Can I Have A Destroyed Civilization with No Ruins?
I'm working on the timeline for my world, but I keep getting stuck at the origins. I want to have had an advanced civilization (modern levels, maybe a bit beyond) that was destroyed in a vaguely defined cataclysmic "end of the world" event. I'm very flexible about the nature of this event; my original idea was it was the typical last battle between good and evil and that evil won. I don't have any specifics plugged down.
The races involved are fairly standard fantasy ones, mostly humans and elves.
After the destruction, the intelligent races are essentially reduced to a hunter-gatherer state, and civilization has to develop all over again. However, I don't want there to be signs of the old civilization. At least, not everywhere. I don't want ruined buildings or skyscrapers, and I don't even want a plethora of dug up objects. Maybe a few items in isolated places, but I don't want this to be a major part of the actual story.
Is this possible? Would it depend on how many years it's been since "the end of the world"?
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1 answer
One way would be to do something similar to how Michael Moorcock ended the world of Melnibone' and the Young Kingdoms at the end of Stormbringer - and in a battle of the gods, it really doesn't matter who wins - the world will be toast (and since it'll be rebuilt by the victors, who get to write the history books or holy scrollery or whatever, I suspect that the ones who win will always be the "good" guys :-). Or, if you prefer something more scientific, either drop a 20-mile-diameter rock (this would pretty much bring civilization down, and if it killed enough critters it'd be a battle between evolution and plate tectonics, with evolution trying to raise up an intelligent race and plate tectonics relentlessly destroying all evidence of earlier civilization), or just torch off a nearby supernova (say, within 10 light years), which could potentially destroy most of life on earth.
Best of luck!
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