History Main / UnholyGround

* Not literally unholy, but Zerg [[AlienKudzu Creep]] in the ''Franchise/{{Starcraft}}'' universe has a function analogous to Blight, though biological in nature. Unlike Blight, it slowly dies if there are no Zerg structures to maintain it but Terran and Protoss structures cannot be built on it. In ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', Zerg units get a speed bonus if moving on Creep, and it can be spread via Creep Tumors and stationary Overlords in addition to buildings.

If it's the burial place of some malevolent being, it will also be a SupernaturallyMarkedGrave. May otherwise be the result of a LeakingCanOfEvil or just because EvilTaintedThePlace.

If it's the burial place of some malevolent being, it will also be a SupernaturallyMarkedGrave. May otherwise be the result of a LeakingCanOfEvil.

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* In NickPerumov's ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' series, the entire world of Evial is like this, due to the presence of the entity known as the Western Darkness. Any graveyard can go bad, sooner or later, necessitating the presence of clerics and necromancers to deal with the undead. And necromancers are the safer, saner option: the sacrifices they need to stop the undead are just cats, while the priests will torture or burn some human sinners.

* The Shadow Temple from ''VideoGame/OcarinaOfTime''. Monsters like Redeads, Gibdos and Stalfos roam its halls and the temple itself is a gathering place for Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devil_summoner_realm_change.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[VideoGame/DevilSummoner That's not your home anymore.]]]]

* In NickPerumov's ''Keeper of the Swords'' series, the entire world of Evial is like this, due to the presence of the entity known as the Western Darkness. Any graveyard can go bad, sooner or later, necessitating the presence of clerics and necromancers to deal with the undead. And necromancers are the safer, saner option: the sacrifices they need to stop the undead are just cats, while the priests will torture or burn some human sinners.

* The village of Tristram in the ''Franchise/{{Diablo}}'' series gradually became one of these after Diablo corrupted the town's cathedral. For twenty years afterwards rumor persisted of the land being cursed for any who tried to settle there.

* The Shadow Temple from ''VideoGame/OcarinaOfTime''. Monsters like Redeads, Gibdos and Stalfos roam it's halls and the temple itself is a gathering place for Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred.

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''
** Undead buildings spread a corruption called Blight, which turns ordinary ground into a black, fog-emitting morass with bones sticking out, and makes undead units regenerate health while on it. Undead buildings (save for the Necropolis) can only be built on blight, while non-undead buildings dispel it in a large radius when built. It can also be removed by area-of-effect dispel-magic spells, a good way to infuriate an Undead opponent since it prevents them from building until they put down some more blight. In ''The Frozen Throne'' expansion, the Undead can buy an item to create a circle of Blight at a location without needing to wait for a slooow-building Necropolis.
*** Not literally unholy, but Zerg [[AlienKudzu Creep]] in the {{Starcraft}} universe has a function analogous to Blight, though biological in nature. Unlike Blight, it slowly dies if there are no Zerg structures to maintain it but Terran and Protoss structures cannot be built on it. In StarcraftII, Zerg units get a speed bonus if moving on Creep, and it can be spread via Creep Tumors and stationary Overlords in addition to buildings.
* ''SilentHill'' is a textbook example. The land where the town is built was considered a haunted place by the local Indians before the settlers came, and after the town was built eerie things occasionally happened. Then a whole lot of evil went on and as a result the dark force inhabiting the land became much more active. Now the town summons anyone with a DarkAndTroubledPast and torments them with monsters and visions.
* The Shadow Temple from OcarinaOfTime. Monsters like Redeads, Gibdos and Stalfos roam it's halls and the temple itself is a gathering place for Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas, where the Emperor entombed some of his most deadly enemies, and where their power lies dormant, until an unwitting expedition opens the place and is driven mad, if not outright taken over by the personalities of the entombed Sith.

* ''DragonAgeII'' has the entire city of Kirkwall. It's revealed the city's very architecture is designed to harness arcane power and was used in an immense blood ritual, the sacrificing of ''thousands'' of slaves secretly abducted from the slavery trade, which took place during the Tevinter Empire days. [[spoiler: This mass slaughter may have been to fuel the very ritual Tevinter Magisters used to enter the Black City and unleash the Blight on Thedas.]] As a result the veil is noticeably much weaker in Kirkwall with demons, blood mages and abominations far more frequent that any other location. Worse still the Chantry and Templars decided that the old slave prison was the best place to house the Circle of Magi. Unsurprisingly the death rate for Harrowings, a trainee mage's final rite of passage, is ''far'' higher than anywhere else.

* ''WarcraftIII''

* ''DragonAgeII'' has the entire city of Kirkwall. It's revealed the city's very architecture is designed to harness arcane power and was used in an immense blood ritual, the sacrificing thousands of slaves secretly abducted from the slavery trade, which took place during the Tevinter Empire days. [[spoiler: This ritual may have been to fuel the very ritual Tevinter Magisters used to enter the Black City and unleash the Blight on Thedas.]] As a result the veil is noticeably much weaker in Kirkwall with demons, blood mages and abominations far more frequent that any other location. Worse still the Chantry and Templars decided that the old slave prison was the best place to house the Circle of Magi. Unsurprisingly the death rate for Harrowings, a trainee mage's final rite of passage, is ''far'' higher than anywhere else.

* The village of Tristram in the ''Franchise/{{Diablo}}'' series gradually became one of these after Diablo corrupted the town's cathedral. For twenty years afterwards rumor persisted of the land being cursed for any who tried to settle there.

* Pretty much everywhere in ''VideoGame/{{Ehdrigohr}}''. Since the land is infected by the Shivers, who come out every night, every burial ground that has not been properly consecrated risks sparking a ZombieApocalypse.

** Undead buildings spread a corruption called Blight, which turns ordinary ground into a black, fog-emitting morass with bones sticking out, and makes undead units regenerate health while on it. Undead buildings can only be built on blight, while non-undead buildings dispel it in a large radius when built. It can also be removed by area-of-effect dispel-magic spells, a good way to infuriate an Undead opponent since it prevents them from building until they put down some more blight. In ''The Frozen Throne'' expansion, the Undead can buy an item to create a circle of Blight at a location without needing to wait for a building.

The trope is where a {{c|reepyCemetery}}emetery, [[TempleOfDoom temple]], [[TheLostWoods forest]], etc. is considered holy... to the forces of evil. Whether it was the site of great and terrible crimes, incredible bloodshed, satanic rituals or other atrocious acts, the very ground itself and any surrounding lands are now cursed. Exact results vary, but the most common are that evil is stronger, good is weaker and things buried here [[TheUndead don't stay down for long]].

Sometimes overlaps with IndianBurialGround. Contrast HolyGround.