KenderCleric's Challenge #25 - The New World

Warning:
I haven't decided if this is a plot bunny with a lot of potential, or a massive pile of crap. This is mainly b/c at the time of writing and posting this I've only had one cup of coffee. You have been warned.

Summary:
There has always been a liability presented to both the muggle and magical worlds: Muggleborns. These children risk exposing the magical world to the muggles as well as exposing the muggles to the dangers of magic. However, it was a threat easily ignored by most; until it was too late that is.

The Common Wizard’s Flu variant 3291 was literally the end of the world for the muggles. Patient Zero, a third year Ravenclaw student, had been exposed by an ill classmate just prior to leaving Hogwarts for the summer. Normally, muggles were completely immune to Wizarding Disease as they had no magic for the illness to feed on. However, variant 3291 had mutated greatly from the norm.

3291 had, in fact, mutated exclusively within muggleborn hosts. The virus, while able to infect and feed upon a muggleborn’s magic, was never able to truly grow as a virus intends due to the biological differences between muggles and magical. Muggles, lacking the magic-enhanced immune system of wizards, dealt with disease on a level no wizard or witch ever had to and as such had developed extremely hardy natural immune systems. This phenomenon, when coupled with a magical immune system, had made muggleborns damn near invulnerable to illness.

So it was that 3291 had mutated, and adapted, over time in its muggleborn hosts. In the late summer of 2001 the muggle populace was unknowingly exposed by Patient Zero, and in a matter of two weeks 3291 had turned into a pandemic . Wizards and Witched ignored the situation, most totally unaware of it; they ignored it until the first signs of infection appeared in Purebloods that is.

3291’s mutation had allowed it to overcome a purely-muggle immune system, but it had also overcome the purely-magical.

77 days after the first case of 3291 was recorded the death toll among muggles was at 63% and rising. The purebloods were faring better, but at a 32% mortality rate it had a noticeable impact on the magical world. Though horrible, the worst had seemed to have passed as the number of new cases had dropped off. The worst, however, was still coming.

3291’s exposure to such a widespread population had allowed further mutation exposure to its muggle counterparts. This lead to the “final mutation” and the birth of what was eventually simply named: Death-Variant 1. The disease spread like a wildfire among the remaining population of Earth and by fall of 2002 the human population of the planet had been reduced to a single demographic: the muggleborns and muggle-raised.

While the Death-Variant had managed to infect the muggleborns and muggle-raised their “Dual-Immunity” as it had come to be called kept them at a 73% survival rate. Humanity’s darkest hour was upon it, but they were not without hope for among the survivors was a well-known leader, hero, and savior: Harry Potter.

Though trying to cope with his own losses Harry wasn’t blinded by loss as he was in the past. Able to think beyond the unbelievable tragedy he led the Muggleborns onward.


The Challenge:
The human race has been reduced from several billion to a few thousand scattered globally. There are no muggles left alive, and there are no purebloods either. In a world now populated only by those who had known both worlds how will humanity carry on? What challenges will they face, and how will they rebuild?

A few things to consider that could be made into plot-points.

• Magical Races: Did any die/survive because of the Death-Variant?
• Magical Creatures: How will suddenly having virtually no humans on the planet effect their populations, territories, etc.
• Muggle-Remnants: Some muggle technology does not do well without supervision. How will this play into the situation? How will wizards and witches familiar with technology take advantage of it; if at all?
• Rebuilding Society: How will humanity rebuild? Will it come together, will it remain nationalized, or will it vanish into the memory of other magical races? How will a purely magical human population adapt the muggle and magical customs/history/etc into "The New World"?

The Rules:
None really; this challenge is fairly open.

 

I think this is a very good challenge. Did you ever see the 1970s BBC TV series done by Terry Nation called survivors. I think that it would make a good base line for this challenge.

Here is a link if anyone is interested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors

 

I like this challenge. It would be refreshing to read it.

The world lies in ruins. People are devastated by tragedy. Who would be the first to grab control on the nukes and/or other ABC weapons?

IMO it would be best to begin the story from some point far in the future. Maybe an story told by a tour guid in Museum of Humanity in Geneva?

Also it would add to story to make the magical races imune to the Plague and trying to take over the planet. Or the Plague mutated them turning them into mindless, blood-thirsty monsters.

 

I dont think this is a challeange about FEW thousands of humans trying to control Nukes.
And if the story is started in the future in some kind of museum - the reader can alredy assume a Happy end.

 

My question is this: What's the point?

Sure, it's a neat challenge, but my Fallout challenge fell flat for the same reason: there's no plot except the cool premise. I guess you could say Survivors v. Viral world, but that can get boring kinda quick if you don't have somebody good writing it.

 

This plot bunny has potential, all it needs it a villain. Voldemort would still be sticking around, as would a pile of his followers, since most of them are just lying about being Purebloods, but that can't be it, there needs to be a villain that is created due to the mass extinction of humanity.

A la Zombie Survival Guide, I propose that there should be groups of muggleborns, that never got to go to a magical school, who form their own feudal/barbaric/religious fundamentalist societies, and are trying to control various parts of England, Europe, or where ever this story would be set.

Now Harry has to fight off not only a seriously pissed off Voldemort, but also numerous groups of bandits, armed with weapons ranging from swords and horses to military hardware and vehicles, that are hellbent on wiping out those they deem unworthy.

 

I could see religious fanatics popping just around every corner after the Plague. And some of them proclaiming that they "Have to finish the God's plan and bath the Earth in Flame."

You could always make Planet of the Apes(book) twist at the end, with The Guid turning to be a Goblin.

Mutated magical races. Or mutated humans. Strong, agile, fast, intelligent and most important of all - striped from their humanity. Cold blooded psychopats. Monsters. Demons.

 

Has quite a lot of untapped potential, and can go in multiple directions. I like it.

 

So more like a Omega Man/I Am Legend type of villain.

 

More like Fallout.

 

Um...why do Muggle-raised have the dual immune system? And in fact, why would the Muggleborn's have the dual immune system?

If they're Muggleborn, they've still been wizards from birth, which means from birth their bodies will have dealt with illness the magical way. They will have no "Muggle" immune system, because this immune system is built up via getting illnesses and fighting them off, not by genetics.

 

(EDIT: Taure, I assumed that as children they had grown up around muggle diseases, got muggle shots, etc. they had gained the same sort of 'muggle disease' immunity that any muggle would have to the majority of the little shit. Then they went to magical society and, though we didn't see it, had to take a few potions and such to give them immunity to the major magical diseases. Thus, while others were protected from one and not the other, muggleborns and muggle raised were protected from both.)

Everybody seems to be ignoring a lot of stuff.

First off, truly imagine what YOU would do if there was only a few thousand survivors on earth. The vast majority of people can not live without society. We are social creatures after all. Those few thousand world wide would have to band together. And it would not just be for sanity's sack. They would have to band together or die. Why?

Because humans, in their mass amounts of numbers, were the only things keeping magical creatures under wraps. Dragons would come pouring out of Romania and other dragon reserves. A few thousand magic users, split up across the globe, would have no chance of fighting that besides together.

Dementors, with all the fear and anger and hatred during the plague, would have expanded greatly. But with all the people gone they would need a new major source of food. They could soon become the bane of ALL sentient magical creatures who could feel fear and had a soul.

Centaurs, who seem like more of a plains sort of creature than a woodland, would spread out into all over the world. They would have an ancient grudge against the human race and would kill any they saw.

Goblins would also be a problem. With no humans to keep them under treaty and doing business, they would quickly change back into their warring ways. The ones in Britain would also have to, en masse, quickly leave because of the Dementor threat. This could cause them to war with another goblin branch somewhere, or with another type of magical creature.

Elves, perhaps, as every last bond they had to humans is cut, come out from a spell humans three or so thousand years ago had put on them. They would also now have a great grudge towards humans, though one, Dobby perhaps, would see that not all humans are bad and go to help Harry and his band.

Giants, without the Ministry of Magic coming to prune them off, would flee from the mountains. It would be a few years before they were a true problem because their numbers are so small, but they could still cause some havoc.

IT is also possible that some wizards did live. Not the ones in society, but the ones living in seclusion in the high mountains where the disease died in the air, or in the deepest desert where the disease died from the heat. There would only be a few, and they would probably take a while to notice that the rest of the magical world was gone, but they could easily play a part.

I guess what I'm saying with all this is that this challenge is pretty epic. There are so many less used races and creatures that the villain doesn't have to be a human or any mutation of one. I'm not saying it can't be. Voldemort can still be around, gathering magical creatures that wish to survive in the new world wide war of survival and gaining territory, but it doesn't have to be him.

Also, I really hope someone doesn't make a 'I am Legend' out of this. The others DIED, they didn't become ZOMBIES!!!11!!11!!

 

It's a matter of exposure. Even if you never really got sick as a child you were still exposed to thousands of variants of cold and flu over your formative years. This creates a basis for your immune system. Muggleborn and muggle-raised students would have been exposed to these illnesses from birth; as such before their magic had truely settled and taken over as their primary immunity they're natural biological measures would have.

Also, genetics does play into it. The reason that most people today don't have to worry about the Plague is because we're (for the most part) decended from survivors. This created a base genetic "stock" if you will of people who carried the immunity and passed it on.

The pureblood wizards or those raised purely in the magical enclaves would not have this same built-up immunity. Why? The fact that non-magical illness wouldn't be able to survive for any length of time in a purely magical environment means exposure would be next to nil.

 

Muttering Condolences, that would earn you a big ++ if you could still give rep here. I personally got a big World War Z vibe from this challenge.

I don't think you'd need muggles/muggle-borns that lived in seclusion; plenty would go mad with the near destruction of humanity. In fact, I can see groups on both sides trying to wipe out the other: Muggle-borns, to rid the world of non-magic users, whose society caused the downfall of their own; and muggles, who blame the virus on magic, and set out to "sterilize" the planet.

I'd love to write this, but my meager skills wouldn't be able to do it justice. Instead, I'll just give my suggestion for the opening: Harry and Hermione, wandering through the ruins of London, scavenging for food and supplies off the dead.

(And for all those who hate the bushy-haired buck-toothed bookworm: fuck off. The entire world is gone - Harry isn't about to dump possibly the only friend left to him (and in the beginning, possibly the only other human he knows of). 'Sides, it'd be interesting to see things from her side: how would you react if the world ended?)

Edit:

Army of Inferi, anyone?

Heck, before Voldie died he probably made one final bid for power, and turned the millions of corpses in the British Isles into the walking dead. Then he died (yes, he's dead, no horcrux bullshit), and the Inferi reverted to their natural instinct: to kill. Combine 'em with Dementors, and Judgment Day is truly upon us.

 

I would cry if someone took this great idea and turned it into yet one more zombie story.

 

Lol, a plague without zombies is no plague at all.

 

I don't know. I'd like to see a few encourters with the undead. Hiding out in tunnels and caves, burnt out cars and buildings...

Edit: I've given Harry the title Last-Man-On-Earth, before Boy-Who-Lived was always lame. I don't fucking know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

"See anything?"

"Nah, nothing. Pass me down the bags, will you?"

Harry put down the Muggle torch he had been holding and turned to help Hermione shove their backpacks through the manhole. That task accomplished, Harry watched the small, unassuming woman who was possibly the last of her species climb down the ladder.

Straightening out, she looked around the tunnel mournfully. "What do you think this was?"

Harry shrugged. "Dunno." He paused to pick up the once military-issue SA80 assault rifle that had become his primary weapon before he continued. "Maintenance, maybe? Leads into the Tube anyway."

Hermione, hefting one of the backpacks, bent to pick up the torch. She frowned. "When was the last time we had a wash?"

Harry chucked. "Two weeks, I think. Why?"

She sniffed. "I can just smell something..."

Harry widened his eyes. "Where did you pick the torch up?"

"Just here, wh-"

"Accio!" Harry cried, and the brunette shrieked as she hurtled towards the Last-Man-On-Earth before she was unceremoniously grabbed out of the air and flung to the ground. He didn't have time to worry about that, though: they were coming, their moans barely audible.

The first Inferi crawled from beneath a rock, and was in the open for about two seconds before its head was a bloody stump. It seemed to be a scout for a larger party, as about a dozen emerged from the darkness.

The SA80 was on full automatic as Harry fired from the hip, the living dead getting closer and closer to their position. Hermione had caught on and was firing the old service-issue revolver she had recovered from a Veteran's Hospital, her rounds going wild, but miraculously taking out two of the Inferi.

After another minute it was over, the former humans lying in a bloody pile of limbs and bodily fluids. Shakily, Hermione stood and gaped at Harry, who was glaring at the bodies with pure hatred.

"How much further to we need to go?" she asked timidly.

Harry raised his head and sighed, closing his eyes. "Three miles."

 

That's pretty good, but why can't they Apparate somewhere else? Once the wizarding population knows of the plague, they'd make teaching Apparition top priority.

If you really want a zombie story: Harry kills Voldemort, and is thrown unconscious in the shockwave of necromantic energy that Voldemort releases in his death throes.

28 days later...

 

You know what? I thought of that half an hour after I wrote it.

Apparation sucks. How could danger exist if you can teleport out at a seconds' notice?

Eh, it only works if you know what way you're going. Harry's probably looking for some artifact that can help them.

If the plague is airborne (and every sign points in that direction) Apparating would do nothing, unless you could get to an airtight, sterile location. There's an idea; a group of muggles survive miles underground, a secret US Government thingie in case the world goes to shit.

 

You could add a mystery element. A coalition of governments amasses a combined force of Aurors to try to slaughter as many Inferi as they can, and Apparate the hell out of there, only to find that they can't. They are subsequently slaughtered.

Still kinda lame.