Single-Species Nations

A trope in which each of a setting's nations is dominated by a single primary species. Especially common with fantasy settings, where each Standard Fantasy Race might have a nation of their own; and with science fiction, where it's usually assumed each sentient species will independently form a Planetary Nation before converging to meet others.

Single-species nations are convenient ways to showcase the differences between various fantastical species, while also not confusing the viewer with too many conflicting details. For example, the nation of a Proud Scholar Race will have obvious contrasts to that of a Proud Warrior Race. Each species is likely to have one unified government, culture, and religion shared among most (if not all) of its members. Humans, if present, tend to be a prominent exception to this trope.

Using single-species nations is also a common way to enforce Fantastic Racism. Different species and their respective governments may be inherently distrustful of one another, making coexistence difficult. This is especially true when certain species are deemed Always Chaotic Evil. Intraspecies conflict will often result in the displacement, enslavement, or extermination of the subjugated species. Although minority populations may come to exist in an otherwise single-species nation, they're likely to have little (if any) political representation, and will often be actively discriminated against by the majority. If two such species are able to crossbreed, their children may find themselves stateless or otherwise outcast, as they won't fit in with either nation.

If a nation is called the [Race] Empire/Kingdom/Republic/Swarm, that's a good indication that this trope is in place. Another indicator is when people in-universe use a race's name synonymously with the name of their respective nation.

This trope often goes hand-in-hand with the Ethnicity Monarch, since it's fairly easy to justify how one person can rule over an entire species when all members of that species live in a single formal country.

Compare with Planet of Hats and Named After Their Planet. Also compare with Single-Biome Planet and One-Product Planet (for other varieties of sci-fi planetary consolidation). May overlap with tropes such as Elves Versus Dwarves and Hidden Elf Village. Compare with National Animal Stereotypes and Species-Specific Afterlife.

No Real Life Examples needed, since humans are the only real sapient species (that we know of!)

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Maus: Every species represents a different ethnic group: Mice are Jews, Poles are pigs, Nazis are cats, etc. When using fake papers that identify them as Polish, the (mice) characters wear pig masks.
• Marvel Universe: Large tracts of the galaxy are ruled by the Skrull, Kree, and Shiar Empires, all encompassing the majority of their respective species and ruled by their own Ethnicity Monarchs. In Young Avengers, when it's discovered that Hulkling is descended from Kree and Skrull royalty, the two Empires begin fighting over which one gets to claim him as their own.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Most kingdoms are inhabited by a single race each, such as the human kingdoms, the three dwarf kingdoms, the elf kingdom, and the fairy kingdom.
• The Moonstone Cup: The setting's major species — the ponies of Equestria, the dragons, and the ghuls — are each united into cohesive nations with a single leader each.

Literature

• The Draka: The trope comes into effect in the final book, The Stone Dogs. The Draka started out as regular humans, but later genetically engineered themselves into a Human Subspecies called Homo drakensis. The rest of humanity, meanwhile, had long since banded together into a super-state called the Alliance for Democracy. By the time of the book's Distant Finale, the war between the two nations is also a war between two species, with the Alliance being regular humans and the Draka being Homo drakensis.
• Discworld: Zig-zagged: the dwarfs and trolls all give allegience to the Low King and the Diamond King respectively, but they exist in enclaves throughout human lands. Although the dwarfs seem to see their territory as one vast kingdom under the human lands, and can be offended if human governments believe their authority extends below ground level. The dwarfish capital of Schmaltzberg is beneath the Uberwaldean city of Bonk, and the government of Bonk apparently respects this difference. The trolls, meanwhile, (except those who have moved to the big city) mostly live in mountainous regions that human countries might claim, but are uninterested in actually occupying.
• Inheritance Cycle: The elves have their kingdom in the great northern forest Du Weldenvarden, and the dwarves have theirs in the Beor Mountains of the south. The Urgals appear to also have their own nation, although it's never shown on a map. For some of the series, the largely-human Varden are based in the dwarven kingdom, but it's clear that they are not citizens and don't expect to be there forever.
• Spellsinger: Most places in the Spellsinger world are mixtures of various mammal and bird species, but there are exceptions across the novels. The Weavers are a nation made up of human-sized spiders who keep to themselves because they find mammals to be scary. In Moment of the Magician, Jon-Tom and Mudge find a pair of cities, one inhabited exclusively by gophers, the other exclusively by moles. And Paths of the Perambulator features a tribe of cannibal muskrats (who naturally capture the heroes).
• Tolkien's Legendarium: Zig-zagged: while Humans Are Divided is in full play, Elves are similarly divided into separate lands^note Ingwë in The Silmarillion is called "High King of all the Elves," but he never seems to exercise authority in that role; instead the various groups of Elves all follow their own rulers even when that leads to violent conflict, as are Dwarves, while Hobbits live almost exclusively in the Shire and the Orcs are mostly from Mordor and the Misty Mountains.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: This trope is omnipresent. A notable example is when Londo identifies the government attempting to bug his quarters solely based on the species of the culprit. Also of note is the human exception by way of The War of Earthly Aggression between the Earth federation and Mars colony.
• Star Trek: All starfaring species (including humanity) are united under their own singular government and culture, which oversees their homeworlds and any additional planets that species inhabits. Similarly, when there is warfare within a planet, it is always described as "civil war" without regard to whether sovereign states are involved, in stark contrast to how we describe wars on Earth.

Tabletop Games

• The Delver's Guide to Beast World: The five main regions are highly multicultural, and while some are widely known as the homeland of one species or another they all have significant populations of most species. The sole exceptions are the jackals, who are the setting's equivalent to elves and live in Hidden Elf Villages where mortals are not allowed to visit, at least with their memories intact; and bats, who come from the Astral Sea.
• Eberron: The continent of Khorvaire was unified under the human-ruled kingdom of Galifar before the Last War. During the war many of the non-human races reclaimed their ancestral homelands: Dwarves took the Mror Holds, Gnomes took Zilargo, Halflings took the Talenta Plains, Goblinoids got Darguun, and Elven mercenaries from the island continent of Aerenal seized a chunk of land and named it Valenar. Humans originated on a different continent that has fallen under the control of extraplanar entities, and the Warforged and half-human races lack homelands entirely.
• Ironclaw:
  • The kingdom of Calabria is divided into four major houses led by different species, though they have vassals and tenants of other species. The (legally) reigning House Rinaldi are grey foxes, House Avoirdupois are horses, the Doloreaux are boars, and Bisclavret are wolves. However, the kingdom also shares the island with five tribes of the Bisclavret's pagan cousins, collectively known as the Phelan.
  • Zhongguo, in the Book of Jade supplement, was founded by twelve great houses of the species of the Chinese Zodiac. Somewhat averted in that later imperial dynasties have attempted to integrate the empire's dozens of species and dismantle the feudal system.
• Mystara has four nations that are dominated by a single species: Alfheim, Rockhome, The Five Shires, and the Shadow Elves territory. A fifth one, Broken Lands, consists of multiple humanoid species, but the map is drawn in a way that implies Thar's empire is divided into provinces that consist of one species.
• Traveller: Non-human interstellar empires include the K'kree's Two Thousand Worlds, the Hiver Federation, and the Aslan Hierate. The Vargr cannot hold a stable government together, but the region of space they've colonized is known as the Vargr Extents. Humanity is the exception again, with at least four ethnically based empires at the standard era plus the multi-ethnic Third Imperium (the First and Second were ruled by the Vilani and Solomani, humans from Vland and Sol respectively). Each of the non-human interstellar empires also have minority populations of other species within their borders, including humans, but are clearly dominated by their respective species.
• Warhammer 40,000: Zigzagged. While many of the factions are certainly examples of this (with most being genocidally xenophobic toward each other), many of them are split among each other, with the Orks inhabiting various roving hordes and petty empires, the Eldar being scattered among various cultures (especially the Craftworld Eldar, who live in multiple independent world-ships), and the Necrons being split between dozens of different kingdoms. The Tau Empire and Leagues of Votann are notable exceptions, with the former actively pursuing integrations of other species, and the latter consisting of both dwarves and robots.

Toys

• Most island nations in the world of BIONICLE are dominated or exclusively populated by one sentient species:
  • The Matoran have several islands, most notably Mata Nui and Metru Nui, which are usually further divided into smaller provinces based on the elemental subspecies.
  • The Vortixx are from Xia.
  • The Skakdi are from Zakaz.

Video Games

• Bug Fables: Every insect kingdom is mostly populated with their respective species of insect (i.e., the Bee Kingdom is mostly populated with bees, the Termite Kingdom with termites, and so on). However, they are not opposed to other insect species settling in their kingdoms, and the Ant Kingdom even built the special district area just so non-ants could settle there. The Roach Village in Dead Lands is also populated only with roaches, but that's because no one is willing to settle in the Dead Lands, a place where it's told that no bug came out alive from.
• The Elder Scrolls: Each province of Tamriel (the main setting) is an ethno-state largely occupied and ruled by one of the game's main races. There are border disputes aplenty, and many provinces have either been conquered or absorbed by the others, but by and large, these provinces have remained both under the direct rule of its racial majority.
  • Cyrodiil = Imperial.
  • Black Marsh = Argonian.
  • Elsweyr = Khajiit.
  • Hammerfell = Redguard.
  • High Rock = Breton.
  • Morrowind = Dunmer.
  • Skyrim = Nord.
  • Summerset Isle = Altmer.
  • Valenwood = Bosmer.
  • Orsinium = Orc (not always a recognized province; Orsinium is often considered to be part of High Rock).
  • Neither the continent of Akavir nor its inhabitants have ever been seen in the games, but it seems to be divided into ethno-states much like Tamriel, but with a flavor of Orientalism.
  • Historically, this has been less accurate: Cyrodiil as a recognisable territory began as an Ayleid elf-ruled province with the human majority an enslaved underclass. Black Marsh had regions under multiple different races including several just as native as the Argonians, but disease ultimately did in the ones that hadn't failed for one reason or another beforehand. Hammerfell is a Redguard ethnostate because the original "Warrior Wave" of Yoku refugees was more than a little genocidal in their conquests. High Rock as a recognisable territory comes from elf colonisation in a human-heavy area, but not as brutal as in Cyrodiil and when the Direnni Hegemony that had formed from the elven colonies faded away it left behind a small territory still controlled by Altmer. Morrowind was by all indications the homeland of the Dwemer, spent several centuries jointly ruled by the Chimer (who would turn into the Dunmer) and the Dwemer, and the Dwemer in general could be found in a rough crescent from Morrowind over Skyrim to Hammerfell before their mysterious disappearance.
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Tellius is divided between humans ("beorc") and animal-people ("laguz"). While the beorc are divided between Crimea, Daein, and Begnion, each of the laguz species gets a nation to themselves. (Gallia is for feline laguz; Phoenicis is for hawks; Kilvas is for ravens; Goldoa is for dragons; and the Serenes Forest belonged to the herons.)
• Galactic Civilizations zig-zags this trope. Each planet has a population, but no breakdown of species, and they take the bonus of the controlling empire. When invaded, the entire population has to be destroyed, and they're replaced by those landing in troop transports — all implying this trope applies. However, there is also Cultural Posturing to conquer planets and the option to surrender planets to other factions, which allows multiple species.
• Mass Effect: The galaxy is primarily split up between the Asari Republics, the Turian Hierarchy, the Salarian Union, and the human Systems Alliance, each of which is powerful enough to have a seat on the Citadel Council. Although less important, the hanar, elcor, volus and batarians also have their own nations, and the quarians are the only inhabitants of their Migrant Fleet.
• Spore: All species always remain in their own territory, even after evolving to sapience. In Space Stage, it gets to the point where no planets with more than one sapient species can be found.
• Stellaris: Most empires start out with just one sapient species, although later they might acquire populations of other species through annexation or immigration. Depending on the empire's ethos, they can either accept these "xenos" as citizens, enslave them, assimilate them, or purge them.
• Super Mario Odyssey: Many of the Kingdoms that Mario and Cappy visit during their adventure have one species as their main inhabitants. These include the skeletal Tosterians of the Sand Kingdom; the molluscan Bubblainians in the Seaside Kingdom; the robotic Steam Gardeners in the Wooded Kingdom; the human-like New Donkers from the Metro Kingdom; and others.
• Sword of the Stars: Factions were initially unable to incorporate members of different species due to different environmental requirements. Conquering a planet required nuking the population from orbit and landing a colony ship on the rubble. The second expansion pack added civilian populations that could be of multiple species though.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: Every ungulate species in Fœnum live in a different territory that they treat as their own nation. (The Tundra for the reindeer, The Meadow for sheep, The Prairie for cows and bulls, etc.)

Webcomics

• The Cyantian Chronicles: There are at least three major nations on Cyantia named after one of the native species: The Wolf City-states, The Mounty Kingdom, and the Fox Empire. However, aside from the xenophobic Empire, they are actually inhabited by multiple species (fox refugees seem fairly common).
• The Order of the Stick seems to take this approach, having the Dwarven lands and Elven lands but not showing any division in borders or territories beyond that (with the possible exception of the Dark Elves having their own kingdom).
• Problem Sleuth: The other side of the Imaginary Universe is divided between the Elf, Hog, Weasel, and Clown Kingdoms.

Web Original

• Neopets:
  • The nations of Kreludor and Virtupets Space Station are home primarily to Grundo. Other species can live there, but they're a vast minority. Kreludor is even more specific than Virtupets, as the primary demographic there is orange Grundo.
  • Lutari Island is home primarily to, of course, Lutari. Similar is Kiko Lake, where mostly Kikos live, and Roo Island, where the Blumaroos live.
  • Downplayed in the case of Maraqua. It was primarily a home for the species Koi, though a few other aquatic species also lived there. Following the destruction and rebuilding of the city, the population became a lot more varied, as non-aquatic species gained Maraquan forms.

Western Animation

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is full of locations like these. Equestria is the home of the ponies, Yakyakistan has the yaks, Griffinstone has the griffins, Seaquestria has the hippogriffs/seaponies, and so on.

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