History Main / UrbanSegregation

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': In Aldish cities people live in walled ghers determined by their caste to preserve caste purity and try to keep the undesirable castes from mixing with the elites. Their public transportation is also segregated, as soud and semon caste members have to sit in [[https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_62.html top deck exposed seating rather than inside.]]

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has Varrock; north Varrock is populated by the wealthy, while its southern half is run-down.
** There's also Ardougne; The eastern part of Ardougne is wealthy, while the western part is full of the poor and the [[spoiler:so-called]] plague victims.
** Keldagrim, on the west of the Kelda River is rich dwarves and the Black Guard's fortress, the east side is mostly an industrial section.
** There's also Meiyerditch and Darkmeyer, which form the capital of the Vampyre controlled nation of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]]. Meiyerditch is a huge slum where humans are treated like cattle by vampyres, and is further segregated into sections that are built to make it difficult for the human inhabitants to move around; Darkmeyer is divided into 3 zones based on the wealth of the inhabitants, and humans are attacked on sight.
** [[ArabianNightsDays Menaphos and Sophanem]] are twin cities located at the southern edge of the [[ShiftingSandLand Kharidian Desert]], divided by the River Elid. Sophanem is much smaller and poorer, but also contains the temple of the desert gods and some pyramids that can be plundered; it is also where the dead are sent for their last rites, embalming and burial. Menaphos, on the other hand, is a massive and very wealthy city which is divided into four districts, except the worker district is very noticeably run down and neglected as it is mostly inhabited by slaves and more impoverished labourers. Because Sophanem is currently under a curse causing it to be affected by plagues, the entire city has been quarantined.

* ''VideoGame/TheHayseedKnight'' Eyrlum, the focal city of the game, feautures several separate districts. The Slander District is home to the poor and seedy residents of Eyrlum. The city also features districts for the nobility that are kept segregated at spearpoint. Additionally the Heartache District is separated exclusively for finding paid company.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': While Mantle and Atlas are ''technically'' two separate cities, the fact that they're run under one government makes them this trope: Atlas is the wealthy, technologically advanced shining metropolis that [[FloatingContinent literally hangs]] over Mantle, the impoverished, dirty home of menial workers and laborers.

** There's also Meiyerditch and Darkmeyer, which form the capital of the Vampyre controlled nation of Morytania. Meiyerditch is a huge slum where humans are treated like cattle by vampyres, and is further segregated into sections that are built to make it difficult for the human inhabitants to move around, and Darkmeyer is divided into 3 zones based on wealth of the inhabitants and humans are attacked on sight.
** Menaphos and Sophanem are twin cities divided by a river. Sophanem is much smaller and poorer but also contains the temple of the desert gods and some pyramids that can be plundered, while Menaphos is a massive and very rich city which is divided into four districts, except the worker district is very noticeably run down and neglected. Sophanem is also on lockdown due to a curse causing it to be affect by plagues.

** There's also Meiyerditch and Darkmeyer, which form the capital of the Vampyre controlled nation of Morytania. Meiyerditch is practically a blood farm, which is further segregated into sections that are built to make it difficult for the human inhabitants to move around, and Darkmeyer is divided into 3 zones based on wealth of the inhabitants.
** Menaphos and Sophanem are twin two cities divided by a river. Sophanem is much smaller and poorer but also contains the temple of the desert gods and some pyramids that can be plundered, while Menaphos is a massive and very rich city which is divided into four districts, except the worker district is very noticeably run down and neglected. Sophanem is also on lockdown due to a curse causing it to be affect by plagues.

* District 12 in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is divided in two-the town and the seam.

* The IndustrialGhetto, a dirty slum of overcrowded , crumbling buildings and poverty. It is often a WretchedHive inhabited by [[TheCityNarrows scum]] and [[WrongSideOfTheTracks poor people]]. In a {{Dystopia}}, it may be a [[FantasticGhetto ghetto for beings judged as "inferior"]] by whoever is in charge. Home to many poor workers, servants and refugees. Low-level criminals abound, with a few [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]], MosesInTheBulrushes, and ragtag entrepreneurs among more malicious elements. May have a BazaarOfTheBizarre where any BlackMarket goods or personal services (TheOldestProfession or a hitman) can be obtained--for a price. The BadGuyBar can also be located here if the bad guys are of [[LowerClassLout low enough social class]]. PoliceAreUseless here, due to a mix of corruption and wanting to avoid danger.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

** The Sorbet Kingdom segregated itself overtime, with the young and productive populace living in the northern kingdom near the capital, and the old, poor and sick living in the southern kingdom. This caused all sorts of trouble years ago when [[TheCaligula King Bekori]], in an effort to reduce the amount of Heavenly Tribute he would have to pay the World Nobles, eventually declared that the south would no longer be part of the kingdom, effectively leaving its population to fend for itself if pirates attacked, giving his men carte blanche to enslave the southerners, and ''[[LoopholeAbuse technically]]'' reducing the population of the kingdom as a whole. When the Freedom Fighters, who would shortly after reorganize themselves as the [[LaResistance Revolutionary Army]], caught wind of this, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified they made a beeline for Sorbet and violently deposed Bekori]], [[EveryoneHasStandards an act which even the northerners celebrated]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Bekori would return several years later, having learned nothing from his previous defeat, and attempted to follow Goa's example by burning the southern kingdom. [[BewareTheNiceOnes This infuriated Bartholomew Kuma]], who this time deposed Bekori [[OneManArmy by himself]] in what would come to be known as the "Solo Revolution". This earned him such gratitude that the people of Sorbet practically begged him to become their new king.]]

** The Sorbet Kingdom segregated itself overtime, with the young and productive populace living in the northern kingdom near the capital, and the old, poor and sick living in the southern kingdom. This caused all sorts of trouble years ago when [[TheCaligula King Bekori]], in an effort to reduce the amount of Heavenly Tribute he would have to pay the World Nobles, eventually declared that the south would no longer be part of the kingdom, effectively leaving its population to fend for itself if pirates attacked, giving his men carte blanche to enslave the southerners, and ''[[LoopholeAbuse technically]]'' reducing the population of the kingdom as a whole. When the Freedom Fighters, who would shortly after reorganize themselves as the Revolutionary Army, caught wind of this, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified they made a beeline for Sorbet and violently deposed Bekori]], [[EveryoneHasStandards an act which even the northerners celebrated]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Bekori would return several years later, having learned nothing from his previous defeat, and attempted to follow Goa's example by burning the southern kingdom. [[BewareTheNiceOnes This infuriated Bartholomew Kuma]], who this time deposed Bekori [[OneManArmy by himself]] in what would come to be known as the "Solo Revolution". This earned him such gratitude that the people of Sorbet practically begged him to become their new king.]]

** The Sorbet Kingdom segregated itself overtime, with the young and productive populace living in the northern kingdom near the capital, and the old, poor and sick living in the southern kingdom. This caused all sorts of trouble years ago when [[TheCaligula King Bekori]], in an effort to reduce the amount of Heavenly Tribute he would have to pay the World Nobles, eventually declared that the south would no longer be part of the kingdom, effectively leaving its population to fend for itself if pirates attacked, giving his men carte blanche to enslave the southerners, and ''[[LoopholeAbuse technically]]'' reducing the population of the kingdom as a whole. When the Freedom Fighters, who would shortly after reorganize themselves as the Revolutionary Army, caught wind of this, they made a beeline for Sorbet and violently deposed Bekori, [[EveryoneHasStandards an act which even the northerners celebrated]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Bekori would return several years later, having learned nothing from his previous defeat, and attempted to follow Goa's example by burning the southern kingdom. [[BewareTheNiceOnes This infuriated Bartholomew Kuma]], who this time deposed Bekori [[OneManArmy by himself]] in what would come to be known as the "Solo Revolution". This earned him such gratitude that the people of Sorbet practically begged him to become their new king.]]

** Goa Kingdom has this going on. [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Ba Sing Se]] (See Western Animation), each class is kept separate by a huge wall. There's the royals and aristocrats living in the center wall, the workers and normal citizens living in the middle wall, and finally the outside slums called Grey Terminal; This is where the kingdom dumps their garbage. The people living there basically live off of the trash, and no one living in the normal city cares what happens in Grey Terminal. The kingdom is basically described as a place where 'everything unwanted is removed'. However, this sort of attitude leads to a MoralEventHorizon when the royal family decides that in order to 'purify' the kingdom, they need to burn Grey Terminal to the ground -- ''people included.'' Dragon the revolutionary uses this event and kingdom as an example of why this is wrong.

* ''VideoGame/CivilizationVI'' Invokes this trope with the new districts concept for city building and development. Where previous games in the series had all buildings essentially piled into the city center, the districts concept force buildings to be built in the appropriate district which are placed outside of the city center. Districts are encouraged to be placed next to each other where possible as they receive adjacency bonuses when placed next to multiple other districts. For example, for most civilizations research buildings like libraries have to be built in a Campus district, which in turn gets bonuses to research for adjacent tiles with mountains, jungle, coral reefs, or other districts. Korea and the Maya have unique replacements in the Seowon and Observatory, respectively -- further, the former can only be built on hills and its adjacency bonus is instead turned into a penalty for each adjacent district save for the Government Center to reflect Korea's historical tendency for such learning centers to be located away from the rest of Korean society so that the sequestered students can concentrate on their studies.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': Pops up in all four games:
** In the first game, The poorer parts of New York have been literally walled off from the rest of the city to cork up the high crime and rioting taking place.
** In ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' Futuristic Seattle is split into Upper Seattle and Lower Seattle, connecting by the Inclinator, a large transport elevator. Upper Seattle residents are rich and live in luxury, and they had robotic servants. The residents of Lower Seattle live in slums and have to worry about wild mutants and cyborgs. They seemed to have made the best of the mutant problem though; they use them for something similar to a cockfight.

While real life segregation is mostly horizontal, a common sci-fi setting is a LayeredMetropolis with vertical Urban Segregation -- usually the poor live at the bottom in smog and darkness, while the rich live in the upper levels with sunlight and fresh air.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Hive cities put a literal spin on the concept of a pyramid hierarchy; the wealthy, distinguished elite of society live closest to the top, with the living standard going down as you move down the hive. At the very bottom is the Underhive, populated by tribes of scavengers who live off the garbage dumped from the upper levels and generally have little contact with the rest of the society. Below that live mutants and monsters, and below that even worse mutants and monsters, and so on. Therefore, the underhive is usually considered a practical and efficient barrier between the elite and danger.

* Each of the three cities in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, are split into Rich, Poor, and Middle districts.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', the title city is divided into six sections (which can get annoying to navigate due to the city having double walls), based more on geography than anything else -- the districts flow into each other, rather can being completely self-contained. The sequel, 'Shadows Of Amn'' decided to make ease of navigation more important than complete verisimilitude, and divided up Amn's capital of Athkatla into a Government District, the Slums, the Temple District, the Graveyard, the Docks, the Gate, and Waukeen's Promenade (market district), none of which have geographical landmarks in common with each other. (There's also the sewers under the Slums, and another set under the Temple. The Government district should probably have one too, being full of rich people who can afford plumbing.)
* In ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky'', the poor are forced to live high up in steel towers, where there is a great deal of pollution, while the rich live in hermetically-sealed safety on the ground.

* An inevitable part of gameplay in the ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'':

** Workers are taken from a global pool and assigned as needed rather than specialized. But ''{{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}'' requires a recruiter to walk past a house for workers to be assigned there, meaning agro-industrial complexes needing hundred of workers might be staffed by a few huts containing 5 people each, while the bulk of the workers actually live in large, clean houses on the other side of the map.
* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} VI'' Invokes this trope with the new districts concept for city building and development. Where previous games in the series had all buildings essentially piled into the city center, the districts concept force buildings to be built in the appropriate district which are placed outside of the city center. Districts are encouraged to be placed next to each other where possible as they receive adjacency bonuses when placed next to multiple other districts. For example, for most civilizations research buildings like libraries have to be built in a Campus district, which in turn gets bonuses to research for adjacent tiles with mountains, jungle, coral reefs, or other districts. Korea and the Maya have unique replacements in the Seowon and Observatory, respectively -- further, the former can only be built on hills and its adjacency bonus is instead turned into a penalty for each adjacent district save for the Government Center to reflect Korea's historical tendency for such learning centers to be located away from the rest of Korean society so that the sequestered students can concentrate on their studies.
* Pacific City in ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'' is divided into three regions: the western part of the city is residential and "normal," the southeastern part is an industrial hell, and to the northeast is the clean and futuristic (but still corrupt) region.
* Pops up in all four ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' games: