History Main / LostColony

* Earl in ''{{Mai-Otome}}'', while otherwise fitting this trope, at least remembers that the people and the LostTechnology came from Earth.

* In ''Virgin Planet'' by PoulAnderson, a shipload of women goes off course and, by necessity, founds a parthenogenetic society. Generations later, a male scout lands and is denounced as a monster, partly because he threatens the power of those who control the reproductive technology.

* In ''Eater-Of-Bone'', set in the ''Literature/GreatShip'' universe, a colony ship was catastrophically damaged and flung off of its trajectory, sending it towards one of the lone stars at the periphery of the Milky Way. The [[HealingFactor nigh-immortal]] TransHuman colonists are forced to settle on a world which is extremely metal-poor (particularly in salts and iron), making [[LostTechnology any kind of machinery precious beyond belief]] and every drop of blood lost a tragedy. One character laments that there's metal in the world, but so far below the ground that it is unreachable to the damaged machinery of the starship. The colonists cooperated with each other for a short time, but the strains of resource shortages fractured them into dozens of small groups, who often fight each other for resources. [[ImAHumanitarian "Eater-of-bone" isn't meaningless]], either, [[HumanResources because even bone and marrow hold the metals required for metabolism]].

* HarryHarrison's novel ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} 2'' is a GivingRadioToTheRomans story set on a Lost Colony.

* All the Argon sectors in the [[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]] prior to ''X3: Terran Conflict'' are Earth's lost colonies. Earth and the Solar System are reunited to the X-Universe in ''Terran Conflict''.

Has nothing to do with [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 the eponymous level]]

* On a smaller scale is the Lost Colony in Roanoke, NC. A small English colony was founded on Roanoke island in 1584, but vanished by 1589 under mysterious circumstances. Since the 1930s, its been celebrated in an outdoor drama near the original colony site, and figures heavily in various conspiracy themed RolePlayingGames.

* In 1843, German settlers in Venezuela founded [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Tovar Tovar]]. A few years later the jungle reclaimed the only way to them and everyone assumed they were all dead. Well, until they where rediscovered 1953. They still spoke their German dialect and built their houses like 19th century Germans.

* ''{{Trigun}}''.

* The adventurer-archeologist Aurel Stein found a Chinese outpost dating to the end of the Han dynasty that had been cut off by the collapse of the dynasty (as detailed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Ancient Bureaucratic red-tape indicated that the outpost continued to function after it had been cut off, still keeping up Imperial forms as if the dynasty still held the throne.

** According to the [[ExpandedUniverse Psi Corps Trilogy]], the humans were [[GenreSavvy pretty skeptical]] of the claim to begin with, but decided [[SureWhyNot not to press the issue]] while the Centauri were willing to do business with the humans and advance their technology base.

* FracisCarsac's ''Terre en fuite'' (''Fleeing Earth'') reveals that, at some point in the future, human civilization will be destroyed by a new Ice Age. After the Ice Age, the Second Civilization (slightly more evolved) will rebuild and make great strides in science and technology. Then they will be conquered by a race called Drums, only to be defeated by a biological weapon released by LaResistance. Their "space magnet" technology allows spaceships to reach 80% of the speed of light in short order, and humanity makes use of it to explore and settle other planets and planetoids in the Solar System. Then hyperdrive is discovered that is an extension of the space magnet technology. Colony ships are sent out, but only one manages to come back, revealing that the technology is horribly flawed. When a ship in hyperspace reaches the midpoint between two stars, it encounters a "gravity barrier" that throws it wildly off-course. The ship that returned found itself outside the galaxy after the first jump and only managed to return on the third try. Some time later, a scientist figures out that the Sun will emit an enormous solar flare that will fry anything in the inner system. The Second Civilization builds enormous space magnets on Earth and Venus in order to move the planets behind Jupiter to ride out the flare and then put them back. However, the Sun will no longer be able to support life after the flare, so the plan is amended to move the planets to another system. After reaching Alpha Centauri (it many years on sublight), they find it already inhabited by descendants of one of the lost ships. They aren't blaming Earth humans for abandoning them but don't want them as neighbors. Many years later, the planets arrive to another system and find yet another LostColony, who are actively fighting them. After defeating them, the planets are put in proper orbits in the Goldilocks Zone.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has a throw-away reference to a human colony being found in Alpha Centauri; the colonists set off before the discovery of the settings [=FTL=] travel and had no ideal of aliens populating the galaxy. [[Videogame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri Presumably they won the game however]].

* The ARK in ''[[SonicAdventureSeries Sonic Adventure 2]]''. A level set on the ARK is even called Lost Colony.

** Actually, [[{{Retcon}} The UED knew about the colonies]] and was just monitoring them from afar, content to let events take their course. Then they found out about the Zerg and decided to step in.

* Some suspect that [[GearsOfWar Seras]] is a Lost Colony and that the humans are alien invaders.

* In LarryNiven's ''[[Literature/KnownSpace Protector]]'', Earth is actually a LostColony of a species called the Pak, who start life as a larval form (unintelligent hominids) and, in their thirties, are irresistibly drawn to eat a certain tuber which is host to a virus that transforms them into ageless hyper-intelligent killing machines (Protectors of their descendants). The colony failed because the tuber can't incubate the virus in soil deficient in thallium oxide (A later protector finds that the virus will grow in a sweet potato), and the humans developed intelligence on their own. One Pak comes looking for the lost colony, kidnaps a human and turns him into a Protector, who is even smarter than the original variety ([[TranshumanTreachery and acts very different]]). Eventually we learn that the {{Ringworld}} was built by Pak.

** The colony wasn't lost so much as it wandered off ;they moved in with the locals on the next island over.`

* In LarryNiven's ''Protector'', Earth is actually a LostColony of a species called the Pak, who start life as a larval form (unintelligent hominids) and, in their thirties, are irresistibly drawn to eat a certain tuber which is host to a virus that transforms them into ageless hyper-intelligent killing machines (Protectors of their descendants). The colony failed because the tuber can't incubate the virus in soil deficient in thallium oxide (A later protector finds that the virus will grow in a sweet potato), and the humans developed intelligence on their own. One Pak comes looking for the lost colony, kidnaps a human and turns him into a Protector, who is even smarter than the original variety ([[TranshumanTreachery and acts very different]]). Eventually we learn that the {{Ringworld}} was built by Pak.

* HarryHarrison's novel ''Deathworld 2'' is a GivingRadioToTheRomans story set on a Lost Colony.

* In the HumongousMecha roleplaying game ''Mekton'', the default campaign setting is a planet called Algol, which turns out to be a Lost Colony of the interstellar SpaceOpera society presented in the [[{{Sourcebook}} worldbook]] ''Mekton Empire''.