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7%%Zero-context examples are not allowed on wiki pages; all such examples have been commented out. Please add proper context before uncommenting them -- a good example should explain *how* it's an example.
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9[[quoteright:336:[[Art/CartaMarina https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/old_map_1872.jpg]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:336:[[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carta_Marina.jpeg This is actually the good neighborhood.]]]]
11
12->'''Scully:''' On the old mariner maps, the cartographers would designate unexplored territories by simply writing "Here Be Monsters".\
13'''Mulder:''' I've seen the same thing on maps of [[TheBigRottenApple New York City]].
14-->-- ''Series/TheXFiles'', "Quagmire"
15
16%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
17
18In old times, mapmaking was a fairly imprecise task, due to the lack of advanced technology for exploration purposes. So, to fill great blank areas on the maps, mapmakers used to include textual and/or graphic warnings of the dangers of going into uncharted territory. Such warnings took the form of SeaSerpents, dragons, cannibals and many other mythical and, sometimes, even real creatures. The actual line "Here There Be Dragons" [[BeamMeUpScotty has been found only once]], on the 16th-century [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt-Lenox_Globe Lenox Globe]], but is too cool to give up[[note]]There may be a second instance, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_Egg_Globe Ostrich Egg Globe]], but its authenticity is debated[[/note]].
19
20This tendency is explored in fiction with two usual objectives. The first and more obvious is to show that the map is very ancient or simply medieval. Depending on the setting, the map may be contemporary, but displayed in an outdated manner because that's how things still are made.
21
22The other use of this trope is to avoid showing the viewer a dull and realistic map. This is mostly used in video games, to give the world map a more enjoyable presentation.
23
24In fiction, many maps don't just warn their readers of the great perils on their way, but sometimes also contain other pieces of information, such as the location of cities and landmarks, pointed by [[StylisticSuck stylistically out-of-scale]] drawings.
25
26Because [[GratuitousLatin Everything's Better in Latin]], also sometimes seen as its original spelling, ''Hic sunt dracones''. This is a very common feature of the FantasyWorldMap. Space-age variants of this trope are also common, especially in ScienceFantasy and in settings where SpaceIsAnOcean, and typically take the form of decorated start charts illustrating the locations of black holes, SpaceClouds, {{Asteroid Thicket}}s, {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s, hostile alien powers, [[SpaceWhale ravenous space monsters]], and the like.
27
28Do not mistake this with HereThereWereDragons, which is about the existence of magic (and even dragons) sometime in the past of the setting of a fictional work. Also not to be confused with [[WebVideo/WhatTheFuckIsWrongWithYou the fantasy movie review show by Nash of TGWTG]], or [[Literature/HicSuntDracones the steampunk fantasy web novel by Terry Zilla]].
29----
30!!Examples:
31
32[[foldercontrol]]
33
34[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
35* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has an interesting variation -- they don't get a map showing the bizarre sea monsters seen on medieval maps, they ''actually see one'' after Griffith causes the real world and astral planes to merge.
36* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': The Magic World's map has "here be magical creatures" in chapter 190.
37* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Skypiea's map had several symbols, including a ziggurat (marking the position of [[spoiler:Eldorado]]) and some devilish creature roaming through the land.
38[[/folder]]
39
40[[folder:Fan Works]]
41* In the fan film ''Acheron'' by Creator/RollinBoy, a synthetic soldier is scouting out the derelict from ''Film/{{Alien}}''. He gives this trope on realising [[OhCrap he's walked into the lair of a Queen Xenomorph]].
42* ''Fanfic/TheDragonKingsTemple'': The Avatar world is labeled on the Stargate maps as "Dur'Asada". SG1 initially believes that this is the world's name, but later find out it means "Dangerous, do not enter".
43* ''Fanfic/ThePalaververse'': ''Once Upon A Winter'': "The Mountainside": As "Wyrm" is another way to say "dragon", a similar location marking warns of something draconic:
44--> the Greycairns. Where the griffons have put down labels like ‘The Wailing Wastes’ and ‘Herein Ice-Wyrms’.”
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
48* ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'': The credits did this with submarines, which appear to serve as stand-ins for whales.
49* Creator/{{Disney}}: One map of the world does this with characters from ''Franchise/TheLittleMermaid''.
50* ''WesternAnimation/GuillermoDelTorosPinocchio'': One sea monster is depicted in the Ligurian Sea on a map during a TravelMontage. Furthermore, the Terrible Dogfish's appearance was modeled after old depictions of whales and dolphins, looking like a grotesque leviathan with two blowholes.
51* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2010'' has a map with, wouldn't you know it, dragons. This is meant literally, as it signals the dragon's nest. The film also {{lampshade|dTrope}}s the trope, saying "Here at Berk, ''we have dragons''."
52* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'' had the Pirate Captain lamenting that they'll never make it where they're headed in time because -- as he points out on the map -- there's a big sea monster in the way. UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin (who is traveling with them, [[ItMakesSenseInContext because of reasons]]) asserts that they just put those there for decoration. Sure enough, they make it there without a hitch. [[spoiler:Only to have the ship chomped and spat back out by a ''real'' sea monster just before the end credits.]]
53* ''WesternAnimation/TheSeaBeast'' is built around the concept "What if those monsters drawn on maps were real?" {{Travel Montage}}s often show the very beasts on screen drawn on the maps.
54[[/folder]]
55
56[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
57* ''Film/JackbootsOnWhitehall''. The excessive detail of the map of Britain stops abruptly at the border of Scot Land, which shows [[GrimUpNorth no towns or roads at all]], as it's an uncivilised place populated by bloodthirsty blue-faced savages who wear skirts.
58* In ''Film/KingKong2005'' the map of Skull Island has the word "Fog" written all over the waters around the island along with a grotesque, crude painting of a roaring KillerGorilla face, which Carl initially dismisses as a coffee stain when Jack points it out.
59* In ''[[Film/LastSentinel2023 Last Sentinel]]'' a map of the FloodedFutureWorld shows only the two surviving landmasses: Southland, where the protagonists are from, is marked Home Sweet Home. Northland, where the enemy lives, is marked Here Be Dragons. It's not entirely facetious as no-one's made contact with Northland for forty years, and some speculate they've all been wiped out and the government's just keeping up the pretense as a GenghisGambit.
60* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'', during Barbossa and Jack's swordfight, Barbossa gloats over Jack having gotten in way over his head (by, y'know, engaging in single combat with an immortal), taunting him by saying "You're off the edge of the map, matey. Here there be monsters!"
61* ''Film/{{The Viking|1928}}'': On Leif Ericsson's map of the Atlantic ocean, the western end of the ocean is shown as an abyss watched over by dragons.
62* ''Film/MayflowerThePilgrimsAdventure'' includes this exchange:
63-->'''Jones:''' When the mapmakers didn't know what lay beyond the horizon, they used to print the legend, "here there be dragons."\
64'''Reynolds:''' And there never were dragons.\
65'''Jones:''' Wrong, Captain. There always were, and there always are.
66[[/folder]]
67
68[[folder:Literature]]
69* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfTheImaginariumGeographica'' is all about this trope and cartography in general, taking place as it does in a universe where all fictional lands exist. The title of the first book is outright ''Here, There Be Dragons''.
70* ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'': Grik charts tend to mark deep bodies of water with glyphs along these lines.
71* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
72** Parodied with how tourists' maps of Anhk-Morpork are labelled "Here Be Dragons" to mark the location of the Sunshine Sanctuary For Sick Dragons, a veterinary hospital. The same phrase appears over the actual Sanctuary's entrance as grafitti.
73** Elsewhere, we're told that cartographers sometimes got so carried away with drawing sea monsters that they forgot to put the boring countries and so on in at all.
74** In a meta example, we have this quote from Terry Pratchett explaining why he didn't provide a map of Discworld the way Tolkien did with Middle Earth (before he changed his mind and released one anyway):
75--->''You can't map a sense of humour. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs.''
76%% ''Literature/GatheringBlue'' had this.
77* ''Literature/EarthCentAmbassador'': This trope is discussed by the Earthcents ambassadors in a reunion when they notice the presence of several planet-sized creatures in the Galactic maps. Someone suggest going there to check what's really in there, but they change idea when Libby tells them that the Stryx didn't put those creatures there for decoration, there really are planet-sized creatures in those places and they don't like anybody bothering them in their territories.
78* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': [[https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/f/f9/Wizarding_Schools_Map_LR.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161210200610 The map showing the location of the world's wizarding schools]], styled after early world maps from the age of exploration, embraces this trope as part of the wizarding world's general old-time esthetic: besides the somewhat tentative geography (Antartica is barely outlined and North America's north-western corner is conspicuously missing), it features various creatures such as what appears to be an asian buffalo (somehow in North America), a rhino and long-legged pig-like creatures on the landmasses; a hippocampus, a mermaid and ships and sea serpents in the ocean; and ornate drawings of the actual schools marking their locations. In addition, there are elaborate illustrations of scenes from around the world filling in the empty corners of the paper around the map, similar to how many maps were rendered historically.
79* ''Literature/HereBeDragons'' is a science fiction novel whose main character keeps a print of a centuries old map which seems to be a cross between the Lenox globe and the Art/CartaMarina.
80* ''Literature/TheHighCrusade'': At one point, the narrator (a Medieval monk) criticizes a technologically advanced alien map. Sure, it might be ''accurate'', but its lack of dragons, mermaids, sea serpents and such ornamentation shows a poverty of cultural imagination and depth.
81* ''Literature/HitherbyDragons'' takes this trope as its main theme (and indeed, its very title): in the same way as map-makers didn't know what the world was like physically, and thus drew dragons to represent the unknown, Hitherby's characters don't know the answers to big philosophical questions, but still try to find them, in their own ways.
82* ''Literature/TheHobbit'': Tolkien's map depicts the location of Smaug's Lair with the drawing of a dragon, and shows spiders within Mirkwood. It also has an arrow pointing off the edge of the plotted area, noting that to the north lies a terrible wasteland "whence came the Great Wyrms".
83* Literature/LordPeterWimsey: Discussed in "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head". One of the things that arouses Lord Peter's suspicion of the villain is that he claims to have seen "hic dracones" on the maps in a mediaeval book. Lord Peter, being an actual book collector, knows how unlikely this is.
84* ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'': The maps seen at the beginning feature this with various creatures depicted in the series, such as kreelixes. The maps of the sequel series, ''The Great Tree of Avalon'', are likewise freely ornamented and annotated to show just what sorts of creatures and landscapes one can find in the various parts of TheWorldTree.
85* "Literature/MissileGap", by Creator/CharlesStross, has a passage describing a survey expedition still sketching out tentative and mostly empty maps that mentions someone having scribbled in a dragon coiling in a particularly empty stretch of void.
86* ''Literature/PrincessesOfThePizzaParlor'': From the second episode, the location where the party started their journey from, is labelled as such on one map:
87--> '''Selvi:''' It even has a big 'Here Be Dragons' sign where our school should be!
88* ''Literature/TheOthersSeries'': ''Marked In Flesh'' features the embodiment of their analogue of the Atlantic Ocean basically tells humans that she remembers when map-makers would mark the maps of her expanses with "Here there be monsters" and then adds that they should resume labeling the maps as such before laying down the rules by which humanity must abide by if they expect to have any ocean-going vessels survive passage through her domain.
89* ''Tour du monde des terres françaises oubliées'' ("Circumnavigation of Forgotten French Lands"), is a non-fiction book about the obscure tiny isolated islands owned by France: Clipperton, Chesterfield, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, etc.). It comes with a map indicating the location of the various lands mentioned in the book, [[http://www.liberation.fr/voyages/2014/05/28/une-pluie-de-confettis-tricolores_1027878 which is decorated with various fantastic creatures]] -- since the bulk of the world's continents and large stretches of the oceans are of no relevance to the book's topic, they're left blank and made home to things like dragons, panthers, chimeric beasts, sea serpents and giant fishes.
90* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
91** ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'': The novelization has two scientists on the Genesis team, with rather warped senses of humor, create hypothetical maps of the proposed Genesis Planet with one region marked "Here There Be Dragons". By way of explanation, they ask what's the point in giving humanity a strange, new world to explore if there isn't some element of danger? No one's ever quite sure if they're joking or not (Genesis could be programed to create life forms, like plant life, but the main team hadn't coded in animals). While staying the Genesis cave later in the book, [[BrickJoke Saavik's internal monologue mentions her being fairly sure she saw some kind of large, flying reptile in the distance]].
92** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': One of the Pocket Books novels is actually called ''Here There Be Dragons'', and deals with a planet where there are, indeed, dragons -- well, technically, giant carnivorous reptiles which ''look'' like the creatures of myth, although [[CallASmeerpARabbit everyone calls them dragons]]. They don't fly, although one character comments of a dead one he'd seen that he wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been told it could breathe fire.
93* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In the Franchise/StarWarsLegends novel ''Crosscurrent'', TheHero Jaden Korr uses "There be Dragons..." when thinking about his doubts about himself, the Force, and everything.
94* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': In the ''[[Literature/NightLords Throne of Lies]]'' audiodrama, the Navigator Octavia is guiding the ship through an uncharted region of warpspace with the shields easily deflecting the ample lightweight creatures there. Then they get the attention of a huge predator capable of swallowing the ship whole, the sort of thing that maps would mark with this trope. When Octavia realizes they can't outrun it, she tells the captain to make an emergency translation back into realspace.
95* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in ''Legends - Dragonslayer'', as one might expect given the series is entirely ''about'' dragons. Every book in the series has a FantasyWorldMap printed in the opening pages. Being a human-centric {{Prequel}} novel, however, the map in ''Dragonslayer'' has all of the labels replaced with variations of "Here Be Dragons": [[UnderwaterCity "Here Be Underwater Dragons"]], [[HiddenElfVillage "Here Be Dragons, Probably?"]], [[WretchedHive "Terrifying Viper Pit of Dragons"]], and so on. One of the protagonists even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it when reading an in-universe copy of said map:
96-->'''Wren:''' Thank you, [[CaptainObvious Mr. Obvious-Map-Writer]].
97[[/folder]]
98
99[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
100* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The opening of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]" reveals that the planet Earth and our entire solar system was declared strictly off-limits by the rest of the universe, after Master seized control of the planet during "[[ResetButton the Year That Never Was]]".
101* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': Discussed by [[BigBad Lorne Malvo]] in the pilot; while attempting to warn off an inquisitive traffic cop, he suggests that poking into his affairs will not end any better than attempting to chart such seas.
102* ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'': Billy Connolly references this in the context of showing off the new world maps the school bought -- he says that the other ones were so old they had "Here dragons be" indicators.
103* At the time of the Falklands War in 1982, the opening credits of ''Series/{{Newsnight}}'' were an animation of a camera panning over a large and reasonably well-detailed world map. Except... the Falkland Islands were thought so irrelevant and insignificant trhat they were omitted from the map. There was a large blank space just off South America where a major war had broken out over an apparent blank void. It had been thought completely implausible that anything of any importance could ever happen there....
104* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In many episodes, Mr. Conklin has an old map of North America from the time of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution hanging on his office wall (i.e. "Spare That Rod!"). The northwest portion of North America is a blank.
105* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E2WhereSilenceHasLease Where Silence Has Lease]]", while the Enterprise explored an unexplained spatial anomaly, Picard and Riker commented on the superstitions of ancient sailors on Earth during or before the Dark Ages. Picard mentions "Beyond this place, there be dragons."
106[[/folder]]
107
108[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
109* ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'', while usually fairly grounded, dips into this trope occasionally where the Deep Periphery is concerned, ranging from ''probably'' apocryphal-in-universe tales of vessels that suffer a MisJump sometimes coming out of jumpspace looking like they've been clawed or bitten by some vast predatory creature to more mundane stories of {{Lost Colon|y}}ies with caches of [[LostTechnology Star League tech]]... or TheRemnant of the old Star League Defence Forces who deserted ''en masse'' rather than serve under the mad tyrant Stephan Amaris (which proved somewhat accurate after the Clan invasion). This region also serves as the setting for the novel ''Far Country'', the franchise's one and only experiment with introducing sapient aliens; there were plans for a sourcebook geared towards playing a BoldExplorer in uncharted space that would have expanded on the concept, but the OutOfGenreExperience didn't go down well with fans and ''Far Country'' is only considered canon in the broadest of BroadStrokes.
110* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'':
111** The continent of Argonnessen is ruled entirely by dragons, and they don't let any of the lesser races near it. Hence, on most maps, it is simply labeled "Here There Be Dragons." Per WordOfGod, this was an intentional choice because dragons are too powerful for the more low-level stories the setting is designed for. Dragons have a prosperous civilization that is hundreds of thousands of years old, and even the weakest dragons will eventually have magic that Khorvaire can hardly dream of. Except they largely don't ''care'' about Khorvaire, and the one thing they do care about (preventing the escape of the [[SealedEvilInACan Overlords]]) requires the assistance of mortals, so they must work quietly behind the scenes.
112** Thematically, the nation of Droaam is this for Khorvaire. It was a wild and untamed land for as long as anyone could remember... and then the Daughters of Sora Kell, three immortal hags whispered of in the darkest stories, came out of nowhere and united the region. Now it's a nation filled with extremely dangerous monsters, and stepping across the border is liable to get a human eaten.
113* ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' has it in the title. It largely refers to the horrors of post-nuclear armageddon Earth, which the Corporations of Mars, Venus, and Jupiter largely aren't even going to touch.
114* ''TabletopGame/TicketToRide'' has various early 20th century vehicles drawn on the maps, such as ships, airships etc. There are also land vehicles, such as a troika in Russia on the Europe map.
115* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
116** The official maps mark the [[GrimUpNorth northlands]] and [[MysteriousAntarctica southern wastes]] '[[TheLegionsOfHell Here There Be Daemons]]'. ''They're right.''
117** [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammerfb/images/7/72/Norsca_Map.jpg The 8th edition map]] of Norsca and the Chaos Wastes shows a number of monstrous creatures lurking in Sea of Claws and the Sea of Chaos -- the former, between Norsca and civilized lands, is home to a single tentacled beast; the latter, between Norsca and the Chaos Wastes, has a spiked, funnel-mouthed serpent, a red-skinned leviathan and a festering, rotting hulk emerging from holes in the sea ice. The northern end of the map is obscured by a mass of monstrous appendages and marked simply "to the Realm of Chaos".
118** A Skaven sourcebook includes a map which uses the Skaven vernacular. Most areas are labeled with the Skaven names for their inhabitants ("Man-Things", "Elf-Things", "Green-Things", "Dead Things"); the Chaos Wastes, populated, if at all, by mutant monstrosities, is labeled "Things".
119* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has [[SpaceWhale space monsters]] on its star charts. Again, they're ''right''.
120** In the verse of ''[=40K=]'', there are plenty of anomalies and navigational hazards popping up across the galaxy. [[GhostShip Ghost ships, Space Hulks]], [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Warp Storms and Rifts]], [[LostAtSea areas beyond the Astronomicon]], nomadic black holes...
121** An Ork map describing the known space around a particular area included the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Eye of Terror]], which was unexplored, and was simply called "Da Big Swirly Fing".
122[[/folder]]
123
124[[folder:The Other Wiki]]
125* An [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragons article on the subject]] with plenty of both RealLife and fictional examples.
126[[/folder]]
127
128[[folder:Videogames]]
129* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' includes a Viking mission where you have to get to the New World. To avoid the simple idea of sailing around Greenland, there's some odd water to the South that destroyes your ships. After conquering some of Greenland, the area's revealed by the computer, showing the shape of a dragon on the minimap.
130* ''VideoGame/TheAncientArtOfWar'': The overworld maps in War at Sea are fancifully decorated with sea serpents, Neptune figures, etc.
131* ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'': Fanciful illustrations can be found on the in-game world map, in keeping with the setting. Most of these pictures are of animals not found in that locale, or at all, but at least one provides a little hint of what you'll find there.
132* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' plays it classically straight: unexplored chunks of the ocean on the map are depicted as ancient Greek maps decorated with artwork of soldiers fighting sea beasts.
133* ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicArmada'': The opening cinematic starts with a shot of a star map featuring illustrations of numerous space monsters between the various star systems and sectors, including a serpent, a kraken-like beast, and a monstrous leviathan. Considering what kind of universe ''40k'' is, these are likely realistic depictions of very real dangers in those areas of space.
134* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': In ''Civilization VI'', dragons, sea serpents and compass roses will appear on unexplored areas of the map. Explored areas under the fog of war are rendered as monochrome line drawings of cities and terrain as found in old-fashioned maps.
135* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'': In the intro to the original game, your colony ship sails across one of these, encountering various sea serpents and anthropomorphic storm clouds as it goes.
136* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': Topal the Pilot was an ancient [[OurElvesAreDifferent Aldmeri]] BoldExplorer and [[WarriorPoet poet]] who was the first to discover and explore Tamriel during the Merethic Era. A skilled cartographer, Topal was on an in-universe CartographySidequest from the Aldmer to explore and document Tamriel's inland regions, which were very mysterious to them at the time. While he didn't encounter actual [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] (that we know of), he did encounter "cat demons", "human lizards", (believed to be primitive ancestors of the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] and [[LizardFolk Argonians]] respectively) "bat lizards" (believed to be related to Morrowind's Cliff Racers), and a race of now-extinct "BirdPeople".
137* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' has the actual line ''"Here Be Dragons"'' on a globe in the observatory.
138* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars'': An EasterEgg references the trope: swim out to any of the four corner of the game map, and you'll find a sign with old-script telling you that "Here Be Dragons", which is as good a HandWave as any for why you can't get away from Liberty City.
139* ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'': The map that comes with the game includes two drawings of colossal sharks out in the deep ocean. They're not just for show, as in-game [[BorderPatrol swimming out of bounds will have a Lurker Shark swallow Jak and Daxter whole.]] ''VideoGame/{{Daxter}}'' reveals that there are much bigger Lurker Sharks out there, but still nowhere near the scale of the sharks on the map.
140* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'': Played with; the map shows the three main islands as well as a bunch of superfluous symbols in the blank areas. Clicking anywhere near them makes Captain Dread exclaim "We can't go there, mon. That's the forbidden triangle" or any other shape, including the forbidden elliptic hyperboloid.
141* ''VideoGame/NiNoKuniIIRevenantKingdom'': The world map is illustrated in this style, with a picture of a sea-monster and a mermaid.
142* ''VideoGame/ReturnToRavenhearst'': The schoolroom where Rose's daughters were indoctrinated by Charles Dalimar has a crude outline of England and Wales on its wall map, in which everything else is blank and marked "unknown". No actual monsters are depicted, but the creepiness of the script implies that horrible things lurk beyond the borders.
143* ''VideoGame/{{Risen}}'': While there's no mention on the map, if you go out too far into the sea, a giant sea monster bursts out of the water and eats you. Humorously, you'll wake up on the beach a bit later without any harm. Observe [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfkXsG5tc8 here]].
144* In ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople: Strong Badia the Free'', the map has a drawing of Strong Bad's dragon Trogdor on it, labeled "Here Be Trogdors".
145* ''VideoGame/{{Tibia}}'': [[http://static.tibia.com/images/library/map_big.jpg The game's map]] has several monsters and creatures filling in the sea areas, including a {{Cthulhumanoid}}, a whale, a sea turtle, a {{kraken|and leviathan}}, a SharkMan, and two sea serpents, sharing space with a ship and a large cloud bank.
146* ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'': The campaign map is highly decorated. In addition to cities and to geographic features such as forests, mountains and smoking volcanoes, numerous creatures are found lurking around its various corners. Flying animals circle in the skies or around mountain peaks, such as crows and pegasi in the human nations, eagles and griffins in high mountains, vultures over deserts, pterosaurs over Lustria, and wyverns over the Badlands. On the landscape itself, boars and wolves lurk in forests and dinosaurs in the jungles, while more unique entities include creatures such as a giant anglerfish-like sea monster in the seas off of Norsca.
147* ''VideoGame/VGAMiner'': If you try to go beyond the limits of the play field, the message "Here be dragons..." is displayed.
148* ''VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt'': The Shake Dimension has [[http://www.mariowiki.com/images/0/02/Wlsi_shake_dimension_map.jpg one of these maps]]. Note the mermaid, sea serpent and octopus-like creature in various points on the map and the old-fashioned compass (itself something many of these maps also contain).
149* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus''. A conspiracy nutter has a map of Area51 on his RoomFullOfCrazy, with the lower vault marked only as "Weird Shit".
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder:Web Original]]
153* ''WebVideo/FreemansMind'': In one episode Gordon Freeman encounters an utterly useless map and mocks it by using this trope:
154-->'''[=Freeman=]:''' Oh sweet a map! Ok so where am I ... which way's North? Maintenance shaft ... that .. could be anything; half this building is a maintenance shaft. What's that big room, is that where the monster is? What about this radiation pit? High voltage ... that has to be where I came from. But what the hell is with these distances then? Why are parts of this map grayed out? Is it haunted? WHY IS THERE NO EXIT ON THIS MAP? Is there a landmark ...? This map is bullshit; I'm gonna find my own way out of here. That map has to be bogus; it only lists one area as being dangerous. It needs to have, like, 30. You could even write "Here be dragons" on it, and it would almost be more accurate than nothing at all.
155* ''Website/TheOnion'': "[[http://www.theonion.com/article/midwest-discovered-between-east-west-coasts-1686 "Midwest" Discovered Between East, West Coasts]]" has a map of FlyoverCountry styled this way, complete with "Here there be tractor pulls", a sea serpent and a griffin.
156* ''Website/OrionsArm'':
157** From the perspective of the Inner Sphere, the Periphery and Outer Volumes are wild and untamed, most especially the Perseus Arm, which is rich with alien empires and the constant threat of the Amalgamation. The Perseus Princes were Archai specifically designed by the Inner Sphere Archai to manage the region more effectively, but became a de-facto empire in their own right.
158** Then you have virches, which from the perspective of ril become more alien than the actual xenosophonts. While plenty of virches are accessible and understandable, there are many more hidden virches, or virches with wildly different physics. The interconnectness of these virches and the a-lifes that live on the Known Net make parts of it like this.
159** There's also the [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/464e942db2789 Ginnungagap Theory]], which states that the reason there are no empires that span galaxies (which is difficult but possible on astronomical time scales) is because something or someone in the intergalatic medium, sometimes referred to as "the dwellers in the void", destroys empires that branch out; it's even explicitly criticized as essentially being a more refined version of this trope.
160* Political sketches:
161** [[http://www.welfarestate.com/map/ This]] map of how [[EagleLand Americans]] see the world. Africa and South America are shown as misshapen purple blobs, labeled "Here Be Dragons" and "no civilization, people eat each other here". Australia is in a similar state, but is just marked "Here Be... Something Else." To the north, there's a white hemisphere stating that "Santa Claus lives here".
162** Another [[http://jaysimons.deviantart.com/art/Map-of-the-World-Stereotypes-456055567 Map of the World Stereotypes]] is absolutely full of this, with highlights including the Land of Snow Giants in northern Greenland with Jormungandr off the coast, "Here be Two-Headed Dogs" in northern Siberia, "Here be Ghost Ships" north of Antartica, and a label of "{{Sea Monster}}s" over the Sea of Japan, [[{{Kaiju}} of course]].
163** By the same artist as above, the [[http://jaysimons.deviantart.com/art/Map-of-Prehistoric-Stereotypes-492775139 Map of Prehistoric Stereotypes]] has helpful warnings throughout of things like Water Monsters, a Carnivorous Lake, Charcharodon megalodon, [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire White Walkers]], and, of course, "Here be Saber-Toothed Dragons" and "Hic Sunt Leones".
164* LetsPlay/RoahmMythril's [[http://www.dragonsoftstudio.com/ website]] uses this. (Though there's just [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom one dragon]] in this case.)
165[[/folder]]
166
167[[folder:Webcomics]]
168* ''Webcomic/{{Endtown}}'': Maps of the post-apocalyptic surface world are a bit... [[http://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2009/04/23 inadequate]]. As in, they're literally nothing but a north arrow and "here be dragons".
169--> '''Al''': Well, at least they know about the ''dragons''.
170* ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'': A map of the continent is decorated with warnings such as "Wolf Lands", "Dogs Here" and "Beware! Here Live Tigers!", mostly indicating the tribes of {{Beast M|an}}en living in those locations.
171%%* ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'': [[http://www.wapsisquare.com/d/20090227.html This]] strip.%%Broken link
172* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': The [[http://xkcd.com/256/ Map of Online Communities]] has a stretch of ocean marked with "Here be [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom anthromorphic dragons]]", while another shows the sunken ruins of UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}.
173* ''Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic'' has, according to an old tome, "[[http://yafgc.net/comic/0471-the-tomb-of-temshutep/ a deadly labyrinth filled with creatures most foul]]". Given that the members of this specific party are [[MonsterAdventurers drow, half-orc, hobgoblin, minotaur and illithid]], their reaction is... rather predictable.
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:Western Animation]]
177* ''WesternAnimation/{{Inside Job|2021}}'': "[[Recap/InsideJobS1E6MyBigFlatEarthWedding My Big Flat Earth Wedding]]" confirms that the HollowWorld theory is true. This is where Magic Myk comes from and, as pointed out by Reagan? The same monsters you see on old sea charts like the Kraken. [[spoiler: The Flat Earth Society leader learned this the hard way…]]
178* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
179** [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/c/cb/Map_of_Equestria_April_2013.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130403195243 Hasbro released an official map of Equestria in early August 2012.]] A remark in the lower right corner tells the reader of the dragons' whereabouts, to the southeast, with the words, "Dragons be here." The same map also points out that Griffins live to the east in the same manner. [[DontExplainTheJoke The subversion, of course]], comes from the fact that both are well-known and contacted sapient species in-universe, and so the labels make perfect sense, but are used for entirely different reasons than usual.
180*** [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/a/a4/Map_of_Equestria_2015.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151205072352 An updated version]] includes an actual dragon coiling in a corner with a warning that "dragons be here", areas marked "Forbidden Jungle", "Undiscovered West", "Mysterious South", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E8TheLostTreasureOfGriffonstone Arimaspi Territory]]", and "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E9SliceOfLife Bug Bear Territory]]", and a note at the northernmost part of the map saying "Into the Unknown". [[https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/10/6/1553160.png A further update]] for [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 the movie]] includes a sign reading "here be hippogriffs" next to Mount Aris, alongside a picture of a flying hippogriff, and a narwhal swimming in the ocean next to the Great Iceberg Barrier.
181*** Played straight with the [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW IDW comic]]'s [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/0/05/Map-south_of_Equestria-scan-IDW_main_series_MLPFiM_comic_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131201232927 South of Equestria]] map, which warns "Here there be monkeys, guard your valuables", "Beware the dangers of the Forest, they be too many a number to document", and "Elephant sightings reported".
182** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E22PPOVPonyPointOfView P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)]]", Applejack's nautical map shows a shipwrecked vessel and a three-horned sea monster, both of which turn out to actually exist.
183** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsTheSaltySails The Salty Sails]]", Twilight's map has a sea monster on it... which, as a Continuity Nod, looks just like Steven Magnet, an actual sea serpent from Equestria.
184* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In an episode where Homer goes on a sea voyage, this is [[TravelMontage montaged by a dotted line]] traveling across such a map. [[DiegeticVisualEffects Homer crashes into the compass rose, and avoids the sea serpent outright]].
185* ''WesternAnimation/WanderingWenda'': "The Disco Dragon of Detroit" has a "HERE BE DRAGONS" sign which Wenda opens (thinking it a decoy) to find an actual dragon behind it. The Duchess of Disco emerges from the "HERE BE DRESSING ROOMS" door beside it after asking if they opened the dragon door.
186[[/folder]]
187
188[[folder:Real Life]]
189* While maps like these ''did'' exist, they were typically intended for decorative purposes and to serve as a way to take in the whole world at a glance. During the Age of Exploration, depictions of peoples and creatures reported by explorers were also used as a way to show the cartographers were up to date on the latest discoveries and thereby that the map was itself the latest in accuracy. Maps used in actual navigation were largely devoid of artistic license.
190** Olaus Magnus' Art/CartaMarina is one of the most notable historic examples of this trope. The map is lavishly decorated with wondrous scenes and creatures -- besides the hordes of sea monsters that made it famous, Olaus Magnus included depictions of various unusual peoples, as well as a few land-bound monsters in northern Scandinavia, and added descriptions and warnings to various illustrations. All in all, there's barely an inch of the map that isn't home to some strange thing.
191** Medieval sea charts tended to focus heavily on coastlines, since they were meant chiefly to help sailors plot courses. As a result, coasts were very detailed and painstakingly illustrated, with every last detail of the coastline or minor port noted. The open oceans and the insides of the continents, being respectively empty of anything of note and irrelevant to marine navigation, tended instead to be left blank. As this resulted in most of the actual map being an empty white void, many mapmakers filled these parts with fanciful illustrations of landmarks, humans, animals and monsters to break the monotony.
192** Renaissance maps of the Americas tended to lean rather heavily towards this to make up for the scarcity of available knowledge and as competing mapmakers tried to sell their maps as the most complete, informative and up-to-date. Common themes in maps of South America, for instance, included Brazilian cannibals roasting human limbs on spits, Patagonian giants, Amazons and headless people with their eyes and mouths on their chests. [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Gutiérrez%2C_the_Americas%2C_1562.jpg Gutiérrez's map]] is an especially florid example, depicting a South America home to cannibals and giants and churning seas teeming with sea monsters, fishes, mermaids, ships sailing, sinking and fighting and Poseidon's chariot.
193* The phrase "Here be dragons" was used a a general placeholder for "unknown territory", and is thought to originate with komodo dragons, stories of which were known in East Asia, and the same stories likely migrated West over time. In ancient history, Roman and Medieval cartographers instead used the phrase [[DarkestAfrica "Here be Lions"]].
194* In "The Map" brand map of the [[BigApplesauce New York City]] subway system, the island of Manhattan is bordered to the west by an [[ArtisticLicenseGeography abnormally wide Hudson River]] with the various rail lines that cross the river to New Jersey simply vanishing off the edge. While "Here Be Dragons" is not actually written on The Map that or [[{{Joisey}} a similar statement seems to be implied]].
195* Among astronomers dedicated to map the structure of our galaxy, the area just behind the galactic center -- very difficult to study or even observe -- is often nicknamed "[[https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March03/Vallee/Vallee3_2.html Zona Galactica Incognita]]". "Here Be Dragons" is implied, even if (probably) the spiral arms there would be more or less symmetric with those in our side of the Milky Way.
196[[/folder]]

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