History Main / ApocalypseHow

* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class 0}} Class 0: Regional Catastrophe]] Now "Regional[=/=]Societal Disruption" or "Regional[=/=]Societal Collapse". Hardly apocalyptic at all, unless you happen to live in the afflicted area.

[[caption-width-right:248:[[Creator/RobertFrost Fire, ice,]] [[ColonyDrop asteroid]]... [[SwirlyEnergyThingy gamma burst.]]]]

-->-- "Mary, Don't You Weep," by anon., but [[OlderThanRadio known to be]] of ante[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar bellum]] origin

* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class X-4}} Class X-4: Universal Destruction]] Now "Universal[=/=]Physical Annihilation"
* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class X-5}} Class X-5: Multi-universal Destruction]] Now "Multiversal[=/=]Physical Annihilation"

* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class X-3}} Class X-3: Galactic Scale Destruction]] Now "Galactic[=/=]Physical Annihilation"

* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class X-2}} Class X-2: Stellar Destruction]] Now "Stellar[=/=]Physical Annihilation"

* '''Focused Destruction:''' A small localized area undergoes a species-level or higher apocalypse. The rest of the world at large is totally unaffected, maybe not even knowing of the events happening in the affected area.

* '''Regional:''' a part of a continent or landmass, be it a state, country, or sub-continent (eg. "Sub-Saharan Africa", "California", "The British Isles", "Central America", etc).
* '''Continental:''' an entire continent or landmass ("Eurasia", "Oceania", "The Americas", etc).

[[caption-width-right:248:[[Creator/RobertFrost Fire, ice,]] [[ColonyDrop asteroid]] ... [[SwirlyEnergyThingy gamma burst.]]]]

-->-- "Mary, Don't You Weep," by anon., but [[OlderThanRadio known to be]] of ante[[TheAmericanCivilWar bellum]] origin

* '''Focused Destruction / Class 0:''' A small localized area undergoes a Class 4 or higher apocalypse. The rest of the world at large is totally unaffected, maybe not even knowing of the events happening in the affected area.
* '''Societal Disruption / Class 1:''' Civilization survives intact, but is forever altered. This may be due to the sheer amount of damage caused lowering the standard of living, or it may be a result of people being forced to adapt to the new threat(s) they face.
* '''Societal Collapse / Class 2:''' Humanity backslides within the affected area, regressing to pre-industrial levels[[note]]most people are forced to be subsistence farmers[[/note]] at best and pre-agricultural[[note]]:most people are forced to be ''hunter-gatherers''[[/note]] at worst. Civilization may recover on its own, but not for centuries at the least.
* '''Species Extinction / Class 3:''' A dominant or major species is either wiped out completely or reduced to such a low population level that its recovery is virtually impossible barring intervention by an outside force.
* '''Total Extinction / Class 4:''' Life itself ends. No living organism of any kind exists within the affected area.
* '''Physical Annihilation / Class 5:''' The affected area physically ceases to exist as it did before, but remnants of it can still be found; it's [[AtomicHate nuked into glass]], [[{{Atlantis}} sunk into the ocean]], or [[EarthShatteringKaboom blasted into asteroids]].
* '''Metaphysical Annihilation / Class 6:''' The affected area ceases to exist totally, without remainder, or perhaps even to have ''ever'' existed; this usually involves [[RetGone erasing it from time]]. This may go up to the elimination of even the ''possibility'' of the existence of anything like the affected area, if for instance the basic system of reality is changed or wiped out. This may get highly abstract, depending on how fundamental the negation is.

Not to be confused with the comedy survival guide by [[http://www.apocalypsehowthebook.com/ Rob Kutner]], which gives advice for surviving Class 0-2 events. Or the Discovery Channel series by the same name which explores various scenarios in which this could play out.

* '''Metaphysical Annihilation / Class 6:''' The affected area ceases to exist or have ''ever'' existed; this usually involves [[RetGone erasing it from time]].

* '''Physical Annihilation / Class 5:''' The affected area physically ceases to exist, but stray remnants of it can still be found here and there; it's [[AtomicHate nuked into glass]], [[{{Atlantis}} sunk into the ocean]], or [[EarthShatteringKaboom blasted into asteroids]].

* '''Stellar:''' a solar system; every planet orbiting a star, the star itself, or the star plus everything in its orbit.

* '''Multiversal:''' multiple universes, or whatever that exists outside of the setting's native universe (includes whichever flavour of AnotherUniverse is on offer).

* '''Continental:''' An entire continent or landmass ("Eurasia", "Oceania", "The Americas", etc).

* '''Stellar:''' a solar system.
* '''Galactic:''' a galaxy.
* '''Universal:''' the entire universe.
* '''Multiversal:''' multiple universes (whichever flavor of AnotherDimension you prefer)
* '''Omniversal:''' all universes; reality itself.

[[Administrivia/TypeLabelsAreNotExamples Please don't identify by the numbers anymore]] - they are only there for older users of this site to compare the new scale to.

* [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class 0}} Class 0: Regional Catastrophe]] Now "Regional[=/=]Societal Disruption" or "Regional[=/=]Societal Collapse". Hardly apocalyptic at all.

* '''Focused Distruction / Class 0:''' A small localized area undergoes a Class 4 or higher apocalypse. The rest of the world at large is totally unaffected, maybe not even knowing of the events happening in the affected area.

[[caption-width-right:248:[[Creator/RobertFrost Fire, ice,]] [[ColonyDrop asteroid...]][[SwirlyEnergyThingy gamma burst.]]]]

-->-- "Mary, Don't You Weep," by anon., but known to be of ante[[TheAmericanCivilWar bellum]] origin

Please don't identify by the numbers anymore - they are only there for older users of this site to compare the new scale to.