History Main / PlaceBeforeTime

** ''ComicBook/SwampThing'': Creaor/AlanMoore's run suggests that before God said "Let there be light", nothing existed in the universe except Darkness, which still surrounds and permeates our world. The Darkness is sentient and doesn't regard us as much more than a source of indigestion, and in ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' Nekron is sent to annihilate all life to help settle its stomach.

* ''Creator/DCComics'' occasionally hints at the idea of a universe before the main one.
** Alan Moore's ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' suggests that before God said "Let there be light", nothing existed in the universe except Darkness, which still surrounds and permeates our world. The Darkness is sentient and doesn't regard us as much more than a source of indigestion, and in ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' Nekron is sent to annihilate all life to help settle its stomach.
** ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Relic, the BigBad from the ComicBook/LightsOut event, came from the universe before the main one. The universe ended up destroying itself by overusing the emotional spectrum, and Relic survived by approaching the Source Wall. His motivation is to prevent it happening again, [[WellIntentionedExtremist by taking out the various lantern corps]].

** In Jeff Smith's ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', the Rock of Eternity can only be reached by achieving superluminal speeds and going back to slightly before the dawn of time; the glowing pinprick on top of it is in fact the moment/initial expansion point for the whole universe. By going through it, you can access the universe before ours, but it's not a good idea to do so.

** Before the Big Bang, there existed a plane of existence called the Void, sparsely populated by primordial Elder Gods. In ''Thor: God of Thunder'', Gorr the God Butcher travels back in time and cuts out the heart of an infant Elder God to use as part of his Godbomb. Another Elder God and self-proclaimed ruler of the Void was Knull, a god of darkness who was enraged when the Big Bang -- courtesy of the Celestials -- filled the Void with Light, and created the symbiotes to extinguish it.

[[folder:Mythology And Religion]]

* In ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'', this is what made the [[{{Precursors}} Nomai]] clan that moved to your home star system so obsessed with what they called the Eye of the Universe, a spatial anomaly that they determined was emanating a signal older than the rest of the universe. They did everything in their power to discern the Eye's location, and in their settlements you can find shrines to the Eye where the Nomai pondered its mystery and purpose, and whether or not the Eye was sentient and trying to communicate with them. [[spoiler:Whether or not the Eye is intelligent is unclear, but if someone enters it, they can use the Eye to [[ResetTheWorld reset the universe]] after it [[TheNaturalEndOfTime reaches the end of its natural lifespan]], which is exactly what you get to do in the GoldenEnding.]]

** The opening scene of season 2 is called ''Before the Beginning'' and features [[spoiler:angel]] Crowley [[spoiler:creating stars]]. Aziraphale helps him out a bit.

The beginning of the universe is usually seen as the beginning of everything. In SpeculativeFiction, that's not always the case. Sometimes the universe/multiverse we know is the most recently reality, and that another universe/multiverse existed before it did. This previous reality was usually destroyed, but some, usually if they're AnotherDimension, still exist. Sometimes it's implied [[EternalRecurrence that when the current universe ends, a new one will come about]].

Similar to PlaceBeyondTime in that it exists before our current universe, but time and/or life in some form still existed. While it might involve a PrimordialChaos, one does not strictly imply the other, as a Place Before Time can be just as orderly as the current universe. The inhabitants can range from [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] to having unique abilities due to following different laws of physics to being no different from the current life in the universe.

The beginning of the universe is usually seen the beginning of everything. In SpeculativeFiction, that's not always the case. Sometimes the universe/multiverse we know is the most recently reality, and that another universe/multiverse existed before it did. This previous reality was usually destroyed, but some, usually if they're AnotherDimension, still exist. Sometimes it's implied [[EternalRecurrence that when the current universe ends, a new one will come about]].

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[[folder: Mythology And Religion ]]

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* There is an episode, of ''8 Bit Theater'', in which Sarda sends White Mage back before time. She finds herself arriving in what appears to be an infinite and grey void.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* There is an episode, of 8BitTheater, in which Sarda sends White Mage to a place before time. She finds herself arriving in what appears to be an infinite and grey void.

* There is an episode of ''Webcomic/{{8BitTheater}} where Sarda sends White Mage to a place before time. She finds herself arriving in what appears to be an infinite and grey void.

* There is an episode of ''Webcomic/{{8-BitTheater}} where Sarda sends White Mage to a place back before time. She finds herself arriving in what appears to be an infinite and grey void.