The Coming Race

Imagine a brave explorer who falls into a huge underground world full of super-smart people called the Ana who live forever-ish and use magic energy called Vril to fly like birds, shoot laser beams from sticks to zap enemies, and make lights that never go out. A strong girl named Zee falls in love with him, but he has to run away because these powerful people might come to the surface one day and take over our whole world since we're not as strong as them—it's like finding a hidden paradise that's also super scary!

In Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 novel 'The Coming Race,' a nameless young English aristocrat accompanies an elderly mining engineer into a vast subterranean chasm in a remote region, where they discover the advanced civilization of the Ana, or Vril-ya. This hollow-earth society harnesses 'Vril,' an omnipotent psychical force enabling feats like levitation, disintegration rays, self-illumination, and near-immortality through harmonious living. The Ana dwell in magnificent cities like Koom-Posh, governed by a democratic yet aristocratic system where intellectually superior Gy (females) are physically larger and initiate courtship, reversing Victorian gender norms. Integrated by young Taë and courted by his powerful sister Zee, the narrator experiences utopian splendor but learns of prophecies foretelling the Ana's surface migration due to overpopulation, dooming weaker humanity. Rejecting Zee's love—due to racial incompatibility and fears of hybrid offspring—he escapes via Vril-induced trance, returning with a dire warning of the 'Coming Race' that could conquer the world with effortless superiority, blending awe at technological marvels with ominous racial hierarchies.