History Main / BeforeTheDarkTimes

* The image for this trope is of Starfleet Headquarters from ''Franchise/StarTrek''. During the early run of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Federation, Starfleet, and Earth were viewed as ultimate achievements of humanity growing up, the embodiment of perfect people, and paradise, respectively. As the show ran on and its spinoff ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' ran on, the Federation met and was attacked twice by the Borg, involved in a war with their closest allies, the Klingons, had several citizens break away to form a splinter group called the Maquis who waged a Guerrilla War against the Cardassians, made first contact with an empire called the Dominion and went to war with, leading to millions, if not billions of casualties, an Admiral who tried to lead a coup against the Federation, and the Breen bombing San Francisco. By the end of it all, with Starfleet on a war footing, several moral compasses gone from black and white to gray, Picard's offhand comment seems especially poignant.

* ''StarWars'': TropeNamer from Obi-Wan's speech in ''Episode IV'' regarding the Jedi/the Old Republic compared to the Empire. Freedoms still existed, the Jedi were respected and the rights of non-human species were still there, although corruption was beginning to tear the Republic apart...

* WhiteWolf ''loves'' this trope ([[TropesAreNotGood and not always doing it in a believable way]]):

** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': There was Atlantis. Then the Exarch stormed the heavens and made themselves gods, severed Magic from the world. Notably, Atlantis was great for the Mages, not so for everyone else.
** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'': There was Pangaea and Father Wolf made sure that everything is in Balance. But Father Wolf grew old and weak, so some of his children (your player character's ancestors) done him in and took his mantle of duty. But they are doing it very, very poorly. Pangaea was never a nice place for those who weren't werewolves.
** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'': Ancient Rome was great for vampires, what's with their Camarilla government. But then the barbarians, pissed off by Roman exploitations, burned the city to the ground. Bye bye republic, welcome feudalism.

* "Before the World Moved On" in ''Literature/TheDarkTower''. One interesting facet to this is that there are a variety of stages to civilization's decline, with each previous stage seeming like the Good Old Days compared to the next age. There was an age of sci-fi technology, with android robots, Blaine the Mono, and such, which is from the distant past. Then there was the NewOldWest / Medieval hybrid age before the fall of Gilead, where society was still organized (albeit on feudal lines), but technologies more advanced than revolvers were generally treasured relics, and there is the age after the fall of Gilead, when society had no organization beyond the town level, and the forces of darkness have free rein (as seen in The Wastelands, Wolves of the Calla, etc).

** An example involving ''a'' DarkWorld, but not ''the'' Dark World, is present in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds''. Princess Hilda says that "Lorule was just like Hyrule. So very beautiful. So very...promising." This was before all the events that let [[BigBad Yuga]] make it a haven for monsters. Hilda even tells Zelda that she has to borrow Link to save her kingdom because all of Lorule's native heroes are long gone.

Related to EndOfAnAge. But not usually that closely related to TheDarkTimes.

Related to EndOfAnAge.

* "Before the World Moved On" in ''TheDarkTower''. One interesting facet to this is that there are a variety of stages to civilization's decline, with each previous stage seeming like the Good Old Days compared to the next age. There was an age of sci-fi technology, with android robots, Blaine the Mono, and such, which is from the distant past. Then there was the NewOldWest / Medieval hybrid age before the fall of Gilead, where society was still organized (albeit on feudal lines), but technologies more advanced than revolvers were generally treasured relics, and there is the age after the fall of Gilead, when society had no organization beyond the town level, and the forces of darkness have free rein (as seen in The Wastelands, Wolves of the Calla, etc).

** ''{{Exalted}}'': The First Age, when the Exalts actually were building a world that catered to humankind's needs. Then the Usurpation happened. Then the Great Contagion happened.
** ''MageTheAwakening'': There was Atlantis. Then the Exarch stormed the heavens and made themselves gods, severed Magic from the world. Notably, Atlantis was great for the Mages, not so for everyone else.
** ''WerewolfTheForsaken'': There was Pangaea and Father Wolf made sure that everything is in Balance. But Father Wolf grew old and weak, so some of his children (your player character's ancestors) done him in and took his mantle of duty. But they are doing it very, very poorly. Pangaea was never a nice place for those who weren't werewolves.
** ''VampireTheRequiem'': Ancient Rome was great for vampires, what's with their Camarilla government. But then the barbarians, pissed off by Roman exploitations, burned the city to the ground. Bye bye republic, welcome feudalism.
** ''ChangelingTheDreaming'': There was the time of Spring, when dreams were vivid and humankind believed in the supernaturals. Now it's the time of Autumn, when dreams are withered and humankind is caught in their dreary world. Thanks, [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Technocracy]].

* ''Franchise/GearsOfWar'' is set after humanity destroyed most of the world in an effort to prevent resources falling into enemy hands. 20 years earlier the countries of the world had just learned to coexist together in peace while the people were generally happy.

* ''DragonAge'''s elves remember a time before humans ran rampant, in which they were immortal, and ran free over almost all of Thedas. It's debatable if this really happened or not.

[[folder: Films ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''WarHammer40000'': Codex books, manuals and tie-in novels--especially ones dealing with the Imperium of Man -- often refer to the (poorly named) "Dark Age of Technology", which was a time of great technological stride and prosperity that preceded the "Horus Heresy" and rise of Chaos.

* ''{{Fallout}}'': Pre-war United States. While it was much better to live in compared to the Wasteland, as you learn about the society, you find out it was really a CrapSaccharineWorld, and an {{Eagleland}} type 2.

If there were any characters that were [[HumanPopsicle Human Popsicles]] from this old time that wake up in the [[BadFuture time of the work]], expect to see a FishOutOfTemporalWater story from them, along with plenty of angst.

* The pre-nuclear apocalypse Saraksh in StrugatskyBrothers' ''Literature/PrisonersOfPower'' is remembered very fondly by some (yet not so fondly by others).

* ''{{Zelda}}''
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' we learn that the gods flooded Hyrule to keep it safe from Ganondorf.

* ''Zelda''

* "Before the World Moved On" in ''TheDarkTower''. One interesting facet to this is that there are a variety of stages to civilization's decline, with each previous stage seeming like the Good Old Days compared to the next age. There was an age of sci-fi technology, with android robots, Blaine the Mono, and such, which is from the distant past. Then there was the NewOldWest / Medieval hybrid age before the fall of Gilead, where society was still organized (albeit on feudal lines), but technologies more advanced than revolvers were generally treasured relics, and there is the age after the fall of Gilead, when society had no organization beyond the town level, and the forces of darkness basically have free rein (as seen in The Wastelands, Wolves of the Calla, etc).

** ''WerewolfTheForsaken'': There was Pangaea and Father Wolf made sure that everything is in Balance. But Father Wolf grew old and weak, so some of his children (your player character's ancestors) done him in and took his mantle of duty. But they are doing it very, very poorly. Note that Pangaea was never a nice place for those who weren't werewolves.

* ''DragonAge'''s elves remember a time before humans ran rampant, in which they were immortal, and ran free over almost all of Thedas. Of course it's debatable if this really happened or not.

[[caption-width-right:161: [[StarTrek Starfleet Headquarters]] Top:[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Pre-Dominion War.]] Bottom: [[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Post-Dominion War]] ]]

* The image for this trope is of Starfleet Headquarters from ''StarTrek''. During the early run of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Federation, Starfleet, and Earth were viewed as ultimate achievements of humanity growing up, the embodiment of perfect people, and paradise, respectively. As the show ran on and its spinoff ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' ran on, the Federation met and was attacked twice by the Borg, involved in a war with their closest allies, the Klingons, had several citizens break away to form a splinter group called the Maquis who waged a Guerrilla War against the Cardassians, made first contact with an empire called the Dominion and went to war with, leading to millions, if not billions of casualties, an Admiral who tried to lead a coup against the Federation, and the Breen bombing San Francisco. By the end of it all, with Starfleet on a war footing, several moral compasses gone from black and white to gray, Picard's offhand comment seems especially poignant.

* ''{{Zelda}}''
** In ''TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' we learn that the gods flooded Hyrule to keep it safe from Ganondorf.
** In ''TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' we learn that the DarkWorld used to be the the Golden Realm, a holy, more or less perfect realm where the [[AncientArtifact Triforce]] resides, before Ganon got imprisoned there and took it over.

What separates this trope from AndManGrewProud is that this "better" time is still well remembered, and not regulated to myths and legends.

* ''TheMatrix''

** ''TheAnimatrix'' shows this to be a very decadent world, with a bunch of lazy humans and their abuse of the machines.

In some works, restoring the world to this once grand state may be the goal by the characters. Conflict may arise when there are different factions each with their own ideas on how to recreate this utopia. In cynical works, older characters who lived in this time, or educated characters about this time may also comment on how it really wasn't that grand of a time, and that in reality, it was just as bad, but in its own ways. In other works, there may be no way to restore the world to it's once grand state, and the details of it only exist to highlight how far the work's society has fallen, and to add drama to the story.

* ''HaloReach'': To some degree this is the purpose behind the game, to show the UNSC at it's greatest and the Spartan Program at it's peak. Then the game takes you down the course where the Covenant overwhelms everything. While the UNSC is still somewhat strong in the original game trilogy, the defeat at Reach destroyed the Spartan ranks.

* ''{{Metro2033}}'': The pre-war world. In Artyom's home station, an older [=NPC=] can be heard reminiscing on how beautiful the world once was. In the D6 base, while passing by a room filled with military equipment, Miller will go on a speech on how humanity will take back the world and return it to it's former glory, and that "everything will be everything."

* "Before the World Moved On" in ''TheDarkTower''. One interesting facet to this is that there are a variety of stages to civilization's decline, with each previous stage seeming like the Good Old Days compared to the next age. There was an age of sci-fi technology, with android robots, Blaine the Mono, and such, which is from the distant past. Then there was the NewOldWest / Medieval hybrid age before the fall of Gilead, where society was still organized (albeit on feudal lines), but technologies more advanced than revolvers were generally treasured relics, and there is the age after the fall of Gilead, when society had no organization beyond the town level, and the forces of darkness basically have free reign (as seen in The Wastelands, Wolves of the Calla, etc).

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Katara neatly sums it up in the opening credits: