History Main / ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure

* VideoGame/AliensDarkDescent has the famous line from Aliens become actual policy. The core of the game makes this a problem since you are on the planet that is going to be nuked from orbit, and you have to find a way to get off it in time.

* In ''Literature/JurassicPark'', the Costa Rican government bombs Isla Nublar -- this didn't make it into the film.

* Threatened in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''--but it's less a tactic to neutralize a threat and more to [[FieryCoverup dispose of pesky witnesses and incriminating evidence]] (though there is some of the former, too).

** ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'' shows all of this unfolding in it's first few episodes, revealing that the army first attempted QuarantinedWithExtremePrejudice in a futile effort at curing or stopping the ZombieApocalypse. When this failed, they enacted "Operation Cobalt", which involved "humanely" terminating all uninfected civilians in the safe zones, before pulling out and firebombing Los Angeles, along with every other major city on the West Coast. [[DoomedByCanon It barely put a dent in the zombie hordes.]]

** The CDC is rigged with a thermobaric device to prevent the release of weaponized smallpox.

** A small-scale example in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]''. On Storinal, the Wraiths break into a disease-control center that houses small samples of various contagions for lab use. Their security includes a plasma bomb array, capable of leveling several city blocks, in case of leaks. Fortunately, Kell Tainer is able to defuse it (then hooks it back up before they leave, so that no one realizes they were there). Kell points out that this is actually a reasonable precaution.

** General Order 1 states "1) In case of a sudden outbreak of deadly disease, command of the interested area and an exclusion zone will pass to the highest ranking medical officer in the area until the crisis is over and the disease controlled. 2) The commanding medical officer will have full authority to take any necessary measure, up to including complete sterilization of the area and exclusion zone." The order is invoked when [[Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire a flesh-eating bacteria is accidentally released in a city on Falleen]], and the commanding medical officer orders the immediate sterilization of the exclusion zone via OrbitalBombardment [[HeroisSacrifice fully knowing he'll be killed as well]] and being glad that weather condition prevented the spread of the bacteria to a much larger area. [[BigDamnVillain Darth Vader carries out the order when the local governor tries to stop it]].

* In Jim Starlin's ''The Metamorphosis Odyssey'' (first appearance of Dreadstar), the alien villains Zygoteans are bent on conquering the Milky Way; once they are done, they'll go to the next galaxy. ByronicHero Aknaton understands he cannot save the Milky Way from this horrible fate. His plan is to obliterate the Milky Way before the Zygoteans are done with it, so he can at least save other galaxies. As Akenaton is very long-lived, he thinks in a very long term.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', right before the first game, the Protoss incinerate ''a planet'' because it was overrun by the Zerg. The same thing happens another few times (off-screen) during the Terran campaign. The Protoss executor Tassadar abandons this tactic though because he feels bad for all of the Terrans that die in the process.
* In ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'', Selendis wants to do this to an infested colony, albeit less drastically than the ones in the original. Instead of incinerating the entire planet, her method is vaporising the (potentially) infested parts.
** And at the beginning of the game, Raynor states that Tassadar incinerating Mar Sara in the original ''Starcraft'' apparently ''didn't work'' - new Zerg dens are still found there all the time. Which might explain Selendis's less-extreme approach.

* In ''ComicBook/ElEternauta'', some world power(s) has(ve) been sending [[NuclearOption ICBMs]] towards the center of the [[AlienInvasion invasion]], luckily for our heroes the bad guys have machinery that renders the nukes void. [[spoiler:Even after the heroes disable said machinery and the city is leveled, it doesn't help a bit because [[TheCavalry reinforcements shortly arrive]] and in the end [[HopelessWar we learn the Earth was promptly defeated]].]]

* In Jim Starlin's ''The Metamorphosis Odyssey'' (first appearance of Dreadstar ), the alien villains Zygoteans are bent on conquering the Milky Way; once they are done, they'll go to the next galaxy. ByronicHero Aknaton understands he cannot save the Milky Way from this horrible fate. His plan is to obliterate the Milky Way before the Zygoteans are done with it, so he can at least save other galaxies. As Akenaton is very long-lived, he thinks in a very long term.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': During the ZombieApocalypse in the "Judgment Day" arc, five Mega-Cities, including Mega-City Two (U.S. west coast), are already hopelessly overrun by zombies by the time the world's governments can coordinate their efforts. They agree that they have no other option but to write off the survivors and launch their nuclear arsenals at the cities to deny [[{{Necromancer}} Sabbat]] another two billion soldiers for his undead army.
* In ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Zayne warns the Mandalorians that their base on Jebble has been overrun by [[ZombieApocalypse rakghouls]], thinking that they'll quarantine the planet. [[TheDragon Cassus Fett]] opts to sterilize the site with a massive nuclear strike instead.

* In ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'', the Umbrella Corporation fires a nuclear missile at Raccoon City to cover up an outbreak of the T-Virus, which is also what happened at the end of the third game of the series, though they've been [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo rather vague]] about whether it was actually a nuke or not. They manage to cover up the outbreak, but as revealed in ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction'', the virus survives and causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* In ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'', the Rage virus escapes containment. The US Army panics and napalms most of the Isle of Dogs. It doesn't help.
* In ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', the Army nukes Louisville, KY, to destroy a horde of zombies created by the chemical agent 2,4,5-Trioxin. This actually spreads the gas further.
* In ''Film/{{Outbreak}}'', a fuel-air bomb was used in the beginning to purge an isolated outbreak of the Motaba virus. Later, an American town was saved from a similar fate when a cure was devised from the original host. Subverted in that [[spoiler:[[GeneralRipper McLintock]] orders the firebombing in both cases not to destroy the virus but so he can use the virus as a biological weapon, and the firebombing would cover his tracks.]]

* In ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'', this trope was averted when the protagonists realized a nuke would actually spread the contagion much, much further.

* In ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', the exact nature of the [[NukeEm Hammerdown Protocol]] is never explained, but it clearly involves a WeaponOfMassDestruction or maybe several. The fact that the US Army was willing to do this on [[BigApplesauce Manhattan Island]] is meant to indicate how desperate the situation had become.
* In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', the World Security Council decides to simply [[NukeEm nuke Manhattan]] to contain the invading Chitauri forces, despite the fact that the Avengers are still continuing their efforts to stop the Chitauri and that there's still civilians evacuating the area. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury declares the idea a "stupid-ass" strategy for dealing with the invasion and takes down the nuke-carrying plane with a rocket launcher. [[spoiler:It's a pity that someone on the WSC was smart enough to launch a second plane. Thankfully, Iron Man is smarter, redirecting the nuke through a portal to space, making it hit the Chitauri's mother-ship without affecting Manhattan.]]
%%* In ''Film/{{Pontypool}}'', the Canadian government eventually bombs the hell out of the titular city.
* The first few {{Kaiju}} in ''Film/PacificRim'' had to be brought down by [[NuclearOption nuclear weapons]], as all other attempts to destroy the creatures simply had no effect at all. However, the sheer level of collateral damage that ensued made this an increasingly non-viable option, leading to the development of the [[GiantMecha Jaegers]].

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''
** Occurs with depressing regularity, usually from the Imperial method of Exterminatus, either by Virus Bomb or Cyclonic Torpedo or good ol' fashioned "shoot the planet until it breaks apart" trick. Ironically, it's also always justified. (Would you rather a quick, relatively painless death or millennia of torment as your soul is flayed from you along with your skin inch by inch?) [[note]] 40k being the [[CrapsackWorld setting]] it is, there have been occasions where Exterminatus orders have been issued (and carried out) for reasons as petty as a communications specialist not being allowed to retire and return home. Poor, poor Stalinvast... [[/note]]
** For instance, one of the major reasons for Exterminatus is the fear of a planet imminently becoming a Daemon World (it can't be used on one that's ''already'' a Daemon World since they don't completely exist in normal reality anymore). Or the discovery of a Necron presence on the world -- although unless the Imperials are very lucky, they probably won't discover the tomb until the Necrons awaken and kill everything. Or perhaps its invasion by [[BugWar Tyranids]], [[AxCrazy Orks]], or [[FateWorseThanDeath Chaos cultists]] -- there are ''many'' worse things in 40k than a quick death by lance cannon.
** And of course, as per usual with 40K, sometimes TheOnlyWayToBeSure ''isn't'' 100% sure. The Imperium has stopped using Virus Bombs once they discovered that making an entire planet's population with viruses was strengthening Nurgle, the Chaos god of disease. As Literature/CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''') once put it, sometimes Exterminatus just gives them ideas.
* A common policy among the more hardline Firewall members in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' is "sometimes, blasting the habitat into radioactive dust is the only way to... well, you know". Sometimes it works wonders; when applied by Earth's power blocs against the [=TITANs=], during the Fall, it was about as effective as a rubber hammer.

* ''VideoGame/EXTRAPOWERAttackOfDarkforce'': At some point a meteor has crashed into Germany, bringing with it the Bem - a parasitic space parasite that has already reduced several towns into ghost towns. The heroes help SPICA mercenaries combat the bem in one town, but it is too late: according to the team empath's readings, by that point, no human remains who is free from infestation. Soon after, missiles are dropped on the town to eradicate the remaining bems, though this fails to destroy the infestation.
* Quite a few ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games end with this:
** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil The original]] had the mansion explode in a self-destruct sequence.
** The most famous example from the series is the fate of Raccoon City, as detailed in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Resident Evil 3, Nemesis]]'', and the ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak Outbreak]]'' games. Starting in May of 1998 with the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Mansion Incident]], there were several more outbreaks of the T-virus that slowly started to overwhelm the city. The tipping point occurred on September 22 when Umbrella forces tried to retrieve a new virus sample from one of its reclusive researchers, William Birkin. In the resulting chaos, the virus got into the sewers and infected the city's rat population, which led to a full-scale ZombieApocalypse. The situation quickly got out of control; local police were overwhelmed in days (though some of them put up a valiant, but ill-fated, LastStand at their headquarters), and containment forces that the National Government sent in met similar fates. By September 30th the city was deemed a lost cause; almost the entire population was either dead or infected and military barriers around the city were starting to fail. Faced with the threat of the infection spreading to the rest of the country, the U.S Government ordered Raccoon City sterilized by missile strike.[[note]] In ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis RE 3]]'' it was single nuke, in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak Outbreak]]'' there were 3 to 4 missiles, in other depictions, it's a new type of non-nuclear weapon, volley of cruise missiles, or a combination of all of the above. It seems to be officially nuclear now.[[/note]] The end result was that the city was ''completely wiped off the map''. All that remains of Raccoon City are [[http://projectumbrella.net/files/images/RaccoonCity_Destroyed.png a few craters]] and a government research faculty/Quarantine Zone.
** ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor Resident Evil: Dead Aim]]'' had the cruise liner that served as the setting for the game blown up by a KillSat by the Chinese government.
** TheMovie spin-off ''Anime/ResidentEvilDegeneration'' actually averts this scenario with the main outbreak at an airport, but the [=WilPharma=] pharmaceutical laboratory is destroyed in a ''spectacularly'' elaborate self-destruct sequence.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Manhattan is set to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb after the Blacklight and Redlight viruses have run amok. [[spoiler:The player character Alex Mercer averts this by personally flying the bomb away from Manhattan, dumping it into the river, and sacrificing himself in the process. [[FromASingleCell He gets better.]] So does New York, despite seemingly the entire city being infected by the end of the game.]]
** In ''VideoGame/Prototype2'', the government tries again, using [[spoiler:thermobaric rockets fired from helicopters. They fail again.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' double subverts this. When the BSL Station is overrun by the X Parasites, Samus plans to activate the station's self-destruct to kill all of them aboard. However, her ship's AI informs her that this doesn't guarantee she'll kill ''all'' the X Parasites, just the ones aboard the station, so it recommends causing the station to fall out of orbit so that its self-destruct field also destroys the planet, ensuring all the X die. [[spoiler:It fails in the long run since ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' reveals the [[NotSoExtinct X Parasites have infected another planet]], ZDR, forcing Samus to blow up that planet as well.]] ''Metroid Dread'' also reveals that [[spoiler:the Thoha Chozo tribe wanted to destroy [=SR388=] because both the Metroids and X were too dangerous to leave alive, but [[BigBad Raven Beak]] had other plans.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** The Covenant doesn't stop at nukes when it comes to [[spoiler:Flood outbreaks]]. They bombard the entire planet with plasma until rock and sand start to melt and are transformed into volcanic glass. Earth gets spared this treatment in ''VideoGame/Halo3'' due to the Arbiter advising Half-Jaw against it... so Half-Jaw ''only'' glasses half of Africa instead.
** The Halo Arrays themselves are the Forerunners' execution of this trope, killing all sentient life in the galaxy to [[spoiler:ensure the Flood has no potential hosts.]]
** Even after Cortana acquires Halo Installation 04's Activation Index in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', she and Master Chief still destroy Halo's phase pulse generators and ultimately the Halo itself just to be sure it won't be activated. [[spoiler:It also serves as reassurance that the Flood aboard won't manage to leave the ring.]]
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** The plot of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' starts with an ancient being awakening in a tomb that was assumed to be empty, and immediately starting to force locals into its service. To contain the curse, the entire population is to be deported to the main planet their world is orbiting and which is the home of the ancient beings, but it soon becomes obvious that the people in charge don't really intend to let anyone remain alive.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', upon fleeing their home on a CoolAirship, the Al Bhed feel that the best way prevent the enemy occupiers from getting their hands on their technology is to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill blow the entire facility up with nuclear missiles]].
* One of the possible methods by which you defeat the [[BigBad Naughty Sorceress]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''. After you counter her first two attacks with [[spoiler:the Wand of Nagamar]], [[OneWingedAngel her final form]] attacks you with a [[SignificantAnagram HEARTBREAKING TOFU MOUSSE]]. You counter ''[[RuleOfThree again]]'' with the same thing, and [[spoiler:[[SignificantAnagram NUKE THE SAUSAGE FROM ORBIT]]]]. [[ShoutOut After all, it's the only way to be sure.]] Referencing the TropeNamer is a bit of a RunningGag in that game.
* In ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'' Black Ops assassins trying to blow up an alien-infested facility and cover up the whole Black Mesa incident use a [[http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_IV_Thermonuclear_Device fusion warhead]] they removed from a nearby missile. [[PlayerCharacter Shephard]] kills them and deactivates the device, but later the G-Man sets up its timer again.
-->'''The G-Man:''' The biggest embarrassment has been Black Mesa facility, but I think that's finally taken care of itself... quite so.

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII: Retribution'', the Inquisition executes the Exterminatus (explained in Tabletop section) to prevent a planet from being seized by an emerging Demon Prince. [[spoiler:They are a bit too late and not so thorough]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', right before the first game, the Protoss incinerate ''a planet'' because it was overrun by the Zerg. The same thing happens another few times (off-screen) during the Terran campaign. The Protoss executor Tassadar abandons this tactic though because he feels bad for all of the Terrans that die in the process.
* In ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'', Selendis wants to do this to an infested colony, albeit less drastically than the ones in the original. Instead of incinerating the entire planet, her method is vaporising the (potentially) infested parts.
** And at the beginning of the game, Raynor states that Tassadar incinerating Mar Sara in the original Starcraft apparently ''didn't work'' - new Zerg dens are still found there all the time. Which might explain Selendis's less-extreme approach.

* Threatened in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''--but it's less a tactic to neutralize a threat and more to [[FieryCoverup dispose of pesky witnesses and incriminating evidence]] (though there is some of the former, too).
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' has this happen at the end of the first game, [[spoiler:in a desperate attempt to kill the now-freed Alma. To everyone's horror, it completely fails to affect her.]]
* ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'' averts this trope. Ryder White intends to call in a nuclear strike on the island of Banoi to burn out the infection. [[spoiler:White fails to carry out his plan due to mutation and death.]]
* In Creator/{{Bungie}}'s ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' series, the forces of light tend to do this whenever they're able to defeat the current incarnation of [[BigBad The Leveller]]. Things done to its host include: Beheading him and throwing the head into a [[BottomlessPits bottomless pit]]; Beheading and cremation; Having him drawn and quartered with the various parts scattered across the continent; Burning the body, mixing the ashes with salt, and then burying it all underneath a mountain. The reason for this seemingly overkill is that certain powerful entities are [[CompleteImmortality practically deathless]], even beheading doesn't always kill them as the intro cinematic shows. These measures are taken to try and maximize the difficulty of reassembling them in their entirety lest doing so restore them to power.
* In ''VideoGame/TheColony'', [[spoiler:this is your goal after rescuing the survivors of a trans-dimensional alien invasion.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DyingLight'', there comes a point where the powers that be decide zombie-infested Harran is too dangerous to keep quarantined indefinitely and ought to be destroyed completely. [[spoiler:Kyle Crane, the player, manages first to stall them and then to back off more or less for good. It's implied that, if they ever get what they want out of Crane's possession, the city is toast.]]
** The DLC forces Crane to decide if Harran can still be saved, or if it has to be nuked off the map to prevent the spread; [[spoiler:Crane found the cure, but it just turns zombies into ''sentient were-super-zombies''. It's in the same bunker as a primed nuclear warhead.]]
* In ''VideoGame/Wasteland2'', a certain expansive, incredibly overbuilt underground bunker (even its ''elevator doors'' are said to be impervious to any military explosives and lasers) is brought down by exploding a [[spoiler:Davy Crockett tactical nuclear warhead]] inside of its topmost level. The problem is, this solution is rubbish: the real-life explosive equivalent of this [[spoiler:[[Main/ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Bomb]]]] is a measly 10 to 20 tons of TNT (accompanied by a very sharp radiation spike, with lethal radius of 400 m over open terrain). If anything, that explosion would [[spoiler:''benefit the villain'': sure, it would slightly damage his new front lobby, but would also completely sterilize the installation, destroying all biological life he's fighting against]].
* The only way in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' to deal with an [[HostileTerraforming infected world]] is by way of OrbitalBombardment until ''all traces'' of biosphere and atmosphere are eradicated.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWondersPlanetfall'': The Promethean Division was created to stop Xenoplague infection. Any planet they were deployed to was essentially written off as a loss by the Star Union, and the Prometheans' only objective was to prevent plague from getting off-world and spreading further. They stopped the infection by setting the planet's atmosphere on fire using [[AppliedPhlebotinum PyrX]] and essentially burning it down to the crust before having the planet terraformed and re-settled from the ashes.
* It is mentioned several times in ''Videogame/TheLastOfUs'' that the military killed as many people as they could to prevent the Cordyceps infectees from spreading the disease, and that includes people who weren't infected because corpses can't catch it. The downtown area of Boston, for example, is a giant wasteland after they bombed the hell out of it hoping to kill as many infected as possible.

* ''Webcomic/{{Anthronauts}}'': In the original series, a zombie outbreak succeeded in covering the earth. The president of humanity made the decision to nuke earth and retreat to mars. [[spoiler:Turns out that the zombies were a HordeOfAlienLocusts... with shapeshifting capabilities and near-universal interspecies reproduction. Which would make them the perfect ambassadors if not for their inescapable HorrorHunger and unsustainable instinct to conquer and destroy. They usually hatch on new planets, conquer the other species by assimilating their traits and improving them, and ultimately fight each other until the planet explodes.]] It's unknown whether or not genocide of a near-limitless potential shapeshifting species is justifiable when they destroy planets on a regular basis.
* Riff from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' thinks this is an acceptable way to deal with [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/071017 two women talking to each other about him if they are ex-girlfriends and/or potential girlfriends.]]
* ''ComicBook/PS238'': Prospero is willing and ready to blow up the earth to prevent the spread of an extraterrestrial virus.

* The game ''[[http://www.hardcorepawn.com/zombie3/ Zombie 3]]'' requires the player to bomb entire city blocks to stop a spreading zombie infestation. Depending on the player's skill, it may be easier to protect a small enclave of survivors and carpet-bomb the rest of the city as a precaution.

* In the ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' web serials, Toa Helryx contemplates doing a [[FantasticNuke Nova Blast]] while trapped in the [[BigBad Makuta]]-controlled [[HumongousMecha Great Spirit]]'s processor unit, unleashing her ElementalPowers and drowning herself, but also destroying Makuta's brain and killing the entire Matoran Universe contained in the Great Spirit's body, just to make sure Makuta won't conquer other worlds. Thankfully she's stopped.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'', Leonardo Leonardo plans to take over the town. Dante and Randal find a book detailing his master plan, which is full of countermeasures for every possibility. If things spiral completely out of control, the city is to be nuked from orbit. Randal even invokes the trope name.

Possibly justified in that if the situation is bad enough to warrant this level of action, anyone within the affected radius not heavily coated in PlotArmor is likely either dead or soon to die anyway, and if the plan works it can at least result in a PyrrhicVictory. Often a ShootTheDog moment, sometimes followed by a WhatTheHellHero moment. Rarely it can be a HellYeah moment if collateral damage isn't an issue[[note]]or is left to be FridgeHorror[[/note]] and it [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat at least seems to work]].

TheVirus, ThePlague, or some similar infestation or contaminant has gotten out of containment and threatens to spread uncontrollably. If any [[QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice conventional means]] have been deployed to control it, they were grossly inadequate. [[GodzillaThreshold The danger is now severe enough]] that [[TimeForPlanB Plan B]] -- maybe even Plan A -- is sheer [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill]]: a local Armageddon which will destroy the facility, city, or entire region in one blast, ensuring that not a single trace remains to [[HereWeGoAgain kick off the epidemic all over again]]. It could be [[NukeEm a nuke]], it could be a [[KillItWithFire thermobaric explosive]], it could be OrbitalBombardment -- whatever it is, high civilian or friendly casualties are almost certain and are chalked off as "acceptable losses".

** After the Word of Blake Jihad opened the Pandora's box on use of nuclear weapons (later in the conflict, the Word of Blake became quite nuke-happy and everyone else retaliated in return), the Principality of Regulus tracked The Master from Gibson to Circinus. ''Every.'' ''Single.'' ''Planet.'' In Regulus' flight plan was thoroughly nuked to cinders to try and kill The Master. They finally cornered him on Circinus, and the planet was bombed not just to the Stone Age, but all the way to the Precambrian era, essentially sterilizing the planet making it a rock that would never support life again. But they got The Master.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}: It's happened at least twice in the lore: