http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mordor.jpg
[[caption-width:300: Mordor, surprisingly gentle on your allergies.]]

->''One does not simply {{walk into Mordor}}. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. And if by some miracle you slip past the Morannon, what then? There is nowhere to hide on the plain of Gorgoroth. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire, ash, dust; the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with 10,000 men could you do this; it is folly.''\\
-- '''Boromir''', ''Fellowship of the Ring'' (movie version)

->''Ahh, look! How lovely! The black clouds of twilight are so fetching today...''\\
-- '''Midna''', ''TheLegendOfZelda: Twilight Princess''

The [[{{Shadowland}} environmental opposite]] of GhibliHills. Mordor is [[DarkIsEvil black]], bleak, and the sun is always hidden behind [[GraveClouds endless dark storm clouds]]. What little vegetation there is (if any) will be withered and rotting or mutated into an "evil" variety that's covered in sharp thorns and/or [[WhenTreesAttack liable to eat people]]. [[SwampsAreEvil Poisonous marshes and swampland]] are also quite common. Expect [[LethalLavaLand frequent volcanoes]] [[HailfirePeaks and/or]] [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice storms]]. May contain [[DesolationShot the ruins that show that once people had lived here]]. It may even be an EldritchLocation, defying the laws of nature, (and most EldritchLocations are Mordor).

In a Fantasy Setting, {{Mordor}} is often this way because the evil of the BigBad who rules the place [[FisherKing radiates throughout the land]], or because his BlackMagic acts as a {{Curse}} on it. Often, this land was once a beautiful place before the BigBad got hold of it, and it's presented as a stark example of what could happen to the hero's world should he or she fail in stopping the BigBad. Should the BigBad be defeated and the [[FisherKing good king restored]], often [[CueTheSun the skies will clear up]] and [[FertileFeet the birds and bees and flowers]] [[NoOntologicalInertia will return at warp speed]].

In more realistic or Sci-Fi settings, Mordor is an {{Aesop}} against [[GreenAesop abusing resources]]. Its inhabitants stripped the land of everything good, and polluted the air. Defeat of the BigBad won't necessarily [[NoOntologicalInertia return the land to its pristine state]]. Quite often, this also involves big sprawling cities that somehow became something worse than the run-down ghettos of São Paulo, or [[EternalEngine big sprawling industrial zones that breathe smoke 24/7]].

It's not clear how anything can actually survive in Mordor for any extended period in time. Perhaps everyone lives BeneathTheEarth and eats mushrooms (or people who wander into their land), or else all their resources come from [[PlanetLooters conquering others]]. Expect its inhabitants [[GardenOfEvil and plants]] to be [[HalfHumanHybrid part-monster]] as a result of [[HollywoodEvolution adapting]] to survive the conditions there.

Series that take place AfterTheEnd will often be set in a version of Mordor (though usually not quite as harsh). Sometimes Mordor is WhereItAllBegan.

As noted above, One Does Not Simply WalkIntoMordor (but it is usually the best way to get there.)

Not to be confused with the [[{{Taggart}} Glaswegian pronunciation of "murder"]].

Mordor is one form of {{Shadowland}}.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Both Fantasy and SciFi versions of this trope are seen in the second season of ''MagicKnightRayearth'': Cephiro is this way because it lost the mystical ruler who had sustained the land, and one of the invading countries was a mechanical world that had used up all of their natural resources.
* The island nation of Argentum in ''{{Simoun}}'' is a SF {{anime}} example.
* The ''fukai'' from ''NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' is depicted as {{Mordor}} at first, and is later revealed to be the GhibliHills.
* In ''{{Inuyasha}}'', Naraku has a mobile Mordor; a magically generated cloud of poisonous gas that follows him to wherever he chooses to abide.
* Michel in ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' wants to turn the world into a rather odd-looking Mordor: rocks jutting above the clouds, giant neon DNA strands shooting out of the sky, and wings on every animal. Seeing his hideout, which already looks like this, disgusts Lucia and makes her wonder what would possess anyone to like that. Of course, it all has symbolic ties to his own origin.
* As a subversion, the ''whole world'' at first appears like Mordor in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and becomes more and more hospitable as the heroes approach the BigBad's fortress. It's also why [[spoiler: Kamina City is erected near the ruins of Teppelin]].
* Subverted in PrincessMononoke; Iron Town looks a bit like Mordor, with its destruction of the countryside and smoke rising from the furnaces, but instead of plain evil, Ashitaka finds a combination of good and ordinary human fraility. And in the end, [[spoiler:the Forest Spirit lays waste to the forest in a flood of death and destruction while searching for his missing head.]]
** After that, [[spoiler:Iron town's iron shield becomes covered with vegetation when Lady Eboshi swears to do better.]] Miyazaki loves this; it also happens to Laputa in ''CastleInTheSky'' and the titular castle in ''HowlsMovingCastle''.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* The planet Apokolips in TheDCU, ruled by Darkseid.
* The planet [[MirrorUniverse Moebius]] in the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' comics is actually described as a 'Mordor'.
** Also, due to Robotnik's rule, Mobius itself is plagued with pollution in ''Series/SonicTheHedgehog''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The real world of ''TheMatrix'' is depicted this way, and is the result of the war between the Humans and the Machines.
* Ditto, the future world as depicted in ''TheTerminator'' films.
* Outworld is depicted much like this in the ''MortalKombat'' movie. As Kitana tells us, it was once a beautiful land before its best warriors lost ten Mortal Kombats and the realm was taken over by Shao Kahn. She tells Liu Kang that the same thing will happen to his world if he fails to win this Mortal Kombat. Johnny Cage has perhaps the best line about what this land is like:
-->'''Johnny Cage:''' Liu, I hate this place. I'm telling you, I hate it. I'm in a hostile environment, I'm completely unprepared, and I'm surrounded by people who probably want to kick my ass. It's like being back in high school!
* In ''TheLionKing'' the Pridelands become a Mordor of sorts after Scar and the hyenas take over. The sky turns grey, all the plants die and all the animals are gone. As expected, when Simba defeats Scar and takes his rightful place as king, the land recovers perfectly (and apparently fast enough that the Pride doesn't starve in the meantime).
** Simba's mother did advise Scar to temporarily leave the Pridelands during this period, and follow the herds. Scar refused for some unknown reason, but Simba would've been more practical.
*** This troper likes to think Scar is too proud to admit she was right, and probably didn't want to leave the kingdom he'd spent years coveting.
* Ommadon's Red Realm in the animated film ''The Flight of Dragons''.
* Earth as seen by {{WALL-E}}. Thanks a lot, Buy 'N' Large...
* The castle of the Skeksis and the land surrounding it in ''TheDarkCrystal'' are dark, barren, and forbiding. That is until the Skeksis are no more.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gamebooks ]]

* The ''LoneWolf'' series give us a few, including the Darklands, home of the Darklords, Ixia, home of the (not to be confused) ''Death''lord, and the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doomlands]] of Naaros.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The trope's title comes from the Dark Land of Mordor from Tolkien's ''TheLordOfTheRings''. Mordor combined both the "radiated evil" version of this trope (already seen in Mirkwood) and the "don't abuse resources" version (already seen in Isengard). Although the wasteland makes up only the northwestern part of Mordor: Ironically, Sam and Frodo never find out the whole southern half of Mordor has great amounts of farmland much farther away to keep itself running, kept fertile by ash from the evil volcano.
** ''TheSilmarillion'''s Angband combines the best of both hells. You got arctic surroundings, barren desert plains, rivers of lava, giant slag volcanoes, [[{{Angband}} vast underground levels]], the works. Plus proximity to the Grinding Ice, the Mountains of Horror, and the Valley of Dreadful Death.
*** And before anyone asks, no, those places are not filled with cute fluffy bunnies and someone [[DeathbringerTheAdorable didn't just call them those names in order to be ironic]].
* The Yeerk homeworld is portrayed this way in ''{{Animorphs}}''.
* Gorgossium, the Midnight Island in ''{{Abarat}}''.
* In the ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse, Korriban, the homeworld of the Sith, is a SingleBiomePlanet version of Mordor; in fact, the Sith relocated to another world early in its history and turned the planet into a vast necropolis.
* In some versions of ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~=]'', the blasted and ruined Frogstar is the home of the [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment Total Perspective Vortex]]:
-->'''Zaphod Beeblebrox:''' This place is the dismalest. Looks like a bomb's hit it, you know.\\
'''Gargravarr:''' Several have; it's a very unpopular place.
* RobertJordan's ''{{Wheel of Time}}'' series features the Blight, a festering wasteland where any bit of plant life is malevolent and the animals are even more so.
* According to ''TheAreasOfMyExpertise'', ''Oregon'' is "where the shadows lie."
* In John Barnes's ''OneForTheMorningGlory'', Overhill has been reduced to a wasteland under [[FisherKing the reign of the usurper Waldo]]. Queen Calliope, [[ReturnOfTheKing returning]], is told that it has even become better since the usurper left to continue his conquests.
* The climax of DanAbnett's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: [[GauntsGhosts Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''First & Only'' takes place in a necropolis. Gaunt and his team must forge through an underground maze that suck power from their equipment, including their lights, to a [[spoiler: constructor for Men Of Iron, aka robots. Not only did a robotic revolt overthrow humanity's finest civilization, these particular ones have been seeped in Chaos. When Gaunt goes to blow it up, the Chaotic tainted Men come to life to stop them -- horrifically malformed]].
** In ''Traitor General'', the Chaos forces are actively working to make Gereon a Mordor: they are using machines that drain water to other planets, and planting crops that will grow wildly and destroy the land. In ''The Armour of Contempt'', when they return, the process is considerably more advanced, with dead plants everywhere.
* In William King's {{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''SpaceWolf'', when a group of Space Marines are searching for a missing group, they find a tunnel, leading to a dark and enormous cavern, filled with twisted animals and once-human nightgangers, culminating in an [[ReligionOfEvil evil temple]].
* In GrahamMcNeill's {{Warhammer 40000}} {{Ultramarines}} novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', Uriel and Pasanius find that a Chaos-warped SoulTrain has carried them into the Eye of Terror. Hideous, impossible landscapes haunted by monsters and hold many dead bodies, containing tunnels that can [[DrivenToSuicide drive people to murder and suicide]], and a city of AlienGeometries with [[LightIsNotGood strange light creatures]] and [[MobileMaze impossible to trace routes]], pollutants that come to life as {{Living Shadow}}s and an EvilTowerOfOminousness.
* The whole damn ''world'' turns into Mordor in the third book of the ''{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy, with ash covering the entire planet to waist level, blotting out the sun and killing all plant life. [[spoiler: But it got better]].
** That would imply it wasn't all Mordor already- the entire planet ''starts'' the trilogy post-apocalyptic and ruled by an EvilOverlord [[spoiler: who's actually a WellIntentionedExtremist, but that's small comfort to those living under him]]. It just goes downhill from there.
* Roland's world is basically Mordor in Stephen King's {{Dark Tower}} series. Long before Roland was even born, a nuclear war destroyed the entire world, leaving only mutants and lucky survivors to rebuild the population. Thousands of years later, the Crimson King comes in and purposely destroys massive areas, poisoning them with radiation on purpose just so Roland can't follow.
* In the Belgariad, the Big Bad Torak had his worshipers (literally, Torak's a god) construct a huge city. At the end of the construction, he had them create a giant tower of iron, which Torak used his divine powers to make *not* rust before it got put up. To cap it off, Torak made a giant black cloud and parked it over his city; it blotted out the sun for many miles around; after thousands of years, the countryside surrounding the city full of dead trees being consumed by fungus; water stagnated with no sun to evaporate it, and Torak's iron tower (after he knocked it over in a fit of rage) rusted down to a kind of semisolid goop. The place was definitely fragrant.
* Giedi Prime, homeworld of House Harkonnen in ''{{Dune}}'', has had its environment ravaged by overindustrialization.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In ''{{Firefly}}'', Earth has become uninhabitable and is now called "Earth-That-Was". In addition, much the same thing happened to Mal's homeworld, Shadow, at the hands of the Alliance during the Unification War.
** Subversion: In the movie ''{{Serenity}}'', the brutal Reavers originate from a planet that is as pristine and high-tech as any Core World.
** [[spoiler: Because it WAS a pristine, high-tech world. Then the chemicals turned the survivors into Reavers, and they went and left after causing a bit of damage on their way out.]]
* The mining colony Androzani Minor in the ''DoctorWho'' serial "The Caves of Androzani". Absolutely everyone on it was trying to kill everyone else, and a fatally poisoned Doctor had to regenerate just to get his companion away in one piece.
** Also, the planet Skaro, as depicted in "Genesis of the Daleks" and several Expanded Universe media, thanks to a centuries-long war of attrition involving nuclear and chemical weapons. And that was '''before''' the Daleks came into the picture.
* The Shadow homeworld Z'ha'dum in ''{{Babylon 5}}'' is another science-fiction Mordor. Complete with a Great Eye that is ever watchful.
** Though in name and pronunciation is sounds suspiciously reminiscent of Khazad-dum...
* In ''DeadRingers'' a run-down house was memorably described as looking like "a cross between Afghanistan and Mordor".
* Netu in {{Stargate SG-1}} is a good example of science fiction Mordor. The devil himself bombarded it to resemble hell.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', the ''Tempest'' cycle has Rath, wherein Mordor becomes an entire plane of existence where a perpetual storm rages in the sky. Phyrexia is another example, of the techno-industrial kind.
** Another recent example from ''Magic'' is the plane of Shadowmoor, which was once the idyllic sunny world of Lorwyn. After undergoing the cyclic process of the Aurora, the GhibliHills-esque Lorwyn becomes Shadowmoor, a world of perpetual night, filled with sickly vegetation and corrupted life.
** And a third example comes from ''Shards of Alara'': the plane of Grixis, a world completely devoid of white and green magic, ruled by demons and hordes of the undead.
* ''{{Exalted}}'' has the shadowlands, which are an example of "Make Your Own Mordor": any massive act of slaughter over a large enough area will effectively open a door to the Underworld, something the Deathlords are quick to capitalize on. Zombies are created more easily in a shadowland, ghosts wander when night falls, and the flow of Essence is impeded.
* ''Legend of the Five Rings'' has the Shadowlands. Thoroughly tainted by dark spirits and the touch of the Dark God, the place rots and corrupts everything within. The overwhelming presence of dark spirits makes magic much more difficult and dangerous to cast, and it teems with mutants and horrible creatures, many of which are outright immune to anything short of jade (which is pure and thus dangerous to them) or magic. Carrying jade protects the bearer from the taint, but jade is rare and valuable, and the protection causes it to slowly rot.
* The Mournland in {{Eberron}}, which was once the kingdom of Cyre before the dark magical cataclysm known as the Day of Mourning that ended the Last War, is actually even ''less'' convivial to Mordor; Mordor itself actually had living things (blighted, twisted ones, but still living). In the Mournland, healing doesn't work, the ground is littered with corpses, and there are even ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead warforged]]''.
** Also, the Demon Reaches, who are closer to the "classic" Mordor (ie: Volcanic, ash covered land blasted by evil). Humanoids native to the area tend to have various signs of demonic corruptions.
* The "industrial" trade classification in ''{{Traveller}}'' describes a planet with billions of inhabitants and an unbreathable or barely breathable atmosphere, that's implied to be a global factory and (because of the way the ''Traveller'' random world generation system works) also very likely to have a repressive government.
* The Deadlands in the [[{{Deadlands}} eponymous RPG]]. The twist is that any place can become like that if the inhabitants are driven into despair and fear. In the original Deadlands: The Weird West, there's only one major Deadland, in [[AmericanCivilWar war-devastated]] Kentucky, and one area close to becoming a Deadland, the City of Lost Angels. But in the sequel, Deadlands: Hell on Earth, most of the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica former USA]] is kinda like that, and the Eastern Seaboard is one big Mordor.
* {{Warhammer40000}}'s planet Krieg. It was once a habitable planet until its ruler declared independence from the Imperium. Five hundred years of atomic bombing later, Krieg became a futuristic Mordor.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Toys ]]

* The realm of Karzahni in ''{{Bionicle}}'' definitely fits. The ground screams with every step you take, waterfalls flow with dust, volcanoes erupt with burning ice, and any lazy Matoran would be [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]]. When the ruler left, the Toa Nuva liberated the mentally and physically broken Matoran and Toa Gali proceeded to [[KillItWithWater destroy the place in a massive flood]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Red Mountain in ''TheElderScrolls: Morrowind'', a volcano inhabited by the game's BigBad and perpetually shrouded in "ash-blight". The PowersThatBe in the game world have gone so far as to erect a magical fence around the mountain to keep the monsters trapped therein, with limited effectiveness.
* Mehrunes Dagon's planes of Oblivion from ''TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion'' is a {{Mordor}} with lots of fire. The gates to Mehrunes' Oblivion in the "real world" radiate scorched land and ominous clouds. The other planes of Oblivion are ruled by other entities have appearances reflecting their personalities and powers, and as such have different appearances. Or at least in theory.
** Sheogorath's realm, the Shivering Isles, is split into Mania and Dementia. The latter area is a mild slice of Mordor somewhat darker than Morrowind's swamps, but some locations there are more like the Heart of Mordor.
* In WorldOfWarcraft, you have Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Felwood, Hellfire Peninsula, Shadowmoon Valley, and Icecrown. The Western and Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Tirisfal Glades and Zul'drak may arguably also count. (Many if not all of these zones double as {{Scrappy Level}}s.)
** Don't forget Desolace, whose name speaks for itself.
** There's also Netherstorm, a place completely destroyed because of the blood elves draining the power out of everything. It was previously a green field.
** For those who haven't seen it, Icecrown is Mordor down to a T; complete with big black gates guarded by fearsome, disfigured creatures, an evil, necromantic lord bent on destroying the world as we know it and even a large magical eye atop a tower. Only difference is it's covered in snow instead of ash.
** The Blasted Lands, as evidenced by the name: a blasted, lifeless desert desert with a perpetually black, stormy sky. Also the Bone Waste, literally an enormous bomb crater littered with bones tossed from their previous resting place inside a now-exploded necropolis.
* The Dark World of ''[[TheLegendOfZelda A Link To the Past]]'' was really the Sacred Realm of the Gods after Ganon got through with it. Zelda does this a lot, but the original Dark World is the most prominent example.
** As suggested by the page qoute, the Twilight Realm is perpetually covered in bleak light and dark clouds. Besides that and the creepy architecture, though, it's actually a pretty nice place.
* EdutainmentGame ''Zoombinis Island Odyssey'' features this as the resource aspect; the titular Zoombinis arrive at their abandoned homeland and realise that the invaders have removed all the butterflies and destroyed the environment(?). By returning caterpillars, the place gradually returns to its former glory. So, basically, you play through rebuilding an area.
* To some degree, Planet Leeds in ''{{Freelancer}}''. Even though the "great evil" is pretty much absent, ''imagine a planet capable of blowing out entire nebulae of smog!'' Accordingly, the government is depicted as unable to deal with the pollution and industrial accidents.
* The [[ReligionOfEvil Death Faith's]] lands in the {{Sierra}} game ''Lords Of Magic'' is basically [[strike:a]] teh marshlands of evilness, dominated by a omnious, towering cliff with a skull carved into it... Oh, and the people who lives in the land are all since childhood trained murderes and, as such, the life expectancy within their borders isn't especially long. A merchant in the Death capital's marketplace even points out that his "lifetime guarantee" labeled wares are "good up to 30 days".
* Done in the realistic approach in all the ''Oddworld'' series of games (and possible future movies), where the bad guys are the ones who pollute the land and drive species to extinction in their thirst for profits. This makes all bad guy areas disgusting industrial wastelands with gloomy smog as the clouds of doom, immense factories as the tall, dark towers, and cruel [=CEOs=] as the {{Big Bad}}s. The player is [[{{Anvilicious}} bashed over the head]] with the "Save the environment, Big corporations are bad" philosophy, which is ironic considering the last two games in this franchise were made for a Microsoft platform.
* The hyper-industrial Strogg from the ''{{Quake}}'' series of games turn every place and thing they can find into Mordor, as long as it can be used in a production facility somehow. Blood and gristle are fine lubricants, and they'll be damned if they can't find a way to install a human torso in a machine ''one'' way or another.
* Bowser's Castle in the ''SuperMarioBros'' games almost always exists in Mordor. It rarely has a set name, though Dark Land/World and Valley of Bowser are some that have been used. Such lands are filled with barren rocks, volcanoes, rivers and lakes of lava, and if it's lucky enough to have vegetation, fetid swampland. Especially noteworthy in ''Super Mario Bros 3'', where part of Dark World was so dark that you could only see your current location on the map screen, not the whole map.
* ''GuildWars'' begins with the characters' kingdom ''becoming'' Mordor when the Charr (the game's stand-in for orcs) unleash a massive sorcerous assault of flame and crystalline meteors, rendering the entire kingdom into a broken desert, featuring rivers of tar and a blood-red sky. This whole trope is later subverted when you visit the Charr homelands in the Eye of the North expansion, and, well... it's actually a pretty pleasant place.
**Later played straight with the Realm of Torment in the third game, which is the home of [[spoiler: the fallen god Abaddon]]. Caves made of flesh? Check. Teeth sticking out of the ground? Check. It's even got some fetid swampland of its own. And every part of it has its own delightful status effect to offer.
* Mhaldor in ''{{Achaea}}'' is Mordor on an island. The streets are littered with corpses, piranha fish swim in every pond and even the ''plants'' are carnivorous -- that is, the ones that aren't withered by the toxic red mist. The city patrons are Apollyon and Shaitan, also known as the Twin Gods of Oppression and Suffering. It's a nice place for a picnic.
* Taros, from ''TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'', is a textbook Mordor clone. Like most Tolkien ripoffs it lacks any ecological explanation for how the barren volcanic steppes can support a population, unlike the original.
* The various worlds named Filgaia in the ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' series are virtually always like this, but usually ''long'' after the event that caused it. Sometimes this was caused by a FisherKing scenario (another of which might also be arriving in the same story), but the original cause has long since departed, leaving the planet's ecosystem to try to slowly clean up after itself. Compare Tatooine from ''StarWars'' or the World of Ruin from ''FinalFantasyVI''.
* The planet Fargett in ''[=~Star Ocean: First Departure~=]'' is a desolate wasteland, in contrast to the lush, Earth-like environment of Roak, the home planet of the game's main character, Roddick Farrence. The planet Fargett is run by an EvilOverlord named Jie Revorse, who essentially turned the planet into TheEmpire.
* Char from ''{{Starcraft}}'' is your standard Planet Mordor, all lava and volcanoes and blasted dead black plains.
** As is Barathrum from ''TotalAnnihilation''.
*** Barathrum is a subversion, actually. It's a world in the process of being born, hence the higher than average metal content of the surface. The overall effect is about the same, though.
* ''{{Eversion}}'''s world turns more and more into this as you progress through the game. The environment takes on a definite {{Mordor}} feel with the sixth "everted" world: the vegetation is covered in thorns (which are SpikesOfDoom for all intents and purposes), the Goomba-like enemies start to show their teeth, everything turns into a spray of LudicrousGibs when killed, and the music sounds horribly distorted.
* ''[[AmericanMcGeesalice American McGee's Alice]]'' pulls this off: as soon as you defeat the BigBad, the ''entire'' world loses its sickly nightmarish quality and reverts to a [[GhibliHills much nicer place]], complete with blooming flowers and chirping birds. Justified by the fact that [[spoiler:it's all happening in Alice's head]].
* The Island of Evil in ''PhantomBrave'', due to [[BigBad Sulphur's]] influence.
* ''LegacyOfKain'' has two examples. One is Dark Eden, the lands surrounding a [[EvilTowerOfOminousness tower]] which spews forth an ever-expanding dome of magic. [[spoiler:The dome is the result of three Pillar Guardians pooling their powers and it warps everything it touches.]] The inside of the dome is standard fare with roiling lakes of lava and warped mutants with poisonous blood. The second example is [[spoiler:[[MedievalStasis Nosgoth]] itself, as it turns out that Kain's decision at the [[CosmicKeystone Pillars]] was [[XanatosGambit fixed to result in destruction either way]]. As it is, [[MagnificentBastard Kain]] chose to live and rule, which causes the world's balance to waver, resulting in the [[WorldHalfEmpty world]] [[AfterTheEnd as it is seen]] in ''Soul Reaver''.]]
* California, Nevada, and Washington DC in the various {{Fallout}} games, though this is a result of Global Thermonuclear War.
* The Rogue Isles is known as the CityOfVillains for a reason. Places that aren't a ViceCity or SupervillainLair are a dilipidated mess of decripit slums, or ruined and abandoned buildings. The first zone players enter, Mercy Island, fits this trope to a tee.
* Wherever [[HalfLife the Combine]] come from, it seems to look like this from the glimpse we get through one of their portals. They seem intent on redecorating Earth to match.
* [[DwarfFortress Boatmurdered]] becomes one of these, about the time when [[spoiler:a stream of lava is unleashed to dry up a freak flood.]] ItGotWorse.
* Planets colonized by the Zuul in ''SwordOfTheStars'' start taking on a very Mordor-ish bent.
* In {{Fable}}, the landscape that is near places of great evil, such as Darkwood or Wraithmarsh, are very creepy and ruined.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Meridian in ''[[{{WITCH}} W.I.T.C.H.]]'' was {{Mordor}} [[FisherKing until its evil ruler was dethroned]]. It's explained that Phobos was draining the magical energy of the land.
* Rainbow Land was {{Mordor}} before ''RainbowBrite'' came from "somewhere else", freed its Light and defeated [[BlackCloak The Evil One]].
* In most incarnations of the ''{{Transformers}}'' franchise, Cybertron hs been reduced to the sci-fi version of this, albeit due to a history made up almost entirely of brutal warfare rather than by abuse of resources.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The battlefields of the First World War is the very image of Mordor, particularly the the battle of Passchendaele. Blasted hellscapes of twisted trees where nothing lived and men drowned in the mud. The battlefields were most likely Tolkien's inspiration for Mordor, as he served in the war as a young officer.
* When an Apple employee visits the city-sized [=FoxConn=] factory where iPods are made, he is said to have been "sent to Mordor."
* The Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. The whole area is basically a plain of salt. There is a highway with a couple of gasoline stations, an 87-foot-high statue of a tree made by a MadArtist, and that's about it. No plants, no animals, and the whole thing is surrounded by some barren-looking mountains (though these do actually have a working ecosystem).
** The place is also so flat that it's been used as a racetrack where many a speed record in a land vehicle was set.
* Until the 1960s, Pittsburgh, thanks to industrial pollution, was known for its Mordor-y combination of fire-belching furnaces and smokestacks; air so black with soot that the sky could not be seen in mid-day in photographs, and all the lights had to be on all the time; and water quality capable of petrifying wooden boats into iridescent chunks of iron oxide. It's since gotten much better, though, to the point where it's recently been ranked as one of the cleanest and most livable cities in America.
* Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been on fire for over 40 years and will continue to be on fire for at least another 250. It has a population of [[strike:twelve]] nine. Nine serious {{Bad Ass}}es.
** Or nine [[TooDumbToLive thickheads]]. YourMileageMayVary, naturally.
* Ethiopia's Danakil Depression is an, um, interesting place with 130-degree temperatures, sulphuric acid volcanoes and lava lakes. Google 'Erta Ale' some time and you'll see exactly what we mean.
* Death Valley, despite its name, is NOT an example. You still don't want to go there without water, though.
* Wyoming. Also, parts of the DeepSouth.
**The Deep South?? There isn't a single inch of land here that isn't lush with wildlife and flora. There's plenty of swamps, granted, but YourMileageMayVary on whether they are Mordor-ish.
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