Armaggedon came unexpectedly, but when it came, it came with a vengeance. Trihexa, that terrible primordial entity, came into the world, and her rise also came with the rise of zombies- well, not really zombies, but basically like zombies- people infected by her evil. They proved to be as terrifying and fast as the vein of undead as found in 28 Days Later, even though it was revealed during the later stages of the war that it was possible to cure them by sizzling them with holy oil, but at that point we'd developed a "shoot-to-kill" mentality, and of the few that managed to be captured, even fewer survived the cure, and even fewer returned to daily life with their minds (barely) intact.
The war continued for two years, that it did. In that time humanity retreated to its safe zones whilst the Cores rampaged through the world, whilst the supernatural community banded together to take down the Darkness That Walks. Lucifer retaking control over Hell and trying to run things his own way didn't really help either, but even the Devil at last realised that "Enemy Mine" and banded his forces together with the Alliance to confront Trihexa. In the end, what saved the world was the realisation that the annoying little gnat who had sealed her up was dead, and with the object of her revenge long passed, Trihexa departed from the Earth, ending the Apocalypse.
Even amongst these strange events, recovery slowly began. The United States, like most countries, was badly hurt by the Apocalypse, even if they had managed to preserve an ungodly large amount of their population- American individualist mentality helps. The political succession remained intact (Congress and the US were evacuated to Alaska, Hawaii being somewhat storm-battered), and the fact that the US had managed to establish a substantial "safe zone" west of the Rockies meant that a large portion of the US was still intact, and ready for war production and recovery. Martial law was called off in most of the country after two years, and massive reconstruction loans helped stimulate industry. Most of the ad hoc local government and services which had sprung up after the invasion were happy enough to disband themselves and return to regular life, although a lot of new careers in politics, activism, nursing, etc. were born. Some of the more regrettable things that had happened in the immediate aftermath were covered up by the government as best as they could, such as the zealous actions of various “vigilance” committees in hunting down supposed secessionist rebels and sometimes “disguised supernaturals”, or the way many areas, not just in the South, rapidly went from initial human solidarity to “lifeboat rules”, with the blacks first to be chucked overboard.
The most notable social trend was a strong religious revival brought on by the seemingly miraculous nature of humanity’s salvation: one of the scientists involved in the initial struggle became a popular preacher at the church he and his wife had found refuge in on the day the supernatural assault finally relented. This was not exclusive to the US: similar revivals took place in Latin America, Britain, and elsewhere; Muslims thanked Allah, Hindus Kali and Shiva and Vishnu, and some traditional Africans thanked Shango, king of the Orisha pantheon. (For every reaction, there is a counter-reaction, of course. Some turned to pure nihilism, seeing in the invasion and it’s ending by mere chance a vision of a meaningless universe where survival turned on mere chance and humanity’s long term prospects were “extinction soon or a bit later”).
And of course, in Europe, devastated again (some Europeans grumbled about this being effectively a Third World War), it was a little hard to see the hand of a benficient God. In Russia, devastation comparable to the kind the Nazis wreaked on the Soviet Union in World War 2 across huge areas of the state almost broke the regime entirely- Putin going down in a haze of gunfire amidst the Battle of Moscow didn't help. In the end, the Russian army, if not strong enough to repel the hordes of zombies and monsters, proved strong enough to crush rebellion, and their leader, Ivan Yudenovich was primarily responsible for ensuring that the army had a great deal of independence from the state, inevitably leading to two coups in the next decade and the odd military-bureaucratic nature of the current Russian state, which, on Yudenovich's suggestion, proclaimed the restoration of the monarchy, with an in-law of the Romanovs placed on the throne, and so, for the first time since 1917, there was, once more, an Emperor and Autocrat of All The Russias, even if he was basically a constitutional figurehead like the Queen of England (albeit with vast reserve powers.)
The Ukraine barely survived the war, with two rival regimes competing for the mantle of "best Ukraine." The one internationally recognised (well, by the US and the EU anyway) hates everyone, but tends to consider the EU as the lesser of two evils.
As mentioned, the US was not ready to provide a post-Apocalyptic "Marshall Plan", nor were any other nations. Well, there were the British, who had become something of a supernatural refuge for the duration of the war, and these supernatural refugees helped to rebuild Britain to some degree, but even a half-rebuilt Britain couldn't sustain the economic hardships of the entire world. At an emergency session of the UN in early 2016, even as the armies of Hell, Heaven, and other factions fought for control of the planet, it was agreed that an international relief fund and reconstruction agencies needed to be developed, and to set up the necessary system for a global food bank, special financial cooperative efforts, in a spirit of "together we stand, divided we fall."
Many idealists saw this as the beginnings of a world government; many intellectuals went into far-fetched rants about how the supernatural had made us aware of our shared identity as a human species, or, more cynically, how the existence of a common enemy would finally unify mankind. Unfortunately, humans are rarely that sensible. The major surviving governments were scared badly enough to work with their traditional enemies in case of a future attack, but were no more willing to give up their sovereignty than France was to unify with Britain during the darkest days of World War II. And besides, how could a world government include both democracies and dictatorships like Russia, or the Chinese Communists? (who, by the way, were fast unraveling.) And while the necessity of pooling resources together and providing much-needed economic development to areas that needed it was much appreciated, there was no way the "developed" states were going to take much input to use what remained of their wealth from the poor and starving backwards two-thirds of mankind.
The United Nations emerged from the war as a massively expanded and empowered organisation, resembling NATO and the EU, with the power to conduct full-fledged military operations and provide (and withold) economic assistance to countries that needed it. "For the good of mankind," order had to be restored, the strategic minerals and oil had to start coming into production again, and Africa and the Middle East (well, what was left of them anyway) had to do their fair share of saving the human race. The old concept of "mandates" was brought out, with the United Nations directly taking control over a territory and administering it like a government entity would. (cough cough, colonialism much?) State reconstruction was handled by the UN until the state in question could "stand on its own two feet." Many people, especially those of dusky hue, saw the idea as little more than a new form of imperialism, with the United States and the _British Empire_ (well, the Anglosphere Association really, but everyone not British tends to call it that) as the dominant powers, with the Russians, Chinese, and Europeans playing supporting roles, while also calling the transition to "full self-government" as little more than the establishment of a network of puppet and client states, with foreigners often in control of the mines and important industries. Such grumbling was, while not completely ignored, of ten chastised as disunity in the face of the supernatural menace.
The establishment of the IBPPCM, the International Bureau of Paranormal Phenomena Control and Management, was the other main organization born in the waning days of the Apocalypse. It was clear to many people that the supernatural had infiltrated the government on many levels, and the massive chaos that would be termed the 'Great Purge' by historians afterward was born from such paranoia, in which anyone affiliated with- or, more accurately, suspected of- supernatural connections was purged from office, and often many met violent ends in the form of burnings, hangings, and lynchings, as people waved anti-supernatural signs and shouted "Death to Hell!" and "Down With Monsters!" as chaos engulfed the world.
Not that the supernatural couldn't resist. In many cases, they did resist, and the results often were ugly. Three witches were responsible for the creation of the German Barrens, a vast swath of poisoned land across eastern Germany, and in America the Native Americans raised so much of a stink that the United States saw fit to just give them their own magical reservation situated in the northern plains around the Black Hills (with Mount Rushmore as American-controlled territory in the middle.) In Romania the vampires rose up against Bucharest and overthrew the human government, proclaiming a Vampire State in Romania, with Valerie Tepes as its Sovereign, in blatant defiance against the rest of Europe. The whole damned thing raised such a ruckus that the UN ended up recognising the vampire state as a sovereign nation, in order to But in most cases, humanity simply just ran the supernatural to the ground by sheer numbers.
Europe, shattered and mutilated by the Apocalypse, has sunk its differences in a pan-European identity more successfully than the old European Union could have ever achieved- with a few exceptions, of course. The Kingdom of Prussia is the so-called "black sheep" of Europe; whilst being an EU member, Prussia is a rather conservative and nationalist state, with an attitude towards Germany and Poland that causes Brussels to scratch its head in extreme confusion. Britain, having pursued a more detached member status from the EU, actually managed to rebuild part of the Commonwealth- the white bits, mostly- into something more substantial on the basis of "we must unite or the supernatural will kill us all." (Theoretically, they could hold a seat on the UN Security Council as representatives of the Anglosphere Association and another as representatives of Europe, but currently those setas are held by a Canadian and a Belgian. It may be they deliberately avoid such a situation, given the accusations of excessive British influence that would no doubt follow.) Europeans today are the most belligerent anti-supernatural major power, with old international hostilities for the large part now turned outwards to the great enemy, and great slaughter of supernatural invaders is made in European TV shows and movies. Only the young, born after Europe's economy revived and the cities rebuilt, have trouble seeing why they should hate "those damn demons" so much.
China was devastated by the Apocalypse, but by 2022 the Communists were the only real power left in China (Taiwan's attempt to retake the mainland ended largely in failure.) Nevertheless, moderate elements of the Communist Party took power, and after some more protracted infighting, proclaimed the end of the People's Republic and the proclamation of a United Federation of China, whose politics is still largely dominated by the former Communist Party (now rebranded the Unificationist Party) under former general Liu Feng. It's a turbulent republic, but hey, at least it ain't Commie anymore.
The Japanese have had a long, slow, recovery, and, apart from going back to a World War II die-for-the-Emprah mentality, retain an almost Scandinavian gloomyness to this day.
South Africa is interesting, to say the least. All those right-wing Afrikaner organisations actually managed to save a large portion of the Afrikaner whites, while blacks were massacred in the streets by zombies (and Afrikaners, too, but don't say that!) After the war, the Afrikaners took over South Africa and among other radical changes, instituted a breeding program, which eventually mellowed out to high tax incentives for each child born. At this rate, talking heads in Pretoria project that the Afrikaner population will reach twenty million before long, while other talking heads in freer countries grumble that South Africa is screwing itself up by not-so-subtly urging the blacks to move out and filling the country up with whites.
A piece must be said about Jeanne d'Arc, descendant of the famous Maid of Orleans. Along with Generalissimo Hyat, Jeanne is lauded as one of humanity's greatest heroes. At Verdun she rode against the hordes and, along with 3,000 French soldiers who had delegated to stay rather than follow the French government's strategy of retreating to the safe zones, held them off for more than a week, allowing the French army to conserve practically its entire strength and evacuate as many citizens as they could to Corsica. And even after Verdun, Jeanne raised an army- an army of soldiers, volunteers, women, children, anyone who could fight, and they held Paris for the better part of the Apocalypse, foraging for food, and committing their lives to fighting the hordes of beasts, with the satisfaction of victory their only reward. When the UN forces landed on Normandy, Jeanne and her forces rode out to greet them, saving the task force and crushing a minor horde between them. It was no secret every member of Jeanne's Armee de la Patrie (Army of the Fatherland), living or deceased, received the Legion of Honour.
The United Kingdom is surprisingly supernatural-philic, and is the world leader in the manufacturing of supernatural weapons and equipment, largely to its rather friendly policy to the supernatural. Indeed, one can find devil college students, vampires, fallen angels, werewolves, and other supernatural beings with relative abundance. It may be a reason why Britain has emerged as one of the world's great powers. Even so, Britain has moved towards a technocratic path, with their society nowadays being obsessed with its "white heat," and their industrial capacity being at an all-time high. Nevertheless, it's not on the level of the Prussians, or the South Africans for that matter, yet, a fact that surprises many other countries.
Technology has pushed forward, if in new directions than before. The British, as mentioned above, are the world leaders of supernaturally-mixed technology, and with a boosted military-industrial complex, the world is reaching to catch up. Many vehicles, especially heavy-duty ones, float on magic, which allows the crossing of rough or swampy ground, and even rivers or lakes (the only limitations being that magic is really bad at bringing you to an abrupt stop that mechanical brakes would easily do, at least for small or medium-sized ones anyway.) Other spin-offs include building perimeters that only admit people who have been "recognised" by the building's magical "system", although people with a _certain_ set of skills are able to override such limitations (of course, government defenses are much, much harder to crack.) Sub-orbital jumps using magic between Europe and North America are becoming increasingly common, and doctors nowadays are usually trained magical healers as well- being able to create and regenerate nerve cells did wonders for the neuroscience profession. Cloning meat is currently in the works, and talk of creating hotels in space isn't too far down the line either.
The Andean countries are still recovering from the results of the Luminous Road revolutionary movement’s effort to summon a proletarian God using ancient Inca artifacts and a group of wrathful Inca mummies: the Sacred Mountain did come to life, but it tended to stomp on urban centers without much concern as to the proletarian spirit or lack of it among its inhabitants, and the Luminous Road turning into a crazed blood cult didn’t help things either. At least after its metallic brains were melted with atomic fire, the silver and gold veined corpse of the mountain god is proving a bonanza for Ecuadorian miners (leading to protests from Bolivian miners, who complain that it was their mountain before it went walkies).
Some of the lesser gods adopted to the new situation, accepting heavy monitoring and limitations on the use of their powers. The Minotaur, for instance, has his own talk show. But the majority of those still with some real strength have no desire to be “domesticated”, although after millennia of keeping it on the low-down they aren’t really up to carving out states of their own with brute force methods. Instead, they have “perfectly legally” taken control over a country of their own: Kiribati, where the locals have gladly accepted Poseidon as their president-for-life in exchange for keeping the rising global-warming seas from rising and swallowing them. A tremendous number of “off the books” economic activities are now taking place here, bringing in a shitload of money, and all sorts of odd supernaturals and people who deal with them have island bungalows nowadays. The IBPPCM is understandably pissed about this, but as a sovereign nation Kiribati has the right to elect whoever they wish, and Poseidon _does_ seem to be keeping the seas (locally) from rising any further. And unlike most other ancient and moldy Gods and spirits, the Greeks have a _lot_ of media savvy.
Not that the IBPPCM is the only organisation at work keeping angry gods and the walking dead from arising again. A variety of ancient secret societies, unable to keep properly hidden without the aid of governments in the face of modern state systems of control, have come out into the open, with a resurgent Ottoman Empire working publicly with the Turkish Special Organization, doing such things like purging politicians who have been screwing up with ancient texts that should have been burned (and then the remnants shot into the sun.) Noticeably, this displeases a lot of people- the Iranians, because the Special Organisation is mostly Sunni, and the Salafis, who complain the Special Organisation isn't radical enough- they are, after all, a modern organisation, who at least adhere in name to the Geneva Conventions and the ideological front against the supernatural.
The few remaining members of the ancient Chinese kung fu fighting/element bending/demon-fighting secret societies (mostly suppressed by former Chinese Emperors, since they often fought corrupt officials as well as demons, and the State doesn’t want any such independent-minded exceptions to its monopoly of force) have mostly quietly moved abroad, mainly to Taiwanese territory, while the more narrowly murder-and-demon-trapping focused Yellow Emperor’s Hand have been suborned by the UFC's increasingly neo-imperial rule . The old Egyptian Medjai have been forced to flee a depopulated Egypt (and the radical hyperislamicist Saudi Arabia next door) as an international Whatsit-fighting mercenary organization, although the buzz on the psychic grapevine is that that some have also established themselves in the Egyptian Underworld, where they are working to reform the System from within, so to speak.
Disputes against the supernatural have been prevalent as of late, and ground zero of these disputes has been the US, where the Religious Right has been for some time calling for a more “holy” government to deal with the various supernatural forces lurking about, an end to IBCCPM cooperation with “ungodly” regimes, laws against Polytheism, and the destruction rather than study and containment of supernatural forces and entities, and the forcible “liberation” of the Black Hills Treaty Indigenous Spirit Reservation. The election of _semi-retired_Catholic exorcist Rebecca Roarfield as president, combined with of the Ramayan War in India provoked an outbreak of religious hysteria which has since grown to an outbreak of wide-spread rioting, civil disobedience, “non-cooperation” and attacks on “Polytheists” and “Witches” across much of Baptist America, as well as some parts of the midwest. As yet none of the state governors have followed the calls for “neutralization” or even “secession”, but there have been rumblings from both Texas and Florida.
And this could not come at a worse time, since the situation in India is really quite nasty, with Hinduveta extremists leading a revolt against a secular government, aided by powerful “Vedic weapons” of unknown origin: there have been rumors of gods and demons of Hindu myth appearing in northern cities. Muslims are being expelled en masse, stressing Bengal badly and quite exceeding the capacity of Pakistan to handle. Reports suggest that the south will fall in time if it doesn’t receive enough foreign support, but with the world’s greatest power currently occupied at home, nobody is in a hurry to step up to the plate. On the other hand, the IBCCPM signatories certainly don’t want the horrendous precedent of a war won with the aid of large-scale supernatural intervention, even if the usual disastrous results are avoided. And people are _really_ worried that the Chinese might decide to intervene…
e Chinese might decide to intervene…