Eternal Winter

Fifty Years After the Great Storm

The Year is 209X

Hell has frozen over.

For most, survival is uncertain.

Nearly five decades ago, the world entered a state of limited nuclear war. This, combined with the program to reverse global warming by releasing chemicals into the air, reacted to created a chain effect that froze over the world. In this eternal winter, society fractured, nations were undone, and now, forty years later, humanity had reverted to a time long since forgotten.

Those in the far reaches of the north and south were the most heavily affected, but all have felt the brunt of this icy apocalypse. Most of human society and progress is in ruins, shattered into hereditary feudal kingdoms and duchies at the very most, with tribal clan societies also dotting the map that once held proud, centralized nation-states. Bandits and marauders roam the snowy wasteland, searching for any human prey to rob and butcher.

Agriculture is difficult for most, and requires access to subterranean farming facilities where the eternal blizzard cannot pierce through with its frost. Animals, for the most part, having been genetically modified in the late stages of the war, have managed to adapt by growing thick woolen hides, encouraging nomadic lifestyles amongst some societies.

Guns and ammunitions, outside of the few countries that have survived this apocalypse, are extremely rare, much less those in working order. Warriors and soldiers have been reduced to medieval warfare, donning on arms and armor that would not be out of place on a 16th century battlefield or even earlier.

The shattering of industrialized society in most areas means that factories are effectively dead. This is due to disrepair, a lack of fuel, or simply because no one remembers how to operate them.

The winds howled with the bitter wind of this eternal winter. Soft, thick, pale white snow blanketed the land, as all trees save for the most hardy were left without a single leaf. Most cities outside of surviving nations lay in ruins and disrepair, ancient concrete towers protruding from the ground like monuments to a fallen era, some being taken over by denizens who can hardly remember the purposes of these long forgotten fortresses that were once shopping centers and office buildings.

But in some countries, civilization has not only survived, but has begun its expansion. Japanese sailors and soldiers under a stable government have begun to turn their eyes to the outer world, bringing back great bounties to the still shining cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more as the islands have thrived despite the winter onslaught. Yangon is still warm and its streets bustling with life, and its people now live free lives after ousting the junta. Cairo has found its calling again as a beacon of progress in the Middle East under the ideals of the long dead Gamal Abdel Nasser. The two Chinas, dwarfed, still manage to hold on with hearths in Chongqing flying the Communist flag and hearths in Guangzhou flying the blue sky and white sun. Iran and Iraq have not let the freezing of the world extinguish their fiery thirst for war against each other. Botswana, where the sun still shines, now seeks to spread the light of liberal democracy and peace to its ravaged neighbors, becoming the new hegemony of freedom in Africa. Oman’s ports flourish with trade from the partially frozen Gulf, as Muscat grew wealthy from the boon of trade. Hanoi has stood defiant to a superpower once, and won. A little blizzard would not stop the people of Vietnam from safeguarding their nation. With America frozen and its land in the darkness of tribalism and feudalism, splintered without central rule, Cuba senses the opportunity to march into their ancient enemy and establish itself as the firm victor to their squabble. Though Spain, while materially surviving, lay shattered as civil war gripped its heart once more.

In these beacons of civilization, even the internet has managed to recover, though it is more accurate to call it an intranet, as each internet network is limited to the borders of the nation, with cross-border internet traffic only recently being somewhat possible due to contact between these surviving civilizations. Good luck trying to access it if you are outside of these surviving countries, though.

Once again, however, these nations are few and far between. The lucky few who were not completely dissolved under the pressure of the eternal winter. Once proud lands such as America, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and even most of China have seen their nations crumble to the dustbin of history, their lands now laying host to petty feudal tyrants, tribes, clan rule, bandit gangs, and at most regional warlords or exiled government remnants.

And now, there is {{user}}. Who are they in this frozen world? A scavenger wandering the frozen wastes, exploring ruins and scrounging up artifacts whose purposes have been long forgotten? An armored warrior riding a genetically modified thick-haired horse with a lance in hand? A peasant toiling away in an underground farm hoping that bandits won’t spot their village? Or maybe {{user}} was one of the lucky few, a denizen of the world’s last standing governments.