End of an Age: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''On the green bank near to the very point of the Tongue the Lady Galadriel stood alone and silent. As they passed her they turned and their eyes watched her slowly floating away from them. For so it seemed to them: Lorien was slipping backward, like a bright ship masted with enchanted trees, sailing on to forgotten shores, while they sat helpless upon the margin of the grey and leafless world.''|'''[[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]''', ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Fellowship of the Ring]]''.}}

It can be because we, or the world we are born into, have [[Growing Up Sucks|grown up]]. It seems smaller by comparison, understandable; no longer mysterious, nor full of adventure andor romance. Children can't grow up to be famous explorers if there are no new continents to explore (space or the deep sea floor being expensive future exceptions), and some works of art made with the expertise of long dead masters can never be truly replicated, whether sword or song. This is what the End Of An Age feels like: [[Tragedy|tragic]], cynical and full of loss.

If magic is involved, it becomes a case of [[The Magic Goes Away]]. If it's technological, then [[Lost Technology]]. And if it's religious, see either [[Death of the Old Gods]] or [[Gotterdammerung]], and either one may happen in the wake of a [[War in Heaven]].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga ]] ==

* ''[[Spice and Wolf|Holo]]'': Holo decides to leave the villagers she helped because they say that they don't need a harvest god anymore. While she initially helped them by making the crops grow, she occasionally had to do the opposite to prevent the growing village from being struck by the [[wikipedia:Tragedy of the commons|Tragedy of the Commons]], which made them resent her. In the first episode, before she leaves, we see her portrayed in the village harvest festivities as an oppressive force and a thief instead of as a wise benefactor.

* ''[[One Piece]]'' is starting to look very much like this as of recent{{when}} events, with the romantic "Great Pirate Era" coming crashing down, as Portgas D. Ace, {{spoiler|who was revealed as the son of Gold Roger, the legendary "Pirate King", is killed by Admiral Akainu, providing the first death of a major character}}, and Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate, who held the title of the "World's Strongest Man", {{spoiler|meeting his end shortly afterward, with the almost certainly series [[Big Bad]] Blackbeard and his crew killing him, and stealing his devil fruit power}}.

* ''[[Turn aA Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' has this as its distant backstory. They even have a name for it: The Black History. That backstory happens to be {{spoiler|the entire ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise up to that point; [[Word of God]] adds in most later Gundam series to backstory}}.

== [[Comic Comics Books]] ==

* This is also the idea behind the ''Malibuverse'' comics. The superheros were [[Human Popsicle|Human Popsicles]]s from the last "golden age" of men. Or [[Nineties Anti-Hero|demons]]. By the way, we are the tenth generation, while they were the ninth.

* ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'': - magic and magic users still exist but the age of magic is over and most magical beings retreated to other realms some time ago.

* Part of [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Narnia]]'' stories is that only children may enter it, so as the cast ages they become excluded from coming back. However, by the last book {{spoiler|all the children, most now grown, who held faith in having gone to Narnia and Aslan in particular, are allowed to come back for the final showdown.}}

* [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''[[ChildhoodsChildhood's End]]'' follows this form, with two twists: the setting is science fiction, not fantasy and the present-day real-world is construed to be the Golden Age, relative to a (future) alien invasion.

* In [[Robert E. Howard|Robert E Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' stories, ancient civilizations (such as [[Atlantis]]) had risen and fallen. [[Evil Sorcerer|Evil Sorcerers]]s frequently find their magic from olden days.

* In ''[[Discworld]]'',* ''[[Discworld/Sourcery|Sourcery]]'' might be considered the last gasp of the age of, well, sourcery. Magic, and the humans who wield it, have been considerably scaled down since then, making things less wondrous but a hell of a lot safer.

*** The events of ''Sourcery'' also killed off many of the most powerful and dangerous wizards which lead to Ridcully becoming Archchancellor and ending the age of [[Klingon Promotion]] among the wizards. The wizards become more laid back, less aggressive and more scholarly wizards were able to rise to positions of power.

** ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men Atat Arms]]'' started the transformation of the City Watch into a modern police force and ended the age of the police being marginalized by the guilds, palace guards or the army. Old school coppers like Colon and Nobby don't really fit into it anymore and are nostalgic about how things used to be.

** ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' features the last gasp of Cohen the Barbarian and his band of geriatric heroes - a literally dying breed of men on the Disc whose days, like the Red Indians of North America, are soon to be ended by the "Telegraph" and encroaching civilization. The silver horde elect to go out with a very big bang, first here and in the loose "sequel", ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]''.

** ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'' and ''[[Discworld/Going Postal (Discworld)|Going Postal]]'': as incidental detail in both books, the ferocious and savage non-human species called the Gnolls, who like rogue Apache Indians terrorised the overland trade routes through the wilderness in ''[[Discworld/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]'', are seen to capitulate to ''realpolitik'' and give themselves up to encroaching civilization, like reservation Indians in 1890. ''Jingo'' sees their debased remnant entering Ankh-Morpork to take up the bottom rung on the social ladder, as scavengers and rubbish-pickers. In ''Going Postal'' there is a strong hint, from the coachmen who are relieved the former hunting grounds of the Gnolls are suddenly so empty, that the last wild gnolls were victims of a sudden and mysterious genocide akin to the defeat of the Native Americans.

Though gnolls are literally living compost heaps, they actually like being sweepers and garbage-men, they have a ready source of food all to themselves. }}

** ''[[Discworld/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]'' ended the old, very brutal way of playing football and many of the old movers-and-shakers are not happy with it.

* Jack Kerouac's ''[[On The Road]]'' uses this trope symbolically when Sal finally settles with his wife and leads a peaceful life, leaving Dean, the embodiment of his reckless youth, to wander behind.

** The events in the present were set in motion by the huge battle and subsequent [[The End of the World as We Know It]] catastrophe 3 milleniamillennia ago.

* John's reign is the downfall of the immortal land Pentexore in ''[[A Dirge for Prester John]]''.

* The Federation in ''[[Star Trek]]'' is somewhat sickly by the end of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]''. One of the villains in ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection|Star Trek Insurrection]]'' even comments that the Borg and the Dominion attacked because they knew the Federation was decaying; however, this may just be the rantings of a [[Nietzsche Wannabe]].

* Naturally, this trope is seen in ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'':

** ''[[Eberron]]'' featured the imperfect but relatively idyllic continent-spanning (in theory) Kingdom of Galifar, which allowed slow yet steady improvements in sapient rights, [[Magitek]], concepts of justice, and educational standards... until finally an ascension dispute broke out and the five provinces collapsed into over a dozen warring states over the course of a hundred years. When the dust finally cleared, nationalism, distrust, and cynicism ran high. Many of Galifar's achievements remained, but not the optimistic outlook that allowed them in the first place. For those not paying attention, it's [[World War OneI]] in fantasy-land.

** In ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', ancient Netheril was a highly developed [[The Magocracy|magocracy]] where even servants used minor magics, Magitek was used routinely and most main cities were made of mountaintops cut off, overturned and [[Floating Continent|enchanted to float]]. When all magic across the world "turned off" for a short while, the empire fell -- literallyfell—literally. The same event damaged the 'Weave' which supports all magic on Toril, so the goddess who guards it curtailed access to prevent more damage and the greatest spells of old Netheril just ''don't work'' anymore. Now even their minor artifacts are guarded jealously by new owners.

*** Also, subverted by the epoch of Myth Dranor. It's known as a lost Golden Age (magical Renaissance and goodwill festival). But with all its wonders, it wasn't completely idyllic, nor was its technology ''absolutely'' superior -- forsuperior—for example, some Myth Drannan magic items are vulnerable to [[Phlebotinum Overload|explosive overload]], while modern counterparts aren't. As well, the end of the age led to a proliferation of the arts.

* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'', the ''Time Spiral'' block concluded with almost all of the original, godlike planeswalkers dying or becoming human to save [[The Multiverse]], and more limited, mortal planeswalkers rising to take their place.

* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has the Dark (or Golden, if you ask the [[Machine Cult|Adeptus Mechanicus]]) Age of Technology, when mankind first colonised other planets and created amazing technological advancements. Most of the fanciest stuff used by the Imperium are barely-understood and often nearly irreplaceable relics of this time.

* ''[[Gamma World]]'' [[Dungeons and& Dragons|D20]], the [[Darker and Edgier]] version of the setting, has some feel of this. Humanity had advanced science to an incredible degree, with robotics, bio-tech, genetic engineering and nanotechnology not merely possible, but ''commercially available'' -- that—that's right, you could create your own life-form in your living room, and do it legally. Then came the catastrophe, and, well, most people barely know how to build crossbows and forge swords, or maintain old-fashion slug-thrower type guns, never-mind create technology that manipulates matter on the atomic level, maintain robots with human (or greater) levels of intelligence, or design whole new lifeforms from scratch.

* [[Witchcraft]]'s future iteration ''Armageddon'' deals with...well, Armageddon. Though instead of what everyone expected (The Old Gods vs. the Fallen Angels vs. The Heavenly Host with mortal and immortal creature caught between them), an [[Eldritch Abomination]] came in and waged war on everyone--andeveryone—and it's '''winning''', forcing the groups to team up or die.

the''You momentshad whenthe charm, you had itthe all.talent--

You''and had theby charmgod, you had thesome talent--fun.

It''and wasit's a ball,shame it was acouldn't blastlast,

** Development marches on -- ason—as early as .14, it takes the efforts of Fortresses and Adventurers to go from Age of Myth to Age of Legends, and then to Age of Heroes, an effort which involves slaying the humungous rampaging beasts. v.21 introduced a class of Night Beasts to be slain before all fantastical creatures could be considered extinct.

* The collapse of ''[[EveEVE Online]]'''s titular Eve Gate, a reinforcing mechanism to a naturally occurring wormhole between two galaxies, caused one in the game's backstory. It has been at least 10000 years since then, and the various empires formed from the colonists stranded in New Eden are only now starting to get back up to tech levels remotely approaching what they had before. <ref>To put this in perspective: manufacturing military starships in a few hours, casual FTL, universally-compatible modular starship equipment, and weapons systems capable of causing planetary mass extinction events ''at a whim'' are considered Tech Level I. Variants of the above constructed with exotic minerals and hyper-specialized components are considered Tech Level II. Fully modular, rapidly-reconfigurable starships based on the technology of several long-dead but highly advanced human civilizations are Tech Level III. Pre-collapse Terran technology is reckoned to be ''Tech Level X.''</ref>

* In ''[http://www.yoshsaga.com/latest.php Yosh!]'', the magic in the world was sealed away in the distant past after the Magi abused it and were beaten down by a unique individual who was completely immune to magic. The story begins in a world that looks much like our own, a few years after some of the sealed magic was released, causing a world-spanning magical event. The results of that event include [[Catgirl|Cat Girls]], [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]]s, and [[Functional Magic]], among other things.

* In ''[[Linburger]]'', the Cyll were once were the typical [[Our Elves Are Better]], with long lives and high class. Unfortunately, some strange, catalclysmic event happened in the distant past, stripping the Cyll of their long lives, and now they live in slums with the other [[Demi HumanDemihuman]] races.

== [[Real Life]] ==

** 1453 also signaled the end of [[Hundred Years' War|the Hundred Years' War]], which meant the end of the English dream of taking the French throne (and uniting both crowns).

* [[World War OneI]], the War To End All Wars, is considered to have ended an era. Before that, human progress seemed unlimited and war and many other ills would be abolished. Alas, the mighty technologies of mass production and automation can be applied to killing people. The realization pretty much put the kibosh on the centuries-old idealism of the Enlightenment. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice work, fading monarchies of Europe]] ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|And France]]).

* Much of the nostalgia surrounding both New York World's Fairs (1939-401939–40 and 1964-651964–65) focuses around the former being held just before [[World War Two]] and the latter being one of the last straight examples of the [[I Want My Jetpack|shiny jetpack future]] prior to the [[Vietnam War]] and [[The Sixties]] 'back-to-nature' movement.

* Hesiod, above, was writing during the age after the Dorian conquest. They brought iron with them, but a lot of things were lost from the previous age -- likeage—like writing. So, it was the dark Iron Age.

* Pretty much every generation laments for their respective "good old days". Those born in the 20's1920s wished for the days before rock'n'roll; those born in the 50's1950s wishwished for the days of ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]''; those born in the 60's1960s keep telling those born in the 80's80s that "we didn't do that sort of thing when we were your age"; and those born in the 80's1980s bitch about how kids have it too easy now, and are growing up soft. Early 2000s kids are joining in on this as they approach adulthood during the 2020s and miss the days before smartphones. It's happened since the dawn of time and will keep happening until the end of mankind as we know it.

* [[Hollywood Global Warming]]. Welcome to planet "Eaarth", in the words of Bill McKibben.