History Main / UndergroundCity

* In the 1952 ScienceFiction novel ''Limbo'' by Bernard Wolfe (set in post-WWIII 1990's) the protagonist is surprised to find himself driving through a vast factory built under the ShiningCity above. The whole set-up is automated, though discrimination still continues with the Negro population being used for the cleaning and maintenance crew. During the subsequent war, sabotage--or just destruction from atomic bombs going off--causes the whole city to collapse into a massive trench.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series, most Octarians live underground in domes designed to emulate the above world. Unfortunately, they're running out of resources. They used to live above ground but were forced underground after a war with the Inklings a century prior to the events of the first game.

->''Proton looked up and saw the rocky cone of Mount Terror, the solar reflector leaning over the armorcrete rim, and the curved magnalloy blades of a blast iris retracted into the sides. The purpose of this construction was suddenly clear. They were inside a depthscraper--a legacy of the time when entire cities were built underground in fear of another atomic war.''

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has some examples, such as [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-110 SCP-110]], a city underneath a farm in New York that was displaced across time (although apparently it was already underground when it was built), and [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1678 SCP-1678]], a replica of VictorianLondon placed underneath the real London, and intended to serve as an Apocalypse Bunker.
** Another example would be [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-752 SCP-752]]. The purpose of its existence is to create a perfect utopia underground possessing higher levels of intellect along with the technology they possess. However, their overall goal has [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans cost them their own basic human moralities]], and having a [[FantasticCasteSystem behavioural system which contains no self-interest in likeness to ants and fundamentally work for the 'greater good' of society]]. [[SealedEvilInACan That being said, containment protocols states that it is best for them to not]] ''[[SealedEvilInACan know]]'' [[SealedEvilInACan the surface above them]], [[TakeOverTheWorld as they're no longer considered human and can lead to a total dominance shift in species]].
Website/TaerelSetting: A zu'aan example is the city of Muvon, home to the Muvon City Zu'aan. Another zu'aan one is the Keduk City Zu'aan's city, built under the Chacer Temperate Plains. There is also the Estard Kin'toni Clan who built a city under the Old'lye Sludgepit, the Mos'vor Kin'toni Clan who built a city under the Bosul Ashland.

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_city a page]] on this trope.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' takes place almost entirely in Alpha Complex, a massive underground {{Arcology}} run by an utterly insane computer.

Wiki/{{Taerel Setting}}: A zu'aan example is the city of Muvon, home to the Muvon City Zu'aan. Another zu'aan one is the Keduk City Zu'aan's city, built under the Chacer Temperate Plains. There is also the Estard Kin'toni Clan who built a city under the Old'lye Sludgepit, the Mos'vor Kin'toni Clan who built a city under the Bosul Ashland.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'', Octarians live underground in domes designed to emulate the above world. Unfortunately, they're running out of resources. They used to live above ground but [[spoiler:were forced underground after a war with the Inklings]].

** Back when it was [[ValuesDissonance still fashionable to use nuclear explosions for the civil engineering]], the Soviet Union conducted several of them in Kazakhstan, ostensibly to improve the productivity of the local oil fields (a kind of the fracking [[UpToEleven writ large]], so to speak). The rumor mill, however, has always insisted that at least one of the explosions, that reportedly produced a cavity about a mile in diameter several miles underground, was conducted to construct [[ElaborateUndergroundBase an enormous bunker in case of a nuclear war]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' has Blackreach, an underground Dwemer ruin so massive it has four separate surface entrances, its own BonusBoss, and an entire castle.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'': Heartstone Trollmarket is an Underground City beneath Arcadia that acts as a sanctuary and headquarters of good Trolls and the Trollhunters, the various buildings interlaced with giant, phosphorescent crystals.

** ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'': Khazad-dûm, aka "the Mines of Moria," was one of the oldest and grandest dwarven cities in existence until its inhabitants DugTooDeep and awakened an angry and powerful balrog.

* The troll caverns in ''Comicbook/ElfQuest'' probably qualify. They're certainly big enough. Blue Mountain probably counts as well if you count the mountainside as ground, even though it's obviously above the ''surrounding'' ground.

* The 2019 ''Friendly Neigborhood Comicbook/SpiderMan'' series introduced another subterranean city to the Marvel Universe. Directly beneath New York City, accessible by giant elevator, is an identical city known as Under York. Inhabited by super strong orange people, they have a longstanding truce set up with the governing offices of New York, with contemporary Mayor Wilson Fisk acting familiar with its leader and their agreement.
* In the "Shadows of the Bat" storyline in ''Comicbook/DetectiveComics'', the Party Crashers, a gang with Joker tech, are based in an underground city beneath Gotham.

* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', Mount Weather is an underground military bunker that survived the atomic war and has been transformed into a self-sufficient society by the survivors inside it.

* In ''Series/{{Cleopatra 2525}}'' all of humanity live in underground cities because robo terraformers called Baileys roam the surface killing any human they find up there.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': The Vaults enabled humanity to survive nuclear war in America, but just barely. And they were intended as proof-of-concept models for a GenerationShip that wasn't built in time, hence the various experimental (and often sadistic) situations manufactured. Some weren't even finished, like Boston's Vaults 88 and 114. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'''s "Vault-Tec Workshop" allows The Sole Survivor to build Vault 88 into a functioning settlement, as well as ignore the Overseer's pointlessly cruel experiments.

* In ''Videogame/PlanetSide 1'', the Caverns introduced in the ExpansionPack appear to be these. Vast chambers are filled with floating [[{{Precursors}} ancient Vanu]] constructs and buildings, with high-tech ziplines crossing the complex three-dimensional environments. Some caverns are underground, some are inside asteroids spinning through space, and some have no apparent exit aside from the geowarp PortalNetwork.

* Former Hell, introduced in ''Subterranean Animism'', the 11th ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' game. When Hell moved from underground to somewhere else, {{youkai}} who were hated because of their powers decided to move to the old location. They formed a contract with the above-ground youkai, where the above-ground youkai are forbidden to go underground, while the underground youkai keep the remaining evil spirits sealed.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The Subterrain in ''Webcomic/{{WooHoo}}'' is a sprawling, steampunk-ish place ruled by a [[SwarmofRats Rat King]] on a giant toilet.

In videogames, these can be an UndergroundLevel.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The Monsters Association from ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' have built their base in one of these below City Z. It is a sprawling underground network complete with tunnels, secret labs, gold mines, even ''plumbing''. It is revealed that this was initially created by the Underground King and his army who tried to invade the surface at the beginning of the series...only to be eradicated by a single punch from [[ComicallyInvincibleHero Saitama]].

* With Earth's surface being uninhabitable due to constant bombardment and the resulting radiation, humans are forced to live in these at the start of ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers]]''. The Yamato has no time to lose, since if they're not gonna bring the radiation scrubbers back in one year, humankind is toast, since the radiation keep on creeping further and further into the shelters.

* ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'' features an example that seems to fall into type three, although its origins are cloaked in impenetrable darkness. [[spoiler:There's an enormous, spiral shaped GeniusLoci buried under Kurozu-cho that appears to be the source of the town's "curse"]].

* ''{{Series/Sanctuary}}'' has Praxis, a large underground city with advanced technology where humans and Abnormals live.

* ''[[VideoGame/DeadlyRoomsOfDeath DROD]] 3: The City Beneath''. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As you might guess from the title]], the game opens with Beethro discovering one of these -- the hub of the Rooted Empire, an entire underground civilisation with tunnels linking to all corners of the aboveground world.
* Non-Karma Society members in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga 2'' live in an underground city, because the sun turns people to stone. Karma Society members live under a glass dome.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': Both the Dwarven Castle and Tomra qualify, by virtue of being located on the underworld deep inside the planet.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', a big example in Nohr is [[spoiler:''almost the entire population'' living either in these or in [[CitadelCity walled towns]], if not in places that mix both, because of the incredibly brutal reign of their king and the harsh living conditions. [[http://i.imgur.com/okjQYvR.jpg This includes the Nohrian capital, Windmire]].]]
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' gives us [[spoiler:Shambhala, the home base of those who slither in the dark, which also happens to be an ElaborateUndergroundBase complete with [[EnergyWeapon lasers]] and HumongousMechas, with a distinctly MagiTek feel to distinguish themselves from any other villains previously encountered in the series. It is rather clearly established that this is where the remnants of the Agarthans escaped and hid since their rebellion against the goddess thousands of years before the game begins.]]
** Also from ''Three Houses'', there is Abyss, a major setting of the "Cindered Shadows" side story. Located deep under the Garreg Mach Monastery, Abyss is home to the huddled masses of Fodlan and are treated as the church's barely-tolerated secret.

* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion II'', the Sakkra are a reptilian civilization with a penchant for underground cities, effectively doubling the population that can inhabit a planet and making orbital bombardment harder, as well as give defending ground troops a [=+10=] advantage over any invaders other than the Bulrathi, who get the same amount of boost due to their strength.

* In the backstory to ''VideoGame/{{Ray|Series}}Force'', humanity attempts to take refuge from the [[AIIsACrapshoot evil]] MasterComputer Con-Human's forces by developing cities underground. It doesn't work, and they're forced to flee into space.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Script/C0DA'', written by former ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series writer/designer Creator/MichaelKirkbride, takes place in the far distant future of ''TES'' universe. Numidium, the [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] HumongousMecha of [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] construction, presumed destroyed following the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', returns after having been caught in a time warp. It continues its war on the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]], led by the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascistic Thalmor]], leading to an apocalyptic event known as "Landfall", which has forced the remaining inhabitants of Nirn to take refuge on the moon Masser. There, they have built the city of Ald Sotha in a series of connected caverns under the surface. It serves as the setting for most of the story.

* ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': Of the "Apocalypse Bunker" type. Kipo's original home was underneath a cloverleaf highway interchange, with another bunker being located [[spoiler: underneath a field of Mega-Dogs.]]

* The 2019 ''Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man'' series introduced another subterranean city to the Marvel Universe. Directly beneath New York City, accessible by giant elevator, is an identical city known as Under York. Inhabited by super strong orange people, they have a longstanding truce set up with the governing offices of New York, with contemporary Mayor Wilson Fisk acting familiar with its leader and their agreement.

** The original {{Fallout}} had the Slag AKA Pale Folk underground community, with the inhabitants a group whose ancestors mutated to have pale skin, very sensitive eyes, etc.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Temtem}}'' the island of Tucma is a DeathWorld with most humans living in the elaborate underground city of Quetzal to avoid the poisoned surface. Over time Quetzal developed into a mining and manufacturing town that exports metalwork and jewelry to the other islands.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' has the Loonies living primarily in underground warrens, with all cities carved out of the Lunar regolith instead of being built atop it, with a few surface installations for access points. This is primarily because the moon being an airless environment, keeping the livable areas pressurized and comfortable is easier when they are built into the ground.
* There's one beneath Faery Airbase in ''Literature/SentouYouseiYukikaze Yukikaze'', which is where most of the FAF's forces live. It's got what you'd expect of a normal airbase "town", including shopping malls, convenience stores, public transport, and of course housing. It's implied that similar underground cities were built under the other 5 major FAF airbases.

* In TheEighties pulp series ''Literature/DoomsdayWarrior'', hidden under the Rocky Mountains is Century City, which evolved from a road tunnel that was buried when the nukes went off; those trapped inside joined their resources and swore to [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica liberate America]] even if it took a century. Thanks to good 'ole American ingenuity Century City is more technologically advanced than the Soviet-occupied cities outside (exactly how this was achieved is left a bit vague).
* In the 1952 ScienceFiction novel ''Limbo'' by Bernard Wolfe (set in post-WWIII 1990's) the protagonist is surprised to find himself driving through a vast factory built under the ShiningCity above. The whole set-up is automated, though discrimination still continues with the Negro population being used for the cleaning and maintenance crew. During the subsequent war, sabotage--or just destruction from atomic bombs going off--causes the whole city to collapse into a massive trench.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': The Vaults enabled humanity to survive nuclear war in America, but just barely. And they were intended as proof-of-concept models for a GenerationShip that wasn't built in time, hence the various experimental (and often sadistic) situations manufactured. Some weren't even finished, like Boston's Vaults 114 and 88. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'''s "Vault-Tec Workshop" allows The Sole Survivor to build Vault 88 into a functioning settlement, as well as ignore the Overseer's pointlessly cruel experiments.

** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' also has [[spoiler:the Institute, a [[RaygunGothic shining]], [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture futuristic]] scientific utopia located beneath the old Commonwealth Institute of Technology. It's also a [[CrapsaccharineWorld slave society]] that has no qualms about kidnapping wastelanders, conducting horribly unethical experiments ForScience and terrorizing the Commonwealth with their synth spies.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. In "Spock's Brain", the Eymorg inhabit an underground city built after their planet suffered an ice age. Because all their needs are catered for in the city, over thousands of years their intelligence has atrophied until they have the mental age of children. Their society is also split on gender lines, with the Eymorg being a LadyLand of Brainless Beauties that periodically captures Morg (the tribes of male primitives who live on the frozen surface) for breeding purposes.

* In ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers of Victory'', Limbo Town exists somewhere deep beneath Manhattan. Its inhabitants are the descendants of UsefulNotes/TheLostColonyOfRoanoke, who abandoned the colony in shame after most of their women were raped by Melmoth and gave birth to half-Sheeda children.

* The city of Recoletta in Carrie Patel's ''The Buried Life'', hinted to have grown from an Apocalypse Bunker centuries before. A subversion from most examples of this trope in that it is in regular contact with the surface which is where it gets most of its food. Several other such cities are mentioned.
* An early example is Creator/JulesVerne's novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Child_of_the_Cavern Les Indes noires]]'', which appeared in English under the titles "The Child of the Cavern, or Strange Doings Underground", "Black Diamonds'' and "[[TropeNamer The Underground City]]".

* In TheEighties pulp series ''Doomsday Warrior'', hidden under the Rocky Mountains is Century City, which evolved from a road tunnel that was buried when the nukes went off; those trapped inside joined their resources and swore to [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica liberate America]] even if it took a century. Thanks to good 'ole American ingenuity Century City is more technologically advanced than the Soviet-occupied cities outside (exactly how this was achieved is left a bit vague).

* ''VideoGames/{{Runescape}}'' has several underground cities. The Dwarvern city of Keldagrim and the cave goblin city of Dorgesh-Kaan are the inhuman type occupied primarily by thier respective species. The city of Senntisten was the former capital of the Zarosian Empire until it was buried during the god wars.