Deaths in the Faerie Apocalypse, Part V
Aug. 5th, 2013 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aldersprigA discussion in several parts of the near-extinction of humanity in my Faerie Apocalypse Setting.
The Gods' Return: here
The Terms Used: here
The returned gods killed a large number of people by direct or indirect smiting; in the process of claiming the cities, they killed an exponentially larger number with collateral damage.
But the biggest killer was the long-term damage to the infrastructure.
Looking at NYC, the most populous US city, as our model - Although the time people started starving en masse, Manhattan had been lifted into the clouds by an irate Hera and the rest of the city had its own issues:
In 2011, New York City had a population of 8.2 million in 302.64 square miles. While 50% of the food for the area came from within a three-hour drive of the City, that three-hour drive became a much larger hurdle as gas was first rationed and then almost impossible to get; the additional 25% from the rest of the northeastern US dropped to a trickle, and the final 25% dried up completely. People were holding food closer to home, not only because they could not ship it, but because they feared their own starvation.
The food within the city had its own problems, as well. America in 2011 relied heavily on refrigeration for food storage, and thus rolling blackout and power outages led to widespread food spoilage.
This, in itself, led to illness, but medicine supplies were facing the same problems as food supplies. Hoarding and theft were common in both circumstances, and preventable diseases suddenly became fatal, as the medicine needed to cure them was unobtainable.
The invading gods were, for the most part, dead or dying. Their legacies had been destroyed, their temples ruined. Monster hunters tracked down the last few hold-outs. But the scars on the land were deeper than the gods' hold had been, and the things they had left behind were still roaming free.
PDF link: http://mpaenvironment.ei.columbia.edu/news/documents/UnderstandingNYCsFoodSupply_May2010.pdf
The Gods' Return: here
The Terms Used: here
The returned gods killed a large number of people by direct or indirect smiting; in the process of claiming the cities, they killed an exponentially larger number with collateral damage.
But the biggest killer was the long-term damage to the infrastructure.
Looking at NYC, the most populous US city, as our model - Although the time people started starving en masse, Manhattan had been lifted into the clouds by an irate Hera and the rest of the city had its own issues:
In 2011, New York City had a population of 8.2 million in 302.64 square miles. While 50% of the food for the area came from within a three-hour drive of the City, that three-hour drive became a much larger hurdle as gas was first rationed and then almost impossible to get; the additional 25% from the rest of the northeastern US dropped to a trickle, and the final 25% dried up completely. People were holding food closer to home, not only because they could not ship it, but because they feared their own starvation.
The food within the city had its own problems, as well. America in 2011 relied heavily on refrigeration for food storage, and thus rolling blackout and power outages led to widespread food spoilage.
This, in itself, led to illness, but medicine supplies were facing the same problems as food supplies. Hoarding and theft were common in both circumstances, and preventable diseases suddenly became fatal, as the medicine needed to cure them was unobtainable.
The invading gods were, for the most part, dead or dying. Their legacies had been destroyed, their temples ruined. Monster hunters tracked down the last few hold-outs. But the scars on the land were deeper than the gods' hold had been, and the things they had left behind were still roaming free.
PDF link: http://mpaenvironment.ei.columbia.edu/news/documents/UnderstandingNYCsFoodSupply_May2010.pdf
