History Main / VestigialEmpire

** This also extends to the population, which has not only whittled down to merely six citizens, but of whom most are inactive in the faction: Dream himself is in prison, Punz and Ponk have been brainwashed by [[Characters/DreamSMPTheEggpire the Egg]], and Alyssa is retired from the server. This leaves Eret and Callahan the only remaining members still loyal to the country. By Season Four, with the Eggpire gone, Ponk has since struck out on his own, and Punz is more loyal to a fugitive Dream than to the Greater SMP itself. Even Callahan has joined Kinoko Kingdom during this time. Thus, Eret is left as the sole ruler of an essentially-defunct country. By the end of the season, things are beginning to turn around as Eret has formed the Knights of Hope with Aimsey and [=HBomb=] -- an alliance dedicated to getting the revive book from Dream.
* Taken to the extreme in ''WebVideo/HitlerRants,'' in which UsefulNotes/NaziGermany consists entirely of a single bunker located in Berlin, not helped by the fact that members of Hitler's staff actively plot antics against him, not to mention the ''entire navy'' (which also consists of two U-Boat crews and one drunken Captain, all of whom also support antics). This also seems to be more or less the case for Gaddafi's Libya, though it is averted by Stalin and the Soviet Union, both of which are still extremely powerful.

* VestigalEmpire/FanWorks
* {{VestigalEmpire/Literature}}
* VestigalEmpire/LiveActionTV
* VestigalEmpire/TabletopGames
* VestigalEmpire/VideoGames
* VestigalEmpire/RealLife

* The Earth Federation from the Universal Century universe of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is this, in a pattern that echoes Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall''. The Federation won the One Year War in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' through superior power and production capability, but at the cost of half of the world's population. Seven years later, in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' the Earth Federation has weakened to the point that {{the remnant}}s of Zeon are still a serious threat, and a StateSec organization is intentionally sabotaging the Federation from within so that they can take over. Afterwards, in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', even though Zeon has been defeated twice already, the Earth Federation is so weak that the Neo-Zeon is able to mount an attack that nearly makes the Earth uninhabitable. Then in ''Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash'', the Federation elite begin openly persecuting their citizens by enslaving them, inspiring more widespread rebellion. By the time of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' (60 years after ''CCA''), the Federation is so weak and ineffectual that it falls to a militia to oppose TheEmpire. Despite all of this, however, the Earth Federation is the eventual victor in each of these conflicts, if only through outlasting the various threats to its survival. All thanks to several RagtagBunchOfMisfits constantly fighting said wars with the help on one Gundam to win them. If the live-action film ''G-Saviour'' is canon, then the Federation finally collapses around UC 200, when the Colonies finally achieve independence and form a new government together with the Earth, but this time with the Colonies (renamed "Settlements") as equal diplomatic partners. [[TheEmpire Not that this new government is any better than the Federation ever was.]]

* VestigalEmpire/WebOriginal

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' shows us Chin Village. Three-hundred years before the series, the Earth Kingdom (except for the capital Ba Sing Se) was grabbed under the boot heel of [[TheNapoleon Chin the Conqueror]]. When he died, his empire imploded, leaving only the teeny-tiny Chin Village.
--> "We used to be a great society! And ''now'' look at us!"
* By Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder,'' Lord Hater's empire, which was a GalacticSuperpower in Season 1, has lost a large chunk of its territory thanks to Hater's VillainDecay, causing him to go from the galaxy's supreme GalacticConqueror to the "twenty-ninth greatest." Much of the season revolves around his attempts to [[ResurgentEmpire get back on top]].
* [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]] has become this in ''Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration5'', where before the Kingdom of Equestria once spanned the near-entirety of the continent and stretched from both coastlines with a number of large cities and possessed all manner of biomes and climates from arid deserts, frigid tundras, dense forests, and humid marshlands that all were so far apart that travel by train was the fastest available method. Now in Generation Five, the population has been so severely reduced that their territory now consists of just a coastal township, a mountaintop city, and a woodland village: all of which are within relative daily walking distance from each-other.

* [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]] has become this in ''Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration5'', where before the Kingdom of Equestria once spanned the near-entirety of the continent and stretched from both coastlines and possessed all manner of biomes and climates from arid deserts, frigid tundras, dense forests, and humid marshlands that all were so far apart that travel by train was the fastest available method. Now in Generation Five the population has been so severely reduced to just a coastal township, a mountaintop city, and a woodland village: all within relative walking distance from each-other.

* The Earth Federation from the Universal Century universe of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is this, in a pattern that echoes Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall''. The Federation won the One Year War in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' through superior power and production capability, but at the cost of half of the world's population. Seven years later, in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' the Earth Federation has weakened to the point that {{the remnant}}s of Zeon are still a serious threat, and a StateSec organization is intentionally sabotaging the Federation from within so that they can take over. Afterwards, in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', even though Zeon has been defeated twice already, the Earth Federation is so weak that the Neo-Zeon is able to mount an attack that nearly makes the Earth uninhabitable. Then in ''Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash'', the Federation elite begin openly persecuting their citizens by enslaving them, inspiring more widespread rebellion. By the time of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' (60 years after ''CCA''), the Federation is so weak and ineffectual that it falls to a militia to oppose TheEmpire. Despite all of this, however, the Earth Federation is the eventual victor in each of these conflicts, if only through outlasting the various threats to its survival. If the live-action film ''G-Saviour'' is canon, then the Federation finally collapses around UC 200, when the Colonies finally achieve independence and form a new government together with the Earth, but this time with the Colonies (renamed "Settlements") as equal diplomatic partners. [[TheEmpire Not that this new government is any better than the Federation ever was.]]

* The Earth Federation from the Universal Century universe of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is this, in a pattern that echoes Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall''. The Federation won the One Year War in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' through superior power and production capability, but at the cost of half of the world's population. Seven years later, in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' the Earth Federation has weakened to the point that {{the remnant}}s of Zeon are still a serious threat, and a StateSec organization is intentionally sabotaging the Federation from within so that they can take over. Afterwards, in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', even though Zeon has been defeated twice already, the Earth Federation is so weak that the Neo-Zeon is able to mount an attack that nearly makes the Earth uninhabitable. By the time of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' (60 years after ''CCA''), the Federation is so weak and ineffectual that it falls to a militia to oppose TheEmpire. Despite all of this, however, the Earth Federation is the eventual victor in each of these conflicts, if only through outlasting the various threats to its survival. If the live-action film ''G-Saviour'' is canon, then the Federation finally collapses around UC 200, when the Colonies finally achieve independence and form a new government together with the Earth, but this time with the Colonies (renamed "Settlements") as equal diplomatic partners. [[TheEmpire Not that this new government is any better than the Federation ever was.]]

* VestigalEmpire/RealLife

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''Webcomic/GeneCatlow'' fanfic ''The Basalt City Chronicles'', the Empire of Smilodons once ruled an empire spanning from Burma in the southwest and Chile in the southeast, to the Bering Strait in the north. They're now down to a group of islands in the Bering Strait, though they've still got plenty of their ancient national treasure...
* In the ''Fanfic/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsdayStories'' for ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers,'' there are nods to Austria still feeling this despite being one of the core members of the [[TheFederation Alpine Confederation]], though with painful justification. Having been reduced to a neutral UsefulNotes/ColdWar buffer by the time [[WorldWarIII Doomsday]] came, he was powerless to stop the bloodshed [[spoiler:and save Hungary, which would come to haunt him in the years to come]].
* ''Fanfic/StrengthsOfTheHeartAndMind'': Long ago, the Dark Bonneter-led Corona Empire ruled a large portion of the world. Eventually, rebellion broke out and their territory was reduced to the small town of Varia in the Cap Kingdom. Most Dark Bonneters today are content with their small settlements, but not [[BigBad Conicus]].
* ''Fanfic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria'': By the time of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming]], this is the fate that had befallen both [[TheHorde the Mongrellian Horde]] ''and'' [[TheEmpire the Griffin Empire]], which had collapsed in ways similar to the Mongols and the Roman Empire, respectively (fittingly, as they are presented as {{Exp|y}}ies of those nations).
* The Griffon Empire of Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse offers an interesting twist on this trope. Instead of the Empire shrinking, it shattered into dozens of feuding kingdoms. Collectively, the Kingdoms still control about as much territory as the old Empire, and represent comparable amounts of military and economic power, but it would take something truly drastic to unify them again.
* ''Fanfic/ShatteredEmpire'' focuses on the Imperial Remnant of Star Wars Legends and mentioned below in the literature section as the main protagonist. Like in the source material they used to be Palpatine galaxy spanning Empire before being reduced to a mere eight sectors by the New Republic. They however seek to restore their status to how it was during Palpatine's reign.
* The Vagaari Miskarate (formerly called the [[Literature/OutboundFlight Vagaari Empire]]) in ''Fanfic/StarWarsAscendancy''. Prior to Thrawn's exile, the Vagaari were a vast slave empire that threatened the Chiss Ascendancy, controlled a large portion of the Unknown Regions, and fielded an impressive fleet of warships hundreds strong. By the time the ''Chimaera'' encounters them, the Vagaari's repeated wars with the Chiss, combined with Miskara Pesh's incompetent leadership, have seen them reduced to wandering the stars aboard a few dozen ramshackle starships in constant states of disrepair. This is further reflected by the Miskara's throne room, which is brightly lit to create an illusion of opulence and has aged walls covered with rust. After [[BigBad the Voidlord]] makes off with all the Vagaari's treasure ships, they are left in an even sorrier state as they suffer from chronic resource shortages and their entire way of life is said to be on the verge of becoming unsustainable.
* ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'' has a couple of examples:
** [[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato The Gamilians]] are one of space-faring humanity's first major enemies, but after losing the Mekon War, they retreat and end up fracturing back into nation-states. Then they get invaded by the [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]] and rescued by the [[Franchise/StarTrek Romulans]], to whom they become a VoluntaryVassal.
** The Citadel races. War with the [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Space Pirates]] heavily damage their economy and infrastructure, then the [[ComicStrip/DanDare Mekon]] and his allies invade, annexing the Batarians, damaging many of their key worlds, and detonating an Omega particle near the Citadel itself which makes FTL travel to the station difficult. They recover somewhat by offering seats on the Council to all member races, but after the [[Literature/{{Uplift}} Five Galaxies]] War, the Quarians and Krogans defect to [[TheAlliance TeTO]], weakening them again. [[spoiler: Then the Reaper War hits them even harder, with [[EarthShatteringKaboom Pavalan being destroyed]] and the Turian Hierarchy effectively ceasing to exist. Following the war's end, the now terminally weakened Council eventually disbands out of necessity, the various members joining [=TeTO=] or the Pact of the Raptor, leaving just the Citadel itself, independent as essentially a city-state.]]
** The [[Series/{{Babylon5}} Centauri Republic]] is almost completely dismantled by the Crusader Pact, with Centauri Prime and its main colony being destroyed and them then being forced to abandon all colonies that previously belonged to other races. They rebuild from this remnant, however, becoming a sort of space Switzerland in later years.
** [=TeTO=] becomes this in the MirrorUniverse after losing the Mekon War. Not only does the detonation of the Omega particles destroying their ability to use FTL in the heart of their territory heavily cripple them, but [[Literature/WorldWar the Race]] abandon the alliance in order to avoid continuing conflict with the Mekon and his allies, significantly weakening them further.
** The Klingon Empire goes into decline in the years following the Reaper War, due to being economically and technologically outmatched by all the other powers, with the societal tensions following the [[CivilWar Praxis War]] not helping matters any. [[spoiler: Following their second civil war, they're reduced to the Klingon Republic (a [=TeTO=] protectorate) and the Empire of Kahless (a hermit kingdom).]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Ankh-Morpork is explicitly an {{Expy}} of post-Imperial Britain. Due to the great conquering General Tacticus, its former colonies are ''everywhere''. It is perhaps easiest to list those parts of the Central Continent that were ''not'' part of the Empire and which served as its rivals; [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} Quirm]] being most noteable and which, in fact, left an Imperial footprint of its own. There's also the hinterlands of [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Far Uberwald]]; left to its own devices because [[GenreSavvy Tacticus]] expressly refused to get embroiled in fighting a war with ''that'' country in the middle of one of its winters. After Tacticus, the Empire declined. today its last remnants are the Shires, the hinterland immediately surrounding ankh-Morpork, and places like the Guano Islands - which in defiance of the usual expectations, actually fought a long and bitter War of ''Dependence'' to remain an Ankh-Morporkian colony as they saw their standard of living going right down if the Morporkians pulled out - and therefore didn't have to financially support them any more. Ankh-Morpork's empire also had the usual more conventional wars of Independence at its ending; [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]] fought its, err, [[UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar Boor War]]. [[{{Eagleland}} Aceria]] also took the opportunity to fight a war by twilight's last gleaming and the Dawn's early light. [[CanadaEh The other half of Aceria]] remained broadly loyal, however and got its independence peacably.
* With Hordak no longer leading the Etherian Horde, some members of the Horde decided to occupy Erelandia (the Fright Zone having been given back to Scorpia's family) as the New Horde ''Fanfic/SheRaInTheWake'' under a new leader. While the General sees this as the dawn of a new era for the Horde, Hordak calls the General a carrion feeder trying to make a name for themself using his accomplishments.
* This was [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha's]] justification for refusing to claim her birthright as [[Franchise/SailorMoon Princess Serenity]] in ''Fanfic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'': by the time she and the other Senshi had awakened, the Moon Kingdom was in ruins from the Dark Kingdom's attack, and aside from those directly involved in the Dark Kingdom case, there was no one that even knew the Moon Kingdom had ''existed'', except a few scholars that mentioned it in papers about these type of countries. Luna, who wants nothing more than to make the Moon Kingdom a ResurgentEmpire, doesn't take it well.
* ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'': By the end of the Fourth Slave War, Lys is reduced to a shell of itself -- its mainland territories are ceded to Myr, it's forced to cut contact with Volantis and Slaver's Bay, limit the size of its navy, and start the process of manumission for the slaves still living on its remaining islands, and is also made to accept the presence of Braavosi troops in order to enforce all of these rules, effectively making them a PuppetState.
* ''Fanfic/InvaderZimABadThingNeverEnds'': The Irkens have been in rapid decline ever since [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus the Tallest stupidly flew into the Florpus]] and took the Armada with them, leaving the Empire's military undermanned and their galactic communications cut off. Planets are rebelling, the Planet Jackers have broken their peace treaty and are stealing worlds from them, and even the Resisty have proven themselves to be an actual threat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'':
** Tarazed was an isolated colony founded by Captain Hunt's ex-fiance and a group of humans and loyalist Nietzscheans she organized when he briefly went back in time and told her the Commonwealth was going to fall but he would attempt to restore it in 300 years. They managed to keep alive the traditions of the Commonwealth, short of having an actual Vedran Empress, and became the Restored Commonwealth's capital. Prior to the restoration, Tarazed's SpaceNavy mainly consists of slipfighters, and no capital ships are seen. The only reason the planet escaped the notice of the Nietzscheans and the Magog is thanks to its out-of-the-way location. Even the Restored Commonwealth is hardly the same Systems Commonwealth that once spanned ''three galaxies'', its initial membership being only 50 worlds. [[spoiler:The Commonwealth fleet is later all but wiped out in an ambush]].
** The Nietzscheans have also fallen from grace since their heyday. The unified Nietzchean Empire that caused the downfall of the Commonwealth quickly splintered into warring clan-groups after the battle at Witchhead. While the Nietzscheans as a whole are the largest power bloc in the former Commonwealth and large clans like Drago-Kazov and Sabra-Jaguar are significant power players on the intergalactic scene in their own right, the clans spend more time fighting each other for resources and mating rights than doing anything else. The Nietzscheans are far too politically fractured to be any more than a shadow of their past glory, and even if they could find a leader to unite behind, they have still fallen far from the point where they could take on the Systems Commonwealth.
* The backstory of the Centaurum in ''Series/BabylonFive'', with Londo recalling a time when the Centauri ships were the most feared in the sky before they started losing territory. It gives the audience an instant reason to fear their upcoming influx of technology from the Shadows.
** Differently from most examples, they are arguably ''more'' powerful than in their heyday: the ExpandedUniverse shows they invented artificial gravity and antimatter-fueled reactors just in time for a civil war to force them to abandon most of what is now the League of Non-Aligned Worlds (with one of their former subjects developing the technology well beyond what the Centauri can do with it), and by the time the contraction stopped they had developed the ships, infrastructure and high-powered weapons to actually make use of that technology. The only thing that kept them from overwhelming the League of Non-Aligned World was a lack of will, and when the Shadow War caused the expansionist factions to come into power they first ''crushed'' the Narn (with some help from the Shadows, but it's shown the Centauri did a large part of the work), and then started twelve wars at the same time and were ''winning'' (albeit precariously, and again with crucial -- and ultimately pricey -- support from the Shadows) when Londo managed to force a stop.
* The Federation in ''Series/BlakesSeven'' ends up as one of these in the last two seasons. Invaded by aliens from Andromeda, they achieve a pyrrhic victory in which they only survive at all through sheer force of numbers. In the early part of the third season, they seem to have pretty much ceased to exist, with Servalan facing rebellion on Earth and many worlds free of Federation influence. Although the fourth season sees them rebuilding, they still don't have the resources for conventional military conquest, relying on mind control drugs for which the resistance have a vaccine.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]], [[spoiler:Captain Jack Harkness]], trying to warn the Doctor about a universal threat, tells the companions that [[spoiler:the Cybermen]] have been reduced to this state in the future. However, that could all change if [[spoiler:the Lone Cyberman]] manages to get what it wants.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** The former colonies of the Valyrian Empire which became the Free Cities. Valyria was a JustForFun/FantasyCounterpart of the Roman Empire, and seemed destined to conquer the world until a sudden cataclysm destroyed the heart of the Empire. All that was left was a far flung group of colonies that suddenly lacked the FantasticNuke that had given Valyria so much power: [[DragonRider dragons]]. While several of these free cities (particularly Volantis) like to proclaim that they will restore Valyrian glory, everyone knows it's so much CulturalPosturing and none of them have anywhere near the ability that the Empire did.
** Dorne, after a fashion. Dorne's Rhoynar elements are descended from refugees fleeing their old homeland in Essos as it burned under the Valyrian Freehold.
** As of the end of the sixth season, [[spoiler:the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros has become this. Cersei Lannister finally managed to destroy a great number of her opponents and officially grasped the reins of power, but of the Seven Kingdoms, Dorne is openly revolting against the throne, the Vale, the Iron Islands, and the North are doing so in secret with the Reach about to join in, and YoungConqueror[=/=]DragonRider Daenerys has ''finally'' launched her own invasion to attempt to retake the kingdom. On top of all that, Cersei's house was confirmed several seasons back to secretly be bankrupt, nobody in the Court aside from a few toadies is personally loyal to her, and the Crown itself is heavily in debt to a bank with a reputation for getting rulers who don't pay back their loans overthrown and replaced by their rivals who will do so. [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Cersei has finally gotten her hands on the throne right when the throne lost all its power]]. As of the end of the seventh season she's mostly turned it around; the Iron Islands are hers, Dorne has been neutralized by taking out its leaders, the Reach has been effectively wiped out and the money looted from there used to pay off the bank, and all her other enemies have agreed to a ceasefire to fight a greater war in the North.]]
* ''Series/{{Justified}}'' shows us that this happened to the Crowder criminal empire. A few years before the start of the series all criminals in Harlan County were beholden to Bo Crowder who got a cut of every criminal enterprise in the area with the exception of the marijuana trade which was controlled by the Bennett clan. However, a Crowder cousin kidnapped and murdered the niece of the local sheriff and Bo refused to turn him over to the police. The sheriff cut a deal with the Miami Cartel who turned over the killer to him for vigilante justice. In return he [[FramingTheGuiltyParty framed the guilty party]] and sent Bo away to prison on trumped up charges. Bo left his oldest son Bowman and trusted associate Arlo Givens in charge of his criminal operations. However, Arlo was starting to go senile and Bowman was a thug who lacked the PragmaticVillainy favored by the rest of his family. When Bo gets out of prison, his empire is in tatters. Bowman abused his wife one too many times and was shot dead by her, Arlo is a mess and Bo's younger son Boyd is going through a weird HeelFaithTurn. Bo tries to rebuild his criminal organization but Boyd wrecks his attempt to partner up with the Cartel and Bo is killed. Later Boyd tries to take over but is thwarted by law enforcement and rival gangs moving in. The final nail comes when he allies himself with the Detroit Mob only for that organization to implode. When Boyd finally goes to prison, the Crowders have little influence over the crime in Harlan.
** At the beginning of the series, the Bennett clan controls all marijuana trade in Harlan County and surrounding areas and even the Crowders will not mess with them. However, Mags Bennett, the family matriarch, and her oldest son Doyle plan on retiring and going legit. Dickie Bennett tries to take over the operations but he quickly messes things up and in the ensuring conflict all the Bennetts except Dickie end up dead. Dickie attempts a comeback but he fails again and ends up in prison. The conflict in the final season is kicked off when Avery Markham returns from exile and tries to take over the Bennett's old marijuana operation. By the ends of the series the Bennett criminal empire seems to get a resurgence as Loretta [=McCready=], a TeenGenius Mags took under her wing, is able to convince the local marijuana growers to back her against Markham.
* ''Series/RiseOfEmpiresOttoman'': The Roman Empire is on its deathbed, being reduced to a single city-state which, while heavily defended thanks to its walls and advantageous location, is surrounded by the Ottomans on all sides.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Dukat feels this way about the Cardassian Union, which has been reduced to a shadow of itself following the Federation-Cardassian War. It's what leads to him aligning Cardassia with the Dominion, hoping to use them as a means of regaining their lost glory. [[spoiler: Ironically, his actions ultimately leave it even more of a vestigal empire by the end of the series than it was circa mid-Season 5.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** In the episode "Dragon's Teeth", the crew awakens several hundred members of a species that used to rule the quadrant, who find that their enemies have overrun their old empire and that the name of their species is now a synonym for "foolish."
** The Krenim Imperium in "Year of Hell", before Annorax started wiping out entire species with his giant spacefaring {{RetGone}} cannon in an attempt to restore the Imperium to its greatest glory. Unfortunately, he didn't take certain side-effects into account - wiping out their first race also wiped out a key antibody that had prevented a vicious plague from nearly wiping out the Krenim. His attempt to fix that cost him his home colony, and he spends the next two hundred years trying to restore that colony, while also nominally restoring the Imperium. It takes Janeway crashing ''Voyager'' into the time ship to hit the ResetButton, sending the Krenim back to vestigial status (and resetting ''Voyager'' so that the eponymous Year of Hell fighting the Krenim never happened).
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'':
** The Klingon Empire is said to be this before the unification attempts by T'Kuvma and Kol lead to war in the first season. T'Kuvma's goal of reuniting the warring Great Houses becomes Kol's goal as well when he gets his hands on T'Kuvma's cloaking technology, and begins to trade this for the loyalty of the other Great Houses. By the time the war ends and the dust has settled, [[spoiler: [[UnexpectedSuccessor L'Rell is the last one standing]] to claim the Chancellorship, with the backing of the Federation.]]
** In Season 3, the Federation itself has become this in the 32nd century. Following the Burn, an event which caused nearly every warp-capable vessel to explode for no apparent reason, galactic civilization collapsed and the Federation dropped to a tenth of its size. It can barely maintain its current state with its limited resources, especially with the threat that whatever caused the Burn could happen again with no warning. By the end of the season, [[spoiler:the cause of the Burn is discovered and neutralized, a new massive source of dilithium will enable the Federation to recover, the Emerald Chain, the primary threat to the Federation, collapses after Osyraa's death, several former worlds (Trill and Ni'Var, formerly Vulcan) are already considering rejoining, and the spore drive may also allow ships to make instantaneous jumps even without the use of genetic engineering thanks to the Kwejians' empathic abilities]].
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' confirmed that the Romulan Star Empire became this after their home planet was destroyed in the [[Film/StarTrek2009 2009 movie]]. They were replaced with the Romulan Free State that gets on more peacefully with TheFederation and got rid of TheNeutralZone between their two territories.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Abel in ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy''. What was once an empire that dominated the entire (known to most humans) world after the Rupture of the Heavens is now just its core regions, most territories have become independent of it for one or other reason, and while it is still the most powerful nation of the setting, its forces are spread over its domains.
* The default setting in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition, the ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'', is rife with these, most notably Human-controlled Nerath, Tiefling-controlled Bael Turath, and Dragonborn-controlled Arkhosia.
* TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} has the goblinoid Dhakaani Empire, which was mostly destroyed 9000 years ago by an invasion from Xoriat, the plane of [[GoMadFromTheRevelation madness]], then slowly declined. Well before that was the ancient Giant empire on Xen'drik, which was destroyed by the dragons. Survivors of both occasionally attempt to restore their civilization's former glory.
* Lookshy of ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' fashions itself as the last remnant of the Shogunate, the worldwide Dragon Blooded government prior to the Great Contagion, reduced to a single (if securely independent) city-state.
** The Realm itself is not quite there yet, but it is a lot less strong abroad for having spent the last five years drawing the lines in preparation for civil war, and being reduced to a fraction of its former power is a noted possibility. Some Dynasts would even ''prefer'' a VestigialEmpire; it would be easier to manage, and they don't have any greater ambitions than maintaining their own tremendous wealth and luxury.
** The Lintha have been on a downward spiral since the fall of the Primordials. Depictions of the First Age show the Lintha Empire (which once ruled most of the West) to have been reduced to a small coastal state where pure blooded Lintha (the only ones able to use their magic and operate their technology) are virtually an endangered species. The default setting shows the vestigial remnant of ''that'', where the Lintha are nothing but a few criminal families (with practices of incest and self-castration/mutilation) operating off of the back of a dying monster.
* Unther in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''. Up until the Time of Troubles it was a force to be reckoned with, ruled by {{Physical God}}s. After the gods' mortal incarnations are killed, Unther becomes a shadow of its former self and is mostly annexed by its neighboring empire, Mulhorand. In 4E, Unther is one of multiple countries that was [[ThrowAwayCountry unceremoniously destroyed]] by the Spellplague.
** The Forgotten Realms also have Ostoria, the former kingdom of the giants, which fell due to a long war with dragons, breaking both races' worldwide influence.
* Khador in ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' was originally the Khardic Empire which held a very large portion of Western Immoren. After the Orgoth invasion, it lost much of its original lands, which were given to the newly founded Kingdoms of Llael and Ord, leaving it severely weakened. It was not until recently that the Kingdom was able to expand and reclaim much of what it had lost, finally becoming the new Khadoran Empire.
* ''TabletopGame/MechanicalDream'' had two that would eventually fall. The Frilins are an unaging, [[SuperIntelligence super-smart]] plant people that have further benefit of being able to survive without Orpee fruit. With all these advantages, they created a long-lasting empire that fell when their SuperSoldier species, the Zin turned on them. After the Frilins fell, a newer race the ambitious Gnath rose to power despite only having increased reflexes and finding it extremely painful to consume Orpee. The Pre-Core Gnath empire fell when legendary figure known as [[MerchantPrince the Core]] usurped the old empress and ushered in an industrial revolution and rise of the [[MegaCorp mercantilist corporate world]], which he named the Core.
* The Remanence of ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' is ruled by the descendants of the [[AbusivePrecursors Syndics]]' genetically engineered slave overseers and consider themselves the Myriad Syndicate, and just waiting for the Patrons to return. In the meantime, everyone else hates them.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Taldor and Cheliax. The Taldan empire used to be a superpower that ruled over half of Avistan directly and exerted influence over much of the rest. Its westernmost province Cheliax broke away from Taldor during a war with Qadira and started an expansionist empire of its own, then Cheliax went through a CivilWar that ended in the House of Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus taking control. Its Varisian colony Korvosa became de facto independent during the civil war, while Molthune, Isger, Andoran, and Galt broke away later. The Archduchy of Ravounel declares independence from Cheliax in the ''Hell's Rebels'' adventure path, and the subsequent ''Hell's Vengeance'' campaign deals with Queen Abrogail bankrolling an evil adventuring party to try and stop the empire from collapsing further.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ponyfinder}}'': After Queen Iliana's death, the Empire of Everglow quickly falls into decay, expending its energy on numerous futile internal conflicts and power grabs before utterly collapsing in on itself, to the point that the humans who take its place mostly don't believe it ever existed.
* ''TabletopGame/SpearsOfTheDawn'': Nyala used to rule all the Three Lands, until one of their defeated foes made a DealWithTheDevil for survival and revenge and became [[TheUndead the Eternal.]] The resulting [[ForeverWar Long War]] saw Nyala lose control over all its previous provinces and eventually have to formally acknowledge their sovereignty in return for their help in finally defeated the enemy. In the present day, Nyala is still culturally and technologically high-standing, but it no longer has any more military or political power than the other four of the Five Kingdoms.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', the Vilani Imperium. It was superficially powerful, controlling thousands of worlds when the Terrans found it. But it was senile, indecisive, and generally a meal waiting to be snatched by whomever discovered it. [[note]] Or, as its conquerors eventually found out, a dying elephant that would crush and suffocate anyone bold or unwary enough to try to topple it under its sheer dead weight. The Rule of Man inherited all the old empire's problems, and managed to prop it up for a while, but a thousand-year Dark Age came anyway.[[/note]]
* ''TabletopGame/UnhallowedMetropolis'' has the Victorian Empire collapse in 1905 under the ZombieApocalypse. 200 years later, the empire is reduced to just London and the rest of the world is even worse off.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** The Imperium of Man has waxed and waned over the past ten thousand years, but is now unquestionably in a state of decline, so much so that scholars refer to the current era as the Time of Ending. Whole sectors are being lost to rebellion, alien depredations, or governmental negligence, and on every front the Imperium's enemies are closing in. The words most commonly used are "decaying" and "rotting," and fearful sages worry that it will be a RisingEmpire such as the Tau that will ultimately inherit the galaxy. [[LastStand Which is not to say that Mankind plans on going down without a fight]].
** The Eldar don't have so much a Vestigal Empire as they do the bleached bones of one. Where they once ruled the entire galaxy unopposed and rearranged the cosmos at a whim, now they're reduced to a few spaceborne cities called Craftworlds, some primeval colonies on the galactic rim, and in the Dark Eldar's case a nightmare metropolis in the cancerous heart of a PortalNetwork. As such, they're frequently described as a DyingRace clinging to life as long as they can in other races' shadow.
** The Necrons ruled the galaxy before the rise of the Eldar, and have emerged from stasis to find their domain overrun by primitive upstarts. Their technology, while arguably the most formidable in the setting, has not always weathered their 60 million year nap, they can't reproduce due to being {{Virtual Ghost}}s, and many of the lords who have woken up have developed eccentricities due to a mechanical version of CryonicsFailure.
** The Orks were once the Krorks, the purpose-built SuperSoldier race and final project of the Old Ones. The Beast's Waagh, little more than an echo of what the Krorks once were, brought the Imperium to its knees and had the technology to turn entire planetoids into "attack moons" equipped with Gravity-manipulating weapons that could tear flagships apart and shift entire mountains to crush opposing armies. With no off switch and no one else to fight, the Krorks eventually fell upon each other and descended into the anarchic madness that is the modern Orks.
** The HordeOfAlienLocusts that is the Tyrannids, are in fact, little more than [[InvadingRefugees the few Refugees who have made it into the Milky way]], running away from ''something'' even worse than they are.
** In contrast to the modern Old Ones, which were utterly destroyed in a cataclysmic war, the Old Slann of the game's first edition simply faded and declined over time, eventually becoming reduced to a small number of surviving colonies and outposts clinging to tattered remnants of their ancient power and glory.
** Note that in all these cases, "vestigial" should not be taken to mean "weak". Even if their golden ages were millennia ago, these civilizations have held out for this long in one of the most ridiculously lethal settings ever imagined. There's also the simple matter of scale; even the Eldar can call on ''billions'' of soldiers, but it's nothing compared to the uncountable armies of the Imperium or the even larger forces of Orks and Tyranids.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** The Dwarfs' empire first got cracked when the [[TimeAbyss Slann]] noticed that the mountains were no longer where they thought they should be, so they moved them back, without consulting the dwarfs who were living under them at the time. Since then they've been fighting a HopelessWar against an endless tide of orcish and goblin invaders, and they ''might'' have a chance at stabilizing if they weren't [[RevengeBeforeReason obsessed with settling old grudges]], and the grudges arising from attempts to settle other grudges.
** The ancient Elven empire was torn apart by civil war, splitting into the High Elves and Dark Elves, as well as the Wood Elves who stayed behind in their overseas colonies. The High Elves are slowly dying out, while the Dark and Wood Elves are stable, if prone to backstabbing or militant isolationism, respectively.
** The main reason the Elves and Dwarves were unable to recover was that at the height of their power they fought an utterly pointless apocalyptic war with each other. By the time it was over they lacked the numbers and surviving infrastructure to deal with new disasters.
** The Lizardmen's empire is down a few cities, and has lost contact with the most distant parts of their domain, but are doing better than some of their rivals in that they're actively ''rebuilding''... just very slowly. Granted, several cities are still marked on their maps with Lizardmen equivalents for "Never Go Within Thirty Miles Of This Place Again", but it's a start.
** The giants, too, used to have a vast and glorious empire, but it was long ago wiped out by ogres, scattering the few survivors to the four winds.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Zweihander}}'' has a future setting called Dark Astral. Similar to the main setting, it gives a nod to a Warhammer setting (in this case 40K) and ups the worst aspects. In Dark Astral, aliens had crushed the human empire so they retreated to Earth and are reduced to one city New Jerusalem. To make things worse, not only are ambitious aliens coming to Earth to finish what they started but the dark supernatural forces that caused human migration from Earth are beginning to wake.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the world of ''Literature/TheAngloAmericanNaziWar'', the Soviet Union loses to Nazi Germany. The vicious treaty imposed upon Soviet Russia robs them of an army, as well all its territory west of the Urals. [[spoiler: After the new capital of Krasnoyarsk is [[DeadlyGas nerve-gassed]] by Nazi bombers in the final months of the Second World War – killing most of the government – the country collapses into civil war. By the early 1960s, European Russia, East and West Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and the Central Asian "-stans" have broken away permanently, while the Russian Far East has [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica joined the United States]] as ''West Alaska''. All that remains of the USSR is western and central Siberia]].
* ''Literature/AnExaminationOfExtraUniversalSystemsOfGovernment'' has several examples from across TheMultiverse:
** The Guantanamo Regime is all that is left of the United States. It controls Guantanamo Bay, after a popular uprising against the mad and tyrannical [[PresidentEvil Edward Butler]] regime. It continues to exist because Butler was able to storm off with several nuclear ballistic missiles and most of America's gold reserves. Butler rules as eternal President, the people are under constant surveillance, children are indoctrinated to follow Butler's paranoid ideology, and the prisoners who were in Guantanamo Bay are treated as slaves.
** The Soviet Union-in-exile consists of lunar colonies and space stations that preserve the Soviet Union and reject capitalist Russia.
** The last remnant of the Qing Empire in the world of "The Last Emperor" rules Kowloon, where it becomes a WretchedHive for criminal syndicates, deposed dictators, and espionage intrigue.
** The South African Republic-in-exile largely consists of the South African Defence Force, which is made up of a 40 ship-strong flotilla, taking shelter in the Portuguese exclave of Cabinda. Although recognized by the United Nations, the SADF's diplomatic and monetary lifeline that was extended to them by the international community lasted as long as the anarchy in South Africa did. The SADF resorted to becoming a global [[PrivateMilitaryContractors private military contractor]]. The Apartheid system is still alive in the former SAR, as the non-white populace is too small to vote themselves into power and an open rebellion would be suicide. The SADF are secretly determined to reclaim their old homeland, by any means necessary; they use their vast funds from their "humanitarian" operations to destabilise the South African successor states. Furthermore, they have undeclared nuclear weapons obtained from the former People's Republic of China and are planning to use them to wipe out the successor states.
** What is left of the Soviet Union in the world of "The Army is the Country" is Tajikistan.
** France in the world of "The Land of Compromise" is divided and reduced into a rump state following a far more worse defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and a violent civil war. The current French government follows a "compromise" system in which it would periodically change back and forth from a republic to an absolute monarchy within a decade and the change is decided on a coin-toss. As a result, France is seen as the world's [[ButtMonkey laughingstock]].
* WordOfGod says that the Empire of Smilodons in the ''Basalt City Chronicles'' once ruled western coasts of ''both'' Americas, and even the North-Eastern coast of Asia, but is now relegated to a few islands off Alaska.
* ''Roleplay/CaptoIugulum'':
** The United States of America that (re-)coalesces after the collapse of the Scottist regime has lost almost half its territory. However, it remains an international presence, and in the 1930s launches a bid to regain what it has lost.
** Spain in 1900 was a world power with perhaps the greatest colonial empire on Earth. A large portion of it was lost in the Great War, then the disastrous civil war following it, and after losing a war with newly unified Germany in the 1920s, even parts of mainland Spain (the Basque Country, Catalunya, Galicia) gain independence.
** Kongo. The country itself (the former Scandinavian colonies in Africa) is where the Scandinavian Emperor fled to after the Proletarists took power back home, making it a vestigial empire of Scandinavia. Then, in the 1920s, first Abyssinia, then the entire rest of East Africa broke away in a somewhat messy collapse, leaving Kongo as the Vestigial Empire of a Vestigial Empire.
* Several in the ''Literature/ChaosTimeline,'' most notably the remaining British royal family. They flee to New Albion (New Zealand) after Britain turns republican and eventually socialist. A civil war over throne succession issues eventually rocks the country in the 1960s and effectively splits it in two, the South Island standing behind the resident CloudCuckooLander and the North Island standing behind a certain Elizabeth. Talk about the British royal family being the ButtMonkey of this timeline.
* Subverted in ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness''. The Restored Empire, a loose union of former British colonies led by Australia after the fall of Britain itself, appears to advertise its empire-in-exile status in the title, but is actually the free-est, most vibrant, and nicest place in the southern hemisphere and possibly the world as of the timeline's end. At least for English-speaking people.
* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', the Yamato Empire becomes a mere [[TheRemnant shadow]] of its former self after the demons conquer it and enslave its populace in the aftermath of the Cataclysm. Four demon duchies now rule the lands of the former empire, but some Yamatian rebels still fight a guerrilla war against their new demon overlords in hopes of driving them away and restoring their homeland to its former glory.
* Taken to the extreme in ''WebVideo/HitlerRants,'' in which UsefulNotes/NaziGermany consists entirely of a single bunker located in Berlin, not helped by the fact that members of Hitler's staff actively plot antics against him, not to mention the ''entire navy'' (which also consists of two U-Boat crews and one drunken Captain, all of whom also support antics). This also seems to be more or less the case for Gaddafi's Libya, though it is averted by Stalin and the Soviet Union, both of which are still extremely powerful.
* Imperial Russia in ''Literature/MaleRising''. Before the Great War, she was the largest contiguous land empire on Earth. When Russia lost, the Romanovs were consigned to only reign in [[spoiler:the colony of Russian Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa]]. While most of the family, chiefly the daughters, married other princes to get away, one notable member became enamored with her new home, setting off a love affair that would [[MalignedMixedMarriage see her spilt]] [[IHaveNoSon with her exiled father]].
* In the world of ''Literature/MotherOfLearning'', [[https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/7/Mother-of-Learning some politicians insist that The Alliance of Eldemar still exists]] ... [[MetaphoricallyTrue it's just shrunk.]]
* Yaman in ''Roleplay/OpenBlue'' is suffering from decades of decadence and corruption, and can only prioritize maintaining its outward appearance. Avelia, one of the two dominant empires of TheVerse, is slowly following in Yaman's footsteps.
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': The Terran Confederacy is as similar to the [[PlanetTerra Terran]] Federation as the Holy Roman Empire was to the Roman Empire.
[[/folder]]

This nation used to [[TheEmpire rule the known world, or at least a sizable chunk of it]]. Unfortunately, for the last ''n'' years, this nation ended in the last stage of TheCycleOfEmpires as its influence has been declining and its territory shrinking; the lands that previously were firmly under their thumbs being either snatched up by opportunistic neighbors seeing the chance to take their old enemy down a peg, or gaining independence at the hands of separatist movements smelling the weakness of their overlord and deciding that the time is ripe to claim their right to self-determination either through political means or open rebellion. The erstwhile VoluntaryVassal is now neither voluntary nor a vassal.

Vestigial Empires tend to leave behind still-working infrastructure, especially roads, bridges, ports, and administration facilities, as they shrink (for a SpaceOpera, they will leave behind the space equivalent, like spaceports and launch pads). Frequently, they also leave behind a CommonTongue, am educational system, laws, cultural traditions and rituals. For this reason, even if the senate and army are disbanded, vestiges of the empire's influence persist. Generally their remaining vestiges of control are a hotbed of cutthroat politics, ruled by [[AristocratsAreEvil decadent nobles with superiority complexes]] and [[DecadentCourt equally decadent and morally challenged courtiers]]. In Space, may result from an UngovernableGalaxy.

Vestigial Empires tend to leave behind still-working infrastructure, especially roads, bridges, and local administration facilities, as they shrink (for a SpaceOpera, they will leave behind the space equivalent, like spaceports). Frequently, they also leave behind a CommonTongue and cultural traditions and rituals. Generally their remaining bits are a hotbed of cutthroat politics, ruled by [[AristocratsAreEvil decadent nobles with superiority complexes]] and [[DecadentCourt equally decadent and morally challenged courtiers]]. In Space, may result from an UngovernableGalaxy.

Compare with FailedState, wherein a nation's government collapses to the point where it's unable to function. These are often left behind by the Vestigial Empire as it draws back its influence, due to the power vacuum left in its wake. Contrast with {{Precursors}} — an entire species of Vestigial Empire which tends to leave little to no working infrastructure and is also long gone by the time the story takes place. All or part of the VestigialEmpire may be TheRemnant if they're still fighting for the (usually) lost cause of restoring their former glory.