Black Centuries

The Black Centuries was a period of several hundred and thousands years after the devestating Sixty Minute War in which several empires and cultures rose and fell. For most of it, it was a tough time; the era is referred to as the 'Black Centuries' because nuclear clouds and black smoke from other weaponry blotted out the sun, covering the Earth for months at a time.

Despite this, several civilizations rose and fell - historical records are, however, rather sketchy and often in conflict.

It overlaps with the Ice Ages, and later the very early Spring Cultures/Traction Era.

Timeline[]

Early Black Centuries[]

Ruined london mortalengines — London in the Early Black Centuries, hundreds of years before it was re-inhabited.

Ancients' Civilization quickly collapsed following the MAD exchange of the Sixty Minute War. Few civiliians survived the initial bombardment; the humans by the events of Mortal Engines are most likely decendants of military and government personell who hid in bunkers safe from the weapons of mass destruction.

Turmoil followed as crops died, animals died and humans died. it was pretty miserable. According to Philip Reeve;

It was a savage age, in which most people would be happy to sell their children for a can of rice pudding.

Most people hid in the remains of buildings, caverns or abandoned bunkers, trying to escape plague winds and acid rain, among other un-natural weather behaviour.

The Dark Centuries[]

However, after two hundred years of chaos, a few civilizations began to rise to power, which are still mostly unknown or forgotten, having been long destroyed or dead. One of the earliest would be the Raffia Hat Civilizations, according to a timeline from 2119 to 2717 (which is not very long compared to others.)

A short description of them: They built large raffia hats to escape acid rain, but then started building bigger hats, until a single hat could cover an entire village. In their pursuit of larger hats, however, they farmed all the reeds in the marshes and ran out of hat-building material, and then succumbed to acid rain (at the very least, from being embarassed by a bald scalp. This is most likely a parody of the Easter Island cultures which, in their obessesion of building larger stone head sculptures, cut down all the trees on the island and died out as a result.)

Other notable constructions included The Scrivener Institute pyramids, later cared for by the Pyramid Builders, likely established only shortly before the War. The items inside were abandoned for centuries, to the point where all knowledge of advanced technology was forgotten. The War was eventually known as the Downsizing (as nobody could remember the advancements that could possibly destroy the world), its true (nuclear) origins discovered by Fever Crumb in 400s TE (more than ten thousand years later, c. 12400 AD).

Mid Black Centuries[]

Several cultures arose, such as the Electric Empire and the Blue Metal Culture; they seem to have both been very advanced for their time (almost to the point of the Ancients' Old Tech), but mysteriously disappeared. The only civilizations from this time that are well documented is the Raffia Hat Civilizations, which appeared around the marshy remains of the dried up English Channel, and died shortly after a few hundred years.

During the end of the Mid Black Centuries the acid rain and Earth Storms began to ease off with the infamous plague storms ending altogether, at the same time, ice caps could form without the clouds of smoke covering them, leading to the Ice Ages.

Late Black Centuries[]

The time of the mysterious Arctic Pyramid Builders, who started to build stalkers (inspired or even reverse engineered from pre-war technology). Around this time the Nomad Empires began to rise in cultural power in Europe, and began using massive fortresses which moved about, eventually forming entire nations of these 'land fleets'. Although not yet powered by engines (instead pulled by beasts of burden, slaves, or both) the Late Black Centuries was unwittingly breeding the rise of the Traction Era (around 1 TE, the internal combustion engine was perfected once again, after centuries of attempts to duplicate this ancient technology, and the fortresses became the first moving cities.).

Around this time old cities began being reinhabited; such as London, Paris and Bremen, just to name a few. The old infastructure was either cleared away, partially reinhabited or renovated (later to be put on wheels.).

The Late Black Centuries also saw the Scriven nomad empires becoming steadily more powerful. At this point the species split into the Scriven and the Nightwights (who lived in the caves of what was once Scotland).

By the last century of the Black Centuries, the Earth's weather was beginning to stabalize and people were settling down again; just as the Black Centuries 'officially' end, the Traction Era begins as the Nomad Empires motorize their moving homes and castles (eventually entire cities), percipitating Nomad Wars.

The Nomads are pushed ever North by technology-fearing Europeans, and the Scriven decide to give up their nomad lifestyle and invade pre-traction age London, culminating in the Scriven Uprising. Fever Crumb is one of the only survivors, who re-opens the Scrivener Institute pyramid buildings, writing about the Downsizing as the Sixty Minute War. Later on, to escape rampaging London, several other cities began to mobilise, beginning the Traction Era and ending the Black Centuries for good.