History Main / SecretPath

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfPrydain'' book ''The High King''. Achren leads the heroes along a hidden path over Mount Dragon into Annuvin, avoiding the dangers of other routes.

!!Examples

[[folder: Literature ]]

** The hidden West-Gate into Moria, effectively a secret passage to everyone but the Dwarves ... and their friend.
** [[MeanwhileBackAtThe Meanwhile, back in the Shire,]] young hobbits would occasionally search for hidden passages in Bag End, convinced that Bilbo had concealed his legendary wealth there.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* A ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign module included a secret path intended to be the faster exit for the party, which spirals along the main path. The book suggests to prevent finding the outside path, to ensure that the player goes through the hazardous portion.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* In ''TheBeastLegion'' Master Surya reveals an underground passage to the anointment room in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120730145543/http://www.thebeastlegion.com/issue-05-page-47-anointment-grounds-2/ Issue 5]].

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''PrydainChronicles'' book ''The High King''. Achren leads the heroes along a hidden path over Mount Dragon into Annuvin, avoiding the dangers of other routes.

* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', Bellamy gets a detailed map of Mount Weather's air vents and unused passages, letting him get to places inside the Mountain while avoiding guards and locked doors.

* A ''DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign module included a secret path intended to be the faster exit for the party, which spirals along the main path. The book suggests to prevent finding the outside path, to ensure that the player goes through the hazardous portion.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In Ubel Blatt, Koizell and Ato use an ancient subterranean passage to cross under the mountains so as to avoid Glenn's armies, but Glenn suspected that the notorious "Hero Killer" might possibly know of the secret tunnel although it seemed very unlikely.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/{{Clue}}'' had one.
* Involved in one of the ItWasHereISwear gags in ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein''.

[[/folder]]

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Much of Hogwarts castle is built with several secret passages that the students use to get around school quickly. The castle has so much and some are so well hidden few people know the exact locations of each one. The only three plot significant secret passages used in the books are passages leading into Hogsmeade Village:
** One leading to the cellar of Honeydukes candy store.
** [[spoiler: Underneath The Whomping Willow into the shrieking shack.]]
** [[spoiler: The portrait of Ariana Dumbledore in Aberforth's home leading to the Room of Requirement. This last didn't exist until ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', and was created by the Room of Requirement.]]
* The Castle Canyons are secret passages in the Castle of ''Literature/SeptimusHeap''. They are used by Jenna, Septimus and Marcellus Pye in ''Darke'' to get around while the Castle is swamped by a [[SphereOfDestruction Darke Domaine]].
* ''TheExecutioner''. In "Stony Man Doctrine" the terrorist BigBad assassinates his KGB handler, who lives in a guarded compound, by entering via the one place not covered by guards and security sensors -- the secret escape tunnel. If guards are posted on the tunnel it could lead to BodyguardBetrayal. Likewise an alarm sensor would eventually be activated by rats or rainwater, again giving away the location. The engineer who designed the tunnel was transferred to another part of the world; unfortunately the terrorist tracked him down and bribed him with gold to start a new life in the West.

* In ''TheBeastLegion'' Master Surya reveals an underground passage to the anointment room in [[http://www.thebeastlegion.com/issue-05-page-47-anointment-grounds-2/ Issue 5]].
* ''Webcomic/KeychainofCreation'' breaks down exactly why some of [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0323.html Tolkein's ideas on secret doors were actually pretty bad]].

Although these {{Secret Passage}}s are sometimes lauded as "shortcuts," they can sometimes [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays take longer than more obvious paths]], and can be [[DurableDeathTrap laden with]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou treacherous hazards]] that make them even more dangerous than the danger they allow travelers to avoid. Expect any secret path through a swamp to be unpleasant, since SwampsAreEvil.

** [[spoiler: The portrait of Ariana Dumbledore in Aberfroth's home leading to the Room of Requirement. This last didn't exist until ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', and was created by the Room of Requirement.]]

* Roguelike ''{{Omega}}'' included secret mountain passes, which cut down on travel time in the wilderness.

->''"I know a secret path through these mountains."''
-->-- ''The 300 Spartans'' (1962 film)

* In ''HarryPotter'', Much of Hogwarts castle is built with several secret passages that the students use to get around school quickly. The castle has so much and some are so well hidden few people know the exxact locations of each one. The only three plot significant secret passages used in the books are passages leading into Hogsmead Village:

** [[spoiler: The portrait of Ariana Dumbledore in Aberfroth's home leading to the Room of Requirement. This last didn't exist until "Deathly Hallows", and was created by the Room of Requirement.]]

Although these {{Secret Passage}}s are sometimes lauded as "shortcuts," they can sometimes [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays take longer]] than more obvious paths, and can be [[DurableDeathTrap laden with]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou treacherous hazards]] that make them even more dangerous than the danger they allow travelers to avoid. Expect any secret path through a swamp to be unpleasant, since SwampsAreEvil.

->''"We will take you on safe paths, through the mist. Come Hobbits come! We move quickly. I found it, I did. A way through the marshes. Orcs don't use it. Orcs don't know it. They go round for miles and miles."''\\
-- '''Gollum''', ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings: The Two Towers''

->''"I know a secret path through these mountains."''\\
--''The 300 Spartans'' (1962 film)

* Involved in one of the ItWasHereISwear gags in ''AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein''.

In ''TheBeastLegion'' Master Surya reveals an underground passage to the anointment room in [[http://www.thebeastlegion.com/issue-05-page-47-anointment-grounds-2/ Issue 5]].

* Sewers are good for this; that's how the Gaang gets back into Omashu in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''. There's also supposedly a "secret river" (but not secret enough not to be discussed in Fire Nation grade school) that leads to the Fire Lord's palace.

** And of course, there's the hidden West-Gate into Moria, effectively a secret passage to everyone but the Dwarves ... and their friends, of course.

* In ''HarryPotter'':
** Much of Hogwarts castle is built with several secret passages that the students use to get around school quickly. The castle has so much and some are so well hidden few people know the exxact locations of each one.
** The only three plot significant secret passages used in the books are passages leading into Hogsmead Village:
*** One leading to the cellar of Honeydukes candy store.
*** [[spoiler: Underneath The Whomping Willow into the shrieking shack.]]
*** [[spoiler: The portrait of Ariana Dumbledore in Aberfroth's home leading to the Room of Requirement. This last didn't exist until "Deathly Hallows", and was created by the Room of Requirement.]]

* When naval minefields became a common tactic in modern war, the defenders would have pilots (small-craft captains) who could guide friendly shipping through a safe path. Assuming, of course, that none of the mines had come loose and drifted into the path you were using.

*** [[spoiler: The portrait of Ariana Dumbledore in Aberfroth's home leading to the Room of Requirement.]]

* In TheLordOfTheRings:

** ''LordOfTheRings'' also has the path the Rohirrim take to get to Minas Tirith, led by Ghân-buri-Ghân.

* ''TheHobbit'' has a Dwarven door in the Lonely Mountain that foreshadows the later book's Moria gate -- a secret passage into the very heart of the Lonely Mountain whose keyhole only appears on the rarely-occurring Durin's Day and whose key was lost for years.

* According to historians like {{Herodotus}}, Xerxes gained an advantage in the Battle of Thermopylae when a Greek named Ephialtes told him of a mountain pass around Thermopylae, at which point Xerxes secretly sent 20,000 Immortals under the command of Hydarnes through so that the Persians could have the Greeks surrounded.

** Tolkien loved this. In addition to the above there were:
*** The secret gate into the Old Forest
*** Aragorn's shortcut through the Midgewater Marshes
*** The Paths of the Dead taken by Aragorn and the Grey Company
*** Gollum's secret passage into Mordor [spoiler:which was guarded by Shelob.]
*** And poetry:
->''Still round the corner there may wait''
->''A new road or a secret gate''
->''And though today I pass them by''
->''The day may come at last when I''
->''Shall take the hidden paths that run''
->''To the Moon, or toward the Sun''

* ''{{Clue}}'' had one.