History Main / DoomedHometown

* ''Literature/TheKillOrder'' opens with Mark living peacefully in a small Appalachian village with the other survivors of the Flare. No guess that it's going to meet a grisly end, if only so Mark can go outside his comfort zone.

* In the ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'', the destruction and enslavement of the Mount Pleasant colony is what kicks off Kirth Gersen's RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

See also WhereIWasBornAndRazed, when the character is the doom of their own hometown.

[[folder:Real life]]
* Ronnie Brunswijk was a Surinamese Maroon, a descendant of African slaves in the Americas who had escaped from slavery and formed independent settlements. In the early 1980s he served as the bodyguard of military coup leader Dési Bouterse, but became disgruntled with his disregard for the Maroon minority. In 1986, Brunswijk left the government and formed the so-called "Jungle Commando" to gain equal rights for his people. Outraged at his decision, Bouterse's first action was to attack Brunswijk's home village of Moiwana. His forces murdered at least 39 villagers, mostly women and children, then burned down Brunswijk's house and destroyed the village.

* Picher, Oklahoma and other nearby towns of Cardin, Oklahoma, Douthat, Oklahoma and Treece, Kansas counts as years of mining for lead and zinc led to chat piles on the outskirts of the town. The chat piles have levels of lead, zinc and other toxic materials in them that the town were bought out by the state and/or the EPA. As of now, only about 20 people call the town of Picher home, Cardin is a ghost town with 0 people calling it home, and Treece is on its way to having a population of 0, as the town only has one family left.
* A major factor in the decline of sea turtle populations is that, too often, females return to their natal beaches to lay eggs, only to find that said beaches have been turned into dockyards, marinas, condos, or busy recreational sites. Migratory salmon face a similar dilemma when the streams where they were hatched get dammed, diverted or polluted.

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] to the point of parody in the first episode of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbt1h_XBRgU&index=2&list=PL9fGHMcRLx6gU9ZLieogw3HJTU9C53HAA Ben McYellow]] series. Due to the [[NoBudget nature]] of the series, the only inhabitant we see other than the title character is the [[MentorOccupationalHazard inevitably doomed elder]], the village itself is represented by a sign reading [[ShapedLikeItself "Our Village"]], and its destruction is represented by totally unrelated StockFootage of a random building demolition.

** Krypton is the quintessential example of a DoomedHometown, being a doomed home ''planet''.

* In James Blish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' series, the flying cities are forced off Earth by the disaster of world conquest by a totalitarian state, then later because Earth has become a CrapsackWorld. The spindizzy surrounds them in a protective bubble as they travel through space, so they are a DoomedHometown that has become a DomedHometown.

* ''Film/TripleThreat'': Jaka's village is sacked by Devereaux and company on the orders of Collins, their leader, to release him from his prison.

!!Examples
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Note that this trope does ''not'' include stories in which survival (within the town) during disaster or war, and its aftermath, are the main focus. The key aspect of this trope is not that the town is destroyed, but that the destruction of (or banishment from) the hero's old home becomes an impetus to the later adventures.

* A major factor in the decline of sea turtle populations is that, too often, females return to their natal beaches to lay eggs, only to find that said beaches have been turned into dockyards, marinas, or busy recreational sites. Migratory salmon face a similar dilemma when the streams where they were hatched get dammed, diverted or polluted.

* The events of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}'' are set into motion when the main character's original home is destroyed in a volcano eruption, forcing him to move.
* [[ManipulativeBastard Discord]] from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' uses the threat of this in a SadisticChoice on Rainbow Dash, forcing her to choose between allowing her hometown of Cloudsdale to be destroyed or helping her friends stop Discord. Even worse, there's nothing to imply it ''isn't happening for real'' and Discord is just enough of a psycho to go through with it.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}'' subverts this by wiping out the inhabitants of his home planet ''[[WhereIWasBornAndRazed all by himself]]''.

** In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', SelfDemonstrating/{{Bizarro}} sent his cousin to Earth because their homeworld was being devoured by the "godship".

* Frieza does precisely this to Planet Vegeta, the Saiyan homeworld, in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', although it actually takes place before the series proper starts, and is shown in flashbacks. [[Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku The Bardock special]] also recounts the events leading up to this EarthShatteringKaboom.
* In ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', one of the ''Anime/MazingerZ'' sequels, Duke Fleed's planet gets destroyed two years before the beginning of the series, forcing him to flee to Earth.
* Many of the princesses of ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' have run away from their destroyed kingdoms, or been caught in the attempt; curiously, the heroine is the only one whose home turf is safe.
* Sara from ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' has a Doomed Space Academy that is attacked by her brother; [[EverybodysDeadDave she is the only survivor]].
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
** Negi and Anya's hometown is attacked by demons that turn nearly all the townspeople to stone. Negi is saved by his father who gives Negi his staff before leaving. Much later on, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the [[EvilChancellor Megalomesembrian Senate]]]] was responsible, and that [[spoiler:the entire attack [[WildMassGuessing may have been]] an assassination attempt on Negi]].
** [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Fate's minions]] all have this as their {{backstory}}, as well as all other orphans that he rescued.

* In ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', Chrono and Rosette's motivation for joining the Order is to find Rosette's brother, Joshua, who was kidnapped by Aion. When he was kidnapped, he was given Chrono's horns--and the power overwhelmed him and he ended up "stopping" the time of the orphanage Rosette and Joshua lived in, [[TakenForGranite freezing everyone inside in stone]]. Chrono, Joshua and Rosette are the only survivors from it.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' has a villainous example. Kul Elna, a village of former tomb builders turned tomb robbers, was burned to the ground and had its inhabitants slaughtered as components in the spell that forged the [[MacGuffin Millennium Items]]. Luckily for one small boy who managed to stay hidden, the sorcerers only needed the lives of the other 99 villagers, which left him as the sole survivor. Flash forward about ten to fifteen years, and Thief King Bakura is out for revenge...
** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', if Satellite counts as a Doomed Hometown (seeing as Zero Reverse reduced what was left of it to a [[WretchedHive crime-ridden slum]]) then Jack, Kiryu, and Crow are genuine examples, and Yusei in spirit. (Yusei grew up thinking he was born there, only learning later that he was sent there as an infant by his parents, who were killed in the disaster.) However, neither they nor any other survivor could leave it, at least for a while, as the corrupt government used the inhabitants like underclass serfs until it was liberated after Godwin's death.
** And in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', Yuto and Shun's home, Heartland was destroyed by Academia before the events of the story, prompting the formation of the Resistance.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' has the Cyberse World, Ai's homeland, razed by the Knights of Hanoi. While he was able to lock it away at the nick of time, [[spoiler: another party was able to destroy it while he was gone, and all the Ignis scattered to different directions.]]
* The ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' franchise has Amia, a mining town found in the 3rd Administrated World - Vaizen. It was destroyed in year 74 of the [[AlternateCalendar new Mid-Childa calendar]], seven years before the events of ''Force''. Official records state that it was [[GasLeakCoverup an accident involving earthquakes and poisonous fumes]]. Tohma, the main character of ''Force'' and the only survivor of that event, believe otherwise and has made it his life's goal to find the true culprit behind the disaster.
* ''Manga/FlameOfRecca'' - the destruction of Recca's hometown and the wholesale slaughter of the Hokage clan is what causes Recca to be [[spoiler: sent forward in time to the modern day]].
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', there were ''two'' hometowns that were destroyed:
** Ohara, the home island of eventual-protagonist Nico Robin is the product of this. Given that she is hunted by the World Government precisely because she is the sole survivor of the Marines' otherwise utter annihilation of her hometown.
** [[spoiler:Trafalgar Law was a victim of this. His hometown and country, Flevance, was quarantined with all its citizens, including children, getting summarily executed. The only way Law escaped was by hiding in the piles of corpses of his loved ones.]]
** A downplayed example in that Gray Terminal was an inhabited landfill and scrapyard where protagonist Luffy and his childhood friends Ace and Sabo used to spend most of their time, which was then destroyed--with its inhabitants still in it--in an attempt by [[AristocratsAreEvil the corrupt aristocracy on the island]] to impress a visiting powerful politician, with the boys as the only known survivors. The towns where the three of them actually live, however, have remained intact.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', Copy Rezo destroys Sairaag, Syphiel's hometown. In ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}} Next'', Lina Inverse destroys Xoana, Martina's hometown.

* Colin's home in ''Anime/HighlanderTheSearchForVengeance'' gets destroyed by the BigBad Marcus. Particularly brutal as Colin had recently been made chief of the village.
* This is how Exa of ''Manga/{{Superior}}'' became a hero, in keeping with his "deconstructed '80s JRPG hero" nature. Very briefly, he resolved to kill all monsters, but when a little monster he'd tamed found and comforted him in the ruins, he changed that to "kill the demon queen." (Incidentally, the demon queen is ''the protagonist''.)
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' features several, as a direct result of Wall Maria being abandoned at the beginning of the series.
** Shiganshina District, the home of PowerTrio Eren, Mikasa, and Armin is the most prominent example. Its destruction is the focal point of the beginning of the series, and it serves as a symbol of everything lost when Wall Maria was breached. Reclaiming it becomes vital to the plot, since [[spoiler:the mystery of Eren's powers may be hidden in the ruins of his home]].
** [[ThoseTwoGuys Reiner and Bertolt]] come from a remote mountain village in Wall Maria, and briefly describe it being destroyed because the Titans reached it before they could receive any warning. [[spoiler:This is part of their [[TheMole cover]] story; they found the SoleSurvivor of the village, learned about it, and then staged his suicide]].
** Jean's hometown, the Trost District, is badly damaged during the battle there, but manages to narrowly avoid this fate thanks to [[spoiler:the discovery of Eren's powers]].
** [[spoiler:Connie]]'s village is found abandoned and destroyed during the breach of [[spoiler:Wall Rose]]. The hints about what happened are chilling to say the very least.
* In ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', the XY chapter starts off with [[spoiler: Xerneas and Yvetal duking it out with each other to the point that Vaniville Town gets destroyed while simultaneously Team Flare goes after X's Mega Ring and burn down his house to get to him.]]
* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', this is what prompts [[spoiler: Kurogane]] to become [[spoiler: a ninja serving under Princess Tomoyo]] in hopes of finding the one who did the deed and killing him.
* ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'' opens with the massacre of the protagonist's village by a gunslinger in black, and once she comes to terms with that she sets out on a journey to save the world.
* ''Manga/Brave10'' opens with the Izumo shrine where Isanami grew up being burned to the ground and all the priests and shrine-maidens killed by Tokugawa Ieyasu's ninjas, with only Isanami escaping.

* ''Manga/AkaAkatoretachiNoMonogatari'', Itsuki's village is razed by vampires and its people hunted to eaten.
* In ''Anime/BackArrow'', Edger Village gets destroyed due the fighting against the forces of Iki and Elsha's accidental unearthing of the [[CoolAirship Granedger]]. However, unlike most instances of this trope, most if not the entirety of the villagers survived and relocated to the ship so that they can find a new home.
* ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' has one straight example involving the slaughter of the titular character's village by goblins, which set him on the path of becoming the living bane for the entire race, but interestingly enough it has several other {{defied|Trope}} examples. The gods have a habit of trying to give a DarkAndTroubledPast to adventurers they view as having potential for interesting "stories", mainly through having their hometowns slaughtered by goblins, but Goblin Slayer's status as ImmuneToFate has resulted in him preventing such circumstances from occuring, which has lead to divinely intended cases of dark and brooding people instead growing up happy and well-adjusted, along with preventing seasoned adventurers from experiencing a MyGreatestFailure by losing ''their'' hometowns due to being unable to make it in time.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}'' subverts this by wiping out the inhabitants of his home planet ''[[WhereIWasBornAndRazed all by himself]]''.
-->'''Lobo''' ''(in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse):'' "I'm the last Czarnian. [[ComedicSociopathy I fragged the rest of the planet for my high school science project. Gave myself an A.]]"
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'''s entire civilization was destroyed when his evil brother Mala'faak released a virus that set all Green Martians exposed to it aflame. Which was pretty much all of them.
* In ''ComicBook/RomSpaceknight,'' [[spoiler: Claireton, West Virginia, which served as the setting for much of the series and is home to Rom's girlfriend Brandy Clark, is completely overrun by Dire Wraiths during Rom's absence, its inhabitants slaughtered. Brandy, by then a Spaceknight herself, becomes obsessed with exacting vengeance against the Wraiths for this atrocity.]]
* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest''. [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/OQ/OQ01/DisplayOQ01.html?page=14 Humans burn down our heroes' forest holt]], forcing them to go on... well, the entire rest of the story, basically, rather than just staying home.
* The home planets of the eponymous seven in ''ComicBook/SovereignSeven''.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Hal Jordan's home base of Coast City was destroyed, starting a chain of events that turn him into an insane killer/possessed victim of an entity called Parallax.
* Invoked in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', when Deathstroke orders ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'s city, Bludhaven, destroyed as revenge against the hero. However, this really didn't become an impetus for Nightwing's later adventures.

* What happens to All in ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'', which Red Hood feels is his real home and where he ''truly'' grew up.
* Arwyn's hometown is wiped out by the DarkLord Mordath in the first issue of ''ComicBook/{{Sojourn}}''. This is what starts Arwyn on her RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''ComicBook/TheExtremistVector'': The homeworld of the Extremists, Blue Jay and Silver Sorcerer, was destroyed in a nuclear war.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', the main character's [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet home planet]] is [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroyed]] by the Drej for reasons that are, at the time, obscure. [[spoiler:Turns out the Drej were ''scared'' of humanity and wanted to weaken them.]]

* The village in ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', which is sacked in a cat-Cossack pogrom at the very beginning, in a ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'' parody. Surprisingly, this is intended to be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shostka a real town]], which has in fact survived.
* The village in ''{{WesternAnimation/Mulan}}'' the troops encounter before the Tung Shao Pass. The houses were on fire, pieces of cloth were torn, innocent people were murdered, and [[spoiler:the army led by Shang's father were killed by the Huns, including the general himself]]

* Possibly the most famous is the destruction of Luke's home in ''Franchise/StarWars'', killing his aunt and uncle but freeing him to leave the planet. Notice that he [[AngstWhatAngst never mentions them ever again]], and instead [[TellMeAboutMyFather obsesses over his father]] who ''didn't'' raise him.
** Also, Leia's home planet [[EarthShatteringKaboom gets exploded]] by the Death Star, with the Empire [[ForcedToWatch making her watch]] [[WatchingTroyBurn the whole thing]].
* In ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', when Alex RefusedTheCall and wants to go back to Earth, he finds the hard way TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive, as an alien assassin comes to his hometown. Centauri implies this trope (as well as Alex's death) will result unless Alex takes part in the war. Alex reluctantly agrees.

* In ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', Johhny Rico's native city, Buenos Aires, gets destroyed by the bugs just as he [[RefusalOfTheCall resigned from the armed forces]]. Of course, now ItsPersonal.
* In the ''Film/StreetFighter'' movie, Chun Li reveals she's pursuing M. Bison because he destroyed her village and killed her father. This leads to the single most awesome bit about the movie, in an echo of Thulsa Doom above:
-->'''M. Bison:''' For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. ButForMeItWasTuesday.

* The Western movie ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'' begins with the eponymous hero's house being burned down and his family killed.
* Near the beginning of ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', the jungle village of the protagonist gets razed to the ground by city Mayans, and its inhabitants are captured as slaves and human sacrifices.
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire'' tells about the annihilation of [[spoiler: Katniss' home district]].
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay'' shows the ruins after the annihilation of [[spoiler: Katniss' home district]].
* [[spoiler:Hometree]] in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', and [[InferredHolocaust possibly]] [[spoiler:Earth]].

* ''Film/ComeAndSee'' has Florya's home village, which ends up slaughtered some time after he joins up with the partisans. He's in denial about it at first.
* Superman's homeworld of Krypton is destroyed in ''Film/ManOfSteel'''s opening. [[spoiler: Also Smallville and Metropolis get wrecked in the battles between Superman and Zod.]]
* ''Film/TheBeastmaster''. When Evil Rip Torn attacks Dar's village and [[AndYourLittleDogToo kills his dog]], Dar dresses in leather, burns the bodies and goes on a grand quest.
* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': [[spoiler:The Kona destroy Zachry's camp and kill his family and people.]]
* In ''Film/BeyondSherwoodForest'', Will Scarlet's village is destroyed by the dragon searching for Robin Hood.
* In ''Film/CryBloodApache'', Vittorio returns from a hunting trip to discover everyone in his tribe's camp has been massacred by the prospectors. This sparks his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* Shirin's Bedouin village in ''Film/MissFisherAndTheCryptOfTears'', as shown in flashback. It is Shirin's determination to reveal the truth of what happened to her village that drives much of the plot.
* ''Film/GhostRock'' opens with Pickett's gang attacking the Starr ranch and massacring everyone there except for Johnny Slaughter (who was visiting and hid in the barn) and Savannah. [[spoiler:Or so it seems. The ending reveals that Savannah has been DeadAllAlong.]]

* In ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series, Roland Deschain's hometown, the royal city of Gilead, was destroyed by the forces of John Farson.
* This happens in ''Literature/{{Dragoncharm}}'' to South Point, [[TheChosenOne Fortune]] and [[ActionSurvivor Cumber's]] home.
* In Literature/ReturnOfTheReaper we have Holtz's hometown, along with [[spoiler: pretty much every other human city in the novel]].

* In book 12 of the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series, ''Mission of Honor,'' this happens not just to Honor's [[spoiler:hometown, killing half her extended family,]] but also to [[spoiler:a treecat clan]] and to Manticore's [[spoiler:assets and people in orbit.]]
* In ''[[Literature/TheElderScrolls The Infernal City]]'', Annaïg's and Mere-Glim's hometown of Lilmoth undergoes a miniaturized ZombieApocalypse.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'' opens on a Thursday morning as Arthur Dent looks outside his house at a bulldozer poised to demolish it to make way for a bypass. Coincidentally, the Vogon Constructor Fleet [[EarthShatteringKaboom demolishes Earth]] later that day in order to build a hyperspace bypass. Before blowing up this InsignificantLittleBluePlanet, the Vogons tell its inhabitants that they should have seen it coming: as with Arthur's house, the plans for the bypass were on file, even if some ObstructiveBureaucrat did store them in a slightly out-of-the-way location without telling anyone that there were plans that someone needed to look at and file an objection to ("What do you mean, you've never been to Alpha Centauri?") "I could never get the hang of Thursdays." Arthur remarks as all this happens.
* ''Literature/WatershipDown'', WaifProphet rabbit Fiver has a vision of their warren being destroyed. He, his brother and few others escape on this revelation and learn later that the vision was completely correct.

* In ''Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress'' the City of Destruction (the main character's hometown) will be destroyed in the end of days by fire and brimstone, prompting him to escape to Celestial City (heaven).
* Invoked in '' Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'' Amadeus' home farm gets destroyed by the Heir some time after Amadeus became the Squire, and his remaining family is killed. He remarks on it being inevitable, some way or the other, because Squires don't get a home to return to.
* In Eric Flint's ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' and successor books, the 'hero' is in some sense Grantville, West Virginia, displaced in time and space to Thuringia in 1632. None of the characters in it can go home to Modern Earth, and they have no idea if Modern Earth has been destroyed by the event that moved them, or continues to exist in another 'branch' of time.

* Subverted in the second book of ''Literature/TheSovereignStone'' Trilogy. The EvilOverlord sends his henchman to the home village of one of the protagonists with orders to burn the village, massacre the inhabitants and torture the survivors to death for information.[[spoiler:The villagers, however, are part of a tribal culture whose main exports are fearless barbarian mercenaries. They massacre the henchman, torture the boss henchman to death and stake out his body as an example to those who will follow, before burning their village to the ground so the enemy (who knows where they live) will get no use from it then go off to found a new home elsewhere.]]
* Mino, Takeo's village in ''Literature/TalesOfTheOtori'', does not outlast the opening chapter of the first book.
* Played with in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': though Emond's Field is attacked by Trollocs in the first hundred pages and the father of TheHero is severely wounded in the assault, both the hometown and the main characters' families and friends all survive this and later defeat a second, worse invasion in the fourth book. Played straight for Perrin, though, whose whole family gets killed and his home burned to the ground.
** Averted as of the most recent book: far from being demolished, the Two Rivers is thriving, having emerged from its sleepy isolationism, discovered the military application of being the home of some of the world's best archers, produced some of the most powerful young magic-users (both male and female) in the world, peacefully absorbed one nearby nation-state and built strong ties to two others, and gone from being a forgotten backwater of the queendom of which it was only nominally a part to being officially recognized and elevated above all other member states in what is quickly becoming one of the largest and most powerful empires on the continent.
** Lan Mandragoran, the Uncrowned Prince of Malkier has monstrous hordes overrun his entire homeland while he's still a baby. He spends the next twenty years of his life training to be a warrior and promptly sets off to go mano-a-mano with the entire freaking Blight and all the minions of the Dark One. Of course, he gets sidetracked by becoming Warder to Moirane, but fast-forward twenty years and he's mentoring and helping The Chosen One to battle the Big Bad who, incidentally, was responsible for razing Malkier. Now, again, he's on his personal vengeance-for-the-homeland quest with practically all the Malkieri survivors.
** Also true for Olver, whose parents were killed by Shaido and who has basically committed himself to avenging them someday.
* Inverted, to an extent, in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. The Hobbits return to the Shire, but home is not the same: the BigBad is defeated, but the homeland they set out to protect has become a {{Dystopia}}. There aren't even any hints of this (except a brief glimpse via Galadriel's mirror, by Sam, and even then it's not clear whether it's ''really'' going to happen--Galadriel warns of a possible SelfFulfillingProphecy if Sam tries to go back and stop it) until the main plot of the book is over. It's compelling enough to avert the EndingFatigue you'd expect when the climax is in Chapter Three of the last book, and its omission is one reason that EndingFatigue exists in the movie, as it's a new source of tension in the Scouring of the Shire, which has to be resolved before the final ending of Frodo's and Bilbo's trip into the west and Sam's epilogue. With the Scouring removed in the film, so is the tension; as the rest remains the same, the plot spends its last half-hour just coasting downhill.

* In Suzzanne Collins' ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series, Katniss Everdeen's hometown District 12 [[spoiler: is bombed into oblivion under the orders of President Snow as retaliation for the occurrences of book two, Catching Fire. The book ends with some one telling her it's gone, so you know it's important. Later on, Katniss visits the District 12 ruins and is noticeably guilty over the fact that it's gone, and the bombing of 12 is brought up multiple times throughout the last book.]]
* In the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', first of all Eragon's home is destroyed and Garrow killed, then in Eldest, [[spoiler: the Empire come for Roran which results in the destruction of Carvahall and the villagers all leaving for the Varden]].

* In the first book of ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheEmergedWorld'', Nihal's home city of Salazar is attacked by [[TheDragon Dola]] and his army of [[TheUsualAdversaries Fammin]] and her adoptive father Lovin is killed while trying to buy her some time to flee.
* In ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', the three main characters have grown up at Gifted Academy in the seaside town of Caladel. Aside from them, literally everyone at the Academy is brutally massacred 5 chapters in.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Winterfell, the Starks' castle, is gone [[spoiler:by the end of book 2, being first invaded by Theon Greyjoy and then sacked by the Boltons]].

* In ''Literature/TheBigWave'', Jiya's seaside village of more than twenty houses is destroyed by the eponymous tsunami.
* At the beginning of the second book of the ''Literature/{{Gor}}'' series, the protagonist Tarl Cabot wants to go back to his home city of Koroba, only to find it destroyed and its inhabitants spread all around the world. [[spoiler:It turns out the Priest-Kings of Gor did that ''just to piss him off'', since home cities are a really important and touchy subject on Gor and they knew it was the surest way to make Tarl go to them.]]
* In the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series, the AntiChrist's capital city New Babylon is destroyed by God at the end of the Tribulation. Before that, Chicago (the home place of the inner-city ministry known as The Place) was destroyed by a nuke.
* The same thing happens to the rebuilt city of Babylon in the ''Literature/ChristCloneTrilogy''.
* Dennagon's home city of Drakemight in ''Literature/DragonsLexiconTriumvirate'', as it was destroyed in a barrage of nuclear missiles from humans.

* ''Literature/TheKillOrder'' opens with Mark living peacefully in a small Appalachian village with the other survivors of the Flare. No guess that it's going to meet a grisly end, if only so Mark can go outside his comfort zone.
* In the second ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, the forest - the home of the Clans - is destroyed, prompting a journey to find a new home where the rest of the series takes place.
* "Literature/TheTamariskHunter": It is implied that Travis once lived farther down in Lake Havasu City before the drought and [[CrypticBackgroundReference whatever disaster happened to the city]] forced them to flee.

* ''Literature/TheSeichiChronicles'': Britan's hometown, Thebes, gets destroyed by the ice-breathing wyvern Asager Shell in the first arc. To make matters even worse, Britan gets a [[WatchingTroyBurn front row seat]] as he tries to warn the villagers and escape himself.
* In ''Literature/{{Candide}}'', Candide, a while after being expelled from Thunder-Ten-Tronck, is told that its inhabitants were [[RapePillageAndBurn raped and slaughtered]] by an invading army.
* ''Literature/SmallMedium'': Discussed. Chase wants an adventure, but her sister goes on a long rant about how this will result in their entire town being destroyed (their people are GenreSavvy specifically so that they can [[RefusalOfTheCall stay the hell away from adventure]]). Ultimately, the town of Bothernot survives the ensuing excitement, with some property damage but minimal loss of life. Chase and her family have to leave because the local law will happily kill them all to cover up their own mistakes.
-->'''Greta:''' Next you'll be finding a sword meant for a prophesey'd hero, and revealing an old birthmark, and then FOOMP, the village will get burnt down and it'll all be your fault Chase Berrymore.
* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': Variant. The Li Grand Patriarch, [[OutsideContextProblem an ascendant being from beyond the world]], comes back to Sacred Valley in order to kill all his clan's enemies. Lindon tries to stop him, but this does literally nothing; the Grand Patriarch kills him without even noticing the attack. Then Suriel descends from the sky, stops time, puts the Grand Patriarch in prison, reverses all his damage so that it never even happened, and praises Lindon for his bravery. She then shows him his future--including the part where, in thirty years time, the entire Valley will be destroyed. Lindon leaves in order to gain enough power to save his home. Unfortunately, in the course of leaving he pisses off one of the most powerful organizations in the Valley, they assume he went back to hide with his family, and they declare vengeance on them. When Lindon finally returns, he finds that his family has been hiding in the wilderness for years.

* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', [[spoiler: Magnus's hometown, Ravensroost, ended up being attacked once more by the tyrant he drove away - not to conquer it, but to destroy it. Only a portion of it got damaged, but it was enough to scare the surviving locals off, leaving the place a ghost town.]] Later on, it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Starblaster crew's home planet fits this trope, too.]]

* ''Theatre/{{Brand}}'' by Creator/HenrikIbsen used this trope in 1866. Brand`s hometown is sited in a narrow fjord, with a glacier hanging almost precisely in balance over it. It is a known fact that a sudden, sharp sound, like a rifle shot, will make the glacier fall. And by the end of the play, it does - and everybody in the vicinity perishes. Because of this glacier, Brand`s hometown is already doomed.

* in ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'', Ilene plans for this to be her {{Snowlem}} character's backstory.
* Deliberately invoked in ''Webcomic/IKilledTheHero'', in which the main characters are [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC characters]] in a game. Many of them are concerned over the story starting because the starting town always gets demolished at the beginning of the game.

* In ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'', this is the backstory of the Insectis character Chiki: She was on a scouting mission aboveground when her hive was exterminated by a stronger one.
* Inverted in ''[[Webcomic/FifteenMinds Blue Moon Blossom]]''; [[spoiler:the bunny]] returns to their hometown to find that it was ravaged by incorporeal snake demons that turned all the inhabitants to stone, leaving [[spoiler:the bunny and the rabbit spirit]] to restore the village. The others tried to fight back, as evidenced by the villagers wielding swords and other weapons, but to no avail.
* ''Webcomic/CrimsonKnights'' starts with Judoch and Wilburg's village being destroyed by werewolves, forcing them to flee into the night.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': This is a fairly common occurrence on [[DeathWorld Remnant]]. Since the Creatures of Grimm seem to exist just to wipe out humanity, villages and cities outside the Four Kingdoms (and inside them is by no means a guarantee of safety either) tend to be frequent targets, and you have the various [[BanditClan Bandit Clans]] that roam around out there. In the main cast, however, we have [[spoiler: Lie Ren]] whose home village of [[spoiler: Kuroyuri]] was destoryed by Grimm years ago.

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] to the point of parody in the first episode of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbt1h_XBRgU&index=2&list=PL9fGHMcRLx6gU9ZLieogw3HJTU9C53HAA Ben McYellow]] series. Due to the [[NoBudget nature]] of the series, the only inhabitant we see other than the title character is the [[MentorOccupationalHazard inevitably doomed elder]], the village itself is represented by a sign reading [[ShapedLikeItself "Our Village"]], and its destruction is represented by totally unrelated StockFootage of a random building demolition.

* In ''Literature/UnlikelyEden'' this happens twice technically, but the very first installment chronicles the escape of the two protagonists from a hometown in a state of ''current'' dooming.

* Not an entire town, but the game ''VideoGame/PeasantsQuest'' on the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' website kicks off with Rather Dashing's thatch-roofed cottage being burninated by Trogdor and Rather Dashing swearing revenge.
* A lot of them in ''Literature/TheSolsticeWar'' but most obviously, Leander loses Bika village a few days after becoming a citizen and settling down, this on the heels of being exiled from his home.

* In Creator/ProZD's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_01Z497SFa8 RPGs with tons of characters]]," Gunther was the only other survivor when his brother Lysanderoth killed everyone in their village, for which Gunther swore revenge. Immediately subverted, as the player finds Gunther boring and leaves him out of his party. To add insult to injury, at least one of the characters he ''does'' bring along doesn't even know who Lysanderoth is.

*** After season 2, Jasper, Nevada becomes this for the human protagonists.

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