Did any of you read the Clerical Errorverse (http://archiveofourown.org/series/766596) one-shots on Archive of Our Own? Similar idea, though only slightly touched upon by comparision.
Gwenno, what a lovely idea. And as you say, not without precedent! *giggling at the thought of some of my friends who are Finns but who settled in Australia after the war, mostly in the Outback, being so confronted*. I can't draw, so not for me, but I'd be game to write such a thing if someone else wished to illustrate it.
I was really hoping that I'd be able to do this one myself as a short comic, but I don't think I have the time to do the whole thing by myself and do it justice now, so I'll leave it here in the hopes that someone will pick it up:
Tuuri and The Swan
Upon entering Tuonela, Tuuri becomes aware that The Swan is suffering under the backlog of all the paperwork from 90 years ago when Finns (amongst others) died very quickly and in great numbers. Tuuri picks up on this and manages to convince the Swan to let her stay on and help her with this rather than going to sleep, as she has quite a bit of skald-ing experience which she can put to use (Tuuri is very persuasive obviously). The Swan is persuaded and with time Tuuri proves herself not only competent but invaluable. Because there were Finns all over the world at the time of the rash outbreak, there's quite a lot of fieldwork in the countries where they died which the Swan had never gotten around to completing due to overwork, and Tuuri is tasked with going to these places in the Swan's stead. She is given wings to travel the birdpath, and is finally able to see the world.
I feel that there's enough of a precedent in mythology for mortals to die and become helpers of the gods that this could be done really nicely, and I hope that it rings enough of a bell with someone that they'd be willing to take it up.
Did any of you read the Clerical Errorverse (http://archiveofourown.org/series/766596) one-shots on Archive of Our Own? Similar idea, though only slightly touched upon by comparision.Oh hey, I wrote those! I could probably do a third piece that focused on Tuuri at some point, though of course i'd love to see all of your takes on the story.
https://imgur.com/6qZSeQX (https://imgur.com/6qZSeQX)
I'm not sure if this would count, but here's a terrible crossover map I made. It's pretty much Parks & Recs, but set in the SSSS universe. Let me know what you guys think.
Also, credits to Reddit User u/madsmadsmadsmads for using their far superior map of Pawnee as a reference.
(https://i.imgur.com/M9RCH9B.png?1)
I'm not sure if this would count, but here's a terrible crossover map I made. It's pretty much Parks & Recs, but set in the SSSS universe. Let me know what you guys think.
Also, credits to Reddit User u/madsmadsmadsmads for using their far superior map of Pawnee as a reference.
Re: Lalli stuck in Emil's head, looking out of Emil's eyes.I'm necromancy-ing this thread bc here, have this (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23409673). Couldn't shake this concept, so I wrote a tiny thing about it. I chose Emil to be the one who's red-green color-blind, because I felt like that could be possible since his education was what it was :D Lalli as a scout should have keen eyes, especially if he's going around in the forest picking berries and mushrooms and whatnot.
Wouldn't it be fascinating if one of them was red-green colour-blind and never knew it until now?
It is difficult to imagine Lalli laughing, but it's a nice mental sight.This is exactly why practising with short silly drabbles like this one is a good idea, folks! Gets you more familiar with the characters.
I'm necromancy-ing this thread bc here, have this (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23409673). Couldn't shake this concept, so I wrote a tiny thing about it. I chose Emil to be the one who's red-green color-blind, because I felt like that could be possible since his education was what it was :D Lalli as a scout should have keen eyes, especially if he's going around in the forest picking berries and mushrooms and whatnot.Remember, necromancers are wimps. Don't be like them.
How old would that person be? Or would they be descendant of whoever first expected bombs to fall?I guess that would be up to the author, I don't know.
Don't mean to breach the quiet, but I have a quick question for a fic I'm thinking of doing. What superpowers do you think any of the characters would have? (How strong, from 1-10?)
Like, would Emil have pyromancy, or Reynir something rune related? What strength do they have?
I'm just wanting to know what y'all think, lol
Don't mean to breach the quiet, but I have a quick question for a fic I'm thinking of doing. What superpowers do you think any of the characters would have? (How strong, from 1-10?)
Like, would Emil have pyromancy, or Reynir something rune related? What strength do they have?
I'm just wanting to know what y'all think, lol
Indeed! (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/15125563) (it was a Tv Tropes recommeneded fanfic before I started paying attention to the page, so it's link is relatively easy to find)
And something completely different: that Manegarm (how do you do the circle above the "a" with a keyboard?)
Wait
O_O
What?
You're kidding, one of mine, recommended on TV Tropes? O_O O_O
But, from memory, the superpowers in that one were merely extensions of abilities in non-immune mages, and therefore only Reynir and Onni (and a handful of SSSSonae and OCs) had them, not the crew as a whole. I thought of it more as a took-a-different-fork-in-the-road story.
My Character Map suggests it's Alt+0229
That’s what I do with Icelandic characters. On Word you can use “insert symbol” where you can find what you are looking for without knowing the codes.
I've set up the language toolbar on the taskbar so that I can easily switch to a different keyboard if I want to write in a language with some different letters. Currently I have Swedish, Norwegian, Czech, Icelandic. I find this far easier than always copypasting or trying to remember the right codes for the letters I want.You might find the X11 (as in, Linux, BSDs, etc.) concept of "Compose Key" (actually left-Shift+right-Ctrl for me) interesting, then, as it works mostly along visual likenesses:
Mikkel can walk on water.
What about celestials? Are they confused by the fact that apocalypse gone not according to their plans?
Some fic ideas I've had, starting with nations:Those are all interesting questions. (and I cropped the quote just to make it "lighter").
Do Norway, Sweden, and Finland still exist in Y90? There would still be Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish speakers, but there would be no one left who really remembered what it was like to live in a unified nation of millions of inhabitants; most would know only their own fortified villages, or those close enough to reach by short sea voyages, though there would still be some older people (like Trond) who heard about nations from parents or grandparents. With no remote communication technology and all travel being dangerous, I think nations might well fall apart.
...
Anyway, I can imagine stories about people in some of these smaller communities: maybe they're even now just being brought back into contact.
Maybe there are people trying to hold the nations together, and meeting either active or passive resistance.
Might there be judges "riding the circuit" to the small towns? (This used to be the case in America.) How much authority do people grant them, and why?
Has Christianity really disappeared everywhere, or are some of those little villages Christian communities or communities of other faiths?
Oh, I was figuring that villages surrounded by forests full of grosslings would have intense static interfering with radio communication. They'd have to have really powerful equipment to punch through the static, which they mostly wouldn't have.And I agree.
Some fic ideas I've had, starting with nations:My thoughts on Sweden are as follows (feel free to disagree):
Do Norway, Sweden, and Finland still exist in Y90? There would still be Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish speakers, but there would be no one left who really remembered what it was like to live in a unified nation of millions of inhabitants; most would know only their own fortified villages, or those close enough to reach by short sea voyages, though there would still be some older people (like Trond) who heard about nations from parents or grandparents. With no remote communication technology and all travel being dangerous, I think nations might well fall apart.
Sweden is the most unified of the three; 3/4 of the population lives in "Mora", which I assume means Mora plus various farming villages around it. If you add up the populations of the four largest cities, you get 18,550, leaving 2,350 Swedes who live in villages smaller than Lulea with a population of 350. I wonder how much attachment those villagers feel to Mora or the old nation of Sweden, given they had to run things for themselves for years or decades with no help or contact from outside.
I believe the connection between the smaller settlements and their Nations would be quite loose, probably like it happened in the Middle Ages, when local leadership dealt with almost every issue. The presence of the State was felt mostly through taxes, overall laws and decrees and, of course, the military.I'd consider that highly probable.
Another idea for a story: A small group's strive to build on their isolated village a tower tall enough to allow their old, salvaged radio, to work. But many consider that enterprise foolish, and a waste of resources and time. And then the murders began. ;)
Sweden has a railway web on the map going north to at least Skelleftea; in the comic, the journey from Bjorkofjarden to Mora is shown to be completely safe during the day; during the day, even traveling on the Sveavagen rail line through the areas of highest danger is safe. For all these reasons, I think travel within Sweden is easier and more commonplace than in any other nation besides Iceland, with a concomitant greater sense of nationality and common purpose, among other things. I half-joked years ago about Sweden probably taking over the rest of the Known World outside Iceland for this very reason.I fully agree with all that.
OTOH, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have been their own nations for essentially over a millennium, back when travel was very nearly as difficult as in Y90, so there might be a stronger sense of nationality then we'd think.
Or villages might build tall towers where they could install lights and flash messages by Morse code to each other, in the evenings when the weather was clear.That's a interesting idea. Something like optical semaphores (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph) might work. Problems would be range (better on places with mountains, like Norway) and weather, as you mentioned. So they could have that but still wish to have a radio.
Speaking of which, they would probably need (or at least want) electricity. Given that the villages would be very small and they'd mostly use electricity for lighting (using LED lights, which are efficient, numerous, and likely to keep for decades under good conditions), they might have small water-driven turbines (which would have to be protected against grosslings) or they might have wind-belts (which can be built from scrap materials). I don't think solar cells would hold up well for decades.Water turbines are limited to places where you can find a height differential big enough to generate a good amount of power. Of course any old-style water mill could be adapted to provide some energy, perhaps enough for a few devices (I'll try to find out later how much), and, as you said, there's the grosslings problem...
(I just don't know where the Danes have the manpower and industrial base to make those big tanks and weapons... Bornholm is small and seems to be very rural. Maybe that equipment was made by Swedes or Icelanders, or maybe they are old world material and it's just that Minna's way of drawing them wasn't very accurate...)
That's a interesting idea. Something like optical semaphores (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph) might work. Problems would be range (better on places with mountains, like Norway) and weather, as you mentioned. So they could have that but still wish to have a radio.
Water turbines are limited to places where you can find a height differential big enough to generate a good amount of power. Of course any old-style water mill could be adapted to provide some energy, perhaps enough for a few devices (I'll try to find out later how much), and, as you said, there's the grosslings problem...
I would bet on wind power. Small units are easy to build and mantain, long lasting and would work on many places, and can be safely behind walls, far from any grossling. It would be wise, however, to find a way to "set the sails down" when a storm is coming... And since it's canon that they have good batteries it would be possible to store some energy for those moments without wind.
Speaking of batteries, considering they would be something made only on bigger cities (I would say just Iceland and Mora), carrying a new set of batteries for a village would be an important task, turning them on convenient plot devices. :)
Maybe Iceland would have the most complex system? Medieval Iceland had property taxes.Candle tax (https://www.efile.com/unusual-strange-funny-taxes-throughout-the-world-and-history/), maybe?
Candle tax (https://www.efile.com/unusual-strange-funny-taxes-throughout-the-world-and-history/), maybe?That link has some US states taxes
And in the flashback the wording is “send for containment ships”. How do they send? Homing pigeons? Might work for one way alarm. Radio? Courier who has a special one person quarantine facility to allow emergency message delivery?I would like to think each town may have had something to communicate outside. Especially for Saimaa, where the residents were distributed all over the tiny islands. Also if most of the populace were not-immune, there would need to be radios of some-sort in case of incidents like the flashback provided.
Waaaay back, during the Iron Age / Viking times there were chains of bonfires used to alert many settlements when raiders were coming.
The "lord of the Rings" movies used that premise. I have to admit it is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
Though they could use that premise to call for the ships. (Tossing salt, borax or something to make the fires a different color. ) One color for invasion, one color for sickness, one color for send quarantine ships (or the sickness one would do also)
Though the same question would come to mind. Some of the places the bonfires burned were pretty inhospitable.
Maybe a military post?
(even funnier, it was forbiden inside towns to "make fire" (be it with a lighter or matches) on open air, for example to light a cigarrete. The law phrasing referred that those devices had to be used "under roof tile". Therefore some people carried a small piece of tile with them and covered their lighter/match with it to avoid penalties. And yes, that's true, I'm not making it up :D )The truly hard-to-believe part actually is that they apparently never followed that up with a tax on roofs (https://www.flickr.com/photos/robhurson/20276840681/). >:D
They definitely need to have a reliable system for letting the capital know if there is an outbreak. It could also be a pre-enchanted item that has the one function of alerting the capital. Sort of like Väinö’s Filing Cabinet. If each item was specific for each village, at least the message that things are going to hell could be delivered. Of course the new tax-avoiding frontier villages would have none of these.
Tehta, you are right about the mage-familiar birds! Finnish mages can’t walk on the Dream Sea like Reynir can, but apparently the ones whose luonto is a bird can fly. Lalli just yelled for help and Onni was able to show up, when the sea serpent was about to drown Lalli.
They definitely need to have a reliable system for letting the capital know if there is an outbreak. It could also be a pre-enchanted item that has the one function of alerting the capital. Sort of like Väinö’s Filing Cabinet. If each item was specific for each village, at least the message that things are going to hell could be delivered. Of course the new tax-avoiding frontier villages would have none of these.
And with that comes to mind another idea for a story:
What if we had a non-immune mage that spends most time on the dreamworld, to the point others have to care about his physical body, made weak by immobility. This mage could act as a guardian / guide to those that venture on the dreamworld, but sometimes (obviously the worst ones - Murphy's law) would be drawn away by the real world needs. One could bounce the story from Real to Dream and back...
I've been thinking a lot about immunity and trollification...Interesting thoughts. 1% of immunity seems a good estimate.
Beasts, because there's a very huge number of mammals out there, so it's not only 70 million trolls (aprox. 1% of the World's human population) but many more beasts. Just the number of cows is estimated on 1,5 billion, so it would be 15 million (large) cow-beasts to fight... Now add sheep, pigs, dogs, rabbits, horses and so many wild animals...
The eugenics part raises two questions:
First, we saw no evidence of that on the source material. But Minna may have not give much thought to the topic, or maybe we just didn't see enough to notice.
Second, there's the disadvantage of reducing the reproduction rate and the gene pool, which is worrying when you have a very reduced population. (not to mention the societal stress connected to the implementation of that ban...)
So any sufficiently protected community would, I believe, allow the reproduction of non-immunes, considering they should be kept behind fences and any outbreak immediately dealt. That, again, matches with the Hotakainens story.
The non-immune couple that is banned from having kids and decides to move away to the wild, or to search for another community, so they can realize their dream looks like a good starting point for a story...
But a very small community might well decide they were better off reducing the gene pool and hoping to survive that way long enough to meet up with other survivors. In fact, there might be numerous such small purely immune communities, which make contact through brave explorers, and then meet up in relatively safe circumstances (say, a Yuletide celebration) where the young people from different communities meet up, and maybe move from one community to another.
A very small community might have started out purely immune. If 1% are immune, then 1/10,000 couples will be both immune, as would be their children. In a small town, you might have one surviving family with a few other immunes that reached them as all the non-immunes in their original community died off. There would be a certain desperation to find other communities so as to avoid either dying off or surviving via incest.
One of my ideas that I have never started on: encountering a tribe of people who consider non-immunity to be a weakness and a sign from the gods that the baby should not be let to live. Perhaps even consider non-immune babies to not be humans at all. After all, there are gods that are not very nice at all.
Regarding the dangers of diminishing the gene pool, after a couple of generations people could well have forgotten why it’s not a good idea to have kids with your first cousins. Again, not in Mora, but in smaller communities and particularly isolated ones. The more obvious signs of inbreeding don’t necessarily show in the first or second generation (depending on the starting point of course). Humans have an incest taboo that is probably at least partially biological in origin, but it doesn’t work 100%. Think of e.g. the Pharaohs.
The same grim idea has occurred to me too. Non-immunes are allowed to breed, but newborns are intentionally exposed to the Rash. In one generation, you have no more non-immune young people.As those small communities probably don't have access to medical resources to assert immunity, I can easily see the process of exposing newborns to the rash becoming a ritual.
All true. In the first generation, though, you might not have any problems at all (again depending on starting point), and that may give time for your little community to find another.
...
As those small communities probably don't have access to medical resources to assert immunity, I can easily see the process of exposing newborns to the rash becoming a ritual.
It would have a practical side, allowing the identification of those "too weak" to live, but could also assume a religious meaning: "Let's ask the gods if this child shall live."
I can also see another story here: A couple that decides to flee before birth to avoid having their baby tested.
As for the incest, I see that happening in very small and isolated groups, but the knowledge and the social taboo associeted with it would last for a long time, I believe, and deter any community that had another option, even if it implies some travelling...
BTW, you're lucky to have parents with such good literary taste, lwise! I had to resort to some older cousins...
Oh, that feudal idea is so cool! The immune warrior caste enslaving the non-immunes as serfs. Maybe it would take a bit longer than the 90 years, or be located somewhere else than the Nordics where people tend to be proud of the relative equality of our societies. But even in the nordic area, a group that ran out of ammunition and had no technology to produce more, and protectors of villages would have to bodily go to guard the perimeter… yes, it’s definitely a scenario that I can see!
In this case there would need to be some reason why small and isolated groups don't immediately merge as soon as they find each other. Perhaps they're in a safe place that they don't want to give up, but which is too small to allow another group to move in. Or perhaps each group has access to certain resources, and they're better off staying where they are and trading rather than giving up a resource.As for reasons for those small groups or tribes not to merge, I believe it's all related to resources.
As long as we're considering immunes and non-immunes, a long time back I played with the notion of an immunity-based feudal system. Sure, the immunes are protecting the non-immunes, so they expect protection money ... lots of protection money. In that case, the immunes would have an incentive *not* to allow the gene to spread, keeping the non-immunes as a permanent oppressed class, unable to flee or even fight back, since wiping out their "protectors" would mean dying horribly as the trolls moved in.
Perhaps such a society exists somewhere deep in the northern mountains, and our heroes could stumble upon it.
I'm imagining medieval fortresses turning again into the center of villages... At least in Europe we have many of them. Of course the ones in the middle of large cities wouldn't be useful because they would be surrounded by trolls, but there's a good number of them on isolated areas, or with just a few buildings around, which would be easy to clean.
I've thought about all your beautiful European fortresses and how great they'd be in these circumstances. If a small group moved in, there might even be enough space within the medieval walls for them to farm. We don't really have anything like that around here. In fact, where I live, we also don't have islands or mountains, so surviving the Rash apocalypse here would take some doing!Some time ago I was doing research for a story that would happen in Portugal but on the SSSS Universe, and I had fun finding places where survivors could settle. There's a huge number of suitable fortifications! Some are small castles, but there are a few very large ones. Évora is a 50.000 habitants city that has a large system of walls that date as far back as the romans.
I live in the Northeast US one of the most populous areas of the US. There *is* no place to hide for us
Some time ago I was doing research for a story that would happen in Portugal but on the SSSS Universe, and I had fun finding places where survivors could settle. There's a huge number of suitable fortifications! Some are small castles, but there are a few very large ones. Évora is a 50.000 habitants city that has a large system of walls that date as far back as the romans.Spoiler: show
I imagine that after a few years of cleansing and demolitions (to liberate áreas for agriculture) the central area of Evora, that now houses some 25.000, could be the home of 5 to 10 thousand survivors, that would also cultivate areas outside the walls, returning home for the night.
May I ask where do you live? Just the area/city, no need to write the full adress (postal code included). :)
Anyway, even on a plain area there's always something... probably a river. If you get a U shaped curve it's only necessary to create a small section of wall to protect that area. And than you also have water supply and some fishing, maybe even aquaculture.
If there's a lake building houses over stilts could also be a solution. There were several villages around the world using that solution. It's particularly good to protect from small critters, infected or not.
Don't you have offshore islands?
I live in central Oklahoma. I don't have a lot of experience with the sort of river you're thinking of. Our rivers generally consist of a shallow stream flowing through a lot of sandbars, though they can occasionally turn into a raging torrent. We do have lakes and reservoirs, but I don't know how long those would persist without maintenance.Well, I don't have a lot of info on the place, but this one seems nice, even if a bit small...
I would think Madeira would be a good place also. We went there years ago and hiked following the Levadas (which were awesome BTW) They are easily maintained. i think they may still use them somewhat. Also they have this huge desalination plan on the island . This was one of the coolest place we visited :) I do not remember which trail we did it was about 7km and there was this neat little grotto with a waterfall and little pools to splash in One of my more lasting memories :)Since you liked Madeira so much (and I'm with you on that, it's an amazing place) I believe to have found a good location for your post-rash settlement...
Hmm. I know some people down that way. Maybe I should visit them and check out my village.That's one nice idea (and a good excuse for a walk along the river on a nice day ;) )
Do you see the sandbars in the river?
Since you liked Madeira so much (and I'm with you on that, it's an amazing place) I believe to have found a good location for your post-rash settlement...
The Madeira islanda don't have many "natural fortifications", because the island is basicaly one huge mountain. It's steep, but not enough to prevent trolls from climbing in most places. Unless you manage to keep the whole island clean and safe the best place would be on the Eastern tip of the island (see map below) where you could have two good choke points to fortify (A and B). A would be much better, giving you a small village (to be renamed dmecktown, of course) with a fishing port and some land to plow...
Going back for a second, for the discussion on what would have killed people early on, I don’t think anyone mentioned health care emergencies or any health condition that is primarily or entirely survivable only if you have access to modern medical care. Also, anything involving pregnancy and birth. So much can go wrong.Agreed. Particularly in the beginning you would have a lot of old people that suddenly don't have access to the necessary medication and/or health care. Many current conditions (i.e. diabetes, hypertension, etc...) would go completely out of control and kill a lot of people. And the problem would only become a bit less relevant with time because the survivors lives would gradually become shorter. Birth associated deaths would become very common, almost as they were centuries ago.
As for Ensi with dark magic, I love the idea.On LoTR Galadriel feels tempted to take the One Ring for herself. She already has one of the three Elven rings, and putting that together with the One Ring would make her very powerful. She could easily defeat Sauron... but she knows that all that power would end up corrupting her.Though the LoTR references throw me off.
Edit: It thow me off (confused me) because I am not really familiar with LoTR. I realized that could come across differently.
Ensi using dark magic would be really interesting; perhaps she ends up a Kade through practising it for long enough? I also wonder if she would end up passing down any of her techniques to Onni and Lalli, and they might end up using some of what they learned to defeat her.Yes, maybe that's how a Kade begins, by meddling with rash-related dark magic...
Thank you for the explanation.You're welcome! I'm glad it was useful.
For medical care, you would also have people dying because of medical emergencies. People being killed by things like accidents, assaults, and animal attacks that would normally be treatable.
Most people would not have extensive medical knowledge, and those who did would rarely have the proper resources.
Mental health issues could also be a massive killer. With the stress of the apocalypse and no therapists or medication, a lot of people could be driven over the edge. Minor incidents like a small cut or wisdom teeth growing in also would have the potential to slowly turn deadly without medical care.
The idea occurred to me that maybe Michael, Mikkel's twin, doesn't really exist. Mikkel adopts the Michael identity when he's trying to be responsible. Or, conversely, Michael is his real name, and he adopts the Mikkel identity when he wants to cut loose.... wasn't there a canon photo showing them both? With different postures (no mirror trick), and one having a hand on the other (so no partial exposures of the film)? Granted, there's always mannequins and disguises ...
My idea (which I repeat again, sorry) is that our Mikkel is actually Michael and the actual Mikkel who only wreaked havoc at any job ever taken is currently stuck at the farm.
Thanks lwise! I have a lot that isn’t there, should collect them up.