As Created by Tempora, Ladislaus and Wyldewood

At the very beginning of the twenty-first century, new actors appeared as major players on the stage of global economy; countries that only a couple of decades ago belonged to the developing countries of the Third World but, from the late 1980's on, started to develop and grow economically at an amazing pace. The new Powers needed enormous amounts of mineral oil, natural gas, as well as iron, steel and other raw materials and the hunger of the old ones for the same resources also remained. Since the available number and amount of sources were decreasing, the competition for the dwindling natural resources between the old and new Major and Super Powers was increasing constantly as each actor was taking its own quest to lock down sources of vital raw materials across the globe; from Africa's resource-rich (though politically unstable) countries to the Middle East, from the Caucasian area to Siberia, etc., etc.

Initially, the rivals were using only financial means to mutually outbid one another, one succeeding here the other there in securing exploitation rights. However, not even these sources were enough to satiate the world's still increasing appetite for fuel and raw materials. This, in the second stage, forced the parties that remained unsuccessful previously to resort to other methods, for e.g. helping the current government's opposition in seizing power in order to sign contracts with the new rulers later. These activities led to a new wave of disorders in the countries in question and it became when the increasing domestic terrorism, the almost everyday political assassinations and armed clashes started to threaten the continuous influx of resources, the rivaling Powers had to send their troops - officially as peacekeepers but everyone knew that they are actually occupants - to restore order and/or keep control over the country's mines and oil fields. Since the Power that succeeded in signing contract with the original government in the first step did not accept the new leadership as legal and wanted to reinstate the former government, while the country that had a contract with the current administration was interested in preserving the might of the new leaders, this led to a permanent civil war like state with an endless series of coups d'état and counter-coups d'état.

Parallel to the events abroad, the rivaling Powers had to face serious domestic problems as well. Competing for natural resources in far away lands was not a cheap undertaking, to say the least, and each major competitor suffered from the financial consequences. The taxation was growing and growing, as well as the prizes of the commodities, putting an immense burden on the citizens. To make things even worse, several times the rivals attempted to cause disturbances in the other's financial system by stock market and stock exchange manipulations. The result was an economical recession no one experienced before. More and more firms and entrepreneurs went bankrupt, unable to cope with the ever rising production costs and the ever decreasing spending power of the consumers. More and more people lost their jobs and the increasing powerty led to serious civil disorders. Public security and health-care became almost nonexistent; demonstrations of more and more violent nature, looting and epidemics were everyday phenomena while domestic and international terrorism was also at an all time high. By this time, the conflict became global and more and more often was referred to as Resource War - for it was indeed a war albeit not waged with weapons similar to (nor fought on battlefields like those of) World Wars I and II -, a grim war with seemingly no end in sight. The end, though, was near...

* * *

No one knew in which country's military laboratories was it developed and nobody knew who let it loose - was it one of the warring parties, a terrorist organization or someone else? -, but in the year 2046 Pandora's box was opened again and a new contagious disease reared its head on the planet. Perhaps, those who made this fatal decision thought that they have the vaccine against it but later the shield proved to be ineffective against the weapon, or perhaps there had never been a vaccine at all. One thing is sure: within only a few months from the letting loose of this gender-specific viral weapon, the entire male population of the planet was contaminated!

It is not clear whether it was its original purpose or the consequence of a mutation that altered the original, but it is sure that this devious new virus was not instantly lethal. This, however, was only a consolation of dubious value from the aspect of the infected. Whilst keeping its "living host" alive for a couple of years without having any visible effect on the general physical condition of the infected male except for the very brief end stage, the infection had still a horrible consequence! Within a short time, about half of the men became infertile, and the rest who proved to be genetically or otherwise somewhat resistant thus evading the danger of falling victim to the infection - albeit still able to procreate - found themselves almost unable to conceive a male! Within soon, the male-to-female ratio of births changed dramatically with only one in every fifty of the new born children being male.

And what was the world's reaction? Initially, everyone was in a state of total shock unable or unwilling to comprehend what had just happened. The governments - while still continuing, or at least trying to continue, their more and more meaningless becoming struggle for natural resources despite the ever growing anarchy - desperately wanted to find who is the responsible for the new epidemic, but each of the warring nations accused one or more of the others and none of them wanted to claim the responsibility. Then came a relatively brief but very intense period of a "danse macabre" as thousands and thousands of people, who could not accept what happened to themselves, their husbands, their children and their families committed suicide; and there were perhaps even more who became like rabid animals, wreaking their vengeance on anyone they encountered on the battlefield-like streets of the cities.

War, famine, disease, death... The balloon of global tensions was filled to its bursting point and now even the former allies begun turning against one another. At the end, however, it was Mother Earth that called the final tune...

* * *

The ecological costs of the Industrial Era and the age of consumer society were all too clearly visible to everyone. Water and soil pollution, acid rains and toxic waste, deforestation and desertification, incredible amounts of municipal solid waste (composed mostly of non-biodegradable components, such as plastics), nuclear pollution... The continuous atmospheric pollution, the ever-increasing and uncontrollable emission of greenhouse gases led to a global change in the Earth's climate. The global warming led to an increasing and massive meltdown of the ice caps. Water levels from the oceans had risen steadily, rendering many of the coastal cities and regions partially or completely uninhabitable and forcing a mass-migration inland, away from the encroaching waters. To everyone's surprise, however, at some point the process not only stopped... but started to go in the opposite direction!

The immense amount of additional fresh water flowing into the North Atlantic reduced the global ocean water circulation to a point where the Gulf Stream was blocked and the temperature of the Northern hemisphere started to cool at an amazing pace heralding the beginning of a new Ice Age. The Arctic and Antarctic ice caps started to expand and the borders of perpetual winter extended even further, making a good deal of the populated lands, especially on the Northern Hemisphere, uninhabitable. Now it seemed that, after a brief but intense agony, human civilization - and perhaps even humankind itself - had received the coup de grâce that finally puts an end to them all. But miraculously, it was not the end-of-the-end but the beginning of a rebirth...

* * *

Humankind had to adapt and evolve at a startling pace, coping with - among other things - the effects and consequences of starvation and diseases, both natural and man-made. The decimated population was forced to migrate again, this time away from the chilling ice deserts of the North and South, with hundred thousands of people seeking new home in the sub-tropical regions and the more forgiving areas about the Equator. Meanwhile, the events had also a major social impact on the entire world. As there were fewer and fewer men, women had to take a prominent role in all aspects of life which led to the birth of a new, matriarchal society; a society totally different from its predecessor.

It took almost a century but, having learned from the mistakes of the Old World and realized that the only chance for humankind's survival is to co-operate with one another and live in harmony with nature, the women and men of the post-Cataclysm world, albeit only a fraction of the population of any Earth we could recall remained, managed to establish a new, peaceful and almost Eden-like world even in the face of a harsh and unforgiving climate.

A natural peace and spirit of co-operation like the world had never known before descended. Life became precious, even sacred, once more. Everyday life was perpetuated in harmony with nature. For each inhabited area the women and men found the proper lifestyle that allowed the most perfect coexistence of civilization and nature, let it be either smaller coastal and inland settlements based on fishing or agriculture, cities where higher education and the remaining industry found their home, or even nomadic tribes. The communities were mutually supporting one another by sharing their resources.

Despite the tough times following the Cataclysm, people tried their best to preserve the scientific and technological knowledge, even though there were many elements of the Old World's science and technology they could not maintain any longer. Of course, technology itself was not completely abandoned and - albeit maintained at a level much lower than that of the Old World -, remained used sparingly and wisely; not to increase the productivity of industry or decrease production costs but to protect life of all kinds. The startling paradigm shift, among other things, inspired a veritable renaissance of some sciences: the knowledge in certain fields of biology and medicine remained high; and the natural medicines the healers used proved to be much more efficient than the synthetic compounds of the Old World...

Humanity, having weathered the storm, became quite hardy and able to evolve very quickly. The wars of the old times became a distant memory. The citizens of the New World knew that aggression was a natural part of human nature but they succeeded in finding a perfect "lightning conductor", confining it for regulated arenas, to improve the physical fitness and entertain the people, or sometimes to resolve some of the more difficult disputes arising between the communities.

For some fifty years it seemed that nothing can disturb the harmony of Druantia, but every Eden has its own venomous snake as it seems... A new force, a shocking reminder of the darker aspects of human nature came in the form of a new force that appeared from seemingly nowhere. This force was a race of heavily muscled Amazons, Super Soldiers wielding long lost and highly advanced technology. These merciless female warriors - considering themselves the Superior Race -, turned against all humanity, attacking primarily from the sea and systematically sweeping along the coastlines of the continents. Pillaging and ravaging they came and went; killing every man they encountered with insane rage while capturing every female they could in the age group 15 to 25...

Initially, the strongly peace-loving women of Druantia could not mount any considerable resistance and it seemed that nothing can stop the Super Soldiers in their quest to enslave the entire population and become the new and only rulers of the world. Fortunately, there were a few women who proved to be capable of fighting the monsters without becoming monsters themselves, keeping the hope alive...