History Main / PhysicalHeaven

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* Literature/TolkiensLegendarium has the continent Aman in the West with the land Valinor, which is the realm of the Valar (divine spirits made by the creator god; think angels or minor gods) -- or at least it did until the end of the Second Age, when Ilúvatar reshaped the world into a sphere and Valinor became accessible only by elven ships capable of sailing the Straight Road off-world.
** Interestingly, the trope is also averted with respect to Ilúvatar Himself and His domain (where the Valar originally come from), which is completely outside the universe and is hinted to be where humans go after death.
* In ''Literature/TheOtherWind'', the Heaven in the West is...in...the West.
* John Varley's ''Titan'' series is mostly set in a space habitat that is, itself, alive. The hub is where the station's avatar hangs out, and it's set up as a kind of Hollywood Heaven... Gaia understands the value of theatrics.
* Cori Celesti, the mountain at the centre of the Literature/{{Discworld}}, is the site of Dunmanifestin, the home of the gods. It’s entirely reachable by mortals with the right skills or technology — ''Literature/TheLastHero'' revolves around a gang of old [[BarbarianHero barbarian heroes]] on a quest to ''blow it up.''
* The ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' short story, ''The Ruins of Heaven'' has The Sixth Doctor and Perri arrive on the city of Heaven on the planet Sheol. It turns out to be a tourist trap with the angels being actors. A Fallen angel tells Perri that the planet used to be the real Heaven but God and the angels left to found a new one after tourists discovered it.
* In ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' the first 7 "circles" of Heaven consist of the Moon, Sun, and the five visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), while the 8th consists of the "fixed stars" (as most astronomers and astrologers at the time thought the stars didn't move, unlike the planets.) This eventually gets subverted in the 10th heaven (The Empyrean), where God actually "lives", and is described as being beyond matter and space.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' featured a physical 'up there' that mortals could enter, although it was both difficult and only permitted in emergencies. It was never really made clear whether this 'heaven' was where the dead resided, or purely the home of White Lighters.
* InUniverse example on ''Series/{{The 100}}'': The people living in space practice a religion where ''Earth'' is Heaven. It's where they send the bodies of the dead, and the time when they're able to return to Earth is treated like the coming of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Age Messianic Age]].

* As mentioned above, Mount Olympus was considered to be the abode of the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek pantheon]].
* The [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Garden of Eden]] is said to have once been a real place on Earth, presumably before being destroyed by The Biblical Flood. Two of the four rivers that are said to have originated from it are very much real rivers in the Middle East: ''Hiddekel'' is the Tigris while ''Perat'' is the Euphrates. Nobody can agree on where its original location is though; candidates have included the Armenian Highlands, Kurdistan, and the Lower Mesopotamia.

* ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker2'' has a physical heaven to match its PhysicalHell, but its guarded by the war god. Considering he can be beaten by a thirteen year old potentially, forcing the Gods to raise the drawbridge (or rather, make it disappear) he's probably not very good at his job.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' has [[spoiler: Arkantos' son]] wrecking heaven. Well, the [[Myth/GreekMythology Greek equivalent.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' mod ''VideoGame/TheAether'', you can enter the Aether "dimension" through a portal. Doesn't seem like it fits this trope, right? If you fall from it, you end up in the overworld. Even if it is technically another dimension in the game engine, it's right above your head. [[ImmediateSelfContradiction Except it isn't]] when you actually build up there. For clarification, due to the world being locked at a set number of blocks high The Aether had to become a new dimension in order to build around that block limit. It is heavily implied that it is actually just above the top of that height limit because when you fall from it you drop into the top of the main dimension at the same distance from the entrance as where you fell.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has Hakugyokuro (the Netherworld), the Hell of Blazing Fires, the shores of the Sanzu, and the heavenly realm of Bhava-agra as locales.
* One iteration of the ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' universe allowed angelic player characters to pour energy into the land of the mortal plane and transform buildings and terrain into the idealized landscape of Elysium. Demons could do the opposite and try to turn it into PhysicalHell instead.
* In the third ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'', the Medieval European-inspired Castle faction has as its ultimate base upgrade the Portal of Glory, a gold-and-ivory, banner-draped gate to FluffyCloudHeaven literally built atop the clouds over the city. Despite the practical difficulties of attacking such a structure, GameplayAndStorySegregation means that successfully besieging the human castle far below puts invaders in control of the Portal as well.
* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'': Urdak seems to be this, although it's kept somewhat ambiguous if it's really Heaven, as while it's quite pretty, and seem to be [[HeavenAbove in the "sky"]], the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Makyrs]] are anything but benevolent, although it's implied they weren't always so evil, and the current [[BigBad Khan Makyr]] made them this way.
* VideoGame/RiskOfRain2 mentions a religion called the High Court, which believes that Heaven is a physical location somewhere in the universe, and dedicates itself to deep-space exploration in the hopes of finding it.

Many mythological settings had physical heavens, the tops of Mount Olympus being the supposed HomeOfTheGods. So physical heavens are more common in mythological settings.

* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'': Urdak seems to be this, although it's kept somewhat ambiguous if it's really Heaven, as while it's quite pretty, and seem to be [[FluffyCloudHeaven in the "sky",]] the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Makyrs.]] are anything but benevolent, although it's implied they weren't always so evil, and the current [[BigBad Khan Makyr]] made them this way.

* Cori Celesti, the mountain at the centre of the Literature/{{Discworld}}, is the site of Dunmanifestin, the home of the gods.

* ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker 2'' has a physical heaven to match its PhysicalHell, but its guarded by the war god. Considering he can be beaten by a thirteen year old potentially, forcing the Gods to raise the drawbridge (or rather, make it disappear) he's probably not very good at his job.

Many mythological settings had physical heavens, the tops of Mount Olympus being the supposed homes of the Gods. So physical heavens are more common in mythological settings.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's Middle-Earth legendarium (''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', etc.) has the continent Aman in the West with the land Valinor, which is the realm of the Valar (divine spirits made by the creator god; think angels or minor gods) -- or at least it did until the end of the Second Age, when Ilúvatar reshaped the world into a sphere and Valinor became accessible only by elven ships capable of sailing the Straight Road off-world.

* The [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Garden of Eden]] was likely to be inspired by a real place on Earth. Two of the four rivers that supposedly originated from it are real rivers in the Middle East: ''Hiddekel'' is the Tigris while ''Perat'' is the Euphrates. Nobody can agree on where it is though; candidates have included the Armenian Highlands, Kurdistan, and the Lower Mesopotamia. It's worth noting that, as with many things in the Bible, the Garden of Eden idea was borrowed from an older source, namely the Sumerian concept of "garden of the gods", which was postulated to be based on the Dilmun civilization (modern-day UsefulNotes/{{Bahrain}}).

* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'' has, of course, this and is invaded in the second book.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's Middle-Earth legendarium (''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', etc.) has the continent Aman in the West with the land Valinor, which is the realm of the Valar (divine spirits made by the creator god; think angels or minor gods) -- or at least it did until the Second Age, when Ilúvatar reshaped the world into a sphere and Valinor became accessible only by elven ships capable of sailing the Straight Road off-world.

[[folder:Literature]]
* The ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' short story, ''The Ruins of Heaven'' has The Sixth Doctor and Perri arrive on the city of Heaven on the planet Sheol. It turns out to be a tourist trap with the angels being actors. A Fallen angel tells Perri that the planet used to be the real Heaven but God and the angels left to found a new one after tourists discovered it.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' featured a physical 'up there' that mortals could enter, although it was both difficult and only permitted in emergencies. It was never really made clear whether this 'heaven' was where the dead resided, or purely the home of White Lighters.

Where there are demons, there are usually their opposing numbers, assuming the world isn't completely [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]], and occasionally they will have a physical base on Earth. Much rarer than its malevolent counterpart, as heaven doesn't usually come up as often as hell in stories, due to not being [[ToHellAndBack quite as obvious a target for those pesky adventurers]]. (Though [[RageAgainstTheHeavens considering how much fun heaven can be to fight,]] this is a shame.)

* One intro page for ''WebOriginal/HomestarRunner'' is a FluffyCloudHeaven. Hovering over one of the site links has a squadron of fighter jets fly through.

* ''WebOriginal/TheSalvationWar'' has, of course, this and is invaded in the second book.