Arc of a Scythe Wiki
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The fail-safe is a contingency plan devised by the founding scythes to end the Scythedom in the event it would fail.

The fail-safe ends the Scythedom, by creating a gamma pulse from the transmitter on Kwajalein broke all scythe rings, releasing the darkness in the core of the rings. This dark core contained malicious nanites, developed by the founding scythes, to do sympathy gleanings, mimicking ten deadly diseases: pneumonia, heart disease, stroke, cancer, cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis, influenza, bubonic plague, and malaria. These nanites are set to glean 5% of the population every 20 years, to take over the Scythedom's job of population control. The setting is still kissed sometimes by the bereaved as thanks for ending those who the nanites chose to die, even when there is no immunity.

Created[]

Of the 13 founders, four of them were against the idea of humans controlling death:

They created a fail-safe on Kwajalein Atoll.

After establishing the fail-safe, Scythe Prometheus wanted to destroy it, but Scythe Da Vinci convinced him not to do it. He then left clues and evidence in the children's rhyme "The Land of Nod" and in the Tonist religion, so it would be found when needed.

Activated[]

Scythe Faraday and Munira found Kwajalein and two secret bunkers. One they could open with a scythe ring, but another scythe ring was required to open the bunker that would allow access to the fail-safe. With no way of escape, and since Kwajalein is off-grid, they have to wait 3 years until they had Scythe Anastasia's ring.

In the Year of the Cobra, the failed safe was activated, during The Battle at Kwajalein Atoll.

The fail-safe basically made all scythes obsolete, but their previous actions still have effects, as the Thunderhead doesn't stop the nanites created by the founding scythes from working.

However, some scythes refuse to adapt to this new reality and are still killing people. The Thunderhead revives their victims and is actively working on rehabilitating scythes and helping them find a new purpose.

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