't entirely off the table, it's also very far from a guarantee. Abandoning Earth to let humanity start anew on another planet has become a mainstream idea. And should the world construct and launch the Unity Colony Ship through peaceful cooperation, the player is met with a bittersweet reflection on human nature and history, followed by a poignant epigraph as the vessel departs.
    Heaven lasts long and Earth abides
    What is the secret of their durability?
    Is it because they do not live for themselves
    That they endure so long?
    - Lao Tzu
  • However, it's also possible for the Final War to break out for control of the Unity instead. Where the peaceful launch notes that centuries of division are temporarily forgotten while the world stands as one seeing the Unity depart, the Final War instead sees that same behavior on display once more, proving that humanity cannot escape its own nature even in its darkest hour.
• The fate of the United States is particularly harrowing. What was once the gold standard for a developed country has become anything but, thanks to the double-whammy of the Great Mistake and climate change. Its once-vibrant coastal cities have largely been lost to the seas, while the interior of the country faced mass migration, famine and violence. At its darkest hour, the faltering government was overthrown in a military coup, who has gone on to prove itself little better at handling the situation. The North American Union now stands on the brink of collapse, with Central's authority receding and its opponents biding their time throughout the Districts. Whoever wins the looming Civil War, most have little interest in upholding the ideals of the old USA.
  • The one group that does seek to preserve them is perhaps the most tragic of all. The United States Naval Junta is all that remains of the old United States government - a handful of islands and a woefully outdated fleet. While it has enough military muscle for the North American Union to largely leave it alone, there's little hope of retaking the mainland. And though its residents continue to uphold the USA's identity and ideals, it's clear that this is starting to fade.
    Never Let the Old Flag Fall
  • The United Nations also met an ignoble fate. Not only did the organization fail to achieve its ideals of world peace and environmental conservation, but it has been reduced to a tiny remnant in the backwoods of District Three. While it can capitalize on the North American Union's looming collapse to reinvent itself as a global power, its plan involves a military campaign to forcefully unify the world and save humanity from itself. Despite this, it strives to uphold its dedication to humanitarianism and democracy throughout, but the UN's newfound militarism is a testament to just how far they are past the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Canada was long absorbed into the North American Union, in time going from a proud nation to a glorified research facility. There is a growing independence movement that seeks to bring the country back as a sovereign state, though they face an uphill battle to do so.
• England has also suffered from a considerable fall from grace. The United Kingdom is no more, and London has long since been claimed by rising sea levels. The government is now based out of Birmingham, where it squabbles endlessly while the country withers. A civil war now looms, with most of the contenders bitterly acknowledging that England as it once was died a long time ago.
  • Special mention goes to Arthur Burr of the Cavalier movement, who suffered a Trauma Conga Line at the hands of every other major faction in the country. His family's fishing livelihood was ruined by industrial trawlers manufactured by the North Sea Alliance, embittering him to them and their New Labour supporters. When his mother was ill and dying, the medicine that could have saved her was rendered unavailable by an English Spring protest shutting down the factory that produced it, leading Burr to reject their cause in turn. Finally, after receiving a prosthetic hand to replace one he lost in an industrial accident, he was beaten by a group of anti-technology English Front supporters.
  • Cassie Kenney also had a traumatic time growing up. Her family's Lancashire home flooded six time in the span of a decade, with subsequent government inaction leaving them without food, water or electricity. Later, a bandit broke into their home in search of food and murdered her boyfriend, only to find that their refrigerator was empty. Kenney has since become leader of the environmentalist English Spring party, eager to challenge those who poison the land as it drowns beneath them.
• Some of the Russian leaders are quite deep in despair, especially with past failures and bleak surroundings.
  • Boris Morozoz was a part of the Eurasian Republican Movement and its failed revolt against the Eurasian Union. Though he survived and fled to Siberia to lead it into independent statehood, he has been haunted by ghosts of the past ever since. In his old age, he has been increasingly urged to name a successor, even though he sees none of the possible candidates as suitable for continuing his work. The Siberia he worked so hard to build is now beset by political intrigue, ethnic clashes, a rogue Chinese brigade, and ever-worsening wildfires.
    Where did the Revolution go?
  • Liev Ganin cheated his way through his military education, only to end up in the meatgrinder of the Eurasian Union's failed invasion of Central Asia. None of his friends made it out alive, while his talent for improvisation and limited tactical skill managed to land him the unenviable position of general. Ultimately, he lead Army Group South to the Urals, settling there while turning to drink to ease his sorrows. And unlike Siberia, the Urals are in a state of anarchy, beset by wildfire and relentlessly overcast skies. Ganin is left leading a sorry collection of ageing veterans scraping together whatever forces they can, all in the vain hopes of re-launching their invasion and succeeding where they once failed.
    To the South, lies Destiny.

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