Crapsack World/Fan Works

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Sun Soul, a story set in the Pokemon Universe is essentially a highly methodical deconstruction of how brutal and dangerous a world with such monsters would be. A single Gyarados for example is more than capable of wiping a small town off the map. The villians start and control wars from the shadows, orchestrate crises to further theit political power, and merrily murder anyone who gets in their way. The heroes are, of course, trying to fix all this but in a world stalked by one horrifyingly effective Hero-Killer after another, where being Killed Off for Real at any moment is a real threat, it isn't easy.
  • Aeon Natum Engel: The Neon Genesis Evangelion cast placed in the Cthulhu Tech setting + F.E.A.R.. In the background there is the Unknowable Tsab, the Lovecraftisized Darker and Edgier Time and Space Administration Bureau. That should be self-explanatory.
    • Its rewrite Aeon Entelechy Evangelion at the first glance seems to be a little lighter, what with stabilized fronts, the Rapine Storm successfully contained and with everyone being much, much more competent. And then we are introduced to the TITAN AIs, and one of them is based on CABAL.
  • Warhammer 40000 Trouble:
  • While by the end of the original story, the Pokegirls world is A World Half Full, the overwhelming bulk of the expanded universe is prequels, back in the bad old days when life was nasty,[1] brutish, and short, and male relations with women were more akin to the modern relationship with cattle[2] than one of equals, and the women's biology only served to enforce this relationship.
  • Dark Fics implemented badly can sometimes end up as this.
  • Deserving is set in one of these, as summed up in the sporking: "I honestly don't know who to root for in Deserving, because the world is populated by complete fuckwits. Harry is an inconsistently characterised wanker, as are Ron, Hermione and Neville, Severus is just inconsistently characterised (and a wanker in a more literal sense, of course), Minerva, Sprout and Pomfrey seem to have morphed into three bitter old hags I half expect to see meeting up with an ambitious nobleman on a blasted heath, the kids are Gary Stus at best and downright creepy at worst, Millicent (where's she been when all this is going on?) is a Mary Sue, and then there are the actual villains."
  • In Christian Humber Reloaded, the world faces the threat of village-destroying raiders, Chaos, the Visorak, Dr. Eggman's forces, rogue dragons, the Zerg, a fusion of Sin and Vegnagun, Organization XIII, and even the President, among others. The only hope it has is a psychopath who will kill people for barely any reason.
  • The Zelda fanfic The Great Desert takes place in a desertified Hyrule and centers around restoring life to the kingdom.
  • You know how Treasure Town in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is listed as one of these? In Brave New World it's about eleven zillion times worse. The entire town is built upon a huge gate that contains the most evil thin in the Omniverse (that is, a collection of every multiverse ever), and it is the primary base of the Nhilators, a villainous group that at times gives Chaos a run for it's money. There is exactly one character from Treasure Town that is not evil, and he's a ghost who became a priest in order to repent.
  • The entire world in Poke Wars has become one of these, what with wild 'mons running rampant in a discoordinate, but efficient, effort to wipe humanity off the map. Cities covered by Muk sludge, towns overrun by Fearows, legendaries practically nuking large settlements... you get the idea. It's even worse when you find out that the Pokemon's powers were amplified way above their original levels. Johto got it particularly bad, being the "rebel" Pokemon's main stronghold.
  • The setting of Code Geass Megiddo: Japan was totally destroyed by imploding the underground reserves of sakuradite and ALL faction, including Britannia, The EU, the Middle East and Chinese resistance are all narrow-minded racists (even in the Black Knights they are present). Britannia just conquered most of the world simply because they're more efficient, but in reality you don't cheer for anyone. Lelouch's goal to destroy the world and make something new makes much more sense.
  • The Shape of the Nightmare to Come - Dark Fic of Warhammer 40,000, pathron saint of all crapsack worlds and turns it's crappiness Up to Eleven. God Emperor of Mankind dies and is reborn in Warp as Star Father, ruthless Chaos God of Order, Astronomicon collapses, so Empire of Man gets fractured into several smaller empires, out of which many are even worse than it was and most of it's forces are either destroyed or starts mad, fanatical crusades. Tau turns into bitter conquerors who sees other races as lesser ones. Most of Eldar dies to awake Ynnead, who ends up trapped in Infinity Circuits so they all died for nothing. Chaos breaks from Eye of Terror and two Chaos Empires - one ruled by Abbadon and another by Huron Blackheart - rise. Orks and Tyranids merge into terrible New Devouer that eats half of the galaxy. The Void Dragon breaks free through ends trapped in Solar System. Oh, and Necrons have unleashed Ophilim Kiasoz, Eldritch Abomination that unmakes solar systems just by passing through them. The introduction sums it up:

It is the 51st Millennium and I cannot wake up from this nightmare! I cannot wake up!

    • It's sequel, The Age of Dusk, may be heading into that direction - while some things gets better, many gets much worse.
  • The State of the world in Mighty Morphin Mecha Rangers is mainly a background issue, but between Japan which is heavily implied to be heavily influenced if not controlled by Commander Ikari, the clearly untrustworthy USA that controls almost all of the Americas and Vietnam, The Britannia Empire which is in control of a huge portion of Eurasia, and the Earth Federation that houses both of them and several other nations...somehow living in a city controlled by Kaiba doesn't sound so bad in comparison.
  • This is pretty much the default for much of the world in the Axis Powers Hetalia AU, the 1983 Doomsday Stories, at least in the first 10 years or so after Doomsday. A good deal of the Nations are dead. Those who survived the initial nuclear carnage were forced to a grueling existence of simply trying to stay alive from day to day. Eventually, things do get better in some parts, like the Alpine Confederation.

Back to Crapsack World
  1. in more ways than one
  2. bearing in mind that cattle are, in fact, several hundred pounds of muscle with pointy bits on the end that are more than capable of mauling you, only nonthreatening due to being tamed and obedient slaves