Nuclear Dark Days
Known as the Cold War in its time, the Nuclear Dark Days was a period of conflict and tension on Terra between the two superpowers of the time, the United States of America and Soviet Empire. Humankind's first brush with self-induced existential risk. Technology of the time reached new destructive heights, to the point where civilization could have been permanently destroyed by a handful of individuals.
During this time Terra was consumed by power struggles as it split into two blocs: the "First World" encompassing the democratic Ancient America and its allies on one side, and the Soviet Union plus its satellite states on the other. Due to the lack of binding international authority, no external intervention was possible. The two superpowers engaged in a mad arms race, accumulating stockpiles of weapons they could never use to maintain the illusion they would. Leaders such as Tricky-Dick Nixon, Reagan the Mad, and Chruschev the Cruel squared off as they accumulated enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet several times over.
Citizens of this time lived under constant fear of thermonuclear annihilation, with the ever-present possibility that the malice of their rulers, or even simple equipment malfunction, could unleash a world-destroying catastrophe. Even worse, the rulers made ample provision for their own survival in well-stocked bunkers while leaving their populaces to fend for themselves.
On account of the atomic stalemate most of the conflict was conducted through proxy action, as seen in the Cubist Missile Crisis and the United States' installation of a man named Shaw to rule over the nation of Iran. Fortunately, the slow-boiling conflict ended with the twentieth century and no atomic weapons were ever used, though there were numerous close calls such as the. Its after-effects were profound, still being felt decades later, and the period immediately following the end of the Nuclear Dark Days is often considered the height of Ancient American power.
During this time Terra was consumed by power struggles as it split into two blocs: the "First World" encompassing the democratic Ancient America and its allies on one side, and the Soviet Union plus its satellite states on the other. Due to the lack of binding international authority, no external intervention was possible. The two superpowers engaged in a mad arms race, accumulating stockpiles of weapons they could never use to maintain the illusion they would. Leaders such as Tricky-Dick Nixon, Reagan the Mad, and Chruschev the Cruel squared off as they accumulated enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet several times over.
Citizens of this time lived under constant fear of thermonuclear annihilation, with the ever-present possibility that the malice of their rulers, or even simple equipment malfunction, could unleash a world-destroying catastrophe. Even worse, the rulers made ample provision for their own survival in well-stocked bunkers while leaving their populaces to fend for themselves.
On account of the atomic stalemate most of the conflict was conducted through proxy action, as seen in the Cubist Missile Crisis and the United States' installation of a man named Shaw to rule over the nation of Iran. Fortunately, the slow-boiling conflict ended with the twentieth century and no atomic weapons were ever used, though there were numerous close calls such as the. Its after-effects were profound, still being felt decades later, and the period immediately following the end of the Nuclear Dark Days is often considered the height of Ancient American power.
The Conflict
Outcome
Fragmentation and long-term misery in former Soviet territories, worldwide expansion of American-style consumer capitalism.
Aftermath
The legacy of nuclear research and proliferation, combined with the environmental devastation created by capitalism's profit motive, contributed to the climate crisis of the twenty-first century, and later the End of Earth.
Start Date
1945 A.D.
Ending Date
1991 A.D.
Conflict Result
American/capitalist victory, end of immediate existential threat from nuclear weapons
Belligerents
Ancient America
Soviet Empire
Strength
World's largest military, world's second-largest thermonuclear arsenal
World's second-largest military, world's largest thermonuclear arsenal
Casualties
Many soldiers dead in proxy wars, millions dead in destabilized countries
Many soldiers dead in proxy wars, tens of millions dead from famines and political purges
Objectives
Promotion of liberal-democratic capitalist ideology, world domination
Promotion of communist ideology, world domination
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