History Main / CosmicHorrorReveal

[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This can be]] either a [[DiabolusExMachina very cheap or very shocking]] way for [[FromBadToWorse things to get worse]].

* ''VideoGame/BlackSouls'': The first game is already pretty dark, featuring gruesome content and brutal deaths, and in spite of its plot being an HGame version of ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', it's still mostly straightforward most of the time. However, this gets flipped on its head if you're going down End C: After filling up the library's bookshelves (which includes the [[KillTheOnesYouLove fairy-tales of your companions]]) and pull the lever, things ''really'' get messy: reality begins to break down, with the fairies except Leaf having been transformed into blobs, Victoria having gone insane, and most importantly, Mary Sue - the goddess who was briefly mentioned to be behind all of the horrors in the game, happens to be none other than ''Leaf'', who reveals herself to have created the world by twisting parts of the fairy tales of various authors, and said author's souls were merged into Grimm, the player character. Going down End D reveals Baphomet to be none other than ''Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young'', completing the game's descent into eldritch territory. If anything, ''II'' doubles down on the eldritch elements, with most of the love interests happening to be eldritch entities in disguise, and the whole theatre of Wonderlands happens to be a "Garden" for The Crawling One, who is all but implied to be Nyarlathotep.

* ''Manga/HoshinEngi'': The manga starts off as a fantasy series set in ancient China, with gods, supernatural beings, yokai, and spirit animals. It's not until after the halfway point that it's revealed that [[spoiler:an ancient being from space named Jyoka has been secretly manipulating the course of history for millennia in the hopes of turning Earth into a replica of her destroyed homeworld.]]

** ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'': The game, at first, seems to be a cutesy followup to ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand''... right up until the climax, when it's revealed the [[{{Macguffin}} Star Rod]] you were reassembling is actually [[SealedEvilInACan the only thing keeping the Nightmare Wizard]], a living personification of Nightmares, trapped in the Fountain of Dreams (which was [[BigBad King Dedede's]] true goal this entire time). Notably, ever since that game, the ''Kirby'' franchise has had an EldritchAbomination as the final boss, usually (but not always) as a plot twist, whereas King Dedede only remains a central antagonist in spinoffs and even there, it's more about [[TheRival Dedede trying to settle his grudge with Kirby.]]

* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', an interesting variation is TheReveal that the human-inhabited world we'd seen so far (which seems the size of our own, with continents of similar shape and size), which already has copious amounts of incredibly dangerous locations and species (for example, Swindler's Swamp, where the ''whole ecosystem'' is geared towards attracting, entrapping and feeding on humans) is only a tiny fraction of the whole planet, and that what little information there is about the rest of the world (called the Dark Continent) paints it as a horrific DeathWorld of incomprehensibly dangerous horrors that dwarf any threat encountered so far by the Shonen protagonists. As a point of comparison, [[KnightOfCerebus the Chimera Ants, the most powerful menace in the series previously]], which were an existential threat to humanity in a world where the potential to be a PersonOfMassDestruction is relatively common, are considered the '''[[AlwaysABiggerFish least]]''' dangerous of the known species originating from the Dark Continent, and the survival rate of expeditions there, which tend to be extremely well-organized and funded and include many said powerful individuals, is about 1 in every 2500 people. It's rather obvious that humanity survived this long only because the menaces from the Dark Continent barely pay attention to it for some reason.
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' starts off with Ryuko Matoi fighting the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil, led by the dictatorial Satsuki Kiryuin. It turns out that Satsuki was trying to rebel against her mother Ragyo, the Life Fibers that make up the clothing that [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman give people superpowers]] are actually alien parasites that have shaped the course of human evolution, and Ragyo wants to accelerate their ultimate goal: consume every human on Earth and use their energy to explode the planet, sending new Life Fibers hurtling towards other worlds.
* ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'' starts as a story focused on psychic powers and time travel, with the heroes trying to figure out the mystery behind the titular Psyren. The first hint comes later on, when we learn that the mysterious asteroid Ouroborus, (who will fall in Hokkaido between the present and the future world of Psyren, causing the dreadful state of the world) is apparenly sending messages to the planet and moves erratically through space. Finally confirmed for good by the true villain, Mithra, who reveals that Ouroborus was actually the shell for a planet-eating EldritchAbomination called "Quat Nevas", who took advantage of Amagi Miroku's life-manipulating Psi-Power to gather enough energy to revive itself and consume the planet.

* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has a reveal very similar to and most likely the primary inspiration for the ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' example above - the world is split into two parts, the 30% that makes up the Human World where people live but is still full of extremely deadly biomes and fauna, and then the remaining 70% that constitutes the Gourmet World, full of monsters and hazards that make those found in the Human World look like an appetizer. Toriko takes one step in and is practically torn to shreds in minutes. On top of that, Coco theorizes the Gourmet World was formed by a meteor from another dimension colliding with [[EarthAllAlong Earth, expanding mass around it and corrupting the ecology]]. Not to mention a race of interdimensional aliens using the planet as a prison for a nigh-unstoppable and extremely hungry monster they were using to sweep other dimensions clean.

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsParanormalitiesTrilogy Star Wars: Paranormalities]]'': In the first few chapters of Episode I, the Valkoran seem to just be a terrorist organization reminiscent of the many Sith Empires intent on toppling the Galactic Alliance. While there are a few signs throughout these chapters that not everything is as it seems, it's revealed in Chapter 6 that the Valkoran Empire are really a cult for an extragalactic group known as the Forceless Collective, an army of body-possessing beings that somehow defy the Jedi's understanding of the Force by being completely devoid of it, and what Jedi sense from them feels off compared to even the Dark Side. Episode II would reveal that the Forceless symbiotes aren't strictly a species from another galaxy, but a recurring anomaly born from wounds in the Force, and given that the ''Star Wars'' galaxy has had many mass-death disasters throughout its history, there are many more symbiotes that have been born in that galaxy. What keeps it from going into full-blown CosmicHorrorStory is that Zolph and the Jedi give these other symbiotes the benefit of the doubt and [[VillainsActHeroesReact presume they are innocent until proven otherwise, with Valkor's Collective being the most immediately threatening to the galaxy at the moment.]]

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' is a perfectly normal game about an evil organization forcing Desmond to relive the genetic memories of his ancestors, tied in to an ancient-evil-conspiracy plot. After ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', suddenly, AbusivePrecursors arrive and the world's about to be destroyed by some sort of horrible thing. However, this is subverted: the Precursors are simply human-like animals with more senses, longer lives, and better tech. The world-ending threat is not some inscrutable alien intelligence, but a mundane solar flare. Then it is double-subverted. Juno, one of the Precursors, has transcended physical existence and successfully manipulates generations of humans to free herself. She can possess humans and drive them mad. She also has a cult dedicated to her. ''Origins'' takes it deeper, with the strong implication that Precursor technology may be advanced enough to [[RealityWarping alter the fabric of reality]].

* ''VideoGame/CassetteBeasts'' starts out as a fantasy adventure at a magical island populated by both humans and monsters and located in a different dimension from Earth. Then the opening quest concludes with your encounter with Morgante, revealing the existence of the powerful and incomprehensible eldritch entities known by the local human residents as [[AngelicAbomination Archangels]]. This starts the game's main quest of finding more Archangels across the island to gather more clues for you to find a way to return home. Eventually, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Archangels are embodiments of various concepts birthed from humanity, with the final boss being an incarnation of conquest whom you need to stop from causing destruction across reality]]. A post-game quest also reveals that [[spoiler:the island's entire railway system, which you most likely have used to travel across the island on numerous occasions, is not only an Archangel themself, but also responsible for the island's very existence, as well as you and everyone else being stranded on it]].

* ''VideoGame/CassetteBeasts'' starts out as a fantasy adventure at a magical island populated by both humans and [[{{Mon}} monsters]] and located in a different dimension from Earth. Then the opening quest concludes with your encounter with Morgante, revealing the existence of the powerful and incomprehensible eldritch entities known by the local human residents as [[AngelicAbomination Archangels]]. This starts the game's main quest of finding more Archangels across the island to gather more clues for you to find a way to return home. Eventually, it is revealed that Archangels are embodiment of various concepts birthed from humanity, with the final boss being an incarnation of conquest whom you need to stop from causing destruction across reality. A post-game quest also reveals that the island's entire railway system, which you most likely have used to travel across the island, is not only an Archangel themself, but also responsible for the island's very existence, as well as you and everyone else being stranded on it.