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The Unmasqued World: Difference between revisions
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* In ''[[Darker Than Black]]'', {{spoiler|the ending leads to a case of [[The Unmasqued World]], in this case with the existence of contractors being revealed to humanity at large}}.
* This trope seems to be in effect at first during the final arc of the ''[[Mai-HiME|Mai Hime]]'' anime due to the rampant destruction across the island caused by the Childs and because of near-apocalyptic natural disasters occuring across the world. {{spoiler|1=Thankfully for the Hime and those associated with them, the resulting [[Battle Royale With Cheese]] in the final episode not only covers it up, but it assures that it will never happen again because all of the chosen HiME of the current generation destroys the source of it all, the Hime Star.}}
** Averted in its manga adaptation where Himes in this case are both commonplace (there are [[The Chosen One|twelve selected]] every several hundred years in the anime, while in the manga they are born by the hundreds) and known to the public.
* In ''[[Guyver]]'', the shapeshifting Zoanoids finally reveal themselves to normal humanity after millennia of hiding among us... on the day they conquer Earth.
* ''[[Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars]]'' starts with the existence of aliens getting unmasqued by a giant robot acorn appearing in the skies over Tokyo, but [[The Masquerade]] stays otherwise intact (how The Masquerade got started in the first place, the fact that Earth's best defense against alien attack is a middle school [[Tsundere]]...) until the Space Diplomacy arc.
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* The Mirage-published ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comic featured a rare intentional unmasquing when the alien Utroms reveal their existence to Earth and offer to share their technology; within months, Earth's technology level has been increased tenfold, and the planet has been opened to alien travel and commerce. (This leads to a slightly ironic situation where the turtles themselves are free to walk the streets...as long as they tack on a few prosthetics and [[Mistaken for Aliens|claim to be alien visitors]].)
* In ''[[ROM Spaceknight|Rom: Spaceknight]]'', the eponymous hero initially has a tough time hunting down his shapeshifting enemies, The Dire Wraiths, who have infiltrated Earth so thoroughly that they have little trouble convincing everyone that Rom himself is the menace. However, when a new faction of the Wraiths takes over, they pull the big blunder of openly attacking SHIELD at their helicarrier base; and suddenly the Earth governments have all the evidence they need to know that Rom was telling the truth after all. They throw their full military and intelligence behind the Spaceknight.
* ''[[Superman: Secret Identity]]'' ends with the society accepting the existence of superhumans like Clark, leading to scientific advancements.
* This is now well and truly the case for the [[Buffy Verse]] {{spoiler|what with LA being transported to hell and back and vampires having reality TV shows.}}
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* ''[[The Island]]'' does it very literally: the technology that displays an illusionary world around the inhabitants (clones bred for organs) of the shelter is broken and the masquerade is broken.
* Subverted at the end of ''[[The Howling]]'', when the werewolf-bitten news reporter {{spoiler|engineers her own transformation and silver-bullet demise}} live on national television. It's a subversion because everyone not already in on the werewolves' Masquerade dismissed it as a hoax.
* At the end of [[They Live!]], after the hero {{spoiler|sacrifices himself to unmask the alien invaders}}.
* In ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', the Fallen decides to reveal their existence to the entire human race, breaking the government cover-up. By ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'', the Autobots are subjects of news coverage, {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}} is able to contact the UN to order them to {{spoiler|kick the Autobots off Earth}}, and Simmons debates with [[Bill O Reilly]] on whether or not the US should support the Autobots (poll results show that the US would feel safer without them).
* In ''[[Underworld Awakening]]'', [[Action Girl|Selene]] wakes up [[In a World]] where the humans have discovered the existence of immortals and are systematically hunting them down, [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] and [[Our Werewolves Are Different|lycan]] alike.
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== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Anita Blake]]'' series, the existence of the supernatural has been known throughout all of history. Vampires and lycanthropes are commonplace (and the object of some fascination), and Anita herself is a licensed necromancer. There is still the social upheaval described by the trope but it is caused by the recent granting of legal personhood to vampires.
* ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]'' (and its HBO adaptation, ''[[True Blood]]'') take place in a world where vampires have revealed themselves to the world following the invention of synthetic blood that takes care of all their nutritional needs. Other supernaturals slowly follow in their footsteps
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': By Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the [[Masquerade]] might not be broken, but it is starting to crack. Giants are roaming up and down the countryside, Death Eaters are terrorizing Muggles more openly, and Muggles can even sense the spike in Dementor levels. The Ministry of Magic has its hand more than full running around modifying memories.
** Then again, it's implied that this level of "exposure" has happened more than once in the past and it's always gotten covered up again.
*** Considering they'd have massive witch hunts on their hands if everybody found out, they are rightly worried.
* The ultimate goal for the protagonists in the [[Deryni]] works. People know Deryni exist, but they're [[Shrouded in Myth|so feared]] (and consequently persecuted) that they must conceal themselves. Not that everyone agrees upon methods and timing. Gradually, (OK very, very gradually) through a combination of heroic examples and royal fiat, the masks come off.
* The ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' series stars a werewolf who hosts a late-night radio show. When she's attacked by a werewolf hunter on the air, she ends up revealing that she's a werewolf -- but instead of running from it, she decides to parlay it into power, and ends up becoming a celebrity and figurehead for supernaturals across the country. Shortly after that, a government agency publicizes the existence of werewolves and vampires, up to and including DNA tests. By the time Kitty's forced into shapeshifting on live television, the matter's well enough known that the worst she suffers is an FCC fine for [[Nippled and Dimed|flashing the audience]].
** The [[Masquerade]] in this series was never very strong to begin with; government scientists were researching ''[[Our Werewolves Are Different|homo sapiens lupus]]'' and ''[[Our Vampires Are Different|homo sapiens sanguinis]]'' for years in shady, underfunded projects before most people acknowledged that werewolves and vampires actually existed. A common topic of speculation by Kitty is on [[All Myths Are True|which legends about animal-people are based on truth]], and whether any historical figures were weres of some kind. About five years or so have passed in-universe since the start of the first book, and by now most people accept that werewolves, vampires and many other supernatural creatures are real, but a few people here and there still think it's a hoax and prejudice is still pretty common.
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* ''[[Sunshine (novel)|Sunshine]]'' by ~Robin McKinley~ is based on this, centering around a human protagonist who lives a fairly mundane life in the world post "Voodoo Wars" where protective talismans are the norm, certain geological areas can make you go insane if you enter them, magic users work for the government and everybody knows if the vampires get you, you're dead. Said protagonist encounters said vampires...
* In Peter Watts' novel ''Blindsight'', vampires used to exist, but their vulnerability to crosses led to them being wiped out centuries ago. Modern genetic engineers have recreated them and made them useful to society, or at least to society's corporate and military overlords, who have found all sorts of applications for highly intelligent and ruthless creatures kept under control by drugs. [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|Obviously nothing could possibly go wrong]] with reconstructing a super-intelligent predator that already nearly wiped out the human race once...
* Towards the end of ''[[Animorphs]]'', the Yeerks become increasingly careless about covering up their invasion, starting around book 45 with the ousting and execution of Visser One, who developed the plan of slow infiltration in the first place. By the last book, they're openly occupying the ruins of an unnamed city in California, enforced by [[Kill Sat]]. Also, at the end of the series it's stated that peaceful aliens now live openly among humans.
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''Operation Otherworld'' series is set on an Earth where Einstein's Theory of Relativity and at least one other scientific theory from the same time period were put together and used to negate the effects of Cold Iron on supernatural beings and magic. This results in brooms and flying carpets instead of cars, photo flashes specifically designed to mimic the light of a full moon so were-creatures can transform outside of a full moon, and unicorns as cavalry mounts, among other things.
* A likely result of [[Dresden Files|Harry Dresden's]] world-changing actions in ''Changes'': {{spoiler|the Red Court of Vampires has been completely obliterated, meaning that politicians, businessmen, and other important figures around the world have spontaneously disappeared.}} Granted, Harry himself was never too big on upholding the Masquerade, but there will undoubtedly be ''huge'' ramifications for the whole supernatural world.
** Possible, but not likely. The narrative steps back and mentions the long-term implications of Harry's actions, such as changes to the balance of power in both the mundane and supernatural world, so presumably the narrative would have said if it also led to breaking the [[Masquerade]]. But it didn't. And this setting definitely has an [[Extra-Strength Masquerade]]; if a ''zombie tyrannosaur'' in a major city didn't break it, then people around the world mysteriously dying violently might not. There's no known cause of death, there's no apparent connection between most victims, most of them will be in the Third World, most corpses will be too old to be recognized as such because vampire corpses have [[No Ontological Inertia]] in this case... so the [[Dresden Verse]] [[Masquerade]] has survived worse.
* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[Allie Beckstrom]] novels, magic has been known to the general public for about thirty years before the story starts.
* While it doesn't happen in [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Night Watch|Watch]]'' series, Geser reveals that it was the strongest possibility for a world where Communism prevailed (it was originally conceived as a perfect social system). Of course, the humans would then quickly hunt down and kill all Others. Which is why he convinced a witch to sabotage the experiment.
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* [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken The Road Not Taken]: In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a [[All the Myriad Ways|disposable alternate universe]] in which Anubis' attack on Earth caused [[The Reveal]] of aliens and the Stargate Program. The United States and the world became a rough place under plebiscite-powered President Landry. This alternate universe is [[The Unmasqued World]].
* Done very, very subtly in ''[[Power Rangers]]'' ever since the finale of ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]''. They never actually focus on the changes because of the lack of focus on continuity, but in ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]'' there was a government program that was quite open and public about being set up to combat a specific group of demons, ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'' implies the ability to buy morphers on the black market ("I know a guy who knows a guy who has an uncle"), and ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' casually refers to universities having courses on Galactic Myth And Legend. By the time of ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' in 2025, Earth is a major intergalactic transit hub.
* Ultimately used in ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]''. While at first the police are willnig to cover up [[Monster of the Week|Grongi]] incidents, when the gravity and fatality of the situation is considered they decide to tell the truth.
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**** The movie also implied that the first contact aliens didn't think humanity was ready, and the show had those warehouses full of technology that was scheduled to be released every ten years or so, to let human culture get used to it, and they make it pretty clear that other than refugees, the only aliens going to earth are outlaws or extremists.
* In ''[[Ben 10]]'', [[The Men in Black|The Plumbers]] had kept the existence of aliens secret for decades, until Ben's heroics started making the news, and the government put together an anti-alien task force.
** However, [[There Are No Global Consequences]] - it seems that neither scientists, religious / political leaders or crazy military groups are interested in getting the nice superpowered aliens for a talk or a test.
*** Finally averted! The newest series, ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', has Ben coming out and being hailed as a hero the world-over.
**** Although the Plumbers themselves are still secret to all but government higher-ups.
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