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I'm writing a Fantasy story in which evil burbles from the ground at certain preselected spots all over the globe. These spots would have been pretty static for millennia, although I think there is a probably a tendency for the wells to be more productive in areas of higher human population (more snacks!).
Anyway, the idea is that the people living immediately adjacent to these spots sort of adapted to them and developed secret abilities/teams to fight the monsters that appear. But obviously there have been some pretty drastic disruptions to the human populations of the world, so there have been times that the guardian communities around the wells have been lost.
So what I'm trying to research is:
Examples of huge, sweeping, almost complete shifts in populations. Times when a stable community that REALLY wants to stay where they are (in order to continue in their monster-fighting role) would have been destroyed or banished. And, yes, I think there would be times when some of the communities would have just packed up and left the conquerors to be eaten by monsters - if anyone has examples of historic events that would fit that model (ie. conquered fled, conquerors died or abandoned the site shortly after - and maybe even conquered returned) that'd be great.
In more general terms, as a Canadian the most obvious example of a large-scale population shift for me is the European/First Nations situation. But I'm not as good on Native history as I should be. Can anyone suggest a North American group that lived in one place (non-nomadic) and that was destroyed? (at least culturally, if not biologically). Bonus points if the location is somewhere that has traditionally been sparsely populated but is now facing greater development. I was thinking about something in the Alberta Tar Sands area, but I think the First Nations there are Chipewyan, and I think Chipewyans were at least semi-nomadic...
Does any of this make any sense?
Anyway, the idea is that the people living immediately adjacent to these spots sort of adapted to them and developed secret abilities/teams to fight the monsters that appear. But obviously there have been some pretty drastic disruptions to the human populations of the world, so there have been times that the guardian communities around the wells have been lost.
So what I'm trying to research is:
Examples of huge, sweeping, almost complete shifts in populations. Times when a stable community that REALLY wants to stay where they are (in order to continue in their monster-fighting role) would have been destroyed or banished. And, yes, I think there would be times when some of the communities would have just packed up and left the conquerors to be eaten by monsters - if anyone has examples of historic events that would fit that model (ie. conquered fled, conquerors died or abandoned the site shortly after - and maybe even conquered returned) that'd be great.
In more general terms, as a Canadian the most obvious example of a large-scale population shift for me is the European/First Nations situation. But I'm not as good on Native history as I should be. Can anyone suggest a North American group that lived in one place (non-nomadic) and that was destroyed? (at least culturally, if not biologically). Bonus points if the location is somewhere that has traditionally been sparsely populated but is now facing greater development. I was thinking about something in the Alberta Tar Sands area, but I think the First Nations there are Chipewyan, and I think Chipewyans were at least semi-nomadic...
Does any of this make any sense?