History Main / LostColony

A human colony on another planet experiences a disaster which destroys its communications or space travel capability, and for some reason the rest of humanity never checks up on that colony with which it suddenly lost all contact. Alternatively, a spaceship having nothing to do with colonization is forced to make an emergency landing on a habitable planet in an uncharted star system, and for some reason, they never get rescued.

Either way, the colony must try to survive without any resupplying or information from Earth. Not only do their descendants' politics, economics and culture regress to match their pre-Industrial Revolution [[TechnologyLevels technology level]], they may also forget that their ancestors ever came from another planet, making the story at first glance [[ScienceFantasy seem to be set in a pure fantasy world]]. Oftentimes whatever remains of the [[LostTechnology old technology]] will be [[SufficientlyAdvanced mistaken for magic]] by the colonists' descendants. Sometimes there is genuine supernatural magic happening, or [[PsychicPowers something that can pass for it]], and all advanced technology has been lost. And sometimes the old technology and genuine magic are used side by side.

A human colony on another planet experiences a disaster which destroys its tech-base, and for some reason the rest of humanity never checks up on that colony with which it suddenly lost all contact. Alternatively, a spaceship having nothing to do with colonization experiences an emergency which forces its crew to land on a planet in an uncharted star system, and for some reason they never get rescued.

Either way, not only do their descendants' politics, economics and culture regress to match their pre-Industrial Revolution [[TechnologyLevels technology level]], they also forget that their ancestors ever came from another planet, making the story at first glance [[ScienceFantasy seem to be set in a pure fantasy world]]. Oftentimes whatever remains of the [[LostTechnology old technology]] will be [[SufficientlyAdvanced mistaken for magic]] by the colonists' descendants. Sometimes there is genuine supernatural magic happening, or [[PsychicPowers something that can pass for it]], and all advanced technology has been lost. And sometimes the old technology and genuine magic are used side by side.

* It's unclear whether ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'' is set on a LostColony populated by genetically altered humans, or whether they're humanoid aliens on their homeworld AfterTheEnd.

* Erna in the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'' is a colony from Earth, which they do know but are much too far from to take advantage of. [[spoiler: In the third book, we learn that it's also a colony of an [[StarfishAliens unnamed alien race]]]]. Also, the original colony has its ''own'' LostColony, although that was founded in a more low-tech manner (putting lots of people on ocean-going vessels). It turns out that [[spoiler: this colony has been ''actively'' staying lost by killing the expeditions sent to re-establish contact with it.]]

* There are few hints that ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' is a LostColony. If true, the colonists had landed at ''least'' 150,000 years before the start of the story, with all trace of the old technology long gone, making the use of the trope nothing more than a bit of flavoring.
* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': The series is set on a LostColony, with the original colonists having used what remained of their technology to genetically engineer the telepathic, teleporting dragons which guard the world from the bicentennial rain of alien parasites. It should be noted here that the rest of humanity DID send a ship to check it out, which found a small group who convinced the crew that everyone else had perished. The captain of the ship then quarantined Pern's system because of the Thread. Also, Pern was intended from the start to be cut off from the rest of Humanity. the Pern colonists wanted to get away from the politics and war suffusing the rest of the Galaxy, and live a [[SpaceAmish simple agrarian life]] with limited technology. Thread turned life on Pern into a struggle for survival, and caused them to lose the little bit of technology they intended to keep. The loss of knowledge of life before Pern was gradual; a book set in the Second Pass (roughly 150 years after the colonists arrived) mentions that computers still exist, but are becoming less practical as power and repairs get harder to come by. A book set in the Fourth Pass shows that the idea of Man coming to Pern from space is a one of two competing hypotheses rather than a plain historical fact, and by the Ninth Pass (when the "main" series takes place, 2500 years after Landing), even said ideas are completely forgotten.

* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'': In ''Literature/{{Protector}}'', Earth is actually a LostColony of a species called the Pak, who start life as a larval form (unintelligent hominids) and, in their thirties, are irresistibly drawn to eat a certain tuber which is host to a virus that transforms them into ageless, hyper-intelligent killing machines (Protectors of their descendants). The colony failed because the tuber can't incubate the virus in soil deficient in thallium oxide (a later Protector finds that the virus will grow in a sweet potato), and the humans developed intelligence on their own. One Pak comes looking for the lost colony, kidnaps a human and turns him into a Protector, who is even smarter than the original variety ([[TranshumanTreachery and acts very different]]). Eventually we learn that the Literature/{{Ringworld}} was built by Pak.

* Creator/FrancisCarsac's ''Literature/TerreEnFuite'' (''Fleeing Earth'') reveals that, at some point in the future, human civilization will be destroyed by a new Ice Age. After the Ice Age, the Second Civilization (slightly more evolved) will rebuild and make great strides in science and technology. Then they will be conquered by a race called Drums, only to be defeated by a biological weapon released by LaResistance. Their "space magnet" technology allows spaceships to reach 80% of the speed of light in short order, and humanity makes use of it to explore and settle other planets and planetoids in the Solar System. Then hyperdrive is discovered that is an extension of the space magnet technology. Colony ships are sent out, but only one manages to come back, revealing that the technology is horribly flawed. When a ship in hyperspace reaches the midpoint between two stars, it encounters a "gravity barrier" that throws it wildly off-course. The ship that returned found itself outside the galaxy after the first jump and only managed to return on the third try. Some time later, a scientist figures out that the Sun will emit an enormous solar flare that will fry anything in the inner system. The Second Civilization builds enormous space magnets on Earth and Venus in order to move the planets behind Jupiter to ride out the flare and then put them back. However, the Sun will no longer be able to support life after the flare, so the plan is amended to move the planets to another system. After reaching Alpha Centauri (it takes many years on sublight), they find it already inhabited by descendants of one of one the lost ships. They aren't blaming Earth humans for abandoning them but don't want them as neighbors. Many years later, the planets arrive to another system and find yet another LostColony, who are actively fighting them. These colonists claim that Earth lied to their ancestors, deliberately sending them into space knowing about the BlindJump nature of hyperspace. It turns out that [[spoiler:a race of aliens with PsychicPowers employs MoreThanMindControl to keep the human colonists as slaves]]. After defeating ([[spoiler:and freeing]]) them, the planets are put in proper orbits in the Goldilocks Zone.

* A couple ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episodes featured the re-discovery of a LostColony or two.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' takes place on a LostColony called Mira, which was established when a colony ship from Earth crash-landed on the planet. The reason the colony ship launched at all is because Earth itself was destroyed in a clash between two warring alien civilizations. It's speculated that other colony ships may have survived and founded their own colonies, but there's no way to confirm this.

* DNA analysis has recently suggested that not one but four or five African and Indian groups may be (as they claim) Lost Tribes of Israel. Besides the famous Ethiopian and Ugandan Jews who got airlifted by Israel in the 70s, a full-blown tribe in Tanzania recently got themselves tested to prove their claim that the tribe itself were a lost tribe of Hebrews, since the Roman era. (Being cut off, they didn't know any other Jews existed, so they adopted local language and customs.)

%%* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess''.

* ''LightNovel/RakuinNoMonshou'' is set on a colony where most of the technology brought from Earth either degraded over time or was expended while subjugating the natives.

* The Titanian Eternals of the MarvelUniverse were an offshoot of the Eternals of Earth (a HumanSubspecies engineered by the Celestials) who left the planet in the aftermath of a civil war hundreds of thousands of years ago and settled on Saturn's moon Titan. The most infamous member of the race is the Mad Titan Comicbook/{{Thanos}}. Meaning Thanos is technically human.

* The source of the "barbarians" in TabletopGame/FadingSuns.
* In TabletopGame/EclipsePhase the [[PortalNetwork Pandora Gates]] occasionally malfunction and cut off a planet for years. In one case the colonists formed a HiveMind in the five years it took to re-establish contact.
* This was used in the [[TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles Star Fleet Universe]] as a way to insert a small bastion of humans in a section of space outside the main Federation region by causing a colony planet (with sun and all) to be transported about 30 degrees around the edge of the galaxy. Later joined by a Klingon penal planet (and the task force trying to restore order there).

* ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'':

* ''Videogame/{{Rimworld}}:'' Every planet you can start on has remnants of these, thanks to the fact humanity was very proactive about seeding worlds with them but prevented by the lack of FTL travel from checking up on how they were getting along.

* The AdventurerArchaeologist Aurel Stein found a Chinese outpost dating to the end of the Han dynasty that had been cut off by the collapse of the dynasty (as detailed in Literature/{{Romance of the Three Kingdoms}}). Ancient Bureaucratic red-tape indicated that the outpost continued to function after it had been cut off, still keeping up Imperial forms as if the dynasty still held the throne.

* In '''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'' Dematr [[spoiler: is itself a lost colony, originally colonized as Demeter. The end of the first series results in widespread knowledge. The Second series deals with what happens when it's no longer lost.]]

* ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries''. Colonies established by the [[PrivatelyOwnedSociety Corporate Rim]] have had their founding companies go bankrupt, or fall to hostile takeovers (that's [[CorporateWar literally hostile]] in some cases) causing the data on their location to be lost. The colonists usually die if the terraforming is too cheap or not fully established. Preservation was founded after a spaceship captain insisted on rescuing colonists who'd been left to die and settling them on another world, and [[PayingItForward this altruism has become the foundation of their society]]. Sometimes datamining is able to retrieve the locations of these lost colonies which corporations then seek to exploit as much of the machinery is already in place--too bad about the descendents of any colonists who might be making use of it. The university that [[SapientShip Perihelion]] works for likes to put a spanner in the works by finding (or, it's implied, forging) documents that prove the legal rights were signed over to the colonists before they were cut off.

** There are several examples in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' series. Makes sense, considering it occurs at a time when a collapsed Empire is being reassembled. The Grey Men for instance turn out to come from such a colony; their ancestors assumed they'd been abandoned deliberately on a DeathWorld and so [[BestServedCold future generations were brought up to seek revenge]].
** The second and third ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} novels are set on lost colonies that have reverted to more primitive societies.

** ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} 2'' is a GivingRadioToTheRomans story set on a lost colony.

* Creator/HarryHarrison's novel ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} 2'' is a GivingRadioToTheRomans story set on a Lost Colony. The third part is about trying to mine ores on a planet inhabited by nomadic tribes which forbid permanent structures.

* There are several examples in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' series. Makes sense, considering it occurs at a time when a collapsed Empire is being reassembled. The Grey Men for instance turn out to come from such a colony; their ancestors assumed they'd been abandoned deliberately and so [[BestTastedCold future generations were brought up to seek revenge]].

* There are several examples in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' series. Makes sense, considering it occurs at a time when a collapsed Empire is being reassembled.

* Karak, the starting point for the player's fleet in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}''. The construction of the Mothership started when archaeologists discovered the remains of the colony's landing site, and with it a hyperdrive module. By this point, the colony had spent a few thousand years re-developing sub-light space travel and a modern society, but they had lost all their history prior to the landing. The distant genesis theory had been heretical, but the remains of the ship proved it. The rather important detail that they missed was that [[spoiler:they were the exiled losers of a galactic war, and using a hyperdrive will mark them for death by [[TheEmpire the all-encompassing Taiidan empire]].]] Turns out to be a subversion. The Taiidan knew all about the colony and, even after four thousand years, still monitored it. They just didn't announce their presence.

* Large swathes of the Galaxy is, by in-game statements of sapients that would know, this in (old verse) VideoGame/MightAndMagic, although we only get to see three of them (Enroth, Axeoth and the world of the novels) -- the four settings of the first five games were not lost, but ''deliberately'' retarded (they were part of [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Ancient experiments]]). Unusually, at least the inhabitants of Enroth do maintain knowledge that they came from another world (in fact, their dating system starts from the year off-world contact was lost), it just never comes up in the [[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Heroes games]].

** Played straight with ''most of Earth space'': Earth lies in the middle of what used to be the rimward marches of the Centauri Republic at their peak, and is surrounded by worlds the Centauri abandoned during a devastating civil war and didn't bother to retake before humanity claimed them.

* ''Videogame/{{Rimworld}}:'' Plenty; every planet you can start on has remnants of these, thanks to the fact humanity was very proactive about seeding worlds with them but utterly limited by the lack of FTL travel to actually ''check'' on any of these.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} VI'', Port Rimorge was founded by survivors of the Great Vortex who washed up on the islands over the years.

* Earl in ''Anime/MaiOtome'', while otherwise fitting this trope, at least remembers that the people and the LostTechnology came from Earth.

** This is the backstory of the Commonwealth of Man, one of the pre-generated empires. Humans had dabbled in wormhole research before they settled on warp, and sent a colony to Deneb that was presumed to be lost. Said colony survived on a DeathWorld, and became an authoritarian, militarized state that is hostile to its alien neighbors.

* The village of Haven in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is a form of this trope. It was established centuries ago by followers of the prophet Andraste, who created the village just outside of an elaborate temple they built to house her ashes. The village residents were charged with the perpetual guardianship of the ashes. While the rest of Ferelden sprang up around the village and changed with the passing of time, Haven remained in complete isolation - it doesn't even appear on any maps of the country and most people don't know it exists. Although its inhabitants are essentially of the same religion as the rest of Ferelden, they're unaware of the Chantry (Ferelden's church) or certain laws and regulations. Worse, in the last several generations, they've come to the erroneous conclusion that a dragon is the reincarnation of the prophet, and the village has evolved into a murderous AxCrazy cult.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'': Diana encounters a previously unknown and hidden colony of Amazons living in the Amazon Rainforest who split with the Amazons of Paradise Island long ago.

** At the end of ''X3: Albion Prelude'', the entire jumpgate network is shut down, leaving individual star systems completely cut off from each other, and resulting in dozens upon dozens of new Lost Colonies (though they keep in touch, slowly, via near-lightspeed messenger drones). In ''X:Rebirth'', centuries later, a few jumpgates are reactivated and the colonies begin opening travel and trade with each other again.

* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' is set on one.

%%* ''Anime/LastExile''.

And of course, it's always [[EarthAllAlong popular to reveal]] that ''Earth'' was really a lost colony, though [[ScienceMarchesOn genetic evidence]] that humans and other Earth organisms are biologically related, all the way back to the first bacteria, has made this increasingly hard to sustain. Of course the theory of panspermia, that the first bacteria were dropped on Earth from space, still enables a scientifically plausible "Lost Colony" in a far more general sense.

* In 1843, German settlers in Venezuela founded [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Tovar Tovar]]. A few years later the jungle reclaimed the only way to them and everyone assumed they were all dead. Well, until they were rediscovered in 1953. They still spoke their German dialect and built their houses like 19th century Germans.

* There is a group of people in southern Egypt known as Magyarabs who are supposedly descendants of Hungarians brought there by the Turks in 15th century. They were first encountered in 1930s by Europeans (Ironically, László Almásy, himself a Hungarian--who became famous via the movie ''The English Patient''--and his colleagues).
* On a smaller scale is UsefulNotes/TheLostColonyOfRoanoke, NC. A small English colony was founded on Roanoke island in 1584, but vanished by 1589 under mysterious circumstances. Since the 1930s, it's been celebrated in an outdoor drama near the original colony site, and figures heavily in various conspiracy themed RolePlayingGames. In modern times the general consensus is that after various setbacks the colonists gave up waiting for the promised resupply ships and moved in with the Croatoan tribe.

** With the ''Federations'' expansion, you can select this as your empire's origin, which means that a more advanced empire of the same species will exist somewhere in the galaxy.

* This is the backstory of the pregenerated "Commonwealth of Man" empire in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': humans have dabbled in wormhole research before they settled on warp, and sent a colony to Deneb that was presumed to be lost.

* The big SequelHook/WhamLine of ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' is that [[spoiler:Halcyon has become a lost colony. All communication with Earth has been silent for 3 years. Leaving the already faltering system completely alone.]]

* A popular theory was that [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Sera]] was a Lost Colony and that the humans were alien invaders, though ''Gears of War 3'' more or less {{Jossed}} this one.

* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' reveals that Earth itself is a lost colony of the Protoculture. Accounts vary as to why Earth was forgotten and why humanity (a genetically-engineered offshoot of the Protoculture) was left there, some saying it was a long-term colonization plan and others saying humanity was an experiment. Since the Protoculture is long dead, though, their original plans for Earth are effectively moot.

* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': The series is set on a LostColony, with the original colonists having used what remained of their technology to genetically engineer the telepathic, teleporting dragons which guard the world from the bicentennial rain of alien parasites. It should be noted here that the rest of humanity DID send a ship to check it out, which found a small group who convinced the crew that everyone else had perished. The captain of the ship then quarantined Pern's system because of the Thread. Also, Pern was intended from the start to be cut off from the rest of Humanity. the Pern colonists wanted to get away from the politics and war suffusing the rest of the Galaxy, and live a [[SpaceAmish simple agrarian life]] with limited technology. Thread turned life on Pern into a struggle for survival, and caused them to lose the little bit of technology they intended to keep. The loss of knowledge of life before Pern was gradual; a book set in the Second Pass (roughly 150 years after the colonists arrived) mentions that computers still exist, but are becoming less practical as power and repairs get harder to come by. A book set in the Fourth Pass shows that the idea of Man coming to Pern from space is a one of two competing hypotheses rather than a plain historical fact, and by the Seventh Pass (when the "main" series takes place, 2500 years after Landing), even said ideas are completely forgotten.