So for my current setting, I need to have some kind of apocalyptic threat looming above humanity. It doesn't have to be immediate at the start of the story, but there have to be clues, foreshadowing etc.
As humanity has spread over hundreds of worlds in the centuries past, it's not that easy to find a threat on that scale that is still "fightable" by humanity. As I have no aliens in my setting, that eliminates one possibility for the whole of humanity to be threatened. Do you have any other ideas what kind of threat it might be? The current setting is rather "low tech", with the Great Empire in its decline and much technological and other knowledge having been lost over the course of the last centuries, so remnants of high tech from past ages would be a possibility.
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2008: Und der Himmel brannte (won)
2009: The Colors of Truth
44,733 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 13 47
Throughout history, humanity's greatest enemy has frequently been itself...
51,618 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 08
As humanity has spread over hundreds of worlds in the centuries past, it's not that easy to find a threat on that scale that is still "fightable" by humanity. As I have no aliens in my setting, that eliminates one possibility for the whole of humanity to be threatened. Do you have any other ideas what kind of threat it might be? The current setting is rather "low tech", with the Great Empire in its decline and much technological and other knowledge having been lost over the course of the last centuries, so remnants of high tech from past ages would be a possibility.
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2008: Und der Himmel brannte (won)
2009: To be decided...
So you need a threat that will threaten an entire galaxy, but still be something that a starfaring power in decline could overcome.
That's not exactly an easy set of criteria to fill. I can imagine plenty of things that would fit the bill as a destructive event, but the problem is that 1) most of them would occur over a span of time that would outlast your civilization and 2) a low-powered society, anything under an advanced K2 civilization, won't have a chance in hell of stopping them.
Would "overcome" include "picking up and moving to another galaxy"?
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46,739 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 12
Would "overcome" include "picking up and moving to another galaxy"?
Actually I hadn't even thought of that. Makes for a quite... radical solution, but I guess I can keep that as a fallback method if I don't find another way of saving humanity from its yet unnamed threat.
And yes, I know it's hard to fill, thought about it a lot myself, that's why I asked here.
----------2008: Und der Himmel brannte (won)
2009: The Colors of Truth
51,618 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 39
And yes, I know it's hard to fill, thought about it a lot myself, that's why I asked here.
You have to realize that you're talking about something like a galactic core-burst in order to threaten a whole galaxy, and that's something that would take thousands of years to unfold in real time. What you're asking for is not trivial in terms of the energy required and in terms of the sheer amount of time it would take.
On the other side of that coin, to "beat" a true galactic apocalypse would require something on the order of a K3 civilization (i.e., able to harness the rough energy output of an entire galaxy). Any civilization less than that pretty much has no choice but to either evacuate or die.
Preventing galactic apocalypse requires a galactic-scale power.
----------2009: The Kings of Distant Stars
If you write space-based fiction and have questions, read the Atomic Rockets page.
64,929 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 17 19
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Floating cities cradle humanity above a frozen Earth. Something is amiss. A group of strangers struggle to reveal the truth.
55,009 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 17 35
I guess it also depends on how you mean apocalyptic. 2 things come to mind which both require that there's still transit between worlds 1: disease on one hand, could be virulent, longer gestation/ infection period to allow someone to visit many parts of a world/ many worlds, but could perhaps be solved by discovery of a certain plant/natural remedy on one planet, so then you have a race to find the cure, and then to distribute it. 2: their method to transport (stargate- either like the series or those in Buck Rogers and the 24th century) could be breaking down and causing explosions/ radiation leakage, etc, and they have to find ways to shut down/ destroy/ bury them, which could cause a kind of lesser apocalypse, of divergent societies, cut off from one another, or jumping ships themselves breaking down causing similar issues.
----------Just because knowledge may be widely lost, does this mean, too that all computers/ databases, etc are busted/ useless? I have a few post apocalyptic stories in which the main character learns to read/ use old knowledge bases to gain position/ solve some problem/ find The Truth. Sometimes, knowledge is kept via religious groups who may or may not fully understand it, but may worship and use certain "magic words" they find in the texts. Or maybe someone is cry-frozen and brought back to work the machines or defeat the monsters :P (Crystalis for the win)
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25,845 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 19 53
Does it have to be all of humanity that is threatened?
What if it's some weird cult that discovered some ancient technology of immense destructive power and for some reason got it in their heads to blow everything up?
Or some kind of war along the same lines...
The virus idea may work, or perhaps declining fertility for disease or other unknown reasons... it's not immediately fatal to anyone but it sure makes the continuation of the species kinda hard.
Or maybe it's some kind of technology gone out of control? A robot fleet bent on killing all the humans?
Or how about space zombies!? XD Ok, maybe a little smarter than regular zombies... or under some kind of mind control by some psycho or other who discovered some old technology and bent it to his own nefarious ends...
I'm just throwing out random ideas... maybe something will stick :P
38,404 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 20 04
Since you said "apocalyptic threat looming above humanity" I assume that it's only humanity that's in danger and not the universe itself. If that's the case, then I think disease would be your best bet to fit all the criteria. You could make your story a kind of medical-themed action flick, like Outbreak. That could be an awesome story.
----------2008 Winner - Stray Kingdom
2009 - Stray Kingdom 2
32,076 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 20 13
"You gotta have Power!" Hilarious...
Anyway: I think your apocalypse should be a strategic, secret effort by some crazy, radical group that creates some kind of device that could threaten the whole of mankind. You could have them be suicidal to allow for the ENTIRE human race to be in jeopardy.
When I first read this thread I thought: the hyperspacial doomsday box from Life the Universe and Everything (the hitchhiker's guide series). It links all the cores of every star in the universe into each other which then causes a huge, universal explosion. I thought of it jokingly, but it really could work for you. Or something similar, a big doomsday plot.
----------NaNoing from FOO!
40,074 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 05 23
What about this - the universe is in danger because another universe is crashing into it. This has been done in Fantasy, I think, (Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar books and Barbara Hambly's Time of the Dark come to mind) but off-hand I can't think of anything equivalent in SciFi (except for Doc Smith's Lensman series, but that was colliding galaxies - different altogether).
First, as the universes begin to collide, the laws of physics in each might begin to fall apart, leading to upheavals in whatever civilizations exist on both sides of the divide. Then, at the time of your story, rifts could open allowing travel between the universes themselves, and whatever torn-up, barbaric, survivalist civilizations remain could go to war with each other.
Hmm.. Actually, I think I just came up with my own Nano for next year.
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46,739 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 06 26
Actually I quite like that "colliding universes" idea, as I might need some plotline later on in which the "fabric of the universe" is being practically ripped apart in a certain place, so that might mix very well with that. And the event could've been foreshadowed long enough that their might be hints and theories from former centuries on what's about to happen. Have to put a little bit more thought into that.
----------2008: Und der Himmel brannte (won)
2009: The Colors of Truth
27,015 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 14 04
One of the going theories about branes colliding is that this is the event that creates a big bang, though it would be possible for a second big bang to occur without collisions between old objects and new (just as two galaxies can pass through each other without two star systems colliding) space is just that big.
A current idea that I've been considering using is a Vacuum Metastability Event, which is a nucleation of the big rip. It expands only at the speed of light, which means the universe itself will still last for eons, but the local events such as civilizations will be doomed in decades, at most centuries, if not mere years.
Such a thing couldn't be stopped, but it could be invoked or prevented if the cause was a doomsday device made as a war deterrent. Both the US and the Soviets considered doomsday devices during the cold war, but rejected them as too dangerous. That wouldn't stop the disadvantaged side of a protracted asymmetric war from engaging in such projects, especially if they were (as some contemporary religions are) expecting the end of the world via divine means.
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27,145 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 15 45
The threat could be something that will close whatever loopholes humanity, in your book, uses to travel and communicate at faster-than-light speeds. While this would not necessarily destroy the galaxy or even the human species, it would be a dire enough event that people would probably pull out all the stops to prevent it.
57,000 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 23 58
I was gonna suggest the colliding universe thing, but someone beat me to it.!
I've heard various theories that suggest that this is how the big bang began. And I've also heard others that seem to suggest that the universe that is "bigger" (i.e. has more mass or energy) would simply envelop the smaller one, forcing a new reality upon it.
I know you don't have aliens, but wouldn't it be fun to have beings from that other universe seeking to advance this universal collision somehow?
And perhaps the universe could have become "porous" and its very fabric weakened by any FTL travel. If you are using folding drives or the 10th dimension to get around, you may actually be hastening the advance of the universal merge. It would be an epic parallel to our current problem of technology v. nature and the threat mankind causes for itself when it reaches new heights of creativity and science.
Also, you could use the black hole at the center of the galaxy. If it were emitting wild and extremely potent gamma rays (more than the massive amount it already does,) you might have a problem. I have no idea how you could stop that short of finding yourself a new galaxy to run to.
I've heard some interesting stuff about gravity weakening. Some physicists think that gravity will gradually weaken as the universe expands.
Hope you find a good solution! :)
45,126 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 11 50
I am amazed no one has mentioned "disease". As apparent today with H1N1, as it was during The Black Plague of Death era, nothing spreads faster than the diseases of humanity. Even our cold germs can survive in outer space, and unless you know how to produce the antibiotics (cures) - everyone could die. Penicillin comes from a fungus. I hope I haven't sent you off in a completely different direction. Good luck!
----------45,126 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 11 51
Oops, just read the other disease one. Still a good option though.
----------7,538 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 13 33
I can think of a few options
Disease is actually the best one by far if you want an easy non-human enemy that makes sense
But other than that I can think of a few options that might worked, depending on exactly what you're in-novel tech level is like
----------1 - something affects earth and the 'main command center' of the central military force of humanity, this would be rather indirect but the idea of cutting of what had managed to stabilize the dying empire falling apart and radicals (which had been building up power as the empire weakened) took over and basically started nuking/orbital bombarding various planets a dozen at a time
2 - drop several big rocks, again with those wild and crazy separatists cept' they're now dropping moons on planets and space colonies and big space rocks, it would require a smaller support fleet (once the moon starts moving it's hard to stop) and it can be planned in advance, also easy to stop one you know whats going on, thus you could make the plot mostly about finding out once the first few rocks start hitting
Ok they're kinda similar, but you get the idea, have a lot of people planning the same thing and you can have people try and stop it
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41,212 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 08 50
How about the milky way is collapsing in on itself? Stars collapse into a black hole which pull in all the other stars and star systems around them. So eventually everything is pulled into the black holes and then the holes pull in other black holes and on the cycle goes until the entire galaxy is one great big black hole.
Humanities only option, get the hell out!
----------"If you have a little voice in your head that talks to you, don't worry your human. If you have three or four voices that argue with each other, don't worry your a writer!"
25,665 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 16 04
Hello there a couple hundred worlds sounds like a lot an really is quite much space but on a stellar scale thats really not so much.
It really depends much on what do you want. I'll list some ideas i got now
1.st homo homini lupus on multiple worlds and the vast distances in between it would be really simple to colonies loose unity and fall from grace. Some worlds on the rim might easily loose much tech if its let say farm colony or sort of ekumenopolis and with out continiuos flood of food decline would be fast.
2. is already mentioned bacteria and viruses. not just make em target people., in Larry Nievens ring world book had bacteria that feed on plastic causing tech to fail.
3. supernova (or even the theorized hypernova) could easily threaten hundreds of worlds trough irradiation, wiping away ozone layer
4. run off tech gray goo aka nanobots going forth and turning all that they touch to them selfs. & lots of other stuff artificial intelligence could do real damage,
5. galactic collision its actually not going to be kinda like a car crash rather more like adding sugar to water that would mix up the galaxy rather much, problem with this is that it would happen over a LONG period of time...
6. computer viruses, a really running wild computer virus causing havoc trough "galactic internet" or via radio waves jamming tech and even killing people with cyber implants.
7. genetic decay long time of high tech time could cause sort of de-evolution that could render people sterile...
8. sort of addition to viruses & stuff some sort of telepathically spreading madness...
87,377 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 16 55
A quantum "virus" that travels through whatever method of FTL communication you're using. Infects people. Humans are doomed, yet the galaxy lives on.
And I think I just gave myself an idea for a new novel LOL
----------NaNo 2009 - Simple Human - You are but a simple human whose mind cannot fathom the greatness that is The Collective.