History Main / HiddenElfVillage

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The gorgon community of Ohio has set up a small village of trailers, able to pick up and leave in case of discovery by humans. The Fringe is a faction who have built more permanent houses, as a statement that they're not going anywhere.

TreeTopTown is a common subtrope. If they're highly advanced, see AdvancedAncientAcropolis. If supposedly mythical creatures live there, it's a FantasticNatureReserve. Compare CityInABottle and OutcastRefuge. Contrast TheOutsideWorld.

* ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'': The titular island.

* ''Literature/LilithsBrood'': There is a hidden mountain village where the citizens have become so isolated from the rest of the world that they all suffer horrible genetic diseases from inbreeding.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has Sui-no-Sato, a small village hidden at the bottom of the Ruby Sea that is populated solely by Raen Auri and a tiny group of Kojin who bring supplies from the outside world.

* The sentient dinosaurs in ''Fanfic/MesozoicEffect'' turn Earth into one when they realize that their thousand-plus years of pacifism have left them with no hope of defeating [[Franchise/MassEffect the invading Reapers]] in battle. They successfully pull it off for over a hundred million years, until a damaged Reaper [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs accidentally stumbles into them.]] When the [[HumanPopsicle cryonically frozen]] survivors wake up 65 million years later, they decide to take a much more aggressive approach to the problem.

* Equestria in ''Fanfic/TheSonOfTheEmperor'' uses a magical barrier to isolate itself from the rest of the world. No one on the outside knows anything about it.
* Tails's hometown, Shadakor, in the fanfic ''[[https://fanfiction.net/s/3737337/1/Tails-Underground Tails Underground]]'' is one of these, despite having the might to challenge Robotnik's empire. Why is a mystery Sonic and his siblings try to discover when they return him there.

* This is a running theme in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series, due to being set AfterTheEnd in [[CrapsackWorld a hostile wasteland]].

%%* The Village in ''Film/TheVillage''.

* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'': Galt's Gulch.

** ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' features Rapture, a secret underwater city. It's also a permutation of the RealLife concept of Seasteading, which is this trope mixed with CityOfCanals.

** The Air Nomad temples were like this, being mystical and secluded, attempting to sever contact with the world at large but welcoming those who reached them. Not so much in the series proper, since the populations of every temple were wiped out in the genocide that kicked off the war with the Fire Nation. The Temples weren't necessarily "hidden", but "hard to reach unless you are/are helped there by an airbender". Air Nomad society was known to the world at large before Sozin's massacre.
** The Foggy Swamp Water Tribe was a very obscure [[MakingASplash water tribe]] as well, being different from the two polar water tribes in pretty much every way except that their society was shaped around waterbending. Even their waterbending style was reflective of the stagnant nature of swamp water rather than the more flowing techniques of Northern and Southern styles.
** The Sun Warriors are an ancient secretive tribe of [[PlayingWithFire firebenders]] largely forgotten by the Fire Nation at large, who learn from the primal firebenders: Dragons.

* ''Literature/DragonWarsSaga'': The elf realms of Andur'Blough, Inninness, and Tymwyvenne are both extremely secretive and magically protected (the former by a spell that prevents explorers from finding the place without being guided there, the latter by zombies and sleep-inducing pollen).

** Gondolin, Doriath and Nargothrond from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', and Rivendell and Lothlórien from ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' are all examples, if this trope allows for very large populations, advanced technology, expeditionary armies, and large political ambitions. Some of them (especially Gondolin, Doriath, and Nargothrond) do have long periods of isolation, and two of them (Gondolin and Nargothrond) meet horrible ends at the hands of the Big Bad they were hiding from (in ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'' and ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', respectively). Doriath and Lothlórien are purposely hidden by magic, while Gondolin, Rivendell, and Nargothrond are simply hidden by geography.
** The Shire is a classic Hidden Elf Village, apart from the dumpiness and furriness (and non-Elvishness) of its inhabitants (and the fact that there was no actual ''policy'' behind it -- the inhabitants were just homebodies that were missed by the general collapse of civilization in the area rather than people that actually went out of their way to hide). In the latter part of its history, until the end of the Third Age, the Rangers secretly kept watch on the Shire to make sure no potential invaders found it.
** Valinor may also count if large populations and advanced societies are allowed. Across the sea, Valinor kept itself isolated and defended from [[BigBad Morgoth]], whose domain was in Middle-earth. After his defeat, Valinor did not fully isolate itself until the Drowning of Númenor, when the aforementioned Númenoreans launched a full-scale invasion of Valinor to conquer it. Following this, Valinor isolated its lands from the East and prevented the Men of Middle-earth from ever travelling there on their own accord again. Elves are still welcome, though.
** The Avari Elves who resided in the far-east of Middle-earth. They refused to journey to Valinor with their kinsmen and indeed chose to remain in absolute isolation in the wilderness they inhabited. Eventually some began to wander westward and join other Elven societies, while others fragmented into small tribes. By the late Third Age, only six known reclusive Avari tribes remain, all located in wild lands east of the Misty Mountains.

* In ''ComicBook/ElfesEtNains'', most of the Elven races have hidden or very hard-to-reach settlements. The Wood Elves live at the heart of the great forest of Duhann, and none has managed to reach it until the Wood Elves opened to their allies. The White Elves used to live on secret islands whose locations were only known to them. The Dark Elves all live on the fortress of Slurce, perched at the top of a mountain in the middle of a wasteland they can effortlessly watch. The only exception is the city of Elsémur, the capital of the Northen Blue Elves which is a hub of trade routes and regularly deals with neighboring kingdoms; on the other hand it is situated in the middle of the sea, and only the most powerful navies can invade it.