Genius Loci: Difference between revisions

[[File:Egoimage.jpg|link=Marvel Universe|frame|Ego, the Living Planet]]

 

 

 

Usually, the Genius Loci has [[Shapeshifting|some control over its own form]], and uses that control to communicate with the other characters. [[Mobile Maze|Alternately, it can]] [[Closed Circle|trap them]] in [[Alien Geometries]] and torment them with [[Living Memory|Living Memories]] for [[The Lost Woods|shoots]] and giggles. It can be a [[Hive Mind]] formed from the various organic life-forms that inhabit a place, a nonphysical being [[Demonic Possession|possessing the area itself]], a mythological spirit of a locale, or a computer system laced through the brick and stone. It can be helpful, neutral, or antagonistic.

 

 

Contrast with the non-tangible but often similar [[Sentient Cosmic Force]]. Compare [[Sapient Ship]], [[That's No Moon]], [[Anthropomorphic Personification]], [[The Lost Woods]], [[Fisher King]], [[Fisher Kingdom]], and [[Smart House]]. May overlap with [[Environmental Symbolism]] or [[Eldritch Location]].

* The nation-tans of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' might qualify.

* Laputa from ''[[Laputa: Castle in the Sky|Castle in The Sky]]''. The castle itself {{spoiler|responds to Laputian royalty who own the crystal and the garden / tree's roots keep the kids safe while Muska dies. Subtle example, but several character comment on it.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

** The DCU also had a ''sentient galaxy'' in some story that I can't seem to recall exactly. But it aligned a bunch of stars to give [[Superman]] a huge powerup. Also there were some smaller living (but not sentient) galaxies, artificially made by some uberpowerful race as bioweapons. Supes, again, kept one as a pet.

* From the [[Marvel Universe]], the first foe the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' fought in the [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books|Bronze Age]] [[Revival]] was Krakoa, the Living Island, whose indigious life had been [[Hive Mind|mutated into a single organism]] by a [[I Love Nuclear Power|nuclear test]]. Marvel also had the aptly-named Ego the Living Planet, who tangled with such persons as [[The Mighty Thor]] and [[Galactus]]. Another living planet known as Kathulos once appeared in a [[Doctor Strange]] story. [[Earthshattering Kaboom|He blew it up.]]

** [[Deadpool]] once destroyed a Genius Loci called Id, the Selfish Moon, which used to be a moon of Ego the Living Planet.

** Cloud, one-time member of [[The Defenders]], was a sentient nebula, an immense cloud of gas, with the ability to assume human form.

** In the ''Realm of Kings'' crossover, a fault in space opened the way to an alternate reality. In said reality it was revealed that {{spoiler|not only is the other universe sentient, it's an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that wants to consume ours.}}

* The ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' series ''Ace Trucking Co.'' included a story about fast-breeding 'Bampots' attempting to colonise a living planet called Gordon.

* Like the ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' example above, the underground base from ''[[Resident Evil (film)|Resident Evil]]'' qualify, since it's completely run by a highly intelligent AI named The Red Queen.

* The Hotel from ''[[The Shining]]'' which slowly drives Jack mad and torments Danny. Well it's at least one of the theories.

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Fulgrim'', the Laer temple makes Julius think that it's alive.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[The Dark Side of the Sun]]'', the First Sirian Bank is a sentient planet (naturally occurring) who happens to be the godfather of one of the main characters. There's also a sentient ocean and a living sun. They're looking for an intelligent gas cloud to round out the elements. Maybe they could get that one from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''?

** Unseen University itself, which has a personality likened to that of [[Big Friendly Dog|a large, overenthusiastic shaggy dog]]. If it could get away with it, it'd roll over on its roof to have its foundations scratched.

* In a more serious tone than Mount Sorrow above, the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has the rogue planet [[New Jedi Order|Zonama Sekot]]. Zonama refers to the world itself, while Sekot refers to its [[Hive Mind|self-aware, Force-sensitive biosphere]]. It grows living matter around mechanical components to produce intelligent [[Living Ship]]s, and has also built enormous hyperdrive engines into its crust, transforming itself into a world-sized [[Living Ship]] and earning the "Rogue Planet" appellation.

** The Galaxy of Fear series also includes [[Punny Name|D'vouran]] a planet {{spoiler|which is in fact a [[I'm a Humanitarian|carnivorous]] bioweapon.}}

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles]]'', Freckles half-seriously describes Angel as this.

{{quote|''"There's nothing you could be but the Swamp Angel." ''}}

 

* ''[[Eureka]]'': Carter's smart house, S.A.R.A.H., is ''so'' smart it has opinions. And a Twitter account!

* The warehouse in ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' is sentient. To what degree is uncertain, but it is alive.

* Destiny from ''[[Stargate Universe]]'', [[Mind Screw|maybe.]]

* ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' had one episode where the local forest had a genius loci in the form of a child.

 

== Music ==

* "Man-House lives inside himself with thoughtful human brains" in [[They Might Be Giants (band)|Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth.]]

 

 

* Many Native American religions/cultures are based on Animism, the belief that every object has a spirit.

* Ditto for the Japanese Shinto. The spirits of the mountains are especially significant.

* Many tools and artifacts. Ships and weapons famously. Also computers.

* Nations are often given allegorical representations and personalities.

 

== [[Radio Drama]] / Audio Drama ==

* The [[Big Finish]] ''[[Doctor Who]]'' audio play ''The Chimes of Midnight''. "{{spoiler|Edward Grove is alive.}}"

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Also in the In the ''[[Planescape]]'' setting, one theory about the Lady of Pain's origins is that she is a living extension of [[City of Adventure| Sigil]] itself. If anything, Sigil has been around for hundreds of millennia, and nobody knows of a time when she ''hasn't'' had complete and absolute control over it.

** The monster called a Spirit of the Land is the spirit of a particular geographical area, such a valley, desert or river. They can transform in an elemental form to defend the terrain feature they're associated with.

** As of the 3rd Edition Dragonomicon, Dragons (usually good-aligned ones) can opt to become a genius loci as an alternative to death from old age, lichdom or any of the other ways a dragon can live past its already substantial years. The dragon's spirit enters the chosen terrain (which often takes on a draconic feature like a hill shaped like a resting dragon). These spots are popular places for dragons to lay eggs and raise young because of the protective influences of the area's spirit. Dragons can even commune with the location to seek advice from the dragon that inhabits it.

** A creature called a Zeitgeist is the spirit of an age. At the end of an old one, it picks a person whose character and ideals set the "tone" of the next age. Article for context: [http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20080225a\]{{Dead link}}

** Atropos, the undead afterbirth of a long forgotten god, takes the form of a sentient, [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[That's No Moon|planetoid]].

** Nimicri is a floating trade city in the Chamada layer of Gehenna where all the citizens and the place itself secretly form a single organism with ambiguous intentions.

** And in 4th edition, the Warlock spell "Vestige of Land's Soul"' allows the Warlock to wake up the spirit of the land around them and order it to kill one of their enemies.

** The land of Rashemen in Forgotten Realms is implied to be a living being.

** Module [[wikipedia:Master of the Desert Nomads|X4: ''Master of the Desert Nomads'']], for original [[Dungeons & Dragons]], features a swamp with a sentient area called the Malakaz: "It is not a monster, but an evil force. The hut was once the home of a particularly evil female wizard. When she died, the hut and the area around it became filled with the essence of all her evil."

** If a living planet or living star seems farfetched, ''[[Spelljammer]]'' had constellates, which are ''living constellations''. These colossal entities are (or were) [[Eldritch Abomination]]s imprisoned by the gods for unspecified crimes. Capable of crushing planets and uncomfortably common in all known Crystal Spheres, these beings ''are'' given gameplay statistics and it ''is'' possible to try to fight them. This may be a symptom of the massive scale that made Spelljammer so... problematic as a setting.

** [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place| Bonecloud]], mentioned in ''Guide to the Astral Plane'', combines this Trope with [[The Worm That Walks]]. Supposedly, there used to be a Prime Material world named Terras whose population was decimated in a genocidal conflict called the War of Lies. An ancient lich named Koras animated ''every'' victim of this atrocity as zombies and skeletons. He was eventually opposed by three unnamed heroes who used powerful magic to banish him this entire army to the Astral, resulting in a mass of ''millions'' of undead about a quarter mile across. (Think Legion from the ''[[Castlevania]]'' games but much bigger.) Naturally, this is a very dangerous place, not just because of the mindless undead but because of many intelligent undead who reside there, like specters, vampires, and - maybe - Koras himself, and because of the strong aura of negative energy created by so many undead being in one place. Though, many adventurers risk exploring it anyway due to the many [[Portal Network|rare color pools]] it has.

* ''[[Rifts]]'' has quite a few. Millennium Trees are huge thousand-foot tall trees that form living cities, nurtured and protected by the Trees' own latent psychic field. And there's at least two living planets, one (Wormwood) is inhabited and in the middle of a demon invasion, and the other (Eylor) kept hidden by transdimensional slavers who have a monopoly on giant magical eyes [[Eye Scream|harvested from its surface]].

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has "man-lands", lands that can turn into creatures. The most recent of these are the five dual-color man-lands and the "construct-land" from ''Worldwake''.

 

== Toys ==

 

== Video Games ==

* One of ''[[Demigod]]'''s Heroes is a walking castle.

* In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'', Phazon is implied at numerous points to be a sentient lifeform; in the first two games, it was assumed to be just a material. Phaaze, the planet that is the source of all the Phazon, is not only living, it spreads Phazon to other planets by ''giving birth''. (Some [[Epileptic Trees]] differ, but the point is that Phazon is living and Phaaze is made of Phazon, ergo Phaaze is living.)

* Gaia in ''[[Tsukihime]]''. All the other planets are essentially alive as well, though nothing happens there. In [[Fate/stay night]] this is expanded on to include Akasha, which exists alongside Gaia in some form or another. People have tied their existences to such things and made themselves nearly indestructible.

* ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' features an interesting variation with New Mombasa, a city run by an artificial intelligence called the Superintendent, or "Virgil." Its influence is limited during the game itself, during which it sends you a map of the city through a videophone, unlocks supply caches marked with its "face," and sends audio files that tell the story of a girl trying to rescue her father, who works with the Superintendent; in the audio files, the Superintendent's full ability, ranging from controlling garbage trucks to stoplights, is shown.

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', Skaia is pretty much the closest thing to God, due to being a benevolent omniscient force that {{spoiler|perpetuates the creation of new universes and shapes the players of any given session to become heroes}}. It however doesn't seem to be sentient in the traditional sense and isn't anywhere near omnipotent.

* ''[[Vexxarr]]'' has [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=082806 the mother rock].

 

== Web Original ==

** In asdfmovie5, a couple on a romantic getaway comment that it's "just you, me, and the Moon". The Moon comments that they should kiss.

* The Empty City is a sentient city that is also a [[Mobile Maze]] and a [[Living Labyrinth]] - representing the fear of being lost, if you get trapped inside it, you be will wander its streets until you die - in [[The Fear Mythos]].

* Several [[SCP Foundation|SCPs]] are buildings or particular locations that seem to have some degree of sentience.

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Megas XLR]]: Coop once fought a gargantuan organic planet that ate radio waves.

* The Foggy Swamp in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', location of [[The World Tree]]. The Avatar themself is the human form of the World Spirit, which explains their connection with all four lands; [[All There in the Manual|this is not actually said in the show, but it is implied]].

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Godfellas", Bender encounters what appears to be a sentient ''galaxy'', which initially speaks in binary and may or may not be God.

** Bender himself is a sentient location earlier in the episode when he is colonized by aliens.

* In the ''[[Green Lantern]]'' animated movie ''[[Green Lantern: Emerald Knights|Green Lantern Emerald Knights]]'', one of the five stories that Hal Jordan tells to his new recruit is the tale of Bofunga the Unrelenting and the day he finally.... er.... '''relented'''. He was on a quest to become the mightiest warrior in the galaxy, and the only being left in the cosmos that he had yet to vanquish was a mysterious being known as "Mogo". This being was allegedly not only exponentially more powerful than Bofunga, but was also a Green Lantern to boot. Bofunga traveled to Mogo's last known coordinates and attempted to challenge him, but even after months of searching his quarry was nowhere to be found. Refusing to give up, Bofunga began setting explosive charges all around the planet in an attempt to force Mogo out of his hiding place and goad him into a duel, {{spoiler|but after detonating all of the charges and doing NO DAMAGE WHATSOEVER, he realized--too late--that "Mogo" was THE PLANET ITSELF... '''[[Oh Crap|and he had just made it VERY angry.]]''' The ensuing "battle" ended with predictable swiftness, as Mogo crushed his antagonist with a well-placed gravity well.}}

** In the original comics, Bofunga fled after spending years searching for Mogo {{spoiler|when he looked at the map he had made while exploring the planet and realized that the foliage on Mogo formed a ''Green Lantern symbol''.}}

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Otherworld Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Has a Mind of Its Own]]

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]