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{{trope}}
[[File:
After passing the "[[Raygun Gothic|big, shiny and sciencey!]]" period, a highly developed civilization can enter a stage where technology continues to advance, but becomes a lot sleeker and subtler. At the same time, society gets epic. Jumpsuits will start being replaced by togas, robes and such garments, bustling [[Mega City|mega-cities]] by [[Shining City|brilliant]] arcologies. There will be [[Power Crystal|crystals]]. Lots and ''lots'' of [[Data Crystal|crystals]]. This world of tomorrow may end up looking much like Ancient Greece while still enjoying ultratech comforts and possibly even [[No Poverty|eradicating poverty]].
▲After passing the "[[Raygun Gothic|big, shiny and sciencey!]]" period, a highly developed civilization can enter a stage where technology continues to advance, but becomes a lot sleeker and subtler. At the same time, society gets epic. Jumpsuits will start being replaced by togas, robes and such garments, bustling [[Mega City|mega-cities]] by [[Shining City|brilliant]] arcologies. There will be [[Power Crystal|crystals]]. Lots and ''lots'' of [[Data Crystal|crystals]]. This world of tomorrow may end up looking much like Ancient Greece while still enjoying ultratech comforts and possibly even [[No Poverty|eradicating poverty]].
It's kinda like the civilization-scale equivalent of crossing the [[Bishonen Line]].
Any society with
The same sense of style permeates other facets of society, not just clothing and architecture. Instead of a president or an assembly, the [[Babylon
While there's a definite trend towards giant and architecturally impressive glass towers in the
As [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' Magazine]] put it{{context}}, this is nearly the opposite of [[Steampunk]], as Steampunk seeks to make technology more viewable, easier to connect with than the sleek shiny technology of this era. Compare [[City of Gold]]. See also [[Data Crystal]].▼
▲As Time Magazine put it, this is nearly the opposite of [[Steampunk]], as Steampunk seeks to make technology more viewable, easier to connect with than the sleek shiny technology of this era. Compare [[City of Gold]]. See also [[Data Crystal]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Macross]]'' sort of shows this.▼
▲* Olympus from ''[[Appleseed]]'' is a classic example. At least to the outside.
* ''[[
▲* [[Macross]] sort of shows this.
▲* ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'' had the Silver Millennium in the distant past and Crystal [[Tokyo Is the Center of The Universe|Tokyo]] in the distant future, though neither are shown with Togas. We mostly see the Royalty and Soldiers, which consist of a [[Pimped-Out Dress]] and Sailor Suits respectively for the women, and a Suit/Vaguely Medieval Armour and a vaguely military uniform, both apparently based on boy's school uniforms, for the men
** Though they don't appear anywhere else, the girls are shown wearing togas during the Silver Millennium in the footage that goes along with Tuxedo Mirage, the first ending theme of the Super season.
* The space civilizations in the ''[[Galaxy Angel (
* The aliens in ''[[Fantastic Children]]''.
* The world of gods in ''[[Ah!
* In the anime adaptation of ''[[Bokurano]]'', {{spoiler|it is implied that one of these is responsible for the robot combats that are destroying universes, gathering the energy gained from them or something-the anime isn't exactly as deep as the manga...}}
* The Guild in ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* Many depictions of [[Superman]]'s homeworld of Krypton fit this trope. [[Post-
** For maximum effect, post
* The story "The Reformers" in ''[[Weird Science]]'', 1953, had a perfect utopian place with ultratech elements but several flowing robes and stone arches. Also, it turned out to be Heaven.
* ''[[Elf Quest]]'' pretty much starts out this way, and much of the main storyline involves getting back to the [[Time Machine]] (which has a similar atmosphere). Notably, the spires and togas are a present day invention by an advanced alien race, but become the future when everyone is sent back 10,000 years in time halfway through the opening narration.
* When [[Robot War|Skynet]] is erased from history at the end of ''[[Robocop vs. Terminator]]'', the new future heavily resembles this trope.
* In the first color ''[[Zot
* The milespires of ''[[Magnus, Robot Fighter]]'' are arguably a deconstruction of this trope. The upper class at the top of the spires are enlightened [[Psychic Powers|psychics]] in togas who have become decadent and slothful, protected by a [[Master Computer]], while the radicals on the lower levels live in a [[Used Future]].
* In [[Silver Surfer]]'s past, when he was still just Norrinn Radd living on Zenn-La, his planet was very much like this. Their world was so nearly perfect, with beautiful and exotic architecture and clothing, that everyone was bored, and Norrinn most of all.
== Film ==
* ''[[Bill and
* The 1978 ''[[Superman (
* Discussed and parodied in the narration of ''[[Idiocracy]]'' with some accompanying images of a futuristic world showing bearded guys in togas among the crystal spires of their city. The camera pulls back to reveal that these images are all part of a mural at a carnival, in front of which a bunch of not-too-bright and decidedly non-futuristic-looking people are waiting in line to get into some kind of exhibition or maybe carnival ride.
* Subverted in ''[[Logan's Run]]''; while the post-apocalyptic society of the film is at first glance a utopia, its prosperity is maintained by a [[Master Computer]] that ritually executes all citizens on their
** And in the book, the age is
* In 1973's ''[[Godzilla
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', of course. The Jedi dress in long, hooded robes, and are fashioned after monks. The senators, politicians, and rich people in general wear long robes that are ornate and colorful. Everyday guys typically wear strange fashions as well, for example Han Solo dresses similar to a wild west gunslinger. Fighter pilots wore jumpsuits for practical reasons though. Most cities have the Crystal Spire part, especially Coruscant, but Naboo has it as well.
** That's just the upper levels of society, though. The middle class lives in a [[Used Future]], and the lower class (including the poor, and, in [[The Empire]], the non-humans) has [[Dystopia]]. This is much more apparent in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] than in the movies, but hints can be seen on [[Single Biome Planet|Tatooine]] and Coruscant.
** It's also used to demonstrate the changing times. As the prequels progress, technology, for example, shifts from the elegant starships of
*** One of the best examples is Taris in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''. The upper level is neat and clean and happy, the middle level is dim and ruled by warring gangs, and the bottom level is a tent city full of trash heaps and surrounded by fences to keep out the evil mutants.
* At the tram station in ''[[Star Trek: The
* The [[
** Wells actually
* In ''[[
* ''[[Kin
* This aesthetic is featured in the last sequence of ''[[Heavy Metal (
* Some of the upper-crust civilians in ''[[Demolition Man]]'' dress in long ornate robes, in reference to their attempts to re-engineer society to conform to this trope. As the film is set only [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], conventional clothing is also common, and architecture hasn't yet fallen prey to this aesthetic.
* Asgard in the 2011 ''[[Thor (
* Although the [[Firefly
* ''[[The Fifth Element]]'', along with other kinds of styles.
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* Probably a shipload of ancient pulp [[Sci Fi]] that we can't name. Heck, the good aliens wore togas in the 1930s ''[[Lensman]]'' series that started [[Space Opera]]!
** Note that all of the clothing that the good aliens (the Arisians) wore, in fact the bodies and cities and everything else about the Arisians, was a mental projection which was intended to fit whatever made the visitor to Arisia [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|most comfortable]]. This point was made explicitly in chapter 3 of "First Lensman", where all of the people saw different things: aliens in togas, male humans in uniform, professors at large universities, 7 foot tall women, disembodied intelligences, etc. There are references to it in the rest of the books when the fellow aliens (Tregonsee, Worsel, Nadreck, etc) briefly discuss their experience on Arisia. They even use the mental projection trick to fool Kim Kinnison into "seeing" one of the forms of the bad aliens, so when he beats one of them (Gharlane of Eddore) he thinks it was a rogue Arisian. The children of the Lens do realize that the Arisians have no physical form at all.
* In [[
* [[
* Many of [[Arthur C. Clarke
** The "helicopters decentralise civilization" idea popped up in several Clarke stories during that period. Clarke didn't foresee that flying a helicopter would be harder and more expensive than driving a car, to the point where not everyone can do it.
*** Come to that, not ''everyone'' can drive a car...The "civilisation decentralised" idea also crops up in Alfred Bester's ''[[
**** Cars or helicopters, there are still logistics considerations. As [[Larry Niven]] wrote about in ''Flash Crowd'', ''the Final Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club'', and another short(murder mystery) the title of which I can't recall, the most straightforward way to achieve societal decentralization is teleportation tech.
** In "Against the Fall of Night"/''The City and the Stars'', the city of Diaspar is a classic example of this trope.
** [[Arthur C. Clarke
* The Martians in [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]''. Most of the elements seem like a fantastic version of Egypt, with books written in hieroglyphs that sing when you touch them, houses built of crystal pillars and traveling using flocks of birds, all in the middle of a great desert.
* Doubly subverted in arguably the most chilling scene of James Blish's very dark ''The Day After Judgement'' (a.k.a. the second half of ''The Devil's Day''). [[The End of the World
* The homeworld of the Piersons' Puppeteers in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' setting.
** Sort of. The technology is very advanced, what with teleportation that lets you easily "walk" anywhere on the planet, furniture that extrudes itself from walls and floors, and nigh-indestructible building material. Also, because the puppeteers are cowards (and proud of it) almost nothing on the planet can hurt you. However, the planet is extremely crowded (the population is
* The ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]'' novels mention a rare example of a post-Crystal Spires and Togas [[Used Future]]: the capital city, built out of crystal by the Vampires and then fallen into disrepair once they were driven out.
** Indeed, they were
* In ''[[
** It should be noted that the Pemalites were designed by God, aka The Ellimist, to be that way. The Iskoort have architecture that's more like legos and they have spires because the ground is generally too marshy to build on. The Andalites had cities, but because they're basically herd animals, they hated them.
* ''[[A Tale of Time City]]'' by [[Diana Wynne Jones]]. Statues, glass domes, technology which looks like 'a pipe organ' and the caskets (which are actually some kind of advanced time-battery-thing), amongst others. The people wear jumpsuits most of the time, but robes are donned for official functions.
* The interex in ''[[Warhammer
* DJ MacHale's ''[[The Pendragon Adventure]]'' has the "closer to nature" future version of Earth, Third Earth. {{spoiler|But of course it gets completely and utterly screwed over by our resident [[Magnificent Bastard]] and becomes a [[Crapsack World]].}}
* Subverted in [[
** Actually invented by H. G. Wells in ''[[Men
* [[Tanith Lee]]'s two-volume ''[[Biting the Sun|Four BEE]]'' series portrays this as a semi-dystopia.
* Most of [[Iain Banks|Iain M. Banks']] novels, especially those set in the fictional universe known as [[The Culture]].
* Played with/averted in Stephen King's ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, as [[Sad Clown|jokester]]-qua-[[Young Gun|gunslinger]] Eddie Dean abandons the last of his naivete in realizing that that city of
* This is the stated goal of [[Alvin Maker]] in the series by [[Orson Scott Card]].
* Deconstructed in ''[[Nightside|Paths Not Taken]]'', in which Lilith's idealized vision of a city resembles this trope, but anyone who's actually ''lived'' in a city can see that she's failed to take logistics into account. It's big on the crystal spires, fountains, and other frills, but lacking in such necessary amenities as sewers.
* ''[[Realm of the Elderlings
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* The Minbari in ''[[Babylon 5]].'' They have the crystal part down pat in their architecture but their social development is stuck in thousand year [[Medieval Stasis]].
** The Utopian and Enlightened bit of this trope gets subverted ''hard'' in the 4th season, {{spoiler|when they fall into [[Civil War]]}}.
* The ''[[
* The Time Lords of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' represented a civilization of this type; the trope was subverted in a couple of ways. Even their first appearance, which shows them highly advanced and almost utopian, establishes their civilization as so boring and pompous that the Doctor [[Defector From Decadence|couldn't wait to run away from them]]. Later appearances [[Depending
** "Last of the Time Lords" has a flashback of a Time Lord in long robes standing on a hill, with the Citadel of the Time Lords behind him, a great city encased in a glass sphere.
* Subverted in the 2007 ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]'' series, where Mongo's capital, Nascent City, is all crystal spires and togas, while the rest of the planet is a [[After the End|post-environmental-catastrophe]] [[Scavenger World]].
** This is a possible rip-off of "The Cloud Minders" from the third season of ''[[Star Trek:
** This in turn is a nod to the Eloi and Morlocks in H.G. Wells' ''[[Time Machine]]'' (1895). Only in this case, the bestial Morlocks hunted and ate the childlike and pastoral Eloi, and the Morlocks had all the technology and weapons while the Eloi had degenerated into barely intelligent humanoids who knew no technology at all.
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20140331223625/http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Beings_of_Light Beings of Light] and their [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105110729/http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Ship_of_Lights Ships of Lights] in [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|the original ''
** As did the original colonies. In the pilot, ''Saga of a Star World'', The Quorum of the Twelve on the ''Atlantia'' and its reconstitution afterwards featured togas. And crystalline pyramids are wrecked by the Cylon bombardment of Caprica.
*** This is largely averted in
* The Ancient race in the ''[[Stargate]]'' television series, especially ''[[Stargate
** They are not the only one. Almost everyone, the Goa'uld (and the Tok'ra), the Tollans, the Asgard, later even the humans use crystal-based technology. For most civilizations, the crystals are only the guts. The outward appearance varies wildly. The Asgard and ancient stuff looks crystal spire-y, except when it looks paleolithic.
** In ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]'' we see that following the downfall of the System Lords, the Tok'ra apparently stopped hiding and now have a city made of crystal skyscrapers. They are also fond of wearing toga-like clothing.
* The inner Alliance worlds of ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
* In the ''[[
* The Australian kids' TV show ''[[The Girl From Tomorrow]]'' featured a future like this.
* The Altrusian Civilization from the original ''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]''.
* The title race from the ''[[Star Trek:
* [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|The 1970s ''Wonder Woman'' TV
* Parodied in ''[[Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger]]: 100 Years After'' where the audience is shown a picture of a futuristic city, which turns out to be a picture; we are then told that the future is much like the present except it has better cell phones.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Crops up in [[Warhammer
** Eldar especially play this completely straight, right down to crystal spires and togas. They used to play it even straighter before the Fall.
*** Eldar do not wear togas. The height of their empire was millennia before togas were invented, after all.
** Prospero's capital Tizca, the pre-Heresy homeworld of the Thousand Sons fits the description practically to a T with its spires of glass and populace dressing in robes. The Sons are universally regarded as [[Warrior Scholars]] and are shown with a collective penchant for the fine arts, Ahriman himself an aspiring vintner. Tizca's libraries are the greatest collective repository of knowledge outside of Terra within the Imperium, and the living standards the population enjoys one of the highest. [[It Got Worse|And then came the Space Wolves...]]
* As usual, Atlantis in ''[[
* This is a well-established [[Signature Style|Aesthetic]] known as 'Crystal Future' in ''[[
* The elite top two classes live like this in ''[[Paranoia]]''. Everyone else lives in
* The upper classes of the Third Imperium in ''[[Traveller]]''. Even more the Vilani in the volume ''Intersteller Wars''.
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== Video Games ==
* The planet Le Marie Glennecia (AKA, Mariglenn, AKA "Eden") from ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'' is almost literally this, featuring copious amounts of actual spires and togas, and to top it all off, possesses what is obviously ''extremely'' advanced technology. How advanced? Advanced enough to move their entire planet, intact, to a completely different galaxy, possibly a completely different universe, and surround it with a time stasis field. When they finally return to normal space, they spend ''10,000 years'' waiting for the return of the return of Kisala. And all of this is completely inapparent just from looking at their stone-paved city streets or the pretty, ancient Greece-style masonry buildings. If the spires were crystalline, it would be a flawless literal example of this trope.
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''{{'}}s Spira is this in spades. At least it ''was'' before [[Eldritch Abomination|Sin]] destroyed almost every major settlement (periodically terrorizing the small remaining ones too). The only major city left, Bevelle, is mainly experienced by the player via a few cut-scene at one point in the game, but its appearance fits the trope perfectly.
* ''[[Xenogears]]'' has Solaris, which fits this to a T in reference to any other land based civilization.
* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' bleeds this in all three games. In this tropers OP, this series is the best example seen in any video game.
* Neo Arcadia in ''[[
* The City in ''[[
* ''[[Galactic Civilizations
* ''[[Sid
** This might be a faction-related thing; the telepathy/planetmind techs are usually associated with the Gaians, who tend towards a nature-friendly version of aesthetic.
* The Aeon Illuminate of ''[[
* Atlantis in the ''[[Ecco the Dolphin]]: Defender of the Future'' fits this trope (especially the crystal part), existing in a civilization around the year 3500 in which humans and [[Sapient Cetaceans|dolphins]] coexist in harmony.
* The nation of Esthar in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', which is actually a gigantic (and initially ''invisible'') city, is all crystal and glass tubes and antigravity technology. Even the people (save its president) wear ankle-length robes.
* While the entire nation of the D'ni in the ''[[Myst]]'' series was - probably - bereft of togas, their technology and archaeology almost definitely falls into this situation. Plus, they sowed the seeds of their own destruction, and whatnot.
* Subverted in ''[[
* Lemuria in ''[[Golden Sun
* This is somewhat present in the elven architecture in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.
** Night Elves have a lot of Greek-style columns and spires and their racial leader changed from a [[Stripperific]] warrior getup in ''[[Warcraft III]]'' to a toga-ish dress.
** Meanwhile, Blood Elves have even taller spires and crystals everywhere (although the crystals tend to have creepy looking evil eyes staring out from them) with magical doodads all over the place.
** The Draenai seem to have embraced this as well, at least the crystal spires part, their buildings being crystalline inter-dimensional spaceships or something like that. They mostly dress like anyone else but their racial leader appears in a slightly toga-like robe.
** The highborne night elves where a (evil) textbook example of this at their time, excepting the lack of council. Queen Azshara palace even has a runway and a platarform made purely of magic glass
* ''[[
** Well, by the time you visit it, anyway. Zeal was originally run on solar power, but they switched to Lavos power because [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen]] [[The Dragon|Zeal]] told them they didn't need the Sun Stone anymore. In an optional sidequest, you can obtain the Sun Stone and use it to create Lucca's best weapon. Awesome power source, indeed!
* The ''[[Metroid]]'' universe has the Chozo, an advanced race of terrestrial birds who eventually became so intelligent they developed telepathic abilities. After their technology reached its peak most of them chose to become space hippies, living in harmony with nature where they could seek greater spiritual enlightenment. Most of the ruins they left behind are made stone and what little advanced technology there is seems to be designed to blend in with the surroundings.
** Or in the case of Elysia, a [[Scenery Porn|very pretty]] retro [[Steampunk]] design.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Metal Arms]]'', a game set on a planet where all the inhabitants are robots, has the equivalent with the underground-dwelling [[Precursors|Morbots]]. The Droids and Mils on the surface seem to have conventional (if advanced) technology and architecture, with industrial and mechanical styling all built out of metal (duh), whereas the Morbot Region is all purple, white, and glowing, very sleek, and with bridges and doors that assemble or shift out of the way in little flying pieces, and [[Tron Lines]] everywhere.
* [[Soul Series|''Soul Calibur III'']], When Siegfried defeats Nightmare, he sacrifices himself and using his [[BFS|sword]], he plunges the world into a utopian society literally ''covered'' in crystal.
** It's implied however, that this 'utopia' is achieved through everyone on the planet dying to prevent war and suffering.
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Illium looks like this, minus the togas; presumably, it's standard asari architecture. Of course, [[Crap Saccharine World|the looks are deceiving]]; Illium is a [[Scenery Porn|very well disguised]] [[Wretched Hive]] where everything is legal if you've got the right paperwork, and being a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] is necessary if you want to get anywhere.
** The asari homeworld Thessia itself in [[Mass Effect 3]] fits the trope much better... {{spoiler|If it weren't in the process of being Reaped.}}
* The Lunar Capital in ''[[Touhou]]'' is a Japanese
* Played literally with Hallifax in the MUD ''[[Lusternia]]'', a floating crystal city held aloft by [[Whatevermancy|Aeromancy]]. Interesting in that the denizens are ''also'' made of crystal.
** Though as with the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' example above, it's misleading: Hallifax is a [[Lawful Neutral]] meritocracy, where [[For Science!|scientists are revered]] and the proles are [[Happiness in Slavery|content to serve their "betters"]].
* ''[[Phantasy Star II]]'' has elements of this in its mix of [[Ghibli Hills]] and tower architecture on Mota; it's stated [[All There in the Manual|in the manual]] that Palm is a full-blown version at this point (but you never go there). In ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'', {{spoiler|Rykros}} runs on this aesthetic.
* ''[[Diablo III]]'' has the High Heavens where the [[Our Angels Are Different|hooded angels]] are living. So [[Scenery Porn|beautiful and awe inspiring]] {{spoiler|until [[Big Bad|D]][[Satan|i]][[Eldritch Abomination|a]][[Big Red Devil|b]][[The Corrupter|l]][[The Dreaded|o]] came in and made it into a [[Scenery Gorn|nightmarish ground]]}}.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[
* According to ''[[
* Quellar in ''[[Starslip]]''.
* This seems to be the case in ''[[Las Lindas]]'', due to the efficiency of nanotechnology.
* In ''[[
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** There is also humanity's more advanced descendants in the year 5 million, as opposed to their stupid, vicious counterparts that live underground.
** During the time slip while Fry is frozen in the first episode, we see New York being rebuilt as a more Classical-looking city after being destroyed. Then it is destroyed again.
* New Olympus in ''[[
* Atlantis in ''[[Atlantis:
* The entire planet of Galaluna from ''[[
{{reflist}}
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