History Main / CastHerd

* As the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' universe grew, this had to happen (not counting the assorted spin-off series). Towards the end of the war with Haven it wasn't unusual to have the Royal Manticoran Navy section of the book (usually, but not always, featuring Harrington herself), the Manticoran political section, the Havenite navy section (usually starring the honorable officers who were starting to conspire against the People's Republic), and the Havenite political section with Pierre and Saint-Just. The end of the war moved the posts: the Havenite cast joined with the Manticorans, and now the books tend to be divided between the Solarians, the Grand Alliance, and the Mesan Alignment.

* ''Series/{{GameOfThrones}}'': The [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters cast]] is divided into several herds. At the end of the fourth season these are:

** The Dragonstone/Braavos herd (including Stannis, Melisandre, Shireen, Selyse, and Davos)

* The LoadsAndLoads of characters in ''{{Webcomic/Drowtales}}'' can be divided first by peer group, since the younger character tend to stick with one group of friends, and outside of that can be split up among the different clans they swear fealty to. In particularly large clans like the Sharen they can then be further divided by which member of the family or bloodline they claim descent from.

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'' has two good-guy herds that take up most of the screen-time and stay pretty well in their own groups: the Inner Senshi and the Outer Senshi. There's also the Shittenou, the Starlights and the Amazons. The latter causes a bit of fandom friction, since they are technically Chibi Moon's team, but they only ever fight with her in one arc of the manga, and never in the anime. Instead, Chibi Moon almost always fights with the Inners. The fandom fights revolve around whether or not Chibi Moon should be classified with the Inners or the Amazons, and when.
** Enemies are almost always classified in season-specific herds, as well.

* As the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' universe grew, this had to happen (not counting the assorted spin-off series). Towards the end of the war with Haven it wasn't unusual to have the Royal Manticoran Navy section of the book (usually, but not always, featuring Harrington herself), the Manticoran political section, the Havenite navy section (usually starring the honorable officers who were starting to conspire against the People's Republic, and the Havenite political section with Pierre and St-Just. The end of the war moved the posts: the Havenite cast joined with the Manticorans, and now the books tend to be divided between the Solarians, the Alliance, and the Mesan Alignment.

* When Creator/BrianMichaelBendis left ''{{Ultimate X-Men}}'', incoming writer BrianKVaughan was left with a team of thirteen people, and spent much of his time Cast Herding. Throughout his run, various characters would pair off and leave, but continue to make appearances in their own storylines. The remaining characters were constantly split up based on plot demands.

* Comicbook/GothamCentral divided its characters, which are all cops of the same unit, into two shifts, each with their own supervisors and in-house drama. The shifts often had to interact with each other or share information, but the focus tended to be put on one shift at a time.
* {{Comicbook/Legion of Super-Heroes}}, whenever written by Paul Levitz or anyone following his style- which most people seem to do, since the title team usually has at least fifteen to twenty characters to keep track of. This is not including various police officers, civilians, important supporting cast members, government officials, family members, other superheroes, villains, villain teams (sometimes as large as the title team), and about three major problems at once. Sometimes more. They ''are'' protecting a whole galaxy, after all (and a few times, the entire universe and/or mulitverse).

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has the four houses of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' certainly LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters arranged as a GeodesicCast, the result being that the groups have been (mostly) subdivided into the 'Kids' ([[FourTemperamentEnsemble A group of four]]), the [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Trolls]] (Of which there are twelve), the Exiles (Another group of four), the Midnight Crew ([[RunningGag another -another- group of four...]]), the Sprites (four), the Guardians (four)... The list goes on.
** After the End of Act 5 in October 2011, many characters have died or been reshuffled into new groups, and new characters have appeared. The main groups now are: those on the golden battleship (John, Jade, Davesprite, Jaspersprite, and a whole lot of Chess people and consorts); those travelling through the Furthest Ring on the trolls' Meteor (Rose, Dave, Karkat, Terezi, Kanaya, Gamzee, and WV); those chasing the Meteor group (PM and Bec Noir); those in the dreambubbles (Tavros, Vriska, Feferi, Eridan, Meenah, Aranea, Hussie; presumably Nepeta, Equius, Sollux, Aradia, and the rest of the pre-scratch trolls as well); those beyond the Fifth Wall (Lord English, Ms. Paint, A2 Jack); and the new group of four kids who live on Earth and are now entering their session of the game ([[spoiler:although two of them live in the future]]). The former groups now only appear in the intermissions, with the main acts focusing on the new kids.

** However, [[spoiler:one character, Series 1-2 chauffeur Tom Branson, was always half-here, half-there, as being the chauffeur he had less occasion to spend time with the other servants and a great deal of occasion to cart the Crawleys around; by Series 3 he's more "upstairs"--having married Sibyl--but has occasional "downstairs" storylines.]]

* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' evolved into this, once Davan and Pee-Jee moved to Texas. You have the Davan-centric Texas cast, the Aubrey-centric Boston cast, the Monette-centric Hollywood cast and Kharisma (at-large in parts unknown), with assorted characters CommutingOnABus (most notably Davan's ex, Branwen) and several outlying characters checking during [[LowerDeckEpisode the "Old Familiar Faces"]] arcs.

* Happens in the second and third volumes of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' - you've got Pippin/Merry, Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli, and Frodo/Sam in The Two Towers, and it's even further split in Return of the King into Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli, Gandalf/Pippin, Theoden/Eowyn/Merry and Frodo/Sam, and the chapters alternate between each group.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Had this to varying degrees during its run. While there was always some overlap, all the major parties would split up into subgroups as events heated up. During the revolution to overthrow President Clark, they were separated into the space war with the main Earth military officers, the ground war on Mars, and everyone else back at the station (primarily the non-human characters). There was also the Narn/Centauri issues which usually led to London and G'Kar doing stuff separate from the rest of the cast.

** '''Allies:''' Russia, France, China, England and America [[hottip:*:Oh, and Canada too!]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' after the trip to Soul Society, and especially after the first Rescue Arc. The show already has a FiveManBand, plus a Captain and a Lieutenant from all thirteen squads, plus at least a few dozen other characters who are at least tangentially important to the plot, and this whole cast can be split into almost any combination at any given time, and almost always is.

* Even though ''SoulEater'' has a cast of LotsAndLotsOfCharacters, it's relatively easy to remember everyone, even name all seventy or so main protagonists and antagonists that have shown up throughout the series. For example, Squad A is led by Maka, whose squad consists of herself, Blackstar, and the Kid. If you add in their weapons, that's seven right off the bat. Nine if you count Crona and Ragnarok. Then add Squad B, the adults and their weapons, and repeat with every side in this [[KudzuPlot horribly complicated war.]]

* Brazilian primetime soaps: These shows, which always have LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, tend to cluster the cast like this, even using an official term: nuclei. There may be the "protagonist nucleus", the "comedic nucleus", the "suburban nucleus", the "favela nucleus" etc.
* SoapOpera: In fact, this is pretty much a staple of all instances of this type of show. They're usually separated into multiple plot lines, and scenes are shot in blocks.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'':
** Had its share of this; it wasn't until halfway through the second season that all the characters were actually in the same place, with other significant splits since then like the group left on New Caprica, or Starbuck's crew while she's finding the way to Earth.
** Then of course later on there were splits between Cylon-centric scenes and human-centric scenes. This started with the Cylon-centric second season episode "Downloaded," which was the first time we really got a look at how Cylon society functioned, but it became a lot more frequent after that. To complicate things further, there were plenty of Cast Herds in human society as well (Baltar's harem being one of the most obvious ones).
* ''DowntonAbbey'':
** Happens with the Earl's family ("upstairs") and the servants ("downstairs").
** However, [[spoiler:one character, Series 1-2 chauffeur Tom Branson, was always half-here, half-there, as being the chauffeur he had less occasion to spend time with the other servants and a great deal of occasion to cart the Crawleys around; by Series 3 he's more "upstairs"--having married Sibyl--but has occasional "downstairs" storylines.]]
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Happens a lot, with the cast being split up almost constantly (the Petrellis; the Bennets; Nikki, DL and Micah; Hiro and Ando; etc).

* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': In the second season, the Unit Manager of Emerald City begins to identify his inmates as being in one of ten groups: Muslims, Homeboys, Italians, Latinos, Aryans, Bikers, Irish, Gays, Christians, and Others.
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': Focuses primarily on Atlantic City, but also features recurring characters based in Chicago (Al Capone, Johnny Torrio and, as of the third season, [[spoiler:Nelson van Alden]]) and New York (Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky); for the first two seasons, neither herd's home turf has much bearing on the plot and their relevance usually results from their business in Atlantic City, but as of the third season, both the New York and Chicago arcs are much more self-contained.

** Also early on there was a core group of characters who did everything. If something was going on, it included some combination of Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer and Sayid. FanNickname for them was the 'A-Team'. This was because at the beginning Lost's MythArc was just forming. We were treated to a lot of 'life on the beach' subplots with characters like Boone, Shannon, Charlie, Claire, Hugo, Jin, Sun, etc. The writers made several [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades Hung]] to this. Characters would drift in and out of the two groups, but it was removed completely later on. Arguably by the fourth or fifth season all the characters were directly involved in the mythology of the island.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Had this to varying degrees during its run. While there was always some overlap, all the major parties would split up into subgroups as events heated up. During the revolution to overthrow President Clark, they were separated into the space war with the main Earth military officers, the ground war on Mars, and everyone else back at the station (primarily the non-human characters). There was also the Narn/Centauri issues which usually led to London and G'Kar doing stuff separate from the rest of the cast.

* This was becoming a problem on ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' at one point, the solution of which was to clone the main character and send one of each off with roughly half the cast and then alternate between the groups until enough characters had died to recombine them.

* In the second season of ''{{Series/Oz}}'', the Unit Manager of Emerald City begins to identify his inmates as being in one of ten groups: Muslims, Homeboys, Italians, Latinos, Aryans, Bikers, Irish, Gays, Christians, and Others.
* ''Series/{{Boardwalk Empire}}'' focuses primarily on Atlantic City, but also features recurring characters based in Chicago (Al Capone, Johnny Torrio and, as of the third season, [[spoiler:Nelson van Alden]]) and New York (Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky); for the first two seasons, neither herd's home turf has much bearing on the plot and their relevance usually results from their business in Atlantic City, but as of the third season, both the New York and Chicago arcs are much more self-contained.
* ''{{Series/Lost}}'' makes use of distinct character groups, though they tend to merge by the end. Season 2 split them into the Tailies (with Ana-Lucia as spokesman and most important, and most appearing character) and the fuselage survivors; season 3 had the herds of the people in the camp and people captured by the Others (and it changed regularly as it went on); and season 4 featured Jack's group, Locke's group, the people ''on'' the boat, and the people ''from'' the boat. Notably, the latter two were prone to vanishing from the plot often. Season 5 continues the trend: on the one hand, we have the on-island characters, and on the other, the off-island characters. More recently, the division has shifted to [[spoiler: 1977 characters and 2007 characters, which in turn splits into the 316 survivors (lead by Ilana) and the people on the main Island. The off-Island plot (AKA Desmond's) vanishes here, outside of a flashback and a few brief scenes in "The Variable".]]
** Averted by season 1: A big deal is made initially about who is on the beach and who is in the caves, but this distinction quickly became meaningless as characters go from camp to camp so often that it's hard to remember who chose to go where. This split is ultimately forgotten and the survivors all move back to the beach in early season 2.

* With more than 20 recurring characters, period drama UpstairsDownstairs has its two distinct Cast Herds conveniently marked in the title. Upstairs is the well-off Bellamy family; Downstairs is their staff of servants, a sort of family of its own.
* Brazilian primetime soaps, which always have LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, tend to cluster the cast like this, even using an official term: nuclei. There may be the "protagonist nucleus", the "comedic nucleus", the "suburban nucleus", the "favela nucleus" etc.
* In fact, this is pretty much a staple of all {{Soap Opera}}s. They're usually separated into multiple plot lines, and scenes are shot in blocks.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'' had its share of this; it wasn't until halfway through the second season that all the characters were actually in the same place, with other significant splits since then like the group left on New Caprica, or Starbuck's crew while she's finding the way to Earth.

* Happens in ''DowntonAbbey'' with the Earl's family ("upstairs") and the servants ("downstairs").

* Happens a lot with ''{{Series/Heroes}}'', with the cast being split up almost constantly (the Petrellis; the Bennets; Nikki, DL and Micah; Hiro and Ando; etc)
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' had this to varying degrees during its run. While there was always some overlap, all the major parties would split up into subgroups as events heated up. During the revolution to overthrow President Clark, they were separated into the space war with the main Earth military officers, the ground war on Mars, and everyone else back at the station (primarily the non-human characters). There was also the Narn/Centauri issues which usually led to London and G'Kar doing stuff separate from the rest of the cast.

[[caption-width-right:250:This isn't even '' [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters half]]'' of it!]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' can, of course, split characters among their own series (but they may need their usual herds anyway), and occasionally mixes characters into new herds depending on the story. In the OriginalGeneration games, they're usually divided by their military units (ATX Team, SRX team, Octo Squad, Aggressors, etc...), couples (and there are a lot of them), and sometimes by ship (whether they usually travel with the ''Hagane'' or ''Hiryu Custom'').

* By the end of ''Manga/DragonBall'' the main herds were the [[TheHero Son Family]], [[TheLancer The Briefs]], [[TheSmartGuy Kami's]] [[TheMentor lookout]]. [[SixthRanger Crane School]], Kais, [[TheMentor the Supreme Kais, New Namek]], the [[CantCatchUp Kame House]] and [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan and Buu]].

* As the HonorHarrington universe grew, this had to happen (not counting the assorted spin-off series). Towards the end of the war with Haven it wasn't unusual to have the Royal Manticoran Navy section of the book (usually, but not always, featuring Harrington herself), the Manticoran political section, the Havenite navy section (usually starring the honorable officers who were starting to conspire against the People's Republic, and the Havenite political section with Pierre and St-Just. The end of the war moved the posts: the Havenite cast joined with the Manticorans, and now the books tend to be divided between the Solarians, the Alliance, and the Mesan Alignment.