The world hasn’t ended, but this area isn’t habitable any longer. Either by some force of nature, government efforts, or something else, the situation is contained and one is not free to come and go into this land.
Whether the world knows or not isn’t the issue at hand. What matters is why the protagonists are there. More often than not, they’re there for profit. Sometimes they’re hoping to solve a mystery involving the place. Even more rarely they’re hoping to stop a threat that’s growing from within this area. Combinations of the above have occurred.
This is the isolated wasteland, a type of setting that has popped up a few times in fiction, but most examples I know of come from games. Let’s discuss some of our favorites, or maybe just our thoughts about this setting as a whole. Ideas for versions of this setting are also acceptable.
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Karst, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight Okay, okay, Karst is a city, not a wasteland, but.. It was once the capital of a great kingdom, but became host to a terrible curse. Not only do ghosts, and phantoms roam the streets, but an ancient powerful witch was resurrected as well, and began to wreak havoc. The few surviving citizens are quick to either go into hiding, or end it altogether. Kaho willingly enters this kingdom, as the curse is spreading to her homeland, and she seeks to stop it. Isolated. Uninhabitable. Dead. Cursed. [spoiler][i]”The queen would never.. Hurt us..”[/i][/spoiler]