THE GREATEST DEP-RESSION.

[Seperallis]

In all seriousness, I heard a thing on the radio and it gave me an idea that'll kill two birds with one stone. Before I lay into studying for the evening, let me get the idea out there:

It's not a new idea; I swear it's been bandied about before, but now I know we have widespread directorate support for it, and we'll make it a Directorate-enforced worldwide crisis.

In a phrase, worldwide pandemic. There are enough events going on for the past...well, many years in the Svarna/New Zealmark area to cause a breakdown of social and civil orders in the area, coupled with a steady exodus of people that, under normal circumstances, in all likelihood never would have left their areas. Or, even more likely, certain non-native people being in these areas that are already worse off than normal catching the thing and carrying it back to more dense areas after their mission is done. Or, very unlikely but fun because I can make up some fun stuff, is that it's deliberately brought from these areas to the world at large for reasons.

IN Any Case, it's a thing that gestates long enough to spread (and/or something that causes low-level symptoms early on that mimic something benign and unreported/untreated, like a common cold,) and then explodes into something deadly. The nature of an interconnected world brings it places before it's known what it is or that it's even being spread, one thing leads to another, world populations and economies are at risk.

Oh yeah, and impacts are non-negotiable. Don't want to be hurt as bad by this scenario? Then get some good RP going. Solve the dilemma...or don't, and maybe the Directorate will take pity in trade for a good story.

That's it. Just me getting a quick idea down before I lose it. Details can be ironed out later (though preferably not the details of the disease, which I'd prefer to be released as nations respond to the crisis).

[Battlion]

Completely in favour of a Nyland collapse - crashing the world economy around it. Think it’ll give us all some real rp’ing opportunities to try find solutions, forge new trading relationships and finally ending the facade that every economy is always growing.

[Ayzek]

THE DIRECTORATE APPROVES OF A PANDEMIC [s]THAT WIPES OUT A THIRD OF NYLANDS POPULATION[s] THAT CAUSES ALL SORTS OF TROUBLES. Sep, Sal could you guys pretty please post an update on the wild ideas you guys had?

[Battlion]

Personally, I’d rather avoid some pandemic kind of thing at least for a first time at attempting a worldwide depression.

[Sal]

I think the specific pathogen itself is supposed to be a bit of a mystery as it will encourage more RP (researchers trying to figure out what it is, how to vaccinate for it, why some people are immune, what percentage of the population is infected with no symptoms, etc.) but some of the parts we decided were:

- Congratulations - it's a virus!

- Multiple "levels" of sickness severity.  For a good real-life comparison, think of poliovirus and polio (although many, many viruses fit this bill, too - Zika, influenza, etc).  There are multiple kinds of "expression" or outcomes of polioviral infection. Essentially:

• No illness.  This would be the vast majority of infections, like 70% or more. People who do not express illness even though they are infected can still be contagious.
  
• Mild illness. This would be the next biggest category, probably on the order of 25% or so. I don't know if we've actually decided on symptoms, but with polio, this would just sort of be fever, headache, joint pain, nausea - flu-like stuff. Almost everyone will recover from this kind of illness, although recovery may vary in length based on factors like age, overall health, etc. Some people may die, but this will mainly be infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised (HIV/AIDS and chemotherapy patients, etc.) Keep in mind though - most people who get this level of illness will still be missing out on work.
  
• Severe acute illness.  This would be the second smallest category, around 4%.  With polio, this pretty much all depends on whether or not the virus crosses the blood-brain barrier (the nice tough meninges covering your brain keep out most bugs), or whether the virus shows neurovirulence. In this case, you'd get things like meningitis (swelling of the meninges which can cause things like severe neck pain, light sensitivity, seizure, death...). You can recover from this stage, but some people may have lasting effects (brain damage, etc.) and more people will die here than with the previous level. In fact, a significant number of these people may die.
  
• Severe longterm illness. This would be a very small percentage of infected people, 1% or less. In the case of polio, this would be the classic poliomyelitis (iron lungs and vaccines, you all remember) and would include things like paralysis, muscle atrophy, spasms, and chronic pain disorders. Everyone in this stage will die from their illness, although some may live for many years with the effects and secondary illnesses with the aid of tools like iron lungs and such.
  

- We discussed the route of transmission, but I don't know if that's something Oer wanted divulged here.  I can say, though, that this sort of thing is faaaairly easy to figure out early on in the epidemiological investigation process (Did someone who just breathed in the same room as an ill person without ever touching them also become ill? Okay, so it's able to be transmitted through breath droplets. And so on.)

I'll let Oer share the rest of whatever he was thinking of. I don't want to give away juicy secrets, but I can elaborate on whatever he's fine with divulging.

[Lomarre]

Super Volcano that causes a “Year Without Summer” much like the Krakatoa eruption. Causes crops and farms to fail and throwing us into worldwide famine scenario.

[Battlion]

Super Volcano that causes a “Year Without Summer” much like the Krakatoa eruption. Causes crops and farms to fail and throwing us into worldwide famine scenario.

This sounds fun

[BrumBrum]

I do like the krakatoa style eruption causing lasting effects on climate decades ahead is a good idea.

[Battlion]

I am happy to volunteer to be devastated for a volcano XD

[Battlion]

Additionally, I do have some real concerns about throwing everyone into such a deep thing with barely anyone in the know about the kind of thing going on as a FIRST attempt into the kind of negative events we’re wanting to push.

Originally, the idea was an economic depression as it was something that was easily understood by most people. I personally feel that if the directorate was to only allow economic growth to start returning to normal when there is clear regional or global cooperation and it could allow differing countries to grow whilst others who aren’t engaging may recover slower. Not to force people into a straight jacket of eternal economic collapse, all economies do eventually recover, but to encourage RP with less of a stick.

All in all, I really do think something simple as a Nyland economic collapse triggering a worldwide depression would be much better for the first time attempting this (yes Lines, might mean you get a bit of stick) and saving a pandemic/volcano/alien attack until a little further down the line when people are more used to the idea.