The Post-Equilibric Famine

Part of the Codex of the Equilibric Age

The Post-Equilibric Famine, also known as the "Great Famine" was the famine that came as a result of the establishment of the Equilibrium. Due to living organisms not being able to reproduce for half the year due to an unknown reason, many of the worlds lifeforms ceased to exist, most notably nearly all insects. With insects gone and the problem working it's way up the food chain, by the year 2 AE the world's food supplies had nearly completely ran out as the production of rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables became nearly impossible, as governments scrambled to provide enough food for the starving masses.

The Post-Equilibric famine lasted until 12 AE, when a joint researching operation organized by the governments of Prabai and Vexan discovered the applications of the chemical process of Post-Hibernation-Insemination in combination with the Javili family of butterflies, due to which limited production of rice, corn and some forms of wheat became once again possible. With this, in combination with the worldwide adoption of the Giant Abrazi Caterpillar, a large insect species with a long life duration that already was a popular foodsource with the dwarves of the Abrazâr, global food stocks restored gradually to a healthy level. Although it would take until 30 AE until the starvation numbers in the civilized world would return to pre-equilibric levels, with the numbers of deaths due to starvation in the more isolated and poorer regions of the world only returning back to normal until the start of the first century AE, mostly due to the extreme death tolls.

Although no official global number of deaths was ever set, the estimations lie between the 200 and 400 million deaths, or between 40% and 80% of the total population on West-Argo, making the famine the single most deadly event of any type in history. Besides humans the loss of life under other lifeforms was catastrophic, with 60% of all plant species and 70% of all animal species going extinct during the 10 year long famine. Insects, birds, reptiles and amphibians were hit especially hard, with the extinction numbers being 98% for insects, 95% for birds, 93% of reptiles and 99% of amphibians going extinct.