The Dust Pirates of Central Europe
Holding back the sand
Worldbuilding is what I enjoy the most about writing.
I spend a lot of time reading books and articles and listening to podcasts about topics I enjoy. I’m pretty obsessive about things that spark my interest, and I go down the rabbit hole of research with great enthusiasm. I like to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated subjects, and writing fiction allows me to use this inclination for worldbuilding.
For my short story collection, ‘There Is Hope’, I built a dystopian world to create awareness of the worst-case scenarios of climate change through the medium of fiction. And a fascinating aspect of my world is the Dust Pirates, a secluded people that control the illegal trading route, The Dust Road.
Holding back the sand
The Dust Pirates are a nomadic colony inhabiting the dust bowl of Central Europe around the year 2550.
During the first half of the third millennium, climate change turned Europe into a hot continent, creating a chasm between the North benefiting from more sun and rainy weather and the South left to roast in the baking heat.
At first, the European Union tried to take measures against the economic disasters caused by the drying South, but it couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the climate changed, bringing about destruction.
Eventually, the lucky and cool Northern Europeans were fed up financially supporting the sweaty southerners. The exorbitant food prices, the climate refugees crisis, and a failure to stabilize a collapsing ecosystem determined the North to split from the South and save what was worth saving.
As a result, the European Union collapsed, and Northern Europe, UK and Russia formed the North Colonies Alliance or NCA. To avoid a flood of immigrants, the NCA strengthened its border police, thus making it impossible to enter the North without a valid permit. Moreover, many criminals and offenders were expelled from the NCA because the food was insufficient to keep them in prisons.
Left to fend for itself, Central and Southern Europe became a no-man land where the heat turned thirsty and hungry humans into beats. Without money to hold back the sand, the desertification of the South advanced at a fast pace. Water deprivation was the main issue, and by the end of the 23rd century, hardly any inhabitants were left in the South, except for some Japanese colonies of seaweed farmers on the Atlantic coast.