History Main / TreetopTown

* ''Webcomic/CrimsonFlag'': The grey foxes mostly live scattered through the Auberwood, with no towns or cities. The exception is the Relran Tree, a collection of stone keeps and towers built in the boughs of a single massive plant.

[[OurElvesAreBetter Wood elves]] are frequent inhabitants of such a place, and it has become an often-used version of the HiddenElfVillage. Often, [[TheAgeless undying]] or otherwise long-lived elves may outlive the trees and have to relocate every few decades or centuries. In other cases, winged creatures such as BirdPeople may make their homes among the boughs -- the gaps between trees aren't a significant issue if you can fly, after all.

** The arboreal monkey goblins of Meidogalti Island live in Gand-Uj, a ramshackle collection of huts, platforms and bridges hanging from the jungle trees.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'': Tanagra Town is essentially a giant clod of rock, dirt and junk that's been ripped from the ground and lifted into the air by huge vines.

** The Wookiee homeworld, Kashyyyk, is covered in global forests of mile-tall trees, and all Wookiee cities are built in their canopies, far `above the lightless forest floor. ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' shows that there ''are'' portions of Kashyyyk (along riverbanks, for example) where the trees are lower to the ground, but Wookiees are arboreal by nature (for example their hands and feet have retractable claws specifically adapted to climbing trees) and don't ''want'' to live on the ground even if they can (another contrast to the Ewoks).

Compare TreehouseOfFun and ArborealAbode. TreeTrunkTour is the sister trope that takes place ''in'' the trees instead of ''on'' them.

%%* ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'': The outlaws and their families dwell in one in Sherwood Forest.

** ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': The Ewoks' village is built in the canopy of one of their world's vast forests, with rope bridges connecting its homes and platforms.
** The Wookiee homeworld, Kashyyyk, is covered in global forests of mile-tall trees, and all Wookiee cities are built in their canopies, far above the lightless forest floor.

* ''Literature/TitanForest'': A quasi-agrarian/quasi-hunter-gatherer civilization lives in housing built on the branches of titanic trees so immense, that people living in the lower branches will live and die without seeing the sun.

* ''Webcomic/YokokasQuest'': Everyone in Betel's Forest lives in treehouses (aside from Betelgeuse as she's [[MegaNeko too big]]), with some at ground level and others among the branches. There are steps between the levels, though Yokoka [[https://yokokasquest.com/comic/chapter-1-page-11/ jumps down]] or [[https://yokokasquest.com/comic/chapter-1-page-35/ climbs up]] the trees instead.
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** The Maulijae elves of the Mwangi jungles often live cities built on platforms perched on top of the highest rainforest trees, each large enough to hold several houses and connected to the others by long bridges.

** ''Film/StarWarsReturnOfTheJedi'': The Ewoks' village is built in the canopy of one of their world's vast forests, with rope bridges connecting its homes and platforms.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Selona, a city in the First World of the fey, is built entirely in the canopy of Usu, a single tree of immense size. Its university district is built within a massive hollowed-out bole, while a formerly posh district was turned to ruins when a lightning strike set a part of the tree aflame.

[[OurElvesAreBetter Wood Elves]] are frequent inhabitants of such a place, and it has become a often-used version of the HiddenElfVillage. Often, [[TheAgeless undying]] or otherwise long-lived elves may outlive the trees and have to relocate every few decades or centuries.

%%* ''Literature/{{Babar}}'': Zephir's village from.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Played with. [[WingedHumanoid Arakkoa]] villages are textbook examples: Ground access is via a winding staircase within the tree, and most inhabitants live on interconnected platforms on top of the strongest branches. Darnassus, the Night Elven capital city is built on top of the giant tree Teldrassil, but is fairly level and has streets and stone structures. Troll villages, like Zabra'jin, are on the ground but are constructed out of wood and have rope bridges connecting the upper floors.

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* ''Literature/BuryingTheShadow'': Taparak, which is built into a petrified forest. The community does start at ground level, however the more affluent a person is, the closer they live to the sky.

* ''Literature/GreatShip'': The tree-walkers in ''The Memory Of Sky'' inhabit the trees that grow from the [[HollowWorld ceiling of the world]], and use [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld zeppelins for travel]]. Trees eventually have to be evacuated, as their roots can give away with age, causing them to plummet towards the floor of the world--into the [[GiantFlyer corona's]] [[DeathWorld realm]].
* ''Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy'': The Kindar keep their entire civilization up in the massive Grund trees, and are forbidden from walking on the forest floor because of lurking monsters. Some Kindar, particularly infants who fall, but even adults, can be caught unaware and are never seen again. [[spoiler: The monster part isn't true. The ''real'' reason is so that the Kindar don't run into people the Ol-Zhaan priesthood exiled--and the ''descendants'' of those exiled or fallen.]]

** In many, if not most, settings, this is where you'll find the wood elves living.

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** The Channelwood Age a city of treehouses connected by bridges and water-pressure-powered elevators in a forest growing out of the ocean (it ''used'' to be an island, but a series of quakes sank it a long time ago. The ground the trees are growing from is in pieces and far underwater).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Selona, a city in the First World of the fey, is built entirely in the canopy of Usu, a single tree of immense size. Its university district is built within a massive hollow-out bole, while a formerly posh district was turned to ruins when a lightning strike set a part of the tree aflame.

* [[http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/365fourth/2010/10/day-11-habitat/ Habitat]], from the Creator/JackKirby run on ''Franchise/{{Superman}}[='s=] Pal ComicBook/JimmyOlsen''. It was inhabited by a biker gang by the time Jimmy and company stumbled across it, but it was built by The Hairies, [[OurElvesAreDifferent youthful super-geniuses]] created by a [[SecretProjectRefugeeFamily secret government genetic engineering project]].
* When living in the woods the Wolfriders in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' live in magically hollowed-out trees. While living on an island with lots of very tall trees and wishing to keep their existence concealed from humans, they have their dens hollowed out in the treetops.

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* The home of Prince Barran's forest people in ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon''.
* The home of the Rope People in ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom''.

* The Ewok village in ''StarWars'' is one, as are the Wookiee dwellings on Kashyyyk.
** The Kashyyyk dwellings are canon from ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''. The ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' dwellings were also based on the special's design.
* The fey, mask-wearing bandits in ''Film/QuestOfTheDeltaKnights'' have a hideout consisting of a bunch of rope bridges and wooden platforms. When the heroes escape from their flimsy jail cell, they get chased around and around the set ad nauseum.
* In the remake of ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' with Richard Chamberlain they meet a tribe of people who live entirely in the trees, never touching the ground.
* The Hometree from ''{{Film/Avatar}}''.
* The outlaws and their families dwell in one in Sherwood Forest in ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves''.

* ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'': The sapient monkeys who coexist with the Second Men live in woven cities built into the treetops of tropical forests.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Many buildings in Lothlórien are built on top of circular platforms, known as flets, which wrap around the trunks of the mallorn trees and are only reachable by rope ladder. While most of the ones around the edges of the forest are simply watch-posts, the city of Caras Galadhon is built almost entirely on top of such flets, with the largest of all supporting the house where Galadriel and Celeborn live.

* RobinHood and his merry men live like this in some versions of their tales.
%%* ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse'': The Nasat homeworld.
* ''Literature/TheSwissFamilyRobinson'': Just one housing unit, but the titular family eventually buidst a giant treehouse to be their home.
* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': The Oompa-Loompas lived in these back in Loompaland, to afford them some protection against their [[DeathWorld homeland's]] various nasty predators.
%%* ''Literature/{{Babar}}'': Zephir's village from.
* ''Literature/BuryingTheShadow'': Taparak, which is built into a petrified forest. The community does start at ground level, however the more affluent a person is, the closer they live to the sky.
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': The Tayledras live in treehouses called ekele.

* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': The [=RainWing=] village is one, as you would expect from dragons adapted to living in the rainforest. Also counts as a HiddenElfVillage due to their isolationism.

* ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'': In Pryan, a world covered by rainforests miles in height, the elves prefer to build their cities among the very tops of the world-jungle’s canopy, with homes and shops built on the larger branches and connected by mazes of rope bridges, in contrast to the humans (who mostly settle the moss plains stretched between the giant tree limbs) and the dwarves (who inhabit cities carved into the trunks of the trees much deeper down).

** In the basic ''D&D'' supplement ''[[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=5124 The Elves of Alfheim]]'' for (TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}), the Alfheim elves have various tree houses connected by ladders and catwalks. The "Sky City" area in Alfheim Town is a network of rope bridges and catwalks connecting "treeforts" in the huge Sentinel Trees. And then you also have the "you'll walk right under it and never notice" type of Wood Elf settlements everywhere.
* The old ''Role Aids'' supplement "Giants" has a race of forest-loving giants, who live in a TreetopTown that ''moves''.
* In Steamlogic's Mechanical Dreams, almost all of civilization live amongst branches of the giant trees of that world. The trees not only provide most of the resources needed, but they also act as a buffer against the titan-sized predators of that world.
* The ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' card [[http://magiccards.info/ddagvl/en/27.html Treetop Village.]]

* The village of Le-Koro in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}''.
* The [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fc/32/16/fc3216feb661212ffae6a35744b803de.jpg Ewok Village playlet.]]

* The TropeNamer is one of two ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' levels in this setting.
* The Channelwood Age in ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' includes one. The whole city is treehouses connected by bridges and water-pressure-powered elevators in a forest growing out of the ocean (it ''used'' to be an island, but a series of quakes sank it a long time ago. The ground the trees are growing from is in pieces and far underwater.)

%%* Both elf cities in ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}''.
* Fortree City in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald]]'' and their remakes is made up of leaf-roofed huts built on platforms in the trees, connected by wooden bridges and reachable by ladder. This is taken to new heights (literally) in the ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' manga, where Sapphire and Winona have their Gym battle in the city proper rather than an actual Gym.

* The Viera in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' live in a tree town, though it doesn't seem to be quite as high as the tops.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', Kilka Town appears like this.
* The town of Muscadet in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' is one of these.
* Level Six in ''[[{{VideoGame/Turok}} Turok: Dinosaur Hunter]]''.
* Several of the stages in ''VideoGame/KlonoaDoorToPhantomile'' are set in one of these.
* There's one of these in ''VideoGame/ThreadsOfFate'', with tons of respawning mooks that are easy to [[LevelGrinding grind]] with.
* The infamous Tree Tops level in ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon1998''.
* Ellinia in ''VideoGame/MapleStory''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} 8'', Trynton, home of the Trynnie, is an uber-example of the Treetop Town: seven "boughs" (varying areas), with one of the boughs being infested by the Rattkin. To some extent, VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant did this as well with the "Rattkin Ruins," although the effect is far less dramatic.
* Played with in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': [[WingedHumanoid Arakkoa]] villages are textbook examples: Ground access is via a winding staircase within the tree, and most inhabitants live on interconnected platforms on top of the strongest branches. Darnassus, the Night Elven capital city is built on top of the giant tree Teldrassil, but is fairly level and has streets and stone structures. Troll villages, like Zabra'jin, are on the ground but are constructed out of wood and have rope bridges connecting the upper floors.
* The wood elf city of Kelethin in ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' is this, complete with a lack of railings on the platforms and bridges, and numerous newbie corpses littering the ground below.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioFusionRevival'' has World 5-7: Yolkfolk Village. This level is based on the ''Dizzy'' series of video games, made by Codemasters in the late 1980's to early 1990's. There is very little solid ground, and the main means of traversing this level is by rail lifts.
* Taken UpToEleven in the ''VideoGame/TheCrystalKey 2'', where the Nehli people of Meribah live on the branches of trees that are ENORMOUS, hence their name, "Monolith Trees". Even the Nehlis' houses are built from mushrooms that grow on the branches.
* The HiddenElfVillage of Eserikto is this in ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals''.
* Frontier Village, a treetop village literally within a tree, in ''{{VideoGame/Xenoblade}}''.
* Little Fungitown in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' is a town built on top of several mushrooms by toads.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** The Kokiri in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' all live in treehouses, and Link begins the game with one of his own.
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': The "Faron Woods" stage has a town built on the trees adjacent to the Great Deku Tree.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkParables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters'', the eponymous Sisterhood's headquarters is a series of large, elaborate treehouses connected by bridges. The next game in the series reveals that it was actually designed by Literature/{{Pinocchio}}'s father Geppetto.
* The ''VideoGame/TheJungleBook'' LicensedGame has The Tree Village, which serves as the sixth level of the game. There are huts in it that take Mowgli to a different one when he goes inside them. The boss of the stage is the WitchDoctor, which is actually three monkeys standing on top of each other with a large shield in front of them.
* The brigand's village in ''VideoGame/HypeTheTimeQuest'' is hidden within the treetops in the forest. It consists of several wooden cabins linked by rope bridges.
* Titania in ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', which is built on top of a humongous flower.
* The Machine Village in ''VideoGame/NieRAutomata'', which is populated with robots who look a lot like the MechaMooks you'd been slaughtering up to that point in the game, but want nothing more than to live in peace.

* In ''Webcomic/YokokasQuest'', everyone in Betel's Forest lives in treehouses (aside from Betelgeuse as she's [[MegaNeko too big]]), with some at ground level and others among the branches. There are steps between the levels, though Yokoka [[https://yokokasquest.com/comic/chapter-1-page-11/ jumps down]] or [[https://yokokasquest.com/comic/chapter-1-page-35/ climbs up]] the trees instead.

* On the website ''Website/UniCreatures'', there is a place like this in the Pet Adventures section.

* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/QuestOfCamelittle'', Elfdust City is a magical Tree Top Town [[HiddenElfVillage hidden]] within the Elven Forest.
* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' has the Tree of Peace which is [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/slightlydamned/images/6/6f/51522307gFjC3Is.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120705132805 so massive]] it has [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/slightlydamned/images/6/60/TreeOfPeace_SD836.png/revision/latest?cb=20171104134606 smaller trees in its branches]], these trees once housed a large village of [[BeastMan jakkai]] but they all left to found the city of St. Curtis around the roots and now the abandoned village has been consumed by nature.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Jet and his freedom fighters live in a treetop village.
* The Warrior Maidens' village from ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}}''.

** Bart Simpson thought he and his friends could build one when they got trapped on an island, but it turned out it was hard to do so they went all ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' instead.
** Also, when the Simpsons went to Africa, their hotel was in the trees easily 20 feet in the air.
* The WesternAnimation/{{Monchhichis}} live in a treetop ''kingdom''.

* The village of Treetown, in ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'', is a complex of wooden houses, platforms, bridges and ladders built in the canopy of an oak forest and high enough that the head of a tall sauropod is just about level with its buildings' lower rooms.

%%* The Nasat homeworld in the ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse''.
* Just one housing unit, but ''Literature/TheSwissFamilyRobinson'' eventually built a giant treehouse to be their home. Talk about cool...

%%* Zephir's village from the Literature/{{Babar}} series qualifies.
* Taparak in ''Literature/BuryingTheShadow'', which is built into a petrified forest. The community does start at ground level, however the more affluent a person is, the closer they live to the sky.
* The Tayledras in Mercedes Lackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series live in treehouses called ekele.
* The tree-walkers in ''The Memory Of Sky'' (a ''Literature/GreatShip'' novel) inhabit the trees that grow from the [[HollowWorld ceiling of the world]], and use [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld zeppelins for travel]]. Trees eventually have to be evacuated, as their roots can give away with age, causing them to plummet towards the floor of the world--into the [[GiantFlyer corona's]] [[DeathWorld realm]].
* The Kindar of the Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy keep their entire civilization up in the massive Grund trees, and are forbidden from walking on the forest floor because of lurking monsters. Some Kindar, particularly infants who fall, but even adults, can be caught unaware and are never seen again. [[spoiler: The monster part isn't true. The ''real'' reason is so that the Kindar don't run into people the Ol-Zhaan priesthood exiled--and the ''descendants'' of those exiled or fallen.]]
* The [=RainWing=] village in ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' is one, as you would expect from dragons adapted to living in the rainforest. Also counts as a HiddenElfVillage due to their isolationism.
* The city of Trehaug from the ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' series is an entire city made of tree houses and inhabited by homebound [[IntrepidMerchant intrepid]] [[ProudMerchantRace merchants]]. It's a veritable maze of gangways, ladders and circular rooms built on platforms around tree trunks. This is because right underneath Trehaug there's an ancient Elderling city that's been buried by some past cataclysm ''and'' the Rain Wild River, the waters of which are caustic and make the ground funny, runs right beside it. The Rain Wilders spend their time uncovering the Elderling city and plundering its magical artefacts, a good part of which goes towards keeping Trehaug functioning.

* In Thoraiya Dyer's series ''Titan Forest'', a quasi-agrarian/quasi-hunter-gatherer civilization lives in housing built on the branches of titanic trees so immense, that people living in the lower branches will live and die without seeing the sun.
* In the ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' series, the [[BirdPeople Psittacans]] live on platforms near the jungle canopy.

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* [[http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/365fourth/2010/10/day-11-habitat/ Habitat]], from the Creator/JackKirby run on ''{{Superman}}[='s=] Pal ComicBook/JimmyOlsen''. It was inhabited by a biker gang by the time Jimmy and company stumbled across it, but it was built by The Hairies, [[OurElvesAreDifferent youthful super-geniuses]] created by a [[SecretProjectRefugeeFamily secret government genetic engineering project]].

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* The home of Prince Barran's forest people in ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon''.
* The home of the Rope People in ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom''.
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* The Kokiri in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' all live in treehouses, and Link begins the game with one of his own.

%%* The Nasat homeworld in the ''Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse''.

** The Kashyyyk dwellings are canon from ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''. The ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' dwellings were also based on the special's design.

* The Channelwood Age in ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' includes one.