History Main / ChangelingFantasy

* ''Anime/HanaukyoMaidTai''. At the beginning of the series Taro discovers that he belongs to a fabulously wealthy and powerful family.

* Opal Whiteley, or Princess Francoise Marie de Bourbon-Orleans (both names are engraved upon her tombstone), was a TeenGenius naturalist living in Oregon who kept a diary (now a respected classic) from the age of five or six. Stories about her life vary depending on who is telling them, but she seems to have believed almost from the beginning that she was adopted and was really the daughter of Prince [[http://bit.ly/1s9FjUq Henri d'Orleans]] of France (himself a naturalist who wrote several books on geography). She later became a CloudCuckoolander and ended her days in a hospital for the insane.

* ''KingArthur'' is raised by Sir Ector. Though treated well, he's considered of lower rank than Ector's biological family, who have no idea of his true identity.

* In the sixth book of L. J. Smith's ''Nightworld'' series, ''Soulmate'', Hannah learns that she is an olld soul, and emotionally related to Thierry.

** Finding out the ''other'' parent is often a bad thing. For starters some parents were kind of absent. One can understand not telling a kid since they'd brag (Hey, it didn't turn out so well for poor Phaethon!) but when they ''need'' to know and they aren't there… well… Things are improving in the new saga, apparently. (demigods were claimed instantly; and they actually ''talk'' to their children)

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' novels. A princess's duties and responsibilities are tough, and poor Mia didn't even want them in the first place.

* The ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series has an odd take on this. While the [=titular=] dragon ''is'' considered a valued and unique [[OrganicShip piece of ordinance]] in the British Aerial Corps; when he goes to China he finds out that A) dragons in general are treated as large [=citizens/subjects=] with wings rather than talking warbeasts and B) ''he'' is by rights part of the Imperial Household. While he does return to Britain it is with plans for reform on his mind.

* Played ''very'' darkly in the ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'' universe with both Alexander and Edgar. ''Literature/TheKingsQuestCompanion'' manages a {{Deconstruction}} by stating that Alexander doesn't even think of himself as a prince. Inwardly, he still thinks of himself as "Gwydion," [[EvilSorceror Mannanan's]] former slave, and signs his name as Alexander-Gwydion.

** Gilgamesh believed himself to be an orphan taken into the Baron's care, and spent the first years of his life at the bottom of the pecking order established by the other kids on Castle Wulfenbach. He used to imagine who his parents might have been (maybe even a lost Heterodyne!). After a couple of [[RedHerring red herrings]], he finally found out he was the heir to the Wulfenbach empire, raised in secret for his own protection. Unfortunately that revelation (and the need to keep it secret) drove a wedge between him and his friends, especially his former best friend Tarvek, a situation not helped by someone intercepting all of their attempted correspondence. [[spoiler:Actually, Gil gets a double dose since his mother is the amazonian Queen of the fabled hidden LadyLand of Skifander, as shown by his ability to ''throw an entire titan-class clank'' (though he did sprain his shoulder doing it) and his father believes Gil had to be kept hidden from his mother's people as well for reasons he has yet to explain.]]

* In a nearly forgotten cartoon series called ''WesternAnimation/{{Wildfire}}'', an 'ordinary American cowgirl' named Sara turns out to be the princess of a realm from which she was removed in infancy for her own safety. Later in the series she discovers that [[spoiler: the man she lives with as her 'adopted' father is her true father the Prince, exiled for his own safety and brainwashed to forget his heritage, presumably to keep him from trying to return.]]

* In ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', instead of being a Zeus bastard like in the original myth, the title protagonist turn out to be his legitimate son, found later by his farmers foster parents.

* ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'': The woman whom Rapunzel calls "Mother," who raised her—and who keeps her cooped up in a tower, makes demands of her, and insults her—isn't her real mother. Her real parents are a kindly king and queen who love her unconditionally and still celebrate her birthday every year as they wait for her to find them again.

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'' TV series had the lead's dull foster parents turn up to a parent evening, rather than his divine parents like he expected.

* ''Manga/AyashiNoCeres'' has the real parents using the {{Masquerade}}--and utterly evil.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' [[TheWoobie Tobias]] admits at one point that as a child, he had liked to imagine that his [[ParentalAbandonment absentee parents]] had some sort of amazing lives/reason for abandoning him. In fact, [[DisappearedDad his father]] [[spoiler:was an alien [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transformed into a human]] who left [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou to fight a war]]]], while [[MissingMom his mother]] [[spoiler:was unable to care for him due to medical problems]].

* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': Kristoff is a changeling, having been raised by the trolls since he was a small boy.

Related to DoorstopBaby and SeparatedAtBirth. MuggleFosterParents is a specific subtrope.

** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', Rey was left with a scrap trader and wants nothing more than for her real parents to come back for her. She eventually ends up with Han Solo and clearly latches onto him as a father-figure. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', she does the same with Luke Skywalker. [[spoiler:Kylo Ren forces her to admit that her parents were "nobodies," random scrap traders who sold her for drinking money and died unremarked somewhere]].

** Eventually Nina discovers that she herself died in an earthquake and was partially initiated as a paragon in order to restore her to life- and her mother is desperate to prevent her from following her into life as a paragon, as which she considers to be the equivalent of damnation.

* In ''{{ComicBook/Blackbird}}'', Nina Rodriquez discovers that magic is real and that her long-dead mother is actually both alive and a major leader of a secret society of invisible wizards. Nina's efforts to retrieve her kidnapped sister from her mother- and get a satisfactory explanation for why her mother abandoned her family and is trying to erase her memory of finding her (and of her sister's very existence) constitutes the first arc of the story.

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* In ''{{ComicBook/Blackbird}}'', Nina Rodriquez discovers that magic is real and that her long-dead mother is actually both alive and a major leader of an invisible secret society of wizards. Nina's efforts to retrieve her kidnapped sister from her mother- and get a satisfactory explanation for why her mother abandoned her family and is trying to erase her memory of finding her (and of her sister's very existence) constitutes the first arc of the story.

* The last arc of ''Literature/{{Aztec}}'' introduces us to Malintzin. When Mixtli meets her, she is an orphan brat with DelusionsOfGrandeur. Aztec custom names the child by their day of birth (hers is One Grass) and they're given a full name on their seventh birthday, but because she's an orphan, her name remains One Grass (Ce Malinali). By the time he meets her later, she's become Cortez' interpreter and consort to one of Cortez' men. She's also made up a back story for herself: that she was [[IndianPrincess formerly royalty]], but her family sold her when they fell on hard times. The "tzin" suffix (which means lord/lady and is assigned to nobility) is entirely fabricated.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' by Rose Ben being a member of the young [[MessianicArchetype Thorn's]] real family as well. Thorn wasn't so much adopted as she was stolen away by her grandmother for her safety, who's just as much a hidden royal as Thorn is. As Thorn goes through the story and returns to her rightful position, Grandma Ben is right alongside her (for the [[IJustWantToBeNormal most part]]), returning to her royal position also.

* Harshly deconstructed in ''Literature/TheMerchantPrincesSeries'' by Creator/CharlesStross. All the elements are there: Miriam Beckstein discovers she is the daughter of a powerful noble family with seemingly-magical powers from a medieval kingdom in another world, where she is engaged to marry a prince. But her family turns out to be an amoral organized-crime family that uses their magical powers for drug smuggling; the other world is by modern standards a squalid hellhole, where women have no rights; the prince is mentally retarded, and she is expected to marry him with no argument for the political advantage of her family, regardless of whether she wants to.

* ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'': [[LittleMissSnarker Ruri Hoshino]], after having lived the bulk of her life as a lab experiment, discovers her real family is the CloudCuckoolander royalty of a {{Theme Park|s}}-like{{Ruritania}}. [[spoiler: She ultimately decides that her biological family is a bunch of useless idiots and returns to the crew of the Nadesico, who she also considers a bunch of idiots but who just happen to be the useful idiots she happens to care about.]]

** Finding out the ''other'' parent is often a bad thing. For starters some parents were kind of absent. One can understand not telling a kid since they'd brag (Hey, it didn't turn out so well for poor Phaeton!) but when they ''need'' to know and they aren't there… well… Things are improving in the new saga, apparently. (demigods were claimed instantly; and they actually ''talk'' to their children)