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The mid-Crisis-Era population collapse — a multi-decade depression of starvation, war and despair when the war economy outran the planet's biosphere.
The Great Ravine is what happens when a planet rebuilds itself for war on a four-century deadline and the project's first hundred years exceed the biosphere's capacity. Several billion died. Industries collapsed and were rebuilt smaller. By the time the surviving institutions stabilized, the era had a new name and a different politics — quieter, more fatalist, more inclined toward hibernation and Wallfacer-style hidden plans.
A historical episode — visible through famine archives, riot footage, ruined coastal cities, and the depopulated farming regions left behind. Half-built shipyards rusting in vacuum. Refugee camps along the equator.
Also known as: the Ravine, the Great Famine