The Great Reckoning

> *"Did God do this to us? If so, whose god?”* **--Roimata in *Cassette #8: Ohara Museum of Art (1980)***
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**The Great Reckoning** was a massive global destruction that killed more than a quarter of the Earth's population through war, famine, disease, and natural disaster. Its officially recognised beginning was in July, 1912, as riots began in Ghent, Belgium. It officially ended in on the 21st of April, 1943, after the third consecutive attempt at a global cease-fire.

## Elements

### War

#### Europe

By 1913, Ireland was enlisting soldiers to fight elsewhere in Europe. Most of Europe had put conscription of able-bodied men aged 18-45 into effect by the end of 1915.

* Clervaux, Luxembourg was badly damaged by heavy artillery and abandoned in 1913.
* From 1917-32 the German army occupied Belgium as well as much of the Netherlands and the eastern regions of France.
* Most of Paris, France was destroyed or repurposed for military use.
* In 1919, Oxford University was bombed. Around 60% of the buildings were destroyed, but there were only a few dozen casualties.
* Edinburgh, Scotland was catastrophically bombed in 1919 due to information sold by Josef Hinter, a mercenary spy operating in Europe at the time. His intel also led to the deliberate release of disease-infested rats into Rome in 1921, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Hinter was executed by the Austrian government in 1922.
* Ballinroche, Ireland and its surrounding area was heavily bombed with airstrikes over three months in 1924, and Gráinne Lynch's village was completely flattened except for her house.
* The Gevangenis van Antwerpen detention facility in north Belgium was bombed in 1931.

#### Americas

The United States of America officially declared war in 1914 and joined the fighting. Conscription was not implemented, the army instead calling for volunteers.

* In summer of 1918, President Taft was assassinated due to growing unpopularity - largely because his platform for re-election had hinged on the USA not joining the war, and he had been delaying the next election repeatedly. This led to riots, and sparked a second civil war.
* Philadelphia was the site of some of the first outbreaks of violence on American soil, and extended riots at the end of 1918 led to the Battle of the Bell, which took place two weeks over Christmas.
* There were arms manufacturing sites along the Mexican border.
* Galveston, Texas, was mostly destroyed by a tank that aimed to push back German soldiers who had advanced from Mexico. It blasted a hole in Bishop's Palace, half of which crumbled away.
* New York, USA was bombed in 1928 and 1929, and at some point during this period, Ellis Island and Liberty Island were destroyed. George Washington Bridge, NYC, was partially destroyed in 1932.
* In 1935, Inner Harbor Fire of Baltimore, USA was started, which took two months to fully extinguish.

#### Africa

* Later in the Reckoning, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was razed by a military assault. Due to loss of personnel and crucial infrastructure, there was a communication breakdown from urgent command messages, which made the attack devastating.

### Disease

In 1915, there was an outbreak of malaria and influenza in Brooklyn, NYC.

In autumn of 1916, there was the first reported outbreak of "cobbler's flu" (H4N2 influenza) in Salisbury, England. It was so named because of early (false) rumours that it was caused by a foot-fungus, carried by the marching soldiers. The roving armies did exacerbate the spread of the disease, and it became a pandemic within six months, worsening the conflict in turn by straining medical resources and personnel. The first outbreak had largely died down by the end of 1917, but there were smaller resurgences in 1921 and 1924.

South Australia was hit hard by the cobbler's flu, seemingly beyond reason. It generally thrived in cold and crowded places, but the warm and spacious city of Adelaide suffered immensely. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and many fled the area, strangely not seeming to take the disease with them in the volumes that would be expected. It was unknown later what contributed most to the severity of the spread.

### Natural disasters

Mount Etna erupted in 1921, and Yellowstone had a mini-eruption in 1923. The combined volcanic winter lasted until 1927, with the events themselves having a combined death toll of over 300,000. This devastated crop harvests and drove up the cost of food for years to come. Several earthquakes and tsunamis also occurred during the Reckoning, notably in Japan, Norway, Canada, and Mexico.

From 1932-34, Ballinroche, Ireland experienced three straight years of summer droughts and autumn floods.

By the 1940s, much of the east coast of the United States was "lost". New York City was largely destroyed by earthquakes and floods, including much of Brooklyn. At some point the water "turned black" on the docks of New York, causing them to close.

## Recovery

Years later, tanks were used to clear up debris before being decommissioned. A couple were kept as "reminders" but most were disassembled and their parts reused. KR Development was one of the companies who undertook this.

In 50s Chicago, the New Conversion Project (overseen by Michael Witten, who later appointed Sima Choudary to the project) aimed to repurpose the crumbling stockyards by training and hiring former soldiers to repair or replace the infrastructure. The project targeted veterans specifically because they were suffering from a major unemployment crisis. There was also a food shortage during this time.

Three quarters of the Field Museum collection in Chicago was destroyed in the Reckoning, and was one of the more fortunate museums. It reopened in September of 1953. One of the surviving neighbourhoods of Brooklyn was Yellowhook, because of its geographical shape, although by the 80s the buildings were in ruins, described as having "burst apart and sprouted branches like brownstone potatoes."

Damming technology utilised in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, was also constructed in the States in order to salvage some of the New York City. Since the 60s Harlem became a vibrant centre of business and culture in North America.

The environmental state of the world continued to worsen after the formation of the Society, for example there were thunderstorms and tornadoes in February of 1954 in Chicago and Michael noted that he had never known tornadoes to come so late in the year.

## References

1. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #1: Tate Modern (1971)
2. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.8
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.127
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Season 6, Episode #7: Sunday 28 October 1973
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.39-40
6. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.67
7. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.40
8. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #3: El Museo de Arte Comtemporaneo (1974)
9. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.77
10. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.35
11. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.76
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Season 3, Reel #2: August 13, 1953
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Black Box Cassette #2: PWM to MDW
14. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.188
15. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.223
16. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.95-96
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Black Box, Cassette #1: PHL to PWM
18. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.12
19. ↑ Season 7, Episode #5: Adelaide
20. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.66
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Season 2, Cassette #0: Karikari Contemporary (1969)
22. ↑ Season 3, Reel #8: April 20, 1954
23. ↑ Season 3, Reel #4: February 15, 1954