Stark Age (Alternate Universe)

The Stark Age started shortly after the Wu Tang Institute of Virology lost samples of the later-denominated COVID-3119 virus, lost from cryogenic containment in the Sarna industrial planet. Although there was no HPG shutdowns due to the death of many gerontocrats before they could initiate it (see Dark Age), this is the background of a new era of civil strife and fight for domination of an infested galaxy. This is indeed an stark age.

Though the centralized authoritharian nature of the Capellan Confederation allowed it to escape the disaster relatively unscathed, in the backward medieval realms of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth the virus wrecked havoc, and billions died. Others say the Capellans are deviously hiding their own losses, but the reality remains that their industry and economy keeps rising at an steady pace and they have no sanitary lockdowns.

The Republic of the Sphere became a small, closed autocratic dictatorship called the Vaccine Fortress that uses biometric surveillance technology embedded in each citizen, used to check for "disease" and command the "infected" for incineration. Terra is the most dystopic planet of them all, with all regular inhabitants locked in isolated neuro-vats that provide them access to virtual reality to interact, as to not allow personal contact and "contagion".

The foremost powers of the Inner Sphere are, as of 3130, the Capellan Confederation and the Draconis Combine, with a rising Ghost Bear Dominion. As always, though not as devastated by the virus as the Davions and Steiners, the Mariks are still conflicted and in confusion.