History Main / GenocideSurvivor

** Rhea, [[spoiler:Seteth, and Flayn]] are a few of the last remaining survivors of [[spoiler:the massacre of the Nabateans, a race of [[DragonsAreDivine divine]] {{weredragon}}s that has inhabited Fódlan since ancient times. Even though Rhea personally executed the main perpetrator, the psychological scars from the incident have stuck with her for over a millennium]].

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", Kirk is stated to be a survivor of a genocide on the planet Tarsus IV, where the Governor ordered thousands of citizens killed to ensure the rest could survive, using eugenics to decide who lived and died. Due to the nature of TV at the time[[note]]TV networks wanted to be able to air reruns as they saw fit, so anything that could create a LockedOutOfTheLoop situation was frowned upon[[/note]], Kirk's status as a survivor of a genocide is never touched on elsewhere in the series.

** Nico Robin is the only survivor of her island of Ohara mainly due to the island's scholars attempting to research the forbidden "Void Century", a period in history with no records the World Government is trying to keep hidden. When they found out what the Oharan scholars were doing, they summoned a Buster Call to ''obliterate'' everything and everyone on the island. Robin was the only survivor and more importantly had the ability to read the Poneglyphs that could reveal the truth of the Void Century, as such the Government issued a false story claiming the Oharans were demons trying to revive the Ancient Weapons to destroy the world and placed a large bounty on Robin, forcing her to live the next 20+ years constantly on the run from everyone. The trauma from the event is the main driving force behind her actions in the Enies Lobby Saga.
** Trafalgar Law's backstory had his hometown of Flevance massacred by neighboring countries due to a lie being spread about a skin disease called, "Amber Lead Syndrome", claiming that it was contagious. In reality, it was not contagious, it was a hereditary disease caused by generations of the kingdom's populace mining for the Amber Lead and turning it into various goods. The World Government and the kingdom's royalty were ''fully aware'' of how deadly amber lead was and that the disease was not contagious but didn't reveal it to the public because of all the money they were making from trading goods created from it. Once the symptoms became more and more noticeable, the royalty fled the country and abandoned the people, leaving them to fend for themselves as the neighboring countries quarantined the borders and then started killing the people to contain the disease. This eventually culminated in the people grabbing weapons to fight back, only for the countries to invade and slaughter them under the obviously fake excuse of, "self-defense", ending with the entirety of Flevance being wiped out. Law only managed to survive by hiding under a pile of ''corpses'' that were being wheeled out of the country.

* ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'': The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the last surviving Nephilim. The Nephilim were an ancient race created by combining the essence of Angels and Demons. Angered over the fact they did not have a world of their own, the Nephilim waged war against all of creation. Realizing how the Nephilim rampage was destroying the balance of reality, the four turned on their brethren and became servants of the Charred Council. In exchange for their service, the four were granted immense power and tasked with wiping out the Nephilim to preserve order. Afterwards the four would remain the enforcers of the Charred Council to help maintain the balance between Heaven and Hell before the time of the End War.
** ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'': It's revealed that one other Nephilim besides the four survived, the eldest and leader Absalom. More specifically, Absalom was resurrected by a strange biomagic known simply as "Corruption". Now empowered by corruption, [[GenocideBackfire Absalom swears vengeance against the four that betrayed their kin]] and plans to use his newfound abilities to destroy the very balance the horsemen are sworn to protect by corrupting and destroying the "Tree of Life and Death" that connects all reality, along with the "Well of Souls" located within which controls the flow of life, death, and rebirth.

* Notably subverted in ''Film/LaLlorona'' when it’s revealed that [[spoiler: Alma was killed by Enrique Monteverde himself during his genocide of the Mayans, and now her spirit has come back to haunt him.]]

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", Kirk is stated to be a survivor of a genocide on the planet Tarsus IV, where the Governor ordered thousands of citizens killed to ensure the rest could survive, using eugenics to decide who lived and died. Due to the nature of TV at the time[[note]]TV networks wanted to be able to air reruns as they saw fit, so any kind of arc or reference that could result in viewers being LockedOutOfTheLoop was frowned upon[[/note]], Kirk's status as a survivor of a genocide is never touched on elsewhere in the series.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", Kirk is stated to be a survivor of a genocide on the planet Tarsus IV, where the Governor ordered thousands of citizens killed to ensure the rest could survive, using eugenics to decide who lived and died. Oddly, Kirk's status as a survivor of a genocide is rarely touched on elsewhere in the series.

* Notably subverted in Film/LaLlorona when it’s revealed that [[spoiler: Alma was killed by Enrique Monteverde himself during his genocide of the Mayans, and now her spirit has come back to haunt him.]]

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': On the planet Hanka, SG-1 finds a young girl named Cassandra, the only survivor of a population wiped out following the release of an engineered virus by the Goa'uld Nirrti. Initially, SG-1 thought they had brought the disease to the planet accidentally, but it comes to light that Cassandra was spared so Nirrti could use her as a living bomb to destroy the Earth stargate. They manage to foil the plot, Cassandra is eventually adopted by Dr. Fraiser, and she begins living on Earth.

** A citizen of Alderaan, Cara Dune was off-world at the time of her planet's destruction in ''Film/ANewHope''. She joined the Rebel Alliance and has a teardrop tattoo signifying her lost home.

** The titular Mandalorian himself and his reclusive Mandalorian clan are survivors of an Imperial campaign of slaughter called the Great Purge of Mandalore.

->''"At midnight tonight, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] is over. Tomorrow, you'll begin the process of looking for your families. In most cases, you won't find them. [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust After six long years of murder]], victims are being mourned throughout the world. We've survived."''

->''"At midnight tonight, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] is over. Tomorrow, you'll begin the process of looking for your families. In most cases you won't find them. [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust After six long years of murder]], victims are being mourned throughout the world. We've survived."''

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Any practitioners of the Old Religion who survived Camelot's Great Purge count as this, including Gaius, Nimueh, and a significant number of the series's antagonists.

Along with a loss of life, genocides often lead to a loss of knowledge, culture, and written history. Some survivors will try to preserve whatever remains of their heritage, while others may feel angst because they aren't able to. If YouCantGoHomeAgain is in play, that can also serve as a major source of angst.

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease There are so many people who have survived a genocide throughout history that trying to list them here wouldn't be practical. This only covers fictional genocides and fictionalized depictions of real genocides.

* ''Series/Merlin'': Any practitioners of the Old Religion who survived Camelot's Great Purge count as this, including Gaius, Nimueh, and a significant number of the series's antagonists.

** Funnily enough the English Clan is a very successful version of this. It's mentioned in the "City Of Stone" trilogy that the English exterminated their gargoyles some time after the main cast was turned to stone. Then, while on their world tour, Goliath and company find Una, Leo, and later Griff living in England all the way back toward WW2, with a bookshop that has been in their clan for generations. The comic continuation from Slave Labor Graphics introduces two more English gargs, Stagheart and [[{{Brawnhilda}} Constance]], along with the reveal that the clan is MUCH larger than previously thought, possessing a castle and an abbey they use as their main nest with the bookshop just an outpost.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Revival Series is unique in that the Doctor is presented as the [[spoiler:(supposedly)]] sole survivor of an autogenocide that ''they themselves'' committed, having wiped out their fellow Time Lords to end a GreatOffscreenWar that would've threatened the fate of existence itself regardless of who won. [[spoiler:The show would later reveal that the Time Lords were actually stowed away in a pocked dimension, only to kill them off again in another autogenocide, this time by the Master's hand]].
** The Revival Series also looks at the other side of the war, [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Daleks]], with each successive Dalek story revolving around various survivors of the Doctor's actions before the New Paradigm is introduced in Series 5 to repopulate the species. The Daleks' first Revival Series appearance, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]], particularly examines the trauma that comes with this trope by having the Ninth Doctor play off a Dalek believed at the time to be the last in existence, comparing and contrasting different perspectives on shared trauma while [[HeWhoFightsMonsters blurring the lines between the two figures]].

** A citizen of Alderaan, Cara Dune was off-world at the time of planet's destruction in ''Film/ANewHope''. She joined the Rebel Alliance and has a teardrop tattoo signifying her lost home.

** Nico Robin is the only survivor of her island of Ohara mainly due to the island's scholars attempting to research the forbidden "Void Century", a period in history with no records the World Government is trying to keep hidden. When they found out what the Oharan scholars were doing, they summoned a Buster Call to ''obliterate'' everything and everyone on the island. Robin was the only survivor and more importantly had the ability to read the Poneglyphs that could reveal the truth of the Void Century, as such the Government issued a false story claiming the Oharans were demons trying to revive the Ancient Weapons to destroy the world and issued a large bounty on Robin, forcing her to live the next 20+ years constantly on the run from everyone. The trauma from the event is the main driving force behind her actions in the Enies Lobby Saga.

** Cara Dune was off-world at the time of Alderaan's destruction. She joined the Rebel Alliance and has a teardrop tattoo signifying her lost home planet.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': Taking place after ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeXIReturnOfTheJedi'', the series picks up with quite a few survivors of the Empire's attacks.

* In some versions of ComicBook/{{Superman}}'s backstory, [[DoomedHomeworld Krypton]] was deliberately destroyed by someone, making him and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} examples of this. Being an infant at the time, he doesn't really have any memories of the event- but she does in some versions, and they're understandably unpleasant ones.