Line #101 Main/TheMorlocks


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16	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/morlock.jpg]]]]
17	[-[[caption-width-right:350:''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain "Do you suppose that time stood still for you, troper? Much has changed since you passed from the world of men."]]'']]-]
18
19	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 [[BeneathTheEarth 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. Another common Morlock trait is albinism (since less sun means less need for melanin), which tends to overlap with AlbinosAreFreaks.
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21	This concept [[StealthPun evolved]] from the trope-naming 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]], taking EatTheRich to quite a literal extreme.
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23	Some important elements associated with the storytelling aspect of this trope are the Morlocks' status as a branch of humanity or a local equivalent; their monstrous, usually cannibalistic, nature; and origins associated with the evils of industry and/or class conflict. Of course, the aesthetic may simply be used for [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]]-style creepiness. While living underground or in dark places is typical, it is neither defining (most MoleMen are not Morlocks) nor essential.
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25	Morlocks are almost AlwaysChaoticEvil. Compare their cousins the MoleMen, as well as FuturePrimitive and BatPeople. If your HumanSubspecies looks atavistic not because it's adapted to subterranean life but because it's retained ancestral primate features, see FrazettaMan. Also see BeneathTheEarth, UndergroundCity, CannibalClan and MadwomanInTheAttic.
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27	!!Examples:
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29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32	* ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'': In the anime, the Bakenezumi are anthropomorphic rodent beings which live in servitude to the psychically powered humans, [[spoiler: then it is revealed that they've been aiming to overthrow humans all along, and furthermore it's revealed that they are the mutated descendants of the percentage of humans who didn't have psychic abilities.]]
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Card Games]]
36	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': "[[https://scryfall.com/card/c20/153/goblin-dark-dwellers Goblin Dark-Dwellers]]" depicts goblins who have adapted to life underground by becoming eyeless, crawling, pale-skinned predators.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen '': An issue of ''Allan and the Sundered Veil'' deals with Morlocks.
41	* ''ComicBook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'': {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' Annual #5. The Ratbats are a seemingly savage and barbarous race of creatures who evolved from one of the two groups of human survivors on a GenerationShip. They have been in constant conflict with the Unremembered for resources aboard the worldship for generations. [=AlyXa=], a rebellious 18-year-old member of the Unremembered, managed to sneak into the Ratbats' territory without being seen. While there, she receives recorded memories of Wonder Woman and her exploits on Earth when in the proximity of a [[TransferableMemory memory transfer device]] being used by a female Ratbat. When she uses it herself, [=AlyXa=] experiences residual memories drawn from the female Ratbat's mind and she discovers that the Unremembered have badly misjudged them. They are not savage, animalistic brutes but intelligent beings with a sophisticated society, which is more advanced than that of the Unremembered in some respects. For instance, female Ratbats are considered equal to the males while the women of the Unremembered are considered to be the males' property.
42	* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
43	** The Morlocks are supporting characters, being mutants whose mutations are physically disfiguring and who live underground with others of their kind. Of course, even among the Morlocks, there are hierarchies, and the Tunnellers look down on the Drain Dwellers (and vice versa). Only two Morlocks, Marrow and [[DumbMuscle Sunder]], have ever been members of the X-Men proper (and Sunder was a member for only about 1 or so issues), reflecting the bad blood between the two groups.
44	** There's another group of mutants roaming in London's sewers that make the Morlocks look like supermodels.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Fan Works]]
48	* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' fanfiction, [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonTitansAndOtherCreatures the Many]]'s initial humanoid forms, though technically TheVirus, have definite shades of this. They lurk in dark underground spaces, they have [[GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath very Morlock-like eyeshine]], these forms are even created from the {{Disposable Vagrant}}s who were being used by [[spoiler:Alan Jonah's paramilitary]] as labor.
49	* ''Fanfic/KaijuRevolution'': [[https://www.deviantart.com/transapient/art/Kaiju-Revolution-Races-MORLOCK-834066907 The Morlocks]] are descended from members of an ancient and highly advanced human civilization who fled into space and formed an artificial planetoid around Jupiter after their original civilization collapsed when they tried and failed to control Earth's kaiju. Living in space for eons has caused them to develop a highly utilitarian insect-like FantasticCasteSystem with the different castes arising from a combination of natural selection and deliberate genetic alteration: The males serve as workers and soldiers with an animalistic intelligence on par with chimpanzees who [[MonstrousCannibalism consume their weak and dead]] in the name of efficiency which makes them closest to the traditional depictions, some individuals are cybernetically augmented to better specialize them for certain tasks. The females have their non-vital organs removed and become blind, immobile [[BabyFactory baby factories]]. Finally, there are the Controllers who claim to be the original founders of the Morlocks, they are able to extend their lifespans through various means (but this leaves some looking more inhuman) and consists of both males and females, they are also able to use telepathy to control the lesser castes. They are actually the most technologically advanced group in the setting as they posses ships capable of FasterThanLight travel and are heavily implied to be the source of Earth's UFO sightings.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
53	* ''Film/Aquaman2018'': The Trench are this together with a side-serving of XenomorphXerox, in that they are claimed to be descended from a lost tribe of Atlantis who subsequently devolved into more feral, omnivorous beings. They are so devolved that the Trident of Atlan can command them the same way it does the other non-sapient aquatic life.
54	* ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'': The mutants are subterranean humans, but they get unusual psychic abilities and are explicitly the product of nuclear fallout.
55	%%* ''Film/{{CHUD}}'': The creatures are morlock-like.
56	%%* ''Film/DarkHeritage'': The monsters are a particularly animalistic version of this subterranean trope.%%How?
57	* ''Film/DeathLine'': A CannibalClan is hiding in the London underground system, the result of an 19th-century dig accident trapping a bunch of male and female workers in the tunnel system. By the time of the events in the film, there are only two exceedingly sickly, barely-human descendants remaining.
58	* ''Film/TheDescent'' has the Crawlers, pale carnivorous hominids who have adapted to living underground but have become mindless predatory animals. Creator/HGWells also happens to be one of Neil Marshall's favorite writers.
59	%%* The 1992 adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's ''Lurking Fear'' of course.
60	* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'': The Hunters are very similar to the Morlocks, and even used [[PropRecycling the heads of the Morlock costumes]] from ''Film/TheTimeMachine2002''. [[spoiler:Their evolution was manipulated and their ancestors were trapped on a ''spaceship'' rather than underground.]]
61	%%* The [[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 1960]] and [[Film/TheTimeMachine2002 2002]] adaptations of ''The Time Machine'' of course.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Literature]]
65	[[AC:Examples by author:]]
66	* The "Children of the Night" from Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', ''Literature/{{Kull}}'' and ''Literature/BranMakMorn'' stories are the degenerate subterranean descendants of a primitive people driven underground by the arrival of the Picts in the British Isles. Many of Howard's period stories from Celtic times features these dwarfish, hissing mini-Morlocks as a menace, and by the 20th century, [[spoiler:they've diminished and inbred until only one remains, which looks more like a ''snake'' than a human]].
67	* Creator/HPLovecraft:
68	** The creatures in "Literature/TheLurkingFear" are somewhat like Morlocks as they are carnivorous de-evolved apelike humans. However, [[spoiler:it's not social class and evolution that turned them into this, but [[InbredAndEvil generations of inbreeding]]]].
69	** One of Lovecraft's earliest stories, "The Beast in the Cave", tells of an encounter between a lost cave-explorer and an ape-like subterranean creature he ''thinks'' is this trope -- [[spoiler:at least, until the dying creature utters a few final sounds, revealing itself to be an ordinary man who'd been lost in the vast, pitch-black caverns so long that he'd reverted to animal-like behavior]].
70	** They certainly didn't ''build'' the place, but the pre-human Antarctic ruins from ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'' are home to hulking, eyeless, albino bipeds that creep out members of the expedition who encounter them. [[spoiler:They're giant penguins, and much less bizarre than the city's actual builders.]]
71	* In the writings (and conspiracy theories) of Creator/RichardSharpeShaver, the Earth was once inhabited by [[BenevolentPrecursors the Titan and Atlan races]], but they abandoned the planet after the sunlight became too toxic to them. However, some of them -- already corrupted by the toxins -- remained on Earth as the degenerate, shriveled creatures known as "dero". Over the centuries, humans started discovering the ancient [[UndergroundCity cavern-cities]] of the Titans and Atlans and experimenting with their technology, but - not properly understanding how to use it or maintain the all-important radiation filtration devices - they were gradually corrupted into new generations of deros. "Dero" is short for "detrimental robot", because, while still organic life forms, they have a robot-like lack of free will, and are slaves to the impulse rays and corruptions of the detrimental energy they have absorbed. Driven entirely by unthinking malice, the deros use the ancient technology to wreak as much havoc as possible on the surface world.
72	[[AC:Examples by work:]]
73	* In ''Literature/TheBookOfTheNewSun'', the mines in Severian's homeland are worked by completely nocturnal, aggressive ape-creatures. When Severian is attacked by a pack of them, he is shocked to see that they still have human eyes. Like many other things in the series, this may be a deliberate ShoutOut to classic literature (in this case, to ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'').
74	%%* ''Literature/TheDescent'': The pale cave-dwelling cannibal hadals.
75	* ''Literature/JackelianSeries'': Not subterranean, but the Ab-locks of ''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]].
76	* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
77	** Orcs are [[FlipFlopOfGod sometimes identified]] as originally Elves who were subverted by the will of Morgoth, Sauron's master from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. Other times they're the result of Morgoth trying to create his own version of the children of Ilúvatar (elves and men). Tolkien went back and forth on the matter repeatedly, and hadn't settled on a definitive version even when he died, mainly due to trying to reconcile his dislike of AlwaysChaoticEvil with his belief in Evil as inherently incapable of creativity.
78	** Gollum was born a perfectly normal proto-{{hobbit\|s}}, but centuries of living under the Misty Mountains under the corrupting influence of the One Ring gradually turned him into a degenerate nocturnal creeper.
79	* ''Literature/TheNightLand'' and ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'' have the Abhumans, which are prophesied to eventually replace the regular humans.
80	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': The lower levels of the global city that covers Coruscant are an all-too-literal underworld of collapsed buildings, flooded passages and lightless spaces, which the residents of the upper layers avoid for a large number of reasons. One of these reasons is the presence of the Cthon, ghoulish humanoids descended from humans who were forced to live in the city's depths and eventually degenerated into eyeless, pale-fleshed and primitive beings, which now haunt the deepest, lightless parts of the planet's urban sprawl and will readily try to catch and eat any surface-dweller who stumbles into their gloomy domain. According to ''Literature/TheIllustratedStarWarsUniverse'', the Emperor will occasionally attempt to have Cthon tribes brought to the surface so that they can be re-educated into upstanding Imperial citizens in a grand show of EngineeredHeroics. These attempts often end with the Cthon being "accidentally" killed while resisiting arrest, and the bodies being put on display at the Imperial Museum.
81	* "Os Tatús Brancos" (published in ''O Pão de Ouro'' by Bernardo Guimarães): The "Tatús Brancos" ("White Armadillos") are a Brazilian nation that went to live underground. They have pale skin, are short, have curved nails, and can't see well in bright light. At night, they come to the surface to look, principally, for humans from outside their society to eat. They generally don't kill beforehand. Despite the Tatús Brancos' taste for human flesh, they do not ever consume their own and they are willing to take outsiders in on request of one of their own.
82	* ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'': The Morlocks, the TropeNamers, are actually the more advanced race, providing all the food and luxuries the mentally deficient Eloi depend on, essentially farming the child-like Eloi like cattle. They're supposed to be descended from the working classes of modern-day societies, who, as class divides grew sharper, spent more and more time underground tending to industry and machinery. Over time, they evolved into a race of pallid troglodytes who kept the machines running out of instinct as much as anything, still tending to the descendants of the indolent upper classes (who they over time adapted to feed on).
83	* ''Literature/TheTimeShips'': Subverted. After the time traveler accidentally changes history, advanced Morlocks live on the outside surface of a DysonSphere, living in darkness because it allows a better view of the universe. Meanwhile the "new Eloi", basically standard humans, are busy blowing themselves to bits in pointless wars on the interior of the sphere (where they can see the sun). At the end of the book, the time traveler [[spoiler:vows to try and view the original Morlocks as potential sapient allies and goes to try and deal with them]].
84	* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Apelike Cannibals are small, white, degenerate humanoids, probably descended from actual humans, that usually live in shallow underground lairs such as in abandoned buildings; they fear the sun and only come out at night. They are physically rather weak, but exist in great quantities and try to overwhelm their victims through sheer force of numbers. The narrator speculates that they may have originated somewhere else and come into Fantasyland via H.G. Wells' Time Machine.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
88	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': The artificial planet [[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E13Terminal Terminal]] is created to [[EvolutionPowerUp study the future evolution of Mankind]]. Turns out it's a [[FuturePrimitive vicious ape-like creature]]. In an inversion of this trope, the scientists who study them live in an underground base, while the Links roam the surface.
89	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The future of humanity is occasionally portrayed this way. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]", set at nearly the end of the universe, has ordinary humans plagued by the "futurekind," tattooed cannibals (or maybe technically not) with sharpened teeth, who seem barely capable of speech.
90	* ''Series/TheGifted2017'', being set in the Marvel-verse, prominently features the Morlocks in the second season. Though as opposed to the comics, here they're presented more as an UndergroundRailroad helping mutants hide from the increasingly-repressive world above.
91	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' has the more dangerously primitive Orcs of the Second Age, who are pale-skinned and sensitive to sunlight, living underground and having to cloak themselves when venturing above ground. Their origins are quite sinister, they were once Elves from subcontinent of Beleriand, who got enslaved, tortured and experimented on by Morgoth. Galadriel calls them "Moriondor", meaning the first Orcs.
92	* In merchandise, the villains of ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' are explicitly called Morlocks. However, despite them being humanoid evil creatures living underground, these Morlocks have no further similarity to this trope, as they are a collection of supernatural beings based on creatures from mythology or fantasy. In the show itself, they aren't even referred to as Morlocks, but rather "The Forces of Darkness".
93	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
94	** The much-maligned episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain Spock's Brain]]" also inverts the {{Trope Namer\|s}}. The Eymorg, a LadyLand of [[BrainlessBeauty beautiful but childlike women]] who live in an automated UndergroundCity, abduct the Morg, the male {{Future Primitive}}s who live on the desolate surface of the planet (though it appears they use them for servants and procreation rather than food). The women aren't simple because they're women, but because thousands of years in a physical LotusEaterMachine has atrophied their intelligence; otherwise, it takes MenAreStrongWomenArePretty to an extreme.
95	** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E21TheCloudMinders The Cloud Minders]]", the world of Ardana seems to be headed this way. The Troglodites are still recognizably the same species as the inhabitants of Stratos, but constant exposure to Zenite gas is gradually destroying their higher mental functions.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Radio]]
99	* ''Radio/DimensionX'': In [[Recap/DimensionX31Universe episode thirty-one]], an [[AudioAdaptation adaptation]] of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's "{{Literature/Universe}}", the {{Mutants}} of the Upper Levels are assumed to be primitive creatures who are little more sophisticated than animals by the so-called superior race that resides on the Lower Levels of the Ship. As their leader Gregory informs Hugh Hoyland, most of them are every bit as intelligent as he is in spite of their physical deformities.
100	* ''Radio/JourneyIntoSpace'': {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''The Return from Mars''. The Talians tell Jet, Lemmy, Doc and Mitch that the Sotteers are primitive and aggressive genetic rejects who detract from their perfection. While the Sotteers lack the Talians' so-called physical perfection, it turns out that they are every bit as intelligent and civilized as the Talians.
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
104	* ''TabletopGame/AtomicHighway'' has morlocks as a title for degenerate, subterranean radiation mutants, serving as an EvilCounterpart to the playable "Trogs" (humans who, after the apocalypse, settled in caves and subway systems).
105	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
106	** Grimlocks, originally from the 1E ''Fiend Folio'', are a straightforward version of this trope, though it's not entirely clear if they were originally human (it's usually a DependingOnTheWriter thing). They have stone-gray skin, sharp teeth, and [[EyelessFace no eyes whatsoever]]; they rely on SuperSenses of touch, smell, and hearing to get around in the darkness. Their [[ToServeMan cannibalistic tendencies]] and lack of sight make them popular servants with {{medusa}}s (who like having minions that can't get turned to stone by their gaze) and [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} mind flayers]] (who only eat the brains of their victims and leave the rest to the grimlocks).
107	** Troglodytes are sometimes depicted as the LizardFolk equivalent to Morlocks, being pale and degenerate subterranean relatives of a race that is already pretty primitive.
108	** The bear-like quaggoths once had a thriving society on the surface, but competition with the ancient elves drove them underground, where the quaggoths fell into cannibalistic savagery. Their Intelligence scores keep going down with every edition they appear in, so if trends continue, at some point the quaggoths will devolve into nonsentient cave monsters.
109	** Albino wyrms are descended from dragons who got trapped in the Underdark, and are now pale creatures with vestigial wings and no magic beyond their BreathWeapon. Though still brilliant, to some degree, albino wyrms are so far gone that they can barely express a coherent thought. Deep dragons, who ''have'' adapted to life in the Underdark without degenerating, despise albino wyrms and kill them whenever they can.
110	** The Cynidiceans, from ''Basic D&D'' module "The Lost City", can be considered the in-universe precursors to this trope: formerly surface-dwelling humans who have adapted to life underground by developing infravision and the loss of pigmentation, but haven't (yet) degenerated so far as to turn cannibal. They ''do'' spend most of their lives drugged out of their minds on fungal narcotics and are dominated by the cult of an EldritchAbomination that's urging on their decline, so barring intervention from outside, they'll probably sink that low eventually.
111	** Underfolk, from the 3.5E ''Races of Destiny'' supplement, are a subversion. They're a HumanSubspecies who have adapted to life underground by developing oversized eyes (granting darkvision) and ears, the ability to [[ChameleonCamouflage change their skin tone to blend in with their surroundings]], and thick body hair to keep them warm. But while underfolk aren't technologically advanced, they're by no means a monstrous race, and have a sophisticated oral culture. They're mostly concerned with survival, and will ally with other Underdark races like dwarves and deep gnomes against the likes of orcs and drow. Some Underfolk will even venture back onto the surface to trade with other races.
112	** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'':
113	*** The skulks arose in much the same fashion as Morlocks, being descended from humans who escaped slavery at the hands of various evil Underdark creatures but couldn't find their way back to the surface. An enigmatic Neutral deity of caverns and darkness taught them a spell granting superior stealth and senses, the better to endure their incredibly-hostile new environment, but overuse turned its recipients permanently into skulks.
114	*** Maurs are the descendants of a band of [[OurGiantsAreDifferent storm giants]] who were banished to the Underdark for a long-forgotten crime. Thousands of years spent underground have left them stooped albinos... but in a subversion of this trope, they've worked to retain as much of their former culture as possible, and are nowhere near as savage as they appear. Given sufficient room, maurs can even straighten up to their full height ("an agonizing, joint-popping experience," though one that they relish) and gain hefty stat boosts, and can also use their ancestors' signature [[ShockAndAwe lightning magic.]]
115	*** The Deep Imaskari are another subversion. They're the descendants of an ancient, evil empire that was overthrown by a SlaveRevolt, leading the survivors to retreat into the lowest levels of the Underdark, fully ten miles underground. Thousands of years later, they've adapted to underground life by developing low-light vision and skin that looks like living marble, but the Deep Imaskari have retained their culture and sophistication, using magic to sustain themselves and hide from outsiders. They're actually much less malevolent than their ancestors, and are beginning to explore the wider world to learn about their neighbors, though they're guarded around the descendants of the people who overthrew the original Imaskar.
116	** ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'': The mind flayers of Krynn, known as yaggol, are a degenerate race that has forgotten much of their illithid heritage, while their mental powers have similarly atrophied -- most can only manage one ''[[PsiBlast mind blast]]'' per hour, and the attack leaves the yaggol dazed for a turn. As such, most yaggol go about in loincloths and prefer to fight in hand-to-hand. The catch is that, since illithids are normally a subterranean race, their "morlock" equivalent dwells on the ''surface'', in the deepest, darkest jungles.
117	* ''TabletopGame/{{Godforsaken}}'': Morlocks are degenerate, blind cannibal humanoids that avoid light. They have prominent teeth, piglike eyes, loose skin, and stooped postures. They avoid bright daylight and prefer to hunt and forage when it is dark out (or at least under the twilight-like canopy of a heavy forest). They may be descended from humans or near-human creatures, twisted and ruined by inbreeding and mutation.
118	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'':
119	** Morlocks are 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.
120	** Although descended from [[LizardFolk xulgaths]] rather than humans, troglodytes in ''Pathfinder'' have their origins in this trope, having degenerated into pallid subterranean savages in the wake of their advanced long-ago civilization's fall. The twist, in their case, is that they fled '''up''' into the cavernous realms they now inhabit, having originated in one of the Vaults of Orv that lie even deeper underground.
121	* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': Deep below the Martian city of Y'therthl is a network of tunnels full of the mutants occasionally created by the ritual use of genetic engineering technology. Generally hideous and broken parodies of those above, they can still run the whole gamut of morality.
122	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'': The Nosferatu are hideously deformed vampires who, due to being unable to pass off as humans like other vampires, live in "warrens" under the city and prey on anyone who stumbles on their lairs.
123	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' has a Nosferatu bloodline named the Baddacelli, nicknamed "the Morlocks". They are blind and live in the sewers.
124	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Gorgers are Ogres who were abandoned in caves as children. Due to having been left all their lives in dark, food-starved conditions and with no contact with other intelligent beings, they become savage, bestial creatures with sickly pale skin and viciously carnivorous attitudes. Ogres mostly leave them to their caverns, but during times of war sometimes lure them from their lairs with offerings of meat and set them loose onto their opponents.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Theatre]]
128	* ''Theatre/{{Brand}}'' has a vision how of regular humans will evolve. It starts out with an idea of "earthbound thralls", gradually devolving into something similar to Morlocks (Brand actually uses the term Dwarfs, but the description fits), all in the mind of the titular character, who has a really grim view of where history is leading mankind.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Video Games]]
132	* In ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'', the Outcasts are a tribe living beneath [[DownTheDrain Freeway 42]]. They are the remnants of their former selves that survived [[UnwillingRoboticisation the Mechanika Virus]]'s deadly effects, and chose to remain in their UndergroundCity without any advancement towards the surface. Before long, some of them are DrivenToMadness when their bodies become too unstable.
133	* Parodied in ''VideoGame/BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden'' with the [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]] of Cesspool X. They're not actually mutants, simply people who have undergone MagicPlasticSurgery to look like the creatures of their fantasy. Unlike most examples, they're not AlwaysChaoticEvil despite being the subject of derision for the "norms" (including Barkley) and are portrayed as people who simply want to live out their relatively harmless fantasies.
134	* ''VideoGame/DinosaursForHire'' have a stage set in a prehistoric cavern containing feral, brown-skinned troglodyte-like humans who walks in a hunched position and designed based off the classic Morlocks.
135	* The Falmer of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' are an almost perfect example of Morlocks. Thousands of years ago, they were [[OurElvesAreDifferent a race of Mer (Elves)]] with a sophisticated culture who ruled over the lands of Skyrim. However, they would clash with the ancestors of the [[HornyVikings Nords]], who were arriving on their shores in droves from the [[GrimUpNorth freezing-over continent of Atmora]]. Ysgramor, an Atmoran leader, would rally 500 of Atmora's greatest warriors and lead them on a crusade to [[FinalSolution exterminate the Falmer]]. He succeeded in destroying their civilization, driving the survivors to beg for help from another subterranean race of elves, the [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]]. The Dwemer agreed to take them in, but dosed them over the course of generations with a [[DevolutionDevice special toxic fungus]] that turned them into a blind, half-witted SlaveRace. They eventually TurnedAgainstTheirMasters, though the revolution suddenly ended when the entire Dwemer race [[RiddleForTheAges suddenly vanished]]. The Falmer spent the next several millennia dwelling in the decaying ruins of the Dwemer's underground cities and occasionally raiding the surface, but never regained their eyesight or intelligence.
136	* ''VideoGame/GaiaCrusaders'', a game set AfterTheEnd, have various morlocks-like midgets as recurring enemies. They're first seen in the ruins of what used to be New York, and later on they show up in large numbers in the underground caverns.
137	* In ''VideoGame/GrimDawn'', Trogs are pale-skinned humanoids inhabiting the deepest caves. They're considered to be Beastkin rather than humans, suggesting that they're an offshoot of trolls or grobles. While they're not explicitly man-eaters they make heavy use of BloodMagic and bone weapons and shields.
138	* In ''VideoGame/SteamWorldDig'', all of humanity has degenerated into this. They're known as Shiners by the Steambots and treated as savages, and they don't do much to disprove that fact. A more intelligent, friendly Shiner colony does show up in the sequel, [[spoiler:but they turn out to be the real villains of the story]].
139	* ''VideoGame/TimeSlip'' has a stage set in a BadFuture where you travel to New York, decades ''after'' humans lose a war to the Tirmatian aliens. The city is in ruins and the streets are crawling with furry, shaggy-haired Morlocks who used to be the citizens, for starters.
140	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s ''Warlords of Draenor'' expansion introduces the Pale orcs, inhabiting many of the planet's cave systems. In a ritual intended to connect a new orc shaman with the elemental spirits, some initiates inadvertently contact evil voices from the darkness instead. This destroys their sanity, and their clans exile them into the wilds out of fear of their mental state. Over time the exiles gathered into loose underground colonies, and after tapping into a direct source of the same magic that touched their minds, have been grotesquely transformed. The previously hulking orcs have inherited the build and posture of [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]], their deep brown skin has lost most of its pigment, and they possess GlowingEyesOfDoom, {{Throat Light}}s, and VolcanicVeins. They are known to eat captured surface-dwellers alive.
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142
143	[[folder:Web Original]]
144	* ''WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals'': In "Franchise/{{Mario}} Goes Down The Wrong Pipe", Mario finds himself stuck in the sewers before running into Toad dwellers that also got stuck there before they assault as they take him in as fresh meat.
145	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3288 SCP-3288]] ("TheAristocrats") is a species of these dwelling in the underground of Central Europe, and one of the rare ''upper class'' cases. They are led by an [[AdiposeRex especially fat entity]] known as "Emperor Maximilian the Great".
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147
148	[[folder:Western Animation]]
149	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
150	** Spoofed through the Dumblocks is the episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E7TheLatePhillipJFry The Late Philip J. Fry]]". The gang is on a forward-only time machine looking for a backwards time machine, and comes to the year 5,000,000, when humanity has split into two races: a foot-tall, bright pink and highly advanced species and the Dumblocks, "stupid, vicious brutes, who live underground." The Eloi-like race says they could have a backward-going time machine ready in five years. The gang returns five years later to find that the Dumblocks have taken over and killed all the other humanoids.
151	** Parodied with the sewer mutants below New New York City. While they are physically repulsive, they're behaviourally normal and have built an underground society that is pretty indistinguishable from a human one. They are still oppressed by the surface-dwellers and prohibited from showing themselves in the streets, until they gain civil rights in the episode "The Mutants Are Revolting". [[spoiler:Leela turns out to be one of them, less mutated than the others and given up to an orphanage on the surface since her parents wanted to give her a better life.]]
152	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS5E4RickdependenceSpray Rickdependence Spray]]", Rick and Morty seek help from cannibalistic horse people living underground for assistance in killing all the evolved sperm.
153	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' episode "The Conquerors of the Future", the Superfriends they meet {{exp\|y}}ies of Morlocks called Barlocks. They are otherwise identical and trying to break in and attack the [[DomedHometown domed cities]] of the normal-looking people of the year 3000.
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155
156	[[folder:Real Life]]
157	* In UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity there are many UrbanLegends of "Mole People" living BeneathTheEarth in [[SinisterSubway abandoned tunnels]]. These legends have some basis in fact, due to the many railroad tunnels under Midtown Manhattan (not the UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway, however) which were poorly patrolled prior to the TurnOfTheMillennium. This allowed a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits variety of eccentrics]] to dwell there, some of whom never left.
158	* While it's never been documented in mammals, the adaptation of invertebrates, fishes, and salamanders to life in caves is well known. Pigmentation is lost due to the metabolic expense of producing it in a nutrient-starved, lightless habitat where color doesn't matter, and eyes often degenerate or disappear because they're even more costly to grow and provide a potential avenue for infection.
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Context Main / TheMorlocks