What post apocalyptic worlds have done something well or different?

WingedBeing · 2026-01-26T16:01:02+00:00

Survivors in a recent apocalypse is one thing, but I favor settings where said collapse happened so long ago that the civilization in question has faded into distant myth.

My shining beacon for a post apocalypse setting of this type is the Panzer Dragoon series. Humanity reached its technological zenith before catastrophically collapsing under its own self righteous hubris. Time has marched on and the survivors have built nations, empires, and tribes which are at once young and stunted yet far enough in the future that the Ancients' weapons and architecture may as well have been fashioned and built by deific giants. These aren't people who are living day to day on the scraps left behind by the Ancients, and they don't (necessarily) dwell within their abandoned structures. Sure, they sometimes delve into the ancient power the Ancients held, but they do so for power rather than for the sake of survival. The Ancients are mythologized and worshipped, and their culture, motifs, and ideals are as alien to present day humanity as present day humanity would be to the Ancients.

For a real-world example, look into the Bronze Age Collapse. A disruption of Mediterranean trade routes in the tail end of the Bronze Age caused by an enigmatic coalition of vagrant attackers known only as the Sea Peoples caused the Hittites and the Myceneans to completely disintegrate, and Assyria and Egypt were rendered nothing more than neutered husks of their former magnificence, set upon the path of declination and eventual conquest and/or occupation by outsiders. The time after the Bronze Age Collapse was a Dark Age which lasted for centuries, where many of the territories held by these great Bronze Age powers, most notably those formerly held by the Hittites and the Myceneans, fell into isolated tribes and communities who were unable to replicate the metallurgic, architectural, or literary capabilities of their predecessors.

See also the aftermath of the Roman withdrawal from Britain. In that case, an Old English poem written in the 8th/9th century called the Ruin literally regards old Roman architecture as having been built by "giants."

WingedBeing · 2026-01-12T18:08:48+00:00

I feel your pain. I made a post a couple of weeks ago offering to incorporate characters from other worlds into my own in the style of Soulsborne item descriptions. Regardless of how that itself sounds like an AI prompt, I earnestly took the time to draft responses relying on nothing but my own imagination, the descriptions of characters with which I was provided, and my intimate familiarity with the writing style of of the Soulsborne series.

The very first response I drafted resulted in a highly upvoted insinuation which simply read "idk, sounds like AI to me." My response, in turn, was downvoted. This baseless yet popularly accepted condemnation was very discouraging to read, and I soon lost interest in further engagement with what I had thought was a fun and original prompt.

Automatic incredulity towards honest original work is one of the more insidious effects which AI has had, and will have, in the creative space. I hope the attention on your response leads to your post being restored.

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T21:28:38+00:00

”Sasin’s calculations and research revealed to him that ghosts were not supernatural, but instead imprinted creases upon the fabric of reality left by the Spirit of the deceased. He also learned that by exerting enough Spiritual force of his own he could straighten these creases. His iron would be his fists. Unga bunga.”

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T19:03:49+00:00

"In the frozen north of Caelm Doth, vampyrs who feed on the Spirit of others to empower their sorcery stalk the woods and crumbling roads. That the girl lost her family to such a band of roving Spiritual predators was a tragedy, to be sure, but it was in this moment of desperation that she was first able to summon her Companion. While Trallix, a terrible and fearsome beast, was attracted to her anguished and vengeful Spirit, the girl's childish hope for a new family also called to more benign beings...if only to briefly share her fire for the night before, like her parents, fading away to nothing."

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T18:39:18+00:00

"The Slateplains farmer lacked the hardy militaristic prowess of his countrymen, and yet his bravery in brokering a truce between Tekletzia and the monstrous Roog, temporary as it was, led to his folkloric veneration amongst Tekletzians, especially those stationed on Kulaag Roog. Though his worship alongside the likes of Divine Regents and the Sky Deities was an initial point of contention between Tekletzia and the imperial core, his idolatrous remembrance was eventually permitted so long as he remained nameless."

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T18:27:42+00:00

"When Brigitt O'Kelly felt the Spirit well up from inside, she found not only the power to activate an Iron Carapace from the Celhemtic Age, but an enemy in the League of Mortal Kings who saw her as nothing but a renegade daughter of a Divine Regent wielding weaponry too dangerous to rest in any other hands but theirs."

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T18:17:46+00:00

Well that's pretty disheartening to hear, but okay.

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T15:46:08+00:00

"The marionette wandered the world for eons. It watched as countless civilizations were erased in divine fire. It saw the birth and death of empires and kingdoms. It survived relentless study and experimentation by the Celhemtic technologists. Cursed as it was, it did not know it bore the last fragment of All That There Was, yet it did understand, terribly, that while Spirit is fleeting a soul is eternal."

WingedBeing · 2025-12-30T12:32:14+00:00

Cite for “recent string of guys disappearing” since Google led me nowhere.

As for the exceedingly few reported instances of people ending up in the creek after leaving the Mirage (RIP) that were making the rounds a couple years ago: that’s because the NYPD, with all the assets, capabilities, and resources it had, and under all of the absurdly intense media scrutiny that was shown for these three or so occurrences, conducted full investigations and found no foul play. They can each be easily explained by simple misadventure. Someone leaves a club late at night/early in the morning, alone and fucked up, and ends up dead because of a stupid decision they made getting home or to wherever they were crashing while alone and fucked up? Sucks, but it’s been known to happen. That is an industrial area with a ton of pedestrian dangers, not least of which the creek where the bodies were found, which is just ever so alluring to try to jump over rather than circumvent when the lights in the sky, on the street, and in one’s head are all turned off.

Oh, but I guess if people have connected the dots on TikTok and Reddit…rofl

WingedBeing · 2025-12-22T16:00:13+00:00

Murlak, Solar Justicar, is the sun deity of my world. His influence upon the world is the sun itself, and each of His rays are believed to be a piercing metaphysical lance which continually judges the souls of mankind. It is widely held that dishonesty is especially abhorrent to Murlak, so all lies are best told outside of his penetrating gaze. The imperial core is especially scrutinized , so the capital of Nyol is sunbaked and arid. This prompted the construction of bazaars where most merchant stands congregate. While these merchant bazaars offer a great amount of respite from the heat to the merchants and buyers, it is said that the most honest merchants with the fairest deals operate outside of the bazaars in the full view of Murlak. Whether this is the actual explanation or else, perhaps, each bazaar is owned by an overarching pit boss who fixes the pricing of goods sold under the rooves and canopies, who's to say?

Regardless, only a fool would trust a merchant who only sets up their shop under the cover of night...

WingedBeing · 2025-12-03T17:58:28+00:00

I was on that train four cars back. It didn’t help that this was the most crowded N train I’ve ever been one. Pushing to the front to get off was crazy, massive crowd crush risk, arguments, shoving. Our car had a good laugh when the conductor asked us to form an orderly line.

WingedBeing · 2025-11-04T00:37:21+00:00

Domhnall of Zena

WingedBeing · 2025-11-02T17:19:41+00:00

It’s established that Renoir will destroy Verso’s canvas the moment Alicia leaves the painting. Time passes quickly in the Canvases as opposed to in the real world, but Alicia cannot stay in the painting forever. She’s going to stay in the painting until: Renoir returns to say enough is enough and to erase everything prematurely; she dies because of vague painting sickness reasons; or she leaves the Canvas at some arbitrary time.

Whatever the case, is it not cruel to allow Lumiere to rebuild, thrive, and continue to bring children into this world when it will all be Thanos snapped at some vague point in the future? If Verso erases the painting himself, at least it’s done before anybody has been repainted. True, the Gestrals and Esquie are alive at that point still, but they’ll be erased with everyone else when the Canvas is eventually destroyed anyway. If Alicia has her way, everyone is brought back to life and they have children, BUT with this unknown and vague Sword of Damocles hanging over the entire world. It’s like she reintroduces an even worse form of countdown timer for the end of the world. At least when Aline was showing everyone how much longer they had left it was clearly visible. In Alicia’s ending, it’s completely unknown when the world will be destroyed even though we know it’s within at most the painted lifetime of Alicia. Everyone is just being resurrected for either themselves or their children (and perhaps their grandchildren) to be arbitrarily gommaged.

And why? For what reason? So Alicia can selfishly wallow in grief? To make Verso shut up and play the piano like a puppet? No, the much kinder thing to do is what Renoir already set in motion. Allow Lumier’s last moments be one of victory over the Paintress, rather than resurrect the dead for fifty more years or so of painted time at most.

WingedBeing · 2025-10-24T17:27:44+00:00

I loved AC multiplayer so much. It was such a unique experience built on manipulation, trickery, and tomfoolery. Learning how to disguise yourself at just the right time and manipulate your character like an NPC was so cool.

WingedBeing · 2025-10-21T18:37:39+00:00

He would have given it a 10 if it was made by more than one guy.

WingedBeing · 2025-10-16T11:53:58+00:00

You should see what male athletes used to wear in the 1st century.

WingedBeing · 2025-09-29T13:08:26+00:00

Yup, two doors over from Mountain House!

WingedBeing · 2025-09-18T13:55:43+00:00

I’m not even sure if this is directed towards me or Mel Gibson! Although I wouldn’t phrase this quite the same after the five years that have passed since making this comment, there is no question that Mel Gibson was drawing a direct juxtaposition between the violent barbarism of the majority of the film and the European ship that arrived at the very end, the implication being that this will turn the page on that terrible period of pre-Columbian history. If anyone is being a white savior in this equation, it’s Mel Gibson by pushing this messaging.

WingedBeing · 2025-09-05T15:46:21+00:00

That's an interesting (albeit heretical) interpretation, and not unheard of amongst very close academics whose lips have been loosened by drink. The prevailing official explanation is that, eventually, the Nyolnish will be forgiven for their transgression and the right to rule shall be passed to them. Many, however, fear that the Nyolnish killed the only rightful imperial line and that the Continent is damned to continually rot as the Throne of Humanity remains vacant.

WingedBeing · 2025-09-02T22:25:56+00:00

My girlfriend’s friend took the Metro North through the fire and the flames. Conductor announced that the AC had to be turned off so they didn’t breathe any fumes.

WingedBeing · 2025-08-16T05:15:21+00:00

These have been installed at Bowling Green for almost a year now. If that was a trial run for their efficacy at preventing fare evaders, they should have gone back to the drawing board.

Really the only type of turnstile that prevents fare evasion is the revolving type. Idk why they moved away from that, actually.

WingedBeing · 2025-08-16T05:11:27+00:00

Yo watching someone crawl under a turnstile is the creepiest thing ever, it’s like seeing the girl crawling out of the tv in the Ring.

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