Survivor communities outside the known world

[urbicande]

Oh, and I am new on this forum as well, so hi  . And sorry for my English; I don't use this language too much

Hi, Nuttie, and welcome!  Why not drop by the Introduction thread and say hi!

[Aierdome]

Well, I do not agree with you. Maybe majority of Poles truly don't know too much about our slavic tradition, but thank to our fantasy books and even games (especially the Witcher ) there's more and more people who know about Slavic gods, traditions and... monsters.

Yeah, slavic monsters. They were pretty much awesome and I would reaaaaaally love to see some of them. Polunocnica (Północnica), Likho (Lico), Leshy (Leszy), Koschei (Kościej), Shishiga... That would be amazing, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I know many people, who are now about 20, who could say a lot about Slavic mythology. Myself, I could tell names of slavic demons without hesitation (only with English names I've got a problem). In addition there are growing population of neopagans, who are returning to the old faith. So, who knows - there is a chance that in SSSS people in Poland would praise Marzanna  . Also, there are a few people who consider themselves as a witches (me among them   ) and try to practise "magic" using some traditions of slavic rituals. I think that it would be pretty great to see one witch in the comic. Who knows, maybe in future...

Oh, and I am new on this forum as well, so hi  . And sorry for my English; I don't use this language too much

Hi, welcome to the forum! Yes, I'd be all for seeing some Slavic monsters, though with a reimagining trolls got, I'm not certain if we'd recognize Północnica or Południca in SSSS setting. As for paganism in Poland - I admit to not knowing about it, and that's somehow despite me living here.   Having read what you've said, I've tried seaching for how many neopagans are there in Poland, and the best the Internet could come up with was "maybe several thousand", so I'm not quite certain how much of that would be immune and/or survive the initial Rash outbreak. If they do make it through, we could end up in a situation where Christianic and Slavic approaches to the Rash coexist somehow - I'd argue Poland is much more Christian (in terms of believing and seriously churchgoing population) than Scandinavian countries, so I don't think neopaganism would push Catholocism away completely.

Oh, and something I've come up with just now, regarding Poland and Catholicism: consider page 506...   Yeah, probably just my wishful thinking.

[urbicande]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Yes, I'd be all for seeing some Slavic monsters, though with a reimagining trolls got, I'm not certain if we'd recognize Północnica or Południca in SSSS setting. As for paganism in Poland - I admit to not knowing about it, and that's somehow despite me living here.   Having read what you've said, I've tried seaching for how many neopagans are there in Poland, and the best the Internet could come up with was "maybe several thousand", so I'm not quite certain how much of that would be immune and/or survive the initial Rash outbreak. If they do make it through, we could end up in a situation where Christianic and Slavic approaches to the Rash coexist somehow - I'd argue Poland is much more Christian (in terms of believing and seriously churchgoing population) than Scandinavian countries, so I don't think neopaganism would push Catholocism away completely.

I'd be curious if it got cold enough in Poland in the winter?  Maybe around Gdansk there'd be some survivors?

[Aierdome]

I'd be curious if it got cold enough in Poland in the winter?  Maybe around Gdansk there'd be some survivors?

While I'd much rather the area around my home city survived, I'm afraid Gdańsk is a transportation hub, a port city, a tourist location and part of aglomeration 7,5 hundred thousand strong, so I'm afraid it's going to get infected and trollified pretty quickly, which could spell doom for all living nearby. I'd suggest Kaszuby or Mazury, lake complexes few hours' of car ride from Gdańsk, because if a troll menaces you, you can always escape to the waters, they have few water mammals (and none big), quite some islands and low population density.

Regarding the weather, we do get a few weeks of snow (as in 2-4) every year, although if number of people and industry existing in the world has any impact on temperature, this may increase after the Rash - my grandpa recalls ice-skating on Baltic some fifty years ago. Regarding location, you'd actually be better off farther inland - Gdańsk, being seaside, has much milder weather variations.

[princeofdoom]

I realized that I'm in a good area for surviving the Rash in America. Or at least better than most places. I'm near Salt Lake City but up the mountains a ways in a little valley. Most of the population here, like much of Utah, is Mormon, and they have a command in their religion to stock up enough food and water for at least a year's survival. It gets cold enough here in winter to have a few feet of snow for months, and often there's a "second winter" a couple weeks after actual winter finishes up. So any trolls or giants that might try to be active early could easily freeze before spring comes in full force.

Most people have wells here, so no really need for water to be brought in. Food might be harder but if we could fortify the passes and cleans/protect the mountains (which still have snow rn and might into summer), then I think at least some people could live out this way in a little pocket of safety. Might want to avoid the actual "towns" proper. No clue what religious practices might spring up if we discount Christianity of whatever sort. But aside from that, they'd probably have something strongly based on Mormanism but possibly with room for "witches" of some sort. I know there's a small but pretty active population of non-Christians. So assuming a good number of them (comparatively) were to survive, due to immunity, magic abilities or both, I could see us having some magic tradition in what otherwise looks like Mormonville 2.0

[Róisín]

Utah, eh? Cold when it isn't blazing hot, by my recollection. Might be a really good place to survive!

[urbicande]

Utah, eh? Cold when it isn't blazing hot, by my recollection. Might be a really good place to survive!

At least the skiing is great in the winter!  (Of course, SLC is doomed, because it's also a major air  hub)

[princeofdoom]

Utah, eh? Cold when it isn't blazing hot, by my recollection. Might be a really good place to survive!

It's a bit cooler here than most of Utah, but it's sunny most of the year. The most dangerous time would be during thunderstorm season, when it's warm enough for trolls to be active but not as much sunlight.

[Kin]

Ok - I’m making a new thread instead of posting in the old one because this scenario of mine contradicts ALL of the fan theories so far.  (I think so anyway, 33k+ posts is a lot to check)  First I’ll show the bits of story I’m basing my facts on - then I’ll extrapolate to a North American survivor story.  Same theory could be expanded for Japan, Russia, Australia, South America… but I’ll stick to the culture I know best.  Seems to have some pretty key differences to the European Union and Scandinavia.

And... the full explanation was 10 pages long so I'm posting a document link.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1amDrRvzGjzZdWkaR6FQVU32m0LphFTMYeMwniWknzBc/edit?usp=sharing

[Kin]

And even with 10 pages I forgot to write about the cats. 

North America has a LOT of wild big cats.  (And medium/small wild cats)  We also have a feral cat problem and tons of domestic cats.  Many of those pet cats are spayed/neutered but more then enough are not for a breeding program.  The wild and feral cats will help with the wild troll, and the pet cats will protect the human communities.

While Canada is a bit more sensible about "pet" wild animals - Americans have a STUPID amount of tigers, lions and other exotic animals in private ownership.  There is more the 22,000 captive tigers alone.  And... that won't be any help.  Most are horribly inbred, bottle-raised and have never eaten live prey.  So they are dangerous to humans - but harmless to trolls.  And... probably gonna have to be euthanized because the survivors won't be able to feed them.

There is also a ton of hybrid cat crosses between domestic and (small) wild cats.  Needs to go to about the 5th generation to properly domesticate the hybrids - but they will make good troll hunters.

And I was assuming that the Hospice Camps would have pets too - dogs and cats mostly.

[DentedMech]

what about the information preservation methods? I know the Google mainframes and what not are in the mid west USA...

[Kin]

Yeah - technology won't be "lost" so much as "unable to be made" 'cus they run out of rare earth metals or exotic plants.  Like rubber.  Sugar is gonna be a lot more expensive too.  But when the Axis powers cut off supply of rubber trees from the Allies in WWII... Americans made artificial rubber.  Same will happen to the other stuff we run out of.  Oil for starters.

[Restrepo]

I don't really think that anyone's ever gone quite this indepth into the world collapsing under the weight of the Rash, so you shouldn't be going against any popular-held beliefs—yet. But anyhow, more theories and what-not are welcomed.

There are a few minor criticisms I have with the military and what not, but they're kind of nit-picky. Hell, I'll just say 'em anyways.

T Plus 7 Days - I really don't think that veterans would reenlist, unless it was immediately necessary for the survival of America. IMHO, no one would really join-up again, everyone has families to look after and what not. My brother who got out of the US Army a month back said that he pretty much wouldn't reenlist no matter what. He didn't really have it that bad in the military anyhow. Oh, and MOPP suits. The US military should have enough, though we've never had to deploy CBRN gear enmasse before. I'd say that the US should, if the military kept its giant stockpile of Hazmat/MOPP gear from the Cold War. I mean, we were basically prepared for all-out nuclear warfare, in addition to some chemical/biological warfare on the side too.

T Plus 60 Days - I'd say that the military would just bury the coma victims in mass graves. It's certainly not humane or anything like that, but these are dire circumstances. I'd imagine that they'd want to conserve petrol, with the apocalypse and all that. The psychological cost of doing so in such a seemly efficient and logical manner is a different story.

Somewhat related—I'm doing a story on some US soldiers trying to survive the apocalypse, whilst maintaining cohesion as a unit. It'll basically explore some variations of PTSD and the theme will be hope—or rather, the lack of it.
 

[Róisín]

Re petrol, and fuel in general: we might get steam cars again, some of which were wood or coal fired. America should still have the tech to revive some few steamships/steam trains for transport. I'd be curious to see if anyone tried to revive the 1950s/60s attempts to make oil from cultures of algae - that looked quite promising for awhile, until the oil industry lobbied to have funding withdrawn from such a 'wasted' effort. And even some nuclear plants might survive for awhile. The big hydro schemes would likely all go down as the dams failed over a generation or two, but I reckon there might well be some solar (until the panels broke down), maybe some farm or small town or survivalist communities with local small-scale hydro power, or wind turbines, for quite awhile. Longer, if military engineers were involved.

[Kin]

I really don't think that veterans would reenlist, unless it was immediately necessary for the survival of America. IMHO, nmuch wouldn't reenlist no matter what.

Neither do I actually.  Should have been more clear about that - I meant the veterans would VOLUNTEER to help in droves.  Working in the Hospice Camps, shipping supplies to the quarantined nuclear reactor workers... ect.  They have a higher volunteer rate then average.

My brother who got out of the US Army a month back said that he pretty Oh, and MOPP suits. The US military should have enough, though we've never had to deploy CBRN gear enmasse before. I'd say that the US should, if the military kept its giant stockpile of Hazmat/MOPP gear from the Cold War. I mean, we were basically prepared for all-out nuclear warfare, in addition to some chemical/biological warfare on the side too.

Oh that stuff will help keep the Hospice Workers healthy a bit longer.  But its not nearly enough for the sheer scale of "The Rash".  I mean millions sick in just a few weeks?  None of the disaster plans will realistically expect that.

T Plus 60 Days - I'd say that the military would just bury the coma victims in mass graves. It's certainly not humane or anything like that, but these are dire circumstances. I'd imagine that they'd want to conserve petrol, with the apocalypse and all that. The psychological cost of doing so in such a seemly efficient and logical manner is a different story.

Yep - the mass grave thing will totally happen.  After they burn them.  And no, I don't think they will use gasoline either.  After all, gasoline is hardly the only thing in the world that burns.  Wood will be more readily available.  "Undead" stuff digging out of graves is another cultural story of ours - plus it will help kill the infection.  They are already dealing with stuff out of a science fiction horror story - no such thing as being "too careful" here.

Somewhat related—I'm doing a story on some US soldiers trying to survive the apocalypse, whilst maintaining cohesion as a unit. It'll basically explore some variations of PTSD and the theme will be hope—or rather, the lack of it.

Looking forward to it!  Hope my analysis helped.

Re petrol, and fuel in general: we might get steam cars again, some of which were wood or coal fired. America should still have the tech to revive some few steamships/steam trains for transport. I'd be curious to see if anyone tried to revive the 1950s/60s attempts to make oil from cultures of algae - that looked quite promising for awhile, until the oil industry lobbied to have funding withdrawn from such a 'wasted' effort. And even some nuclear plants might survive for awhile. The big hydro schemes would likely all go down as the dams failed over a generation or two, but I reckon there might well be some solar (until the panels broke down), maybe some farm or small town or survivalist communities with local small-scale hydro power, or wind turbines, for quite awhile. Longer, if military engineers were involved.

American ingenuity for the win!  Keep in mind we will still have the factories for making solar panels.  And detailed plans for better, safer and more efficient nuclear reactors.  Its just they aren't being built because of "Not In My Backyard" syndrome.