The bad times. The crash. The big one. The death. The big mistake. The plague. The fire-rain. The winnowing. However it was known the war had nearly put an end to life. Unrestricted chemical and biological warfare, the release of untested mutagenic weapons and a series of nuclear attacks as the last spasms of the dying nation states devastated the world. The cities were reduced to ruins, the farmlands to deserts. The attacks, social collapse, famine and rapid climate change reduced the population within a few decades to a hundredth of what it had been, and the survivors envied the dead. The descendants of the survivors were not the same, their genes scrambled by the effects of the nuclear, biological and viral attacks.

Here and there pockets of civilisation survived, and within a century had regained their confidence. The people were strange, their habits and customs stranger. But they carried the unmistakeable spark of tolerance, sympathy, curiosity, and reverence for learning that identifies civilisation, and they began to carry that spark out into the dark world.

From Dust:
Introduction
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-introduction.html
Prologue
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-prologue.html
Chapter 1 - The Trademaster
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-chapter-1---the-trademaster.html
Chapter 2 - The Wretched
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-chapter-2---the-wretched.html
Chapter 3 - The Device
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-chapter-3---the-device.html
Chapter 4 - Tucamari
http://www.spodilicious.com/from-dust-chapter-4---tucamari.html