The Age of Decay and the birth of the Meta-Nets
2025 - 2275
Violating curfew -- DEATH
Theft of food -- DEATH
Disobeying police -- DEATH
Disrespect of government -- DEATH
- Complete criminal code for the Los Angeles metrozone, 2031
The Devastation left Earth a shadow of its former self. Entire nations were gone. Cities had been wiped off the maps. Roads and factories lay in useless rubble. The experience had decimated Humankind. In 2020, most living humans had been born during the Devastation, and few now remembered the time before. For nearly 250 years, humanity would languish in self-pity and shock as opportunistic villains exploited the sorrow and desperation of millions. Historians of the Empire would come to call this time the Age of Decay.
Within a few years after Jake Hunter's disappearance, most of the world's population clustered amid the ruins of the once-great cities, forming gigantic, pestilence-ridden refugee camps that came to be called metrozones. The Devastation left agriculture crippled, and food was scarce. The warlords who fought their way to rule over the metrozones imposed brutal and arbitrary laws. They hoarded supplies, weapons, and technology as they clung desperately to power. Quality medical care was scarcer than food and disease raged unchecked in the camps, killing more and more of the survivors. Thousands of refugees labored outside the metrozone walls as slave farmers under the eyes of watchful guards.
Despair and Addiction The vast majority of survivors turned to drugs to numb their misery. Many were still addicted to substances from the Devastation era. These addictions proved more virulent than any plague, for the drugs spawned violence and crazed behavior among the refugees. Watered down versions of devil potions such as Wreck and Easy-6 did little to stall the downward spiral. The trauma of the Devastation had scarred whole populations for life. Death was the only real cure, and countless bloody riots broke out in the camps as brooding addicts exploded in sudden, mindless violence.
The Metrozones
Conditions were hopeless. Starvation and sickness were the norm. People lived in a crush of tents or in tiny, bunker-like apartments. Sanitation was nearly nonexistent. Laws were incredibly severe. Scavenger industries sprang up everywhere, and throngs of desperate, hungry refugees picked over the bones of the past, searching for tools and food. Gangs fought savagely over turf until metrozone warlords would be forced to intervene. A thriving market grew in scavenged goods, slaves, and food.
Scam artists ran the streets. Inhabitants turned to drugs, cults or gambling. Hedonistic pleasure tents fed dark appetites. The value of life was pitifully low. Children were mere commodities: Boys who survived past the age of twelve were sold to the warlords for cannon fodder in the bloody squabbles that erupted over food, water, and scavenged technologies. Girls were treated as little more than play things and brood mares.
Some few independent souls, following the example of Jake Hunter, rejected the squalid misery of the metrozones and attempted to reclaim the territories outside their walls. These 'freedom hunters' sought a better future amid the rural lands, and in the generations that followed they fortified the earth with nutrients and clean water, using scavenged machinery and materials. As they became more efficient, they traded their excess food and potable water to the filth-choked metzones, which could not produce enough of either commodity themselves. The free hunters sought tools and other manufactured items that were still in supply in the metrozones. The new tools in turn allowed production of more food. Gradually, painfully, commerce once again began to flow, at first confined to small markets, then to caravans between metrozones, and finally between the emerging meta-nations. As trade flourished mankind rediscovered the technology of his forgotten past at a surprisingly rapid rate.
The Meta-Nats
By 2100, six meta-nations had tenuously emerged from the chaos. The European Alliance (EA) united the survivors of the former European countries. North American Prefecture (NAP) replaced the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Japan combined with Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Micronesia, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia to form the Pacific Rim Community. China swallowed most of the remaining parts of Asia. South America came under the dominion of the Inca-Brazil Axis, and the surviving African nations formed United Africa.
Rise of the Milicorps
Many of the regions initially produced only marginal yields. When one area began to produce enough surplus to feed its neighbors, less fortunate metrozones would send raiding parties. As raids between metrozones escalated to full-fledged wars, entrepreneurial traders recognized the potential of the market for war supplies. Successful metrozone warlords grew ever closer to these suppliers, until the corporations actually fused with their military customers. As these military corporations - milicorps - cemented their influence, they made certain the military would remain necessary. They prolonged conflicts to strengthen their political hold, paying with the blood of the soldiers serving in the armies. Metzone government and the milicorps became indistinguishable, with an executive board of directors controlling the armed forces.
As generations passed, armies controlled larger and larger areas outside the metzones. Production of food, water, and resources increased. The recovery of industry made warfare complex enough to require better-trained troops. Now the milicorps began adopting long-term strategies to entrench their power. They needed smarter warriors and better technology, so they built academies and research facilities. They provided enormous incentives to cadets in return for lifelong service. Within a generation the best way to escape the "metroslums" was a military education. Conscripted slave-militias gave way to professional soldiers.
By the end of the Age of Decay, the milicorps ruled entire collections of nation-states called meta-nations, and dominated every aspect of life. Society was on the path to recovery; education, technology, industry, and science had re-emerged. The milicorps adopted domestic pacification as a long-term policy: Keep the people happy and they will obey. The value given to human life rose at last, and the individual once again began to matter. Humanity had slowly moved from decay and fear to the beginnings of hope.