Post Apocalyptic Medieval Fiction

[t209]

Are there any media that are post apocalyptic medieval fiction? I got the idea when I saw that Battle for Westnoth has Under the Burning Suns, which reminds me of a D&D post apocalyptic campaign called Dark Sun. Unlike Dark Sun, Burning Suns still has Orcs that are now part of dominant race in now apocalyptic Westnoth.
Here's two I know
- Dark Sun
- Under the Burning Suns campaign of Battle for Westnoth.
Edit: I am actually looking for Devastated Medieval Fantasy Universe, like Dark Sun (not Earth or reduced to medieval society fiction).

[hamlet]

Define "post-apocalyptic."

For certain values of it, the Lord of the Rings saga is post-apocalyptic. In fact, for most values, really. The destruction of Numenor, then the subsequent destruction of the Northern Kingdoms leaving a vast, virtually empty wilderness. Gondor is failing. Rohan is failing. The greatest servents of the West are missing, dead, or have turned traitor to their own ambitions. The great strength of the "good" races is flagging while, seemingly, the strength of The Dark Lord are ever increasing . . .

Yeah, it kind of starts out a bit pastoral, but if you really dig into it, the books are really quite full of pathos and quite grim on a lot of levels. A lot of people, most I would argue, don't actually understand a lot of what's going on in those books.

Anyway, I'm off that particular soapbox now . . .

Dying Earth is a medieval post-apocalyptic world. Sort of. It's a little complicated.

As I understand it, the Sundered Realms (I think that's what it's called) was as well.

Midnight is a game world with this in effect (i.e., The Dark Lord wins the war).

[Dr.Epic]

Technically Adventure Time. Also Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.

[Sith_Happens]

I forget what it's called, but there's a book series where some kind of weird disaster causes electricity and fossil fuels and such to stop working, thereby causing the "apocalypse" of knocking the modern world back to medieval (or at least preindustrial) levels of technology. That count?

[comicshorse]

The british sci-fi movie 'Doomsday' could be considered this as in it parts of britain have been abandoned and reverted to primitive and, in one case, a medieval way of life

[snoopy13a]

Thundarr the Barbarian

[The Glyphstone]

It's not exactly what you want, but the novel 'Doomsday Book' features a woman travelling back in time to the middle of the Black Death epidemic. That was pretty post-apocalyptic in terms of its effect on medieval society.

[Barmoz]

E.E. Knight's vampire earth books might qualify, S.M. Stirling's novels of the change definitely do. Terry Brooks wrote some post apocolyptic books linking his Shanarra books with another one of his series, but I didn't think they were very good.

[JoeMac307]

Define "post-apocalyptic."

For certain values of it, the Lord of the Rings saga is post-apocalyptic. In fact, for most values, really. The destruction of Numenor, then the subsequent destruction of the Northern Kingdoms leaving a vast, virtually empty wilderness. Gondor is failing. Rohan is failing. The greatest servents of the West are missing, dead, or have turned traitor to their own ambitions. The great strength of the "good" races is flagging while, seemingly, the strength of The Dark Lord are ever increasing . . .

If you go that route, a lot of fantasy fiction is medieval post apocalyptic... Dragonlance (mostly) takes place after the Cataclysm, Song of Fire and Ice is after the fall of Valyria, etc...

Here is an article about how nearly all D&D settings assume a post-Apocalyptic world, as well...

[Dhavaer]

Second Apocalypse and the Obernewtyn Chronicles.

[CapnRedBeard]

The Stand count?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court count?

Kinda hard to nail what you want...

How about the Gunslinger series? That was all over the place though.

Feist's Riftwar saga?

[McStabbington]

Well, for different values of "medieval", two things come to mind. The first is Battletech, which is a game system set in an era where 1) humanity has advanced technologically to the point that it colonized about a thousand worlds, created jump drives to allow efficient travel between the stars, and created giant walking tanks called 'Mechs, but then 2) proceeded to nuke themselves to the point where they can barely produce their weapons of war, and have limited understanding of what a lot of what they produce actually does.

The second is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. For some reason, the Dark Tower has stopped working the way it was supposed to, and because of that, the reality of the universe has started to unravel, centered on the world of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger. Despite the use of firearms and the heavy use of Western motifs, the feel of the universe is very medieval, with gunslingers being explicitly tied to the Round Table of Arthur Eld.

[Warpwolf16]

Thundarr the Barbarian

*gives you the reward for awesome reference* First person I saw even post this! Its a P-A Earth ripe with magic, mutants, and super science!

Adventure Time is a good example as well, weird stuff in a weird P-A Earth called Ooo, weird tech and even stranger inhabitants. You can see the remains of our world every episode from being items in the background to actually holding items in their hands such as a mini nuke, or even being the focus of the story such as Beautopia!

Also would love to suggest the setting Blackmoor and Mystra, both are 'connected' and Blackmoor was ended in The Rain of Fire, Mystra takes places after the Rain of Fire. Blackmoor is also the setting with the cashed space ship called 'City of the Gods' by the natives. The setting is actually more then it appears, I love it and it was where I ran my first game after I played Expedition to the Barrier Peaks with another DM. Mystra takes place after the Rain of Fire and the 'Immortals/gods' are a odd bunch who seem to look at their followers more like a experiment then just followers. One even studied something that was highly dangerous thinking it would be beneficial to the Immortals, the Immortals remind me of Jack Kirby's New Gods.

I'd suggest also looking into the old Gamma World books as well as the two novels they produced for the new rule set. I love P-A and gamma World is my favorite setting. The current version is vague enough you can make your own Gamma World, mines littered with 'magic items' in the form of omega tech, I've got two 'arcanist' walking around using dark mutations as spells. Its a fun setting.

[MLai]

Elric of Melnibone seems to fit into this?

Elric's homeland is an analogy of Atlantis, a superpowerful nation which has since slipped into isolation and decline. The world it once controlled has now become wilderness and young civilizations. Melnibone has superscience and supermagic, while the young nations are relatively backward.

[DomaDoma]

I forget what it's called, but there's a book series where some kind of weird disaster causes electricity and fossil fuels and such to stop working, thereby causing the "apocalypse" of knocking the modern world back to medieval (or at least preindustrial) levels of technology. That count?

Definitely. It's called the Emberverse Saga or the Novels of the Change, it's by S.M. Stirling, and it's one heck of a postapocalypse.

There's also the Shannara series, but I don't recommend it.

[Cen]

If you're looking for a movie maybe 'Evil Dead III - Army of Darkness'? it's medieval sort of postapocalyptic sort of horror comedy, absoultely 'must-see'

[Fragenstein]

Thundarr the Barbarian

Thread winnah!

[Tavar]

Wheel of Time arguably also counts.

And I know I've read some pretty good short stories of Medieval world/Aliens crossover.

[Cheesegear]

I forget what it's called, but there's a book series where some kind of weird disaster causes electricity and fossil fuels and such to stop working, thereby causing the "apocalypse" of knocking the modern world back to medieval (or at least preindustrial) levels of technology. That count?

Revolution, maybe?

Also, the Jon Shannow/Jerusalem Man trilogy by David Gemmell.

[NerfTW]

I forget what it's called, but there's a book series where some kind of weird disaster causes electricity and fossil fuels and such to stop working, thereby causing the "apocalypse" of knocking the modern world back to medieval (or at least preindustrial) levels of technology. That count?

If electricity stopped working, life would stop working. We use electricity in our own bodies to move, breath, and think. Also, if "fossil fuels" stopped working, then you're saying combustion stopped working, so fire no longer works. That series sounds like someone put a lot of work into a premise without ever thinking through the premise.

It's not exactly what you want, but the novel 'Doomsday Book' features a woman travelling back in time to the middle of the Black Death epidemic. That was pretty post-apocalyptic in terms of its effect on medieval society.

Came here to say that too. :P

We've had multiple extinction level events in our history. The apocalypse has occurred over and over again throughout human history.

[JoeMac307]

We've had multiple extinction level events in our history. The apocalypse has occurred over and over again throughout human history.

When you say throughout human history, do you mean human prehistory, i.e. before written records?

Or do you mean actual human history, where humans were organized enough to form civilizations with written records, which then went through an extinction level event?

As far as I know, there is no conclusive proof of that - just theories / myths like Atlantis.

Or am I misunderstanding?

[Tavar]

If electricity stopped working, life would stop working. We use electricity in our own bodies to move, breath, and think. Also, if "fossil fuels" stopped working, then you're saying combustion stopped working, so fire no longer works. That series sounds like someone put a lot of work into a premise without ever thinking through the premise.

Actually, they did. For instance, someone makes a steam engine in the book. It gets to a certain pressure, but before it reaches a useful amount it just stops getting any more pressure. The characters comment on how this clearly isn't natural, and the favorite theory seems to be Alien Space Bats. Later on(in the second trilogy) it is revealed what's going on. Massive spoilers, but if you don't care

Spoiler

Show

essentially, every human who dies goes and forms some sort of overmind/spirit parliament thing. The many simply wanted to destroy humanity due to it's destructiveness, but were eventually talked into a comprimise where they simply removed the ability for humans to construct machines that provide, well, power in any form, by apparently rewriting the laws of reality on such a fine level that Humanity can survive, but not use it's greater, non muscle, wind, or water powered technologies(steam engines not falling into water, obviously).

So, no, it was well thought out. Including the repercussions of such an action(something like 99% of humanity dies).

[JoeMac307]

Actually, they did. For instance, someone makes a steam engine in the book. It gets to a certain pressure, but before it reaches a useful amount it just stops getting any more pressure. The characters comment on how this clearly isn't natural, and the favorite theory seems to be Alien Space Bats. Later on(in the second trilogy) it is revealed what's going on. Massive spoilers, but if you don't care

Spoiler

Show

essentially, every human who dies goes and forms some sort of overmind/spirit parliament thing. The many simply wanted to destroy humanity due to it's destructiveness, but were eventually talked into a comprimise where they simply removed the ability for humans to construct machines that provide, well, power in any form, by apparently rewriting the laws of reality on such a fine level that Humanity can survive, but not use it's greater, non muscle, wind, or water powered technologies(steam engines not falling into water, obviously).

So, no, it was well thought out. Including the repercussions of such an action(something like 99% of humanity dies).

Read the spoiler - so essentially, it's the A Wizard Did It trope?

[Tavar]

Major Spoilers.

Spoiler

Show

More like God/gods. But yes.

Also, I was somewhat incorrect. The laws aren't changed. What's actually happening is that the omnipresent and extremely powerful being/beings are actively interfering in matters to stop those technologies from working.

[t209]

I am appreciated that there are many post apocalyptic fiction other than Dark Sun and Under the Burning Suns campaign for Battle for Westnoth.
What I mean by the title is not on Earth, it means by alternate universe (like Dragonlance and Dark Sun) that was devastated by cataclysm.

[hamlet]

Actually, come to think on it, the DeathGate Cycle is also post apocalyptic. Finding out just what happened and why is a major point of that series.

[Science Officer]

I want to suggest something, but simply to suggest it would be a spoiler. I still enjoyed it immensely despite having it spoiled in that way, so here goes.
You've been warned.

Spoiler

Show

The Book of the New Sun

[hamlet]

Saberhagen's books of the sword, as well. Though I can't recall the titles anymore.

[pendejochy]

Try Korgoth of Barbaria.

The world goes though some unknown disaster, reducing civilization to Conan the Barbarian levels of technology. Just be aware it's pretty violent. If you liked Superjail, you might like this show. It only had one episode though.

[Cheesegear]

What I mean by the title is not on Earth, it means by alternate universe (like Dragonlance and Dark Sun) that was devastated by cataclysm.

Oh. Oh.

There's two sets of novels by Mickey Zucker Reichert, called The Renshai Trilogy, which is mostly about what ninjas would be like if they had Norse Gods and leads to Ragnarok.

And then there's The Renshai Chronicles, where the first novel is titled 'Beyond Ragnarok' and a lot of Gods are dead, and some aren't, and a whole bunch of people are dead, etc.