History Main / Lunarians

* Despite most people’s disbelief in life on worlds other than Earth, an incident involving an Israeli rocket proved otherwise. The rocket unknowingly transported tardigrades on the rocket onto the Moon. This resulted in new tardigrades being born native to it. Although these extraterrestrials were brought to the Moon by humans and not created there naturally, it is still interesting to think of another world besides our planet to be confirmed to have life.[[/folder]]

* In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' the [[MagicalGirlWarrior Sailor Senshi]] are looking for the Moon Princess who was reincarnated on Earth by the Moon Queen, (along with the princesses of other planets in the solar system), after the evil Queen Beryl and Metallia destroyed the civilizations on other planets. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Moon Princess's identity turns out to be [[spoiler: Tsukino Usagi, or Serena in the english dub, who is Sailor Moon]].
* ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' has the legendary Moonrace, a group of ancient space colonists who managed to retain most of their advanced technology and HumongousMecha after an apocalypse which ravaged Earth. The plot kicks off when the Moonrace contact Earth, now rebuilt to early 20th Century levels, to announce that the time has come for them to return home. There's even a {{Homage}} to ''[[Literature/TheTaleOfTheBambooCutter The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter]]'' involving a time their queen once discreetly travelled to Earth.

%%* ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' is based on the Princess Kaguya myth mentioned below.

* ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'': The bad guys. They're trying to take the gems to the moon and turn them into jewelry. [[spoiler: Later they are stated to be other descendants of humanity, alongside the gems and the Admirabilis. Wentricosus ponders whether they want to reunite to become humans again]]. [[spoiler: They don't. They just want to pass on to the afterlife.]]
* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' canonically takes place in a world where ''Literature/TheTaleOfTheBambooCutter'' is an actual historical event, meaning that at some point there were aliens living on the moon. This is only established in the volume 4 Q&A, and the series is never shown to have actual science fiction or fantasy elements.[[note]][[FunnyBackgroundEvent Barring that yeti in episode 3]].[[/note]]
* They come to Earth at the end of ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'', [[spoiler:to take Kaguya back to the Moon.]] They're airy and ethereal, led by the Buddha himself, or at least someone who looks like him, and play joyful music with Indian influence, keeping with the Buddhist theme.

* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse has the Watcher living at a hidden base in the Moon, an alien that observes all events and sometimes works as a story's narrator. He's not actually native to the Moon, he's from an alien species that establishes such outposts at several corners of the universe. Note that this character was created in 1963, during the years of the space race but before the actual Moon landing, so the work treated the Moon as a mysterious place.

* The landmark 1902 film ''Film/ATripToTheMoon'' involves some whimsical astronomers getting shot to the moon by a giant gun. Once they land they find the Selenites, a strange race of people that disappear into a puff of smoke if you whack them with an umbrella.

* ''Film/CatWomenOfTheMoon'' and the 1959 remake ''Film/MissileToTheMoon'' (not to mention the spoof ''Film/AmazonWomenOnTheMoon'') reveal that the Moon is inhabited [[LadyLand entirely by beautiful women]].

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'', also based on the Baron Munchausen character, shows the Moon inhabitated by giants that can remove their head from the body.
* In the FoundFootage horror film ''Film/Apollo18'', the inhabitants are spider-like creatures that disguise themselves as rocks. It is notable for being one of the few modern examples of this trope being played straight.

* Lucian's book ''Literature/TrueHistory'' (sometimes translated as "True Story" or "True Fiction") is among the first science fiction stories, and in large part concerned with a war on the Moon. Unusually the Moon people are not at war with Earth, but rather with the people who live on the Sun. They also have [[BizarreAlienBiology odd characteristics]] like being [[OneGenderRace all male]], having detachable genitals, gestating their young on their calves, having leaf ears and possessing armies of bizarre creatures like dog-faced men riding on acorns and cloud centaurs. It could be seen as the first attempt at writing alien biology, if it wasn't so blatantly ridiculous.

* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's pioneering sci-fi story "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unparalleled_Adventure_of_One_Hans_Pfaall The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall]]" (1835), Pfaall flies a balloon to the moon, where he finds a race of earless, two-foot-tall moon people.

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/TheMoonMaid'' the Moon is inhabited by a variety of cultures, including the warlike Kalkars.
* In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', Floyd speculates one of these to be the ones who buried the Monolith in the moon, but then debunks this when he realizes that they would have been wiped out by the formation of the moon's craters.
* In ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', the inhabitants of the Moon are ghosts so pale that Dante mistakes them for shadows and reflections, relegated to this lowest place in Paradise for the vows they've violated. In truth, they live with Mary, the angels, and the rest of the saved in God's Empyrean, but to allow Dante to understand the difference between them and other Paradisians, the oath-breakers have taken the pale Moon as their living place.
* Jerome Beatty, Jr. wrote a series of children's books, starting with 1961's ''Matthew Looney's Voyage to the Earth'', wherein Matthew and his sister Maria are young members of a non-human civilization native to the Moon.
* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Moone The Man in the Moone]]'', by Francis Godwin, is a story where characters travel to the moon by flight.

* In Galileo Gallilei's ''[[http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Galileo.html Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems]]'', Salviati muses about the possibility that the Moon may be inhabited by corruptible creatures who give praise to {{God}} by their existence. He proposes this as a far more beautiful and fitting possibility than if the heavens were the cold, unchanging spheres described by Ptolemy and Aristotle, lacking the change and alteration which makes Earth such a miracle. One of Galileo's translators posts the brief fantasy to the one proposed in ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Paradiso]]''.
* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', Willy Wonka mentions that the moon ''used'' to be inhabited, but the native Poozas were wiped out by the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Vermicious Knids]].
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/ExtraterrestrialCivilizations'': (DiscussedTrope) Dr Asimov [[ShoutOut cites]] a number of fictional works that make use of a civilized Moon.
* Literature/OrlandoFurioso. Orlando's wits get lost on the moon, Astolfo fetches it and meets John the Evangelist there.

* [[Music/JacquesOffenbach Jacques Offenbach’s]] play [[Theater/LeVoyageDansLaLune Le Voyage Dans La Lune]] features Lunarian’s that live without romantic feelings towards one another and mate by bidding on a bride at an auction, that is until the main characters arrive and find out apples make everyone fall in love with one another, and effectively end these auctions for good. Their political system is also quite strange, and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

* The ''Galactricraft'' mod for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' sometimes spawns moon villages, complete with humanoid inhabitants.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has X-Nauts, a race of aliens who come from the Moon (or at least use it as their base of operations), whose leader, Grodus, seeks to TakeOverTheWorld.
* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' has the Moon Tribe, a race of technologically advanced {{Human Alien}}s who lived on the Moon before being destroyed in an unknown cataclysm, leaving only three survivors. They were the creators of the Ark of Yamato, the prison for Yami and his armies of demons who later slaughtered the Celestials and plagued Nippon during the events of the game. They also created numerous artifacts that are later used as powerups by Amaterasu such as the Fire Tablet that allows her to swim in molten lava.
* ''VideoGame/BravelySecond'' has Magnolia Arch, a Ba'al Buster who calls the moon of Luxendarc her home. Unfortunately, her home was ravaged by a demonic entity, making her among the LastOfHerKind.
* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' has penguins living on the moon, who [[PlanetOfHats are characterized]] by their love of movies featuring lots of bright lights and loud music.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMoonMonsterMadness'' has the titular moon monster as a native of the moon.
* The first ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' serial "Jet Fuel Formula" concerns the US Government and Pottsylvania wanting to get their hands on Buillwinkle's mooseberry fudge cake recipe, which works equally well as rocket fuel, so they can go to the moon. Partway through the serial moon men Gindey and Cloyd show up to get it themselves so no humans will go to the moon. Gidney and Cloyd show up in later serials "Metal Munching Mice" and "Missouri Mish Mash."
* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' has the Nightmare Forces, and the ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' reveals they used to be Nyx, who are tasked with manipulating dreams to fend off nightmares.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/96a902ba_b040_4432_b9d8_d44207419d84.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Literature/TheFirstMenintheMoon They’re not exactly human that’s for sure...]]]]

* [[Music/JacquesOffenbach Jacques Offenbach’s]] play, [[Theater/LeVoyageDansLaLune Le Voyage Dans La Lune]] features Lunarian’s that live without romantic feelings towards one another and mate by bidding on a bride at an auction, that is until the main characters arrive and find out apples make everyone fall in love with one another, and effectively end these auctions for good. Their political system is also quite strange, and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

[[caption-width-right:350:Literature/TheFirstMenintheMoon They’re not exactly human that’s for sure...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Literature/TheFirstMenintheMoon They’re not exactly human that’s for sure...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Literature/TheFirstMenintheMoon They’re not exactly human that’s for sure...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[Literature/TheFirstMenintheMoon They’re not exactly human that’s for sure...]]

* Despite most people’s disbelief in life on worlds other than Earth, an incident involving an Israeli rocket proved otherwise. The rocket unknowingly transported tardigrades
on the rocket onto the Moon. This resulted in new tardigrades being born native to it. Although these extraterrestrials were brought to the Moon by humans and not created there naturally, it is still interesting to think of another world besides our planet to be confirmed to have life.

[[folder:Mythology]]
* In ''[[Literature/TheTaleOfTheBambooCutter The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter]]'', Princess Kaguya turns out to be from the moon, and her people eventually come to collect her.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Animation/NanaMoon'', a girl named Keke accidentally stumbles across a section of the moon called the Dream Moon Paradise that is populated and guarded by moon fairies. Keke quickly makes friends with one of these moon fairies, Amy.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The moon is inhabited by nymphs who worship their ruler Artemis as a goddess. The moon also has forests and glass volcanoes.

* ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'':

'''Scrooge:''' The Moon's not a planet— \\

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':
** The Lunarians are a group of Shinto deities led by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto Tsukuyomi]], who moved to the moon via SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology when [[HumanityEnsues the taint of mortality]] began to spread across Earth millions of years ago. In the present day they have become somewhat xenophobic out of fear that their new home will become likewise tainted by human astronauts. They are particularly important to the plots of ''Imperishable Night'', ''Manga/TouhouBougetsushou'' and ''Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom''.

The idea that there might be life on the Moon goes back to ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel) Somnium]]'', by Johannes Kepler, published in 1634 AD. Even earlier, there's ''Literature/TrueHistory'', by Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD). The concept showed up in a lot of proto-SF. It should really have died with the development of high-power telescopes in the late 18th century, but hung around as at least the subject of spoofs. By the end of the 19th century, any astronomer could literally ''see'' that there was no life on the surface of the Moon, although some writers suggested that there was ''once'' life on the moon, leaving behind ruins for their heroes to explore.

-->'''Lunaris:''' Greetings, puny Earthers. I am General Lunaris of the vastly superior Planet Moon. \\

-->--'''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'''

* 1902 film ''Film/ATripToTheMoon'' involves some whimsical astronomers getting shot to the moon by a giant gun. Once they land they find the Selenites, a strange race of people that disappear into a puff of smoke if you whack them with an umbrella.

* In the FoundFootage horror film ''Film/Apollo18'', the inhabitants are spider-like creatures that disguise themselves as rocks.