History Main / SortingAlgorithmOfThreateningGeography

* ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' begins its first act with the relatively easy [[GreenHillZone Sunken Glades and Hollow Grove]], progressing to [[BubblegloopSwamp Thornfelt Swamp]], [[UndergroundLevel the underground Moon Grotto]], and the [[JungleJapes jungle-like]] Ginso Tree, then the second act goes to the [[GustyGlade Valley of the Wind]], [[LostWoods Misty Woods]] and [[SlippySlideyIceWorld the icy Forlorn Ruins]], then the final act ascends to [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Sorrow Pass]], a GustyGlade on DeathMountain in {{Mordor}}, and the LethalLavaLand of [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Mount Horu]].

* The ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series, having codified the GreenHillZone, frequently follows this trope, beginning with the aforementioned environment and ending with Dr. Eggman's latest base. This even carries over to ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo a game built in two halves]]: the ''Sonic 3'' half begins in the jungles of Angel Island and proceeds through moderately threatening levels, whereas the ''Sonic & Knuckles'' half is mostly compromised of levels building up to the climax.

* ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime The Eye of the World]]'' also does this. It starts off in the sleepy farming country of the Two Rivers, progressing to various grand cities, then we go to the harsh, icy pine forests of Shienar and then to the plagued jungle that is The Blight.

** Starting with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', most 2D games in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series start in GreenHillZone and end in LethalLavaLand.[[note]]While ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' was the first to introduce most of the classical settings, it ends with a BubblyClouds world instead[[/note]] ShiftingSandLand is usually world 2, UnderTheSea or another aquatic level is typically World 3. An [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice world]] and a [[JungleJapes jungle world]] are also common somewhere in the middle. A notable exception is ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', which starts with ''two'' grassland worlds and continue with different settings (a whole world of {{Underground Level}}s, Bubbly Clouds, TheLostWoods, DeathMountain and another underground world). This pattern is almost always also the standard for fan games and ROM hacks based on the series.
** The 3D games are no slouch in this department either. ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', for example, features a GreenHillZone with shades of a RemilitarizedZone as its first level, whereas the final ones include examples of DeathMountain, EternalEngine and BubblyClouds that are filled with BottomlessPits.

** The sequel has more unique settings, but still count. JungleJapes + TempleOfDoom is the first, followed by UndergroundLevel, AmusementParkOfDoom, UnderTheSea + GangplankGalleon, {{Prehistoria}} (which has an actual DeathMountain), EternalEngine set in a BubblegloopSwamp, '''the''' HailfirePeaks and then a {{Wackyland}} set in BubblyClouds.

* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy III'' plays this pretty straight, going from GreenHillZone to PalmtreePanic to SlippySlideyIceWorld to ShiftingSandLand with RuinsForRuinsSake to LethalLavaLand in {{Mordor}} to SpaceZone. {{Gaiden Game}}s ''Bullet Heaven'' and ''Adventure Story'' are pretty good about this as well, with the former going from GreenHillZone to PalmtreePanic to ShiftingSandLand to LethalLavaLand and the latter from GreenHillZone to ShiftingSandLand to SlippySlideyIceWorld to LethalLavaLand. Now the next game, on the other hand, subverts it pretty much all the way. The FirstTown is in the same setting as the previous games' opening stage, and the rest of the forest, the actual first level in this game, is full of fire and brimstone. The crystal caves are beautiful, but deadly. Then you find another town in this game, this one taking up the ice world. West is a really small, optional BigBoosHaunt leading back home, but east is a great big EternalEngine with a toxic sewer midway through and an ice bit right near the end. After beating that level, you can go to the JungleJapes fourth level and find old friends from early in the last game ([[KillerRabbit that are no easier than the guys from last level]]). After that's taken care of come the third and last town (in ShiftingSandLand with a bit of PalmtreePanic) and the last dungeon, a much more involved TempleOfDoom leading up into BubblyClouds.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fe}}'' begins with the eponymous protagonist awakening in a GreenHillZone adjacent the WorldTree HubLevel, from which they follow a [[UndergroundLevel cavern]] to DeathMountain, descend to a GustyGlade valley with hints of ShiftingSandLand, cross BubblegloopSwamp to a [[PalmtreePanic seaside zone]], navigate a BlackoutBasement followed by a SlippySlideyIceWorld, then hop and glide across BubblyClouds to reach the EternalEngine FinalDungeon.

* The journey of our heroes in ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' has followed this pattern so far, starting in a quaint home village, then passing through a [[LevelAte cheerful candy castle]], a [[PalmtreePanic tropical ocean kingdom]], and a [[BigBoosHaunt spooky]] [[BandLand music-themed kingdom]], before plunging into increasingly threatening landscapes of [[TheHedgeOfThorns overgrown]] [[RuinsForRuinsSake ruined gardens]] and an [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice]]/[[LethalLavaLand fire]] world [[CrystalLandscape made of crystals]]. It's been hinted that they may eventually travel into the [[BubblyClouds sky]], then [[SpaceZone outer space]]! Fitting, given that the entire comic is an affectionate tribute to (and riff on) the sort of video games that invented this trope.

* ''VideoGame/Haven2020'' takes place in GreenHillZone for most of the first act, briefly detours to BubblegloopSwamp, then heads to ShiftingSandLand in the southern section of the map, followed by LethalLavaLand for the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' is a case where the environments already start bleak but only get worse. The Basement at least still has a vaguely familiar "house-like" feeling to it. After that is the larger and eerier Caves. Then the Depths, an outright dungeon. Beyond that is the Womb, a literal WombLevel where Isaac goes through his Mom's insides. Each of those four levels also has two unlockable variations that are worse, such as the Basement having the spider-infested Cellar, on the on-fire Burning Basement. Between the two main choices after that, he could venture to Sheol itself, a bleak "afterlife," and after that is the Dark Room, an ambiguous location made of decayed islands floating on a purple and gray void. The other path after the Womb subverts this, as the Cathedral is ominous but generally feels more wecoming than the Womb or Sheol, while the Chest is just Isaac's toy chest filled with bosses. ''Repentance'' added alternate versions of the first four settings from a different path that are even more threatening than their Burning, Flooded, Dank, or Scarred versions: The Basement's counterpart is the haunted and flooded Downpour, the Caves has the lava-filled Mines, the Depths has the occult Mausoleum, and the Womb becomes the dead Corpse. All of them except the Corpse have an even harsher variation.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', you start in the eerily beautiful Dive to the Heart, a seemingly intimidating and foreboding place where only your inner darkness can harm you and a guiding voice reasures you that everything is alraight. You then go to the Destiny Islands, a quasi-utopic world where you play with your frieds and dream of visiting other worlds with them. When the island gets destroyed, you must go through worlds based off Disney movies. The first worlds you visit are mostly non-threatening, like Wonderland and Deep Jungle (based on ''Tarzan''), but the more you progres through the game the darker and more dangerous the worlds get, culminating in [[DiscOneFinalDungeon Hollow Bastion]], a labrynthine, sprawling deserted castle full of powerful enemies, and [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon End of the World]], a vacant and somber EldritchLocation made of destroyed worlds.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games tend to follow a set pattern for in-game areas starting with a GreenHillZone and working up to more hostile locales. To use ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'' as an example: the first explorable area is the Ancient Forest, a coastal region replete with flora. Next is the Wildspire Waste, a [[ShiftingSandLand mountainous desert]] with [[BubblegloopSwamp some swampland]]. Third is the Coral Highlands, an UnderTheSea level, minus the actual sea, with picturesque coral growths and bizarre wildlife. Fourth is Rotten Vale, a BleakLevel filled with corpses and toxic gas. Finally, there is the Elder's Recess, a LethalLavaLand replete with quartz-like crystal growths. The ''Iceborne'' expansion adds the Hoarfrost Reach, a SlippySlideyIceWorld; and the Guiding Lands, an endgame sandbox that [[HailfirePeaks features all of the biomes from the game combined in one region]]. Certain bosses are fought in special arenas that grow increasingly hostile as their difficulty goes up, such as: the Everstream, one of the magmatic energy conduits of the New World where players fight Zorah Magdaros; the Confluence of Fates, a crystaline nest home to Xeno'jiiva; Origin Island, a desolate island where Ruiner Nergigante and Shara Ishvalda are fought; and Castle Schrade, a NostalgiaLevel from earlier ''Monster Hunter'' games that takes place in castle ruins that are home to Fatalis.

* The popularity of the GreenHillZone trope is based off this. Game creators ease players into the game by having a level that is less inherently threatening.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games tend to follow a set pattern for in-game areas starting with a GreenHillZone and working up to more hostile locales. To use ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'' as an example: the first explorable area is the Ancient Forest, a coastal region replete with flora. Next is the Wildspire Waste, a [[ShiftingSandLand mountainous desert]] with [[BubblegloopSwamp some swampland]]. Third is the Coral Highlands, an UnderTheSea level, minus the actual sea, with picturesque coral growths and bizarre wildlife. Fourth is Rotten Vale, a BleakLevel filled with corpses and toxic gas. Finally, there is the Elder's Recess, a LethalLavaLand replete with quartz-like crystal growths.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games tend to follow a set pattern for in-game areas starting with a GreenHillZone and working up to more hostile locales. To use ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'' as an example: the first explorable area is the Ancient Forest, a coastal region replete with flora. Next is the Wildspire Waste, a [[ShiftingSand mountainous desert]] with [[BubblegloopSwamp some swampland]]. Third is the Coral Highlands, an UnderTheSea level, minus the actual sea, with picturesque coral growths and bizarre wildlife. Fourth is Rotten Vale, a BleakLevel filled with corpses and toxic gas. Finally, there is the Elder's Recess, a LethalLavaLand replete with quartz-like crystal growths.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' is a WideOpenSandbox game that gives you free reign to travel where you want to from the get-go, but the game's story campaign explores each of the planet Mira's regions in order, starting with the [[GreenHillZone idyllic plains and lakes of Primordia]], followed by [[JungleJapes the thick and toxic rainforests of Noctulum]]. Next is [[ShiftingSandLands the desertous Oblivia]], then the [[AlienLandmass mysterious and alien Sylvalum]], and finally, the [[LethalLavaLand volcanic mountains of Cauldros]].

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' starts in what was then the center of the known world, through {{youkai}}-haunted no man's lands, and end up somewhere beyond this world. It's a good thing that the majority of the travelers possess magic.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' is usually very strict about this. There's no Kirby game that doesn't start in a grassy hill, followed by an assortment of more dangerous settings, and then ends in some sort of [[AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield colorful, alien battlefield of evil]] in outer space or another dimension. The ''Milky Way Wishes'' mode from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperstar'' is the most blatant example of this, although it at least has the decency of making the initial GreenHillZone part of a FourSeasonsLevel.

Mainly a video game trope, this describes the odd phenomenon in which the landscape the characters travel through gets steadily scarier and more esoteric as they get closer to the end of their quest. The adventure almost always starts off in a [[{{Arcadia}} sleepy village]] nestled within a landscape of [[GreenHillZone green meadows and idyllic woodland]]. After thoroughly exploring an [[UndergroundLevel underground crypt or dungeon]], the adventurers break out into the wilderness: passing through a [[TheLostWoods huge forest]], they cross a [[ShiftingSandLand searing desert]] for brief [[BreatherLevel R&R]] at a [[PalmtreePanic sunny beach]] and a [[UnderTheSea diving detour]]. Upon wading through a [[BubblegloopSwamp foul-smelling swamp]], they arrive in a [[JungleJapes humid jungle]], beyond which lie the [[BigBoosHaunt lands of the dead]], [[SlippySlideyIceWorld icy glaciers]], and [[LethalLavaLand fiery lava landscapes]]. A [[DeathMountain mighty mountain]], an [[TempleOfDoom ominous temple]], or an outright {{gimmick level}} may be wedged in-between stages at any point before the climax, which usually takes place in a [[{{Mordor}} burning wasteland]], [[PlanetHeck literal Hell]], an intimidating [[EternalEngine giant machine]], or an outright EldritchLocation.

* In the first act of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', Ori lands in [[BubblegloopSwamp Inkwater Marsh]], ventures to TheLostWoods of Kwolok's Hollow, across [[GreenHillZone Wellspring Glades]] to restart the BambooTechnology EternalEngine that is the Wellspring, then [[WalkIntoMordor walks into the]] {{Mordor}} of the Silent Woods to find Ku. The second act's FetchQuest to reunite the titular Wisps and save Ku as well as Niwen as a whole takes Ori to a SlippySlideyIceWorld on DeathMountain (Baur's Reach), a [[SpidersAreScary spider-populated]] BlackoutBasement where [[DarknessEqualsDeath the darkness itself is lethal]] (Mouldwood Depths), UnderTheSea by way of PalmtreePanic (Luma Pools), and lastly, a TempleOfDoom in ShiftingSandLand (Windtorn Ruins). TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon (Willow's End) is once again in Mordor with a side of LethalLavaLand.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Mythology and Religion]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]
* The journey of our heroes in ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' has followed this pattern so far, starting in a quaint home village, then passing through a [[LevelAte cheerful candy castle]], a [[PalmtreePanic tropical ocean kingdom]], and a [[BigBoosHaunt spooky]] [[BandLand music-themed kingdom]], before plunging into increasingly threatening landscapes of [[TheHedgeOfThorns overgrown]] [[RuinsForRuinsSake ruined gardens]] and an [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice]]/[[LethalLavaLand fire]] world [[CrystalLandscape made of crystals]]. It's been hinted that they may eventually travel into the [[BubblyClouds sky]], then [[SpaceZone outer space]]!
** Fitting, given that the entire comic is an affectionate tribute to (and riff on) the sort of video games that invented this trope.

[[folder: Real Life]]
* The Oregon Trail partially met this progression, especially for those who branched off onto the California Trail near the halfway point. The jumping-off point (commonly Independence, MO) would lead through relatively easy terrain of grasslands, springs, gentle rolling hills that weren't too difficult to cross, and an expanding set of bridges and ferries to allow those with money to cross rivers easily. The land would steadily get drier as the pioneers headed west and encountered treacherous mountains; while those going to Oregon would find green land and forests near their destination, travelers to California would finish their journey with long stretches of desert and more mountains. Many expeditions (most infamously the [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty Donner Party]]) would have little or no trouble for the first half of the journey and then suddenly collapse and suffer casualties toward the end.[[/folder]]

->''"Every other [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] game has used pretty much the same roadmap: [[GreenHillZone grasslands]], [[ShiftingSandLand desert]], [[TheLostWoods forest]], [[JungleJapes jungle]], [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice world]], [[LethalLavaLand fire world]], [[BossOnlyLevel boss]]."''

* ''Literature/TheCityInTheMiddleOfTheNight'' starts out in the temperate zone of a TidallyLockedPlanet, in a city that's relatively protected from the elements, but then ItGetsWorse. Traveling between the cities on the planet is hazardous to say the least. Alien creatures with too many teeth, freezing or scalding temperatures, and the cheerfully named Sea of Murder make up the terrain.