Plague of 2020

The **Plague of 2020** was a great outbreak that affected Earth in the 2020s.

## History

The plague was first discovered in a border city between China and Russia, which later spread across east and southeast Asia, and then the rest of the world. It ruined the world for four years.

The Plague of 2020 was so destructive, that it wiped out a third of all humans on Earth, reducing the human population to 5.3 billion people. The deaths of many people and the lockdowns imposed weakened the global economy, so it did not recover until the 2030s or 2040s; nonetheless, it allowed the environment to slowly recover. Due to the overwhelming grief for the many lives lost, memorials to the victims of the Plague were raised all over the world: in the worst-hit nations of China and America, memorials to the Plague's victims were everywhere.

During that time, three great companies - Sealion, Paxolan, and MeCCHta - had created vaccines on late October 2020. All three of them opposed attempts to remove patent protections and lower prices, as their leaders claimed that they needed more money to improve the vaccines. This resulted in delays in vaccinating poorer nations and the development of deadlier mutations, and international condemnation against Western nations.

## Society during the Plague of 2020

In America, four subcultures (or factions) emerged as a result of the Plague of 2020. Their names were derived from their most-often used phrases in historical records, which were distorted over centuries.

### Stadomians

Named after the words "stay at home!", this subculture insists that people stay inside their homes to avoid being infected, claiming that the people's health is more important than individual goals.

Although this was the biggest faction among the four, the most notorious Stadomians harrassed people for being outside. They were also supporters of lockdowns, with (or without) direct aid for poorer people and those who lost jobs.

Some Stadomians regarded the Plague as a good thing, because the loss of many jobs would drive the people to a revolution, and then the beginning of a new economic system influenced by socialism or anarchism. Even then, most of the Stadomians regarded them as too radical or extreme, preferring bits of socialism instead of a total overhaul of their existing system.

### Tabbackians

Named after the words "take back [what is ours]!", this subculture attacks anyone who tries to tell people to stay at home or get vaccinated. Their demands were a total ban on any vaccinations, face masks, and lockdowns.

They regarded the government as an enemy of their "traditionalist" way of life.

### Nechuzilins

Named after the words "nature is healing!", this subculture celebrates the deaths of the Plague, which might lessen pollution. Some even resort to bioterrorism to infect and kill more people, causing this subculture to be hated by the people as a death cult.

### Elsewhere

Riots broke out in Western countries over attempted lockdowns and mask mandates. Influenced by American nationalist media, many people across Europe attempted to force their governments to end the policies and resume "normalcy", fearing what they considered as a loss of their freedoms. One by one, these led to growing infection and death rates in Western countries.

This attitude was fuelled by distrust against the governments due to various progressive and socialist policies that angered parts of Europe, worsened by an economic recession.

## 19-canon version

In the 19-canon version of this event, the Plague of 2020 led to the formation of militias in the United States.

Some Stadomians created Marxist communes, claiming that they would help the poor when the government failed. Those communes later became an independent federation that eventually gathered enough power to take over the American government. It remake the government into a Marxist image, only to be divided into two polities practicing different systems.

The Tabbackians developed a hatred of China and Chinese people, blaming them for the Plague due to China being the first nation to discover it.

The Plague of 2020 fuelled risky attitudes in the American Federation, Visegrad, and Pro-Purge Europe (when Europe was taken over by fascist and nationalist militants). There, the people never wear masks during pandemics, and none of the governments had any health mandates. The peoples of those states even banned vaccines, instead promoting unusual and bizarre forms of medicine. Although this led to more deaths from occasional pandemics and disasters, their peoples not only accepted those deaths, but they also hailed them as sacrificial heroes.

## Trivia

* The Plague of 2020 was largely inspired by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
	+ The Stadomians were inspired by government efforts to vaccinate people, urge them to wear masks, lockdowns, and permits for vaccinated people. Parts of their group were influenced by various far-left groups on Twitter.
	+ The Tabbackians were based on right-wing protestors against Western governments, such as anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, and the Freedom March of London.
	+ The Nechuzilins were based on occasional Internet users who praised the Covid-19 pandemic and who wanted it to exterminate humanity for pollution.
* The Plague of 2020, a fictional plague, is much more deadlier than Covid-19.

## See also

* 3900 Pandemic, its Rabydosverse counterpart.