Fantastic Tribulation

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This happens with these knockoff consoles.

The Fantastic Tribulation is a phenomenon describing a setting which has gone through through a storm of chaos brought about by supernatural forces and beings, such that society is incapable of countering this event through conventional means. This leads to either an Urban Fantasy or an After the End scenario turning into a Cozy Catastrophe - in either case, they involve people gaining access to magic or some other form of mystical powers, and learning to use them is crucial to surviving in this new world.

The theme of Fantastic Tribulations is somewhat common in web-based media, particularly gaming-themed webcomic and has seen a relative resurgence in Korean web novels and webtoons - these particular works are often set in an RPG Mechanics Verse that may or may not be full of dungeons, both of which are often tied to the civilization-shifting catalyst this trope describes. Some urban fantasy works that employ this trope additionally focus on what new adversities arise in these conditions from not just this new status quo, but the people seen as its protectors.

Contrast The Magic Comes Back. See also War in Heaven, which may precipitate this trope.

Examples of Fantastic Tribulation include:

Anime and Manga

• The World Is Overflowing with Monster, I’m Taking a Liking to This Life (sic) is set in a RPG Mechanics Verse where the world was devastated by monsters, with no access to electricity and other modern conveniences. People, animals and monsters alike can utilize the verse mechanics for skills, jobs, and increased stats.
• JK Musou - Owaru Sekai no Sukuikata has monsters rampage globally, leading to societal decline. People called 'Players' can use skills and magic like in a role-playing game.
• In Bouken-ka ni Narou!: Skill Board de Dungeon Kouryaku, an event called 'The Stampede' has caused dungeons to appear worldwide, with monsters ravaging the world. Civilization has bounced back as the government allows people to become Adventurers to venture into dungeons, defeating monsters and leveling up while gaining magical items and equipment.
• In Ookami Nante Kowakunai!!'s Tonda Birthday Present, the high-school student Tetsu has a grandfather who is an inventor, but the machines usually blow up in his face. So, for his grandson's birthday, he makes a virtual reality machine to play 'Dragon Chest' for his birthday, but it malfunctions. This event causes the game to become real where people turn into NPCs and monsters while Tetsu becomes the hero and saves the princess (his crush) from the Dragon King.

Film

• Wizards: The Earth has been wrecekd by a nuclear war which caused raodiactive clouds to block out the sun for 2 million years. The humans that survived the apocalypse transformed into fairies, elves, dwarves, and mutants. Magic is brought into the world with the birth of two twins - one good and the other evil.

Literature

• In the System Apocalypse, the titular event causes modern technology to stop functioning, and various creatures such as monsters and aliens begin to appear on Earth. . However, the System helps by acting like an RPG for people. If preconditions are met, it also provides other services such as constructing buildings, providing food, water, electricity, etc.
• In The S-Classes that I Raised, dungeons have appeared worldwide where monsters spill out, leading to catastrophe for the population. People called the Awakened simultaneously emerge to fight these monsters with their supernatural abilities while also leveling up to gain strength and skills.
• The New World series by James Khan (consisting of World Enough, and Time (1980), Time's Dark Laughter (1982), and Timefall (1987)) is set in a world where magic came back and technology abruptly stopped working, and creatures of myth reappeared.
• The Earth is Online: Myriads of black towers begin to float above cities, ominously but harmlessly. Then one day, a voice announces, “Ding dong! November 15th, 2017. The Earth is online.” The next thing people know, the towers are issuing deadly survival games, and humans are suddenly gaining unusual powers.

Live-Action TV

• Deconstructed during the fourth season of Angel. Jasmine, one of the Powers That Be, creates world peace and ushers in an age of utopia... by manipulating Cordelia and Angel Investigations to gain a human form and appear on Earth, then removing everyone's free will and forcing them to praise her constantly - even taking over their karaoke nights! In addition, she needs to eat a few people every day to maintain this power, and naturally robs her victims of any choice in the matter as well. Angel calls her out for this when Fred snaps him out of the mind control, and Angel Investigations succeed in getting rid of Jasmine - however, this leaves them wondering if they did the right thing, especially when the Big Bad Wolfram & Hart thank them for ending world peace.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes has done playtime scenarios, tinker toys, and even poetry about magical destruction or alien invasions hitting Earth. He succeeds in creeping out Hobbes more than once, who asks if they can play something else.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• The Great Tribulation, as described in chapters 7-10 of the Book of Revelation, is the Trope Codifier and Older Than Feudalism.
  • Due to the often colorful and esoteric language of the text in question, it's enough to say those who believe in Christ and those who support his enemy, called the Beast both acquire some limited supernatural abilities during this period, the formerly mostly immunity from certain kinds of supernatural harm that the other side has no defense against. The opposing side gains mostly offensive powers and the ability to deceive the undecided into being swayed to their side.
• Hindu mythology has Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu the protector god. When the world is thrown off-balance owing to people being too evil and selfish, Kalki will ride through with a sword and wipe out those that demonstrate adharma - which means sowing discord and immorality while neglecting your life duties - rather than dharma. Only then can a new life cycle start on Earth. The period in-between probably won’t be fun for humanity.

Podcasts

• Welcome to Nightvale has host Cecil try to combat this with his radio broadcasts. The keyword is "try", because Nightvale is too weird and chaotic even on a normal level. You may be able to live a semi-normal life if you find out a new definition for migraines, avoid touching plastic flamingoes, or resist going to the park after sundown.

Puppet Shows

• The Dark Crystal shows a world where a shard of crystal brought two races and caused societal chaos, because the urSkeks mistakenly shattered the Crystal. With the Skeksis, they use the crystal's corrupting power to extend their lifespans and the Mystics try to mitigate the damage and send protagonist Jen on a quest to make the crystal whole again. It's a world where certain characters can talk to the planets' flora, and sympathetic magic exists. The movie's ending shows the urSkeks leaving after bringing Kira back to life, giving Jen and Kira hope they can reverse this tribulation for their people.

Tabletop Games

• In the backstory of Shadowrun, magic has come back - a significant fraction of humanity turned into elves, orcs, trolls, and a couple dozen of other races. Sure, practically every mythological beastie from dragons on down popped out of the woodwork. Yeah, there were political upheavals. Did that end the world? Hell, no! That would be bad for business! Besides, Cyberpunk tech made dealing with the Sixth World so much easier.
• The interdimensional invasion by the "High Lords" that defines the setting of TORG explicitly revolves around each participating 'cosm' (or world) getting a foothold on Earth. Each cosm changes the laws of nature in their area of Earth to reflect its native reality, with players as "Storm Knights" opposing the invasion of Earth. The various realities vying for control of the Earth include a traditional High Fantasy setting, a Cosmic Horror world, two different Cyberpunk worlds, and several Pulp and Weird Fantasy cosms.

Theatre

• If the cast survives the end of Black Friday in the Hatchetfield franchise, they will have to deal with this. Thanks to World War Three and the riots, society has utterly broken down.

Video Games

• Undertale has this, only with a twist if you do the No Mercy route: instead of a strange monster plaguing a group of humans and disrupting society, it's a human traveling and disrupting society by killing monsters. Alphys evacuates any survivors, reluctantly leaving Undyne and Mettaton behind as they prepare to hold off the human.
• The backstory of the Guilty Gear series is predicated on this trope, when all technology ceased to function in the year 2000. Society eventually rebuilt afterward thanks to the emergence of magic that became the basis of most technology in some form, though some holdouts to the original old-world tech would form their own society. The games themselves explore the post-recovery world and fill in the blanks on how the world developed after the initial apocalypse.

Web Animation

• The trailer for Peasant's Quest on Homestar Runner features this. Thanks to Trogdor the Burninator, entire villages and cottages are leveled, and a world is created where you can learn archery and set yourself on fire with no ill effects. Rather Dashing is the first peasant to say this will not do.

Web Comics

• As mentioned above, many a gaming webcomic uses this trope to justify their RPG Mechanics Verse.
• In microHUNTER, every human in the world is shrunk down to 3cm - insects, birds, rats, and even doors become lethally dangerous. However, they are also granted abilities with strength determined by a level, and can also check their status through game-like windows.
• Solo Login has Players that can access Castles and Dungeons filled with monsters to level up while gathering money and equipment. Sky Players can access Sky Castles, while Underground Players can enter Underground Dungeons. Monsters can travel outside of Underground Dungeons and attack cities but are stopped by the Players.
• In the setting of I am the Sorcerer King, Rifts suddenly appeared worldwide ten years ago, releasing countless monsters and causing chaos. People called the Awakened become connected to the Ahkasha System under the Director of Ahkash, which allows them to access notification windows, acquire a job, level up, grind stats, and gain skills.
• In Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, an apocalyptic event initiated by cosmic entities overtakes the world - the entities are live streamers that for people to participate in deadly Scenarios for cosmic live streamers. Every person is granted unique skills, and completing Scenarios rewards them with coins that can be used to upgrade these skills.
• The setting of Raid (SF) was taken over by a supercomputer through the use of nanomachines - everyone has a watch-like device called a Nanocircle that augments their abilities and grants equipment, including rewards from various quests given by the computer.
• In Solo Leveling, portals worldwide called Gates connected to another dimension dubbed a Dungeon teeming with monsters termed Magic Beasts. Simultaneously, people known as Hunters appeared with magical powers that can fight these beasts while keeping the public safe from them.
• Kill the Hero has Dungeons appearing worldwide where monsters poured from portals. At the same time, divine beings called Nimbus appeared that granted a small number of people called Players powers called the Authority. A Player has access to skills depending on the Nimbus while being able to level up and check their status through system displays.
• In Raid, demons crossed over to our realm 50 years ago through Demon World Gates that appeared all across the world. Concurrently, God then granted humans called Masters (whose powers co-relate to MMORPGs roles like Tanker, Melee DPS, and Healer) the power to fight against these monsters.
• In Tomb Raider King (no relation to Lara Croft), massive earthquakes in 2025 cause Tombs to appear worldwide, with powerful items called Relics inside based on myths and legends from human history. Society set up laws to restrict people's use of Relics while others monopolize these artifacts - the people who venture into these Tombs are known as "Tomb Raiders".
• Metro Hunter: Seoul's metro lines have been turned into dungeons where monsters and other beings from another world appear, leaving the city in chaos until people called Metro Hunters explore these dungeons to hunt monsters and keep the peace.
• In The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower, giant towers called Tutorial Towers suddenly spring into existence and teleport random people within them, where they train to become Hunters and wield magic and powers to fight monsters from dungeons that have appeared alongside the Tutorial Towers. Hunters have since become so famous and influential that their associations and guilds have gained more influence than governments.
• The World After the Fall has mysterious towers manifest worldwide that monsters spread from. People can become Tower Walkers, gaining powers to fight these monsters, or use a regression stone to return to the past for a second chance that deposits them in an alternate timeline. The current state of Earth is actually a dream to cultivate and capture human souls while their bodies are in a coma in the real world.
• I'm the Max-Level Newbie: A game known as Tower of Trails was an online game known for its difficulty, which caused its popularity to decline. On the day it was shut down, the tower appeared in reality with a message that humanity would die unless players cleared each floor in 90 days.
• Seoul Station's Necromancer has a supernatural phenomenon that causes people to be summoned to different worlds where they gain jobs with magic and skills until they are sent home. Dungeons and monsters related to these worlds are also summoned on Earth, where people are commissioned and employed to hunt them.
• My S-Class Hunters has Gates - global portals where monsters pass through from dimensions known as Dungeons. The sudden appearance of these Gates led to an event known as the Dungeon Shock, where the monsters wreaked havoc across cities, and thousands of people were injured or killed. At the same time, people known as Awakened began to surface, with powers that they used to fight the monsters and clear dungeons. They eventually came to be known as Hunters and rose to become society's most important occupation.

Western Animation

• In the episode "The Console" from The Amazing World of Gumball, a Game Child temporarily turns the entire town into a JRPG, and Gumball, Darwin, and Anais form a party to turn the city back to normal.
• Most of Samurai Jack features a Bad Future where Aku reigns over the land because his past self sent the title character to the future. It's also a world with sentient robots and ghosts, where independent resistance groups have risen up against Aku.
• In Thundarr the Barbarian, the Earth’s climate and geography have been drastically changed due to a meteor passing its orbit. This led to planet-wide natural disasters and the collapse of civilization, resulting in chaos worldwide, followed by magic, savagery and Weird Science appearing on Earth.