History Main / OverlaidSocieties

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/TrinityBlood'': There's a society that straddles this and the {{Masquerade}}: what seems to be a society of {{Muggles}} on the surface is actually knowingly preserving the Masquerade, and there is a second city just below the ground. [[spoiler:The city above ground is Londinium, Albion; the city below is home to {{Friendly Neighborhood Vampire}}s essentially being used as forced labor in return for protection.]]
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': One episode a society plagued by overpopulation and split into three groups: Alphas, Betas, and Gammas. The Alphas and Betas are workers who alternate with their counterparts in stasis, and the small group of gammas are an administrative elite.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3838 SCP-3838]], a series of eight tribes in Turkmenistan that occupy the same area of land, but over different time periods. They can time travel to visit other time periods, and treat the time periods they inhabit like territory that can be inhabited, migrated to and from, invaded, or conquered.

* ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast'': The tunnels beneath New York City are occupied by the Tunnel People, who have created a subterranean world of their own. They are aided by some allies who live Above and help provide supplies to the Tunnel society, but most New Yorkers have no idea they exist.

** In a more meta sense, due to repeated apocalyptic collapses (from the forced crash landing on the planet itself to the Zeboim nuclear war to the Solaris-Shevat War and the Day of Collapse 600 years before the game's present time) all of life on the planet is recursively overlaid over itself.

** In a more meta sense, due to repeated apocalyptic collapses (from the forced crash landing on the planet itself to the Zeboim nuclear war to the Solaris-Shevat War and the Day of Collapse 600 years before the game's present time, all existence on the planet) all of life on the planet is recursively overlaid over itself.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}} has [[TheEmpire The Sacred Empire]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName of Solaris]] and the land dwellers. ''Extreme'' UrbanSegregation applies: most if not all Solaris citizens view the land dwellers as chattel animals only fit for food, fuel, experiments, and labor, and the very ''existence'' of Solaris is concealed from the land by a set of interdimensional gates, so the only interaction between them are extractive activities, essentially mining the land and the land dwellers.

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}:]]
* In ''Manga/TrinityBlood'', there's a society that straddles this and the {{Masquerade}}: what seems to be a society of {{Muggles}} on the surface is actually knowingly preserving the Masquerade, and there is a second city just below the ground. [[spoiler:The city above ground is Londinium, Albion; the city below is home to {{Friendly Neighborhood Vampire}}s essentially being used as forced labor in return for protection.]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* In the ''Darkborn'' books by Alison Sinclair, a curse has caused the world's population to be split into the Darkborn (who are burned by light) and the Lightborn (who die in the dark). There's no actual taboo against interaction, but the practical difficulties mean they have essentially separate societies and governments.

* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's Dayworld setting, overpopulation has caused the Earth's population to be split into seven groups, each of which lives for one day of the week and spends the other six in stasis.
* ''Delusion World'' by Gordon R. Dickson. The human worlds are in danger of being overrun by telepathic aliens, but there's one human colony world that the aliens won't touch. When the Earth agent arrives, he finds two societies that exist in the same city but can't see each other, although both can see him. It turns out to be an advanced form of selective obliviousness that the philosophically opposed people have learned to use to avoid having to deal with each other. [[spoiler: At the end, we learn it is this that keeps the telepathic aliens away--the humans' power of disbelief is so strong, it causes the aliens actual pain and can outright kill them!]]
* ''Twilight Robbery'' by Frances Hardinge has the city of Toll, split into the day city and the night city, with citizens allocated to each one depending on how auspicious their name is.
* ''Wave Without a Shore'' by Creator/CJCherryh is set in a city where the upper class has got so good at ignoring the underclass that they literally don't see them anymore.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In the television series ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast'', the tunnels beneath New York City are occupied by The Tunnel People, who have created a subterranean world of their own. They are aided by some allies who live Above and help provide supplies to the Tunnel society, but most New Yorkers have no idea they exist.
* An episode of ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' had a society plagued by overpopulation and split into three groups: Alphas, Betas, and Gammas. The Alphas and Betas were workers who alternated with their counterparts in stasis, and the small group of gammas were an administrative elite.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* The city of Midgar in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has the 8 slum districts which used to be named towns and the plate which is elevated above them and blocks most of the sunlight from the slums (the most important buildings and people live on the plate).

[[AC:Web Original]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

[[AC:Web Original]]
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3838 SCP-3838]], a series of eight tribes in Turkmenistan that live in the same area of land, but over different time periods. They can time travel to visit other time periods, and treat the time periods they inhabit like territory that can be inhabited, migrated to and from, invaded, or conquered.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3838 SCP-3838], a series of eight tribes in Turkmenistan that live in the same area of land, but over different time periods. They can time travel to visit other time periods, and treat the time periods they inhabit like territory that can be inhabited, migrated to and from, invaded, or conquered.

Compare TheMasquerade, which often operates similarly except that one society is unaware of the other's existence. Compare also WainscotSociety and MouseWorld. Compare LayeredMetropolis as well, which is a literal take on a layered civilization with multiple stacks of floors and/or districts. May involve UrbanSegregation if the wealth, class, ethnic, or society gap between civilians is large.

!!Examples

* In ''Manga/TrinityBlood'', there's a society that straddles this and TheMasquerade: it turns out that what seems to be a society of {{muggle}}s on the surface is actually knowingly preserving TheMasquerade, and there is a second city just below the ground. [[spoiler: The city above ground is Londinium, Albion; the city below is home to {{Friendly Neighborhood Vampire}}s essentially being used as forced labor in return for protection.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': On the planet Naboo, the Gungans and the Naboo live in separate but linked societies. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn tried to enlist the help of the Gungans as the Trade Federation's takeover of the Naboo would affect the Gungans eventually. [[spoiler: Jar-Jar and Queen Amidala get their help for the final battle]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Beneath the city of New New York is a society of {{Mutant}}s who have built their own city out of the flushed waste from the surface. The mutants are forbidden from coming to the surface on the grounds of being "[[FantasticRacism Inferior genetic scum]]".

* In UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands, during UsefulNotes/{{Pillarization}}, each community - Catholic, Liberal Protestants, Conservative Protestants, Liberals, and Socialists - had its own institutions, from the cradle to the grave: political parties, schools, trade unions, and even sport teams were separated.

Compare TheMasquerade, which often operates similarly except that one society is unaware of the other's existence. Compare also WainscotSociety and MouseWorld. Compare LayeredMetropolis as well, which is a literal take on a layered civilization with multiple stacks of floors and/or districts. May involve UrbanSegregation if the wealth, class, ethnic or society gap between civilians is large.

[[AC: {{anime}} and {{manga}}:]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' - On the planet Naboo, the Gungans and the Naboo live in separate but linked societies. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn tried to enlist the help of the Gungans as the Trade Federation's takeover of the Naboo would affect the Gungans eventually. [[spoiler: Jar-Jar and Queen Amidala get their help for the final battle]]

* ''Wave Without a Shore'' by Creator/CJCherryh is set in a city where the upper class have got so good at ignoring the under class that they literally don't see them any more.

* An episode of ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' had a society plagued by overpopulation and split into three groups: Alphas, Betas and Gammas. The Alphas and Betas were workers who alternated with their counterparts in stasis, and the small group of gammas were an administrative elite.

[[AC:VideoGame]]
* The city of Midgar in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', it has the 8 slum districts which used to be named towns and the plate which is elevated above them and blocks most of the sunlight from the slums (the most important buildings and people live on the plate).
* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': The {{Hub Level}}s Flipside and Flopside are identical mirror copies of each other, right down to having MirrorCharacter [=NPCs=], only being separated by dimensions and having reverse layouts. With the exception of Merlon, Nolrem and a select few of [=NPCs=] (like the one that builds a shortcut pipe between the cities), most of them are not aware of each other's existence.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' has the deuteragonist Mira Nova hail from a world called Tangea. She's a princess among her people, who can move through solid objects with ease, among other powers. Also living on Tangea are the Grounders, who have psychokinetic powers. The two races are segregated, and are antagonistic to each other. Moreover, being in close proximity means the powers of both are negated.

* Caste societies can be like this. Also, moieties and various other forms of kinship which require certain members of society to treat other members of society as if they don't exist.
* In UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands, during UsefulNotes/{{Pillarization}}, each community - Catholic, Liberal Protestants, Conservative Protestants, Liberals and Socialists - had its own institutions, from the cradle to the grave: political parties, schools, trade unions and even sport teams were separated.
* The South African ''[[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]]'' system aimed to do this, with each racial communities being given its own homelands. Of course, it ended in naked White supremacy.

* An episode of the revived ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' had a society plagued by overpopulation and split into three groups: Alphas, Betas and Gammas. The Alphas and Betas were workers who alternated with their counterparts in stasis, and the small group of gammas were an administrative elite.

* An episode of the revived ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' had a society plagued by overpopulation and split into three groups: Alphas, Betas and Gammas. The Alphas and Betas were workers who alternated with their counterparts in stasis, and the small group of gammas were an administrative elite.

* The South African ''[[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]]'' system aimed to do this, with each racial communities being given its own homelands. Of course, it ended in naked White supremacy.

Wick count: 7
Indexes: {{Settings}}, SpeculativeFictionTropes

* ''Literature/TheCityAndTheCity'' by Creator/ChinaMieville is about two cities that exist in the same place, whose inhabitants have trained themselves to "unsee" whichever city they're not currently in. The division is further enforced by a secret police called Breach, which disappears anyone who crosses into either city by unsanctioned means, a crime considered worse than murder.

* ''Literature/TheCityAndTheCity'' by Creator/ChinaMieville is about two cities that exist in the same place, whose inhabitants have trained themselves to "unsee" whichever city they're not currently in.