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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"We've run into [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|scorpions the size of battle tanks]], three men died from [[Eye Scream|Eyerot]] last week, I've sweated enough to fill a lake, [[Quicksand Sucks|my boots just got sucked into a sink-swamp]] and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|the trees are so thick in places, you can't squeeze between them.]] Emperor help me, I love this place! It's just like home!"''|'''Captain Rock of Catachan''', ''[[Warhammer
A '''Death World''' is a highly dangerous place, where simply ''going'' there is considered taking your life into your own hands. It could be from hazardous environmental conditions, such as an acidic swamp or poisonous fog, or from powerful native predators (Here there be Dragons, or worse, [[Always a Bigger Fish|something]] that ''eats'' them), dangerous flora, or even all of the above. It's like the entire place is deliberately hostile to human life. (Of course, if it's also a [[Genius Loci]], it just might be!)
Very few people would ever choose to live there, but since anyone who ''does'' is almost always a [[Badass]], expect any populated Death World to be a [[World of Badass]] by default. Sometimes, [[The Obi-Wan]] may hide out here. Alternately, it may ''be'' [[Mordor]], and/or home for an exceptionally tough and ferocious race. Some actually take advantage of this as a way of [[The Spartan Way|training]] their [[Super Soldier]]s on a planetary scale. Sure, half of the population might not survive through adolescence, but
In real life, every planet outside Earth is dangerous, because we have yet to find a single planet that can support human life. The difference is that fictional
For more details, the various [[Video Game Settings]] actually do a decent job of describing the various kinds of dangers you might find in different ecosystems, since videogames almost universally have [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]. The [[Dark World]] is often a magical variant.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The [[Garden of Evil|Sea of Corruption]] in ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]''.
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* The Megastructure in ''[[Blame]]'' consists of thousands upon thousands of post-apocalyptic wastelands stacked on top of one another and compartmentalized.
* The planet Chimera in ''[[Jyu-Oh-Sei]]''.
* Apparently the Gourmet World of [[Toriko]], as evidenced in Chapter 112. Seems to be a more hyper exaggerated form of the New World in One Piece, from the little we know about it so far. Rapidly changing climate and weather coupled with ungodly behemoths of destruction? Well, maybe just one night...▼
* Every Earthlike planet, save one, in [[2001 Nights]] is a Death World that eventually overwhelms the efforts of humans to colonize them: mind-altering spores, periodically being engulfed in firestorms, wasting diseases, and run-of-the-mill hazardous planets and animals. As a few characters occasionally point out, and as humanity learns to great ruin, a few decades is not enough time to fully understand the biosphere of an alien planet. And the one basically Earthlike exception to the mix {{spoiler|was actually terraformed at hideous expense, and even then said terraforming will degrade and collapse in a few centuries, rendering the planet uninhabitable}}. Oh, and even it has a few giant man-killing monsters.
* Earth becomes a death world in ''[[Blue Gender]]''. The only safety and civilization is in orbiting colonies, and only remains safe for those willing to train to die on the planet.
*
** The worst part of the world of Toriko is the Gourmet World, a region which encompasses 70% of the planet. It was originally thought to be a paradise since no one who went there ever returned... until someone actually ''did'' return, and revealed that it was a nightmarish hell that would kill a normal person almost instantly. Hell, even Gourmet Hunters, trained professionals who are considered superhuman, are unlikely to survive for long. The only reason anyone would have anything to do with Gourmet World is because the humans of Toriko are obsessed with gourmet foods, and the best ingredients happen to come from the most dangerous creatures, many of which are ''exclusive'' to the Gourmet World.
* The titular planet in [[Hellstar Remina]]. In addition to being a living planet that consumes other worlds, the surface of the planet is filled with horrible hostile flora, and the atmosphere is not only poisonous, but nightmarishly corrosive as well.▼
▲**
▲* The titular planet in ''[[Hellstar Remina]]''. In addition to being a living planet that consumes other worlds, the surface of the planet is filled with horrible hostile flora, and the atmosphere is not only poisonous, but nightmarishly corrosive as well.
* Mercury in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury]]'' is established as one in [https://en.gundam.info/about-gundam/series-pages/witch/music/novel/ a short fiction on the official website] and alluded to being one in the series proper. True to reality Mercury is either ''extremely'' cold or ''extremely'' hot, and it's vulnerable to solar flares due to its proximity to the sun. Despite its hostility to life, humans have "colonized" it by putting space colonies in its orbit so they can use mobile suits to mine its resources. Suletta (the protagonist) and her widowed mother have managed to eek out a living as rescue pilots, establishing Suletta as a very capable pilot despite her [[Cowardly Lion|her personality]].
== Comic Books ==
* DC: An artificial planet created by Devilance, a New God from Apokolips, is a death world, with automated defenses based upon the strength of the intruders and killer midgets, among various monsters. Seen in ''[[52]]'', the new{{when}} ''[[Blue Beetle]]'', and ''[[Salvation Run]]''.
** Apokolips itself is also something of a deathworld.
* Marvel's Ego the Living Planet is a [[Genius Loci]] (or Loco) Deathworld. And frequently a ''mobile'' Genius Loci Deathworld, meaning it doesn't just wait for ''you'' to come to ''it''...
* Krypton's Deathworldiness plays a part in the backstory of [[Superman]]'s deadliest foe, Doomsday; a [[Mad Scientist]] dumped a baby onto the surface, where it died instantly. He then cloned the few surviving cells. Repeat ''ad infinitum'' until you get a [[Super Soldier]]. [[Hollywood Science|Comic Book Science]] at its best, folks.
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* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' has the Cursed Earth, the nuke-blasted wastelands outside of the few surviving Mega-Cities, inhabited only by [[Mutants]], criminals and exiled lawmen.
* ''[[Rogue Trooper]]'' has Nu Earth. [[Continuity Reboot|Both of them]]. Due to chemical warfare, the very air and water are poisonous, and the slightest rip in a soldier's isolation suit guarantees death. Only the [[Super Soldier|Genetic Infantrymen]] (GIs) can survive unaided.
* Bizarrely enough, the homeworld of [[Marvel Comics]]' [[Cheerful Child]]-ish [[Little Green Men|
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* The dinosaur-filled islands in the ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' movies ([[The Film of the Book|and books]]) which are even known to Costa Rican locals as "Las Cinco Muertes" (the five deaths). We only get to see Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna though. From ''Jurassic Park III'':
{{quote|'''Alan Grant:''' That's just great. Here we are on the most dangerous island on the planet and we're not even getting paid.}}
* In ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', Toontown is a goofy, silly, comedic place, and a great place to live - assuming you're a toon, that is. Truly an [[Eldritch Location]], Toontown is a place where [[Cartoon Physics]] dominate, and because humans cannot survive injuries that a toon can shrug off in mere seconds, it's a lethal place for any human visitors. Toons don't seem to welcome them much either, given the rather nasty joke that [[Bugs Bunny]] ''and'' [[Mickey Mouse]] play on Eddie when he goes there.
== Literature ==
* The
** And, since we're talking about [[Harry Harrison]], there is the literally-named Death World in ''[[Bill the Galactic Hero]]''.
* Tom Godwin loved this trope to bits. His best-known book, ''The Survivors'' (aka ''Space Prison'') features a group of humans marooned on a world with an environment the aliens figure will kill them all in short order (high gravity, poisonous flora, rampaging "unicorns" and other beasts). [[Genocide Backfire|It doesn't quite work out that way]].
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** His ''[[Nightside]]'' books have the Nightside, which pretty blatantly follows this trope. John Taylor, private detective, even warns against going there an annoying amount of times in the first book, ''Something From The Nightside''. {{spoiler|Considering, though, that the girl he was warning, Joanna Barrett, was an illusion to draw him into the Nightside, his warnings didn't do much good but to inform the reader.}}
** In his ''[[Deathstalker]]'' series the planet Shandrakor fits under this. Everything is trying to eat everything else, even the vegetation. The fact that they're also constantly rutting due to their extremely shortened life expectancies makes it even worse.
* ''[[Warhammer
** In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer
** In Gav Thorpe's ''[[Warhammer
** ''Death World'' is also the name of an Imperial Guard (Catachan) novel by Steve Lyons. It takes place on a death world with a flavor of {{spoiler|[[Genius Loci]] .}}
** The classic and first WH40K deathworld is Catachan, which is pretty much a copy of Harry Harrison's.
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** Another featured "death world" is quite literally so. The native civilization wiped themselves out long long ago and it is now left as a memorial of sorts, protected by an [[Energy Being]] which is dangerously selective about who can visit the surface. Apparently there are many worlds like this, though most people are smart enough to stay away from them and their protectors.
* The version of Mars portrayed in the ''[[John Carter of Mars|Barsoom]]'' books by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] qualifies. Due to an ecological catastrophe in the distant past, the planet is a near-desert, with an atmosphere that is only breathable because of an eons-old "atmosphere factory" that almost no one knows how to fix if it breaks. Just about every type of fauna is carnivorous, and they're all huge. To make matters worse, in order to keep their populations under control, the various humanoid natives have a culture the causes them to exist in a constant state of perpetual warfare, consider assassination and kidnapping to be respectable and honorable professions, and fight duels at the drop of a hat. And the non-humanoid natives make many [[Exclusively Evil]] races seem friendly.
:Among those humanoid natives—the Green Men<ref>who aren't particularly man-like, being tusked four-armed big-eyed giants</ref>-- ''one individual in a thousand'' dies a natural death. 98 percent are killed violently, and the remaining two percent voluntarily go on a last pilgrimage down a sacred river {{spoiler|where they are eaten, or sometimes enslaved.}}▼
** Then there's the various hidden enclaves of practically any sort of monster you could imagine. John Carter wanders into one that consists of a sort of intelligent arachnid
▲Among those humanoid natives—the Green Men<ref>who aren't particularly man-like, being tusked four-armed big-eyed giants</ref>-- ''one individual in a thousand'' dies a natural death. 98 percent are killed violently, and the remaining two percent voluntarily go on a last pilgrimage down a sacred river {{spoiler|where they are eaten, or sometimes enslaved.}}
* Most plant life on [[Cyteen]], in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''[[Alliance Union]]'' [[The Verse|'verse]], is basically a cross between cottonwood and asbestos, and is full of alkaloid poisons and heavy metals to boot. Go outside the precip towers' envelope without protection and you die
▲** Then there's the various hidden enclaves of practically any sort of monster you could imagine. John Carter wanders into one that consists of a sort of intelligent arachnid puppeteer parasite with specially bred near-headless humanoid creatures that they use as bodies. Another time he finds himself in a city populated by people who can make anything they can imagine into a solid illusion. Any old apparently abandoned set of ruins could turn out to be the lair of some bunch you ''really'' would have been better off not meeting.
▲* Most plant life on [[Cyteen]], in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''[[Alliance Union]]'' [[The Verse|'verse]], is basically a cross between cottonwood and asbestos, and is full of alkaloid poisons and heavy metals to boot. Go outside the precip towers' envelope without protection and you die quick; get a smaller exposure and you die later from lung cancer. The animal life, at least, is slow and stupid. The original colonists started [[terraform]]ing measures, which they pulled the plug on fast when an anti-aging drug was derived from local biology.
* [[David Drake]] has used this more than once:
** There are the eponymous ''Seas of Venus'' (two stories, ''The Jungle'' and ''Surface Action'') wherein the plants and animals are all varying degrees of dangerous ranging from "inclement" to "you just got killed so thoroughly, your parents are retroactively dead." (This is based on the novella "Clash by Night" by Henry Kuttner writing as Lawrence O'Donnell.)
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** The seedship in ''The Plague Star'' also qualifies, at least until Tuf gains control of it.
* [[Anne McCaffrey]]:
* The planet Kolnar from McCaffrey and [[S.M. Stirling]]'s ''[[The Ship Who...|The City Who Fought]]''. A volcanic, radioactive, heavy gravity nightmare world, in orbit around a sun with a spectral category of blinding. Colonized by a particularly nasty group of prisoners, they evolved into nigh-unkillable superhumans. It's no help that said natives have a nuclear war once every generation - and they get their weapons-grade nuclear material by ''hunting'' a creature best described as a jet-propelled submarine with fangs. And that's one of the nice critters on the planet. The natives' planned response to being infected with a pathogen which causes debilitating, but not lethal effects in many of their number is to deliberately infect the rest of their population, and kill anyone who becomes ill.
** In the sequel, they've moderated their practices slightly. They still infect everyone, but they don't kill those who get sick. They just let them live or die on their own without medical help.
** McCaffrey's ''Dinosaur Planet'' is likewise an extremely active ecology, complete with a mix of toxic alien life and adapted prehistoric Earth life. There are even insect swarms which ''eat Dinosaurs bones and all''.
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* Banshee, in John Steakley's ''Armor''. The cold, windy, acidic atmosphere of the planet itself is instant death, even before the Hive Mind alien insects come into play. The main character's survival strategy is to become an utterly nihilistic schizophreniac.
* [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''Four Day Planet'' has Fenris, generally considered the second worst place to live in the Milky Way. It has ludicrous temperature extremes, and a vast array of downright unpleasant wildlife (that is also lethally poisonous to eat, although if you were [[Too Dumb to Live|dumb enough to eat a tread-snail]], you had it coming). The economy is based around ''whaling'' a gargantuan sea monster that has to be hunted using military-grade ammunition, and while the beastie is being cut up, the people doing the cutting have to have support fire from ''machine-gunners'' to make sure everything else in the ocean doesn't get itself a meal. (The ''worst'' place to live is Flourine-Tainted Niflheim, The Planetary Hell, which has an atmosphere made of inordinately reactive fluorine; it's not an example, since the only thing actively trying to kill you is the air...okay, that is pretty unpleasant).
** The narrator in Piper's ''Lone Star Planet'' mentions offhand that on his home world, children aren't permitted to leave the house unattended until they're proven to be good with firearms. This comes in handy in his assignment to the title world, [[Everything Is Big in Texas|New Texas]].
* Ket in ''[[Animorphs]]: The Ellimist Chronicles''. The surface is covered in lava and poisonous gases. The Ketran death penalty is applied by sending someone to the surface. An alien scouting party that lands on Ket wanders around for hours on the surface in environment suits, before one of their scouts accidentally crashes into a [[Floating Continent]] miles above the ground.
* ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'':
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**Beta Colony is a desert planet with underground shelters
**On Komarr it is not even possible to live outside. Komarran cities are like space stations that happen to be on the ground.
* Many readers compare the situation Oompa-Loompas (from ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'') are in to slavery, but given his description of Loompaland (the place they're from), they were ''much'' worse off there. Wonka claims the place is a [[Hungry Jungle]] full of [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You| vicious predatory beasts]] where the unfortunate Oompa-Loompas were clearly at the bottom of the food chain.
== Live Action TV ==
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** The eponymous planet from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" is seemingly made entirely of precious gems, and as such has a stake as a high-class vacation planet... as long as you stay inside, as the ''reason'' the planet's soil has turned to gems is because it's constantly exposed to a form of radiation that would incinerate anything living in two seconds flat. {{spoiler|Except for a nasty little [[Body Surf|body surfer]]...}}
** The planet Marinus from ''The Keys of Marinus''. Glass beaches lapped by acid seas. Jungles full of hostile plants and deadly mechanical traps. Frozen wastelands patrolled by packs of man-eating wolves. Bodiless, telepathic slavers. Then there's the WAR...
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** The planet Eden in the episode "The Way To Eden". Looks beautiful, but beware of differing chemistry; the fruit is poisonous and the grass has acid for blood.
** The planet Gamma Trianguli VI in "The Apple", including plants that throw poisonous thorns, rocks that act like anti-personnel mines and directed lightning strikes.
** Vulcan itself is pretty harsh by human standards, being extremely hot, dry and rugged, subject to intense electrically-charged sandstorms, and home to man-eating plants and giant, venomous cat-like carnivores.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* Several worlds in ''[[Firefly]]'' are Death Worlds, due to toxic interaction between [[Terraform]]ing and the local environment to try to make them Earth-like. These worlds are generally referred to as "black rocks."
* "[[Babylon 5|If you go to Z'Ha'Dum you will die.]]"
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The monster-infested main setting of [[Mortasheen]] '''''is''''' this, with the creator even mentioning that "[the setting] has enough deadly exponentially replicating organisms that ''they just cancel each other out''. "
* This is the official term used by the Imperium of Man in ''[[Warhammer
** Catachan, a jungle world where nearly every animal there is said to be a carnivore, [[Man-Eating Plant|and so are the plants]], the majority of the microbes, fungi, and viruses. Wildlife includes the Catachan Barking Toad, a "jumpy" critter that detonates into a cloud of toxins that kills everything within a kilometer radius if you startle it, and the Catachan Devil, a cross between a scorpion and centipede the size of a train. Every settlement fights a daily battle to keep its structures from being reclaimed by the jungle, and just as icing on the cake the gravity's slightly higher than normal. Living past the age of ten on such a planet is considered an achievement akin to graduating from boot camp, making the Catachan Jungle Fighters legendary among the regiments of the Imperial Guard.
** Fenris, a world that is exclusively [[Grim Up North]]. Its elliptical orbit takes twice as long as Terran standard and means that its long winters freeze almost the entire planet, while its summers bring lava flows and tidal waves as the planet passes close to its sun. The land is constantly changing, making permanent settlement impossible, and its resources are so meager that its population must war amongst itself to survive. Other claims to fame include kraken, dragons, and wolves the size of tanks. The [[Space Wolf|Space Wolves]] wouldn't have their homeworld any other way.
** The [[Warhammer
** The [[Warhammer
** The world of Urisarach was home to a nigh-extinct race of [[Giant Spider|huge arachnids]] dumped there by other aliens because the monsters were just that unpleasant. It earned its nickname after a failed incursion that nearly wiped out an entire expeditionary fleet of space marines: "[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|This. World. Is.]]''[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|Murder]]''."
** Yet these are relatively mundane locales compared to Daemon Worlds, planets utterly corrupted by the warping influence of [[The Corruption|Chaos]], where reality is reforged on the whims of daemons and the laws of physics are guidelines at best, the results looking something like a collaboration between H.R. Giger, Heironymous Bosch, and M.C. Escher. Despite being the home turf of the [[Legions of Hell]] and the fact that the planet may be [[Genius Loci|literally trying to kill you]], some foolhardy explorers poke around Daemon Worlds, as many are former Eldar homeworlds swallowed up by the warpstorm spawned by the race's calamitous Fall, and still contain ancient relics. Few survive, [[Fate Worse Than Death|none survive intact]].
* The jungles of Lustria in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' are everything nasty about the Amazon with the added benefit of [[Lizard Folk|Lizardmen]] whose [[Mayincatec]] culture is fine with human sacrifice. The Dark Elves' homeland of Naggaroth is a shadowy, bleak continent whose native wildlife includes hydras and cold ones (flesh eating dinosaur-like creatures), and with sparse resources that force its cruel inhabitants to turn to piracy to survive. And worst of all, of course, are the Chaos Wastes, the polar regions around a gaping hole in reality that leads straight to hell.
:The entire world has since to this with a huge infusion of raw magic into anywhere they could stick it. Now it's anyone's guess whether that forest consists of normal trees or EVIL DEATH-TENTACLE TREES OF HORRIBLE TOXIC DOOM. You don't want to know what some of the other terrain pieces are like.▼
▲The entire world has since to this with a huge infusion of raw magic into anywhere they could stick it. Now it's anyone's guess whether that forest consists of normal trees or EVIL DEATH-TENTACLE TREES OF HORRIBLE TOXIC DOOM. You don't want to know what some of the other terrain pieces are like.
▲* [[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]] settings:
** The ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has one of these in the form of the Underdark, a ''massive'' underground realm full of all sorts of things that want to kill you. If it's nasty and it's murderous, it probably lives here—indeed, half the reason Drow are so tough is because they spend half their time fighting some of the nastiest things ''D&D'' has to offer, and the other half fighting the other inhabitants of the Underdark.
** ''[[Eberron]]'' has a lot. First there's Khyber, its underdark [[Follow the Leader|stand-in]]. Then there are certain planes of existence (Xoriat, the plane of madness, Shavarrath the Battlefield, Mabar, the plane of death, etc...) and some evocatively named regions of the mortal world: the Shadow Marshes, the Mournland, Frostfell, the jungle continent of Xen'drik & the Demon Wastes.
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* Chiron, a.k.a. Planet of ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', has an environment highly toxic to humans and animals, predators (including aquatic and aerial forms) with [[Psychic Powers]] and [[Body Horror]] modes of reproduction and, incidentally, is semi-sentient and not very fond of humans or other unassimilated sentient thought. And then there's that whole "accidentally killing off all life on its surface every few million years" thing. It's actually a pretty nice place... while it's asleep. Too bad you show up when it's starting to come out, as it were, of REM.
* The planet Malta in ''[[Freelancer]]'' has Cardamine floating in the air; breathing that stuff is the in-game equivalent of breathing heroin. (It even gets into your genes, making the addiction permanent for you ''and'' all of your descendants.) In the same system, the planet Carinae seems idyllic, but its local biology is extremely poisonous to humans. Leeds, meanwhile, is so goddamn polluted their people lose their senses of smell and taste within 6 months, Pittsburgh is an inhospitable ball of sand and stone, while winters in New Berlin last an entire year and reach temperature similar to the ones in the Antarctica.
:Still, these places are a walk in the park compared to one of the unlandable earth-like planets. Said planet is hidden in a radioactive nebula cloud, but the planet itself is almost ridiculously Earth-like, right down to having massive biodiversity. It's even described as a Paradise. It just has only one tiny problem regarding human settlement. All the life—both the animals and plants—have a chemical that's quickly and 100% fatal to humans. Humans wisely decided not to attempt colonization.▼
▲Still, these places are a walk in the park compared to one of the unlandable earth-like planets. Said planet is hidden in a radioactive nebula cloud, but the planet itself is almost ridiculously Earth-like, right down to having massive biodiversity. It's even described as a Paradise. It just has only one tiny problem regarding human settlement. All the life—both the animals and plants—have a chemical that's quickly and 100% fatal to humans. Humans wisely decided not to attempt colonization.
* In the ''[[Command & Conquer: Tiberium]]'' series, ''Earth itself'' has been turned into a Death World due to the transformation caused by the ludicrously lethal yet economically valuable Tiberium—which in ''C&C3'' was revealed to be a {{spoiler|[[Gray Goo]] [[Depopulation Bomb]] to weaken/xenoform Earth for the extraterrestrial Scrin's invasion}}. Unfortunately for them, [[Magnificent Bastard|Kane]] had [[Xanatos Gambit|other plans.]]
* The ''[[Unreal Tournament 2004]]'' Onslaught map simply called Red Planet is a weird hybrid. It's a planet without a sun, but the entire planet somehow radiates its own red light constantly. According to the map description, the effect drives a man insane within 18 hours. Thankfully (or not), you won't live that long...
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* ''[[Mass Effect]]'':
** The krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, is pretty much one of these. The most common cause of death before the invention of gunpowder weapons was "eaten by predator". The krogan themselves evolved into one of the toughest, meanest, and most temperamental sapient species in the galaxy as a result. And managed to make their homeworld even ''worse.''
::Let's not forget that the aforementioned "toughest, meanest, and most temperamental sapient species in the galaxy" is actually, judging by their eye placement, evolved from a ''prey species.''▼
::''After'' the invention of gunpowder, their most common cause of death became "death by gunshot", and it ''stayed'' that way once they got off their homeworld. Furthermore, when they were discovered by the salarians, they were in the grips of a nuclear winter with the last remnants of their race struggling to survive.▼
▲Let's not forget that the aforementioned "toughest, meanest, and most temperamental sapient species in the galaxy" is actually, judging by their eye placement, evolved from a ''prey species.''
::Finally, once they were taken off their planet and placed in a safer environment, their population ''exploded'', since without Tuchunka's many natural dangers to balance out their [[Explosive Breeder|birth rates]], they were impossible to contain.▼
*** A world in the same system as Tuchanka is even worse—a Venusiform planet. Many krogan went out of their spaceships to the surface of the planet, deciding that if one of them survived, that'll be the sign of a real man. The number of survivors? '''''
▲''After'' the invention of gunpowder, their most common cause of death became "death by gunshot", and it ''stayed'' that way once they got off their homeworld. Furthermore, when they were discovered by the salarians, they were in the grips of a nuclear winter with the last remnants of their race struggling to survive.
▲Finally, once they were taken off their planet and placed in a safer environment, their population ''exploded'', since without Tuchunka's many natural dangers to balance out their [[Explosive Breeder|birth rates]], they were impossible to contain.
▲*** A world in the same system as Tuchanka is even worse—a Venusiform planet. Many krogan went out of their spaceships to the surface of the planet, deciding that if one of them survived, that'll be the sign of a real man. The number of survivors? '''''1!'''''
** Several of the planets visited in the game ''will'' kill you over time unless you're wearing a protection suit or stay in the Mako, and even a protection suit won't help in the worst places. Furthermore, some planets are inhabited by massive Thresher Maws easily able to chew through a shielded armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle in one bite. The same vehicle that can absorb quite a few shots from even the worst Geth energy weapons. Also subverted in a couple of examples: the planets have oxygen and are teeming with life, but the native microbes or pollen provoke deadly anaphylactic shock to humans.
* The Dark World in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past]]'' pretty much illustrates this trope—especially considering that if Link goes there without a particular artifact, he gets transformed into a helpless pink bunny.
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* ''[[Metroid]]'':
** SR388 Before Samus wiped out the Metroids (practically indestructible floating beings which can shoot destructive energy blasts and drain the life from any being they come across), they were the dominant lifeform on the planet (despite there apparently being only a few dozen of them) and any other creature had to be ''very'' strong in order to survive in such an ecosystem. After Samus wiped them out, the planet is taken over by a kind of shapeshifting bacteria ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|which the Metroids were the primary predator of]]) which most likely wiped out all other life on the planet, and prove a severe threat to human researchers (and eventually, the whole galaxy). Its very telling that Samus ultimately has to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|vapourise the whole planet]].
::SR388 hadn't even been given a proper planet name simply because it was so desolate, dangerous and just plain remote that nobody wanted to acknowledge it further. It's noted after the first game that Samus goes extremely out of her way just to get to the planet, nevermind the fact it hosts not one but ''two'' forms of life that, if left unchecked, could destroy the galaxy.▼
▲SR388 hadn't even been given a proper planet name simply because it was so desolate, dangerous and just plain remote that nobody wanted to acknowledge it further. It's noted after the first game that Samus goes extremely out of her way just to get to the planet, nevermind the fact it hosts not one but ''two'' forms of life that, if left unchecked, could destroy the galaxy.
** You spend about half your time in ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'' running around [[Dark World|Dark Aether]]. Not only does the resident [[Hive Mind]] and its troops want to kill you, but the toxic atmosphere constantly drains your health unless you find a spot to rest in.
** Zebes is a rather nasty place too. It's been described to be uninhabitable for normal humans (Samus was able to live there only because of being infused with Chozo blood, and even then she was only able to survive in the least deadly areas) and filled with miles of underground caverns crawling with all kinds of dangerous creatures. It got nastier when the [[Space Pirates]] conquered it, too (now the rain's acidic).
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** There are parts of Azeroth that could probably qualify as well—Northrend is certainly one. Sithilus is dead, infested by silithids and qiraji. Felwood, and the Plaguelands (especially the east) are blighted, with the latter slowly recovering. The Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, and Badlands are as pleasent as their names would indicate. Desolace and the Blasted Lands used to be nothing but wastelands, but are slowly recovering post-Cataclysm.
* ''Killzone 2'' reveals the Helghast world of Helghan to be a death world, with giant killer dust storms, air that goes from "nastily polluted" to "downright freaking acidic", lightning bolts with enough juice to destroy ISA armored vehicles...and then there's the Helghast themselves, who had to evolve into hulking, bald, glowy-eyed Neanderthals in order to survive in Helghan's environment. This was briefly discussed in the manual and cutscenes of the first game, but this is the first time we get to see first-hand just ''how'' bad it is.
:Prior to Killzone 2 being made, this was a case of [[All There in the Manual]] as the Helghast world and the Helghast's struggle to adapt to it conditions was explored in more detail in an historical timeline on the official Killzone website.▼
▲Prior to Killzone 2 being made, this was a case of [[All There in the Manual]] as the Helghast world and the Helghast's struggle to adapt to it conditions was explored in more detail in an historical timeline on the official Killzone website.
* The premise of ''[[Heavy Metal (animation)|Heavy Metal]] F.A.K.K.2'' is that the planet is defended from invasion with a universally recognized beacon declaring it to be a Death World. And if you wander outside of civilization, that's exactly what it proves to be.
* The setting of the ''[[Avernum]]'' series. An enormous cave system similar to the Underdark (see above). By the start of the series, several large caves are civilized enough to support cities. The First Exploration, however, found an underworld full of slithzerikai (savage lizard-people), undead, demons, and giant bugs. Part of the fun in the first game is to find the remains of the first explorers, all without fail dead in some corner of Avernum.
* The planet your mild-mannered scientist character is teleported to in ''Another World'' (''Out of This World'' in the US) is like this. The very first screen of the game features a sea monster that will pull you down to your death if you don't start swimming to the surface. The next creatures you encounter are tiny slug-like things which will slash you with deadly poisonous barbs if you get too close. And this is in the first minute of gameplay; it only gets worse from here.
* Zoness from [[Star Fox 64]] is a planet comprised entirely of machines and structures built on a toxic, acidic ocean that corrodes your Arwing. Also Solar from the same game, though that's justified in that it's a ''star''. It's suggested that Zoness used to be a paradise before Andross' forces started messing with it.
* [[Wild
* The Wasteland from ''[[Billy vs. SNAKEMAN]]'' is an expanse of Death World made of ninja villages blown up by the [[Rule of Cool|sheer awesomeness]] of their leaders. The ''safest'' parts of even the outskirts of The Wasteland can be described as "Like the Sahara but the sand is poisonous". Near the center, sunlight occasionally spontaneously focuses into a laser, homicidal unicorns are perpetually searching for new victims, and the ''corn'' will eat you if you're too slow.
* While most of the Ages of the ''[[Myst]]'' game-series are liveable, Age 233 (where Gehn's office is) is a rather nasty place, with caustic oceans that have deeply eaten away the mountains up to high tide level. Selenitic is geologically unstable and has suffered some nasty meteor strikes in the past, and one false step in Spire will send you plummeting to your death {{spoiler|in the fires of a green star}}. Riven becomes one at the end of the eponymous game. The [[Expanded Universe]] of the novels describes how Ages which haven't been visited in centuries have been known to turn into Death Worlds in the interim, forcing one of the Guilds to send scouts to check out such places in full-body protective armor.
* Char in ''[[
* ''[[Borderlands]]'' brings us the wonderful planet of Pandora, which resembles many peoples idea of Hell. Days that are 90 hours long, seasons that are ''7 years long'', at least five wholly unique species of omnivorous creatures perfectly willing, and capable, of bagging humans, almost no natural food, ditto water, massive heat, horrendous weather, {{spoiler|a completely frozen area with active volcanoes}}, a population of untold numbers of angry ex-convicts, armed to the teeth, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and finally, midgets]]. The local plants get in on the act as well. One inhabitant experimented with rolling herbal cigars from the local flora. The result? Death from massive internal bleeding.
* The various [[Pokémon]] regions, where bugs the size of car tires are the norm. People in the Pokeverse say that traveling without a Pokemon companion of your own is dangerous. They are not joking.
:Even in a [[Lighter and Softer]] Death World like the Pokeverse, ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'s'' Orre stands out in particular. First, it's based on real-world Arizona, which neighbors hellish California and Nevada. So, natural ''desert'' is the majority of the landscape. Second, if you think humans have it bad, wild Pokémon in Orre are said to be rarer than ''water'', and that's saying something given that the only flowing water in the Eclo Wastes is in Phenac City and Agate Village. Third, the place is a [[Wretched Hive]] with the criminals in charge, and [[Complete Monster|Cipher]] is top dog. Isn't it fitting, then, that the most [[Badass]] protagonist in the history of the series happens to come from this very hellhole?▼
▲Even in a [[Lighter and Softer]] Death World like the Pokeverse, ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'s'' Orre stands out in particular. First, it's based on real-world Arizona, which neighbors hellish California and Nevada. So, natural ''desert'' is the majority of the landscape. Second, if you think humans have it bad, wild Pokémon in Orre are said to be rarer than ''water'', and that's saying something given that the only flowing water in the Eclo Wastes is in Phenac City and Agate Village. Third, the place is a [[Wretched Hive]] with the criminals in charge, and [[Complete Monster|Cipher]] is top dog. Isn't it fitting, then, that the most [[Badass]] protagonist in the history of the series happens to come from this very hellhole?
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[Ultima Underworld]] II''. When speaking to Iolo about the worlds beyond the blackrock gem, he expresses concern that one of the gem's facets could lead to an ocean floor or a planet of poisonous gases. (It doesn't.)
* ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' has a few: Barathrum (named after a Latin word for Hell) is [[Lethal Lava Land]], Kral is covered in ''seas of acid'', and Core Prime is a sterile metal-covered world inhabited solely by thinking machines.
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* Earth in ''Darksiders'' is a perfect example.
* [[Elemental War of Magic]] - An arid barren waste, filled with giant spiders, trolls and golems? Sounds good.
* Parts of [[
** The Wilderness, with all its volcanoes, dragons, haunted graveyards, evil spirits, and absolutely everything trying to kill you. To make matters worse, it's a player-versus-player area, and player-killers can be even more deadly than the monsters.
** The Gorak's Plane that was visited very shortly during the "Fairy Tale, Pt. II" quest, which is a [[Pocket Dimension]] populated entirely by powerful, vicious monsters.
** The God Wars Dungeon. Imagine a huge open space with dozens of deadly monsters running around, protecting insanely powerful bosses with powerful bodyguards. Even some of the most experienced players tend to avoid that place.
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has the Shadow Shard, four zones of floating rocks, populated by a conglomeration of minor [[Eldritch Abomination]]s and spirit-replicas of all the baddies that you already hate to fight, all in the service of a demigod who ''eats universes''. The main means of travel are "Gravity Geysers" that launch you from rock to rock, and should you happen to miss your landing site, you will fall to you death and have to start again at the beginning of the zone.
:And now, in the backstory of ''Going Rogue'', we have Praetoria, an alternate Earth where the majority of the planet has been taken over by the [[Animal Wrongs Group|Devouring Earth]], led by the [[One-Winged Angel|Hamidon]]. By [[Magitek|part-scientific, part-magical means]], Hamidon caused [[The End of the World as We Know It]], by causing the Earth itself to literally ''rise up against humanity''. The player can't actually leave the safety of the city of Praetoria, but apparently, should you leave, the rocks, trees, and fungi around you will ''literally'' come alive and kill you.▼
▲And now, in the backstory of ''Going Rogue'', we have Praetoria, an alternate Earth where the majority of the planet has been taken over by the [[Animal Wrongs Group|Devouring Earth]], led by the [[One-Winged Angel|Hamidon]]. By [[Magitek|part-scientific, part-magical means]], Hamidon caused [[The End of the World as We Know It]], by causing the Earth itself to literally ''rise against humanity''. The player can't actually leave the safety of the city of Praetoria, but apparently, should you leave, the rocks, trees, and fungi around you will ''literally'' come alive and kill you.
* The eponymous planet of Kalevala in ''[[Legend of Kalevala]]'' is brimming with biomechanical creatures that are all trying to kill the protagonist, pits of lava and acid, and all sorts of spikes, bombs, and other hazards. Turns out {{spoiler|it's ''only'' a Death World for the protagonist; he is inhabiting the body of a Kuririi, which everything on the planet has been ''programmed'' to destroy}}.
* Don't let the colorful, 2D graphics deceive you—the randomly-created worlds of [[Terraria]] are Death Worlds, one and all. Killer slime can be found in the safest environments. Vultures, sharks, hornets bigger than you are, killer bats, and even piranhas await you above ground. Razor-sharp feather-slinging harpies inhabit the upper atmosphere. The underground is filled with skeletons, killer roots, vampire bats, and far enough down, demons. The hills and caverns are steep enough that you can die from fall damage just by traversing the terrain, not to mention the risks of drowning or falling into pits of lava. Meteors and Hellstone will burn to the touch unless you've built a charm to ward them off. Legions of zombies and enormous, disembodied eyes will pound at your door all night, every night. Eventually, an army of goblins will descend upon you with little warning. And every night has a chance for the Blood Moon to rise, increasing the number and might of the zombies, and turning even the harmless bunnies of the wilderness into walking horrors.
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* Planet Ortega in ''Space Quest III'' requires wearing special underwear to survive the intense heat.
** There are only three planets in ''Space Quest V'' that require you to beam down onto the surface as part of the storyline. Of those three, one of the planets has a toxic atmosphere requiring the use of a rebreather. All of the other planets in the game have conditions so hostile that you will die immediately upon beaming down to them.
* [[Dark Forces Saga|Jaden Korr]] is assigned a rather nasty [https://web.archive.org/web/20100425203558/http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Blenjeel_
* ''[[Escape Velocity]] Nova'' has Cunjo, named for its top predator. Auroran warriors sometimes hunt them for bragging rights.
** The Auroran capital worlds also qualify: ridiculous levels of pollution from extreme overpopulation makes them uninhabitable outside of arcologies.
* ''Risk of Rain'' takes place on a planet inhabited by all manners of dangerous creatures. From the indigenous civilizations to the wildlife, everything that moves is out to slaughter the crash-landed survivors, and the more time passes, the more relentless and brutal the attacks become. Even the mysterious author of the various logs concerning the place and its inhabitants [[Lampshade Hanging|can't help but notice how ludicrous it is]].
== Webcomics ==
* In [[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]] near the galactic core lies the homeworld of the Kvrk-Chrk. In addition to having extremes of temperature, gravity, pressure, radioactivity, etc. that would be immediately lethal for most other lifeforms, it has a biosphere so aggressive that the natives have to eat their food ''still alive and kicking'' in order to ingest it before necrotic parasites do.
** Then there are the Kvrk-Chrk themselves, who consider awake and screaming a FLAVOR, have carapaces that would put a tank to shame, and can rip any other species to shreds effortlessly. The aforementioned extremes on their planet makes them essentially immune to all but the most extreme forms of weaponry (and even the most extreme might only annoy them briefly). Among their other quaint customs is, when visiting a neighbor, ripping off one of their own limbs to offer as a snack. They also consider all other intelligent lifeforms "chatty food". They once declared war by taking a defenseless colony ship and brutally butchering the crew, then broadcasting recordings of the slaughter on all channels, promising that this would be the fate of every other species in the galaxy. The only reason they didn't wipe out the competing empires is because they found out the hard way that being unparalled engines of annihilation on the ground doesn't help too well when the guys you're fighting against can annihilate entire systems with a single shot from a stellar lance several lightyears away.
*
* [[Homestuck]]:
** Alternia. This is a world whose inhabitants are nocturnal because ''zombies'' wander around during the day. This is a world where the fauna are so vicious, 13-year-old children are expected to be combat-capable. This is a world where the only significantly large body of water is inhabited by a [[Eldritch Abomination|very large thing]] that must constantly be sacrificed to to prevent it from [[Brown Note|using its psychic powers]] on the whole populace. This is a world that serves as the training ground for a [[Proud Warrior Race]] that practices [[The Spartan Way]]. Thankfully, the protagonists from Alternia are sufficiently [[Badass]].
** And then there's Eridan's planet, which is even worse. Between all of his consorts going on a homicidal frenzy, and Eridan shooting anything that moves, even the most hardened [[Badass]] trolls were afraid to set foot on the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Land of Wrath and Angels]] for more than a few moments.
* ''[[Drive (webcomic)|Drive]]'' finally explains the adaptive value of gravity-sensitive mohawks on the Rhinn, and also [https://web.archive.org/web/20200429113827/http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/200116.html what a wonderful place their homeworld is].
== Web Original ==
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* The native life of [[Green Antarctica]] is just plain nasty. There are the Gugs, murderous, raping gorillas, there are ants that shoot fire, giant platypus that have evolved convergently similar to crocodilians, a kind of small mammal who's bite sends humans into comas, and then eats them alive, and countless other disturbing animals.
* [[Spec World]], an alternate Earth where giant killer dinosaurs still live.
* Remnant from [[Rooster Teeth]]'s ''[[RWBY]]'' -- outside of five enclaves where humans (and [[Beast Folk|faunus]]) dwell, the world is home to hordes of unnatural, hostile monsters called "the creatures of Grimm". {{spoiler|Who are created and commanded by a Queen who is out to destroy humanity utterly.}}
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* [[Rainbow Brite|Rainbow Land]] is this before Wisp saves it. Giant monsters are everywhere including the rivers. There are constant earthquakes resulting in rock slides and lava flows. Oh and if you try to get close to the [[The Faceless|Evil One's]] [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|castle]]? Lightning strikes you and turns you into an ice/crystal statue.
* In most versions of [[My Little Pony]], the world the ponies are in usually is this, with any area outside the immediate dwelling location being full of incredibly powerful monsters, demons, and malicious magi. The ponies generally survive by a mix of plot devices and being surprisingly badass themselves.
** In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' the Everfree Forest that is ''right outside'' of Ponyville is populated with monsters taken straight from the ''[[Dungeons
* The Realm in the old ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' tv series. Not EVERYTHING was trying to kill the heroes, but most things were, including at least two beings operating on the deity level (one would attack them incidentally, the other was actively seeking to harm them). Most people with significant power were hostile or so totally preoccupied with their own problems that they couldn't help.
* Beast Island in ''[[She-Ra|She-Ra and the Princesses of Power]]''. The stories She-Ra remembers from when she was a Horde conscript say the place has blood beetles and trees with knives in place of leaves. Adora shivers as she remembers stories of “chippits with razor-sharp teeth, scruffers with razor sharp horns, and razor-fins with razor-sharp teeth... really not sure how they got that name...” However, long after she defects to the Rebellion, Shadow Weaver admits that ''those'' were only “children’s stories” about the place, which is FAR worse. The island is actually a [[Genius Loci]] that torments visitors with visions of their fears and regrets before consuming them completely.
== Real Life ==
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* Speaking of carbon dioxide living near <ref>ie within 16 miles of</ref> [[wikipedia:Lake Nyos|Lake Nyos]] is quite hazardous given its nasty, if occasional, habit of belching 1.6 million tonnes CO<sub>2</sub>
* The universe itself is basically one immeasurably vast Death World intent on snuffing out all life and making it impossible for whatever survives to have any real significance in the universe.
:As an example, you find yourself out in space. Everything in an unsealed part of your body has escaped and other parts are swelling due to the lack of outside pressure, you're being bombarded by all sorts of nasty x-rays and gamma-rays and whatever-rays you can think of. Micro-meteroites keep flying through your body, letting even more of your precious body fluids blow out. You're cooked alive by a nearby star, only to freeze when you get stuck into a sunless orbit around a nice planet you want to call home. You use your personal jet pack to land on the planet, at which point you realize too late it's too close to the star and an earthquake topples a mountain on top of you, it gets covered in lava, and then a giant meteor lands on you. You think the worst is behind you, then the star collapses and you're whisked into the event horizon and eventually expelled by the black hole as radiation. You're floating around, enjoying your time radiating all over the place as you and the rest of the universe slowly converts all of the usable energy into heat. Welcome to the universe, enjoy your stay!▼
▲As an example, you find yourself out in space. Everything in an unsealed part of your body has escaped and other parts are swelling due to the lack of outside pressure, you're being bombarded by all sorts of nasty x-rays and gamma-rays and whatever-rays you can think of. Micro-meteroites keep flying through your body, letting even more of your precious body fluids blow out. You're cooked alive by a nearby star, only to freeze when you get stuck into a sunless orbit around a nice planet you want to call home. You use your personal jet pack to land on the planet, at which point you realize too late it's too close to the star and an earthquake topples a mountain on top of you, it gets covered in lava, and then a giant meteor lands on you. You think the worst is behind you, then the star collapses and you're whisked into the event horizon and eventually expelled by the black hole as radiation. You're floating around, enjoying your time radiating all over the place as you and the rest of the universe slowly converts all of the usable energy into heat. Welcome to the universe, enjoy your stay!
{{reflist}}
[[Category:You Would Not Want to Live In Dex]]
[[Category:Settings]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Death World]]
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