[Mohoender]

A WORLD IN AGONY :

The world as we know it has ceased to exist. The events that followed the falling of the Berlin Wall took a very different path and this resulted in what is known as the Twilight War. Damages and casualties had reached a level that was never seen before except during the time of the great plagues in Medieval Europe. For some years, now, the world political organization has vanished almost entirely and only a handful of states survived. Almost everywhere, law and order have vanished and chaos prevail. Life is short, violence is everywhere and all the power that remain is in the hands of local, and often bloodthirsty, leaders. Fightings are still going on but the ressources are scarce and most modern equipment have disapeared.
The world economy is devastated and most large cities have been reduced to rubbles. Working industries are rare and, everywhere, time took its toll: Infrastructures are in decay and most of the industries left are abandonned or working at a very slow rate. Nowadays, most productions are coming out of small local industries. Various equipments that had survived are know rotting in the field as nobody could repair them anymore. Some countries retain only a very little amount of industries (China, Germany, USA...), others still have a tiny industrial capacity that is producing what it can to supply their armies (Canada, Russia, Turkey, UK...), some do have a true production capability but this is working at a reduced rate (France, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Thailand...) and a few were mostly untouched and continue to produce goods to a fair level (Australia, Denmark, Switzerland...). Oil and Gas are now rare and expensive goods, seeing much reduced productions and reserved to a few strategic domains (Such as AvGas production). For the most part, Ethanol, Methanol and natural oils have replaced them while natural oils are also used as lubricants. Everywhere, the technology has falled back when control circuitries and electronic components were fried by the EMP generated by the high altitude exchange that ended the nuclear phase of the war. Prewar predictions of EMP proved to be understimates : civilian and fixed military infrastructures were damaged extensively while most vehicles proved surprisingly resilient.
The ecological balance of the planet was also changed deeply. Entire regions were devastated and are now called “Dead Zone”. Some of them were hit by nukes but, in fact, most of these fell victim to chemical or biological contamination. They are wastelands where nothing survive for long. To get in one of these “Dead Zone”, you better have some good equipments and good motivations. However, the nukes themselves, as the various accidents that followed some of the bombings, never had the estimated consequences. Of course, many live stocks in these areas died consequently but a good portion of them survived. Today, those who dare go near a nuked area will have the surprise to discover a rich nature where life, sometimes a mutated one, is everywhere. On an other hand, the climate has changed deeply but the consequences were somewhat less dramatic than expected. A “Nuclear Winter” stroke the world but it lasted only for about six month; temperatures have dropped by 20°C and the casualties were heavy. Since then, the climate has changed in a way no one really expected. In the Northern Hemisphere, average temperatures have dropped by 5°C and the winters are longer, generally going from mid-October to the end of May. Droughts, floods and tornadoes are more common even in Europe. The Ice Shelf goes almost to Iceland and most of the northern seas are often covered with ice in winter: Saint Laurent Strait, Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Life conditions in the Polar Regions are extremely difficult, and the lands located near the Polar Circle are almost entirely empty. Every winter, snow is everywhere down to the 40° Latitude. In the Southern Hemisphere, things have evolved in a different maner as the deserts and the jungles are extending again. As a matter of facts, extreme climate types have become more of the rule and Earth is lacking in temperate areas. Some species have disapeared entirely but others are doing very well and many new ones have appeared almost everywhere. Moreover, several countries, such as Japan, experienced huge natural catastrophies.

Except in very few surviving states, the governments don’t have what is needed to enforce their will and their means of action have been reduced to a minimum. State agencies have disapeared from many places and what they can do is generally reduced to almost nothing, Some military forces have been reorganized but they cannot act very far away from the local level. Most are used as police forces and they patrol areas that are too large for them. In some places, private forces and agencies have been rebuilt but these are mostly unreliable thugs.

Most of the world, the “Outlaws”, is a combination of territories that escape any kind of law and they are more or less devastated buy the war. These regions are the domain of wild animals, mutating creatures and marauding bands. From time to time, you’ll find some isolated communities that retain some kind of structure: they are generally know as the “Havres”. They are always organized around what was left from a pre-war city or town and they have a reduced population. Often facing danger, these populations distrust strangers and they will not easily let you get in. Towns and villages all have some kind militia and they keep some type of cottage industry (food process, alcohol brewing, iron work, low level mechanic, light metal work, textile or ammunition production). Some are involved in some kind of limited trade but most only produce what they need. Ressources are rare, comming mostly from recycling, and the only exception is that of alcohol. Alcohol (Ethanol and Methanol) is the new fuel and most community produce it to some extend.