History Main / RacialRemnant

These descendents are a Racial Remnant. They are part of and yet separate from the main culture of the land they inhabit. They have known no other home, yet they carry the culture of a "homeland" which no longer exists. They will often still view themselves as displaced refugees, even generations after their ancestors had to flee.

Note that this is not about the remains of a once proud race who have been degraded. In order for a race to qualify for this trope, the race must be descended from a group that survived the annihilation of the members of their original culture, and those survivors must have passed down significant aspects of their original culture to their descendents.

* In ''{{Superman}}'', Brainiac shrunk and bottled the city of Kandor prior to Krypton's destruction, and the city was later rescued by Superman. In some continuities, they escape the bottle and find a different planet to inhabit, as Earth doesn't seem keen on sharing their planet with tens of thousands of people with the same powers as Superman.

* ''TheLordOfTheRings''

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Talislanta}}'' game, the Xambrian wizard-hunters are a Racial Remnant of a culture that was wiped out by evil sorcerers. The few survivors' descendents spend their entire lived tracking down and executing the ever-reincarnating culprits, over and over again.
* The Deep Imaskari of the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' were this in 3.5E to 4E. They are the descendants of Imaskari that fled the great slave rebellion for an outpost deep underground; Deep Imaskar endured for millenia in secrecy. [[SubvertedTrope Then a series of events led to Imaskar rising again]]. There was also another group of Imaskar-descendants that endured, but less is known of just what they did the past few millenia (the Deep Imaskari were introduced as this trope; the other group was introduced as part of the events that led to Imaskar's partial rebirth).

** There are also the Exodite Eldar, who lived on colonies far enough from the centre of their civilisation not to be affected by the Fall, and who tend to have a more rural and survivalist theme (essentially wood elves to the Craftworld Eldar's high elves; they've tended to get less mention as 40K has moved away from simply being Warhammer [[RecycledInSpace In Space!]]). So there are three different racial remnants who all disagree on exactly which bits of their former culture should be remembered.

*** The chief of the Kothringi tribe in Stillrise Village made a deal with Clavicus Vile, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[DealWithTheDevil Bargains]] and [[JerkassGenie Wishes]], in order to survive the Flu. Vile kept his end of the bargain, but did so by transforming the populace into immortal, undead skeletons. The villagers [[TheMasquerade maintained living appearances through illusion magic]] and lived in peace for over 20 years, but a group of necromancers discovered their secret and attempted to enslave them. The villagers defeated the necromancers, but would eventually succumb to their own infighting.

[[folder:Fanworks
* This could apply to main cast as a whole ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'', as they are what remains of the original population of Gensokyo, as much of their population was killed when Gensokyo was destroyed and they had to flee Gensokyo to survive. The same would apply to anyone descendant from them (i.e, Ran's pups and their pups).

* The Parsees of India are descendants of Zoroastrians who fled there when Persia went Islamic.

* One theory posits the Basque language is the last extant pre-Indo-European language in western Europe

** It is rumored that [[OurElvesAreDifferent Ayleids (Wild Elves)]], whose race once ruled all of Cyrodiil, still live in the untamed wilds across Tamriel, but the odd unconfirmed sighting is the only evidence for it. By the 4th Era, centuries have gone by without a reliable sighting.
*** A lot of Ayleid refugees fled Cyrodiil, but few found safe havens. One group went into High Rock and joined the Direnni Altmer there, where they formed the "last kingdom of the Ayleids" under the leadership of Laloriaran Dynar; it managed to keep going for a while and even beat the Alessians at the battle of Glenumbra Moors, but eventually the local Bretons displaced them. Other Ayleid clans went into Valenwood and [[GoingNative went native]].

** The modern Redguards of Hammerfell are the survivors of the calamity that destroyed Yokuda. Even into the 4th Era, they are said to be few in number relative to the other races of Tamriel.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', it is rumored that [[OurElvesAreDifferent Ayleids (Wild Elves)]], whose race once ruled all of Cyrodiil, still live in the untamed wilds across Tamriel, but the odd unconfirmed sighting is the only evidence for it. By the Fourth Era, centuries have gone by without a reliable sighting.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Targaryen family are refugees from the Doom of Valyrian and are the last remnant of the Valyrian dragonlords, the ruling class of the Valyrian Freehold. They're easily identifiable by their distinct white hair and practice [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous marriages]] to preserve their bloodline.

* In '''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Targaryen family are refugees from the Doom of Valyrian and are the last remnant of the Valyrian dragonlords, the ruling class of the Valyrian Freehold. They're easily identifiable by their distinct white hair and practice [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous marriages]] to preserve their bloodline.
* The Tedrel Mercenaries from the '''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series are the survivors of nation of people. They became mercenaries and tried to get enough money to create a new homeland.

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Targaryen family are refugees from the Doom of Valyrian and are the last remnant of the Valyrian dragonlords, the ruling class of the Valyrian Freehold. They're easily identifiable by their distinct white hair and practice [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous marriages]] to preserve their bloodline.
* The Tedrel Mercenaries from the ''HeraldsOfValdemar'' series are the survivors of nation of people. They became mercenaries and tried to get enough money to create a new homeland.

* In the ''{{Talislanta}}'' game, the Xambrian wizard-hunters are a Racial Remnant of a culture that was wiped out by evil sorcerers. The few survivors' descendents spend their entire lived tracking down and executing the ever-reincarnating culprits, over and over again.

* The Craftworld [[OurElvesAreBetter Eldar]] of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the survivors of the original Eldar civilization. They fled on planetoid-sized {{Generation Ship}}s called Craftworlds before The Fall, a great calamity that gave birth to an EldritchAbomination who subsequently killed all but three of their gods, devoured the souls of the majority of the Eldar race, and created a tear in reality that consumed most of their interstellar empire. Now they drift through space in the shadow of subsequent alien empires, a borderline DyingRace trying to keep their people and culture from being extinguished forever... [[ManipulativeBastard at any cost to the other races of the galaxy]].

* In ''Tabletop/{{Warhammer}}'', the Sky-Titans were once a glorious civilisation who lorded over a floating kingdom over the Mountains of Mourn to the east of the Old World. A war with the invading Ogres left the Sky-titans decimated and overthrown, fleeing into the world wherever they could find refuge. Now their descendants, the Giants, are formed into tribes of primitive, inbred degenerates who roam the world fighting for anyone who can provide them with food and booze, usually the Beastmen, Greenskins or the Ogres who destroyed their people.

** Many Dwarves are like this; few if any speak Khazad as their native language, most speaking the language of the Men near whom they live, and taking their use-names from those cultures. J.R.R.T. said that they were somewhat analogous to the Jews of our world.

* Humans in ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' after [[EarthShatteringKaboom Earth is destroyed by the Drej]] live either in a makeshift space colony build of the hulls of old ships, or in ones or twos or, if they're lucky, tiny minority communities among other species.

* [[OrthodoxChristianity Copts]] consider themselves to be the descendants of the [[AncientEgypt Ancient Egyptians]]. They are a minority in the mostly Muslim Egypt, but the reality is kind of complicated:

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', [[MessianicArchetype Aang]], an Air Nomad, was the LastOfHisKind. In the SequelSeries, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', his son Tenzin is shown to have inherited his Airbending, and lives with his wife and three Airbending children in Republic City. Following the end of season 2, [[spoiler:the Harmonic Convergence granted many non-benders airbending, resulting in the birth of a new Air Nation]].