The Last Threshold

In the Decline/Collapse future city scenario, systems are no longer fit for purpose, and begin to struggle or collapse.

This future scenario tells a harsh truth: sometimes systems don’t bend - they break. Here city systems have fractured under the weight of multiple crises. Formal governance collapsed into charter zones, and social trust collapsed into in-group loyalty.

With a breakdown of systems came a breakdown of services: school is left up to the individual, medical care facilities creak, public transport is non-existent, even roads are barely functional. The housing, migration and climate crises are at fever pitch, with giant tent settlements sprawled around newly-walled cities. Resources are a flashpoint, districts fighting over rivers and groundswells, and access to essential air filters auctioned off on the blackmarket. Hope, when it appears, is quiet: in informal maps shared between youth, survival techniques passed from group to group, whispered prayers between strangers. The future here is not bright, but it is still fiercely human.