Broken Earth

The Ark 2

The main goal of the Ark was total self-sufficiency. The old world had gotten far too complex, too built up in interdependent links, a fragile web of transport and Internet and electricity - as soon as one or two strands broke, the entire web came toppling down, bringing the world with it. As such, when we set out to build our "brave new world, that hath such wondrous people in it" (yes, some of The Bard survived), we tried to make ourselves reliant on no one else.

Firstly, this essentially meant that fossil fuels were out of the question. Nearby forest? Check. River? Check. Coast access? Check. Nearby clay pit? Check. But there was no way we could find a handy coal mine with all the other criteria within easy access. We were lucky enough, even, to find a small source of iron ore nearby. That gave us wrought iron, cast iron, mild steel, hard steel - all you could possibly ask for. We were all metallurgists, when we were rebuilding the world. That as well as engineers, farmers, potters, cloth-makers: we even wanted every person to be self sufficient, in case of unexpected deaths.

When we found a suitable spot for the Ark, the first obvious thing to do (once basic shelter had been established) was to construct a wall. As I've said, it was almost certainly a very shabby wall, but to us, it was like the founding of Rome - which, when first built, had similarly poor walls. They point wasn't defence (although that would come in handy later), it was an ideal. Beyond this wall lies civilisation, order, peace. On the other side? The madness, war and destruction we had all tried so hard to leave behind. That was why we built the wall.