Poll

What do you think the state of things is beyond Scandinavia?

More of the Silent World: Trolls, beasts and giants everywhere
7 (16.7%)
A few groups of humans, but mostly wilderness
14 (33.3%)
USA and other superpowers are relatively intact
0 (0%)
Scorched Earth: nothing, not even grosslings, is alive
0 (0%)
Plenty of places like Scandinavia, but isolated
21 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 38

Voting closed: July 03, 2015, 03:28:37 PM

Author Topic: Survivor communities outside the known world  (Read 227762 times)

JoB

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #450 on: March 31, 2015, 07:37:38 PM »
Though closer inspection of the map seems to show the northern Shetlands as cleansed...
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snotra

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #451 on: April 01, 2015, 02:47:12 AM »
Is this the area immortalised in Erskine Childers' book 'The Riddle Of The Sands'? It certainly sounds a possibility - yes, a long shot, but not impossible, especially as Heligoland allows an easy link to the islands to the east of Jutland, which would be a tempting way to expand, and might even lead to contact with the SSSS area...
After some digging into the internet, yes, that is the same general area. It does extend further west than Memmert, though.
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Koeshi

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #452 on: April 01, 2015, 05:49:05 AM »
I would argue the point that if Britain were going to quarantine anywhere it would be the Shetlands since it is so far away from the mainland.  Chances are, the Royal Navy could have pulled a mini-Iceland there.  I mean just because the south of England is going to be devoured by monsters and refugees doesn't mean that the whole country will go down with it.

Perhaps that would happen.  Though I imagine most of the military would be quickly lost in a futile attempt to control the infection on the mainland.

kalmia

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #453 on: April 03, 2015, 01:44:32 AM »
If you want to talk isolation, you don't get much more isolated in the States than Appalachia, the mountains on our east.  They span several States, but the people that live up there don't really belong to anything except each other.... Poor, isolated, inbred, and willfully ignorant.  Not like Amish, who reject technology for religious reasons, but just out of plain old obstinance....  I expect they would weather things pretty well, since there isn't anything resembling modern medicine up there.  Oh sure, high death at first, but those people are naturally tough, I would expect a high rate of immunity by year 90.  Most of those folks up there are Survivalists of one sort and another as well, so I would expect communities would be very isolated, travelling only to the closest neighbor on each side for trading and getting news.

Wow.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen such a large collection of ignorant stereotypes about Appalachia stated so baldly.  I guess it's nice that you think our inbreeding and willful ignorance will save us from the apocalypse, but I'm afraid we'll probably turn into trolls with everyone else.  I'm from a town in the heart of the Blue Ridge.  Sure, there are some roads and houses out in the county that are hard to get to in bad weather, but everyone there still has the internet and uses plenty of modern medicine, thanks.  We've got a hospital and even a university!  Somehow I and other high school classmates are in the process of getting PhDs, so I guess we need to be a little more willful about that ignorance.  The only survivalists I know are from Milwaukee, in the Midwest.  Maybe they'll make it. 

I know you posted this months ago, but I'm hoping you will still see it somehow and realize what a hateful comment that was.  I just found this webcomic and absolutely love it, and I'd like to point out that the characters, all with different levels of education and different class backgrounds, some from very isolated places, are all fully rounded, interesting human beings and not just backward stereotypes. 

RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #454 on: April 03, 2015, 03:18:48 AM »
Wow.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen such a large collection of ignorant stereotypes about Appalachia stated so baldly.  I guess it's nice that you think our inbreeding and willful ignorance will save us from the apocalypse, but I'm afraid we'll probably turn into trolls with everyone else.  I'm from a town in the heart of the Blue Ridge.  Sure, there are some roads and houses out in the county that are hard to get to in bad weather, but everyone there still has the internet and uses plenty of modern medicine, thanks.  We've got a hospital and even a university!  Somehow I and other high school classmates are in the process of getting PhDs, so I guess we need to be a little more willful about that ignorance.  The only survivalists I know are from Milwaukee, in the Midwest.  Maybe they'll make it. 

I know you posted this months ago, but I'm hoping you will still see it somehow and realize what a hateful comment that was.  I just found this webcomic and absolutely love it, and I'd like to point out that the characters, all with different levels of education and different class backgrounds, some from very isolated places, are all fully rounded, interesting human beings and not just backward stereotypes.

I'll never understand why so many people think that the Appalachian region is 'fair game.'
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RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #455 on: April 03, 2015, 04:36:24 AM »
The heavily populated areas of Texas---Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, etc.---would go down in the first outbreak, although they'd put up a valiant fight with their technology and research centers. The suburbs dependent on those cities would go next. A number of ranches near the border, where desperate, infected people would come in the hope of receiving American emergency care, would also be eradicated. At the end of the day, it'd look something like this:

Society would consist of loosely connected homesteads, with very little technology save that what could be salvaged by the occasional risky foray into formerly populated areas. A formal government would be non-existent, and daily life would be governed according to an ill-defined semi-tribal system, with day-to-day survival the primary concern.
Trolls/giants/et.al. do not like sunlight: they are sensitive to cold, and I think it's safe to assume that they are sensitive to extreme heat as well. The "danger times" would be in the spring and fall, when it is frequently overcast and the temperatures are mild. Winter and summer however, would be relatively safe. In order to protect themselves, I think it likely that the survivors would adopt the old Native American technique of setting wildfires in order to drive out the trolls and prevent trees and suchlike from taking root. This periodic arson would be nowhere near as professional as that of the Swedes: the fires would be set, and then the survivors would focus on keeping the flames away from their homesteads. It would settle into a yearly routine---hunting, scavenging, and harvest during the summer, fires during the fall, hunting during the winter, fires during the spring, and repeat.
Cats, including cougars and bobcats, would be immune: so would possums and armadillos which would quickly become meat staples. Other mammals would be threats, not only infected ones, but healthy predators (feral dogs, coyotes) and competitors for limited food sources (raccoon, deer). Cold-blooded creatures would also be eaten.
Immunity would be a very hit-and-miss thing with only the most basic medical understanding and equipment available. The rules for everyone would be: don't ever touch a troll. Wash often. If somebody starts to show a rash, expel him or her, and in two weeks, if healed, he or she can return.
All in all, the Texan survivors would have it pretty tough: I expect life expectancy would only be about 20-40 years, and that there would be a high infant/child mortality rate, for which reasons large families would become a necessity again. Life would be hard and short. But they'd survive as best they could, hoping for the day when things would become easier.
 
« Last Edit: April 03, 2015, 04:45:12 AM by RandomTexanReader »
... Texas ... is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it....
John Steinbeck
:usa:
:vaticancity: Domine, non sum dignus....
:mexico: No habla Espanol
:croatia: Hvala za nishto, dobro za nishto, mali vrag.

kapitod

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #456 on: April 03, 2015, 06:12:13 AM »
Aboriginal Australians used to do a similar tactic of mass burnings to clear land.  Do it enough times over 90 years and the Texan landscape is going to change, bringing in new plants, and then new game animals.

Though I don't think Texas has much in the way of natural defenses save for it's size.  The Danes had an island, the Finns had lakes, the Norwegians and Swedes had their mountains.  If you're relying on being too far away from population centres to survive then you're going to have to always maintain those distances with your settlements, which is gonna limit your land options.

RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #457 on: April 03, 2015, 06:45:52 AM »
Aboriginal Australians used to do a similar tactic of mass burnings to clear land.  Do it enough times over 90 years and the Texan landscape is going to change, bringing in new plants, and then new game animals.

Though I don't think Texas has much in the way of natural defenses save for it's size.  The Danes had an island, the Finns had lakes, the Norwegians and Swedes had their mountains.  If you're relying on being too far away from population centres to survive then you're going to have to always maintain those distances with your settlements, which is gonna limit your land options.

Good point.
... Texas ... is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it....
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Koeshi

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #458 on: April 04, 2015, 08:06:39 AM »
What makes you so sure that possums and armadillos would be immune to infection?

Hrollo

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #459 on: April 04, 2015, 11:09:08 AM »
Yeah, those are mammals; unless otherwise explicitely stated, they are not immune. They are not part of the felidae family. Possums aren't even placenta-bearing mammals, they're marsupials, more closely related to kangaroos than to cats. Armadillo are part of the xenarthra order, the original south american mammals, which is basically just armadillos, sloths and anteaters at present.
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RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #460 on: April 04, 2015, 11:18:35 AM »
Possums have abnormally low body temperatures, which prevents incubation of a lot of diseases, while armadillos are the only species besides man that carry the leprosy bacterium, while being immune. That was my rationalization, although I could be (and probably am) wrong.
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Sunflower

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #461 on: April 04, 2015, 03:40:14 PM »
Possums have abnormally low body temperatures, which prevents incubation of a lot of diseases, while armadillos are the only species besides man that carry the leprosy bacterium, while being immune. That was my rationalization, although I could be (and probably am) wrong.

That's actually an interesting speculation.  (I never knew about possums having low body temperature, though I did know about armadillos and leprosy.)  Word Of Minna has not yet been specific about Rash vulnerability and whether/which feline species *other* than domestic cats are Immune. 

Until we hear otherwise, I think it's perfectly plausible that the Rash affects only Old World mammal species -- i.e. not marsupials, and possibly not even the Xenarthra. 

(Plus, I'm too amused by the thought that if possums are Immune, there could be some crazy cult out on the Texas prairie that puts dumb old Blessed Possums up on a pedestal...)

EDIT:  Haha, *flattened, dead* possums, run over by various Mad Max-type vehicles still running on all that West Texas crude out there!  They really would be Walkers Between the Worlds and Familiars of Death!!   :o
« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 04:29:42 PM by Sunflower »
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RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #462 on: April 04, 2015, 04:22:39 PM »
That's actually an interesting speculation.  (I never knew about possums having low body temperature, though I did know about armadillos and leprosy.)  Word Of Minna has not yet been specific about Rash vulnerability and whether/which feline species *other* than domestic cats are Immune. 

Until we hear otherwise, I think it's perfectly plausible that the Rash affects only Old World mammal species -- i.e. not marsupials, and possibly not even the Xenarthra. 

(Plus, I'm too amused by the thought that if possums are Immune, there could be some crazy cult out on the Texas prairie that puts dumb old Blessed Possums up on a pedestal...)

Oh my gosh, that is hilarious.
... Texas ... is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it....
John Steinbeck
:usa:
:vaticancity: Domine, non sum dignus....
:mexico: No habla Espanol
:croatia: Hvala za nishto, dobro za nishto, mali vrag.

Vafhudr

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #463 on: April 04, 2015, 04:34:14 PM »
Well funnily enough I guess you could say that playing possum is ultimately standing still and staying silent.
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RandomTexanReader

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Re: Survivor communities outside the known world
« Reply #464 on: April 04, 2015, 05:19:59 PM »
Well funnily enough I guess you could say that playing possum is ultimately standing still and staying silent.
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« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 05:22:09 PM by RandomTexanReader »
... Texas ... is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it....
John Steinbeck
:usa:
:vaticancity: Domine, non sum dignus....
:mexico: No habla Espanol
:croatia: Hvala za nishto, dobro za nishto, mali vrag.