History Main / HumanitysWake

** ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' is set millennia after humans (and many land-dwelling animals, including ''all mammals'') were wiped out due to rising sea levels, with marine animals forming a society within what humanity left behind. While they are fully aware that humans were the previous dominant species, their knowledge about them is limited... which is ironic, considering that the [[CavemenVsAstronautsDebate Splatfests]] that the Inklings adore so much are based on them receiving ancient recordings of human conversations.

** ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' is set millennia after humans (and many land-dwelling animals, including ''all mammals'') were wiped out due to rising sea levels, with marine animals forming a society within what humanity left behind. While they are fully aware that humans were the previous dominant species, their knowledge about them is limited... which is ironic, considering that the Splatfests that the Inklings adore so much are based on them receiving ancient recordings of human conversations.

* ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' by Olaf Stapledon has all of the "First Men" killed in an atomic holocaust 100,000 years from now. Save for thirty-five who mutate into the Second Men, starting a cycle of extinction and replacement that continues for two billion years and 16 more species until the Eighteenth Men die when the Sun goes supernova.

** "Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime" explicitly states that at least 14,000 years in the future humanity will die out and be replaced by a race of intelligent beetles (into whom the Great Race of Yith transfer their consciousnesses). Given what a [[CrapsackWorld nightmare universe]] the Franchise/CthulhuMythos is, it's impressive we make it that far.
** Lovecraft takes the theme in a different direction in "Memory", where a demon and genie idly contemplate a number of apes who frolic in ancient ruins. The demon eventually remembers that the apes are the descendants of an older race called "man", the original builders of the ruins.
* In ''Literature/TheMonster'' by Creator/AEVanVogt an expansionist alien race arrives on Earth to find everyone long dead. They study human artifacts and use their tech to revive some humans from their remains. One or two they end up killing afterwards, after they prove to be dangerous (apparently, humans have developed certain superpowers, including teleportation). They learn that humanity was destroyed by an "atomic storm" that passed through the Solar System. One of the revived humans manages to flee and proves to be impossible to kill. Deciding that sending a warning or traveling home would reveal to the human their tech and planet location, they choose to fly their ship into the sun. Moments before the end, one of the aliens realizes that the human has already learned all he needs, including revival and FTL tech, as well as the location of their planet. He's too late to stop the ship.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S5E18RaphaelMutantApocalypse The Mutant Apocalypse trilogy]] is set in a BadFuture, causing by the Turtles [[AllForNothing failing to prevent the Mutagen Bomb from detonating]] and causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. 50 years later, the now much older Turtles (Raphael having become a warrior called the Red Stripe, Michelangelo having become a crazy hermit due to loneliness, Donatello having [[BrainUploading uploaded his mind into the robot Metalhead 2.0 to survive, and Leonardo having turned into an super-mutant full of rage due to being at the epicentre of the Mutagen Bomb, becoming the WastelandWarlord Maximus Kong) and other mutants fight for survival in a desert wasteland. The OpeningNarration confirms that no humans survived the apocalypse, having all died out or turned into mutants.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': [[''Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S5E18RaphaelMutantApocalypse'' The Mutant Apocalypse trilogy]] is set in a BadFuture, causing by the Turtles [[AllForNothing failing to prevent the Mutagen Bomb from detonating]] and causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. 50 years later, the now much older Turtles (Raphael having become a warrior called the Red Stripe, Michelangelo having become a crazy hermit due to loneliness, Donatello having [[BrainUploading uploaded his mind into the robot Metalhead 2.0 to survive, and Leonardo having turned into an super-mutant full of rage due to being at the epicentre of the Mutagen Bomb, becoming the WastelandWarlord Maximus Kong) and other mutants fight for survival in a desert wasteland. The OpeningNarration confirms that no humans survived the apocalypse, having all died out or turned into mutants.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': ''Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S5E18RaphaelMutantApocalypse'' is set in a BadFuture, causing by the Turtles [[AllForNothing failing to prevent the Mutagen Bomb from detonating]] and causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. 50 years later, the now much older Turtles (Raphael having become a warrior called the Red Stripe, Michelangelo having become a crazy hermit due to loneliness, Donatello having [[BrainUploading uploaded his mind into the robot Metalhead 2.0 to survive, and Leonardo having turned into an super-mutant full of rage due to being at the epicentre of the Mutagen Bomb, becoming the WastelandWarlord Maximus Kong) and other mutants fight for survival in a desert wasteland. The OpeningNarration confirms that no humans survived the apocalypse, having all died out or turned into mutants.

** Later plot revelations reveal that [[spoiler:the Lunarians are literally the soul of humanity -- specifically, the souls of the lowest scum of the old human race, unable to pass on to the afterlife because no living “true” humans remain to pray for them. Finding a way to do that is now their only objective, even though they know succeeding will obliterate the Gems and the Admirabilis alongside them.]]

* ''Apocrypha'' by John and Laura Lakey. Originally a 8 chapters series that appeared in ''Epic Illustrated'' No 25-26. Animals evolved among humankind ruins. The evolved civilization is fairly modern (although no advance tech such as computers are seen) and is slowly learning from the technology that humanity had left behind. Unfortunately, they are getting humanity’s bad habits and may go down the same road to destruction.

* ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'': ”Population Zero” is a speculative documentary that looks at what would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly disappeared.
** Another ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'' episode, “Red Giant/Swallowed by the Sun” features the human race (along with all other life on Earth) being cooked into extinction by the Sun (which, in this experiment, has had its aging into a red giant being sped up, skipping billions of years). Once humanity goes extinct, concrete structures and objects made of synthetic materials are the first to crumble. Stone structures like the Great Pyramids and Mount Rushmore last longer, but they eventually melt when Earth reaches 1,320 °C. Ultimately subverted, as some people escaped to the Solar System’s outer planets, where temperatures have now reached habitable levels.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' episode “Three Robots” sees a trio of robots touring a post-apocalyptic city and discussing humans habits and objects.

** In ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'', the game's world is set millennia after the humanity and many other land-dwelling creatures went extinct due to rising sea levels, with Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilization on top of what humanity left behind. While they are fully aware that humans were the previous dominant species, their knowledge about them is limited... which is ironic, considering that the Splatfests that Inklings adore so much are based on them receiving ancient recordings of human conversations.

** In ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'', the game's world is EarthAllAlong, set millennia after the humanity and many other land-dwelling creatures went extinct due to rising sea levels, with Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilization on top of what humanity left behind. While they are fully aware that humans were the previous dominant species, their knowledge about them is limited... which is ironic, considering that the Splatfests that Inklings adore so much are based on them receiving ancient recordings of human conversations.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'', it's revealed via various of the [[CollectionSidequest Sunken Scrolls]] that the game's world was EarthAllAlong, set millennia after the humanity and many other land-dwelling creatures went extinct due to rising sea levels, with all signs pointing to the Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilization on top of what humanity left behind. Despite this, they seem to be largely ignorant of what humanity was, with the best guess they can make about fossilized human remains being that the creature's small head made them likely primitive, with little intelligence.

** Later plot revelations reveal that [[spoiler:the Lunarians are literally the soul of humanity -- specifically, the souls of the lowest scum of the old human race, unable to pass on to the afterlife because no living “true” humans remain to pray for them. Finding a way to do that is now their only objective, even though they know succeeding will obliterate the Gems and the Admirabilis alongside them.]]

* ''Apocrypha'' by John and Laura Lakey. Originally a 8 chapters series that appeared in ''Epic Illustrated'' No 25-26. Animals evolved among humankind ruins. The evolved civilization is fairly modern (although no advance tech such as computers are seen) and is slowly learning from the technology that humanity had left behind. Unfortunately, they are getting humanity’s bad habits and may go down the same road to destruction.

* ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'': ”Population Zero” is a speculative documentary that looks at what would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly disappeared.
** Another ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'' episode, “Red Giant/Swallowed by the Sun” features the human race (along with all other life on Earth) being cooked into extinction by the Sun (which, in this experiment, has had its aging into a red giant being sped up, skipping billions of years). Once humanity goes extinct, concrete structures and objects made of synthetic materials are the first to crumble. Stone structures like the Great Pyramids and Mount Rushmore last longer, but they eventually melt when Earth reaches 1,320 °C. Ultimately subverted, as some people escaped to the Solar System’s outer planets, where temperatures have now reached habitable levels.

* By the time in which ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'' takes place, humanity has died out completely, replaced by their robot creations who have adopted their customs and culture. [[spoiler:In fact, the last human remaining (B-12) had long since lost their original body after uploading their brain into the network to escape the plague responsible for the extinction. Even then, by the time the Cat finds him they've lost all memory of their former identity, believing themself to be their own robotic creation]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' episode “Three Robots” sees a trio of robots touring a post-apocalyptic city and discussing humans habits and objects.

** Later plot revelations reveal that [[spoiler:the Lunarians are literally the soul of humanity -- specifically, the souls of the lowest scum of the old human race, unable to pass on to the afterlife because no living “true” humans remain to pray for them. Finding a way to do that is now their only objective, even though they know succeeding will obliterate the Gems and the Admirabilis alongside them.]]

* ''Apocrypha'' by John and Laura Lakey. Originally a 8 chapters series that appeared in ''Epic Illustrated'' No 25-26. Animals evolved among humankind ruins. The evolved civilization is fairly modern (although no advance tech such as computers are seen) and is slowly learning from the technology that humanity had left behind. Unfortunately, they are getting humanity’s bad habits and may go down the same road to destruction.

* ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'': ”Population Zero” is a speculative documentary that looks at what would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly disappeared.
** Another ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'' episode, “Red Giant/Swallowed by the Sun” features the human race (along with all other life on Earth) being cooked into extinction by the Sun (which, in this experiment, has had its aging into a red giant being sped up, skipping billions of years). Once humanity goes extinct, concrete structures and objects made of synthetic materials are the first to crumble. Stone structures like the Great Pyramids and Mount Rushmore last longer, but they eventually melt when Earth reaches 1,320 °C. Ultimately subverted, as some people escaped to the Solar System’s outer planets, where temperatures have now reached habitable levels.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' episode “Three Robots” sees a trio of robots touring a post-apocalyptic city and discussing humans habits and objects.

* ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'' is a speculative documentary that looks at what would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly disappeared.

* "A Return to the Sea" by Music/{{Nightwish}} describes how mankind goes extinct, evolution taking control again and animals living in peace.

* ''VideoGame/{{Primordia}}'' takes place in a world where humanity has been gone for so long that their robot creations have had time to build their own society and found a religion about "Man the All-Builder."

* The ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' episode “Three Robots” sees a trio of robots touring a post-apocalyptic city and discussing the extinction of humans.

* Creator/NKJemisin's short story "On the Banks of the River Lex": A community of leftover {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s have survived humanity's extinction and are squatting in the ruins of New York, pursuing new hobbies, keeping favourite bits of human culture alive, or just waiting to fade away for good. By the end, Death [[spoiler:studies some unusually intelligent octopuses and wonders [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith what it will be like to have tentacles]]]].

** When taken in the context of ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' where it's reprinted as part of the setting, the smart house has only been going through the motions for a few days at the most after WorldWarThree (it still has fresh bacon and eggs to make the uneaten breakfasts with, and the master's dog is still barely alive). Though humanity hasn't been wiped out completely, human civilization has essentially suffered the same fate as that of the Martians', dead and remembered only by those few survivors (Human or Martian) left.

* The 1980's Marvel limited series ''Starriors'' by Louise Simonson [[MerchandiseDriven (based on a line of action figures)]] tells of a future age when Earth has been laid waste by solar flares. A group of humans tried to survive the disaster by going into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation,]] leaving robots behind to tend and protect the world until it was safe to reawaken. However, they don't wake up on time. The robots gradually develop sentience, and their memories of man dim till humanity becomes the stuff of legend. When evidence is discovered that the legends may be true, a war breaks out between those who believe the humans should be found and revived, and those who believe they should be left to slumber forever.

** Likewise, the large impact and range areas of several current and former US military bases function as important wildlife reservoirs, as the presence of unexploded ordnance prevents them from being used for anything else.

They will be remembered for their philanthropic work as {{Precursors}}, being prolific creators of not-yet-LostTechnology, [[HumansAreDiplomats stopping several galactic wars]][-[[note]]or possibly [[HumansAreWarriors starting them]], records are hazy[[/note]]-] and being all-around [[HumansAreSpecial special]]. Though marring that legacy are allegations of being {{neglectful|Precursors}} and even {{abusive|Precursors}}. Already, a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits ragtag bunch]] of young space-faring species in the Orion neighborhood can be seen to dare each other to see who will step closest to [[HumansAreCthulhu "Creepy"]] Old Mannity's Oort cloud.

They will be remembered for their philanthropic work as {{Precursors}}, being prolific creators of not-yet-LostTechnology, [[HumansAreDiplomats stopping several galactic wars]][-[[labelnote:*]]or possibly [[HumansAreWarriors starting them]], records are hazy[[/labelnote]]-] and being all around [[HumansAreSpecial special]]. Though marring that legacy are allegations of being {{neglectful|Precursors}} and even {{abusive|Precursors}}. Already, a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits ragtag bunch]] of young space-faring species in the Orion neighborhood can be seen to dare each other to see who will step closest to [[HumansAreCthulhu "Creepy"]] Old Mannity's Oort cloud.

* In the ''Literature/{{Chrysalis}}'' short story on Reddit, humanity is killed off when invading aliens glass the surface of Earth with thermonuclear weapons, to make room for a resource mining operation. This process takes longer than the aliens anticipated, giving humanity enough time to create an AI successor. The team creating the AI debate how "human" it should be, versus how coldly ruthless it should be. They pair the sentient AI with a subsentient worker AI that manages all of humanity's remaining machines below the surface of the planet, allowing the new sentient AI to rebuild civilization... or build an intergalactic war machine of vengeance.

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* In ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}'' [[spoiler:those living on the surface are little more than shades of humans who live without purpose. The underground Lux is thrust into slaughter and carnage in the last few episodes, with essentially everyone dead by the end as the city goes dark.]]

** Later plot revelations reveal that [[spoiler:the Lunarians are literally the soul of humanity — specifically, the souls of the lowest scum of the old human race, unable to pass on to the afterlife because no living “true” humans remain to pray for them. Finding a way to do that is now their only objective, even though they know succeeding will obliterate the Gems and the Admirabilis alongside them.]]

* ''Mighty Tiny'' by Ben Dunn, creator of ''ComicBook/NinjaHighSchool''. Humanity is extinct. Mice and rats had evolved into the dominant life forms and have created their own civilizations similar to pre WWII Europe. Two countries, Mosputa and Ratvaria, are in control with an uneasy peace between them. Although there are usually plots that endangered that peace throughout the course of the series.
* ''Apocrypha'' by John and Laura Lakey. Originally a 8 chapters series that appeared in ''Epic Illustrated'' No 25-26. Animals evolved among humankind ruins. The evolved civilization is fairly modern (although no advance tech such as computers are seen) and is slowly learning from the technology that humanity had left behind. Unfortunately, they are getting humanity’s bad habits and may go down the same road to destruction.

* Jay Ward, the creative director of ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Cars3}} Cars 3]]'' believes that they're all robot cars that rebelled and wiped humanity out years ago.

* ''Literature/ReBody'': [[spoiler:Robots kill us all, revive a human head, and set out to destroy some uplifted animals we had created.]]

* Creator/RogerZelazny:
** "The Stainless Steel Leech" from the story collection ''Last Defender of Camelot'', in which humanity has died out, leaving behind a society of robots. They've adopted the behavior of humans for the most part, though developed strange superstitions. One of the robots developed a hardware problem and became a vampire of sorts, and while hiding from the rest came upon a human vampire, the last of its kind and slowly starving from lack of blood.
** "For A Breath I Tarry" from the same collection has a similar setting, used as a retelling of Faust, though the tragic ending is averted by the creation of a new race of humans.

* Creator/BrianAldiss's short story ''But Who Can Replace A Man?'' The robots are overjoyed that humanity is wiped out and they are now free, but they end up nuking each other and in the end they come across one surviving human, whom their programming compels them to obey.
* Creator/CharlesStross's ''Literature/SaturnsChildren'' is a story about humanoid robots living in the wake of humanity's demise. Various factions have a vested interest in either reviving humanity or keeping them extinct, as the robots are still programmed to be absolutely obedient to humans — meaning a single living human could topple all of robotic civilization, and if that human could be raised to obey a robot, that robot would ''control'' all of robotic civilization.
* Creator/DougalDixon has written two versions of this trope.
** ''Literature/AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'': Humanity dies out for unspecified reasons after causing the extinction of most megafauna, down to canines and [[LastOfHisKind all but one feline]]. After fifty million years of evolution, the empty niches are filled by the descendants of either smaller animals like rabbits, rats, and mongooses, or by those of domesticated but adaptable animals such as pigs and goats.
** ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture'': Humans speciate into dozens of varieties, some sapient but most not, first through the creation of nonsapient humans through genetic engineering in order to fill the niches left empty by the extinction of most animal life and later by natural selection of these posthumans.
* ''City'' by Creator/CliffordSimak is a [[PatchworkStory fix-up]] whose component short stories start in the near future and continue until after humanity is extinct; the FramingDevice consists of archival notes by [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted dogs]].
* ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' by Olaf Stapledon has all of the "First Men" killed in an atomic holocaust 100,000 years from now. Save for thirty-five who mutate into the Second Men, starting a cycle of extinction and replacement that continues for two billion years and 16 more species until the Eighteenth Men die when the Sun goes supernova.
* The short story ''Written on the Wind'' by David Levine, has a federation of alien races trying to decipher a message coded into the fabric of the universe, which turns out to be from humanity who destroyed the universe through nanotechnology; before the end they were able to program the nanites to rebuild the universe and create new and more diverse life.
* In short story "Pots" by Creator/CJCherryh a race of aliens comes across a space probe with Pioneer plaque on the board, after mankind is long gone from the Earth. They attempt to find remaining descendants of humanity, while spreading romantic legend about first space travelers across galaxy. They remake their whole social structure, with hibernation and CloningBlues for top leaders and scientists, for this purpose. When group of archeologists finally finds something on third planet of small, yellow star [[spoiler: it turns out humankind destroyed itself shortly after setting foot on the Moon.]]
* ''Series/TheDailyShow'''s ''Literature/EarthTheBook'' is addressed to a civilization that has discover the planet after humanity's unspecified demise. The book also provides instructions for humans to add their DNA to two storage locations: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the Trementina Base in New Mexico (built by Scientologists). At the end of the book, Stewart recommends that the aliens use the DNA to "reconstitute" humans, possibly as slaves.

* In ''Literature/AngelNotes'', the human race has genetic-engineered itself into around a hundred different sub-species that, collectively, refer to themselves as the human race. The main character is the final remaining true human being, and [[TheHeroDies he dies at the end]]. [[spoiler:This is not good for the human race, as only a true human can use the Black Barrel, one of the only effective weapons they had against the invading [[EldritchAbomination Aristoteles]] that desire to annihilate the remnants of humanity.]]
* In Sasya Fox's ''Literature/{{Theta}}'' nearly all the cast are {{Beast M|an}}en who live on several planets spread throughout the galaxy and were created by a race they call "[[{{Precursors}} The Ancients]]". [[spoiler: Late in the novel the one alien character refers to the Ancients as "Man".]]
* ''Literature/{{Evolution}}'': After human civilization is destroyed by a supervolcano, its last remnant are [[spoiler:what eventually become super-advanced robots, virtually everything else fading into oblivion]] and nature, through normal evolution, takes over. New human species appear, diversifying into many niches as [[FormerlySapientSpecies simply more animals in the environment]], and the last of them is a small monkey-like creature that lives in symbiosis with trees in the searing-hot red plains of the future supercontinent.
* Creator/NKJemisin's short story "On the Banks of the River Lex": A community of leftover {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s have survived humanity's extinction and are squatting in the ruins of New York, pursuing new hobbies, keeping favourite bits of human culture alive, or just waiting to fade away for good. By the end, Death [[spoiler:studies some unusually intelligent octopuses and wonders [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith what it will be like to have tentacles]]]].
* In ''Literature/TheMonster'' by Creator/AEVanVogt an expansionist alien race arrives on Earth to find everyone long dead. They study human artifacts and use their tech to revive some humans from their remains. One or two they end up killing afterwards, after they prove to be dangerous (apparently, humans have developed certain superpowers, including teleportation). They learn that humanity was destroyed by an "atomic storm" that passed through the Solar System. One of the revived humans manages to flee and proves to be impossible to kill. Deciding that sending a warning or traveling home would reveal to the human their tech and planet location, they choose to fly their ship into the sun. Moments before the end, one of the aliens realizes that the human has already learned all he needs, including revival and FTL tech, as well as the location of their planet. He's too late to stop the ship.
* ''Literature/BarskTheElephantsGraveyard'': The Galaxy is populated by many species of {{Uplifted Animal}}s but no humans. Once while the main character was serving in the Alliance Patrol his ship came across an ancient probe that projected a hologram of a human, the captain ordered the site vaporized and insisted that they discovered nothing. [[spoiler: Eventually it turns out the founders of the Alliance couldn't stand sharing a universe with their creators and destroyed them, and all the records of their existence.]]
* Creator/MarkTwain's short story "Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls" satirically depicts a mini-civilization of {{Talking Animal}}s pompously investigating some human ruins and coming to completely wrong conclusions about everything. They do encounter a functioning train at one point, so it may be they are visiting a ghost town rather than the grave of all humanity; the point is never made clear.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
** In "Resurrection", 12 years after every last human on Earth was wiped out in a biological war, the androids Martin and Alicia plan to recreate humanity using DNA samples which were preserved before the war.
** In "Rite of Passage", the Vorak discovered Earth after humanity was wiped out and recreate the original inhabitants using DNA samples found on skeletons.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' takes place millions of years[[note]]barring many of the TimeTravel episodes[[/note]] after humanity's presumed extinction, apart from Lister who was in [[HumanPopsicle stasis]] for a very long time.
* ''Series/LifeAfterPeople'' and explores what might happen to the world if the human race simply vanished today.

* The world of ''VideoGame/InheritTheEarth: The Quest for the Orb'' is a world where humanity has disappeared, leaving the [[UpliftedAnimal Uplifted Animals]] wondering where their progenitors went.

* In the EasternRPG ''VideoGame/LastArmageddon'', demons have taken over the Earth since humanity became extinct.
* This happens in the "Refuse" ending added in the Extended Cut DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. If you refuse to fire the Crucible, the Reapers overwhelm the allied species of the galaxy and continue their cycle of extinction -- but a later cycle of new species defeats the Reapers for good, remembering the story of the human Commander Shepard thanks to Liara's time capsules.

* {{Creator/Nintendo}} loves this trope.
** PNF-404, the planet {{VideoGame/Pikmin}} is set on, is a future version of Earth where humanity is extinct.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'', it's revealed via various of the [[CollectionSidequest Sunken Scrolls]] that the game's world was EarthAllAlong, set millennia after the humanity and many other land-dwelling creatures went extinct due to rising sea levels, with all signs pointing to the Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilization on top of what humanity left behind. Despite this, they seem to be largely ignorant of what humanity was, with the best guess they can make about fossilized human remains being that the creature's small head made them likely primitive, with little intelligence.
** There are implications that the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam'' games take place after humans have either left the area or have gone extinct. Future ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games make it more vague, though in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' discusses humans as being present in in-universe myths.
** Shiver Star in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' is a post-apocalyptic earth where humanity there is likely extinct with what remaining survivors (going by Ado's presence) being forced to live in space or other planets.

* ''VideoGame/{{Biomutant}}'' takes place on a world where humanity is either extinct or otherwise left for the stars, leaving behind a planet ravaged by pollution and radiation that has given rise to new races of sentient animaloids.
* This is the backstory of ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'', although it takes a lot of digging by the player-character to find out. A virus released from permafrost by global warming infected the world before it could be identified, meaning the human race collectively had a few weeks to live. Some of them chose to spend that time creating a computer system that would serve primarily as a preserve of all human knowledge and culture, but also to try to eventually create an AI that would be advanced enough to appreciate these records. Decades later, the project is nearing completion, but the records are corrupted nearly to oblivion, leaving the AI to try to fit together the pieces. The ''Road to Gehenna'' DLC expands this by showing a community of AIs who spent their time trying to reverse-engineer human culture using the few tidbits of information available to them.
* Occurs in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' through a mass extinction event. While humanity did "survive", they have been taken back to Tool/Bronze Age levels of technology mixed with [[SchizoTech robot dinosaurs and animals]], and our history is known as the folly of the Old Ones. What makes it closer to this trope is that [[spoiler: humanity ''did'' go totally extinct thanks to the Faro Plague that wiped out every life form on Earth. For a period of about 200 years humanity only existed as zygotes in [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic suspension]] that would be grown into a new civilization once life outside the Cradle vaults was habitable again]].
* ''Videogame/CreeperWorld 3'' takes place five billion years in the future after the player wakes up from [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]]. All that is left in the universe is the countless ruins of civilizations that rose up, then fell against the Creeper, an unstoppable BlobMonster.
* ''VideoGame/TokyoJungle'' has this as its entire premise. You play as a member of a variety of species, surviving in Tokyo after all humanity has vanished.

* ''Webcomic/NinePlanetsWithoutIntelligentLife'' follows the adventures of a pair of robots living in a solar system where humanity has died out due to sheer disinterest in procreation.
* The segments with the Wandering Vagabond and crew in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', set in the desert wastes of Earth after it was scoured of life by the Reckoning.
* ''Webcomic/HueAreYou'' within the first few panels, the last human on the planet dies and is confirmed dead. The second episode shows the world 100 years later and starts the plot.

* ''WebComic/OnlyHuman'', humanity has abandoned its organic bodies and has become a MechanicalLifeform, called Automa.

* ''Fanfic/DayOfTheBarneyTrilogy'' has Barney [[spoiler:temporarily]] succeed in creating a society that, had it existed long enough, would have resulted in this. After the Great Act of Love, every adult and teenager hides from Barney and his followers while every human child has become Barney's Special Friend. Barney cares for them and makes sure they're well-fed and happy [[spoiler:until they turn thirteen, at which point he murders the boys and takes the girls away so he can rape them and impregnate them with Loved Ones. Due to the allure of Barney and the inclusiveness of his group of Special Friends, as well as the combination of boys generally not being able to reproduce before reaching the age of thirteen as well as them (hopefully) not performing sexual activity with the girls, the full-blooded human race would have died off if Barney had reigned for long enough, with the Loved Ones as the last surviving remnant of humanity.]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Chrysalis}}'' short story on Reddit, humanity is killed off when invading aliens glass the surface of Earth with thermonuclear weapons, to make room for a resource mining operation. This process takes longer than the aliens anticipated, giving humanity enough time to create an AI successor. The team creating the AI debate how "human" it should be, versus how coldly ruthless it should be. They pair the sentient AI with a subsentient worker AI that manages all of humanity's remaining machines below the surface of the planet, allowing the new sentient AI to rebuild civilization... or build an intergalactic war machine of vengeance.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' uses a variation of this trope as a major twist in Volume 6. The world of Remnant has a MeaningfulName because [[spoiler: it is what is left over after humanity challenged the Gods. Angered by their creations' defiance, the Gods wiped out humanity and abandoned the world, destroying a chunk of the Moon in the process. It is unknown how the current population of the world, Humans and Faunus, came into existence, but they are a mere shadow of the original humanity. BigBad Salem is a LivingRelic, the last of the original humanity and a being cursed with Immortality that led humanity in their rebellion. BigGood Ozpin is likewise a leftover from the original humanity, reincarnating into a new host whenever he dies]].

* There was an episode of ''{{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}}'' in which aliens find Earth devastated and lifeless. They search our records, find that one of the Legion of Doom's schemes had terrible unintended consequences, and used time travel [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong to set things right]] without making their intervention too obvious.
* Similar to the above, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' had Superman catapulted into the future thousands of years by a so-called disintegration ray, where he discovered [[GoodThingYouCanHeal Vandal Savage]] had inadvertently wiped out the rest of humanity in one of his attempts at world domination. As the only sapient being on Earth, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever he went insane]], grew BoredWithInsanity, and then invited Superman home for dinner. "Like you've got anything better to do."
* The MGM cartoon ''WesternAnimation/PeaceOnEarth'', and its Cinemascope remake ''WesternAnimation/GoodWillToMen'', feature a civilization of {{Talking Animal}}s building their own towns after mankind wipes itself out through warfare.

* The short story “History Lessons” by Creator/ArthurCClarke is about alien lifeforms from Venus studying the few remaining artifacts of the human found on a frozen Earth. The one that confuses them the most is a short film portraying people behaving in a variety of strange ways, revealed at the end to be [[spoiler:a Creator/WaltDisney cartoon]].
* The book ''Re Body'', [[spoiler:Robots kill us all, revive a human head, and set out to destroy some uplifted animals we had created.]]

* In Stephen Baxter's ''Literature/{{Evolution}}'', human civilization is destroyed by a supervolcano [[spoiler: its last remnant are what eventually become super-advanced robots, virtually everything else fading into oblivion]] and Nature through normal evolution takes over. New human sub-species appear and the last of them is a small monkey-like creature that lives in symbiosis with trees in the searing-hot red plains of the future supercontinent.