History Main / CityOnTheWater

* Listoel in the ''Greg Mandel'' trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton; a flotilla of former oil tankers and ore carriers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. Now that government has fallen most of the cyber-factory ships are docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore, but Event Horizon keep Listoel going to supply energy to Britain and as a base for their [[NGOSuperpower more hardline operations]].

* The titular location of ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasTreasureIsland'' is actually Captain John Silver's island-sized spaceship, housing hundreds and hundreds of pirate citizens aboard.

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* In ''Anime/DaphneInTheBrilliantBlue'', the setting is a series of connected cities on water due to a cataclysmic event that flooded the world.
* The titular location of ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasTreasureIsland'' is actually Captain John Silver's island-sized spaceship, housing hundreds and hundreds of pirate citizens aboard.

* ''Anime/MyHeroAcademiaTwoHeroes'' presents I-Island, which is a city dedicated to the study of Quirks, making it {{Scienceville}} as well.

* Neo Venezia in ''Anime/{{ARIA}}'', naturally, since it's a replica of Venice.
* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', cities on Ganymede take this form due to the moon being completely covered in ocean. They're kept afloat by massive air-filled sacs and anchored in place by a network of cables.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': In Ixalan, the closest thing the pirates of the Brazen Coalition have to a capital is the city of High and Dry, a collection of derelict ships lashed together and kept afloat. It originally grew around two ships that became hopelessly entangled after ramming into each other, with more and more ships being added over time until it became a full-sized settlement. It usually floats off of Ixalan's northeastern coast and serves as neutral "ground" for the pirates to meet, unwind and strike deals with each other.
[[/folder]]

* ''[[Film/LastSentinel2023 Last Sentinel]]'' (2023) takes place on a tiny sea fort on a FloodedFutureWorld.

* In ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'', since all known land has been covered by water most people live in "atolls" made from scrap metal. As well as traders who live on boats and the "smokers" who are based on the Exxon Valdez.

* Creator/DavidBrin's novel ''Literature/{{Existence}}'' has artificial islands popping up as sea levels rise. However, most of them are resorts for the super-rich or havens for questionably legal biotech experiments. China has a "shoresteading" program for desperate people to try and make the upper levels of flooded mansions in what used to be Shanghai liveable.

* Creator/GordonRDickson's ''Home From the Shore''.
* Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/SnowCrash'' has "Rife's Raft", a gigantic, cobbled-together collection of floating garbage in the Pacific Ocean inhabited by huge numbers of refugees, mostly from Asia.
* Creator/DavidDrake's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheIsles'' series includes a vignette in the first book in which Sharina, Nonus, and some useless nobles spend a few days on the Houseboats of the Sea People. They spend their entire lives at sea and live in large structures crafted largely from whale.
* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' repeatedly mentions military installations called "floating fortresses" that are apparently under construction, which dwarf the ordinary battleships that were their inspiration -- but never explains what they are. Considering the setting, they may not even exist.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Gor}} Raiders of Gor]]'' we meet the Caste of Rencers, who live in a delta connecting a great river and the sea, gathering rence[[note]]a multi-purpose plant used for making paper, rope, utensils, cloth, and food[[/note]] for trade. They live in small villages built on floating rafts of rence. As the rence rots away underwater they weave new layers on top.
* The Skeezers in ''Literature/GlindaOfOz'' live in a [[DomedHometown city]] suspended over the middle of a lake. In times of danger, they can magically submerge the entire city for protection, turning it into an UnderwaterCity.
* ''Literature/TheScar'': The pirate city of Armada is built of thousands of ships, large and small, of every conceivable design roped together en masse.
* ''Literature/SaturnsRace'' takes place on an island grown from accreted sea chemicals ('seament').
* Thule from ''Literature/ArcticRising'' is a collection of ships and oil platforms attached to the last few bits of Arctic sea ice. Later, several of them decide to go their own way.
* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'', between the second the third novels (roughly a 150-year gap), a new nation has sprung up on Earth called the Pacific Aquatoria, made up of privately-owned floating islands. Sergey Valdez, the protagonist of the third novel, is from one such island, owned by the Valdez family, but mortgaged to the bank due to the high costs of living at sea.

* The ''Literature/ArcOfAScythe'' features the Island of the Enduring Heart, also known as Endura. It functions as headquarters for the World Scythe Council, a historical attraction for tourists, and a refuge for the family members of Scythes. [[spoiler: Scythe Goddard sinks it at the end of the second book]].
* Creator/JulesVerne's ''A Floating City'', a huge cruise ship.
* ''Literature/BooksOfTheRaksura'': One such city is built on the back of a [[KrakenAndLeviathan gigantic leviathan]] that roams the surface of a shallow sea, seemingly at random. By all accounts, the local [[TheMagocracy Magocracy]] founded it [[RuleOfCool to show off]], then hid that they were controlling the leviathan's movements in order to enforce their rule over the locals.
* Creator/AlanDeanFoster's Literature/HumanxCommonwealth novel ''Cachalot'' features high-tech floating towns on an [[SingleBiomePlanet Ocean World]].
* In ''Literature/TheWitchlands'', the seat of the Marstoki Empire is the Floating Palace, which is, as the name implies, an entire building complex built off-shore.
* Qaanaaq in ''Blackfish City'' by Sam J. Miller, where the events of the novel take place. There's also mention of a flotilla of US navy ships that is [[FloodedFutureWorld all that's left of the United States federal government]].
* Listoel in the Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton; a flotilla of former oil tankers and ore carriers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. Now that government has fallen most of the cyber-factory ships are docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore, but Event Horizon keep Listoel going to supply energy to Britain and as a base for their [[NGOSuperpower more hardline operations]].
* ''Literature/LaszloHadronAndTheWargodsTomb'': Terratropolis, the capital city of Earth and the Solar Commonwealth, sits in the Atlantic Ocean.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'', one module features a floating city built on giant wooden platforms, kept above water by an enchanted idol that makes everything linked to it unsinkable.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}}'' Legacy Season 2: You operating from a number of floating "havens".

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'':
** A major gameplay element, as any faction can create sea-based settlements as well as the standard land-based ones, in contrast to the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series where only land-based cities are permitted. The Nautilus Pirates faction starts the game with such a settlement and can create an ocean empire faster than the others. If a land base has a Pressure Dome building, it will no longer be destroyed during flooding thanks to global warming. Instead, it will turn into a sea base. Any sea base can become a land base if the water level drops (e.g. global cooling).
** The Rising Tide expansion pack for its SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', also allows players to build cities on ocean tiles. Ocean cities work very differently from land-based cities, with increased production rates for naval units and certain buildings, while facing other challenges, such as Kraken attacks and obstructive Hydra-coral growths. A new Sponsor, the very British/Scandinavian-flavoured North Sea Alliance, gives a number of bonuses to oceanic cities. According to the fluff, the founder of NSA is famous for pioneering the concept back on Earth with the so-called [=ARCs=], one of which he personally piloted to an island nation in danger of flooding and handed it over to the locals, earning himself international fame. Aquatic cities cannot expand borders by accumulating culture (buying hexes with cash still works) but can build a recurring project that moves the city one hex upon completion, which expands borders. There is even an achievement for crushing an enemy unit with a city (difficult to do, since everyone can see the warning "arrow" coming from the city towards a particular tile). This way, aquatic cities can act as mobile bases for an invasion and an impromptu aircraft carrier.
* Frequent in RealTimeStrategy games that involve naval combat where the ship-building structures are constructed directly at sea.
* ''VideoGame/{{Brink}}'' is set aboard The Ark, an experimental floating colony designed to be completely self-sufficient.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has the planet of Manaan with the native water-breathing Selkath, which is covered entirely with water except for Ahto City, which is built on the surface of the ocean to accommodate visitors.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'':
** Lulu tells the story of a city that was once built entirely atop a river, only to sink after its supports collapsed. Wakka condemns [[AdvancedAncientHumans those who built it]] as only doing so for the sake of defying nature, and according to Yevon's teachings, such hubris is the reason Sin exists.
** [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Yevon's capital city Bevelle]] is also built atop the water, something Wakka doesn't seem to acknowledge, [[spoiler:foreshadowing the revelation of Yevon's true face.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' features the city-state of Limsa Lominsa, which is built into the numerous sea stacks off the coast of the isle of Vylbrand. Appropriately, Limsa Lominsa is a former NotSoSafeHarbor turned PortTown run by former pirates, and plays host to the world's strongest navy.

* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'':
** The Black Tortoise (and other Floating Island Fortresses), which is so big you can build an entire base on it.
** It's also possible to make a floating base (and one Uprising map features nothing ''but'' water and unbuildable rocks), as every structure save the tank factory can be built on water.
%%(ZCE)* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'': Terragrigia
* ''VideoGame/ShadowMaster'' have the level on Planet Ocella, an ocean-covered world where the level is set on the Shadow Master's floating outpost.

* ''[[VideoGame/TearsToTiara2 Tears to Tiara 2]]'' has Tartetos, an AdvancedAncientAcropolis that combines aspects of {{Atlantis}} and [[UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations Tenochtitlan]].
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'':
*** Aether Paradise is an artificial island where the Aether Foundation is headquartered and where most of its members live. Its intended purpose is a conservation area for endangered Pokémon, so it was built this way to be far away from any other human civilization and structured and controlled exactly how the Aether Foundation needs it to be. Said remoteness, however, also [[spoiler:allowed them to perform experimentation on Pokémon, brainwashing sessions, and dangerous Ultra Space wormholes in total secrecy under the leadership of Lusamine.]]
*** Seafolk Village is a floating settlement next to the sparsely inhabited Poni Island. It has multiple planks that allow ships to dock.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' has Pacifidlog Town, a small town on floating platforms connected by gangplanks above a Corsola colony.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has the city of Vivec, [[{{Egopolis}} named after]] its eponymous [[PhysicalGod God-King]], off the southern coast of Vvardenfell. It consists of nine "cantons", tiered artificial islands connected by a maze bridges. It is the largest city in the game as well as headquarters of the [[CorruptChurch Tribunal Temple]] whose [[ChurchPolice Ordinators]] serve as city guards.

* In ''[[ComicBook/XenozoicTales Cadillacs and Dinosaurs]]'', the Remains of New York became a floating city called The City In the Sea.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In the first season, the Fire Nation has a TailorMadePrison for earthbenders: a giant offshore platform built entirely out of metal (metalbending wouldn't be discovered for another season). One of the reasons ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' is so reviled is that it replaces the platform with a quarry, making the earthbenders' plight less "nothing to help us escape" and more "we can't be bothered to escape". The third season episode "The Painted Lady" features the Fire Nation fishing village of Jang Hui, which is made of wood and floats on a river.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a similar situation with Ghazan's prison, out at sea and made entirely of wood (Ghazan isn't a metalbender, but they're known to exist by then) and without a speck of dirt anywhere. As we find out during his escape, Ghazan is a ''lavabender'', and just having a few pebbles on hand is enough for him to create a buzzsaw out of lava.

** Aether Paradise, in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', is an artificial island where the Aether Foundation is headquartered and where most of its members live. Its intended purpose is a conservation area for endangered Pokémon, so it was built this way to be far away from any other human civilization and structured and controlled exactly how the Aether Foundation needs it to be. Said remoteness, however, also [[spoiler:allowed them to perform experimentation on Pokémon, brainwashing sessions, and dangerous Ultra Space wormholes in total secrecy under the leadership of Lusamine.]]

* The Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton. Listoel is a flotilla of former oil tankers and ore carriers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. Now that government has fallen most of the cyber-factory ships are docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore, but Event Horizon keep Listoel going to supply energy to Britain and as a base for their [[NGOSuperpower more hardline operations]].

* The 1933 German film ''F.P.1'' involves a floating airport that would have solved the entire [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_gap Mid-Atlantic Gap]] problem if they'd actually gone and built it (and the Allies had captured it intact).
* In ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'', since all known land has been covered by water most people live in "atolls" made from scrap metal. As well as traders who live on boats and the "smokers" who are based on the Exxon Valdez.

* San Angel from ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' sits in the middle of a lake.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'': [=MetaKey=], an artificial island owned and operated by [[MegaCorp MetaCorp]] and the brainchild of Joseph Meta. The city is a libertarian paradise where the only illegal thing is endangering the city itself and has become a haven for all kinds of dealings the megas don't want people to find out about.

** A major gameplay element, as any faction can create sea-based settlements as well as the standard land-based ones, in contrast to the VideoGame/{{Civilization}} series where only land-based cities are permitted. The Nautilus Pirates faction starts the game with such a settlement and can create an ocean empire faster than the others. If a land base has a Pressure Dome building, it will no longer be destroyed during flooding thanks to global warming. Instead, it will turn into a sea base. Any sea base can become a land base if the water level drops (e.g. global cooling).