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Changed line(s) 277,284 (click to see context) from:
* Large cavernous underworlds: 21%
* Hidden under-city: 5%
* Wholly underground city: 6%
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe: 1%
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels: 8%
* Other/unspecific: 30%
* ZCE/no-context pothole: 29%
* Hidden under-city: 5%
* Wholly underground city: 6%
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe: 1%
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels: 8%
* Other/unspecific: 30%
* ZCE/no-context pothole: 29%
to:
* Large cavernous underworlds: 21%
21/109 = 19.3%
* Hidden under-city:5%
5/109 = 4.6%
* Wholly underground city:6%
6/109 = 5.5%
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe:1%
1/109 = 0.9%
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels:8%
8/109 = %
* Other/unspecific:30%
30/109 = 7.3%
* ZCE/no-context pothole:29%
38/109 = 34.9%
(It was supposed to be a batch of 100, but I miscounted.)
* Hidden under-city:
* Wholly underground city:
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe:
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels:
* Other/unspecific:
* ZCE/no-context pothole:
(It was supposed to be a batch of 100, but I miscounted.)
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Added DiffLines:
Overall, the trope seems to want to be about underground settings as a general category, and specifically about underground areas with their own self-contained societies and ecosystems. The laconic is simply "Colossal underground spaces with their own ecosystem", while the body of the description talks about the various permutations of the setting, conditions encountered there, and things that live in it.
The most obvious feature here is a soft split between "Urban" and "Caverns" versions. The former is concerned with some sort of society living in the sewers, buried buildings and assorted underground spaces of a surface-oriented city, or in the ruins of an old city buried under a new one; emphasis here is placed on living hidden from the surface and mooching resources and energy from up top. The latter is concerned with extensive cavern systems running beneath the world and containing their own underground ecosystems and civilizations; the description lists off natives (mole people, morlocks, dwarves, dark elves, etc.), fauna (dinosaurs, giant insects), and environment features (lava, giant mushrooms, tropical lost worlds). The earliest version I could find on the Wayback Machine is [[https:..web.archive.org.web.20060503212539.https:..tvtropes.org.pmwiki.pmwiki.php.Main.BeneathTheEarth this one, from 2006]]; it's much more bare-bones but shows the same general trend and a lot of text is carried over to the present version.
I went in with the suspicion that these two concepts are too distinct to be called variants of a single trope, and did this wick check to test that out. I checked fifty examples from each section and a hundred inbounds. I opted to skip the Real Life sections and Sandbox/ pages.
[[folder:Sewers]]
* Anime.TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold: "The Morlock-like Olmecs dwell in underground cities."
* Manga.SgtFrog: Aliens live in a city underground, which looks just like a surface one.
* Anime.{{Texhnolyze}}: Underground city, ancient people were banished there.
* ComicBook.JusticeSocietyOfAmerica: ZCE
* ComicBook.JudgeDredd: City built over ruins of older ones that are now home to mutants.
* Franchise.MarvelUniverse: Mutants hide in the sewers.
* Fanfic.ChildOfTheStorm: Network of buried abandoned buildings under Chicago, no mention of what if anything lives here.
* Fanfic.TheKeysStandAlone: People live in tunnels beneath something, very little clear context.
* WesternAnimation.AnAmericanTail: Society of mice lives in New York sewers.
* Anime.ChildrenWhoChaseLostVoices: Full HollowWorld with internal sun and ecosystem.
* Film.BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes: Human mutants live buried ruins of New York.
* Film.BillyClub2013: Underground bunker with a skeleton and etchings.
* Film.DarkHeritage: Descendants of a family live in tunnels radiating from their house.
* Film.{{Metropolis}}: Workers live in underground apartments, rich live on surface.
* Franchise.TheMatrix: Last humans live in hidden city underground.
* Literature.Ash2001: Surface city is nuked, survivors hide in another underground city.
* Literature.{{Beneath}}: Society lives beneath New York and plots takeover of the surface.
* Literature.DarkCitiesUnderground: ZCE.
* Literature.{{Downsiders}}: Community living in New York subways.
* Literature.TheIronTeeth: Tribe lives in tunnels beneath a human city.
* Literature.{{Neverwhere}}: ZCE
* Literature.TheRelic: Monster in tunnels beneath a museum.
* Literature.{{Shadowmarch}}: "Funderlings" live in towns beneath human settlements.
* Literature.TheWarOfTheWorlds1898: Discussed; character plans to resist aliens by hiding in London sewers and basements, nothing comes of it.
* Series.The100: Survivors of nuclear war live bunker inside a mountain.
* Series.{{Angel}}: Homeless kids living in the sewers.
* Series.{{Bones}}: Homeless people living underground.
* Recap.DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld: ZCE
* Series.{{Neverwhere}}: Elaborate society beneath London.
* TabletopGame.VampireTheMasquerade: Vampires live in basements and sewers of human cities.
* TabletopGame.{{Pathfinder}}: City-spanning maze of tunnels, sewers and basement accesses home to thieves and goblins.
* TabletopGame.{{Shadowrun}}: Orks and trolls living in [https:..en.wikipedia.org.wiki.Seattle_Underground Seattle Underground]].
* TabletopGame.{{Underworld|2000}}: ZCE, relies on another example for context.
* VideoGame.{{Astroneer}}: Planets and moons all have extensive layered cave networks full of monsters.
* VideoGame.{{Bloodborne}}: Complex network of sewers and tunnels beneath city, no note on inhabitants.
* VideoGame.CityOfHeroes: Ruins of ancient city beneath modern one.
* VideoGame.FalloutNewVegas: MoleMen descended from bunker residents.
* VideoGame.GearsOfWar: Enemies come from underground. Little context.
* VideoGame.ProjectEden: Game is set in underground maintenance and service layers beneath a megacity.
* VideoGame.SpongebobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom: ZCE
* Webcomic.DragonCity: Dragons live in hidden cities beneath human ones.
* Webcomic.GirlGenius: Every city has a maze of sewers, basements, secret tunnels and catacombs home to hidden societies and monsters.
* Webcomic.SluggyFreelance: Robots dig an underground settlement.
* WebOriginal.LoomingGaia: Society of vagrants in the sewers beneath a city.
* LetsPlay.{{Mahu}}: Colonists on an ice planet dig underground cities.
* WesternAnimation.{{Downtown}}: Characters talk about who or what could live in New York subways.
* WesternAnimation.{{Futurama}}: Civilization of mutants living in New York sewers.
* WesternAnimation.{{Gargoyles}}: Homeless people live beneath New York.
* Recap.TheSimpsonsS11E6HelloGutterHelloFadder: Mole people and morlocks live in Springfield sewers.
* Franchise.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Main characters and villains live in the New York sewers.
[[/folder]]
* Society living in sewers/subway/basements of surface city: 24/50 = 48%
* UndergroundCity with no surface counterpart: 6/50 = 12%
* Giant cavern network or hollow world: 2/50 = 4%
* Other: 12/50 = 24%
* ZCE: 6/50 = 12%
[[folder:Caverns]]
* Manga.GetterRobo: Evolved dinosaurs went underground to avoid catastrophe. The underground is not described.
* Anime.MazingerZ: Advanced underground civilization, extent or landscape not described.
* TabletopGame.YuGiOh: Giant monsters that live underground.
* ComicBook.DisneyDucksComicUniverse: World-spanning underworld home to two native races.
* ComicBook.JusticeSocietyOfAmerica: Hostile race lives in "a realm" beneath main city.
* Fanfic.{{Antipodes}}: Extensive unmapped underworld home to monsters and holdouts of survivors from global catastrophe.
* WesternAnimation.TheIncredibles1: Mole Man villain.
* Film.TheLordOfTheRings: Ruined underground city full of monsters.
* Literature.ArtemisFowl: Fairies retreated into a global cavern system to avoid humanity.
* Literature.{{Below}}: Sprawling underworld of ruins and tunnels home to monsters.
* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: Localized layered underground realms home to increasingly more terrible things.
* Literature.DocSavage: ZCE
* Literature.MoreInformationThanYouRequire: Mole man civilization lives "here" alongside troglodytic men.
* Literature.DorothyAndTheWizardInOz: Dorothy and the Wizard travel through "various realms beneath the Earth".
* Literature.SeptimusHeap: "Huge, subterranean cavern." No further context.
* Literature.{{Tunnels}}: Series is spent moving progressively deeper in a large underworld.
* Literature.WhispersUnderGround: Hidden colony living in the subways and sewers of London.
* Recap.FarscapeS02E03TakingTheStone: Hippy society living beneath a graveyard planet.
* Series.UltramanGinga: Underground civilization living "in massive caverns".
* Music.TomWaits: A "big dark town" deep underground.
* VideoGame.ProPinballFantasticJourney: A DrillTank is used to travel to the center of the Earth. 20
* TabletopGame.ClaimTheSky: Large cavern system with ruins, MoleMen and a LostWorld of dinosaurs.
* TabletopGame.{{Ravenloft}}: Localized cavern systems and underground realms that are home to hostile races.
* TabletopGame.LamentationsOfTheFlamePrincess: "Endless labyrinth" underground of rich treasure and scarce resources.
* TabletopGame.{{Pathfinder}}: Layered global underworld filled with monsters, strange environments, underground cities, and lost worlds.
* Ride.DisneyThemeParks: ZCE
* VideoGame.ArxFatalis: Civilization moved into large cavern systems when the Sun died.
* VideoGame.DarkSoulsI: Several underground areas explored, little descriptive detail.
* VideoGame.BaldursGateII: "Vast subterranean labyrinth covering much of the world."
* VideoGame.{{Exile}}: Enormous cavern networks filled with lava, fungus, and exiled people.
* VideoGame.GearsOfWar: "Vast series of underground caverns."
* VideoGame.LegacyOfTheWizard: "Massive system of caverns and underground ruins."
* VideoGame.TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild: Villain came from beneath the ground.
* VideoGame.MasterOfOrionII: Some species live underground, underground areas are not described.
* VideoGame.{{Poacher}}: Subterranean world containing cities and natural environments.
* Franchise/TombRaider: Dangerous caves are explored.
* VideoGame.{{Ultima}}: World-spanning system of caves and underground rivers.
* VideoGame.{{Warcraft}}: Continent-spanning caverns home to a hidden civilization and ancient horrors.
* Webcomic.ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse: Large system of caverns, mostly empty.
* Webcomic.EverydayHeroes: A family lives in an AbsurdlySpaciousSewer.
* Webcomic.TowerOfGod: Character was trapped in a cave for a year.
* Blog.CrossingKevinsCrossing: "Weird people" live in tunnels.
* Website.TaerelSetting: A society is made up of clans living in distinct cave systems.
* WebAnimation.HomestarRunner: Character thinks that there is an underworld of dinosaurs and lost civilizations beneath his backyard.
* WesternAnimation.MightyMax: Villain lives in an underground cavern lair.
* WesternAnimation.MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic: Localized cavern system with giant gems, a mini lost world and places of magic.
* WesternAnimation.RegularShow: Morlocks live in tunnel system around main setting.
* Recap.StarWarsTheCloneWarsS4E5MercyMission: Hidden underworld home to magical beings.
* Recap.StarWarsTheCloneWarsS4E20Bounty: Aliens live in a vast layer of caverns because the planetary surface is uninhabitable.
* WesternAnimation.TheTick: Mole people exist.
* WesternAnimation.{{Trollhunters}}: Trolls live in large caverns and underground spaces.
[[/folder]]
* Global/setting-wide "underdark" with underground cultures, monsters, strange sights and such: 14/50 = 28%
* Smaller or of undescribed size but otherwise as above: 7/50 = 14%
(Combined = 42%)
* People head underground to escape catastrophe (not mutually exclusive with others): 4/50 = 8%
* Society living in sewers/subway/basements of surface city: 3/50 = 6%
* MoleMen: 4/50 = 8%
* ZCE: 2/50 = 4%
* Other caves: 19/50 = 38%
(Note that both sections contain examples that should properly go in the other.)
In both cases, each section is a little under half made up of a single concept, with the rest made up of various other cases and tropes.
Wick check:
Note: many of these examples do not specify if the underground areas discussed are underground structures (e.g. sewers), tunnels in soil, tunnels in rock, or natural caverns.
[[folder:Large cavernous underworlds]]
* CreepyCave: ''Literature/{{Narnia}}'' Book 4, ''Literature/TheSilverChair'': In search of the missing prince, the protagonists end up falling into "Underland," a civilization of MoleMen housed BeneathTheEarth in massive natural cave systems. The whole area is decidedly PlayedForHorror, with the initial journey to the central city making use of all the frightening elements of a real-life caving expedition such as crossing dark waters and crawling through small, tight tunnels. There is a sense of {{claustrophobia}} and [[DarknessEqualsDeath encroaching darkness]] throughout the Underland chapters, and to make matters worse, the whole place starts flooding after the climactic confrontation.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Series/FraggleRock'': The Fraggles live in an [[BeneathTheEarth elaborate world of rocky caverns]]. Almost every episode [[InsertSong has at least one song]]. They cover a wide range of musical genres, including {{Rock}}!
* ElementalEmbodiment: ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': A number of fire elementals such as fire men, magma men and fire imps live in the magma ocean at the bottom of the underworld. In addition, the shallower cavern layers BeneathTheEarth are home to beings such as iron men, which become statues upon death, and amethyst men.
* MushroomHouse: ''TabletopGame/MagiNation'': The Underneath, a vast region of caverns BeneathTheEarth, is almost entirely covered by vast forest-like growths of [[FungusHumongous gigantic mushrooms]] with purple stalks and orange, spotted caps. For lack of other building materials, the locals often hollow these mushrooms out, fit them with doors and windows and use them as their primary source of housing.
* SubterraneanSanityFailure: ''TabletopGame/OutOfTheAbyss'': The player characters are stuck in the [[BeneathTheEarth subterranean]] DeathWorld of the Underdark at the same time as a [[HellOnEarth demonic incursion]] spreads madness and (even more) monsters into its caverns. The module makes extensive use of a SanityMeter -- [=PCs=] could suffer short- or long-term madness from eerie encounters, pervasive magic, the stress of deprivation, or more, and will meet many insane [=NPCs=] along the way.
* TunnelNetwork: Since fortresses in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' tend to be mainly underground anyway, they usually incorporate some degree of this. Dwarven and goblin civilisations also create large tunnels linking settlements created during worldgen, and beneath those there are three levels of naturally-formed cavern system that blur the line somewhat between this trope and BeneathTheEarth.
* Characters.PathfinderTheDarklands: They particularly draw inspiration from pulp fiction of the early 1900s, such as Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Pellucidar''. They're divided into three layers:
** The uppermost layer, Nar-Voth, consists of extremely deep and extensive but otherwise fairly normal caverns (which are often isolated and do not form a continuous network), and is the most familiar layer to the surface-dwellers. While most of it is sparsely populated stony wilderness, it is also home to fairly normal humanoids like [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]], [[LizardFolk troglodytes]] and [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame duergar]].
** Sekamina, the middle layer, consists of much larger and more thoroughly interconnected caverns and tunnels, extending beneath most of the world’s surface. It is home to more reclusive and dangerous races like the [[OurElvesAreDifferent drow]] and [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]], who rule true underground empires, alongside monsters such as [[SpiderPeople driders]], [[TheMorlocks morlocks]] and [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos gugs]]. It has more exotic terrain than Nar-Voth, including fungal forests, volcanic caves and a true subterranean sea.
** Finally, the deepest level -- the Vaults of Orv -- is as much a subject of fear and mystery for the people of Nar-Voth and Sekamina as the Darklands as a whole are for surface-dwellers. It consists of massive caverns the size of nations, some dark and others lit by artificial suns or glowing crystals, containing environments such as deserts, rainforests, ruined cities, mountain ranges and a vast subterranean ocean. The Vaults are inhabited by a great variety of monsters, ranging from dinosaurs, dragons, [[BigCreepyCrawlies monstrous arthropods]] and the undead to a variety of [[EldritchAbomination unspeakable horrors]]. They did not form naturally, but were excavated by a powerful earth elemental {{Precursor|s}} race called the Xiomorn to host their evolutionary experiments.
* Characters.SkylandersLife: A former member of the royal guard for the Drilla King, who ruled over the '''[[BeneathTheEarth subterranean Drilla Empire]]'''.
* Characters.TheMisfitOfDemonKingAcademyHeroAcademyUndergroundWorld: The Underground World, as it name implied, is a domain located beneath the surface of the earth, as it was a place that didn't exist originally during the Mythical Age, being created after Anos' reincarnation.
* EldenRing.TropesAToE: The Lands Between is full of hidden catacombs, caves, and crystal mines the Tarnished can stumble upon, most of them even having a Boss at the bottom of it. Furthermore, some places are their own little world beneath the earth, such as Nokron, the Eternal City, which has a sky full of stars (actually glowing glintstone ores) despite being underground.
* Fanfic.ThePalaververse: An extensive underworld of caverns exists beneath Theia’s surface, permeating its entire volume supposedly going all the way to a sea of lava at the planet’s core. The Diamond Dogs live in the uppermost layers, while the deeps are home to a great variety of horrors.
* Franchise.DragonAge: BeneathTheEarth, in the meantime, the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]] built a great empire of the underground cavern cities, or "thaigs", connected by a vast tunnel network known as the Deep Roads.
* Literature.{{Rihannsu}}: The Ysailsu resistance -- which includes most of the planetary population of an established Rihannsu colony -- has retreated into the vast Saijja Caverns, a network of caves so deep that they cannot be accurately scanned from space, and which have never been completely mapped, even by them.
* Literature.TheUnderlandChronicles: The series is all about this trope. More than 90 percent of the books take place in an underground world beneath New York called the Underland.
* Series.CosmicDisclosure: There's all sorts of cool stuff there, like self-contained ecosystems, remnants of the AdvancedAncientHumans' expeditions, and the Agarthan cities.
* Skyrim.TropesUToZ: There are regular caves and mines (often serving as dens for bandits, [[TheMorlocks Falmer]], vampires, etc.), ancient Nordic burial tombs, and subterranean fortresses guarded by [[RagnarokProofing machines that were built by their long-since-vanished]] [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] masters. There's even a '''[[BeneathTheEarth wide-open cavern deep underground]]''' connecting three Dwemer fortresses, once the location of the Dwemer city of Blackreach.
* TabletopGame.MiddleEarthRolePlaying: Moria is given an extensive description, showing it as a layered, complex labyrinth of mines and underground ruins home to tribes of orcs and trolls, flocks of flesh-eating bats, restless undead, and serpentine dragons that shun the light of day, although its depths also hide the treasures of the ancient Dwarves and natural wonders in the deeper caves. The deepest levels of Moria are connected to the Under-Deeps, a lightless realm that has never been explored but which is believed to extend beneath the span of the Misty Mountains and where terrible monsters lurk.
* TheLordOfTheRings.TropesAToC: The dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm is technically a vast, glorified mine under the mountains, connecting with ancient caves where orcs and monsters hide out of sight of the surface world. Erebor (or the Lonely Mountain, as it's called in ''Literature/TheHobbit''), a smaller-scale version of the same, is also mentioned.
* VideoGame.DontStarve: The '''[[BeneathTheEarth extensive cave systems]]''' accessible through sinkholes are home to two types of bioluminescent plants, the mushtrees -- [[FungusHumongous tree-sized mushrooms]] that shine with faint blue, red or green glows, depending on which color variation they come in -- and Light Flowers -- true plants that sprout either one, two or three glowing white spheres named Light Bulbs at the end of tall stalks. Since the caves are otherwise completely lightless, and since in ''Don't Starve'' [[DarknessEqualsDeath walking into the darkness is an excellent way of dying a horrible death]], the occasional groves of mushtrees and light flowers provide invaluable oases of relative safety. The bulbs of light flowers can also be used to craft lanterns, although doing so also means shrinking the size of the permanent illuminated areas.
* VideoGame.KnightBewitched2: Deepforge I is buried deep underground, and there's an entire world map underground known as the Ambrose Underworld, just like the Underworld of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. This takes place before the dungeon, Heaven's Door, raised the lava sea level, so more locations are available than in ''VideoGame/FindingLight''.
* Webcomic.ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse: After reaching [[spoiler:the Dark Star]], the Everyman enters a vast system of lightless caverns that wind on for miles. He encounters nothing there besides a single {{Giant Spider|s}} and, eventually, [[spoiler:the Singularity's hidden lair]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hidden under-city]]
* SewerTropes: BeneathTheEarth (the urban type)
* TabletopGame.DontRestYourHead: Underneath the Mad City is a system of caves, caverns, and twisting tunnels known as the Warrens. While many known and unknown things live down below, the Warrens are most famous for the Kingdom of Wax, the domain of the Wax King.
* TabletopGame.VampireTheMasquerade:
** Nosferatu usually congregate in sewers, abandoned tunnels and the like.
** Beneath New York, [[AncientEvil once lay a horror more terrifying than any Nosferatu]]. It was thought by the Nosferatu to be a Nictuku, a childe of Absimilard, the Nosferatu Antediluvian. Only [[spoiler:Lambach Ruthven]] knew the truth. It was the [[spoiler:Tzimisce Antediluvian]]. He tried to tell people what was in there, but [[CassandraTruth no one believed him...]] Then it pulled itself together... and left to meet with its "siblings".
* VideoGame.TheElderScrollsIVOblivion: The Imperial city is so vast, its sewers are used by several vampires as an alternative to living on the surface.
* WebAnimation.OllieAndScoops: In the third episode, Scoops introduces Ollie to ''Catlifornia'', a secret city-esque society for cats that can be accessed via a garbage can with a chute that leads to the place located underground.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:A singe wholly underground city]]
* Characters.EarthTwentySevenTheTitans: Atlee's people live in a vast underground city. Their technology is so advanced that even Power Girl was impressed.
* ComicBook.PowerGirl: Atlee's people live in a vast underground city. Their technology is so advanced that even Power Girl was impressed.
* Literature.BigfootAndLittlefoot: Boone's Sasquatch community is located in Whiddershins Cavern. It's a giant cave system where the Sasquatches all set up shops and businesses in various nooks.
* VideoGame.ARobotNamedFight: The Buried City, remnants of the old RobotWar. It's home to molemen, the devolved/mutated remnants of humanity.
* VideoGame.{{Spellstone}}: The city of Beetleton Bunker, home to all manner of insects, is located deep {{beneath the earth}}.
* VideoGame.ZanZarahTheHiddenPortal: Local dwarves reside mainly in the '''[[BeneathTheEarth underground village]] of Monagham''', their language slightly resembles [[GratuitousGerman German]], and their currency is crystals, rather than coins that the rest of Zanzarah uses. They also dislike magic, preferring to use technology and {{Magitek}}, and the dwarf that sells magic spells for your fairies is a blacksmith.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:People flee underground to escape a catastrophe]]
* Anime.TengenToppaGurrenLagann: Most of humanity had been forced underground by forces unknown a long time ago. The first part of the series revolves around liberating the repressed humans.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels]]
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: TheNineties cartoon ''Magical Super Trolls'' features trolls who live like humans BeneathTheEarth. Some of them possess magic powers, and three of them are granted super powers.
* BatOutOfHell: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Besides [[TheSwarm swarms of regular bats]] and {{dire b|east}}ats the size of oxen, there are also mobats -- sapient giant bats native to '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Darklands]]''' -- and skavelings, [[NonHumanUndead mobat ghouls]] with the same paralyzing touch of the regular humanoid kind. Werebats are also presented as a type of lycanthrope.
* FantasticalSocialServices: The SeriesMascot class of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' is the humble rat-catcher (and their small, but vicious, dog). They keep the cities of the Empire clean of vermin, but their work in the sewers inevitably leads them to run into the skaven, a technologically sophisticated race of evil RatMen who dwell BeneathTheEarth.
* GentleGiantSauropod: In ''The Abysmal Invasion'', the surface world is invaded by LizardFolk from BeneathTheEarth and their dinosaur mounts. Brontosaurs seem to be some of the most commonly-used steeds, and are said to be "more tractable" than the others... although they're still pretty terrifying to the human characters.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', one of the earliest [[ArcVillain arc threats]] was the Bohrok Swarm, [[TheSwarm a horde of insectoid drones]] that [[BeneathTheEarth emerged from the tunnels of the island]] and attempted to destroy everything, from structures, to plantlife, to the people living on it.
* RockMonster: Among the various elemental creatures found living BeneathTheEarth are gabbro men and amethyst men. As their bodies are made entirely out of rock and mineral, they can be very dangerous foes: they feel no pain, cannot be suffocated, are difficult to damage due to most weapons glancing off their stony skin, can punch a dwarf to death with ease and are building destroyers. If killed, they obviously cannot be butchered like other creatures, instead leaving behind, respectively, a rough gabbro boulder or an amethyst.
* Characters.{{Willow}}: The Trolls in the Disney+ series live in a huge complex of mines.
* Laconic.{{Clusterfuck}}: Horny, ''incredibly'' troubled college students become victims of {{Mutant|s}} [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombies]] in a [[BeneathTheEarth cave in the mountains]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Other]]
* Characters.UltramanAce: Giron-Man's species hail from underground, so he decides to turn the entirety of Tokyo's underground into his lair.
* CantRefuseTheCallAnymore: In Creator/TadWilliams's ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'', Simon's first journey [[BeneathTheEarth beneath the tunnels]] of the Hayholt on the heels of his mentor's HeroicSacrifice is the point where his journey becomes irrevocable. It also includes the literal metaphor of being "swallowed up" by the earth, followed by his emergence, alone, starving, and companionless.
* MistakenForAfterlife ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'': In an early comic, Thorgal falls into a gorge and wakes up days later in a beautiful garden. He's initially convinced that he's in Valhalla, but in reality he's in a magical place BeneathTheEarth.
* TheCityNarrows: ''TabletopGame/{{Ptolus}}'': The Undercity Market is an aversion: it's BeneathTheEarth and full of adventurers, but it's mostly for resupplying, and it's successful enough that it has a burgeoning residential area as well—and being full of heavily-armed adventurers is actually pretty good for keeping things relatively civil and orderly.
* TheTower: The MobileMaze or [[LockedInTheDungeon Dungeon]] is the inverse trope: a more expansive version of the Ominous Castle or Megastructure, with more stuff '''[[BeneathTheEarth below than above]]'''.
* Characters.ForgottenRealmsGods: [Shar] became the goddess of caves, dungeons and the underground after killing Ibrandul, the god who previously held those domains.
* Characters.TNOKomiPassionariyy: Eurasia builds underground bunkers as part of trying to equip itself with nuclear weapons.
* ComicBook.BatmanOdyssey: Featuring trolls, giant bats, dinosaurs, wizards, and all-around weirdness.
* ComicBook.WerewolfByNight: Crawl down through the mist near Devil's Grotto and you'll end up [[spoiler:in space]].
* Creator.DarkHorseComics: A storyline that featured Franchise/{{Tarzan}} and Franchise/{{Predator}} fighting '''[[BeneathTheEarth at the center of the earth]]'''.
* Film.InvadersFromMars1986: Through seamlessly drilled tunnels, the Martians reach from their buried ship to the surface.
* Literature.MemorySorrowAndThorn: The labyrinthine tunnels beneath the Hayholt, including the ruins of Asu'a, are a major story element. Simon is forced to traverse them twice during his journey, both times representing his [[TheHerosJourney "descent into darkness"]]. Other characters visit the tunnels as well, including the Sithi ([[spoiler:and Norns]]) near the climax.
* Literature.TheHobbit: A number of examples; almost everyone seems to live underground.
** Bilbo lives in Bag End, the hobbit-hole that is quite literally "under hill" (though with many windows).
** The visit to "Goblin-town" and Gollum finds them in caves under a mountain range.
** The elves live in a cave system in Mirkwood.
* Literature.ThePlaniverse: Ardeans live in underground hobbit-holes to avoid the rain -- on a circular planet, there are no rivers, only flash floods. The one surface building is directly atop the continental divide.
* MazingerZ.TropesDToF: An archaeological expedition researching ancient ruins in the Greek Island of Bardos went too deep in the underground mazes of the island and found an army of HumongousMecha. Subverted, since Dr. Hell ''hoped'' finding them and using them to further his goals. Also, when Hell seized those robots, he drew the attention of the Mykene Empire -- '''[[BeneathTheEarth an ancient civilization had been forced to live underground]]''' -- and they decided return to the surface ''quite'' violently.
* NightmareFuel.TheLordOfTheRings: '''"[[BeneathTheEarth Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves]]''', the world is gnawed by [[EldritchAbomination nameless things]]. Even Sauron knows them not. [[TimeAbyss They are older than he]]. Now I have walked there, [[TakeOurWordForIt but I will bring no report to darken the light of day]]."
* Quotes.AppealToTradition: [[{{Hobbits}} Soddits]] build the accommodation portion of their houses '''[[BeneathTheEarth under the ground]]''', and they build their coal-cellars, wine rooms and sometimes large rooms with ping-pong tables in them above the ground.
* Recap.CSINYS06E09: Mac and Don discover and search the killer's underground lair.
* Recap.HildaS1E4: When a Vittra steals her sash, Frida follows him into the Vittra's underground tunnels, later followed by Hilda.
* TabletopGame.OldWorldOfDarkness: Where you'll find [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Nosferatu warrens]] and the underground tunnels of Black Spiral Dancer hives. According to the other Changelings, Sluagh have this going on as well.
* Trivia.TheCore: In an interview with Hilary Swank she actually said: "Since ''no one knows'' what the center of the Earth ''really'' looks like, we can make up all sorts of stuff." At least the writer managed to reject the ExecutiveMeddling calling for dinosaurs BeneathTheEarth.
* Recap.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987S03E10TurtlesAtTheEarthsCore: It's revealed that there are dinosaurs alive and well today in an insulated world '''[[BeneathTheEarth beneath the Earth's crust]]'''.
* ReferencedBy.TheDivineComedy: When Manny and the others decide to go on the '''[[BeneathTheEarth underground world]]''' of dinosaurs without him, Buck tells them "Abandon all hope, he who enters there."
* VideoGame.MoonsOfMadness: An unfathomable source of ancient power is buried deep under the surface of Mars. This turns out to be one of the Gaia Engines.
* VideoGame.TotalWarWarhammer: The game has underground battles and sieges, usually set in and around [[UndergroundCity Dwarf Karaks]] and the Dwarfen Underway, although only certain factions -- such as the Dwarfs and Greenskins -- can freely access all underground stages.
* Webcomic.ReptilisRex: [[HollowWorld Hollow Earth]] is real and "[[LizardFolk Reptoids]]" live BeneathTheEarth in secret.
* Literature.TheLurkingFear: The descendants of the Martenses have dug tunnels that radiate out from the mansion, and which serve as dwelling places and routes of travel for the feral descendants.
* Manga.Dandadan: Turns out that the Kito family matriarch is a subterranean alien in a human suit. The death worm was raised as part of a centuries-long plot.
* Sandbox.HamanaHamanaHamana: Portfolio: [[BloodyBowelsOfHell A hellish underground dungeon]] [[BodyHorror made of various tissue and concrete meshed together]], [[RefusalOfTheCall those who enter it will refuse to enter it again]], [[WombLevel becomes progressively fleshier downwards]], [[HeroicSacrifice any retreat will require one party member to hold their escape]], '''[[BeneathTheEarth found underneath the Ancestor's home after he dug it up]]''', [[TheCorrupter can possibly corrupt beings outside its' domain, provided it enters said dungeon]]
* TheArtifact.VideoGames: The muck root, rat weed and prickle berry were once the only plants harvestable outside, entirely fictional and intended to be an inferior substitute to what you could find in '''[[BeneathTheEarth the caverns]]'''. This is no longer the case, since later updates added plenty of realistic vegetation, no longer undervalued, but the three plants were left in the way they are.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Low context/ZCE]]
* KillEnemiesToOpen ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper2'': The final level's PortalDoor out of '''[[BeneathTheEarth the underworld]]''' can only be opened by collecting Portal Gem {{Mineral MacGuffin}}s from throughout the game and then destroying the two Stone Knight {{Gate Guardian}}s that bar passage by the forces of Evil. They're [[NighInvulnerability Nigh-Invulnerable]], but by that point, you have enough villain cred to {{summon|ingRitual}} a Horned Reaper that [[spoiler:pounds them to dust in a {{Cutscene}}]].
* MalcolmXerox ''Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy'': An interesting example from [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids youth literature]] is Axon Befal. The Erdlings are brown-skinned, and [[spoiler:the descendants of exiled Kindar (Kindar being the race with "privledges")]]. When this all is revealed and the Erdlings are freed from their imprisonment BeneathTheEarth, Befal is preaching for ''violent'' retribution against the Kindar, including those ignorant of the Erdling's existence. Most Erdlings want nothing to do with him and consider him a criminal. In the game, his "wand" (a machete) makes the game {{Unwinnable}} if you [[VideogameCrueltyPunishment use it on anything other than briar bushes]].
* OurElvesAreDifferent: Dark Elves are usually closer to TheFairFolk, except these guys are organized as cities or civilizations and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil bent on evil]], rather than "just" operating on an [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alien morality]]. They typically live BeneathTheEarth, or sometimes in a shadowy {{Mordor}}.
* WalkingTheEarth: In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', when a Judge retires from active duty in Mega-City-One, he/she must embark on The Long Walk. The Judge is, essentially, exiled to the [[GaiasLament Cursed Earth]] or the '''[[BeneathTheEarth Undercity]]''' where they must wander and travel for the rest of their lives and "bring law to the lawless".
* AffablyEvil/Webcomics: Mr. Rexford from the same comic is an '''[[BeneathTheEarth Underground]]''' industrialist who's head of an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness that secretly controls much of human society. He is a firm believer in the ''status quo'', believing that the topside world [[TheMasquerade cannot handle all the weirdness in the Underground]] and enforces breaches harshly. Outside of his role as a conspiratorial, world-controlling old dinosaur (literally), Rexford is soft-spoken and polite and believes in smart business and reasonable relations with his fellow Committee heads, and is firmly convinced in the wisdom of his cause.
* CSINY.Tropes0ToL: The Compass Killer lives beneath a park.
* Characters.ChallengeOfTheGobots: A Gobot who is a leader among the poor and dispossessed aliens who live in squalor on the few remaining semi-habitable bits of Old Gobotron, '''[[BeneathTheEarth beneath the]]''' CityPlanet.
* Characters.DorothyMustDie: Where [the Nome King] lives.
* Characters/InvadersOfTheRokujyoumaMainCharacters: '''[[BeneathTheEarth Kiriha and her people]]''' have [[spoiler:Forthorthian blood]] in them as they're descendants of [[spoiler: Maxfern and Ancient Forthorthian alchemists]] thus making them UnevenHybrid of Japanese humans with [[spoiler: Forthorthian blood]].
* Characters.MonsterVerseKaiju: ZCE
* Characters.StevenUniverseGemMonsters: It's buried deep inside the Earth's mantle.
* DarthWiki.CityOfUnity: The Undercity.
* DarthWiki.PsionicChronicles: Fantasy's Earth have dungeons appearing like so.
* Fanfic.DaringDoAndTheJourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth: Naturally enough, where most of the story takes place.
* Film.BeneathHill60: ZCE
* Film.TheLastLovecraftRelicOfCthulhu: ZCE
* Headscratchers.LordOfTheRingsBooks: Actually, Khazad-dûm was [[TimeAbyss much older]] [[OlderThanTheyThink than that]]. The '''[[BeneathTheEarth Dwarrowdelf]]''' was on the east side of the mountains, around the main entrance, and was fully carved out thousands of years previously before the West Gate was tunneled to facilitate trade with the newly-arrived Elves of Eregion. Program note: A dwarf and an elf (Narvi and Celebrimbor) collaborated on the West-Gate.
* Literature.DorothyAndTheWizardInOz: "Where the majority of the novel takes place."
* Literature.HollowKingdomTrilogy: "The goblins live under the lake."
* Literature.TheAstralWandererAndTheForestOfTears: "The waygates, and ruins of Nix."
* Literature.{{Zorgamazoo}}: Where most of the zorgles live.
* Music.SunnO: The lyrics of "Aghartha" (which is often given as the name of the land purported to exist by the Hollow Earth Theory) are about this.
* PlayingWith.TheDarkTimes: '''Straight''': In Heroes of Troperia, a species of EldritchAbomination known as the Chthonian ruled the planet. They were utterly amoral and everything was just a plaything to them. But the slaves -- humans, elves, CatFolk, and whatnot -- rose against them in planet-wide rebellion, and the Chthonian overthrown; now they slumber BeneathTheEarth.
* Recap.RegularShowS05E19JourneyToTheBotttomOfTheCrashPit: The inhabitants of the crash pit deep below the park, the Carlocks.
* Roleplay.LegendsOfAeirth: [[CityofGold Mining Town]]: Amethyst
* VideoGame.BaldursGateII: A good portion of ''Baldur's Gate II'' takes place here, like the entire Chapter 5.
* VideoGame.CryOfFearTheHole: The Hole and the mine tunnels it consists of.
* VideoGame.EternalDarkness: Ehn'gha, the ancient city.
* VideoGame.ForumFantasy: The sunken Tower of Babil and the Fiery Caverns at its entrance. Botlantis and Krakenvania also qualify.
* VideoGame.MagicCarpet: There are underground levels in ''Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds''.
* VideoGame.ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter: Where you must go to fulfill the final quest of the main story.
* VideoGame.SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration: Played with regarding the ''Masou Kishin'' cast: a few members return in ''The Moon Dwellers'', while the rest stay behind in '''"[[BeneathTheEarth La Gias]]"'''. Justified for the latter [[spoiler:in order to monitor the Cross Gate in their world]].
* VideoGame.{{Zork}}: Most of the series takes place in '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Great Underground Empire]]'''.
* WesternAnimation.{{Inhumanoids}}: At least half of every episode is spent beneath the Earth.
* WesternAnimation.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987: The Technodrome in Season 1 and 3.
* WesternAnimation.XMenTheAnimatedSeries: The Morlocks.
* YMMV.TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom: As if ''Breath of the Wild'' wasn't gorgeous enough, ''Tears of the Kingdom'' adds [[WorldInTheSky the Sky]], with its beautiful, serene SceneryPorn and soft yellow hues, and '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Depths]]''', a visually striking realm that uses [[DarkWorld darkness]] and muted colors to [[NothingIsScarier unnerve]] and intrigue players.
* SignatureStyle.LiveActionFilms: The films of Creator/GuillermoDelToro will often favour a specific and small palette (amber for ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'', blue-green for ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', yellow/blue for night/day in ''Film/BladeII''), '''will frequently go BeneathTheEarth''', put something slimy in a jar, and always always ''always'' include some reference to Roman Catholicism. And clockwork. As he once said:
-->"I have a sort of a fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things."
[[/folder]]
General analysis of the wicks:
* Large cavernous underworlds: 21%
* Hidden under-city: 5%
* Wholly underground city: 6%
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe: 1%
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels: 8%
* Other/unspecific: 30%
* ZCE/no-context pothole: 29%
The wick check shows the "huge cavern system with wierd stuff in it" variant to be the most common. The "hidden society under another city" is drastically underrepresented, despite being nominally half of the trope's identity. [=ZCEs=] and pattern-less examples make up the majorty of the entries. As it currently stands, the trope's use on the site at large doesn't show much identity beyond "underground spaces exist".
As a general analysis, the main concepts identifiable within the confusion are:
# "A society of mole people, mutants, vagrants, or similar things that lives in the underground spaces of a human city, usually in secret."
# "A large, sprawling network of caverns and tunnels, home to subterranean civilizations, lost worlds, strange creatures and dramatic natural phenomena."
# "People escape a catastrophe or other great threat by retreating in natural or artificial underground spaces."
# "An UndergroundCity."
As to what to do with this, these are my main takeaways:
* The fourth concept is already a trope and can handily take in any relevant examples.
* Many examples in the first category discuss cities that used to be aboveground and were buried, forgotten, and built over. These are covered by another existing trope, UnderCity.
* Outside of that, the other three concepts, I think, all have good potential to be split off into their own tropes. My suggestion to deal with the identity issues here is to just... do that.
----
The most obvious feature here is a soft split between "Urban" and "Caverns" versions. The former is concerned with some sort of society living in the sewers, buried buildings and assorted underground spaces of a surface-oriented city, or in the ruins of an old city buried under a new one; emphasis here is placed on living hidden from the surface and mooching resources and energy from up top. The latter is concerned with extensive cavern systems running beneath the world and containing their own underground ecosystems and civilizations; the description lists off natives (mole people, morlocks, dwarves, dark elves, etc.), fauna (dinosaurs, giant insects), and environment features (lava, giant mushrooms, tropical lost worlds). The earliest version I could find on the Wayback Machine is [[https:..web.archive.org.web.20060503212539.https:..tvtropes.org.pmwiki.pmwiki.php.Main.BeneathTheEarth this one, from 2006]]; it's much more bare-bones but shows the same general trend and a lot of text is carried over to the present version.
I went in with the suspicion that these two concepts are too distinct to be called variants of a single trope, and did this wick check to test that out. I checked fifty examples from each section and a hundred inbounds. I opted to skip the Real Life sections and Sandbox/ pages.
[[folder:Sewers]]
* Anime.TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold: "The Morlock-like Olmecs dwell in underground cities."
* Manga.SgtFrog: Aliens live in a city underground, which looks just like a surface one.
* Anime.{{Texhnolyze}}: Underground city, ancient people were banished there.
* ComicBook.JusticeSocietyOfAmerica: ZCE
* ComicBook.JudgeDredd: City built over ruins of older ones that are now home to mutants.
* Franchise.MarvelUniverse: Mutants hide in the sewers.
* Fanfic.ChildOfTheStorm: Network of buried abandoned buildings under Chicago, no mention of what if anything lives here.
* Fanfic.TheKeysStandAlone: People live in tunnels beneath something, very little clear context.
* WesternAnimation.AnAmericanTail: Society of mice lives in New York sewers.
* Anime.ChildrenWhoChaseLostVoices: Full HollowWorld with internal sun and ecosystem.
* Film.BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes: Human mutants live buried ruins of New York.
* Film.BillyClub2013: Underground bunker with a skeleton and etchings.
* Film.DarkHeritage: Descendants of a family live in tunnels radiating from their house.
* Film.{{Metropolis}}: Workers live in underground apartments, rich live on surface.
* Franchise.TheMatrix: Last humans live in hidden city underground.
* Literature.Ash2001: Surface city is nuked, survivors hide in another underground city.
* Literature.{{Beneath}}: Society lives beneath New York and plots takeover of the surface.
* Literature.DarkCitiesUnderground: ZCE.
* Literature.{{Downsiders}}: Community living in New York subways.
* Literature.TheIronTeeth: Tribe lives in tunnels beneath a human city.
* Literature.{{Neverwhere}}: ZCE
* Literature.TheRelic: Monster in tunnels beneath a museum.
* Literature.{{Shadowmarch}}: "Funderlings" live in towns beneath human settlements.
* Literature.TheWarOfTheWorlds1898: Discussed; character plans to resist aliens by hiding in London sewers and basements, nothing comes of it.
* Series.The100: Survivors of nuclear war live bunker inside a mountain.
* Series.{{Angel}}: Homeless kids living in the sewers.
* Series.{{Bones}}: Homeless people living underground.
* Recap.DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld: ZCE
* Series.{{Neverwhere}}: Elaborate society beneath London.
* TabletopGame.VampireTheMasquerade: Vampires live in basements and sewers of human cities.
* TabletopGame.{{Pathfinder}}: City-spanning maze of tunnels, sewers and basement accesses home to thieves and goblins.
* TabletopGame.{{Shadowrun}}: Orks and trolls living in [https:..en.wikipedia.org.wiki.Seattle_Underground Seattle Underground]].
* TabletopGame.{{Underworld|2000}}: ZCE, relies on another example for context.
* VideoGame.{{Astroneer}}: Planets and moons all have extensive layered cave networks full of monsters.
* VideoGame.{{Bloodborne}}: Complex network of sewers and tunnels beneath city, no note on inhabitants.
* VideoGame.CityOfHeroes: Ruins of ancient city beneath modern one.
* VideoGame.FalloutNewVegas: MoleMen descended from bunker residents.
* VideoGame.GearsOfWar: Enemies come from underground. Little context.
* VideoGame.ProjectEden: Game is set in underground maintenance and service layers beneath a megacity.
* VideoGame.SpongebobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom: ZCE
* Webcomic.DragonCity: Dragons live in hidden cities beneath human ones.
* Webcomic.GirlGenius: Every city has a maze of sewers, basements, secret tunnels and catacombs home to hidden societies and monsters.
* Webcomic.SluggyFreelance: Robots dig an underground settlement.
* WebOriginal.LoomingGaia: Society of vagrants in the sewers beneath a city.
* LetsPlay.{{Mahu}}: Colonists on an ice planet dig underground cities.
* WesternAnimation.{{Downtown}}: Characters talk about who or what could live in New York subways.
* WesternAnimation.{{Futurama}}: Civilization of mutants living in New York sewers.
* WesternAnimation.{{Gargoyles}}: Homeless people live beneath New York.
* Recap.TheSimpsonsS11E6HelloGutterHelloFadder: Mole people and morlocks live in Springfield sewers.
* Franchise.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Main characters and villains live in the New York sewers.
[[/folder]]
* Society living in sewers/subway/basements of surface city: 24/50 = 48%
* UndergroundCity with no surface counterpart: 6/50 = 12%
* Giant cavern network or hollow world: 2/50 = 4%
* Other: 12/50 = 24%
* ZCE: 6/50 = 12%
[[folder:Caverns]]
* Manga.GetterRobo: Evolved dinosaurs went underground to avoid catastrophe. The underground is not described.
* Anime.MazingerZ: Advanced underground civilization, extent or landscape not described.
* TabletopGame.YuGiOh: Giant monsters that live underground.
* ComicBook.DisneyDucksComicUniverse: World-spanning underworld home to two native races.
* ComicBook.JusticeSocietyOfAmerica: Hostile race lives in "a realm" beneath main city.
* Fanfic.{{Antipodes}}: Extensive unmapped underworld home to monsters and holdouts of survivors from global catastrophe.
* WesternAnimation.TheIncredibles1: Mole Man villain.
* Film.TheLordOfTheRings: Ruined underground city full of monsters.
* Literature.ArtemisFowl: Fairies retreated into a global cavern system to avoid humanity.
* Literature.{{Below}}: Sprawling underworld of ruins and tunnels home to monsters.
* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: Localized layered underground realms home to increasingly more terrible things.
* Literature.DocSavage: ZCE
* Literature.MoreInformationThanYouRequire: Mole man civilization lives "here" alongside troglodytic men.
* Literature.DorothyAndTheWizardInOz: Dorothy and the Wizard travel through "various realms beneath the Earth".
* Literature.SeptimusHeap: "Huge, subterranean cavern." No further context.
* Literature.{{Tunnels}}: Series is spent moving progressively deeper in a large underworld.
* Literature.WhispersUnderGround: Hidden colony living in the subways and sewers of London.
* Recap.FarscapeS02E03TakingTheStone: Hippy society living beneath a graveyard planet.
* Series.UltramanGinga: Underground civilization living "in massive caverns".
* Music.TomWaits: A "big dark town" deep underground.
* VideoGame.ProPinballFantasticJourney: A DrillTank is used to travel to the center of the Earth. 20
* TabletopGame.ClaimTheSky: Large cavern system with ruins, MoleMen and a LostWorld of dinosaurs.
* TabletopGame.{{Ravenloft}}: Localized cavern systems and underground realms that are home to hostile races.
* TabletopGame.LamentationsOfTheFlamePrincess: "Endless labyrinth" underground of rich treasure and scarce resources.
* TabletopGame.{{Pathfinder}}: Layered global underworld filled with monsters, strange environments, underground cities, and lost worlds.
* Ride.DisneyThemeParks: ZCE
* VideoGame.ArxFatalis: Civilization moved into large cavern systems when the Sun died.
* VideoGame.DarkSoulsI: Several underground areas explored, little descriptive detail.
* VideoGame.BaldursGateII: "Vast subterranean labyrinth covering much of the world."
* VideoGame.{{Exile}}: Enormous cavern networks filled with lava, fungus, and exiled people.
* VideoGame.GearsOfWar: "Vast series of underground caverns."
* VideoGame.LegacyOfTheWizard: "Massive system of caverns and underground ruins."
* VideoGame.TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild: Villain came from beneath the ground.
* VideoGame.MasterOfOrionII: Some species live underground, underground areas are not described.
* VideoGame.{{Poacher}}: Subterranean world containing cities and natural environments.
* Franchise/TombRaider: Dangerous caves are explored.
* VideoGame.{{Ultima}}: World-spanning system of caves and underground rivers.
* VideoGame.{{Warcraft}}: Continent-spanning caverns home to a hidden civilization and ancient horrors.
* Webcomic.ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse: Large system of caverns, mostly empty.
* Webcomic.EverydayHeroes: A family lives in an AbsurdlySpaciousSewer.
* Webcomic.TowerOfGod: Character was trapped in a cave for a year.
* Blog.CrossingKevinsCrossing: "Weird people" live in tunnels.
* Website.TaerelSetting: A society is made up of clans living in distinct cave systems.
* WebAnimation.HomestarRunner: Character thinks that there is an underworld of dinosaurs and lost civilizations beneath his backyard.
* WesternAnimation.MightyMax: Villain lives in an underground cavern lair.
* WesternAnimation.MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic: Localized cavern system with giant gems, a mini lost world and places of magic.
* WesternAnimation.RegularShow: Morlocks live in tunnel system around main setting.
* Recap.StarWarsTheCloneWarsS4E5MercyMission: Hidden underworld home to magical beings.
* Recap.StarWarsTheCloneWarsS4E20Bounty: Aliens live in a vast layer of caverns because the planetary surface is uninhabitable.
* WesternAnimation.TheTick: Mole people exist.
* WesternAnimation.{{Trollhunters}}: Trolls live in large caverns and underground spaces.
[[/folder]]
* Global/setting-wide "underdark" with underground cultures, monsters, strange sights and such: 14/50 = 28%
* Smaller or of undescribed size but otherwise as above: 7/50 = 14%
(Combined = 42%)
* People head underground to escape catastrophe (not mutually exclusive with others): 4/50 = 8%
* Society living in sewers/subway/basements of surface city: 3/50 = 6%
* MoleMen: 4/50 = 8%
* ZCE: 2/50 = 4%
* Other caves: 19/50 = 38%
(Note that both sections contain examples that should properly go in the other.)
In both cases, each section is a little under half made up of a single concept, with the rest made up of various other cases and tropes.
Wick check:
Note: many of these examples do not specify if the underground areas discussed are underground structures (e.g. sewers), tunnels in soil, tunnels in rock, or natural caverns.
[[folder:Large cavernous underworlds]]
* CreepyCave: ''Literature/{{Narnia}}'' Book 4, ''Literature/TheSilverChair'': In search of the missing prince, the protagonists end up falling into "Underland," a civilization of MoleMen housed BeneathTheEarth in massive natural cave systems. The whole area is decidedly PlayedForHorror, with the initial journey to the central city making use of all the frightening elements of a real-life caving expedition such as crossing dark waters and crawling through small, tight tunnels. There is a sense of {{claustrophobia}} and [[DarknessEqualsDeath encroaching darkness]] throughout the Underland chapters, and to make matters worse, the whole place starts flooding after the climactic confrontation.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Series/FraggleRock'': The Fraggles live in an [[BeneathTheEarth elaborate world of rocky caverns]]. Almost every episode [[InsertSong has at least one song]]. They cover a wide range of musical genres, including {{Rock}}!
* ElementalEmbodiment: ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': A number of fire elementals such as fire men, magma men and fire imps live in the magma ocean at the bottom of the underworld. In addition, the shallower cavern layers BeneathTheEarth are home to beings such as iron men, which become statues upon death, and amethyst men.
* MushroomHouse: ''TabletopGame/MagiNation'': The Underneath, a vast region of caverns BeneathTheEarth, is almost entirely covered by vast forest-like growths of [[FungusHumongous gigantic mushrooms]] with purple stalks and orange, spotted caps. For lack of other building materials, the locals often hollow these mushrooms out, fit them with doors and windows and use them as their primary source of housing.
* SubterraneanSanityFailure: ''TabletopGame/OutOfTheAbyss'': The player characters are stuck in the [[BeneathTheEarth subterranean]] DeathWorld of the Underdark at the same time as a [[HellOnEarth demonic incursion]] spreads madness and (even more) monsters into its caverns. The module makes extensive use of a SanityMeter -- [=PCs=] could suffer short- or long-term madness from eerie encounters, pervasive magic, the stress of deprivation, or more, and will meet many insane [=NPCs=] along the way.
* TunnelNetwork: Since fortresses in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' tend to be mainly underground anyway, they usually incorporate some degree of this. Dwarven and goblin civilisations also create large tunnels linking settlements created during worldgen, and beneath those there are three levels of naturally-formed cavern system that blur the line somewhat between this trope and BeneathTheEarth.
* Characters.PathfinderTheDarklands: They particularly draw inspiration from pulp fiction of the early 1900s, such as Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Pellucidar''. They're divided into three layers:
** The uppermost layer, Nar-Voth, consists of extremely deep and extensive but otherwise fairly normal caverns (which are often isolated and do not form a continuous network), and is the most familiar layer to the surface-dwellers. While most of it is sparsely populated stony wilderness, it is also home to fairly normal humanoids like [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]], [[LizardFolk troglodytes]] and [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame duergar]].
** Sekamina, the middle layer, consists of much larger and more thoroughly interconnected caverns and tunnels, extending beneath most of the world’s surface. It is home to more reclusive and dangerous races like the [[OurElvesAreDifferent drow]] and [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]], who rule true underground empires, alongside monsters such as [[SpiderPeople driders]], [[TheMorlocks morlocks]] and [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos gugs]]. It has more exotic terrain than Nar-Voth, including fungal forests, volcanic caves and a true subterranean sea.
** Finally, the deepest level -- the Vaults of Orv -- is as much a subject of fear and mystery for the people of Nar-Voth and Sekamina as the Darklands as a whole are for surface-dwellers. It consists of massive caverns the size of nations, some dark and others lit by artificial suns or glowing crystals, containing environments such as deserts, rainforests, ruined cities, mountain ranges and a vast subterranean ocean. The Vaults are inhabited by a great variety of monsters, ranging from dinosaurs, dragons, [[BigCreepyCrawlies monstrous arthropods]] and the undead to a variety of [[EldritchAbomination unspeakable horrors]]. They did not form naturally, but were excavated by a powerful earth elemental {{Precursor|s}} race called the Xiomorn to host their evolutionary experiments.
* Characters.SkylandersLife: A former member of the royal guard for the Drilla King, who ruled over the '''[[BeneathTheEarth subterranean Drilla Empire]]'''.
* Characters.TheMisfitOfDemonKingAcademyHeroAcademyUndergroundWorld: The Underground World, as it name implied, is a domain located beneath the surface of the earth, as it was a place that didn't exist originally during the Mythical Age, being created after Anos' reincarnation.
* EldenRing.TropesAToE: The Lands Between is full of hidden catacombs, caves, and crystal mines the Tarnished can stumble upon, most of them even having a Boss at the bottom of it. Furthermore, some places are their own little world beneath the earth, such as Nokron, the Eternal City, which has a sky full of stars (actually glowing glintstone ores) despite being underground.
* Fanfic.ThePalaververse: An extensive underworld of caverns exists beneath Theia’s surface, permeating its entire volume supposedly going all the way to a sea of lava at the planet’s core. The Diamond Dogs live in the uppermost layers, while the deeps are home to a great variety of horrors.
* Franchise.DragonAge: BeneathTheEarth, in the meantime, the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]] built a great empire of the underground cavern cities, or "thaigs", connected by a vast tunnel network known as the Deep Roads.
* Literature.{{Rihannsu}}: The Ysailsu resistance -- which includes most of the planetary population of an established Rihannsu colony -- has retreated into the vast Saijja Caverns, a network of caves so deep that they cannot be accurately scanned from space, and which have never been completely mapped, even by them.
* Literature.TheUnderlandChronicles: The series is all about this trope. More than 90 percent of the books take place in an underground world beneath New York called the Underland.
* Series.CosmicDisclosure: There's all sorts of cool stuff there, like self-contained ecosystems, remnants of the AdvancedAncientHumans' expeditions, and the Agarthan cities.
* Skyrim.TropesUToZ: There are regular caves and mines (often serving as dens for bandits, [[TheMorlocks Falmer]], vampires, etc.), ancient Nordic burial tombs, and subterranean fortresses guarded by [[RagnarokProofing machines that were built by their long-since-vanished]] [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] masters. There's even a '''[[BeneathTheEarth wide-open cavern deep underground]]''' connecting three Dwemer fortresses, once the location of the Dwemer city of Blackreach.
* TabletopGame.MiddleEarthRolePlaying: Moria is given an extensive description, showing it as a layered, complex labyrinth of mines and underground ruins home to tribes of orcs and trolls, flocks of flesh-eating bats, restless undead, and serpentine dragons that shun the light of day, although its depths also hide the treasures of the ancient Dwarves and natural wonders in the deeper caves. The deepest levels of Moria are connected to the Under-Deeps, a lightless realm that has never been explored but which is believed to extend beneath the span of the Misty Mountains and where terrible monsters lurk.
* TheLordOfTheRings.TropesAToC: The dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm is technically a vast, glorified mine under the mountains, connecting with ancient caves where orcs and monsters hide out of sight of the surface world. Erebor (or the Lonely Mountain, as it's called in ''Literature/TheHobbit''), a smaller-scale version of the same, is also mentioned.
* VideoGame.DontStarve: The '''[[BeneathTheEarth extensive cave systems]]''' accessible through sinkholes are home to two types of bioluminescent plants, the mushtrees -- [[FungusHumongous tree-sized mushrooms]] that shine with faint blue, red or green glows, depending on which color variation they come in -- and Light Flowers -- true plants that sprout either one, two or three glowing white spheres named Light Bulbs at the end of tall stalks. Since the caves are otherwise completely lightless, and since in ''Don't Starve'' [[DarknessEqualsDeath walking into the darkness is an excellent way of dying a horrible death]], the occasional groves of mushtrees and light flowers provide invaluable oases of relative safety. The bulbs of light flowers can also be used to craft lanterns, although doing so also means shrinking the size of the permanent illuminated areas.
* VideoGame.KnightBewitched2: Deepforge I is buried deep underground, and there's an entire world map underground known as the Ambrose Underworld, just like the Underworld of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. This takes place before the dungeon, Heaven's Door, raised the lava sea level, so more locations are available than in ''VideoGame/FindingLight''.
* Webcomic.ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse: After reaching [[spoiler:the Dark Star]], the Everyman enters a vast system of lightless caverns that wind on for miles. He encounters nothing there besides a single {{Giant Spider|s}} and, eventually, [[spoiler:the Singularity's hidden lair]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hidden under-city]]
* SewerTropes: BeneathTheEarth (the urban type)
* TabletopGame.DontRestYourHead: Underneath the Mad City is a system of caves, caverns, and twisting tunnels known as the Warrens. While many known and unknown things live down below, the Warrens are most famous for the Kingdom of Wax, the domain of the Wax King.
* TabletopGame.VampireTheMasquerade:
** Nosferatu usually congregate in sewers, abandoned tunnels and the like.
** Beneath New York, [[AncientEvil once lay a horror more terrifying than any Nosferatu]]. It was thought by the Nosferatu to be a Nictuku, a childe of Absimilard, the Nosferatu Antediluvian. Only [[spoiler:Lambach Ruthven]] knew the truth. It was the [[spoiler:Tzimisce Antediluvian]]. He tried to tell people what was in there, but [[CassandraTruth no one believed him...]] Then it pulled itself together... and left to meet with its "siblings".
* VideoGame.TheElderScrollsIVOblivion: The Imperial city is so vast, its sewers are used by several vampires as an alternative to living on the surface.
* WebAnimation.OllieAndScoops: In the third episode, Scoops introduces Ollie to ''Catlifornia'', a secret city-esque society for cats that can be accessed via a garbage can with a chute that leads to the place located underground.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:A singe wholly underground city]]
* Characters.EarthTwentySevenTheTitans: Atlee's people live in a vast underground city. Their technology is so advanced that even Power Girl was impressed.
* ComicBook.PowerGirl: Atlee's people live in a vast underground city. Their technology is so advanced that even Power Girl was impressed.
* Literature.BigfootAndLittlefoot: Boone's Sasquatch community is located in Whiddershins Cavern. It's a giant cave system where the Sasquatches all set up shops and businesses in various nooks.
* VideoGame.ARobotNamedFight: The Buried City, remnants of the old RobotWar. It's home to molemen, the devolved/mutated remnants of humanity.
* VideoGame.{{Spellstone}}: The city of Beetleton Bunker, home to all manner of insects, is located deep {{beneath the earth}}.
* VideoGame.ZanZarahTheHiddenPortal: Local dwarves reside mainly in the '''[[BeneathTheEarth underground village]] of Monagham''', their language slightly resembles [[GratuitousGerman German]], and their currency is crystals, rather than coins that the rest of Zanzarah uses. They also dislike magic, preferring to use technology and {{Magitek}}, and the dwarf that sells magic spells for your fairies is a blacksmith.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:People flee underground to escape a catastrophe]]
* Anime.TengenToppaGurrenLagann: Most of humanity had been forced underground by forces unknown a long time ago. The first part of the series revolves around liberating the repressed humans.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels]]
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: TheNineties cartoon ''Magical Super Trolls'' features trolls who live like humans BeneathTheEarth. Some of them possess magic powers, and three of them are granted super powers.
* BatOutOfHell: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Besides [[TheSwarm swarms of regular bats]] and {{dire b|east}}ats the size of oxen, there are also mobats -- sapient giant bats native to '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Darklands]]''' -- and skavelings, [[NonHumanUndead mobat ghouls]] with the same paralyzing touch of the regular humanoid kind. Werebats are also presented as a type of lycanthrope.
* FantasticalSocialServices: The SeriesMascot class of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' is the humble rat-catcher (and their small, but vicious, dog). They keep the cities of the Empire clean of vermin, but their work in the sewers inevitably leads them to run into the skaven, a technologically sophisticated race of evil RatMen who dwell BeneathTheEarth.
* GentleGiantSauropod: In ''The Abysmal Invasion'', the surface world is invaded by LizardFolk from BeneathTheEarth and their dinosaur mounts. Brontosaurs seem to be some of the most commonly-used steeds, and are said to be "more tractable" than the others... although they're still pretty terrifying to the human characters.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', one of the earliest [[ArcVillain arc threats]] was the Bohrok Swarm, [[TheSwarm a horde of insectoid drones]] that [[BeneathTheEarth emerged from the tunnels of the island]] and attempted to destroy everything, from structures, to plantlife, to the people living on it.
* RockMonster: Among the various elemental creatures found living BeneathTheEarth are gabbro men and amethyst men. As their bodies are made entirely out of rock and mineral, they can be very dangerous foes: they feel no pain, cannot be suffocated, are difficult to damage due to most weapons glancing off their stony skin, can punch a dwarf to death with ease and are building destroyers. If killed, they obviously cannot be butchered like other creatures, instead leaving behind, respectively, a rough gabbro boulder or an amethyst.
* Characters.{{Willow}}: The Trolls in the Disney+ series live in a huge complex of mines.
* Laconic.{{Clusterfuck}}: Horny, ''incredibly'' troubled college students become victims of {{Mutant|s}} [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombies]] in a [[BeneathTheEarth cave in the mountains]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Other]]
* Characters.UltramanAce: Giron-Man's species hail from underground, so he decides to turn the entirety of Tokyo's underground into his lair.
* CantRefuseTheCallAnymore: In Creator/TadWilliams's ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'', Simon's first journey [[BeneathTheEarth beneath the tunnels]] of the Hayholt on the heels of his mentor's HeroicSacrifice is the point where his journey becomes irrevocable. It also includes the literal metaphor of being "swallowed up" by the earth, followed by his emergence, alone, starving, and companionless.
* MistakenForAfterlife ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'': In an early comic, Thorgal falls into a gorge and wakes up days later in a beautiful garden. He's initially convinced that he's in Valhalla, but in reality he's in a magical place BeneathTheEarth.
* TheCityNarrows: ''TabletopGame/{{Ptolus}}'': The Undercity Market is an aversion: it's BeneathTheEarth and full of adventurers, but it's mostly for resupplying, and it's successful enough that it has a burgeoning residential area as well—and being full of heavily-armed adventurers is actually pretty good for keeping things relatively civil and orderly.
* TheTower: The MobileMaze or [[LockedInTheDungeon Dungeon]] is the inverse trope: a more expansive version of the Ominous Castle or Megastructure, with more stuff '''[[BeneathTheEarth below than above]]'''.
* Characters.ForgottenRealmsGods: [Shar] became the goddess of caves, dungeons and the underground after killing Ibrandul, the god who previously held those domains.
* Characters.TNOKomiPassionariyy: Eurasia builds underground bunkers as part of trying to equip itself with nuclear weapons.
* ComicBook.BatmanOdyssey: Featuring trolls, giant bats, dinosaurs, wizards, and all-around weirdness.
* ComicBook.WerewolfByNight: Crawl down through the mist near Devil's Grotto and you'll end up [[spoiler:in space]].
* Creator.DarkHorseComics: A storyline that featured Franchise/{{Tarzan}} and Franchise/{{Predator}} fighting '''[[BeneathTheEarth at the center of the earth]]'''.
* Film.InvadersFromMars1986: Through seamlessly drilled tunnels, the Martians reach from their buried ship to the surface.
* Literature.MemorySorrowAndThorn: The labyrinthine tunnels beneath the Hayholt, including the ruins of Asu'a, are a major story element. Simon is forced to traverse them twice during his journey, both times representing his [[TheHerosJourney "descent into darkness"]]. Other characters visit the tunnels as well, including the Sithi ([[spoiler:and Norns]]) near the climax.
* Literature.TheHobbit: A number of examples; almost everyone seems to live underground.
** Bilbo lives in Bag End, the hobbit-hole that is quite literally "under hill" (though with many windows).
** The visit to "Goblin-town" and Gollum finds them in caves under a mountain range.
** The elves live in a cave system in Mirkwood.
* Literature.ThePlaniverse: Ardeans live in underground hobbit-holes to avoid the rain -- on a circular planet, there are no rivers, only flash floods. The one surface building is directly atop the continental divide.
* MazingerZ.TropesDToF: An archaeological expedition researching ancient ruins in the Greek Island of Bardos went too deep in the underground mazes of the island and found an army of HumongousMecha. Subverted, since Dr. Hell ''hoped'' finding them and using them to further his goals. Also, when Hell seized those robots, he drew the attention of the Mykene Empire -- '''[[BeneathTheEarth an ancient civilization had been forced to live underground]]''' -- and they decided return to the surface ''quite'' violently.
* NightmareFuel.TheLordOfTheRings: '''"[[BeneathTheEarth Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves]]''', the world is gnawed by [[EldritchAbomination nameless things]]. Even Sauron knows them not. [[TimeAbyss They are older than he]]. Now I have walked there, [[TakeOurWordForIt but I will bring no report to darken the light of day]]."
* Quotes.AppealToTradition: [[{{Hobbits}} Soddits]] build the accommodation portion of their houses '''[[BeneathTheEarth under the ground]]''', and they build their coal-cellars, wine rooms and sometimes large rooms with ping-pong tables in them above the ground.
* Recap.CSINYS06E09: Mac and Don discover and search the killer's underground lair.
* Recap.HildaS1E4: When a Vittra steals her sash, Frida follows him into the Vittra's underground tunnels, later followed by Hilda.
* TabletopGame.OldWorldOfDarkness: Where you'll find [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Nosferatu warrens]] and the underground tunnels of Black Spiral Dancer hives. According to the other Changelings, Sluagh have this going on as well.
* Trivia.TheCore: In an interview with Hilary Swank she actually said: "Since ''no one knows'' what the center of the Earth ''really'' looks like, we can make up all sorts of stuff." At least the writer managed to reject the ExecutiveMeddling calling for dinosaurs BeneathTheEarth.
* Recap.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987S03E10TurtlesAtTheEarthsCore: It's revealed that there are dinosaurs alive and well today in an insulated world '''[[BeneathTheEarth beneath the Earth's crust]]'''.
* ReferencedBy.TheDivineComedy: When Manny and the others decide to go on the '''[[BeneathTheEarth underground world]]''' of dinosaurs without him, Buck tells them "Abandon all hope, he who enters there."
* VideoGame.MoonsOfMadness: An unfathomable source of ancient power is buried deep under the surface of Mars. This turns out to be one of the Gaia Engines.
* VideoGame.TotalWarWarhammer: The game has underground battles and sieges, usually set in and around [[UndergroundCity Dwarf Karaks]] and the Dwarfen Underway, although only certain factions -- such as the Dwarfs and Greenskins -- can freely access all underground stages.
* Webcomic.ReptilisRex: [[HollowWorld Hollow Earth]] is real and "[[LizardFolk Reptoids]]" live BeneathTheEarth in secret.
* Literature.TheLurkingFear: The descendants of the Martenses have dug tunnels that radiate out from the mansion, and which serve as dwelling places and routes of travel for the feral descendants.
* Manga.Dandadan: Turns out that the Kito family matriarch is a subterranean alien in a human suit. The death worm was raised as part of a centuries-long plot.
* Sandbox.HamanaHamanaHamana: Portfolio: [[BloodyBowelsOfHell A hellish underground dungeon]] [[BodyHorror made of various tissue and concrete meshed together]], [[RefusalOfTheCall those who enter it will refuse to enter it again]], [[WombLevel becomes progressively fleshier downwards]], [[HeroicSacrifice any retreat will require one party member to hold their escape]], '''[[BeneathTheEarth found underneath the Ancestor's home after he dug it up]]''', [[TheCorrupter can possibly corrupt beings outside its' domain, provided it enters said dungeon]]
* TheArtifact.VideoGames: The muck root, rat weed and prickle berry were once the only plants harvestable outside, entirely fictional and intended to be an inferior substitute to what you could find in '''[[BeneathTheEarth the caverns]]'''. This is no longer the case, since later updates added plenty of realistic vegetation, no longer undervalued, but the three plants were left in the way they are.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Low context/ZCE]]
* KillEnemiesToOpen ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper2'': The final level's PortalDoor out of '''[[BeneathTheEarth the underworld]]''' can only be opened by collecting Portal Gem {{Mineral MacGuffin}}s from throughout the game and then destroying the two Stone Knight {{Gate Guardian}}s that bar passage by the forces of Evil. They're [[NighInvulnerability Nigh-Invulnerable]], but by that point, you have enough villain cred to {{summon|ingRitual}} a Horned Reaper that [[spoiler:pounds them to dust in a {{Cutscene}}]].
* MalcolmXerox ''Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy'': An interesting example from [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids youth literature]] is Axon Befal. The Erdlings are brown-skinned, and [[spoiler:the descendants of exiled Kindar (Kindar being the race with "privledges")]]. When this all is revealed and the Erdlings are freed from their imprisonment BeneathTheEarth, Befal is preaching for ''violent'' retribution against the Kindar, including those ignorant of the Erdling's existence. Most Erdlings want nothing to do with him and consider him a criminal. In the game, his "wand" (a machete) makes the game {{Unwinnable}} if you [[VideogameCrueltyPunishment use it on anything other than briar bushes]].
* OurElvesAreDifferent: Dark Elves are usually closer to TheFairFolk, except these guys are organized as cities or civilizations and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil bent on evil]], rather than "just" operating on an [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alien morality]]. They typically live BeneathTheEarth, or sometimes in a shadowy {{Mordor}}.
* WalkingTheEarth: In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', when a Judge retires from active duty in Mega-City-One, he/she must embark on The Long Walk. The Judge is, essentially, exiled to the [[GaiasLament Cursed Earth]] or the '''[[BeneathTheEarth Undercity]]''' where they must wander and travel for the rest of their lives and "bring law to the lawless".
* AffablyEvil/Webcomics: Mr. Rexford from the same comic is an '''[[BeneathTheEarth Underground]]''' industrialist who's head of an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness that secretly controls much of human society. He is a firm believer in the ''status quo'', believing that the topside world [[TheMasquerade cannot handle all the weirdness in the Underground]] and enforces breaches harshly. Outside of his role as a conspiratorial, world-controlling old dinosaur (literally), Rexford is soft-spoken and polite and believes in smart business and reasonable relations with his fellow Committee heads, and is firmly convinced in the wisdom of his cause.
* CSINY.Tropes0ToL: The Compass Killer lives beneath a park.
* Characters.ChallengeOfTheGobots: A Gobot who is a leader among the poor and dispossessed aliens who live in squalor on the few remaining semi-habitable bits of Old Gobotron, '''[[BeneathTheEarth beneath the]]''' CityPlanet.
* Characters.DorothyMustDie: Where [the Nome King] lives.
* Characters/InvadersOfTheRokujyoumaMainCharacters: '''[[BeneathTheEarth Kiriha and her people]]''' have [[spoiler:Forthorthian blood]] in them as they're descendants of [[spoiler: Maxfern and Ancient Forthorthian alchemists]] thus making them UnevenHybrid of Japanese humans with [[spoiler: Forthorthian blood]].
* Characters.MonsterVerseKaiju: ZCE
* Characters.StevenUniverseGemMonsters: It's buried deep inside the Earth's mantle.
* DarthWiki.CityOfUnity: The Undercity.
* DarthWiki.PsionicChronicles: Fantasy's Earth have dungeons appearing like so.
* Fanfic.DaringDoAndTheJourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth: Naturally enough, where most of the story takes place.
* Film.BeneathHill60: ZCE
* Film.TheLastLovecraftRelicOfCthulhu: ZCE
* Headscratchers.LordOfTheRingsBooks: Actually, Khazad-dûm was [[TimeAbyss much older]] [[OlderThanTheyThink than that]]. The '''[[BeneathTheEarth Dwarrowdelf]]''' was on the east side of the mountains, around the main entrance, and was fully carved out thousands of years previously before the West Gate was tunneled to facilitate trade with the newly-arrived Elves of Eregion. Program note: A dwarf and an elf (Narvi and Celebrimbor) collaborated on the West-Gate.
* Literature.DorothyAndTheWizardInOz: "Where the majority of the novel takes place."
* Literature.HollowKingdomTrilogy: "The goblins live under the lake."
* Literature.TheAstralWandererAndTheForestOfTears: "The waygates, and ruins of Nix."
* Literature.{{Zorgamazoo}}: Where most of the zorgles live.
* Music.SunnO: The lyrics of "Aghartha" (which is often given as the name of the land purported to exist by the Hollow Earth Theory) are about this.
* PlayingWith.TheDarkTimes: '''Straight''': In Heroes of Troperia, a species of EldritchAbomination known as the Chthonian ruled the planet. They were utterly amoral and everything was just a plaything to them. But the slaves -- humans, elves, CatFolk, and whatnot -- rose against them in planet-wide rebellion, and the Chthonian overthrown; now they slumber BeneathTheEarth.
* Recap.RegularShowS05E19JourneyToTheBotttomOfTheCrashPit: The inhabitants of the crash pit deep below the park, the Carlocks.
* Roleplay.LegendsOfAeirth: [[CityofGold Mining Town]]: Amethyst
* VideoGame.BaldursGateII: A good portion of ''Baldur's Gate II'' takes place here, like the entire Chapter 5.
* VideoGame.CryOfFearTheHole: The Hole and the mine tunnels it consists of.
* VideoGame.EternalDarkness: Ehn'gha, the ancient city.
* VideoGame.ForumFantasy: The sunken Tower of Babil and the Fiery Caverns at its entrance. Botlantis and Krakenvania also qualify.
* VideoGame.MagicCarpet: There are underground levels in ''Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds''.
* VideoGame.ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter: Where you must go to fulfill the final quest of the main story.
* VideoGame.SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration: Played with regarding the ''Masou Kishin'' cast: a few members return in ''The Moon Dwellers'', while the rest stay behind in '''"[[BeneathTheEarth La Gias]]"'''. Justified for the latter [[spoiler:in order to monitor the Cross Gate in their world]].
* VideoGame.{{Zork}}: Most of the series takes place in '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Great Underground Empire]]'''.
* WesternAnimation.{{Inhumanoids}}: At least half of every episode is spent beneath the Earth.
* WesternAnimation.TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987: The Technodrome in Season 1 and 3.
* WesternAnimation.XMenTheAnimatedSeries: The Morlocks.
* YMMV.TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom: As if ''Breath of the Wild'' wasn't gorgeous enough, ''Tears of the Kingdom'' adds [[WorldInTheSky the Sky]], with its beautiful, serene SceneryPorn and soft yellow hues, and '''[[BeneathTheEarth the Depths]]''', a visually striking realm that uses [[DarkWorld darkness]] and muted colors to [[NothingIsScarier unnerve]] and intrigue players.
* SignatureStyle.LiveActionFilms: The films of Creator/GuillermoDelToro will often favour a specific and small palette (amber for ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'', blue-green for ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', yellow/blue for night/day in ''Film/BladeII''), '''will frequently go BeneathTheEarth''', put something slimy in a jar, and always always ''always'' include some reference to Roman Catholicism. And clockwork. As he once said:
-->"I have a sort of a fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things."
[[/folder]]
General analysis of the wicks:
* Large cavernous underworlds: 21%
* Hidden under-city: 5%
* Wholly underground city: 6%
* People flee underground to escape a catastrophe: 1%
* Monsters live underground, either no further context or normal caves/tunnels: 8%
* Other/unspecific: 30%
* ZCE/no-context pothole: 29%
The wick check shows the "huge cavern system with wierd stuff in it" variant to be the most common. The "hidden society under another city" is drastically underrepresented, despite being nominally half of the trope's identity. [=ZCEs=] and pattern-less examples make up the majorty of the entries. As it currently stands, the trope's use on the site at large doesn't show much identity beyond "underground spaces exist".
As a general analysis, the main concepts identifiable within the confusion are:
# "A society of mole people, mutants, vagrants, or similar things that lives in the underground spaces of a human city, usually in secret."
# "A large, sprawling network of caverns and tunnels, home to subterranean civilizations, lost worlds, strange creatures and dramatic natural phenomena."
# "People escape a catastrophe or other great threat by retreating in natural or artificial underground spaces."
# "An UndergroundCity."
As to what to do with this, these are my main takeaways:
* The fourth concept is already a trope and can handily take in any relevant examples.
* Many examples in the first category discuss cities that used to be aboveground and were buried, forgotten, and built over. These are covered by another existing trope, UnderCity.
* Outside of that, the other three concepts, I think, all have good potential to be split off into their own tropes. My suggestion to deal with the identity issues here is to just... do that.
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