History Main / LostSuperweapon

** In fact, this was [[DubNameChange Dr. Egg...er, Robotnik's]] shtick from about VideoGame/SonicAdventure to Sonic Unleashed (chronologically, about 1998-2008). Virtually every storyline had him digging up one deranged EldritchAbomination--or OneManArmy, in [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Shadow's]] [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog case]]--or another. Of course, [[TheStarscream they all had their own agendas]], usually revenge on whoever imprisoned them in the first place.

* Unlike most other superweapons in ''Franchise/StarWars'', the Star Forge in ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' was built by the Rakata and lost when their "Infinite Empire" was overthrown, until it was rediscovered by Revan and Malak.

Lost Superweapons are generally a type of PlotCoupon and found in fantasy novels and video games, and almost as often in Science Fiction and Space Opera, if the setting involves {{Precursors}}. If the Lost Superweapon has become a notable part of the landscape, then it is a WeaponizedLandmark. If it was lost with the intent of it never being found again but is found anyway, it's a DangerousDeviceDisposalDebacle.

Lost Superweapons are generally a type of PlotCoupon and found in fantasy novels and video games. If the Lost Superweapon has become a notable part of the landscape, then it is a WeaponizedLandmark. If it was lost with the intent of it never being found again but is found anyway, it's a DangerousDeviceDisposalDebacle.

* Unlike most other superweapons in ''Franchise/{{StarWars}}'', the Star Forge in ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is this.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the three Ancient Weapons Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon. Each one is said to be so powerful they make the Buster Call [[note]] An attack in which the Marines summon ten Battleships to completely annihilate an entire island[[/note]] look mundane by comparison. Only one of each weapon currently exists in the world, but all three of them are hidden. The only way to find them is to decipher the texts of the Poneglyphs, large indestructible stone tablets left behind by an ancient kingdom that existed 800 years ago. However, deciphering the Poneyglyphs was declared illegal by the World Government partly because of the threat posed by the weapons. [[spoiler: So far, we know Pluton is a battleship that is hidden somewhere in Wano Country whose location was revealed by the Poneglyph in Alabasta and Poseidon is the Mermaid Princess of Fishman Island who has the power to control Sea Kings whose location was revealed by the Poneyglyph in Skypiea.]] [[note]][[spoiler: It's also revealed that Pluton was originally built by the shipwrights of Water 7 several centuries ago. The shipwrights kept the original Blueprints and secretly passed them down through the generations. The reason they did this was the fear that if someone were to revive the original Pluton or any of the other Ancient Weapons, [[TakesOneToKillOne the only means the world would have of defending itself was to build a second weapon to counter the first one]]. Although the ability to recreate Pluton was lost forever when Franky purposefully destroyed the Blueprints in the Enies Lobby Arc to prevent it from falling into the hands of the World Government.]][[/note]]

* Unlike most other superweapons in the Star Wars universe, the Star Forge in [[Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic]] is this.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the three Ancient Weapons Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon. Each one is said to be so powerful they make the Buster Call [[note]] An attack in which the Marines summon ten Battleships to completely annihilate an entire island[[/note]] look mundane by comparison. Only one of each weapon currently exists in the world, but all three of them are hidden. The only way to find them is to decipher the texts of the Poneglyphs, large indestructible stone tablets left behind by an ancient kingdom that existed 800 years ago. However, deciphering the Poneyglyphs was declared illegal by the World Government partly because of the threat posed by the weapons. [[spoiler: So far, we know Pluton is a battleship that is hidden somewhere in Wano Country whose location was revealed by the Poneglyph in Alabasta and Poseidon is the Mermaid Princess of Fishman Island who has the power to control Sea Kings whose location was revealed by the Poneyglyph in Skypiea. The Shipwrights of Water 7 have a physical copy of blueprints needed to create a Pluton of their own; [[TakesOneToKillOne since the only thing that can destroy Pluton is another Pluton.]] And Franky had memorized the blueprints before destroying them in order to prevent the Marines and World Government from using it to build their own Pluton.]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the three Ancient Weapons Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon. Each one is said to be so powerful they make the Buster Call [[note]] An attack in which the Marines summon ten Battleships to completely annihilate an entire island[[/note]] look mundane by comparison. Only one of each weapon currently exists in the world, but all three of them are hidden. The only way to find them is to decipher the texts of the Poneglyphs, large indestructible stone tablets left behind by an ancient kingdom that existed 800 years ago. However, deciphering the Poneyglyphs was declared illegal by the World Government partly because of the threat posed by the weapons. [[spoiler: So far, we know Pluton is a battleship that is hidden somewhere in Wano Country whose location was revealed by the Poneglyph in Alabasta and Poseidon is the Mermaid Princess of Fishman Island who has the power to control Sea Kings whose location was revealed by the Poneyglyph in Skypiea.]]

* The Old Sentinel from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' is a legendary ancient artifact/doomsday weapon that's based on Ekkunar for at least a thousand years, probably zillions according to Mellka. Originally thought to be just the stuff of stories, Rendain was able to find its location and decided to acquire it. The objective of '''The Sentinel''' mission is thus for the Battleborn to destroy the titular sentinel per the Eldrid Observatory's instructions as it was deemed better that it be dead than fall into Rendain's hands much to Mellka's dismay as she sees the Sentinel as a sort of childhood hero from the stories she heard about it.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has, as part of its MythArc, the existence of three super weapons, Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon that are so powerful they make the Marine's Buster Call (which is an order to summon ten massive battleships to an island to incinerate it) look mundane. They are so rare, powerful, and difficult to obtain that one villain tries to conquer an entire country ''just to facilitate finding one.'' So far we know Pluton is a battleship of some kind and Poseidon is [[spoiler: the Mermaid Princess' ability to command the Sea Kings]].

* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':

** Not satisfied with one Krang, the Tar-Aiym also built a weapons platform the size of an entire planet that contains hundreds of Krangs. Flinx discovers it in ''Reunion'' and spends the rest of the series searching for it. [[spoiler:His attempt to use it against the UltimateEvil ends up being a [[TheWorfBarrage Worf Barrage]]]].

* Deconstructed and parodied in the Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin novel ''Always Coming Home''. Set far into the future where humanity only retains a few technologies of their previous height, the [[ProudWarriorRace Dayao]] discover schematics for bombers and other old world weapons and set about reconstructing them to gain dominance over their neighbors. However, fuel is [[PostPeakOil long gone]], they don't have enough metal to make more than a few, and synthesizing corn into biofuel creates a food shortage that [[EpicFail collapses their civilization]]. Sometimes, there's a reason things are lost, and it's because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome there simply isn't infrastructure to make them anymore]].

** The Sword of Ascanlon in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' fares better [[spoiler: probably because it was made by alien technology]] and was used to cut out and contain the heart of an EldritchAbomination a thousand years before the series. Unfortunately, it (and the heart of said abomination) didn't stay lost.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Journey}}'', the creatures you encounter in the fifth and seventh levels are [[spoiler:the machines responsible for starting a civil war against your ancestors. Only some units remained active after the war]].

* ''Fanfic/AceLives'': Luffy's ''straw hat'' which, in one one-shot, is the Ancient Weapon '''Uranus'''. It lands on the head of an unfortunate marine who isn't on good terms with Luffy, promptly takes over his mind and body and lays waste to the battlefield (at one point fighting Mihawk, Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji, Garp, and Sengoku ''at the same time''), distracting the Marines and allowing Luffy to save Ace almost entirely unopposed.

** In usual ''[=40k=]'' fashion, the trope is taken UpToEleven with technology from the aptly named "Dark Age of Technology", which was really a GoldenAge for humanity. One novel describes the Adeptus Mechanicus (a machine-worshipping cult and one of the forces keeping the Imperium running) and their ancient space ships, with one of them hooking up to the ship's systems, which accidentially reactivates the equally ancient weapons on board. In short, in a setting where a small fleet of space ships can destroy entire planets, they still managed to bring this trope, since the weapon activated turned out to be a kind of temporal rift space torpedo, which then destroyed a massive Eldar ship (about the size of the moon) in a ''single shot''.

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' has the Dawnshards. We don't know exactly what they are or where they disappeared to, but some scattered references hint that they're what humanity used to destroy our first planet and Honor's visions imply that possessing them would give humanity a fighting chance against the PhysicalGod Odium. In the novella ''Literature/{{Dawnshard}}'', it's revealed that they are four ancient commands that were used by Adonalsium to make the universe, [[spoiler:and were later used by the Shardvessels as part of a weapon to [[KillTheGod shatter them]] into sixteen pieces, then were used to destroy humanity's original homeworld in the Rosharan system Ashyn]]. As of the end of that novel, [[spoiler:one of them has been discovered and hidden within Rysn, who cannot use its power.]]

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' has the Dawnshards. We don't know exactly what they are or where they disappeared to, but some scattered references hint that they're what humanity used to destroy our first planet and Honor's visions imply that possessing them would give humanity a fighting chance against the PhysicalGod Odium. In the novella ''Literature/{{Dawnshard}}'', it's revealed that they are four ancient commands that were used by Adonalsium to make the universe, [[spoiler:and were later used by the Shardvessels to [[KillTheGod shatter them]] into sixteen pieces]]. As of the end of that novel, [[spoiler:one of them has been discovered and hidden within Rysn, who cannot use its power.]]

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' has the Dawnshards. We don't know exactly what they are or where they disappeared to, but some scattered references hint that they're what humanity used to destroy our first planet and Honor's visions imply that possessing them would give humanity a fighting chance against the PhysicalGod Odium.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'' involves stopping [[{{Ghostapo}} the Nazis]] from obtaining the God Machine, a mysterious device invented by the people of {{Atlantis}} that can supposedly turn humans into gods using {{Orichalcum}}, but which was abandoned and forgotten for reasons unknown. [[spoiler:The reason turns out to be that ''[[DeconstructedTrope it doesn't work]]''; at best you become a hideously deformed mutant, at worst you transform into a mighty EnergyBeing and then [[RealityEnsues immediately evaporate into thin air because you have no physical structure anymore]].]] Indy manages to piece this together when he discovers [[spoiler:a hall filled to the brim with the mutated skeletons of failed test subjects]], and subsequently defeats the bad guys by tricking them into testing the device out on themselves.

* Surprisingly (And hilariously) subverted in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' when Enoch searched for an ancient Mayan sword. Grandpa Max had been so distracted by getting it first and keeping it from the wrong hands, it almost killed his grandchildren. With the final opportunity, he gave up the sword in exchange for saving Ben and Gwen's lives. Of course that means Enoch now has the sword... [[RealityEnsues which turns to dust soon after he picks it up]].

* {{Orichalcum}} is an ancient Atlantean superfuel/explosive in VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis. Eventually Indy discovers what the Atlanteans powered with the orichalcum: [[spoiler: a god making machine]].