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* [[Dream Land]]
 
See also [[Genius Loci]], [[Garden of Evil]], [[Ominous Floating Castle]], [[World Tree]], [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]], [[Bigger Onon the Inside]], [[Year Inside, Hour Outside]].
 
Some common settings, such as the [[Sugar Bowl]], can fall right into this trope if you [[Fridge Horror|think about them enough]].
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Hell's Gate in ''[[Darker Than Black (Anime)|Darker Than Black]]'' is full of [[Not of This Earth]] weirdness, the geography constantly shifts, [[Reality Is Out to Lunch]], and, generally, there are ''very'' good reasons the scientists studying it have mostly abandoned manned missions in favor of sending in robots. As an added bonus, its appearance in the middle of [[Tokyo Is the Center of Thethe Universe]] was accompanied by an [[Alien Sky]] covering the entire Earth and people suddenly becoming superpowered [[Lack of Empathy|sociopaths]].
** Said "sending in robots" consists of sending in a robot with a camera and having a full room of people watch the video stream and write down everything they see, because even through the video, everyone sees something different.
* The {{spoiler|entire town of Kurôzu-cho}} in ''[[Uzumaki (Manga)|Uzumaki]]''
* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' had the Dark Ocean, a place populated by something that is either an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that can take the form of a Digimon and are suspiciously called the Digi-Deep Ones and serve a master that is suspiciously similar to Cthulhu, Digimons whose designs are heavily influenced by the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] (Named Dragomon in the card game but not in the show), or Cthulhu and his minions making a [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]. It was stated that The Dark Ocean is a separate Dimension from the other two established dimensions.
** Wherever the Hell it was Etemon ended up in after his first defeat in ''[[Digimon Adventure (Anime)|Digimon Adventure]]''.
* ''[[Digimon Tamers (Anime)|Digimon Tamers]]'' has {{spoiler|the inside of the D-Reaper's mass bubble when it invades Earth. It goes from a giant bunch of melted buildings and electronics and a few sidewalks to a liquid-like gooey landscape of pure pink and red evil all around.}} Not only that, but the {{spoiler|digital world certainly qualifies when the D-Reaper has taken over and turned everything into a rather disturbing, apocalyptic-looking war zone.}}
* Heaven and Hell in ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'' both use and avert this concept. On the one hand, both are realms that exist in twelve-dimensions, far more than the normal humans of Earth can ever hope to perceive. However, due to their complete inability to perceive what they are not perceiving, the sheer alien quality of the two realms is completely lost on humans.
* ''The [[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|End of Evangelion]]'' gave us the Sea of LCL, "a place with no AT-Field, [[Assimilation Plot|where individual forms do not exist]]; an ambiguous world where you cannot tell where you end and others begin; a world where you exist everywhere and yet you exist nowhere, [[Mind Screw|all at once]]". Its freaky nature is perfectly illustrated by the scene where Rei pulls out her hands out of Shinji's chest with absolutely no signs of injury on him<ref>though most viewers will be distracted by the fact that [[Fetish Fuel|both of them are naked and she is sitting on top of him, straddling his waist during the entire dialogue]]...and their crotches appear to be physically merged with no sign of their...ehm, ''private parts''</ref>. It's not a [[Dream World]] in that the place only exists in the shared reality between Rei, Kaworu and Shinji.
** {{spoiler|The Sea of LCL is actually Primordial Earth after Rei had returned every living being in existence back to its most basic form. All Souls are now one with Rei and/or Kaworu, the Mother and Father respectively of every living being on Earth. So in said Reality of Rei, Kaworu, and Shinji it was basically the Entire World at the moment. Or maybe it was all concepts of Reality, depending on your interpretation of what the bloody hell was going on.}}
* The so called 'closed spaces' in ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Literature)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' can be considered a form of this.
* {{spoiler|The ''entire country'' of Amestris}} in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is a subtle version of this. The Xingese characters notice that alchemy in Amestris has something distinctly off about it, and a creepy vibe seems to ooze from the ground and tickle their [[Detect Evil|chi-sense]]. This is because {{spoiler|Amestrian alchemy is powered not by tectonic energy like normal alchemy, but by [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child|Philosopher's]] [[Human Resources|Stones]], which are made from tortured, agonized human souls bound together. The Philosopher's Stone energy comes from [[Eldritch Abomination|Father's body]], and is disseminated through the country by a massive system of pipes. This corrupt form of alchemy can be completely disabled by Father at will, making him theoretically invincible.}} The whole system is derailed by {{spoiler|a countermeasure based on Xingese alkahestry devised by Scar's brother before the series even started}}.
** Actually, it's been established that {{spoiler|Amestrian alchemy is indeed powered by tectonic energy, but Father created a buffer to limit the amount of energy drawn and to have the ability to turn off the alchemy whenever he wanted. What the Xing characters sensed could either be Father or the buffer (or both)}}
** In addition, there's the inside of the Gate, ("It's ''awful''!") and the inside of Gluttony's stomach, which is a failed Gate somewhere "between reality and the real Gate".
* Hell in ''[[Hell Girl (Anime)|Hell Girl]]'' is this, and it is deliberately designed for personalized [[Mind Rape]].
* The Witches' barrier in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica]]''
* The Red Night in ''[[Eleven Eyes (Visual Novel)11eyes|Eleven Eyes]]''.
* Hueco Mundo and the precipice world in ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]''
* The Book of Eibon (manga only) and inside {{spoiler|Asura's}} sphere (anime only) also the Nakatsukasa mindscape at first in ''[[Soul Eater (Manga)|Soul Eater]]''
* Some dreamscapes in ''[[Yumekui Merry (Anime)|Yumekui Merry]]''
* Tsukuyomi and the Living Corpse Reincarnation realm, also some genjutsu are capable of projecting this type of location from ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]''.
* Tokimi's realm in ''[[Tenchi Muyo! (Anime)|Tenchi Muyo]]''. Its a floating temple-like thing in the middle of nowhere in the universe. outside of it, its got a twisted, planet thing with a [[Space Whale]]. Her presence fills the room, but she is not there. And that's only in the third dimension. Each dimension up is so much more complex that a being from a lower dimension cannot comprehend. and there are a lot of them.
 
 
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* Clark Ashton Smith's paintings and illustrations are just chock-full of wondrous eldritch locations. Just one example would be The Racornee ( http://www.eldritchdark.com/galleries/by-cas/all/a/8 )
* Many of [http://www.gnosis.art.pl/iluminatornia/sztuka_o_inspiracji/zdzislaw_beksinski/zdzislaw_beksinski.htm Zdzislaw Beksinski]'s paintings would certainly qualify.
* Some of [[MCM. C. Escher]]'s works certainly qualify.
* Hieronymus Bosch
 
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** The city of Vanity from the short-lived ''Aztek'' series was implied to be one as well. It was a [[Wretched Hive]] that was ''worse than Gotham'', full of a strange psychic malaise that turned two [[Captain Patriotic]] heroes into [[Nineties Anti-Hero|Nineties Anti-Heroes]]. It was implied that the town founders were all mad and used principles of sacred geometry to make the city utterly bent.
** Let us not forget Arkham Asylum. The place gets destroyed regularly, yet somehow always magically comes back and it has a tendency to drive people completely batshit insane just by being there. When you remember these facts one kind of has to wonder why the city of Gotham thinks sending already insane supervillans there will make them better.
*** The [[Arkham Asylum a Serious House Onon Serious Earth|madness of the asylum and its inhabitants]] has been implied to warp space and time.
* In the [[Marvel Universe]] , ''[[The Thanos Imperative]]'' introduced ''an entire freaking parallel universe'' as an [[Eldritch Location]]. It all began when somehow, somebody ''[[Death Takes a Holiday|killed death]]'' and allowed Life to grow unrestrained. Now the entire universe is under the influence of Elder Gods and , using the Fault that has opened up in the MU, they are now intent on corrupting the rest of reality.
{{quote| '''[[Quasar]]:''' I'm Protector Of The Universe. But how am I supposed to protect it from another universe? Planets, stars, whole galaxies that want to crush us all. I asked what's the worst that could happen. This is my answer.}}
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== Fanfiction ==
* Voidspace from [http://alaxr274.deviantart.com/gallery/33810717 Super Milestone Wars 2]
* Evangelion: The Rite of Spring [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6909519/1/Evangelion_The_Rite_of_Spring\] makes the battles with the Angels even more disturbing, as it moves the fight settings to [[Eldritch Location]] pocket universes. Kaworu and Rei's secret room in the theater may or may not count, but it certainly seems to defy the laws of nature. Really only to be expected for a story that's essentially [[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]] meets [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]] in art school.
* [[The Emiya Clan]] basement is the equivalent of an epic dungeon crawler. It's basically where they throw all the junk they accumulate that is too dangerous or unstable to use. It's also where they lock any [[Eldritch Abomination]] that is too hard to destroy. Put two and two together and you get something along the lines of [[Lord of the Rings|Moria]].
 
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== Film ==
* ''[[Dark City]]''.
* In ''[[Labyrinth (Film)|Labyrinth]]'', Sarah's final showdown with Jareth occurs in a place that was designed by [[MCM. C. Escher]].
* Tiny in comparison to most examples, but the titular sauna in AJ Annila's [[Surreal Horror]] indie ''[[Sauna]]'' is a piece of [[Sinister Geometry]] that defies all definition, and has a habit of swallowing people whole, or sending them out...[[The Corruption|different]]. A common theory makes it the gate to [[Hell]].
* The apartment building in ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' certainly applies, given what it was designed for. The dimension one of the refrigerators opens onto counts as well.
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* ''[[Inception]]'', because, well, it's [[All Just a Dream]].
* In ''[[Event Horizon]]'', the dimension that the gravity drive took the titular ship into is summed up as "Hell", but from what's hinted, Hell is pretty fuckin' warm and fuzzy compared to what [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|actually lies beyond the portal]].
* If you think about it, [[Toon Town]] in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' is an Eldritch Location in its context. All that stuff may be normal in cartoons, but in the middle of the real world it's bizarre to say the least. [[Alien Geometries]]? You bet. For example, the building you're in becomes higher than all the surrounding ones if you're in danger of falling from it and look down, simply because it's a trick used by animators to make it look more like the perspective is from really high up.
* The Real World in ''[[The Matrix]]''
* The Hypercube in ''[[Cube]] 2: Hypercube''.
* The room in ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight1408]]''. As [[Samuel L. Jackson]]'s character insists, there are no ghosts, it's just "an evil fucking room".
* In ''[[Bram StokersStoker's Dracula]], normal laws of physics don't quite seem to apply in Castle Dracula, most notably seen when Harker opens a perfume bottle that starts dripping upwards into the ceiling. For extra creep factor, the castle itself vaguely resembles a ghoulish figure crouched on a cracked throne.
* ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'' - The Beatles' Liverpool abode is a grim little wharfside hovel on the outside - inside it's a cavernous palace with endless corridors that open into scenes from ''[[King Kong]]'', Magritte paintings, and the like, while various outsize objects, inanimate and otherwise, run in and out of doors when no one's looking. The places they visit on their journey are similarly extradimensional.
 
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== Literature ==
* The world described in the [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|incomprehensible]] Codex Seraphinianus.
* R'lyeh, the abode of Great Cthulhu in [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]''.
** Lovecraft's writings have several of these in addition to R'lyeh. These include the subterranean N'knai, the planet Yuggoth with its black towers and rivers of pitch, and the Outer Void that exists beyond our four-dimensional space and is the dwelling place of the Outer Gods. The Dreamlands may also count, as it's apparently a separate plane of existence that shares a connection with our world.
** Lets not forget the Plateau of Leng, that may exist somewhere in the Himalayas, in Antarctica, or in the Dreamlands, or possibly in all these places.
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* From [[Stephen King]]: ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Waste Lands|The Dark Tower]]'', a radioactive rift in the fabric of existence populated by [[Biological Mashup|Biological Mashups]]; [[The Dark Tower (Literature)/Song of Susannah|Thunderclap]], a [[Mordor]]-like desert; and [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|End-World]] where ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' resides (a sort of [[World Tree|Yggdrasil]]-like entity).<ref>This is because the evil [[Powers That Be]] have [[Definitely Final Dungeon|occupied the Dark Tower]] and are trying to destroy it from within.</ref>
** Also the castle that Susannah's doppelganger [[Goldilocks and The Mines of Moria|visits in her dreams]] is described as an eldritch location filled with [[Nothing Is Scarier|unknown horrors]] in the machinery-filled rooms below, on the edge of End-World which is portrayed as an even worse [[Eldritch Location]] with a [[Mordor|pulsating red light]] coming from it.
** The room in ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight1408]]''. Both the short story and the movie are insistent that there's no ghosts.
* As mentioned above: Giant country and The Land of Dreams in ''[[The BFG]]''. They're somewhere on Earth, but they've never been seen by man before the events of the book, no one had even suspected they may exist, and not even the BFG, who lives in the land of Giants, knows where it is. (He gets there by homing instinct.)
* The ''{{color|blue|House}} [[House of Leaves|of Leaves]]''. According to some, [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|the whole book qualifies]].
* The Nevernever in ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]''. In size, it is to Australia what Earth is to the Rhode island, and the laws of physics just don't work the way they do in our world. In fact they almost ''never'' do.
** Demonreach, introduced in ''Small Favor'', is a less alien but no less powerful site. Aside from being the source of a massive dark energy ley line, it is also [[Genius Loci|self-aware]] and does not show up on any maps because ships disappear around it and aircraft navigation goes out close to it. And apparently it has some connection to Dresden himself.
* Brian Lumley's ''[[Necroscope]]'' novels have the vampire world which is home to a [[Negative Space Wedgie|White Hole]] that plunged half the planet into and towered eternal night, and the Möbius Continuum.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' [[Ultramarines (Literaturenovel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', Uriel and Pasanius find that a Chaos-warped [[Afterlife Express]] has carried them into the Eye of Terror. Hideous, impossible landscapes haunted by monsters and holding many dead bodies, with tunnels that can [[Driven to Suicide|drive people to murder and suicide]], and a city of [[Alien Geometries]] with [[Light Is Not Good|strange light creatures]] and [[Mobile Maze|impossible to trace routes]], pollutants that come to life as [[Living Shadow|Living Shadows]] and an [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]].
** Also, in [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''Eisenhorn'' series, there is a similar place; the [[Alien Geometries]] is taken to its describable extreme (for instance, there are triangles that clearly have more than 360 degrees internally) and every little thing is another impossibility made possible. Most of those who enter lose their minds in a short while.
** In fact, this sort of thing is common in Warpspace, [[Another Dimension]] which spaceships use for all interstellar travel. Also, there's a few regions where Warpspace and real space overlap, the largest one being the Eye of Terror.
* The realm of the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn in [[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]] is a pocket dimension full of bizarre [[Alien Geometry]].
* The [[Faction Paradox]] series has the Eleven-Day Empire, a [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|tract of space/time, shaped like XVIII century London]], ritualistically separated from reality by eleven days that never existed. Specifically, when the 18th century British Empire shifted from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, the date changed from the 2nd to the 14th of September. [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made Onon Drugs?|Figuring that nobody was using them, the Faction took those eleven days]], cut them off from the rest of causality, [[Crazy Awesome|and turned them into a twisted shadow version of Victorian London]] under a [[Red Sky, Take Warning|perpetually burning sky]]. [[Captain Obvious|It's a weird place]]. (In its introduction, it's explained that if you were to [[Lampshade Hanging|point out]] that the above [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum|doesn't really make sense]], because a shift in the calendar doesn't "create" unused days, Faction Paradox would say that [[Timey-Wimey Ball|that's rather the point]].)
** And then there's the City of the Saved: the result of the fusion of the ultimate sum of all human technology in all of history merged with a ''[[Living Ship|goddess]]'' from the end of time. What does that equate to? A ''galaxy-wide'' [[Genius Loci|sentient]] space station, containing all humans to ever exist in immortal, perfect bodies, including [[Half-Human Hybrid|all hybrids]] and virtually all fictional characters ever, permanently anchored at the edge of the Universe in its last nanosecond before the birth of the next. Unfortunately, there was an infection of ''[[Psycho Prototype|something]]'' that came out of the other end, and now the normally very pleasant City's infected with nightmarish industrial wastelands specialized in [[Body Horror|human experimentation]]. It's as horrific as it sounds.
* Most [[Simon R. Green]] novels feature at least one of these, if not more.
* Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" takes place in such a setting. A {{spoiler|possibly sentient}} setting, no less.
* Lancre from [[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]] contains a few places like this, including the portal to the elves' world from ''Lords And Ladies'' and the "gnarly" ground in ''Carpe Jugulum''.
** Inverted in the ''Science of Discworld'' books, where the mundane physics of the Roundworld universe -- i.e. our own -- seem like this trope to the wizards, who are used to things running on narrativium rather than rules.
* The setting of ''Full Tilt'' is superficially an [[Amusement Park of Doom]], but the "rides" expand into mini-worlds, ranging from a burned-out slum to a [[The Theme Park Version|mock-up]] of ancient Egypt to {{spoiler|an asteroid field made of [[Every Car Is a Pinto|Pintos that explode when touched]].}} According to throwaway dialogue from [[Humanoid Abomination|its creator]], it's less "real" than our own world, but it will become more real as more and more people are drawn into it, and all other worlds will become mere shadows.
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* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' has several. The Dark Island from ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' is the only truly frightening one, though--more pleasant or neutral ones include Bism and the Wood Between the Worlds.
* Te land of the elves from the Serrated Edge series fits, at least those parts not formed by a sufficiently strong will into some definite state. As with all travels into the realms of the Elves in this series, it is EXTREMELY hazardous to enter an unformed region without adequate (usually magical) assistance, and anything one can imagine (and many things one would rather not) may be found there. Entering with an unfamiliar Elf is actually MORE dangerous, because an untrained mortal is effectively incapable of distinguishing the Seelie (relatively benign) Elves from the Unseelie ([[Always Chaotic Evil]]) Elves until it's FAR too late.
* The Darke Halls in ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'' are described as this, having the power of driving people to madness.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* The Q Continuum from the ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' franchise, home of the ([[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|supposedly]]) omnipotent and omniscient species known as the Q (and also sometimes used as a name for the species itself). When we saw it on-screen in two Voyager episodes, it appeared first as a [[California Doubling|gas station on a desert highway]] and then as a battlefield from the American Civil War (when the Q were fighting their own civil war). This was probably done due to the show's budget constraints, and was justified by explaining that the Continuum [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|cannot be perceived by a humanoid as it truly exists]], and thus it will appear as an analogue from the viewer's culture. In one TNG novel, the android Lt. Commander Data is taken to the Continuum and forced to perceive it in its true form. This causes him to shut down as the result of the sensory overload.
** Another Star Trek example is the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Next Generation]]'' episode "[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Remember_Me_%28episode%29 Remember Me]," in which an experiment with warp bubbles goes wrong and sucks Dr. Crusher into some kind of parallel dimension shaped by the thoughts she was having at the moment she was trapped. It appears to be a replica of the ''Enterprise,'' except all the other crew members start vanishing one by one and no one except Crusher remembers they existed. Then it gets even worse. Dr. Crusher activates a view screen and sees a "warp energy field" encasing the ship. After establishing that there is no penetrating the field, she asks the computer to define the universe. It replies, "THE UNIVERSE IS A SPHEROID REGION 705 METERS IN DIAMETER". The computer says that there is '''nothing outside of the ship'''.
* The Black Lodge from ''[[Twin Peaks]]''. A world where people speak backwards, little people dance to jazz music and {{spoiler|cream corn is used as a form of currency. The lodge itself is really just a series of identical rooms with red curtains and a zig-zag patterned floor. Or it could be that it is just the same room repeated over and over.}}
* Heaven in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Every heaven is basically just the best moment of your life over and over again.
* [[Reality Warper|Einstein's]] Realm in ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]].'' Reachable only by wormhole, it acts as a meeting ground between the representative of the True Ancients and anyone knowledgeable enough to be dangerous to them: it's basically an iceberg floating in an ocean of wormholes beneath a pitch-black sky. Due to Einstein's influence, physics tend to behave quite strangely here, and Crichton often ends up speaking to long-dead individuals from his past and tumbling into [[Alternate Universe|Unrealized Realities.]]
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is FULL of these. The TARDIS is one in [[Living Ship|living,]] [[Alleged Car|alleged ship]] form. The Doctor has visited some quite notable ones, like The Impossible Planet (prison of a being that claims to be the ultimate source of evil in the universe), and the Zeta Minor (visited during The Planet of Evil) where strange beings lurked and tried to prevent catastrophe caused by removing material from the place. The Doctor also visited to near the end of the universe (finding desperate humans trying to flee from vampire-like Future Kind), and even the extrauniversal E-Space, multiple parallel universe, and once simply PARKING OUTSIDE REALITY. Perhaps the most Eldritch of all Eldritch Locations, House, a living pocket dimension that fed on TARDISes.
 
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has the Far Realm, but really, most of the planes qualify, doing stuff like having distance travelled depend on the amount of good deeds you do, or matter being shaped by thought.
** Every other plane has some kind of mythology-based logic to it (Ethereal and Astral transport mimics the real-world mythology for movement in Out Of Body experiences, the Heaven and Hell planes are [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|exactly what they sound like]], etc.). The only identifiable trait of the Far Realm is that none of it is identifiable, or even quantifiable in any way, shape or form. Simply entering it causes unavoidable [[Mind Screw]] to outright [[Mind Rape]].
*** Characters may sprout eyes on their palms (but not really), relive a hundred lifetimes in which their parents were Far Realm wights, or backwards speaking begin...
*** Altogether unsurprising, as the Far Realm is based on the works and mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The Far Realm represents the edge of reality, where the reality that mortal minds can grasp transforms into something...different.
* The D&D settings of [[Ravenloft]], [[Planescape]], and (by way of Art Major Astrophysics) [[Spelljammer]] each qualify as an [[Eldritch Location]] by their very nature.
* Terra Incognitae in ''[[Scion]]'' are all the mysterious islands and lost worlds described in mythology. You can't get to them unless you yourself are mythological (i.e., have a Legend score).
* Bardos in ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' are places that were once thought or believed to exist, [[Science Marches On|then proved not to]], or were hoped to exist but [[I Want My Jetpack|never came to pass]]. You can still travel to them if you know where to go (or stumble into them). They range from [[The Red Planet|the Martian Empire]] and [[Dystopia|Tsoska]] to the Hollow Earth (recently taken over by [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Nazi mad scientists]]) and [[Cyberspace|The Grid]].
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Lost]]'' gives up [[The Lost Woods|the Hedge]], the mysterious otherspace between Earth and Faerie. Not only does it seem to map roughly to Earth in size, but it could technically be considered four-dimensional, as there's ''always'' going to be a direction that's just "towards Faerie."
* Pretty much everywhere outside of Illusion in [[KULTKult]]. Weird geoscapes are the least of your worries. Gaia is the primal world where even the ''earth'' can get hungry and swallow people, Metropolis is a city filled with lunatics and Inferno is a classic [[Hell]].
* The Mad City of [[Don't Rest Your Head]] is pretty much made of this trope.
* The Wyld in ''[[Exalted]]'', in which reality as we know it pretty much stops working. Divided into the Bordermarches, the closest regions to normal reality, which are only mildly weird, the Middlemarches, where the laws of physics cease to be reliable and movement and distance are [[Theory of Narrative Causality|based more around narrative conventions than concrete measurements]], the Deep Wyld, where reality is officially [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|Out To Lunch]], and the Pure Chaos, which isn't so much a location as it is the unshaped, incoherent chaos outside of the universe.
** And then there are the Shadowlands, sites of past atrocities and mass murder where the border between Creation and the Underworld is just a bit thinner. Regaining Essence is hampered (unless you're a creature of the Underworld, in which case it picks up by comparison), ghosts can get around more easily, and improperly buried bodies tend to rise as zombies.
** Several of the Primordials/Yozis [[Genius Loci|are this]] as well. Things like the local geography, physical laws, and even time flow are often at the whims of the Titan that is the world. The most notable are Malfeas (the Demon King/City whose body acts as the prison of his fellows, and consists of multiple layers that constantly change shape and correspondence, and all inexplicably have the green sun of Hell right above them), Cecylene (the Endless Desert who is accessible from every layer of Malfeas and always takes ''exactly'' five days to cross) and Autochthon (who needed to deliberately modify his world body to make it habitable; the deeper parts of it show the reason for this).
** There are even a few places in Creation that work like this. One is the Well of Udr, overseen by [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils]]. It's a nexus of all possible dimensions where the strata of potential worlds collide and crash against one another, occasionally disgorging impossibilities. It's very tricky to get anywhere within its vicinity and hold onto your marbles, let alone stare into it. It's from here that the Dowager retrieved [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|the Great Contagion]].
* The Umbra from the [[Old World of Darkness]] folds in itself any sort of alternative reality and other states of being. And one has to step ''sideways'' to reach it. Sideways to reality as a whole. Furthermore, different places in the Umbra have their own laws, and the further one gets from Earth, the weirder and more hostile, the worlds become, until the Deep Umbra is reached. Things are just plain ''wrong'' there. And very, ''very'' inhospitable for almost any type of earth-like life.
** Its spiritual descendent, the Shadow Realm of the [[New World of Darkness]], is more a [[Dark World]]. But if you go deep enough, you get to the parts of the Shadow Realm taken over by lords among the Spirits, and then the rules disappear.
* ''[[Warhammer 40 K|Warhammer 40000]]''. Aside from the mentions in the literature section above, ''everything'' in the Eye of Terror ends up this way, as well as the Maelstrom (basically a mini Eye of Terror that doesn't even have the decency of an explanation of how it started). Any place a Warp Rift is opened starts to slowly turn into one of these, and if the rift is left unchecked it can end up turning the entire planet into a [[World of Chaos|Daemon World]]. And that's just what happens when a ''tiny fraction'' of the Warp leaks into the real world...
** The Dark City of Commorragh, home of the Dark Eldar, is also an example, being an enormous collection of realms located inside the Webway (a network of warded tunnels in the Warp), linked together with portals. It's basically Escher on crack and populated entirely by sadistic murder-elves.
* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' has locations associated with its resident [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]], the Eldrazi; in particular, a combination of solitude and proximity to the Eye of Ugin, which sealed the Eldrazi within the plane Zendikar, cost the planeswalker Sarkhan Vol his sanity.
* In ''[[Nephilim]]'', Selenim are capable of creating Realms, pocket universes that exist according to their will, which turn out like this trope.
* The entirety of the [[JAGS Wonderland]] setting.
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== Video Games ==
* Bacterian, the [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Gradius]]'' series qualifies: He is a [[Genius Loci]] [[Hive Mind]] that uses psychic powers to control his fleets. Every time he's defeated, the pieces of him regenerate to form new Bacterians. Gofer, Venom, Zelos, and some other large Bacterians also qualify.
* The Pfhor ship of ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' seems to be mostly organic, with green liquid all over the place. The gravity is low, too. The creepy music doesn't help either.
** ''Marathon's'' game engine actually ''encourages'' non-Euclidean level design because of the way it implements overpasses. Several levels have passageways that pass through each other as an intentional [[Mind Screw]], and some third-party mapmakers have taken it to a very confusing extreme.
* ''[[Silent Hill]]'' features a weird variation of this trope through the eponymous town. Though its exact nature is [[Mind Screw|very much up for debate]], it appears to be abandoned and shrouded in fog, day and night come randomly, and a nightmarish [[Dark World|"otherworld"]] version of the town lurks beneath the surface and can overtake you at any moment. The otherworld draws its form [[Self-Inflicted Hell|from people's minds]], sometimes [[Psychological Torment Zone|the protagonists]] and sometimes [[Reality Warper|another character entirely]]; quite a few [[Epileptic Trees|epileptic forests]] have grown from trying to explain it all.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'': Once the Devil's Machine is turned off, it's implied that Giygas might just be huge and dimension-warping enough to be not just an [[Eldritch Abomination]], but one of these in his own right.
** Way before that, Ness and Jeff get to visit Moonside, which also qualifies.
* The various incarnations of the [[Lost Woods]] in the ''Zelda'' games: they either turn off your minimap, making navigation extremely difficult, or in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Gamesof (VideoSeasons and Oracle of Game)Ages|Oracle of Seasons]]'', one place is even completely off the map, not to mention the place where Like-Likes fall from the sky. In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|Ocarina of Time]]'' it's implied that anyone who isn't of [[The Fair Folk]] would tend to become hopelessly lost, eventually turning into skeletal imps doomed to haunt the forest forever.
** While its own version of the [[Lost Woods]] isn't particularly odd, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' definitely deserves a mention for its final area, the Dark Realm. Accessed through a dark portal that can only be found with a magic compass, it basically looks like Van Gogh's ''Starry Night'' in a black hole. Beneath the train tracks (Oh, yeah, by the way, there are train tracks. Inside an ''alternate dimension of pure evil''.) is some kind of strange, smoky/watery "ground" that gives way to a completely different landscape right beneath it.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: MajorasMajora's Mask (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' as a whole, the entire game, is made of this trope. The games's setting is a pseudo alternate dimension called Termina, and the fact that the game's titular villain is a reality warping, psychopathic eldritch abomination only makes it worse. Oh, and the closest thing you have to a mentor type character {{spoiler|may or may not be a dimension hopping mastermind who planted Majora's mask on purpose.}}
* The inner sections of the Pyxis (A.K.A the Box) from ''[[Clive BarkersBarker's Jericho]]''.
* ''[[Chzo Mythos]]'' is both this and an [[Eldritch Abomination]], a pain elemental who satiates himself with tortured victims trapped inside his labyrinthine corridors for all eternity.
* The interaction of [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]] and Pathspace in ''[[Immortal Defense]]'' produces one of these. From Pathspace, Hyperspace looks like a twisty path across a 2D plane, and from Hyperspace, Pathspace is the home of vindictive demigods who rain psychic death upon unwary travelers. {{spoiler|The ''protagonist'' is one of these demigods.}}
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** [[Fridge Horror]]: Considering what adamantine veins like the spire usually [[The Legions of Hell|contain,]] it looks like whatever counts as Heaven in the Dorf 'verse is in for some serious [[Unusual Euphemism|Fun.]]
** Some of the more convoluted succession forts such as [[Battlefailed]] become this. Battlefields had the temporally locked dwarves in the arena, Headshoots had the room outside of space, ect.
* The Distortion World from ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)|Pokémon Platinum]]'' falls under this. Floating masses of land in a giant vortex, giant plants that sprout randomly out of nowhere, disappearing platforms, and waterfalls that float up are just a few features to be found. Not to mention that the ''only'' thing living in there is the [[Eldritch Abomination]] known as Giratina.
** Although Giratina is no ''more'' [[Eldritch Abomination]] than some other Pokémon.
*** Some? Maybe compared to the other members of its Trio, ancient creatures that can warp time and space, who were summoned in an attempt to harness their power and [[A God Am I|remake reality]]...let's face it, ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)|Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'' is a G-rated [[Cosmic Horror Story]].
** [[Minus World|Glitch City]], anyone?
* The Dark Rift from ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]''.
* [[Castlevania]] is an Eldritch Location and houses several [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] to boot. The discrepancy that crops up between the games is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and [[Hand Waving|handwaved]] with a comment that the castle is "[[Chaos Architecture|a creature of chaos]]." The castle can take many shapes and forms, picking and choosing when and if it wants to follow the laws of physics.
** Hell, in the installment that gave us that [[Hand Wave]] (''[[Castlevania Symphony of the Night (Video Game)|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]''), the whole castle ''has an inverted duplicate'' revealed halfway through. You and the monsters fall towards and walk around on the ceiling. All the furniture is still on the floor. It is never explained why a second castle just appears out of the clouds, nor why it's upside down. And then there's the two mirrored split castles in ''[[Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (Video Game)|Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance]]'', which are somehow both the extension of Maxim's will...
* Both [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon|final levels]] of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' 1 and 2. The one from [[Kingdom Hearts (Videovideo Gamegame)|the first game]], appropriately titled The End Of The World, is basically the remains of any and every world destroyed by [[The Heartless]], and the one from [[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|the second game]], The World That Never Was is a dark city overrun by Heartless overlooked by the warped castle that is the headquarters of Organization XIII, and its ''[[Weird Moon|moon]]'' is apparently "[[MacGuffin|the heart of reality itself.]]"
** In fact, the concept of the worlds makes them Eldritch Locations: They are apparently separated by barriers, but are described as sharing the same skies (for that last bit, what does [[Bilingual Bonus|''Sora'']] mean in Japanese?).
** ''Birth by Sleep Final Mix'' gives us a deeper look at {{spoiler|the Realm of Darkness, where the Heartless originate from. The new Secret Ending also shows that not all worlds are destroyed when consumed by the darkness...}}
* ''[[Persona 3]]'' has Tartarus, an [[Chaos Architecture|ever-changing]] tower that only exists during the Dark Hour, and acts as a pathway from the world of Death and the Collective Unconsciousness from which humanity's Shadows can manifest. [[Updated Rerelease|FES]] adds the Abyss of Time as its inverted twin.
** ''[[Persona 4]]'' has rather the creepy TV World, which once again, is the Collective Unconsciousness being forced to manifest via the "mind" of mass media. {{spoiler|Subverted in the True Ending, where lifting the final veil of deceit from mankind's heart turns the Collective Unconsciousness itself into the [[Ghibli Hills]].}}
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey (Video Game)|Strange Journey]]'' has the [[Dark World|Schwarzwelt]]. It is effectively a [[Negative Space Wedgie|void]] over Antarctica where [[Hell Gate|demons appear]], overwriting Earth with their own reality. The Investigation Team's mission is to analyze and nullify the Schwarzwelt before it can consume the entire world. The game over screen shows what happens if your character dies...it ain't pretty.
*** The fun part is that the UN sent cameras into the Schwarzwelt during the planning stages...and ''nobody'' believed the results (one of them was a ''shopping mall''). Turns out they were all accurate (but you don't want to eat the food in the shopping mall...).
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne (Video Game)|Nocturne]]'' mostly takes place within the Vortex World, a chaotic, demon infested realm that the Earth reverts to when it comes time for a new world order to be decided. Naturally, it's up to you to shape it as you see fit. For bonus points, it's a truly literal form of [[Tokyo Is the Center of Thethe Universe]].
* Xen, the "border-world" from ''[[Half-Life]]''.
* Everytime you fly through Bydo Dimension in ''[[R-Type]]'', especially the [[Mind Screw]] territory of the final stages of ''Delta'' and, well, ''Final''.
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** And in the DLC ''Witch Hunt,'' Morrigan implies that beyond the Fade there are places that are even stranger where {{spoiler|she's keeping her Demon Baby safe from her evil mom.}}
** Amgarrak Thaig, the titular location of ''Golems of Amgarrak'' is definitely one, protected from the outside by a maze of shifting mist and having Lyrium Wells that were designed to phase-shift people into alternate versions of the Thaig in order to better safeguard its secrets.
** The sequel brings us {{spoiler|Kirkwall. Yes, that's right: the main setting. It's subtle, though; you can go through the whole game just thinking the whole place is a [[Crapsack World|Crapsack City-State]], but certain notes you find indicate that not only is the Veil unnaturally thin over the entire area, entire neighborhoods are constructed in the shapes of blood magic sigils, there are likely lakes of blood beneath the streets that still haven't dried, but demons are actively drawn to the place like flies to the point where they occasionally hunt non-mages because ''there's too much competition''. And that's ''before'' you factor in [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|Corypheus']] [[The Corruption|corrupting]] presence from his Grey Warden Prison in the nearby Vimmark Mountains.}}
*** It - or very nearby - is actually where {{spoiler|the magisters entered the Black City (sacrificing hundreds of slaves in a blood ritual in the process) and were transformed, like Corypheus, into darkspawn, causing the Blights. Kirkwall is basically the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' verse's version of the Hellmouth....}}
** The {{spoiler|Primeval Thaig}} is definitely one, {{spoiler|built by prehistoric Dwarves that worshipped a pantheon of deities, constructed using magic thus giving it some degree of [[Alien Geometry]], posessing a unique form of Red Lyrium running throughout the structure itself and inhabited by creatures like the Profane that Varric claims were supposed to be ''myth''. It was also the location where Hawke and company first encountered the [[Artefact of Doom|Lyrium Idol]]}}.
** In an older [[Bio WareBioWare]] example, the Spirit World of ''[[Jade Empire]]'' is similarly weird.
* ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]: Cataclysm'''s Beast is said to come from "Outside". In [http://web.archive.org/web/20030615051920/fiction.relicnews.com/cataclysm/Reflection-Outside-Prologue.shtml the titular fanfic], Outside is taken to mean the highest level of Hyperspace.
* The NES game ''[[The Magic of Scheherazade]]'' has the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Goragora [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|trapped in ancient times]] in the "Dark World" (not to be confused with a [[Dark World]]), and the villain threatening to release it once more. He eventually learns the hard way that [[Evil Is Not a Toy]], and begs the heroes to enter the Dark World and keep it from escaping. Beyond the gate and past the [[Point of No Return]], the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] looks like a starswept black abyss with walls and columns made out of transparent bubbles.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'', {{spoiler|the Jade Passage and Pandaemonium}}.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'', {{spoiler|Terra, a parasitic other planet, actually inserted itself into Gaia long ago and is feeding off the planet from the inside.}} Creepy.
** Another present in the same game is {{spoiler|Memoria, a world formed from the collective memory of the entire planet.}}
* ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'' has the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Cleft of Dimensions]], which is a patchwork of areas earlier swallowed up in [[The Void]] and home to many [[Eldritch Abominations]] including the game's two [[Nintendo Hard]] [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]. The [[Updated Rerelease]] added the [[Bonus Dungeon|Sealed Temple]], home to even more [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], including the [[Eldritch Abomination]] who created [[The Void]].
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has a few that qualify, and they all tend to follow the "islands floating in nothingness" style:
** The Promyvion areas appear to be corrupted, shadowy versions of other existing areas, topped off with haunting music and freakish looking monsters.
** The Walk of Echoes is an area of disconnected structures floating in nothingness. {{spoiler|It pretty much exists outside of time, and Atomos himself can be seen in the sky at all times.}}
** And also the recently added Provenance areas, {{spoiler|which are described as being the place where the source of all life comes from.}}
* In ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'', {{spoiler|Deus, already an [[Eldritch Abomination]], becomes an enormous [[Eldritch Location]] in its own right.}}
* The Dead Sea from ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]''. It's the site of a massive [[Time Crash]], where the canceled [[Bad Future]] from ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' tried to reassert itself over Chronopolis. Waves of water, forever frozen in time, wash over the wreckage of the city, and at the heart is the Tower of Geddon, a conglomeration of locations from said canceled timeline haphazardly mashed together. Much later, you also go to the Darkness Beyond Time, where cancelled timelines are sent {{spoiler|and where the Time Devourer lurks}}.
** Its prequel ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' already had the [[Place Beyond Time|End of Time]], the place where all possible time lines meet. As far as eldritch locations go, it's actually fairly harmless. The [[Updated Rerelease]] added a few more such as the [[Bonus Dungeon|Dimensional Vortexes]], areas where time and space are essentially broken. The Darkness Beyond Time also makes an appearance.
* In ''[[Wild Arms 2 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 2]]'', {{spoiler|the Encroaching Parallel Universe "Kuiper Belt" is one of the most [[Nightmare Fuel]] examples yet}}.
* In the original ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' series, the very Algol star system it takes place in is an enormous lock for a dreadful [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]. And the lock isn't exactly completely intact.
* The titular planet in ''[[Albion]]'' looks like some alien world with primitive civilizations at first. Until it is revealed that it operates under completely different laws the Earth does. {{spoiler|The fact that it's actually a sentient (benevolent) being, has something to do with it}}.
* The tunnels under ''[[Pathways Intointo Darkness]]'''s pyramid are actually the nightmares of a catatonic [[Eldritch Abomination]] made real.
* Several places in the [[War CraftWarcraft]] universe qualify. Chief among them is Outland. It was formed when the planet Draenor was torn apart by multiple interdimensional gateways being opened on the surface. It's now a continent with several different ecosystems, some of which are healthy and normal, or at least, [[Patchwork Map|as normal as the rest of this universe]]. However, the [[Floating Continent|continent]] is surrounded by, rather than an ocean, an edge, and if you walk off it you fall into nothingness. It also has an [[Alien Sky]], which is sunless but otherwise mysteriously normal in some zones, but looks like energy cascading through space in other places. In several places there are [[Floating Island|Floating Islands]], some of which have water perpetually falling off them with no source. Other examples in the Warcraft universe:
** The Maelstrom. A hole in the world into which the ocean is perpetually draining. The constant attention of several powerful shamans is required to keep the world from falling apart through it.
** Deepholm. It can be reached by flying into the Maelstrom. It is the home of earth elementals and other creatures native to the elemental plane, so it's not ''supposed'' to be comfortable to flesh-and-blood creatures like playable races. It is a massive cave with a rock-based ecosystem and rock pillars that float in the air.
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* ''[[The Breach]]'' starts off on an ordinary spaceship, but towards the end things start to ''shift'' into a mountainous region filled with yellow mist and glowing glyphs.
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has {{spoiler|the derelict Reaper, which can still indoctrinate despite being dead for ''37 million years'', and the Collector Base, an immense space station located in the accretion disc at the heart of the galaxy, which serves as [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]].}}
* The Subspace of "Subspace Emissary" in ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' is this coupled with [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]. And it only gets weirder when the parts of the regular world that were dragged into the Subspace are assembled into the [[Marathon Level|Great Maze.]]
* ''[[The Legend of Spyro Trilogy]]'' has Convexity, a gateway between the main world and the Dark Realms, occupied by the Dark Master. It's the location of the final boss battle, featuring floating platforms and strange whale-like creatures with tentacles.
* ''[[El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Video Game)]]'' has the Tower, where the majority of the game takes place. Each floor of the tower is ruled by a fallen angel and is essentially its own pocket universe where that angel and its followers live. Locations range from a burned-out wasteland to a cutesy cartoon-like world of colorful blocks and balloons to a futuristic [[Tron]]-like cityscape (complete with cycle combat!) to an underwater world. There's also the Darkness, a location that corrupts everything that falls into it {{spoiler|and is where the souls of the angels' followers end up instead of Heaven}}.
* [[Echo Bazaar|The Neath]]. It is very difficult to die because it's downstream of Hell. Finding one's way around it can be literally maddening.
* The '''entire''' world of ''[[Limbo (Video Game)|Limbo]]''. It's dark (as in pitch-black save for the rare spot of light), silent, and [[Everything Trying to Kill You|literally everything is after your blood]]. [[Puppeteer Parasite|Or your brains]].
* ''[[STALKERS.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Video Gameseries)|STALKER]]'' is set in the Zone of Exclusion surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after its infamous meltdown. Referred to simply as "the Zone", said location has become a place when only the most heavily-armed and foolhardy ever set foot due to both massive amounts of leftover nuclear radiation and ''incredibly weird shit''. You've got your standard mutants, bandits and unfriendly soldiers, but the Zone in ''[[STALKERS.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Video Gameseries)|STALKER]]'' doesn't need any of those things to kill you in unimaginably horrible ways. Gravity, temperature, the causticity of your surroundings, the noxiousness of flora, ''physics, time'' and ''space'' aren't exactly constants in the Zone, and if you're caught improperly sheltered during a [[Red Sky, Take Warning|blowout]], you'll find it's even more bizarre and even more dangerous than ever. [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Briefly.]]
* The [[Mortal Kombat]] series has the Netherrealm, which is home to the demonic Oni and is generally about the most depressing place you can be. Of course, it is the MK universe's equivalent of Hell.
** There's also the Chaosrealm, where as the name would imply, nothing makes any sense whatsoever. The prevailing theme of the realm and all of its inhabitants is that they adamantly refuse to conform to any set of rules (especially the laws of physics). It is even implied at one point in [[Mortal Kombat Deception|Deception's]] Konquest mode that natives of other realms who stay there long enough will inevitably be driven insane as their mind struggles to make sense of the place.
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== Web Comics ==
* Ravenfell in ''[[OverlordofOverlord of Ravenfell]]'' is a sentient fortress made of black crystal, created through mysterious means. Beneath it is a magically shifting maze full of traps and monsters.
* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'':
** The Furthest Ring, a [[Place Beyond Time]] which is the home of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Horrorterrors]], the Green Sun (a star with the mass of two universes, which breaks several laws of physics), and the afterlife (which exists as a series of dream bubbles). Time and space behave in incomprehensible ways in the Furthest Ring, and both become less reliable the longer you stay (or the further you go). For example, when Dave and Rose try to fly out to the Green Sun, they end up arriving in the distant past.
** Dream bubbles themselves may count, as within them the conventional laws of time and space don't apply, as one can warp from memory to memory, effectively traveling forward and back in time and anywhere in space. Locations can even converge in such a way that they're a mis-match of memories of the various dreamers/dead people. For example, in one there was a mixture between Jade's island, Kanaya's home, a ruin Aradia was exploring, and some other elements.
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]]'' has plenty. The alternative dimensions vary from almost identical to the "normal" one to as bizarre as you like. One example: The Never is a hellish world where spirits become solid and living creatures become even more so than usual. Other Eldritch Locations can be found without even travelling between dimensions. Each dimension is surrounded by Timeless Space, where time is only carried by objects and creatures and will eventually run out for each of them, freezing it in place. The two [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Tomes of Eldritch Lore]] ''Book of E-Ville'' and ''Wayang Kulit'' each contain or give access into a different kind of symbolic nightmarish world that builds itself around the thoughts of an entering character.
* The Palm Tree Ghost's realm is turning out to be [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0296.html more and more this way] in ''[[Our Little Adventure (Webcomic)|Our Little Adventure]]''.
 
 
== Web Original ==
* Many [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|SCPs]] are [[Eldritch Location|Eldritch Locations]]. Some of them also qualify as [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] since they are ''[[Genius Loci|alive]]''.
** There's also [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-093 the "Red Sea Object"], which takes people into an alternate universe where {{spoiler|"a god-like being of unknown origin" instigated a massive holy war hundreds of years ago, with apocalyptic results, and now giant, immortal [[Uncanny Valley]] monsters roam the land, absorbing anyone who catches their attention}}.
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' has [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail174.html Sweet Puttin' Cakes], a miniature golf course "every bit as messed up as the cartoon on which it's based." Residents of Free Country, USA find themselves inexplicably teleported there simply by desiring to play miniature golf. The first hole is the [[Visual Pun|"worm"hole]], the 18th hole has par infinity, and the only way to leave is to will yourself back to reality. When Strong Bad returns, he remarks that his mouth "[[Tastes Like Purple|tastes like backwards]]."
** We could go ahead and classify the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes world (which is apparently a real location) as an Eldritch Location. Just think of the inhabitants! A Strong Bad with a keyboard head, a black-and-white-talking wheelchair, a talking worm in a hole that appears to be able to warp from place to place. There's also the fact that characters can come from nowhere and that everything appears to be able to utilize hammerspace.
* [[Ruby Quest (Roleplay)|Cold Storage]]
** Much of the whole facility, really. Especially the brig, with that growing dark pit and half of its gravity reversed.
* Brian's house in ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' became this. It doesn't fully follow the laws of reality and it is connected to burnt-out industrial looking building that is laden with [[Nightmare Fuel]].
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* ''[[The Fear Mythos]]'' gives us the Empty City: a possibly [[Eldritch Abomination|living]] city located in an alternate dimension. The city is ''huge'', changes every time you turn a corner, and is completely devoid of all souls.
* In ''[[The Dionaea House]]'', the titular "dionaea house".
* Parodied in [[Chip Cheezum]]'s [[Let's Play]] of ''[[Fifty Cent Blood Onon the Sand|50 Cent: Blood on the Sand]]'' with the "Fiddy Zone", a glitch where background textures fail to load during a [[Action Commands|Counter Kill]], leaving Fiddy and his opponent in a void covered by film grain.
* Wherever the hell it is that the [[Happy Tree Friends]] universe takes place in. [[Sugar Apocalypse|MY GOODNESS.]]
* in ''[[Demon Thesis (Webcomic)|Demon Thesis]]'', the four main characters attend a small liberal arts college in Canada, when a [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative entity]] from another dimension begins altering reality. Only afterward do the main characters learn that their school was originally founded by an occultist who knew that the location was a place where our dimension was unusually close to and could interact with other dimensions. Said occultist intended the university to inform about the dangers of this and form a line of defense against threats, but over time the school transformed into a fairly normal university and most occult/supernatural elements have been discarded.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* The Spirit World in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.
* The Ghost Zone in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' which serves as an "opposite" dimension to Earth. Home to ghosts, it's a massive world where its sky is a swirl of eerie green and black. Surrounding the majority of the GZ are (usually small) floating lands--it's rare to find giant land masses since ghosts don't really need to walk--and multiple floating doors that lead to various ghostly realms, all unique, surreal, and different based on how it fits the ghostly inhabitants.
* Although it's much more light-hearted than most, Wacky Land in ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures (Animation)|Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' probably qualifies.
** The original Wacky Land, however, featured in at least one Looney Toon short and its color remake, varies from merely inexplicable to subtly menacing in its bizarreness.
* The Web in ''[[Re Boot]]''. Dark and organic looking in comparison to The Net's bright technological look.
* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' made regular use of these. From the Bogeyman's home dimension to a sneak peek at the end of the world to a ghostly pirate TV station, the series enjoyed dropping the Ghostbusters in places where physics didn't work right and the architect expected the residents to be capable of phasing through walls.
* Springfield in ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' could very well count at this point. One look at the [[Separate Simpsons Geography Thing]] page should tell you all you need to know.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' [[Playing Withwith a Trope|plays with this]] via the Everfree Forest. While home to an assortment of beastly critters -- like manticores, sea serpents and cockatrices -- the ponies also regard it as horrific and unnatural because ''everything there takes care of itself''. The plants grow on their own, the animals don't need to be looked after, the weather runs without help...it's '''surreal'''!
** Played straight in the season 2 premiere with Discord's hedge maze which could be best described as [[MCM. C. Escher|Escherian]] shrubbery. Not really a surprise when the architect is a [[Reality Warper|Reality Warping]] spirit of chaos. In the second episode he turns all of Ponyville into this, [[World Gone Mad|and drives its inhabitants insane for good measure]].
* ''[[Superjail (Animation)|Superjail]]'' is full of these, especially within Superjail itself, but the [[Time Police|Time Court and Time Jail]] in "Time Police" take the cake. Considering it's a place where all living beings from all corners of the universe and time work or are tried and imprisoned, this is to be expected.
* A ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' skit shows Peter going into the 'beyond' section of 'Bed, Bath, and Beyond' which is a black void filled with various floating formulas and the like...and the coffee mugs he was looking for.
* [[Invader Zim|A room with a moose. A dimension of pure dookie.]]
* The Nightosphere in ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'', home loads of creepy demons and is essentially Hell.
 
 
== Real Life ==
* The [[Eldritch Location|page quote]] from ''Zauriel'', above, well describes the [[wikipedia:Photosphere|surface of the sun]]. The innards of a star, the depths of a [[wikipedia:Gas giant|gas giant]] and the vacuum of [[wikipedia:Outer space|deep space]] all feature mechanical properties that are incomprehensibly alien in comparison to the natural laws as we know them. Small and frail is the magical bubble in which we live and thrive.
** We can do better than that: Black holes! Also, Calabi-Yau space, the universe before the Big Bang, and pretty much anything beyond the universe. And the inside of an atom. Actually, the modern understanding of physics pretty much [[This Is Your Premise Onon Drugs|requires a lot of drugs to understand]].
*** Some of these have since put to contest - for example, the quantum physics as we know it doesn't allow an absolute singularity to form, even though General Relativity does, which may mean that no "true" black holes exist, whereas other theories challenge the idea of the Big Bang as the start of the Universe - it has already been all but disproved in the form it's being taught in schoolbooks, but the event's exact nature still eludes the scientists, and there are multiple conflicting theories without enough evidence to pick one over the others.
**** Understanding the singularity that was the entire universe could require a higher level of math than we have so far. [http://io9.com/?_escaped_fragment_=5773158/what-really-happened-right-after-the-big-bang#!5773158/what-really-happened-right-after-the-big-bang Considering that the physics at the literal instant after the expansion began were so much different than what's in the universe now, it's not hard to conceive that.]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/880257"