History Main / Unperson

This trope is OlderThanFeudalism -- traitors and other such undesirables in the Roman Empire were known to be given this treatment. Website/TheOtherWiki's article on it shows Roman murals that have had unwanted people's faces chiselled out of them.

[[caption-width-right:280:The consequences of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness falling out of favor]] with [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin the Father of Nations]].[[note]]That's Nikolai Yezhov, chief executioner of Stalin's Great Purge, himself purged in the end.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:280:The consequences of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness falling out of favor]] with [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin the Father of Nations]].[[note]]That's Nikolai Yezhov, chief executioner of Stalin's Great Purge, himself purged at the end.[[/note]]]]

->''"Nothing will remain of you; not a name in a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as in the future. You will never have existed."''

* ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'' has a variant of this with the BigBad [[spoiler:Salem. Ozpin's secret society has been fighting against her for centuries, and have maintained absolute secrecy on her nature out of a belief that her existence would cause panic. [[{{Deconstruction{{ The problem is that this]] also means that ''no one except'' the people in Ozpin's circle even knows about her and thus leaves everyone else completely unable to deal with her forces when she inevitably strikes. And because [[ControlFreak Ozpin makes it a point to always be in charge in tandem with his own stubborn unwillingness to change his tactics]] out of fear of people finding out his DarkSecret and shared past with her, it leads to many people becoming very disillusioned with him and greatly cripples the effectiveness of his faction against her.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{hololive}}'': In a meta-example, members who have their contracts terminated not only have their Youtube channels scrubbed of content (meaning everything is privated and made inaccessible), but they are also completely unacknowledged on the official Hololive website. The key point seems to be "terminated", as members who graduated (i.e. retired) are acknowledged as alums on the official site, even those who suddenly left the company like Vesper and Magni of Holostars English.
** [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationThreeFantasy Uruha Rushia]] had her contract terminated on 22nd February 2022, with Cover Corp.'s official notice citing leaking of confidential information. As mentioned above, her channel was scrubbed in early March. She is still occasionally brought up by her genmates in Gen 3 and various members took pains to stress to their viewers her name isn't taboo (e.g. both Calliope Mori and Kureiji Ollie were linked to Rushia due to their own associations with death).
** [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationOne Yozora Mel]] had her contract terminated on 16th January 2024. Like Rushia, the official reason given was leaking of confidential information [[note]] Mel herself via an alternate account would explain that she'd been talking to a friend and [[LooseLips accidentally let confidential information slip that later got out]] [[/note]]. Her channel was scrubbed in February 2024, with her original songs being taken off of various platforms. In addition, the Augmented Reality app Hololy (which allowed fans to take pictures using their official models), she was removed from the list of available characters almost immediately after her termination was announced, and an apology was issued to people who'd bought her alternate costumes for use in the app [[note]] Hololy generally has the talent in their original outfits, but alternate costumes are offered for a limited time around special occasions like Christmas or Halloween[[/note]]. Unlike the case with Rushia, based on the reactions of others like Cover Corp. president Yagoo or Friend A (both of whom posted messages thanking Mel for all her work over the years), it appears the leak was acknowledged by the company as being accidental, but because it was still a major breach of contract Mel had to be subjected to the most serious penalty. Cover took pains to allow Mel to post a farewell message on her official Twitter account, and in their official notice on her termination even updated the English translation to stress that her termination was only done after consulting with Mel herself, in order to make it clear that this was a very reluctant parting.
** The absolute best example of this would be Hitomi Chris, who was originally meant to be part of the first generation. Her contract was terminated a mere three weeks after she first debuted, with her only streaming once. Unlike the likes of Rushia or Mel, she has never been acknowledged or referred to (though in fairness, at the time Hololive didn't really invoke CastHerd, meaning unlike later generations she and her genmates didn't train together to develop strong bonds).
** It should be pointed out that several former members are likewise unacknowledged officially, including the likes of [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationFive Mano Aloe]], or Suzaku and Kaoru of Holostars. In their case, it seems to be more about how they weren't part of the company for very long.

** [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationOne Yozora Mel]] had her contract terminated on 16th January 2024. Like Rushia, the official reason given was leaking of confidential information [[note]] Mel herself via an alternate account would explain that she'd been talking to a friend and [[LooseLips accidentally let confidential information slip that later got out]] [[/note]]. Her channel was scrubbed in February 2024, with her original songs being taken off of various platforms. In addition, the Augmented Reality app Hololy (which allowed fans to take pictures using their official models), she was removed from the list of available characters almost immediately after her termination was announced, and an apology was issued to people who'd bought her alternate costumes for use in the app [[/note]] Hololy generally has the talent in their original outfits, but alternate costumes are offered for a limited time around special occasions like Christmas or Halloween[[/note]]. Unlike the case with Rushia, based on the reactions of others like Cover Corp. president Yagoo or Friend A (both of whom posted messages thanking Mel for all her work over the years), it appears the leak was acknowledged by the company as being accidental, but because it was still a major breach of contract Mel had to be subjected to the most serious penalty. Cover took pains to allow Mel to post a farewell message on her official Twitter account, and in their official notice on her termination even updated the English translation to stress that her termination was only done after consulting with Mel herself, in order to make it clear that this was a very reluctant parting.