The Ruined World of 'Barren'

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Imagine a future where humanity must survive alongside mutated horrors. An exploration of Keegan Francis’s dark post-apocalyptic worldbuilding project ‘Barren.’
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‘Barren,’ a post-apocalyptic worldbuilding project by Keegan Francis, imagines an alternate history where civilization ended in nuclear conflict, and mutated animal life rapidly evolves to rule over the irradiated wastes left behind.

A retro-future that calls to mind the worldbuilding of the Fallout series, the project reveals a world where human survivors must contend with biological horrors created by their own folly. So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll travel across the wastes, creating a ‘survival guide’ of sorts to the creatures that roam this desolate world.

Now, let’s cross into an alternate timeline, and witness the broken world of Barren…

0:00 World of Barren
1:47 Mutant Biology
3:32 The Bulwark
4:43 The Bonehen
5:55 The Zadger
7:12 The Nukula
8:58 The Dillo-Pig
10:09 The Goldwing
11:13 The Rotfowl
12:28 Biophage
13:31 “Ankle Biters”
14:22 The Vespore
15:28 Not All is Lost…

Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.

I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.

♫ Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow, Unseen Horrors, Majestic Hills, Bittersweet, Floating Cities
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#CuriousArchive #Worldbuilding #Barren

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47 thoughts on “The Ruined World of 'Barren'”

  5. Considering how speciation works in real life, there would logically be some, or even many, creatures whose appearances are weird by real world standards, but not grotesque, and others which would be unchanged, as only advantageous mutations tend to stick around.

    I wonder, though, if the project includes the infamous Porton Down…?

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  13. I swear there needs to be a TTRPG made with all of the worlds that aren't from video games you have covered on this channel, just so people can explore those worlds and tell stories there (mostly along the lines of humans trying to colonize the planets and all the troubles and horror they experience in that process) and cuz a lot of the creatures I'd love to see "stats" for to make them easy to adapt into TTRPGs as a whole.

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  29. This project reminded me of a story I was working on. It’s about a man who has to go to a military stronghold without getting himself killed by aliens, cannibals, and highly evolved versions of modern animals. It’s pretty much like a post apocalyptic adventure story, but it takes place in the same setting as “the future is wild” or “after man: a zoology of the future”.

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  30. pardon me if this doesn't belong here i don't mean to be rude

    i came from your gaming based content you seem quite into irl biology and speculative biology but if i may make a slight suggestion for gamming related content

    the monsters of the zelda universe wile not exactly an eco system or food chain might prove interesting for you …
    on a more compatible note the pants and animals of the Mario games do live in quite varied habitats that would lent themselves to your format

    if you would like a post apocalyptic setting as you seem fond of there's many fallout games as well

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  32. Reminds me somewhat of the Metro series biology, maybe even more than fallout. While something like a demon doesnt make biological sense, neither do giant insects that would be impossible with post-war oxygen levels.

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  37. This stuff is literally reskinned fallout.
    Apex predator who is genetically engineered pre war but escaped and became a top of the food chain is literally a deathclaw.

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  40. Many worldbuilders make the mistake of filling an ecosystem with apex predators and very few prey animals. As well too much attention is put on the fauna in worldbuilding projects, ¿what flora has survived?.
    It would also be cool to dig into the culture of the people living there ¿what is their society like? ¿Has their language evolved?
    Interesting project overall.

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