History Main / TheUnmasquedWorld

* In ''Hidden Echoes'' by Mike Jeffries, the Earth was created as a paradise by powerful sorcerers living in a DeathWorld multiverse. These same sorcerers have also walled the Earth away from the other dimensions and helped defeat the few stragglers that did manage to cross through (these chance encounters would go on to become monsters in myth and folklore). Unfortunately, the barrier between Earth and the other dimensions is collapsing and creatures are coming through, if the barrier breaks down completely then humanity would be wiped out in an endless ZergRush of supernatural creatures.

* Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Operation Otherworld'' series is set on an Earth where Einstein's Theory of Relativity and at least one other scientific theory from the same time period were put together and used to negate the effects of Cold Iron on supernatural beings and magic. This results in brooms and flying carpets instead of cars, photo flashes specifically designed to mimic the light of a full moon so were-creatures can transform outside of a full moon, and unicorns as cavalry mounts, among other things.

* ''Manga/UQHolder'', set some 80 years after the end of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', shows a picture of the world in which magic has become general knowledge. In fact, the unmasquing lead to some radical changes in the balance of power across the globe, and the development of "magic apps" (basically spells you can ''buy'' rather than learn to use yourself) lead to some extreme class differences. Half of Tokyo is now seemingly a gigantic slum, with its inhabitants seen as "vermin" who need to be cleared out... by hiring mercenaries to raid the place and blow everything up, uncaring about the casualties or even deaths that result.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries'', the Autobots and Decepticons normally conceal themselves from a planet’s population, and Earth is no different at first. Then the Autobots thwart Megatron’s attempts to start a war in Eastern Europe, and a furious Megatron retaliates by calling in Sixshot, a Decepticon SuperSoldier and PersonOfMassDestruction. The Transformers’ existence is promptly revealed to the world as Sixshot shoots down the Autobot Ark over Tennessee and chases Ratchet across Alabama, with multiple news networks covering the destruction.

* The ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' DLC "We All Fall Down" revolves around this. After being forcibly detoxed, Victoria Byng realizes that Wellington wells isn't as bright and shiny as she thought. Plague is spreading, people are starving, and nobody notices. Victoria swears off Joy and decides it's time to stop the flow of it into the city. When she succeeds [[spoiler: in destroying Haworth Labs, she finds that not only has most of the town murdered itself from withdrawal symptoms, but the few survivors resent her for what she's done and tell her to stay away from them. (Considering she was a huge factor in the city's downfall to start with, it's not unjustified.)]]

* Many practitioners of Wicca believe this is exactly what happened in real life when the Wicca movement became public in Britain around the '50s thanks to Gerald Gardner and later it became a popular religion in the Western world. Other Wiccans believe Gardner made it up from a hodgepodge of folk magics, fragmentary records of pre-Roman druidism, and bits of Creator/AleisterCrowley .

* The ''Series/{{Heroes}}''/''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12045706/1/Dark-Days Dark Days]]" fic ends with [[spoiler:the general public becoming aware of the existence of evolved humans, vampires and werewolves after Peter Petrelli publicly stops Samuel Sullivan destroying New York as part of a demonstration of his own power. Fortunately, by this point Mohinder Suresh and Carlisle Cullen have developed a blood substitute so that vampires no longer need to feed on humans, and Peter agrees to become the face of the evolved humans as Nathan makes their existence public in one of his first acts as President]].

->''"We used to have 'laws' in this town. Like 'gravity'. You remember gravity, right?"''
-->-- '''A police officer''' after a run-in with ComicBook/{{Superman}}, ''ComicBook/ActionComicsNumber1''

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'':
** Averted; nobody ever realizes that the video-game characters are sentient and living in their own world. If something goes wrong (like Turbo invading a ''Road Blasters'' cabinet), they just think the game is glitching and call the arcade manager to look at it. And not even he really knows what's happening; all he does is slap "Out of Order" posters on the screens or replace the machines altogether.
** When the ''VideoGame/QBert'' crew join the ''Fix-It Felix Jr.'' crew in their machine in the ending, the arcade-goers just assume that it's a fun retro remix of both games.

Laconic/TheUnmasquedWorld is a world where the supernatural has, after years of hiding, revealed itself to the world, intentionally or otherwise. In many cases, this will lead to a lot of [[PostModernMagik modern twists on the fantasy genre's usual formulas]] and/or [[MundaneFantastic the integration of the supernatural into society -- vampires on the police force, wizards in the hospital, werewolves in the park service]]. Expect much FantasticRacism (and perhaps a group of {{Zombie Advocate}}s opposing it), as not everyone's just going to accept that the [[MonsterMash traditional horror movie monsters]] have decided to [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires move next door]] [[MonsterRoommate as roommates]].

-->-- '''A police officer''' after a run-in with ComicBook/{{Superman}}, ''Action Comics'' #1

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}. vampires and trolls may walk free and unafraid under the mod-day sun because of the miracle which is barrier cream (sunblock).

* This is now well and truly the case for the Franchise/{{Buffyverse}} [[spoiler:what with LA being transported to hell and back and vampires having reality TV shows.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Aliens become common knowledge. When the BrokenMasquerade happened isn't clear, though it seems that the world was unmasqued some time during the course of the 2005 revival and its spinoffs ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Doctor says it happens during the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax invasion]], but the earlier [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Slitheen]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree invasion]] seems just as likely. [[note]]While the Slitheen were never found out by the public, they [[MonumentalDamage crashed a fake "space pig" into Big Ben]] as part of their plan.[[/note]] Later stories, however, seem to ignore this, with most people still refusing to believe in the existence of aliens. Sometimes it's because some spacetime incident literally [[CosmicRetcon made it so that the event never happened]] (the Daleks stealing Earth and taking it across the universe in the Series 4 finale is explicitly cited as an event erased by the time cracks central to Series 5's story arc); other times, it's just people thinking it was publicity for a movie or some sort of viral stunt.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Aliens become common knowledge. When the BrokenMasquerade happened isn't clear, though it seems that the world was unmasqued some time during the course of the 2005 revival and its spinoffs ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Doctor says it happens during the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax invasion]], but the earlier [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Slitheen]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree invasion]] seems just as likely. [[note]]While the Slitheen were never found out by the public, they [[MonumentalDamage crashed a fake "space pig" into Big Ben]] as part of their plan.[[/note]] Later stories, however, seem to ignore this, with most people still refusing to believe in the existence of aliens. Sometimes it's because some spacetime incident literally [[CosmicRetcon made it so that the event never happened]] (the Daleks stealing Earth and taking it across the universe in the Season 4 finale is explicitly cited as an event erased by the time cracks central to Series 5's story arc); other times, it's just people thinking it was publicity for a movie or some sort of viral stunt.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Aliens become common knowledge. When the BrokenMasquerade happened isn't clear, though it seems that the world was unmasqued some time during the course of the 2005 revival and its spinoffs ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Doctor says it happens during the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax invasion]], but the earlier [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Slitheen]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree invasion]] seems just as likely. [[note]]While the Slitheen were never found out by the public, they [[MonumentalDamage crashed a fake "space pig" into Big Ben]] as part of their plan.[[/note]] Later stories, however, seem to ignore this, with most people still refusing to believe in the existence of aliens. Sometimes it's because some random spacetime incident literally [[CosmicRetcon made it so that the event never happened]] (the Daleks stealing Earth and taking it across the universe in the Season 4 finale is explicitly cited as an event erased by the time cracks central to Series 5's story arc); other times, it's just people thinking it was publicity for a movie or some sort of viral stunt.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Aliens become common knowledge. When the BrokenMasquerade happened isn't clear, though it seems that the world was unmasqued some time during the course of the 2005 revival and its spinoffs ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Doctor says it happens during the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax invasion]], but the earlier [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Slitheen]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree invasion]] seems just as likely. [[note]]While the Slitheen were never found out by the public, they [[MonumentalDamage crashed a fake "space pig" into Big Ben]] as part of their plan.[[/note]] Later stories, however, seem to ignore this, with most people still refusing to believe in the existence of aliens. Sometimes it's because some random spacetime incident literally [[CosmicRetcon made it so that the event never happened]]; other times, it's just people thinking it was publicity for a movie or some sort of viral stunt.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', during the founding of [[TheEmpire the Imperium]], [[PhysicalGod the Emperor]] established the Imperial Truth, which founded the Imperium's official point of view as a scientific, atheistic empire. Even psychic phenomena was explained in mundane terms rather than treated as magic. Though there were a few hiccups with [[OurDemonsAreDifferent unexplained monsters]] and a cult dedicated to worshiping the Emperor as a god ([[AGodIAmNot much to his chagrin]], and largely spread a man who was one of his sons and chosen top commanders no less), the early Imperium was a secular and reasoned place. That all shattered during the {{Literature/Horus Heresy}}, where Horus, son of the Emperor and [[ParentalFavoritism apple of his eye]], brought the legions of Chaos to Earth. Now the Imperium is a theocratic, Luddite empire where people believe in magic, gods and daemons, because they really are out there.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' played with. The Old World is already supernatural, everyone knows that magic exists as soon as they see a Bright Wizard burn down the local watering hole. That stuff and the occasional Daemonic invasion is mundane for Warhammer Fantasy. The real hidden knowledge is the presence of Skaven and the Underblight, an entire empire of Chaotic ratmen underneath the Empire and other human countries. The Old World governments actively suppresses the knowledge of the Skaven, even when one of their Emperors was assassinated by Skaven centuries ago. The masquerade eventually falls away when Skaven invade the Empire in force during ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes''.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': set AfterTheEnd, the moment the titular rifts opened and awakened the world to magic, psionics, cosmic horrors, etc is pretty well described. The Coming of the Rifts wiped out 90% of humanity, and left the remainder too busy fighting for survival to do things like keep society going. The game takes place about 300 years AfterTheEnd when humanity has finally started clawing its way out of the chaos.

* ''Fanfic/TheArithmancer'' series ends with Hermione proving that surveillance and the internet will eventually make the Statute of Secrecy untenable, and the best option is a controlled reveal. The final chapter reviews the speech that she's about to give on as many media platforms as possible.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': As of ''Literature/BattleGround'' TheMasquerade is still nominally in place, but now the information any vanilla mortal needs to understand the basics of the fair folk and others walking amongst them are available on the internet. Following the near genocidal battle in Chicago between wizards, faries, giants, vampires, werewolves, old gods and others it's more that people are playing along with TheMasquerade during daylight but most know better behind closed doors and are working to figure out how to defend and protect themselves from supernatural threats.

* In Tim Lebbon's ''Relic'' trilogy, the militant nephilim Mallian and his supporters amongst the Kin (surviving supernatural beings in the modern world) have anticipated "the Ascent", a time when they put the fairy, Grace under their control and exploiting her RealityWarper powers - they'll show themselves in public and take over the world. It didn't quite work out, but "the Ascent" did happen to a lesser degree. The militants slaughter a contingent of the U.S army and murder a trio of internet celebrities as well as deliberately rip a policeman in half in front of his partner's body cam. These events break into mainstream tv news and now the world knows there are supernatural beings out there.

*** The Masquerade cracking has caused the Camarilla to form a tighter knit, secondary masquerade community where they only allow membership to those they view as elite. They abandoned [=SchreckNet=] and other modern technology completely, due to that being how the intelligence agencies found them. They now use [[InstantMessengerPigeon carrier pigeon]], [[GenericGraffiti Graffiti]], and DeadDrop (sometimes in the form of a hypontized human) to communicate.

* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'''s Network Zero pursues this outcome through the power of the internet.

* Seeing as ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' was the TropeNamer for TheMasquerade, it's not unexpected that this would happen. Two of the proposed endgames for ''Vampire'' involve the {{Masquerade}} breaking in two right before the world goes to Hell.

* Seeing as it was the TropeNamer, it's not unexpected that this would happen. Two of the proposed endgames for ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' involve the {{Masquerade}} breaking in two right before the world goes to Hell.

* Wiki/SCPFoundation:

* In ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' it is increasingly fraying and by the time of ''Literature/TheAnnihilationScore'' it has become public knowledge that people are appearing with superpowers, though it's still kept secret ''why'' this is happening.
** While badly fraying at the edges at the end of ''Literature/TheAnnihilationScore'', by the end of ''Literature/TheNightmareStacks'' it has been well and truly broken by the invasion of The Host of Air And Darkness while ''The Delirium Brief'' deals with the immediate aftermath.

* ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': a bit of a ZigZaggedTrope, as the revelations about the existence of superhumans - and of the Archon unit - was a key factor in the series' first major StoryArc. On the one hand, evidence of superhumans had been documented publicly since the 1980s, though up until the 2000s most people dismissed them as hoaxes. On the other hand, few were aware of how many there were, and even ARC Light were caught off-guard by the number of villains which attacked the team after the Archon announcement. They initially tried to keep the existence of aliens a secret after this, with [[HornyDevil Dabbler]] using illusions to disguise herself as human, but this was quickly scuppered when [[spoiler: an [[HumanAliens Alari]] refugee ship landed in the African country owned by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Deus]] and publicly requesting assistance from the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations.]] Whether the [[{{Masquerade}} Veil of the Supernatural]] (which was created by a coalition of [[FunctionalMagic wizards]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent were-folk]], TheFairFolk, and other magical beings, and probably helped hide supers and aliens as well) will hold up in the face of all of this remains to be seen.

* Many totalitarian regimes throughout history kept their worst acts, such as UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, [[EmpireWithADarkSecret secret to everyone]] until the lid was blown right open. (Or at least they tried. Plenty of people, including many Germans, had ''some'' idea that ThoseWackyNazis were killing "undesirables." But they often often didn't know just ''how'' awful it was, and/or they turned a blind eye to the ElephantInTheLivingRoom due to BystanderSyndrome and fear of punishment for challenging the government.) Many others, most notably communist states, kept a "[[DoubleThink state approved reality]]" that would be fed constantly to their people, justifying the famine and suffering within their own borders while keeping the prosperity of other nations hidden. How effectively this worked varied. UsefulNotes/NorthKorea hasn't shed the habit yet.