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* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler: At the end, the hadals are decimated by a man-made plague. ''Deeper'' also finishes with the very strong implication that China and the United States have started a nuclear war.]]

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* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler: At [[spoiler:At the end, the hadals are decimated by a man-made plague. ''Deeper'' also finishes with the very strong implication that China and the United States have started a nuclear war.]]



* DoingInTheWizard: The novel goes to great lengths to show that seemingly supernatural phenomena observed in the sub-planet are rooted in science. WeirdScience but science nonetheless. Averted in ''Deeper'' when [[spoiler: Satan turns out to be a real, immortal entity whose existence has no explanation behind it.]]
* GodEmperor: The hadal view of "Satan." [[spoiler: Their "Satan" is actually a proxy of the ''real'' one. Whether the hadals know this is unclear.]]

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* DoingInTheWizard: The novel goes to great lengths to show that seemingly supernatural phenomena observed in the sub-planet are rooted in science. WeirdScience WeirdScience, but science nonetheless. Averted Subverted in ''Deeper'' when [[spoiler: Satan [[spoiler:Satan turns out to be a real, immortal entity whose existence has no explanation behind it.]]
it]].
* GodEmperor: The hadal view of "Satan." [[spoiler: Their [[spoiler:Their "Satan" is actually a proxy of the ''real'' one. Whether the hadals know this is unclear.]]



* HumanSubspecies: The hadals, aka ''Homo hadalis'', a human species that lives BeneathTheEarth in the caverns of the sub-planet. Descended from ''Homo erectus'', they once had a relatively advanced Iron Age civilization millennia before humans did, but they have since degenerated into [[TheMorlocks vicious underground savages]] with a penchant for abducting people as slaves and food.

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* HumanSubspecies: The hadals, aka a.k.a. ''Homo hadalis'', a human species that lives BeneathTheEarth in the caverns of the sub-planet. Descended from ''Homo erectus'', they once had a relatively advanced Iron Age civilization millennia before humans did, but they have since degenerated into [[TheMorlocks vicious underground savages]] with a penchant for abducting people as slaves and food.



* ShoutOut: Where to begin.
** The expedition into the sub-planet is called [[Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth The Jules Vernes Society]].
** The group of scholars looking for TheDevil are called the [[{{Literature/Beowulf}} Beowulf Club]].

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* {{Satan}}: The members of the Beowulf Club infer by ''a priori'' reasoning (i.e., guessing) that if the sub-planet and hadals have been the inspiration for hell and demons, the figure of Satan in mythology must also be based on a real person who has been reincarnating over the ages. [[spoiler:They're right, and he's one among their own number.]]
* ShoutOut: Where to begin.
begin?
** The expedition into the sub-planet is called [[Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth The the Jules Vernes Society]].
** The group of scholars looking for TheDevil {{Satan}} are called [[Literature/{{Beowulf}} the [[{{Literature/Beowulf}} Beowulf Club]].



* UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome: Captives of the hadals often end up emotionally dependent on them after years of abuse. Even after being rescued, many have a hard time overcoming their feelings of attachment.

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* UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome: Captives of the hadals often end up emotionally dependent on them after years of abuse. Even after being rescued, many have a hard time overcoming their feelings of attachment.attachment.
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* StockholmSyndrome: Captives of the hadals often end up emotionally dependent on them after years of abuse. Even after being rescued, many have a hard time overcoming their feelings of attachment.

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* StockholmSyndrome: UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome: Captives of the hadals often end up emotionally dependent on them after years of abuse. Even after being rescued, many have a hard time overcoming their feelings of attachment.

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* AdultFear: About a quarter of the way through ''Deeper'', the hadals kidnap dozens of young children across the United States on Halloween night. They brutally kill anyone who tries to stop them; this amounts to about a hundred people, mostly parents who tried to defend their children, although they also murder the entire staff of a haunted house. Perhaps the most effective portrayal of the incident's horror is a police log from Tucson, which starts off normal but rapidly racks up murders and child abductions one after another until the Amber Alert system ''crashes''.


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* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: About a quarter of the way through ''Deeper'', the hadals kidnap dozens of young children across the United States on Halloween night. They brutally kill anyone who tries to stop them; this amounts to about a hundred people, mostly parents who tried to defend their children, although they also murder the entire staff of a haunted house. Perhaps the most effective portrayal of the incident's horror is a police log from Tucson, which starts off normal but rapidly racks up murders and child abductions one after another until the Amber Alert system ''crashes''.

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* HumanSubspecies: The hadals, aka ''Homo hadalis'', a human species that lives BeneathTheEarth in the caverns of the sub-planet. Descended from ''Homo erectus'', they once had a relatively advanced Iron Age civilization millennia before humans did, but they have since degenerated into [[TheMorlocks vicious underground savages]] with a penchant for abducting people as slaves and food.



* IAmAHumanitarian: One of the defining characteristics of ''Homo hadalis''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that they live underground, where there are no plants and no animals bigger than the hadals themselves. People are the ''only'' big animals readily available for hadals to eat.

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* IAmAHumanitarian: ImAHumanitarian: One of the defining characteristics of ''Homo hadalis''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] {{Justified|Trope}} by the fact that they live underground, where there are no plants and no animals bigger than the hadals themselves. People are the ''only'' big animals readily available for hadals to eat.



* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].

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* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit [[spoiler:transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].

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* {{The Morlocks}}: The Hadals.

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* {{The Morlocks}}: TheMorlocks: The Hadals.pale cave-dwelling cannibal hadals fit this trope.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].



* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].

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* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture PhysicalHell: It turns out that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness there's an underground world under ours, inhabited by cruel demon-like humanoids. There's also a {{Satan}}... of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].sorts.
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* AdultFear: About a quarter of the way through ''Deeper'', the hadals kidnap dozens of young children across the United States on Halloween night. They brutally kill anyone who tries to stop them; this amounts to about a hundred people, mostly parents who tried to defend their children, although they also murder the entire staff of a haunted house. Perhaps the most effective portrayal of the incident's horror is a police log from Tucson, which starts off normal but rapidly racks up murders and child abductions one after another under the Amber Alert system ''crashes''.

to:

* AdultFear: About a quarter of the way through ''Deeper'', the hadals kidnap dozens of young children across the United States on Halloween night. They brutally kill anyone who tries to stop them; this amounts to about a hundred people, mostly parents who tried to defend their children, although they also murder the entire staff of a haunted house. Perhaps the most effective portrayal of the incident's horror is a police log from Tucson, which starts off normal but rapidly racks up murders and child abductions one after another under until the Amber Alert system ''crashes''.
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None


* PetTheDog: Given their [[FateWorseThanDeath nigh-unimaginable]] treatment of adult captives, the hadals treat captured children surprisingly well. They feed and care for them as best they can, and go out of their way to keep them safe from harm and abuse.

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* PetTheDog: Given their [[FateWorseThanDeath nigh-unimaginable]] treatment of adult captives, the hadals treat captured children surprisingly well. They feed and care for them as best they can, and go out of their way to keep them safe from harm and abuse. It's implied that the hadals' own birth rates have been declining for centuries, and surface-born children are taken to round out their own depleted numbers.
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misuse


** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] in [[Literature/TheDivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].

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** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] Dante in [[Literature/TheDivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].
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* IAmAHumanitarian: One of the defining characteristics of ''Homo hadalis''.

to:

* IAmAHumanitarian: One of the defining characteristics of ''Homo hadalis''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that they live underground, where there are no plants and no animals bigger than the hadals themselves. People are the ''only'' big animals readily available for hadals to eat.
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None

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* GodEmperor: The hadal view of "Satan." [[spoiler: Their "Satan" is actually a proxy of the ''real'' one. Whether the hadals know this is unclear.]]
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* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler: At the end, the hadals are decimated by a man-made plague. ''Deeper'' also finishes with the very strong implication that China and the United States have started a nuclear war.]]


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* CruelAndUnusualDeath: ''Rampant'', and generally inflicted by the hadals. Some of the mercenaries they capture are gutted and tied to pillars with their own entrails, after which their eyes are torn out and replaced with pebbles and their lower jaws ripped off. They're ''still alive'' at this stage, although they mercifully die eventually.


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* MadeASlave: The fate of the hadals' captives, with protracted torture to boot.

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* DoingInTheWizard: The novel goes to great lengths to show that seemingly supernatural phenomena observed in the sub-planet are rooted in science. WeirdScience but science nonetheless.

to:

* DoingInTheWizard: The novel goes to great lengths to show that seemingly supernatural phenomena observed in the sub-planet are rooted in science. WeirdScience but science nonetheless. Averted in ''Deeper'' when [[spoiler: Satan turns out to be a real, immortal entity whose existence has no explanation behind it.]]


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* HumanoidAbomination: The hadals are just another species of human, but the Angel[[spoiler:/Satan/Older-than-old]] is ''definitely'' something of this nature.

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* AdultFear: About a quarter of the way through ''Deeper'', the hadals kidnap dozens of young children across the United States on Halloween night. They brutally kill anyone who tries to stop them; this amounts to about a hundred people, mostly parents who tried to defend their children, although they also murder the entire staff of a haunted house. Perhaps the most effective portrayal of the incident's horror is a police log from Tucson, which starts off normal but rapidly racks up murders and child abductions one after another under the Amber Alert system ''crashes''.



* BreedingSlave: Generally what happens to women captured by the hadals.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Humans captured by hadals are subject to an "initiation" that essentially amounts to this, involving beatings, crude forced tattooing, and ritual mutilation.



* HumanResources: An artifacts exhibit shows hadal weapons made of human bones.

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* HumanResources: An artifacts exhibit shows hadal weapons made of human bones. The hadals also make clothing and other objects out of human leather, and sometimes use their human slaves as a food source.


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* PetTheDog: Given their [[FateWorseThanDeath nigh-unimaginable]] treatment of adult captives, the hadals treat captured children surprisingly well. They feed and care for them as best they can, and go out of their way to keep them safe from harm and abuse.
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* {{Morlocks}}: The Hadals.

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* {{Morlocks}}: {{The Morlocks}}: The Hadals.
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** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] in [[DivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].

to:

** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] in [[DivineComedy [[Literature/TheDivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].
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** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] in [[DivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].

to:

** An entrance into the sub-planet [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis inspired Dante]] in [[DivineComedy his depiction of Hell]].Hell]].
* StockholmSyndrome: Captives of the hadals often end up emotionally dependent on them after years of abuse. Even after being rescued, many have a hard time overcoming their feelings of attachment.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, there are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].

to:

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: First off, there they are not demons. They are cave-dwelling hominids with [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a culture that makes the Aztecs look like the Amish]]. Also, they are revealed to be able to [[spoiler: transmit the consciousness of their dead into other sapient lifeforms via electrical currents]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


Has nothing to do with the video game series ''{{Descent}}''. Nor the 2005 British horror film ''[[Film/TheDescent The Descent]]'' written and directed by Neil Marshall, although there are certainly similarities. The novel was followed by a sequel, ''Deeper.''

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Has nothing to do with the video game series ''{{Descent}}''.''VideoGame/{{Descent}}''. Nor the 2005 British horror film ''[[Film/TheDescent The Descent]]'' written and directed by Neil Marshall, although there are certainly similarities. The novel was followed by a sequel, ''Deeper.''

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