History of the Dark Age

(This is Part 2 of my chronicle of the history from your time period to my time period in the 109th century.)

The Dark Age

Overview

The beginning of the Dark Age is usually dated to the fall of Paris and Beijing on October 9, 2101.

Roughly the first half of the Dark Age was distinguished by a state of global anarchy. Government on any level was nonexistent; the resulting degree of personal freedom was tempered by a lack of even the most basic services. The wanton lawlessness of the large cities proved to be far too dangerous for most people, and many cities were almost completely abandoned as people began to roam the countryside in search of the fundamental necessities of living. In some places, warlords assembled armed militias and preyed on those who were weaker. Most of the infrastructure that had not been destroyed during World War V or earlier was destroyed by vandals during the Dark Age, leaving the people of the Dark Age with little or no access to previously created technology. Very few artifacts remain from the early Dark Age; most surviving items from this period are makeshift implements adapted from naturally available raw materials or scavenged 21st century objects.

During roughly the second half of the Dark Age, simple forms of social cohesion began to reemerge. People settled down in the areas in which they found themselves able to satisfy their basic needs. The permanent dwelling ensured a higher degree of safety and comfort for its inhabitants, and such dwellings naturally clustered together. The reestablishment of permanent settlements created the need to enforce fairness and justice in interpersonal relationships; as a result, local governments started to take shape. Still, without any regional government, a criminal could escape justice simply by leaving the area. Eventually, these small communities began to rebuild the infrastructure of the previous civilization, providing limited electricity and clean water for their residents. Over time, multiple settlements sought mutual cooperation, which led to the formation of loose regional governments in some places. These regional governments proved to be able to muster militias of their own to fend off marauding warlords and outlaw bands; at times, the regional governments no doubt clashed with one another over land or resources.

Throughout the Dark Age, it was actually infectious disease, and not violence, that posed the greatest threat to human life. Medical care was practically nonexistent, and most ailments went untreated, resulting in high mortality. Where it was available, some Dark Age people made a tea from coca leaves, used as a stimulant to provide energy.

Though Dark Age conditions prevailed in different regions for different lengths of time, historians traditionally refer to January 20, 2278, the date of the founding of the American Theocracy, the first national government to exist since the 21st century, as the end of the Dark Age.

Dark Age Events

The Dark Age produced no contemporary historians, with the struggles for survival that characterized this time period leaving little time for documenting events. The only histories of this period that are available to modern researchers were compiled by writers living some time after the Dark Age. The many blatant contradictions between individual historical writings suggest that they contain radical embellishments, deliberate minimizations, and intentional omissions.

Some of these ancient historians mention three short outbursts of conflict, called the Tech Wars, taking place during the early Dark Age. The first of these is usually recorded as beginning in 2115 and ending in 2117, while the second is generally said to have started in 2139 and ended in 2143, and the third is recorded as having taken place in 2145 and 2146. Most sources that mention these wars describe them as rivalries between some of the more powerful warlords vying for control of various pieces of usable 21st century technological remains, and the violence is almost always said to have consumed both sides of the conflicts, with death tolls—intensified by the lack of effective medical care—ranging between 170 million and 250 million.

The majority of sources describe another war, referred to as the Century War, beginning in 2177 and continuing until the nominal end of the Dark Age, or even afterwards in some regions. Ancient historians commonly claim that this war destroyed about 10.5 billion human lives, making it the most deadly conflict in history. However, modern scholars have theorized that accounts of the Century War are in fact conflated depictions of the entire Dark Age itself.

Religion in the Dark Age

During the Dark Age, religion reasserted itself strongly in private life, as the trials and uncertainties of daily life seemed to continuously defeat human strength and intellect, driving the people of the Dark Age to seek protection and guidance from divine sources. Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism were especially resurgent; Wicca and other neopagan faiths also flourished, in many cases in syncretism with other religious traditions. On the other hand, Hinduism and Islam languished; Hinduism collapsed as the lower castes rejected the religion’s longstanding social order, while Islam suffered a severe depopulation as a result of the warfare that had devastated the Middle East in the 21st century.

The Dark Age also produced a short-lived new religious cult, known as Dajjalism, which was rejected as blatantly heretical, demonic, or destructive, by all of the other religious traditions of the period. The accuracy of ancient treatises on Dajjalism is questionable, and the extant writings of its founder are known to have suffered severe alterations, yet it is fairly certain that Dajjalism was centered on a man who claimed to be the Dajjal of Islamic eschatology. Ancient writers variously describe Dajjalism as anything from a minor sect barely encompassing Baghdad to a massive imperial theocracy engulfing virtually the entire land mass of Asia, Africa, and Europe; one document even reports a short Dajjalist foray into North America.

Perhaps no other historical figure has been subject to as much exaggeration as this Dajjal claimant has. Many ancient sources describe him as a terrifying undead cybernetic being with a red, illuminated eyepiece in place of his natural eye. His teachings are said to have been based on his own assertion of godhood and an invitation to followers to join him in his divinity through ritual mutilation and cybernetic augmentation. A few ancient historians denied this man’s existence entirely; at the other extreme, some sources name him as the primary instigator and antagonist of the Century War. The writings known to have been composed by this Dajjal claimant deal mainly with technology as an essential catalyst for human evolution and perfection. The logical flow of the extant text is frequently punctuated with outbursts of maniacal anger directed at a wide variety of targets for no apparent reason; these interruptions are generally regarded by scholars as having been added by a later editor or polemical commentator.

In any case, Dajjalism did not survive long after the end of the Dark Age. A number of historical records describe successful anti-Dajjalist pogroms that appear to have exterminated the vast majority of the sect’s adherents. The Temple of Dajjal, apparently the cult’s only sacred site, is said to have been abandoned by the Dajjalists and then meticulously dismantled and literally reduced to dust by a military expedition sent from the American Theocracy.

Arts in the Dark Age

The arts of the Dark Age were generally practical in nature. Visual art consisted primarily of diagrams intended to communicate useful information to friends, family, or posterity. Since paper was easily destroyed, and in any case was in short supply due to the total collapse of industry, the people of the Dark Age sought more permanent media in which to create such images; diagrams were often drawn on concrete fragments or scratched onto metal. An example of this Dark Age art is a sketch on concrete found near the ruins of Mexico City, depicting the construction of a wood-powered electric generator.

Literature in the Dark Age manifested in two main forms. The first consisted of brief instructive notes on various topics relevant to subsistence living, such as farming, fishing, and construction of shelters and makeshift technological implements. These often accompanied diagrams like those described above. The other major form of literature in the Dark Age related to practical spirituality and included prayers intended to secure a divine blessing in specific endeavors.

Unfortunately, no Dark Age music has survived to the present, though certain prayer texts contain annotations that appear to have served to indicate the proper way of singing the prayers within a liturgical framework. The simplicity of these annotations suggests that the melodies they represented were likewise simple and unsystematic.

Legacy of the Dark Age

Although the Dark Age was less than 200 years in length, it had lasting effects on the international power structure. The anarchy and technological collapse of the Dark Age served as an equalizer, reducing all regions, cultures, and ethnicities to nearly the same level of poverty and powerlessness. After the Dark Age, the international power structure realigned based on the distribution of usable natural resources. Regions with large amounts of natural resources, such as Africa and South America, were positioned to become global superpowers; regions that had expended most of their original natural resources, such as Europe, and regions that were especially devastated by the wars of the 21st century, such as the Middle East, fell to third world status.

Additionally, the anarchy of the Dark Age led to realignment along ethnic, religious, and cultural lines. National entities that had previously achieved coherence mainly through military power or a unified political system dissolved when military power and political systems ceased to exist. After the Dark Age, ethnicity and religion were the primary unifying forces; as a result, the new national entities that were established in the wake of the Dark Age generally encompassed only a single ethnic or religious group. Multiethnic and multireligious regions fragmented, while regions consisting of a single ethnic group or faith that had previously been separated along purely political lines now sought unity.

The end result of all of these factors is that the geopolitical structure after the Dark Ages was very different from that which preceded it.

(Part 3 of my history will deal with the American Theocracy.)