History Main / Mordor

[[caption-width-right:350:Surprisingly gentle on your allergies, though.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' the Pridelands become a Mordor of sorts after Scar and the hyenas take over. The sky turns grey, all the plants die and all the animals are gone. As expected, when Simba defeats Scar and takes his rightful place as king, the land recovers perfectly (and apparently fast enough that the Pride doesn't starve in the meantime).[[note]] Simba's mother did advise Scar to temporarily leave the Pridelands during this period, and follow the herds. Scar refused out of pride, not wanting to want to leave the kingdom he'd spent years coveting.[[/note]]

** The trope's title comes from the Black Land of Mordor from Tolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Mordor combined both the "radiated evil" version of this trope (already seen in Mirkwood) and the "don't abuse resources" version (already seen in Isengard). However, the desert wasteland really makes up only the northwestern part of Mordor: Ironically, Sam and Frodo never find out the whole southern half of Mordor has a lake and great amounts of farmland to keep itself running, kept fertile by ash from the evil volcano; Sauron has to feed all those Orcs ''somehow''. As a BilingualBonus, ''mor'' in Elvish means "dark" or "black" (see ''Morgoth'', "dark enemy") and ''(n)dor'' means "land" (see ''Gondor'', "stone land").

** Said Valley of Dreadful Death is a place so horrifying that even the orcs of Angband avoid it. All we know is that the water there will kill you or give you horrific nightmares, and it's inhabited by the GiantSpider descendants of EldritchAbomination Ungoliant (Shelob came from there). Beren, who had survived a litany of trauma and horror (including sneaking through Angband), could never bear to speak of what he experienced in this valley. Most of the other people who went in didn't come out. Which makes it all the more impressive that Beren's mom Emeldir managed to lead a wagon train full of civilians through there. Maybe the all-female spiders gave a woman-led caravan a break? The other person known to have traveled through the valley and come out is Aredhel, daughter of [[MemeticBadass Fingolfin]].

* The Atacama Desert in South America, made up of salt basins, sand, and lava flows. Complete with the remnants of ancient towns: ''really'' ancient, as in over 9,000 years old. And eerie petrified forests, gypsum salt flats, and other weird landscapes. It's accorded the dubious honour of being the driest desert in the world. Average annual rainfall is one ''millimetre'', and some weather stations in it have ''never'' received rain. Water poured on the sand evaporates within seconds. Mountain peaks over 22,500 feet (6850 metres) are completely devoid of glaciation. The ''Series/TopGear'' Bolivia Special asserted that it's so dry even bacteria can't live there. Although this is a significant exaggeration, it illustrates just how inhospitable the area is. The most surprising thing however, is that people actually live here. This is because there are in fact rivers that flow down from the Andes Mountains, but only in the Springtime. The sand is chalk full of nitrates (to the extent that they are actually exported as organic fertilizer), so it becomes insanely fertile if you add even the smallest amount of water. With complex irrigation systems to minimize water evaporation, people have been able to live in this hellscape for milennia. It also contains the world's largest silver mine, which has been in continuous operation for something like 1,000 years.

* Rainbow Land was [=Mordor=] before ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'' came from "somewhere else", freed its Light and defeated [[BlackCloak The Evil One]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': After the Decepticons are forced to flee Cybertron, they take refuge on the planet Chaar. It is an incredibly dark and barren wasteland that, amazingly enough, appears to have formerly held life. The 'Cons struggle to survive here until [[BigBad Galvatron]] returns, after which it becomes a much more functional evil base of operations.

** Said Valley of Dreadful Death is Mordor UpToEleven, a place so horrifying that even the orcs of Angband avoid it. All we know is that the water there will kill you or give you horrific nightmares, and it's inhabited by the GiantSpider descendants of EldritchAbomination Ungoliant (Shelob came from there). Beren, who had survived a litany of trauma and horror (including sneaking through Angband), could never bear to speak of what he experienced in this valley. Most of the other people who went in didn't come out. Which makes it all the more impressive that Beren's mom Emeldir managed to lead a wagon train full of civilians through there. Maybe the all-female spiders gave a woman-led caravan a break? The other person known to have traveled through the valley and come out is Aredhel, daughter of [[MemeticBadass Fingolfin]].

* Dark Aether of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' takes this UpToEleven, not only in the fact that literally every location is in perpetual thundery twilight and shaded in an eerie mixture of purples and greys, but every enemy you knew and hated in the Light Aether has a [[SuperpoweredEvilSide big brother]] living here and that [[EverythingTryingToKillYou the whole world]] [[DeathWorld wants you dead]], even the [[DeadlyGas air itself]]. Hell, stay [[DarkIsEvil out of the light]] for long enough and you'll snuff it in Dark Aether.

** To make certain mods or games [[UpToEleven even worse]], there are mods that add thirst or sensitivity to sunlight.

** ''Cataclysm'': The Firelands and its accompanying daily quest hub, the Molten Front. Players fight against the forces of Ragnaros here. The landscape is like the Burning Steppes or Hellfire taken UpToEleven, full of fields of lava pools, and areas that are constantly burning. The only green area is the Guardian of Hyjals' base, Malfurion's Breach, where they have grown the Sentinel Tree.

* 250 million years ago, a huge, continuing volcanic eruption in what is now Siberia (which today is more like TheLostWoods) reduced pretty much the entire planet to this. Fortunately, this didn't last.

** The Dark World of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' was really the Sacred Realm of the Gods after Ganon got through with it. Zelda does this a lot, but the original Dark World is the most prominent example.
** The Twilight Realm in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' is perpetually covered in bleak light and dark clouds. Besides that and the creepy architecture, though, it's actually a pretty nice place.
** The last stretch before the final palace in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' is very much this.
** A localized version exists in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Ganondorf, using the Triforce of Power, [[FisherKing manages to turn the area around Hyrule Castle Town into a forsaken land]], full of [[SceneryGorn decaying architecture]], [[ZombieApocalypse Redeads]] and ugly clouds. His tower (sitting where Hyrule Castle once stood) is surrounded by a lake of lava and sealed off from the rest of the land. However once you leave the castle town, things still aren't that great (Death Mountain is haunted by the same ugly clouds, Lake Hylia is mostly dry, and Zora's Domain is perpetually frozen) but the sun is still shining on Hyrule Field and the rest of the land hasn't been completely ravaged.
** Another localized version appears in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': that makes Ocarina's version looking highly pleasant and preferable. It is also around Hyrule Castle.

* The [[ReligionOfEvil Death Faith's]] lands in ''VideoGame/LordsOfMagic'' is basically ''the'' marshlands of evilness, dominated by an ominous, towering cliff with a skull carved into it... Oh, and the people who live in the land are all since childhood trained murderers and, as such, the life expectancy within the land's borders isn't especially long, as a merchant in the Death capital's marketplace helpfully reinforces: "Be sure to take advantage of our lifetime guarantee. It's good up to thirty days..."

* Crocodile Island from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' is oddly both [=Mordor=] and a PollutedWasteland. It's both a DeathWorld filled with dangerous monsters and polluted to the point it makes any real life environmental trainwrecks look quite pleasant in comparision. It actually sinks into the ocean after the [[LoadBearingBoss final boss is defeated.]]

** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'''s Angband (the abode of Sauron's boss) [[HailfirePeaks combines]] this trope with GrimUpNorth. You've got arctic surroundings, barren desert plains, rivers of lava, giant slag volcanoes, vast underground dungeons, the works. ColdBloodedTorture is the national pastime. Plus proximity to the Grinding Ice, the Land of the Shadow of Horror, the Gasping Dust, the [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses Hill of the Slain]], the Mountains of Horror, the Forest Under Night, and the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Valley of Dreadful Death]], all of which are also evil or horrible places. Just how Morgoth fed ''these'' orcs is not explored.
** Said Valley of Dreadful Death is Mordor UpToEleven, a place so horrifying that even the orcs of Angband avoid it. All we know is that the water there will kill you or give you horrific nightmares, and it's inhabited by the GiantSpider descendants of EldritchAbomination Ungoliant (Shelob came from there). Beren, who had survived a litany of trauma and horror (including sneaking through Angband), could never bear to speak of what he experienced in this valley. Most of the other people who went in didn't come out.

* The Atacama Desert in South America, made up of salt basins, sand, and lava flows. It's accorded the dubious honour of being the driest desert in the world. Average annual rainfall is one ''millimetre'', and some weather stations in it have ''never'' received rain. Mountain peaks over 22,500 feet (6850 metres) are completely devoid of glaciation. The ''Series/TopGear'' Bolivia Special asserted that it's so dry even bacteria can't live there. Although this is a significant exaggeration, it illustrates just how inhospitable the area is.

** Subverted in the [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW tie-in comics]] which show what happened directly after the Season 2 finale. The Changelings actually landed in a SugarBowl that resembles the G3 version of MyLittlePony, only inhabited by cute cat-like people. [[spoiler:And then they turn said SugarBowl into their own personal [=Mordor=]]].

* In ''VideoGame/Haven2020'', the final set of Islets is a volcanic hellscape with perpetually hazy red skies, almost entirely coated in Rust, and bereft of plant life.

* Outworld is depicted much like this in the ''Film/MortalKombat'' movie. As Kitana tells us, it was once a beautiful land before its best warriors lost ten Mortal Kombats and the realm was taken over by Shao Kahn. She tells Liu Kang that the same thing will happen to his world if he fails to win this Mortal Kombat. Johnny Cage has perhaps the best line about what this land is like: