History Main / PointsOfLightSetting

-->-- ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy 7th Edition: Beastmen''

* ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem The Dark Forest]]'' uses this as the basis for a [[CosmicHorrorStory very bleak]] answer to the UsefulNotes/FermiParadox. Because of the immense distances between the stars, alien civilizations cannot communicate with each other in any meaningful way, and inevitably annihilate one another out of paranoia via StarKilling. Those civilizations who are lucky enough to figure this out in time will hide themselves from the rest of the universe however they can.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The majority of the world consists of vast stretches of wilderness, dark wastelands, barren steppes, vast deserts and harsh mountains home to monsters, dangerous beasts, orcs, beastmen and the forces of Chaos, often littered with the ancient ruins of dead civilizations in which ancient undead lords still lurk and with civilized nations far apart from one another. Even within actual nations, civilization often exists as a loose web of cities and roads woven through vast expanses of wildness crawling with horrors, which periodically rise to snuff out the lights that would shine against the dark.

* ''Anime/{{Scryed}}'': Lost Ground is a series of independent communities living on land separated from Japan after an earthquake. There is a big city operated by people from the mainland and those loyal to them that are trying to restore old order but they are mostly seen as invaders and opposed by said communities.

-->--''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy 7th Edition: Beastmen''

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': The Earth is almost completely covered in seithr, a magical toxic gas that not only renders all but the highest mountaintops uninhabitable for humans, but has mutated and generated magical beings, some of which are friendly to humans but most of which are hostile. The result is humanity being reduced to roughly a dozen cities around the world located on these mountaintops; despite there being TheEmpire that governs these cities, there isn't much means of or interest in communicating with each other. Unlike most examples of this trope, none of the main characters are all that interested in traveling the world -- the ones that have are not fond of it at all -- and most of the story is set in the city of Kagutsuchi.

* ''VideoGame/PoolOfRadiance'', an AD&D-based video game, is focused on a ruined city infested with monsters that is slowly being reclaimed as the player characters clear out sections.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' is mostly this kind of setting. Although a few regional powers begin to rise as the series progresses, the world is mostly made up of isolated settlements cobbled together from the ruins of civilization and a handful of Vaults that haven't managed to kill their inhabitants. The wasteland is otherwise populated with raiders, mutants, ghouls, pockets of radiation, and various other horrors which only a few brave traders and heroes attempt to navigate.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Imperium rules about a million star systems, which amounts to 0.00001% of the galaxy; besides it, a few Eldar Cratfworlds and surviving colonies also shine here and there, while the Tau Empire maintains another small pocket of civilization on the galaxy's rim. Between these far-flung worlds there is space for roving hordes of Orks, high-tech ruins millions of years old, hostile alien empires, Chaos abominations, bizarre cosmic phenomena, and any threat or adventure you could care to imagine.This particularly the case for the Imperium Nihilus, the half of the galaxy left cut off from the psychic lighthouse of the Astronomican by the formation of the Great Rift, which has made faster-than-light travel and communications difficult and unreliable and thus cut off many Imperial worlds and sectors from one another.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Imperium rules about a million star systems, which amounts to 0.00001% of the galaxy; besides it, a few Eldar Cratfworlds and surviving colonies also shine here and there, while the Tau Empire maintains another small pocket of civilization on the galaxy's rim. Between these far-flung worlds there is space for roving hordes of Orks, high-tech ruins millions of years old, hostile alien empires, Chaos abominations, bizarre cosmic phenomena, and any threat or adventure you could care to imagine.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Summerland}}'': In the wake of the Event, human civilization exists as scattered clusters of villages and survivor holdouts in the depths of the global forest. The forest's Call will claim most humans who are left outside of a settlement one night falls, and individual settlements are divided by long stretches of forest and ruins home to feral humans, dangerous beasts and alien spirits. The few people immune to the Call are the only ones capable of making the dangerous treks between towns and into the old world's ruins, and despite serving as the only reliable means of communication and exploration are often viewed with distrust and wariness by the rest of the survivors of civilization.

* ''Film/MadMax'' presents such vision of a postapocalyptic world consisting of vast deserts dotted with hardscrabble towns and menaced by raiders and worlds, with each movie having Max stumble upon a separate community in the wasteland and usually getting tangled in its problems.

Many worlds of HeroicFantasy use this type of setting, especially those with an episodic nature where each adventure is planned individually with no desire to make them into one long narrative. Space-themed settings are a natural fit too due to outer space being harsh, inhospitable, and unimaginably vast, especially if the galaxies are not yet fully explored or the infrastructure needed for easy space travel does not exist. This is also a common situation in AfterTheEnd of various stripes, where the collapse of civilization is portrayed as breaking down travel, information networks and governments, leaving surviving enclaves alone in a sea of darkness and danger. It should also be noted that a Points of Light Setting can exist as a part of a larger world that does not follow its principles, usually due to being isolated from it by some natural means. In fact, many works of TheWestern genre or others focused on SettlingTheFrontier fall under this setting due to the fact they are about traversing wild and dangerous places and slowly bringing civilization to them.

It should be noted that a Points of Light Setting is not the same as CrapsackWorld. The two may overlap but none of the traits of Points of Light Setting in themselves make it a Crapsack World and it can still have an overall hopeful and optimistic tone. In fact, the setting may be designed with the purpose of being fixed by the heroes. On the other hand a Crapsack World doesn't need any of the elements that define Points Of Light Setting to still deliver on its overall grim and gloom tone, especially if it takes place in a totalitarian dystopia. Similarly, while this trope can easily overlap with AdventureFriendlyWorld, the purpose of one can be accomplished without it turning into the other -- a world that eschews all traits of Points of Light Setting may still be adventure friendly, while a setting following them may not focus on adventuring at all.

* Website/SCPFoundation: [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3008 SCP-3008]], an IKEA store that is BiggerOnTheInside and full of people who got lost inside. Many of the people have constructed crude settlements out of the furniture and stock, and fortified them to keep the monstrous "staff" at bay. Sometimes a settlement falls to the staff, but the survivors just move to another or build a new one.

* Due to all these circumstancesm the world verges more on fantastic as each settlement can be its own PlanetOfHats. Even if one village is home to a FantasyCounterpartCulture realistically reflecting the real-world society that inspired it, the next one may be something different altogether. Two nearby towns may also exist on a different technological level due to lacking contact or means to share their technology. The determining factor what a traveler will find in the next town over is not realism in how various cultures develop, spread, or interact over time but a simple question in which settlements managed to survive up to this point.

* Due to all these circumstances the world verges more on fantastic as each settlement can be its own PlanetOfHats. Even if one village is a place of a FantasyCounterpartCulture realistically reflecting the real-world society that inspired it, the next one may be something different altogether. Two nearby towns may also exist on a different technological level due to lacking contact or means to share their technology. The determining factor what a traveler will find in the next town over is not realism in how various cultures develop, spread, or interact over time but a simple question in which settlements managed to survive up to this point.

While setting doesn't need to have all of those qualities, they often overlap naturally. In fact, many of Points of Light Settings came to be unintentionally, due to being written to tell a specific story and not focus on other aspects of the world or simply a desire to tell series of standalone adventures without getting bogged down in worldbuilding details.

Many worlds of HeroicFantasy and AfterTheEnd stories use this type of setting, especially those with an episodic nature where each adventure is planned individually with no desire to make them into one long narrative. Space-themed settings are a natural fit too due to outer space being harsh, inhospitable, and unimaginably vast, especially if the galaxies are not yet fully explored or the infrastructure needed for easy space travel does not exist. It should also be noted Points of Light Setting can exist as a part of a larger world that does not follow its principles, usually due to being isolated from it by some natural means. In fact, many works of TheWestern genre or others focused on SettlingTheFrontier fall under this setting due to the fact they are about traversing wild and dangerous places and slowly bringing civilization to them.

A subtler variety is when functional traits of Points of Light Setting are still present in a world that should theoretically defy its principles. A setting may have wide-spread organizations, religions, and well-defined countries. But within it still can exist areas where protection of travelers and communication between communities are not ensured and other problems that steam from it follow. Many works of HighFantasy have an issue like this.

The roots of this trope can be likely traced back to [[ChivalricRomance chivalric romances]] that depicted the early middle ages as being like this after the fall of the Roman Empire. The reality wasn't quite so disorganized but at the time the romances were written many monarchs with ambitions of empire had a vested interest in that sort of narrative.

TropeNamer and TropeCodifier is ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'', the official default setting of the 4th edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. "Points of Light" was an unofficial nickname of the setting referenced by its creators and fans alike during development and before it was given an official name. Later, it caught on in writing and roleplaying circles concerned with worldbuilding, becoming its own term. While D&D 4th certainly didn't invent such a type of setting, many of its traits were first defined on paper ''as'' its traits by Nentir Vale design principles.

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' humanity is living in small cities and villages scattered across the continent and the only widespread group is Organization, whose only concern is overseeing titular Claymores, giving them new missions related to monster attacks or renegade members. [[spoiler: As it later turns out this was engineered as a biological testing ground by a more advanced and organized nation far away on another continent.]]

* Endless Illusion from ''Anime/GunXSword'' is a loose bunch of settlements Van and Wendy tend to stumble upon, often erring on the side of PlanetOfHats and the only group that seems to have become a widespread organization is one lead by the central antagonist [[spoiler: it was originally a prison planet whose all means of governance have collapsed, leaving its technology behind]]. Unsurprisingly, considering the anime is taking a lot from a SpaghettiWestern.

* Lost Ground in ''Anime/{{Scryed}}'' is a series of independent communities living on land separated from Japan after an earthquake. There is a big city operated by people from the mainland and those loyal to them that are trying to restore old order but they are mostly seen as invaders and opposed by said communities.
* The first part of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' presents the world as such, at least to humans - a wasteland with scattered underground human settlements, with any humans on the surface fighting to survive against Beastmen, who themselves are well organized and widespread but concerned only with hunting down humans. As it turns out [[spoiler: this is by the design, Lordgenome had enforced such status quo to keep humanity from being deemed worthy of extermination by Anti-Spirals.]] In the series finale, it is revealed [[spoiler: a whole Universe is full of Spiral races as numerous as stars in the sky but all forced into hiding from one another and from Anti-Spirals. The distant finale has new generation set off to make contact with all of them to ultimately undo this trope.]]

* ''Film/MadMax'' presents such vision of a postapocalyptic society, with each movie having Max stumble upon a separated community in the wasteland, usually getting tangled in its problems.

* The ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' novels are set in an [[AlternateHistory alternate 1940s]] in which the K-T extinction never happened, and the dinosaurs and their contemporary species have continued to evolve.

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'''s third season, set in 3189, turns the Franchise/TrekVerse into one of these. 125 years prior, much of the galaxy's dilithium went inert and millions of ships exploded for no apparent reason in an event called the Burn. With little dilithium left to fuel warp-capable starships, TheFederation largely collapsed in the following decades, and now exists as a VestigialEmpire that almost no one takes seriously. While interstellar travel ''is'' still possible, the rarity of dilithium means that it is no longer commonplace, and most star systems are left to govern their own affairs.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Many D&D worlds started as this type of a setting, before being developed into something else over time.

* ''TabletopGame/GURPSSteampunkSettingTheBrokenClockworkWorld'': The “Broken World” used to be a reasonably orderly, peaceful world of steampunk [[LandOfOneCity city states]]. Then something tore it apart and put it back together wrong, leaving it distinctly post-apocalyptic. Many of the old cities still stand, for now, but the points of light are flickering at best.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': The "Galaxiad" setting for T5, also known as Milieu 1900, is set 700 years after The New Era and consists of pocket empires of up to a couple dozen worlds. These pocket empires are separated by tenuous routes 40-50 parsecs long.

* The AD&D-based video game ''Pool of Radiance'' is focused on a ruined city infested with monsters that is slowly being reclaimed as the player characters clear out sections.

* The titular ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' is nominally ruled and controlled by the Newt Kingdom and Toad Army, but in reality, feels much more like this. Toads are more like bands of thugs controlled by rivaling warlords only held together by fear of Newts, who themselves do not seem to care about anything beyond enforcing their rule and taxes. The civilization points are scattered between large areas of wilderness and even staying on the road does not warrant safety from all kinds of monstrous animals and other creepy creatures roaming them. And even the existing points of light aren't safe from dangers - Wartwood is constantly under a threat of all kinds of beasts and even the capital city of Newtopia can suddenly be besieged by giant ants.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', during the story of Avatar Wan, there were four civilizations, watched over by four lion turtles, who would grant the power to bend elements to those who wished to journey out into the wilds between each civilization. It was only when bending was granted to humans full-time and the spirits left for their separate world that humanity was able to expand their civilization beyond these four separated cities.

* The first part of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' presents the world as such, at least to humans - a wasteland with scattered underground human settlements, with any humans on the surface fighting to survive against Beastem, who themselves are well organized and widespread but concerned only by hunting down humans. As it turns out [[spoiler: this is by the design, Lordgenome had enforced such status quo to keep humanity from being deemed worthy of extermination by Anti-Spirals.]] In the series finale, it is revealed [[spoiler: a whole Universe is full of Spiral races as numerous as stars in the sky but all forced into hiding from one another and from Anti-Spirals. The distant finale has new generation set off to make contact with all of them to ultimatelly undo this trope.]]

* Wiki/SCPFoundation: [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3008 SCP-3008]], an IKEA store that is BiggerOnTheInside and full of people who got lost inside. Many of the people have constructed crude settlements out of the furniture and stock, and fortified them to keep the monstrous "staff" at bay. Sometimes a settlement falls to the staff, but the survivors just move to another or build a new one.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Most of Europa (an AlternateHistory early 19th century Europe) is a wilderness where travel is made deadly dangerous by MadScience-generated biological and mechanical abominations left to roam on their own after fleeing from their creators or their falls, bandits and army deserters still equipped with powerful weaponry and vehicles, and more mysterious beings. Civilized life is confined to a number of fortified cities and strongholds ruled by [[MadScientist Sparks]].

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Galaxy often functions like this, with civilized planets often being distant and isolated from each other, with long stretches of wild space and savage worlds between them. This is more pronounced in the Outer Rim compared to the Core Worlds, as the Core Worlds physically closer together and the Galaxy's governments tend to be based there and thus to have better control and enforcement there than they do further away. On a smaller scale, sparsely-populated planets like Tatooine also work this way, with a few spots of civilization here and there and harsh wild environments, often home to barbarians, outlaws and dangerous alien predators, everywhere else. Most people in the Galaxy spend their entire lives on one planet or even one town, as they deem it too dangerous or otherwise not worth the effort to travel.

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** ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'', the default 4th edition setting, was created as a deliberate stylistic throwback to the original iterations of ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'', which led to it becoming the Tropenamer and TropeCodifier. The history of the world is an ongoing saga of great empires rising, fatally overreaching themselves, and then being destroyed, leaving the scattered survivors to claw a living amidst the newly resurgent wilderness until they can rebuild civilization again. The most recent major empire fell barely a century ago, and thus people tend to be concentrated into either small tribal units or else isolated city-states. In fact, several of the known city-states of the setting trace their origins further back than that; Sarthel was originally a provincial capital for Bael Turath, the tiefling empire that ruled much of the world; Merindaelion is a kingdom of half-elves descended from a fallen elven kingdom named Solaneillon, which began assimilating human mercenaries to try and stave off its decline a thousand years ago; Rethmil tried to become its own empire and failed over three thousand years ago, then ended up as a conquered province of first Arkhosia, the [[DraconicHumanoid dragonborn]] empire and rival of Bael Turath, and then Nerath, meaning Nerath's fall has granted it a century of independence.

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* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'''s third season, set in 3188, turns the Franchise/TrekVerse into one of these. Apparently, a century or two prior, much of the galaxy's dilithium exploded for no apparent reason in an event called the Burn. With little of it left to fuel warp-capable starships, TheFederation largely collapsed in the following decades, and now exists as a VestigialEmpire that almost no one takes seriously. While interstellar travel ''is'' still possible, the rarity of dilithium means that it is no longer commonplace, and most star systems are left to govern their own affairs.

If you ever tried your hand at worldbuilding for any sort of adventure-focused story or game, you likely know it is hard to make an AdventureFriendlyWorld. The more details, history, and character you add to your world, the harder and harder it is to justify why exactly does it need your heroes at all and why various organizations, countries, or powerful and capable characters in your world haven't deal with the problem your heroes face. Moreover, the more you develop and establish your world, the harder it is to fit all kinds of stories you may have ideas for into it. As you develop the history lore you also run into a risk of tearing away all the mystery of the setting.

* the first part of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' presents the world as such, at least to humans - a wasteland with scattered underground human settlements, with any humans on the surface fighting to survive against Beastem, who themselves are well organized and widespread but concerned only by hunting down humans. As it turns out [[spoiler: this is by the design, Lordgenome had enforced such status quo to keep humanity from being deemed worthy of extermination by Anti-Spirals.]] In the series finale, it is revealed [[spoiler: a whole Universe is full of Spiral races as numerous as stars in the sky but all forced into hiding from one another and from Anti-Spirals. The distant finale has new generation set off to make contact with all of them to ultimatelly undo this trope.]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' turns out to be a subversion. It initially presents itself as such a setting, with one big point of light walled off and besieged by titular Titans, sending troops on risky missions to find other surviving settlements or at least their remnants. The subversion comes twofold. First [[spoiler: it turns out they really ''are'' the only such point on the whole island]] and second [[spoiler: i's revealed rest of their world is not like this - the island is a prison the ancestors of current population were sent to]].

The roots of this trope can be likely traced back to chivalric romances that depicted the early middle ages as being like this after the fall of the Roman Empire. The reality wasn't quite so disorganized but at the time the romances were written many monarchs with ambitions of empire had a vested interest in that sort of narrative.