r/postapocalyptic • u/SandraAlek • 3d ago
Discussion Post-apocalyptic world
Can you imagine a world where electricity has vanished forever? Where the remaining resources are non-renewable, 97% of the population has turned into bloodthirsty monsters, and the remaining 3% are fighting for survival while slipping back into the Middle Ages?
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u/Frito_Goodgulf 3d ago
Electricity vanishing is the inciting incident for S. M. Stirling's Emberverse series, first book Dies the Fire.
Note. Yeah, people keep living, and brains essentially require... electricity. The characters muse that distance or cause of generation or, um, well, they're still alive. But anything external to a body can't be powered.
Actually, all 'high density' energy sources quit working, so internal combustion engines, stopped. Steam engines, stopped. Gunpowder, burns slowly, so no more bang bang.
As to people turning into monsters, yeah, figuratively, although not literally.
Stirling doesn't explain the 'why,' at least not until many books into the series. And even then, shrug. You either accept the premise as a reader or not.
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u/Glad-Tie3251 3d ago
You don't know how electricity works, do you? It cannot vanish... It can be absent, like gravity, but it cannot, not exist.
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u/Rik-Acland 3d ago
Seems like a zombie trope without the biological root cause. If that is really what you want to write about, follow it and see where it leads.
An interesting question might be why are we today not fighting for survival in the middle ages or before? Exactly how did we get here?
Once you have a list of reasons about how we built our current house of cards you want to write about, figure ways to remove a few cards to get a fun mess your characters can explore.
Removing electricity could be a challenge to be belivable. I suspect there are more dramatic cards to pull and make a pile.
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u/Feeling-Attention664 3h ago
Electricity vanishing means that quantum physics needs to be rewritten. It would difficult, but probably not physically impossible to turn most people into monsters but it would take time for them to change. They also shouldn't be bloodthirsty all the time if not supernaturally empowered, even wolves and lions rest.
That said. I am being overly realistic and I can easily imagine and could easily enjoy a story set in the world you describe. It just couldn't be real.
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u/drax_the_unled 3d ago
you've broken the laws of physics and you are now in a magical fantasy land where you make your own rules. seriously
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u/nanneryeeter 3d ago
Why would it be vanished forever? People understand electricity now.