History Main / TheMorlocks

This concept ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' from the trope namer Morlocks in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', hideous troll-like beings that haunt the night while the innocent Eloi culture sleeps. This situation was created as a blunt commentary on class division and the dehumanizing nature of industrial society. Morlocks continue to be applied towards similar ends in modern science fiction and fantasy. Morlocks may represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class, a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian phrenology and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels that has left a huge impact in genre fiction. As literal embodiments of the dehumanized working class, they often [[PersecutionFlip prey on their former oppressors]].

* ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' by Creator/GeorgeOrwell gives us the Proles, the underclass of apolitical nobodies who dwell in squalor and ignorance beneath the Party who run Oceania.
-->''If there is hope, it lies in the proles.''

* ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen '': An issue of ''Allan and the Sundered Veil'' deals with Morlocks [[spoiler: where they are revealed to be aliens]].

The Morlocks as a trope are almost AlwaysChaoticEvil. They are often the byproduct of a SufficientlyAdvanced Society.

This concept ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' from the trope namer Morlocks in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', hideous troll-like beings that haunt the night while the innocent Eloi culture sleeps. This situation was created as a blunt commentary on class division and the dehumanizing nature of industrial society. Morlocks continue to be applied towards similar ends in modern science fiction and fantasy. Morlocks may represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class, a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian phrenology and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels that has left a huge impact in genre fiction. As literal embodiments of the dehumanized working class, they often prey on their former oppressors.

This concept ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' from the trope namer Morlocks in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', hideous troll-like beings that haunt the night while the innocent Eloi culture sleeps. This situation was created as a blunt commentary on class division and the dehumanizing nature of industrial society. Morlocks continue to be applied towards similar ends in modern science fiction and fantasy. Morlocks may represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class, a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian physiognomy and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels that has left a huge impact in genre fiction. As literal embodiments of the dehumanized working class, they often prey on their former oppressors.

Morlocks are a monster archetype like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]]. In contemporary versions, Morlocks (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. The low-light environments where these creatures live often lead them to develop InnateNightVision (perhaps enabled by {{glowing|EyesOfDoom}} and/or bulging eyes), or to lose their eyesight (sometimes [[EyelessFace along with their eyes!]]) in favour of BizarreAlienSenses like echolocation. They're also often depicted as albinistic (since less sun means less need for melanin), which tends to overlap with AlbinosAreFreaks.

Morlocks are a monster archetype like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]]. In contemporary versions, Morlocks (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. The low-light environments where these creatures live often lead them to develop InnateNightVision (perhaps enabled by {{glowing|EyesOfDoom}} and/or bulging eyes), or to lose their eyesight (sometimes [[EyelessFace along with their eyes!]]) in favour of BizarreAlienSenses like echolocation.

This concept ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' from the trope namer Morlocks in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', hideous troll-like beings that haunt the night while the innocent Eloi culture sleeps. This situation was created as a blunt commentary on class division and the dehumanizing nature of industrial society. These themes continue to surface in modern science fiction and fantasy. Morlocks may represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class, a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian physiognomy and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels that has left a huge impact in genre fiction. As literal embodiments of the dehumanized working class, they often prey on their former oppressors.

Sometimes, the course of human evolution can lead to a sub-division. Those in the position of power become a higher caste of human beings, and those in the working class are {{albinos|AreFreaks}} with leech-like mouths who have a taste for human flesh. The latter is due to adapting to living underground by becoming a troglofaunal species. Darwin didn't really think about this possibility, but Creator/HGWells certainly did.

In ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', Wells introduced the Morlocks, hideous troll-like beings that haunt the night while the innocent Eloi culture sleeps. The book implies that it is kind of a BlueAndOrangeMorality: the Eloi have no conception of altruism, art, love or even the future tense. They don't actually have a culture. The Morlocks, on the other hand, are actually productive society members: they just breed the Eloi like cattle, [[ToServeMan and for the same purpose]]. The narrator speculates that, as the upper class constantly pushed the lower class below ground, the upper class lost the ability to think and work for itself, leaving the lower class adapted to operating heavy machinery and thinking logically. The entire thing is commonly interpreted as a critique on Victorian society, including the notion of EvolutionaryLevels that later versions of the trope [[UnbuiltTrope tacitly play straight]].

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. The low-light environments where these guys live often leads such creatures either to develop InnateNightVision (perhaps enabled by {{glowing|EyesOfDoom}} and/or bulging eyes), or to lose their eyesight (sometimes [[EyelessFace along with their eyes!]]) in favour of BizarreAlienSenses like echolocation.


Common in science fiction and fantasy, the Morlocks often represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class. This is a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian physiognomy and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels, and has left a huge impact in genre fiction. On the other hand, some other stories largely abandon Wells's class-conflict subtext and merely use Morlocks for [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]]-style creepiness.

%%* ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}''
* ''Anime/TheBigO'' features the wealthy living in domes and the poor struggling to survive outside them.

* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', both the anime and the 1920s silent film, have an under-caste of workers who serve the upper classes. In the silent film, the workers are almost more robotic than the robots, though still undeniably human, and the film's relatively positive ending definitely reflects this.

* The creatures in ''Film/{{CHUD}}'' are morlock-like to some degree.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. The low-light environments where these guys live often leads such creatures either to develop InnateNightVision (perhaps enabled by bulging eyes similar to what you see on deep-sea fish), or to lose their eyesight (sometimes [[EyelessFace along with their eyes!]]) in favour of BizarreAlienSenses like echolocation.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. The low-light environments where these guys live often leads such creatures either to develop [[SuperSenses vision that's sensitive enough to see in the dark]] (perhaps enabled by bulging eyes similar to what you see on deep-sea fish), or to lose their eyesight (sometimes [[EyelessFace along with their eyes!]]) in favour of BizarreAlienSenses like echolocation.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. [[BizarreAlienSenses Echolocation]] is a common ability for such creatures--sometimes to compensate for blindness, or even for an EyelessFace, if vision proves to be unnecessary in the low-light environments where they dwell.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s[[note]]short for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"[[/note]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. [[BizarreAlienSenses Echolocation]] is a common ability for such creatures, and Wells's class-conflict subtext has largely gone by the wayside in them.

Common in science fiction and fantasy, the Morlocks usually represent everything that science and art cannot redeem in the working class. This is a somewhat insidious remnant of Victorian phrenology and its ideas of EvolutionaryLevels, and has left a huge impact in genre fiction.

Compare their cousins the MoleMen, as well as FuturePrimitive. If your HumanSubspecies looks atavistic not because it's evolved in adaptation to subterranean life but because it's retained ancestral primate features, see FrazettaMan.

Compare their cousins the MoleMen, as well as FuturePrimitive.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (also called [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], Film/{{CHUD}}s, [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], etc.) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. [[BizarreAlienSenses Echolocation]] is a common ability for such creatures, and Wells's class-conflict subtext has largely gone by the wayside in them.

Sometimes, the course of human evolution can lead to a sub-division. Those in the position of power become a higher caste of human beings, and those in the working class are albinos with leech-like mouths who have a taste for human flesh. The latter is due to adapting to living underground by becoming a troglofaunal species. Darwin didn't really think about this possibility, but H.G. Wells certainly did.

This concept has since ''[[{{Pun}} evolved]]'' into a monster archetype much like [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] but hasn't been overused like those tropes. In contemporary versions, the "Morlocks" (aka [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons grimlocks]], [[Film/TheDescent crawlers]], [[Film/{{Pandorum}} hunters]], [[Literature/TheDescent hadals]], etc) are usually descended from humans who became trapped underground by mischance or were driven into hiding there by their enemies. [[BizarreAlienSenses Echolocation]] is a common ability for such creatures, and Wells's class-conflict subtext has largely gone by the wayside in them.

* Not subterranean, but the Ab-locks of ''[[Literature/JackelianSeries Secrets of the Fire Sea]]'' owe their name to this trope. They are aggressive, feral pack-dwelling hominids [[spoiler: descended from an ancient Jagonese civilization that destroyed itself]] which are bitter enemies of the much larger, more solitary ursks [[spoiler: which are ''also'' TheMorlocks, but derived from UrsineAliens from the same long-ago civilization, rather than humans]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/TheTimeMachine https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/morlock.jpg]]]]

* The Hunters in ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' are very similar to the Morlocks, and even used [[RecycledProp the heads of the Morlock costumes]] from the 2002 adaptation of ''The Time Machine''. [[spoiler:Their evolution was manipulated and their ancestors were trapped on a ''spaceship'' rather than underground.]]

* The Hunters in ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' are very similar to the Morlocks [[spoiler:but their evolution was manipulated and their ancestors were trapped on a ''spaceship'' rather than underground. [[http://www.icollector.com/Three-Morlock-articulated-heads-created-for-The-Time-Machine-and-Pandorum_i10031270 They even used the heads of the Morlock costumes from the 2002 adaptation.]]]]

** Grimlocks, originally from the 1E ''Fiend Folio'', are a more straightforward version of this trope, though it's not entirely clear if they were originally human. They have stone-gray skin, sharp teeth, and [[EyelessFace no eyes whatsoever]]; they rely on SuperSenses of touch, scent and hearing to get around in the darkness.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' features morlocks, using the name from ''The Time Machine'', as degenerate, cannibalistic and demon-worshipping underground-dwelling creatures that were once human. In a subversion, though, they were actually descended from the ''upper'' class of an ancient empire who fled deep underground, only to devolve into flesh-eating subhumans due to millennia of inbreeding and exposure to magical radiation. (Early ''Pathfinder'' sourcebooks also mention ''D&D'''s grimlocks, but due to the two races being almost identical, they've quietly dropped the grimlocks.)

->''"The Proles will never awake until they are free and the Proles will never be free until they awaken."''
-->-- ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''

Sometimes, the course of human evolution can lead to a sub-division. Those in the position of power become a higher caste of human beings, and those in the working class are albinos with leech-like mouths who have a taste for human flesh. The latter is due to adapting to living underground and becoming a troglofaunal species. Darwin didn't really think about this possibility, but H.G. Wells certainly did.

Sometimes, the course of human evolution can lead to a sub-division. Those in the position of power become a higher caste of human beings, and those in the working class are albinos with leech-like mouths who have a taste for human flesh. The latter is due to adapting to living underground becoming a troglofaunal species. Darwin didn't really think about this possibility, but H.G. Wells certainly did.