World War Terminus

World War Terminus is the foundational catastrophe of the novel's setting, a global conflict whose radioactive aftermath has rendered Earth largely uninhabitable, triggered mass extinction, and reshaped human society around emigration, android labor, and the desperate preservation of animal life.

Causes and Nature

The war's origins are obscure; by 1992 no one remembers why it came about or who, if anyone, won. The dust that contaminated most of the planet's surface originated in no country and no one, even the wartime enemy, had planned on it. The first sign of the catastrophe was the inexplicable death of owls, which fell from the sky in a manner reminiscent of medieval plagues of rats. After the owls, other birds followed, and the mystery was gradually grasped and understood. The war was costly despite the valiant predictions of the Pentagon and the Rand Corporation, and it left entire regions, such as the suburbs of San Francisco, abandoned and decaying.

Consequences for Earth and Its Inhabitants

The legacy of World War Terminus diminished in potency over time, but the dust that remained continued to derange minds and genetic properties. Those who could not survive the dust passed into oblivion years ago; the weaker dust confronting the strong survivors only caused further damage. Monthly medical checkups by the San Francisco Police Department doctors could reveal at any moment that a "regular" — a man who could reproduce within the tolerances set by law — had become a "special," a genetically damaged individual barred from emigration and socially stigmatized. The saying blabbed by posters, TV ads, and government junk mail ran: "Emigrate or degenerate! The choice is yours!" The war also made it difficult if not impossible to stay on Earth; loitering potentially meant finding oneself abruptly classed as biologically unacceptable, a menace to the pristine heredity of the race. Once pegged as special, a citizen, even if accepting sterilization, dropped out of history and ceased to be part of mankind.

Impact on Animal Life and Society

The war caused the extinction of countless species. Owls were the first to die, followed by other birds, and then foxes, badgers, and many others, until people stopped reading the perpetual animal obituaries in the newspapers. The near-total loss of living animals created a society where owning an animal — even an electric imitation — became a matter of immense social and moral importance. The feeling that not taking care of an animal is immoral and anti-empathic persisted, technically not a crime like it was right after W.W.T. but still deeply felt. The war also spurred a meager colonization program that had been underway before the conflict, but now that the sun had ceased to shine on Earth, colonization entered an entirely new phase. The Synthetic Freedom Fighter, a weapon of war, was modified into the organic android, which became the mobile donkey engine of the colonization program, given to each emigrant as an incentive. The U.N. made it easy to emigrate, difficult if not impossible to stay, with the android servant as the carrot and the radioactive fallout as the stick.

Long-Term Environmental and Social Decay

The war's legacy is one of slow, entropic decay. The dust, over the years, eroded those who remained, leaving their features gray, their thoughts gray, shrinking them and making their legs spindly and their gait unsteady. The entire planet began to disintegrate into junk, and to keep the planet habitable for the remaining population, the junk had to be hauled away occasionally. The war also created a class of "specials" — individuals with genetic or mental damage — who were treated with contempt and often relegated to menial jobs or custodial institutions. The loss of one more living creature, such as a real cat mistakenly brought to a false-animal repair shop, was felt as a profound waste, a direct consequence of the war's destruction of life.