Developments
The situation on earth had taken a turn for the worst. The casualties were catastrophic during the first few weeks of fighting, but had recently started to decrease. The prime cause of the decrease was not that the fighting had diminished. No, far from it in fact. The level of fighting had increased drastically.
The real reason for the drop in casualties was that of the remaining population, over 90% over the ages of 15 had become cultivators in some capacity. Most had become followers of Amana and Adamas, with men usually leaning towards Amana and women leaning towards Adamas.
Although that alone did not raise their cultivation levels through the roof, it raised their survivability.