Survivor communities outside the known world

[Fimbulvarg]

  - Weapons: Quite obvious, too. The best thing might be guns and rifles, either from humters, nearby military bases or places wwhere a war has happenned "recently". The more recent the better, you don't want a 120 years old rifle from the spanish civil war (but it might work good enough). Maybe, where immunity is commonplace, closer range, more traditional weapons could be an alternative for the beasts and smaller trolls. And a guy wielding a sword against a troll would be cool too. Since the disease only remains active for a few hours, this might be actually doable (But dangerous).

Funny you should mention it. I looked it up, the Norwegians have actually settled a peninsula called Fosenhalvøya where they with some luck could find both one of the main air bases of the former Royal Norwegian Air Force and several of the large American/NATO underground weapons caches that have recently been filled to the brim with machines and weapons.

The airbase lies right by the coast and holds all the usual hardware (guns, ammunition, rockets, radios, electronics, armored cars etc.) you would expect from a large military base. In addition to this comes all the fighter jets, cargo planes and helicopters, but they are likely not usable after 90 years and without citizens with actual piloting knowledge.

The American caches are probably harder to find even if you know they exist and are in that area. Accessing them without knowing what they are is unlikely because they are situated inside mountain tunnels that are not meant to be accessed by intruders. Inside they would find modern tanks, armored vehicles and cars, guns and ammunition, provisions and so forth.

[shauhagah]

I think that many of the small island chains in the pacific would survive, provided they shut (and protect) their borders. The population would be small, they should be able to fish and grow their own food.

But then there's the thing with cold temperatures helping with cleansing...

At this point we just don't know exactly how certain environmental factors effect beasts, trolls and giants.

[Thorin Schmidt]

*pondering* However, I think troll-dolphins could still be an issue.

Okay, I'm posting this here as well.  I'm about the only one who posted on my "origins" thread, but no matter.  I'm going out on a limb here for my theory.  Trolls are not humans.  They are TREES! or possibly other vegetation. check out the links I posted in the thread as my proof. I could be way wrong, and if someone has info to shoot my theory full of holes, well, I'll recover.  But anyway, I'm calling Trolls are mutated vegetation. (Think big, mean, nasty, Ents)

[Fimbulvarg]

Okay, I'm posting this here as well.  I'm about the only one who posted on my "origins" thread, but no matter.  I'm going out on a limb here for my theory.  Trolls are not humans.  They are TREES! or possibly other vegetation. check out the links I posted in the thread as my proof. I could be way wrong, and if someone has info to shoot my theory full of holes, well, I'll recover.  But anyway, I'm calling Trolls are mutated vegetation. (Think big, mean, nasty, Ents)

It's possible that some trolls originate from plants, but it's unlikely that all of them do so. The troll on the train was decidedly organic in nature. There is this picture and also this picture of vermin trolls. And if you check the last panel of the Icelandic character in the prologue there are also something resembling whale trolls. There is also this picture which demonstrates that trolls bleed, something we can also infer from the blood on the Dalahästen train.

[RaeSeddon]

Yeah, the info pages are specific to include mammals as the primary group affected by the Illness, which makes me think trolls could be a combination of things but the really big ones were probably bears, moose or elk, possibly? And with the Ilness's habit of playing mix and match there's probably a bunch of other stuff mashed in there too.

[JoB]

Trolls are not humans.  They are TREES! or possibly other vegetation. check out the links I posted in the thread as my proof.

While the trolls you refer to may have a barky and tree-shape-ish appearance, they also have limbs and are mobile, which necessitates the existence of a brain (equivalent) to coordinate their movement. Also, shying away from (sun)light would likely severely limit the life expectancy of a plant, as would the loss of roots. Partly vegetal I'd buy (even though fusing plants to mammals would be even more challenging than doing so with non-mammalian animals), but exclusively I doubt.

[noako]

Sticky'd upon a request. Seems like a popular thread anyway. If it dies I'll unsticky it.

[TrampChamp]

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I reckon with a bit of luck, New Zealand could easily survive. As long as it shut it's borders relatively soon after Iceland did (and they probably did sometime before the ninth day) then we should be able to stay alive for 90 years. We got plenty of sheep, and lots of farmland, as well as massive forests to farm for wood and the like. And even if the Rash did make it to New Zealand, we are split into three main separate islands, as well as lots of little islands scattered around, and lots of mountain ranges. Hell, whatever happens, the west coast should be fine! So fingers crossed!

I do wonder what would happen to those in Antarctic, though. They would probably survive the initial outbreak, but what would happen once they ran out of supplies? Set sail to the nearest country?

[Thorin Schmidt]

The troll on the train was decidedly organic in nature.

Actually, they specifically called that one on the train a GIANT.  Which again, begs the question, are those three terms (Troll, Giant, Beast) interchangeable?  I don't think so, since the "cats" page shows one going after a Vermin Beast. So, my hypothesis is that Giants are the mammalian mashups, and Trolls are something else. Since Beasts are already definitely mutated animals that DON'T combine with people.

[Thorin Schmidt]

Someebody mentioned it in passing, and I at first dismissed it, but an Antarctic enclave isn't TOO unbelievable.  If all the stations down there pooled together their resources, they might have had time to set up something viable.  Since there are a lot of hydroponics down there, there might even be a possibility of "pristine" plants and such.

It might even be a case of nobody down there has even been exposed to the Rash... So, Outsiders might even spell doom for such a society.

[Antagonist]

So we have a LOT more info to munch on now.

The primary one being... Cold places are far more critical to survival than previously thought.  Islands MIGHT be able to survive without cold, but the threat from trolls escalate incalculably from trolls, both beast and ex-human types, if you don't have freezing weather.  I'm going to assume this is the actual Rash disease adding the cold vulnerability, since it mentions beasts being less vulnerable, while naturally a lot of local wildlife should not be vulnerable at all.

No matter how crazy prepared your Texan survivalist is, they will face the same problems the nordic countries do AND face far greater rate of far more aggressive troll attacks.

Islands are possible I guess, but dolphin and whale trolls have been theorised which risks infecting any island that don't have a significant immune population. Even if they survive the infection and trolls, they will risk losing a viable population.

Cold mountain ranges and cold islands are best bet in my mind... so alaska and russia as previously mentioned might be very good candidates. While madagascar with its more tropical climate likely had no chance in the first place.

Can't really think of many southern hemisphere areas that are candidates for survival.  The one obvious cold island (Antarctica) you won't be able to grow anything, more northern islands you have same problem with one tragedy ending it all... Maybe some mountain ranges? But I can't think of any that are suitable candidates.

[Hrollo]

In the southern hemisphere, the Tierra del Fuego archipelago might actually be a really good candidate for survivor communities; it's relatively close to the antarctic circle (about as close as Denmark and southern Sweden are to the arctic circle), it has a multitude of island and mountain ranges, is scarcely populated (less than 135,000 people in small, isolated settlements), the climate is mild-cold (9°C tends to be the max temperature in summer, with possible snowfall, but the average winter temperature is 0°C); the whole region is pretty rich in natural ressources (oil and natural gaz) and has well established fishing and sheep farming activities.

[Dai]

IMHO, one of the main premises of the story is that isolation, quickly (and ruthlessly) applied, was the best way of saving the most people; this is the reason why Iceland, first nation to close its borders, has the largest known population and the safest homeland. All the other nations in this story, slower to close their borders, (or more subject to high rates of people-traffic), had a much harder time surviving. I therefore suggest that MOST of the world is like Finland, Norway or Sweden - a few thousands where there were previously millions.
Also, I imagine that nations with climates *most* favorable to mammalian life would be EXACTLY where any remaining uninfected people would be hit the hardest...
So, you could picture of the world with lights to represent surviving civilization - probably the equivalent of a healthy campfire representing Iceland and lots of little, flickering candle flames everywhere else....

[Fenris]

The isolation thing got me thinking. What about North Korea? It's the most isolated country in the world currently, beyond Chinese smugglers and the like and refugees (who go out rather than in so that bit wouldn't risk infection from neighbours). Its climate isn't too bad in terms of warmth (although, their snow-season seems to only be a month), and it is pretty mountainous. Bordering China & South Korea doesn't seem like as big a problem with the recent page, since it says trolls and (possibly?) giants tend to stay in place. It does seem like its north-eastern mountain ranges could house pretty significant numbers of survivors.

Also in Asia, I think the Kamchatka peninsula have pretty decent chances of survivor communities. While its not an island, it only has two cities (the second-largest being smaller than Reykjavik) and plenty of moderately isolated villages and communities.

[Sunflower]

Carrying over some good comments from today's SSSS page.

Spencer Welch said:

I refuse to accept that Europe is the only country that still has some semblance of civilization. I'm sure there are still communities, albeit smaller ones, in the Americas (Canada, USA, Mexico, etc.), Russia, China, India, all of those African countries etc. It's just in this story those countries haven't been contacted in a long long time. Americans and Canadians are very close genetically to the Europeans, many of which are immune, and with 300 million of them in the United States alone, there are bound to be at least a couple that don't get sick from the rash disease.

And don't forget, Americans spend like, a ludicrous amount on national defense. We are in a good position to fight back. I don't think we would escape relatively unscathed, I'm sure a country our size would take some big hits, but I don't think we would be wiped off the face of the earth.

Dorje replied:

You may want to go back and reread the early comics. Not many people were immune to the Rash. And it isn't Europe, it's select Scandinavian countries that had both cold climates and a plethora of fortifiable islands. The characters we are seeing how are the descendants of people who "survived" on those islands.

America, Russia, mainland Europe, and many other places are basically toast because they either don't get cold enough or don't have easily defensible locations... that are cold enough. Defense spending only helps when the vast majority (again go back and read earlier comics) of your defenders don't get sick, die, and become Trolls from the Rash. America doesn't have substantial inland islands.

Where you would possibly find surviving pockets, maybe, are in the northern reaches of the Rockies (food production is an issue), maybe some of the peninsulas off the coasts (but unlikely due to population density), maybe northern sections of the Appalachians as they extend up into Canadian (again population density is an issue). The Urals and Alps are also possibilities.

Here are circumstances that make immediate survival more likely.
-> Cold
-> Low Population density
-> Defensible locations

Warmish, high density, open areas (like most of America) makes a poor situation for those few survivors of the Rash.

Long term food is a big issue. Hunting is basically gone as an option since the animals have become Beasts. Which removes a huge source of protein. You also need to be able to safely grow and harvest crops during warm periods when you are under attack from roving Trolls and Giants.

The other locations that may have pockets of civilization would be the Himalayas and the Andes, which are both cold, fairly low population regions, defensible, and prior proven homes to agrarian civilizations.