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The Underworld: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
'''The Underworld''' is often a gloomy, depressing realm, if only because it is often depicted as being [[Beneath the Earth]]. [[Captain Obvious|(The fact that people go there after they die might have something to do with it, too.)]] Still, [[Dark Is Not Evil|it isn't evil.]] It's not [[Hell]]. ''All'' of the dead come here, whether they were [[Lawful Good|saints]], [[Chaotic Evil|total jackasses]], or [[True Neutral|just kinda so-so]] in life. Some versions of the Underworld judge the dead and grant them different living standards (or unliving standards, if you prefer) depending on their conduct in life. In others, there's no real judgment, and
See also [[Heaven]] and [[Hell]], the Underworld's more exclusive counterparts. Despite its normally neutral nature the Underworld, especially the [[Greek Mythology]] version, is susceptible to being [[Hijacked
▲The Underworld is often a gloomy, depressing realm, if only because it is often depicted as being [[Beneath the Earth]]. [[Captain Obvious|(The fact that people go there after they die might have something to do with it, too.)]] Still, [[Dark Is Not Evil|it isn't evil.]] It's not [[Hell]]. ''All'' of the dead come here, whether they were [[Lawful Good|saints]], [[Chaotic Evil|total jackasses]], or [[True Neutral|just kinda so-so]] in life. Some versions of the Underworld judge the dead and grant them different living standards (or unliving standards, if you prefer) depending on their conduct in life. In others, there's no real judgment, and life--or whatever--continues much as it did before. Possibly they receive, in due course, a chance to go back.
▲See also [[Heaven]] and [[Hell]], the Underworld's more exclusive counterparts. Despite its normally neutral nature the Underworld, especially the [[Greek Mythology]] version, is susceptible to being [[Hijacked By Jesus]] and becoming [[Hell]]. Expect intrepid mortals to mount an [[Orphean Rescue]] for a loved one.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* In [[Greek Mythology]], the Underworld is Hades, the realm of the god of the same name. Depending on their conduct in life, the dead can end up in the Elysian Fields, which are basically paradise, in the Fields of Asphodel, where they just sort of...hang out, or Tartarus, whose inmates are tortured for all eternity for crimes against the gods.▼
* In Japanese Mythology, Izanagi, the father of the gods, went to underworld to recover his wife, Izanami, after she died, but ran in terror from her when he saw she was now a rotting undead. Bizarrely, his son, the god Susano-o, on finding out his mother was there, just went to the underworld to live with her like nothing was wrong! ▼
* In [[Mesopotamian Mythology]], the dead go to Irkalla, ruled by Ishtar's [[Darker and Edgier]] twin sister Ereshkigal. [[Inannas Descent to The Netherworld|Ishtar tries to take over.]] {{spoiler|She isn't successful, and in fact loses her beloved husband Dumuzi for six months out of the year. Sort of karmic payment for stealing Ereshkigal's husband and getting him killed.}}▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s ''[[Earthsea]]'', the the Underworld is characterized by strange stars and total lack of water. {{spoiler|Late in the series, it's revealed that it's the result of a botched attempt at [[Immortality]].}}
* In ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', God is a pretender who created an afterlife of near non-existence, where no one was happy; murderers and saints and poets and beggars all went to the same miserable, grey place.
* ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' uses the underworld several times.
** Massacred in the movie, turning it into a clear [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]].
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[The Phoenix
** In "[[
== [[Oral Tradition|Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends]] ==
▲* In [[Greek Mythology]], the Underworld is Hades, the realm of the god of the same name. Depending on their conduct in life, the dead can end up in the Elysian Fields, which are basically paradise, in the Fields of Asphodel, where they just sort of...hang out, or Tartarus, whose inmates are tortured for all eternity for crimes against the gods.
▲* In Japanese Mythology, Izanagi, the father of the gods, went to underworld to recover his wife, Izanami, after she died, but ran in terror from her when he saw she was now a rotting undead. Bizarrely, his son, the god Susano-o, on finding out his mother was there, just went to the underworld to live with her like nothing was wrong!
▲* In [[Mesopotamian Mythology]], the dead go to Irkalla, ruled by Ishtar's [[Darker and Edgier]] twin sister Ereshkigal. [[
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[
* The Underworld in the ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the ''[[Fall From Heaven]]'' backstory, most souls go to an underworld like place when dead.
* The underworld map in the Fantasy game of ''[[Civilization]] 2: Test of Time''.
* The Underwhere of ''[[
* The protagonist of ''[[Terranigma]]'' actually starts in the Underworld.
* The Netherworld in ''[[Romancing
== [[Web Original]] ==
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The Underworld in ''[[Hercules (
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[[Category:Religion Tropes]]
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[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
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