"To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
—Tacitus, Roman historian
The Evil Counterpart to The Republic, the Foil to The Kingdom and The Rival to The Federation, The Empire wants to be the One World Order. Amassing The Evil Army, it sets out to conquer all of its neighbors by force of arms. Taking cues from history, it often resembles the historic Roman, German, Russian/Soviet, or Chinese empires in some way. Led by The Emperor, who is usually also an Evil Overlord, Emperor Scientist or God Emperor or by some kind of theocraticcabal. A theocracy of a Religion of Evil will almost certainly be The Empire. None of these apply to depictions of the British Empire, which was led at the height of its power by a Size 50 Matron otherwise known as Queen Vicky.
If The Empire does not pose itself outright evil, it may represent itself as the Lightbearer of Civilization, Defender of Faith, Domain of Law and Order, The Co-Prosperity Sphere, Central State of Humankind or Legitimate Regent of Humanity. The Empire may be highly civilized, wealthy, organized, and/or vital, or corrupt, bureaucratic, sybarite and/or ossified. It may be militaristic and imperialistic, or pacifistic and turned inwards. If The Empire actually is on the good side, it may be The Kingdom. If the Emperor is an elected official and the Empire consists of independent or semi-independent domains, it may actually be The Federation.
Of course, there's going to be some kind of Resistance movement within its borders, and small autonomous nations without who may need encouragement by the heroes to become The Alliance. They may also be helped by Les Collaborateurs. There may also be one or more powers that oppose it, often kingdoms or republics, which may or may not band together into The Alliance. The Empire is usually too strong to defeat militarily (unless the story is set in a war strategy video game), but taking down the leaders while they're instigating their sinister plan is usually enough. Or La Résistance may well turn out to be nothing but a treasonous cliqué to overthrow the government or dynasty and replace it with something even more cruel and brutal, or a nationalist or racist separation movement.
Empires can range from being oppressive to being benevolent in rule. In Sword and Sandal films set in the Classical World, the Alexandrian Conquest or the Roman Empire are both seen as benevolent, their Emperors ahead of their time as men of action, enlightenment and thought. Alexander from the movie of the same title and Marcus Aurelius from Gladiator are generally the classic examples of these. This is the reverse for anything involving the Mongol conquest or the Hunnic conquests, who tend to be led by classic examples of the Barbarian Hero, and are far less benevolent in rule as a result. Most depictions of the British Empire, in fact belong to the former, except when it involves the American Revolution.
If the Empire and The Federation exist in the same universe, the two are usually at war, just recovering from a war, or dangerously close to getting into one (the latter two often coincide). If The Republic is a separate entity alongside The Federation, you'll usually find them taking shots at one another prior to forming a pact against the Empire; they could've been longstanding rivals, they might view the other as the Empire, or they might've been pinned against each other by the Empire. If The Kingdom is in the same universe, expect the Empire to invade it (at best) or occupy it (at worst); The Kingdom could've been neutral ground, the original head/proposer of The Alliance, or a simple victim of the Empire's bid for dominance. If the Empire is part of The Alliance, you can make a good bet for it being the Token Evil Teammate.
Note that just being called an Empire is not sufficient to qualify a nation for this trope. Especially in a Heroic Fantasy setting, other types of empires abound, often based on the Holy Roman or British Empires (and occasionally a more sympathetic take on the actual Roman or the Chinese Empire). These types of empires may be better described as an expansionist kingdom, a militaristic federation, a nationalist republic, or a more centrally controlled alliance. The confusion springs from the fact that in real life, there is no actual definition of what constitutes an empire. Take Japan. With "the Empire of Japan" or "the Japanese Empire" you probably meant its time as a colonial power... but since it still has an emperor, it technically still is the "Japanese Empire" (although as a firmly established constitutional monarchy rather than an absolute one). Also, until recently the term "Empire" was used synonymously with "sovereign nation", and did not acquire its negative connotations until the twentieth century. For instance, the early United States referred to itself as an "Empire of Liberty," without irony.
Weakened or weakening versions of The Empire often become Vestigial Empires. If The Empire has been overthrown or mostly overthrown but what's left of it is fighting to get back into power, it's The Remnant. The Empire tends to have its Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy.
The Principality of Zeon in Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite the misnomer (the head of state's official title was Sovereign), it pretty much practiced all the human rights abuses and genocidal tendencies seen in any given "Evil Empire". The twist, however, is that they played the victim card throughout and made it seem like they were forced to declare war on the the Earth Federation to gain their independance; in fact, the One Year War is known as the Zeon War for Independance on their side. And if that wasn't bad enough (since when does one invade other countries to declare secession?), the truth of the matter is Side 3 had already gained independance under the previous leader Zeon Zum Daikun, the same man that the Zabis (specifically the patriarch Degwin) assassinated to gain control of Side 3. Overall, Zeon is definitely the "evil empire" of the Gundam universe, in spite of having a legion of diehard fans that would say otherwise.
Also the Zanscare Empire of Victory Gundam which was bigger, stronger and more brutally oppressive then even Zeon was.
An aversion of this trope is the Lyzelle and Elmekia Empires of Slayers. The latter isn't even visited in-series (although it's stated that it's Gourry's homeland), while the former holds two cities, one being a peaceful, bustling epicenter of trade, and the other is an otherwise peaceful village that hosts a magical tree with healing properties and gets blown up twice. If there is an evil country among in the Inner World, it's its only duchy, Kalmaart, home of the one city where a dreaded assassin lives, and (only in the novels) a village that worships the world's Dark Lord.
Amestris in the manga version of Fullmetal Alchemist (the anime version is more benign). It's stated that over the past 400 years, Amestris has conquered numerous nations, and is currently at war with Aerugo, Creta and Drachma. The Amestrian government is currently planning to use the entire nation in a transmutation circle to raise an immortal army using the slain souls of the numerous soldiers who have died over the years in a plan to conquer its remaining neighbors. Or rather, this is what Father has led the Amestrian government to believe. In reality, it's the crux of his own bid for godhood.
The Holy Empire of Glass Fleet, led by Vetti Sforza, complete with the goal of becoming the One World Order.
The Humankind Empire Abh from Crest of the Stars, though Your Mileage May Vary. Their mode of operation is to forcibly take over planets that do * not* have faster-than-light travel, though oddly they do not interfere with those planets which have purchased the technology from others. In the novels this is explained by the fact that their empire began on an interstellar merchant ship, and that they still respect "vested rights". They do not seem to be overtly oppressive towards the planets they control, but they do not allow * any* starship not owned by the Empire to be armed or use faster-than-light travel technology. Then there's the fact that only the "space elves" in charge are able to command warships, though this is due mainly to their physiology, not overt racism.
The Hellas Empire from Mahou Sensei Negima! is a partial subversion, since the war was actually orchestrated by Omnicidal Maniac terrorists. However, they made it look like the empire started it, and the heroes fought legions of imperial soldiers and warships until they learned of the conspiracy.
This is the Methuselah's form of government in Trinity Blood.
Film
The Galactic Empire from Star Wars, of course. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe it continued to fight the New Republic for years, losing ground. Then, in the Hand Of Thrawn Duology, Supreme Commander Pellaeon made peace between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic.
One Nation Earth in the Apocalypse film series by Cloud Ten Pictures. The design of their logo is based on the Eye Of Providence pyramid design of the Great Seal of the United States.
Saruman attempted to set up one at Isengard, but failed.
Nûmenor, especially at the end of the Second Age. Nûmenor began as The Kingdom, but transmuted into The Empire - and was mighty enough to even conquer Mordor and humiliate Sauron.
In David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series, the world is run by the Seven and called Chung Kuo.
The Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov's Empire and Foundation novels is a state which has already achieved this goal in the distant past - by the end of the Foundation series, the Foundation is on its way to achieving the same. Partially subverted in that Asimov doesn't treat these either of these political entities as overtly villainous.
Asimov's Empire is explicitly modeled on the Roman Empire, and the Foundation's therefore bears some resemblance to Byzantium, the Greek-centered "Eastern Roman Empire" that lasted a thousands years longer - but not exactly, as it was set up specifically to reestablish the Empire within a single millennium.
Although the Terran Empire in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels didn't start this way, by the time of its collapse it was a full-blown example of this trope.
The Empire in Terry Brooks' Shannara series is actually called The Federation. After refusing to get involved in the first three Shannara books despite the immense threat posed by the antagonists of each installment, they decide to invade the rest of the world in the Scions of Shannara multi-part series and (unintentionally) assist the real Big Bad in destroying the Four Lands. What a bunch of dicks.
The Barrayaran Empire and the Cetagandan Empire of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga both qualify at any point they're feeling expansionist. Barrayar's at the peak of one, and starting to slide down, during Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but by the time of The Warrior's Apprentice, it's mostly caught up colonizing a new world (one it didn't have to conquer; it was uninhabited by anything above animals) and helps fight off the Cetagandans, who are still messing about. By A Civil Campaign Cetaganda's calmed down too.
Persian, Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Chinese influences all show up in the Imperium of the Dune novels. While it doesn't receive a villainous portrayal (indeed, the heroes run it in some books), it doesn't exactly receive a heroic one either. It appears mainly as a status-quo form of society that keeps working because it's what the characters can build in their circumstances (particularly the civilization's dependence on the Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild, who both rely on a natural resource found only on one single planet).
Tanya Huff's short story "A Woman's Work" showed a well-maintained, organized and competently led empire, all thanks to a Queen who very clearly has the Evil Overlord List memorized (the story plays it for a comedy, with some direct references to the list).
Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time introduces the Seanchan Empire as a civilization with its stability dependent on enslaving natural sorcerers channelers, and a universal delusion that the slave-masters are not themselves capable of channeling. Aside from the slavery and aristocracy, their strong socialist policies make them fairly popular among the conquered.
The slave-master part is partially justified as if they hadn't ever had a slave, they would be incapable of channeling.
The Eastern Empire in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series. A mild subversion, as the Empire is only evil at the top levels of the bureaucracy - when the armies wash over your country and start building roads, adequate housing, and utilities, most people figure they know what they're doing and don't put up a fight.
The Empire in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, which consists of a single country ruled by a king.
There have been empires ruled by kings and queens beforehand, although considering that the government prior to this was ruled by people on dragons it's unclear why the land is called an 'empire' or why they use the title of 'king'.
That empire only even barely qualifies as an empire, considering that we get no indication that there were separate states (or indeed any kind of organised government) or multiple ethnic groups that were incorporated together before Galbatorix founded his "empire". For all intents and purposes, it is merely a kingdom.
One of the few "bad" things in Marge Piercy's Mary Suetopia in the novel Woman on the Edge of Time is that they still have war, and their agrarian, utopian society is fighting a war of attrition with an evil technocratic, cyborg, robotic empire. But, they must not be doing too bad (they use weapons called "jizzers"...tee hee), since while their utopia takes up most of the Earth, the evil empire is resigned to Antarctica, space, and the moon.
The CoDominium (CD) in Falkenberg's Legions by Jerry Pournelle. Technically The Alliance, consisting of the United States and the USSR, the CD becomes an interstellar empire, with Earth's nations really disliking the Alliance. It's also collapsing, due to the fact that the US and USSR still hating each other.
Eventually the CoDominium military forces leave the Earth when the USA and USSR blow each other to pieces (and other nations join in), to relocated on the planets Sparta and St. Ekaterina, where they found a full-bore aristocratic empire of their own. The last line of 'The Prince of Spartans' is AVE. AVE LYSANDER, IMPERATOR
Inverted, played with and otherwise Deconstructed in the Honor Harrington series. Manticore may finally revel in some good old-fashioned imperialism, but that doesn't stop them from being the nice guy of the series, while alleged Federations are either corrupt bureaucratic monstrosities that are falling apart at the seams (League), or alternate between that and bloody tyranny (Haven).
Although Haven has gotten a lot better lately. You can make a pretty good case that are now as much the "good guys" as anyone else. Right now the only reason they're fighting Manticore is over a really big misunderstanding (details would be a major spoiler).
Indeed, the only true black in the series now are the people behind genetic slavery — everyone else is various shades of gray.
The Empire of Manticore replaced the The Kingdom, but is really more of The Republic and The Alliance becoming The Federation. But The Federation, aka the Solarian League acts far more like The Empire, specifically Rome with a stable and rich core but provinces providing the tribute and funds to run the rest of the league. Then there's the The Republic of Haven, really the The People's Republic of Haven. No one is quite who they say except the Andermani. They're an Empire like they say they are, but a Prussian model.
In C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, Calormen is a mild instance of this. Although it is not entirely bent on conquest, the book features an attempt to conquer Archenland, and the promise that will help conquer Narnia. The curse on Rabadash is explicitly described as making life easier for small countries nearby, as he can not conquer them himself, and is afraid of the power generals would amass if they did so for him.
The Instrumentality of Mankind in the eponymous series by Cordwainer Smith. However, the Instrumentality is very, very unusual.
In fact, trying to give an encyclopedic explanation of how it governs, its structure, its people's, history or even its policies wouldn't explain it with any justice.
Both subverted and played straight in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The Malazan Empire is aggressive and expansionistic, but they're not evil. In fact, in the third book one of the leaders of the forces fighting against them comes to the conclusion that many of the cities they'd conquered were better off under the Malazans than they had been under their previous rulers. The Letherii Empire, on the other hand...
And the Pannion Domin, a hellish theocracy of cannibals, is worse than Lether, to the point that most of the Domin is dead wasteland with only the fringes still supporting life. Fortunately, its also the smallest and least powerful of the three major empires of the current timeline (Malazan, Letherii, and Pannion Domin).
Tolkien's Numenor became more and more imperialistic and evil until its catastrophic demise.
Sauron's sphere of influence also counts, with numerous nations and cultures bound together to serve their tyrannical god-king. It doesn't hurt that Sauron's motives are basically Lawful Evil in a nutshell.
On the other hand, the dominant human 'good guy' societies, Gondor and Arnor, offspring of Numenor's uncorrupted minority, are also empires, especially Gondor, which at its height controls most of the southern reaches of the area mapped by Tolkien. Later, Aragorn, the leader of the 'good guys' reunited Arnor and Gondor and establishes the 'Reunuted Kingdom, which is a very large, civilized, and decent empire.
Played straight and subverted in Mistborn. The Final Empire controls the whole world and is a truly terrible place to live but its leader, rather than being power-mad, is a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to protect mankind from an Omnicidal Maniac. After killing him and throwing the world into chaos, the heroes wind up having to create an empire of their own to stand up to the real Big Bad.
Inverted in David Weber's Safehold series, where the Empire of Charis is created by the protagonists. This is done out of survival since the Church of God Awaiting was trying to annihilate Charis and has been preparing steadily for another go after the first attempt failed.
The Dark Empire of Granbretan in Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon books.
The Imperial Order in the Sword of Truth. Richard himself also inherits the D'Haran Empire, and starts adding to it. Of course his is a good version.
In Robert E. Howard's "The Hyborian Age", the Back Story to Conan, Aquilonia's greed for conquest destroyed the Hyrkanians even though their civilization was flourishing.
In "The Scarlet Citadel," Conan is lured into a trap so that an empire can extend itself by annexing Aquilonia.
In The Chathrand Voyages, two of these form the center of the storyline; Arqual is fairly progressive and cosmopolitan, but also aggressively expansionistic, while its Arch Enemy the Mzithrin is an insular, theocratic regime. Neither empire is exactly what you'd call "nice"- we see more of Arqual's oppression of its subject peoples up close (because many of the main characters are Arquali or from Arquali-occupied territory), but the Mzithrin have the dubious distinction of producing the ShaggatNess.
The Kingdom of Witchland and its many vasall states in E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros.
An Exercise In Futility has the Kalharian Empire. They aren't so bad, really, provided they conquered you a long time ago.
David Eddings has played with the concept. The Belgariad and related works has the Tolnedran Empire, which is one in name only, in order to concrete its similarity to Rome, and the Mallorean Empire, which in the first series is nothing more than a source for countless cannon fodder and in the sequel is expanded and explored in greater depth, revealing a rich and diverse multiculture who almost universally serve the Big Bad only because they're forced to, and are freed from his grip by the end of the series without any major political upheavals. The Tamuli, sequel to the unrelated Elenium series, similarly explores the Tamul Empire in a similar way.
The Empire of Nilfgaard in the Witcher series. An expansive power ruled by an iron-fisted emperor which routinely uses terror tactics against the enemies' populace, it is also the place of flourishing economy where Trains Run On Time, scheming wizards are rare, and there is less racial prejudice or religious fanaticism, though an occasional coup d'etat does happen.
The Earth Alliance in The History Of The Galaxy series, despite the name, had all the makings of an empire. The President pretty much ran things by himself and didn't need anybody's permission to declare an all-out war against the colonies, justifying that they needed to offload extra population (a single city on Earth is mentioned to have a population of billions) and the colonies wouldn't go fo it (they never actually asked the colonies outright). Their way of subjugating a colony? No declaration of war, although the sudden nuking of two major cities probably counts as one, followed by an invasion. When the invasion is unexpectadly repelled, the fleet admiral has the planet so thoroughly nuked that it remains uninhabitable for the next 1000 years. What follows is the First Galactic War, with the Free Colonies desperately trying to hold their own against the much more advanced and militarized Earth Alliance. After 30 years, the colonists finally manage to defeat the Alliance, and only because one of the Alliance top brass has decided that the war should end and turned off many defenses in the Solar System.
The Harammins had their own empire, including two slave races. However, they deliberately contained themselves in a large star cluster, never expanding, remaining static for nearly 3 million years with rulers suffering from Immortality Immorality.
A non-evil (although, YMMV) variant in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar with the Race, to the point where they can't conceive of any other form of government but absolute monarchy. This belief is further reinforced by the two previous races they subjugated, also reptilians. So when they arrive to Earth (which they call Tosev-3), they are baffled by (among many other things) by the wide variety of forms of government present on this planet. The only word they can come up with these forms of government in their language is "not-empires". Voting is derisively called "snout-counting". The Race have a Manifest Destiny-like belief on a galactic scale. They see their Emperors as ruling the entire galaxy (if not universe) by divine right. Their "evilness" can be described with the glee they express when they slaughter human soldiers or drop nuclear bombs on cities. They only reason they hold off on using nukes is because they don't want to damage the planet, which they want to settle. They're also highly hypocritical.
Live Action TV
Several examples from Star Trek that The Federation encounters from the outside, like the Dominion and the Romulan Empire, not to mention the Mirror Universe version of the Federation itself, the Terran Empire (insignia pictured above).
The Klingon Empire in the original series qualified until they allied with the Federation.
Interestingly, neither the Romulans nor the Klingons have an emperor, even though that's not a requirement to be considered an empire. The Romulans are officially controlled by the Praetor, although he has little political power and mostly controls the fleet with the Senate running everything else. The Klingons have the High Council, with the Chancellor being the de-facto Emperor, although the position is not hereditary. They used to have Emperors, but haven't had one for centuries. Then the clone of Kahless (their first Emperor) shows up, but he's made Emperor in name only and holds no actual power.
According to some non-canon sources, the Terran Empire arose from the American Empire, which was originally a much more militaristic and strength-based United States, before Teddy Roosevelt renames it and crowns himself Emperor. Interestingly, unlike a typical monarchy, the title of the Emperor is not hereditary. In fact, very few Emperors actually died of old age. Most were assassinated by those who then took up the mantle. Only one actually retired.
The Alliance of Firefly, though since the main characters are all anti-heroes, it's suggested that from another point of view the Alliance might be considered The Federation. However, the Academy, which is a subset of the Alliance, is firmly on the side of evil.
And then The Movie came and the Alliance crossed the Moral Event Horizon with what went down on Miranda. No shades of gray here!.
At least not until the Operative shows up on Serenity's dock with a Heel Realization to get off his chest, suggesting that even the Alliance has members too moral to tolerate that, and isn't unanimously 'evil'.
They also didn't want to cause what happened on Miranda and view it as their greatest failure.
The Scarrans and the Peacekeepers, mortal enemies in Farscape.
They're both bad enough that Crichton feels that destroying the entire universe is a better option than allowing either side to gain supremacy over the other.
The Dalek and Sontaran empires in Doctor Who. Subverted in the Classic Series with the Draconian Empire, which is more The Kingdom than anything else.
The Federation in Blake's 7, despite the sarcastic name.
In Andromeda, the Nietzschean plan during their rebellion against the Systems Commonwealth was to form a strong Nietzschean Empire with the Drago-Kazov pride forming the ruling dynasty. However, during the last major battle of the war, the Battle of Witchhead, a large Nietzschean fleet (constituting 15% of their total strength at the start of the conflict) suffers heavy losses when they destroy the last High Guard ships (with some help from Hunt). No longer having a strong position, the Drago-Kazov pride is unable to stay in charge, reducing the unified Nietzscheans into a bunch of squabbling prides who are more concerned with power than creating civilization. Cue 300 years of total chaos.
The Commonswealth itself originally started as the Vedran Empire before it became more egalitarian and switched to a republican form of government.
Tabletop Games
The Coalition States in Rifts can be given a little slack for establishing order in the post-Cataclysm world... but not for enforcing illiteracy, destroying pre-Rift artifacts, and brutally hunting down and persecuting D-Bees, magic users, and psychics with chilling coldness.
And Emperor Prosek's decision to consciously adopt Adolf Hitler as his role model really doesn't help.
Although Prosek is not nearly so racist or anti-magic as he pretends. He just finds it useful for keeping the public simultaneously scared and ready to fight at his command. Also, the simple act of him successfully declaring himself "emperor" the Coalition States is in line with this trope, as they were originally more democratic than they are under his rule. This is a major source of tension between Chi-Town and Free Quebec, and also causes concern on the part of the New German Republic.
The Imperium is notable for it's sheer scale, A million worlds and with a population in the quadrillions, it fights thousands of wars at any given moment, its soldiers number in the trillions, and it has existed for ten thousand years. One man, even the greatest man, is nothing, even the death of millions matters little in the Imperium.
They are also both interesting in that they see the other as the violent expansionist empire. Though the Tau are also The Federation made up of many different races including human turncoats while the Imperium wipes out all alien life they find.
Various Chaos Warlords (both human and not-quite-humans-any-more) also sometimes manage to carve out they're own mini-empires, usually numbering a few dozen or hundred worlds. These are either eventually crushed by an Imperial Crusade or collapse into anarchy because, you know, they're chaos...
The Third Imperium of Traveller is more like The Federation with hereditary nobles than an example of this.
Though the first and second Imperiums may have been (and why the second one fell).
In the Points Of LightDungeons & Dragons setting, the empire of Bael Turath was most definitely this, even forcing their entire populace into a Deal with the Devil when the empire was in danger of collapsing due to their own decadence.
Video Games
The Final Fantasy series uses this trope on multiple occasions.
Final Fantasy II has the Empire of Palemecia, which conquers, destroys, and enslaves seemingly for the heck of it. Partway through the game the Emperor kills the devil and usurps his throne. And as if that weren't enough to make him a badass, the expanded GBA release reveals that his "good" side has also taken over the equivalent of Heaven.
Final Fantasy VI has an empire called...well, "The Empire" (it was renamed "Gestahlian Empire" in the GBA release) as the main antagonist for most of the game. As if it weren't clear enough, the intro shows the emperor giving the Nazi salute to his subjects. Of course, they're not the dangerous ones.
In Final Fantasy IX, Queen Brahne is in the process of creating one of these until her death.
Final Fantasy XI includes the Empire of Aht Urghan, which makes up the setting for it's named expansion. It rules over the Aradijah continent with an iron grip, and is in constant war with various Beastmen factions and the Far Eastern army. Bioweapons, chimeras, electric harnessing and Blue Mages are the result of Aht Urghan's technology. The best part is that the player character works as a mercenary/double agent for the big bad Empire for the entire plot.
Final Fantasy XII has the Archadian Empire, which embodies this trope, and the Rozarrian Empire which seems more benevolent, but is only peripherally involved in the story.
The Suikoden games have the Scarlet Moon Empire and the Harmonian Empire.
While not always directly antagonistic, the Holy Lodis Empire is easily the largest military force in the Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre games and makes its presence known similarly to the Harmonians listed above.
Alfard from the Baten Kaitos video games is an interesting example in that there's no resistance against it. The reason: the empire works to instill extreme civic pride in all of its citizens, so that the idea of acting against it has all the attractiveness of stepping on one's own foot.
Lyude: It's unthinkable! To act against The Empire!?
In Panzer Dragoon, the Empire is portrayed this way, but slowly becomes more and more sympathetic as the series progresses.
Spiderweb Software's Exile / Avernum series starts the first game with a description of The Empire. "Not the Empire of Something or The Something Empire"... since there's really only one game in town. They find a massive underground cave network and decide it's the perfect place to chuck all their undesirables. Including you. So the rebellious elements in society are rounded up and sent down to live in near-darkness and plot revenge.
Not to mention exterminating all non-human species on the surface.
One of three ways to win the game is to join the rebels and help take revenge by assassinating the leader of The Empire. Although this does spark a war for the second game, and, well, The Empire does have a few more legions of disposable soldiers than the rag-tag underground rebels do. (Good thing you find aliens to help you!) Seriously, this game is fun.
Subverted starting in the third game when Avernum ends up helping the Empire out, which leads to the Reconciliation and the Empire and Avernum becoming allies. The fifth game even has you play as Empire soldiers.
The Elder Scrolls series contains an unusual subversion, in that the Empire is generally treated as fairly benevolent. By Skyrim, they've lost a lot of power and have become somewhat corrupt, but they are still more benevolent than most examples of this trope. The Aldmeri Dominion plays this trope straight.
If it's a Fire Emblem game it has one of these. Generally the Empire has somehow fallen into the power of some dark evil God. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance's Daein and its King Ashnard are the best fitting, the others are all 'correct' but with a few details of note.
The sequel, Radiant Dawn, gives this role to Begnion, which, unlike Daein, actually is an empire. The Dawn Brigade of Daein, the Greil Mercenaries of Crimea, and even the empress of Begnion end up fighting against the corrupt senate of Begnion.
Halo featured two empires, one fits the trope better than the other. The one that fits this trope the best, is of course, the Covenant, a collection of alien species lead by religious zealots that seek to conquer every race in the galaxy in order to teach them the divine truth of the Forerunners, except for humanity, who they want to annihilate because they are the true inheritor to Forerunner tech, even though humans don't know it. The second empire is a bit more cuddly, the UNSC. It was described as an empire, and indeed has La Résistance fighting it, though they are portrayed more as terrorists than people bringing down an empire. Note that La Résistance is only featured in the Expanded Universe, and not the actual games, sadly.
Helps by the time the game starts most of the La Résistance is wiped out by the Covenant
It certainly helps that they were by far the best alternative when they were founded (it was between them, the Frieden, and the Koslovics), and the Innies themselves have rather few redeeming features.
Actually, if Contact Harvest is anything to go by, colonies of the UNSC were given quite a lot of self-governance. The UNSC was reluctant to interfere with colonial affairs even when it was believed pirate attacks were occurring, for fear of fueling the insurrectionist flames. The insurrection is generally painted as a grey and grey conflict, with extremists on both sides, but a bit more so for the Innies. We are given no context whatsoever for the colony bombing, which may have resulted from one panicky, incompetent commander, or may have just been a tiny colony now solely used as an Innie base. The spartan program was initiated to halt a rebellion that would tear human occupied space apart, and even then was only known to the extreme top echelons of UNSC command. And, it is only during the Covenant war in which the UNSC takes complete control out of necessity. Rather than an empire, the UNSC is generally portrayed as pragmatic, and occasionally corrupt, but for the most part just trying to do the best job they could.
It turned out that it was UNSC who was the stronger empire in the end.
The Knights of the Old Republic series featured Revan's Sith Empire in the original and the Sith Triumvirate in the sequel.
To be fair, the Triumvirate has no territories it controls, just a network of agents and blackened ruins where they have attacked. It is explicitly stated they don't care who rules as long as the Jedi are wiped out, since they would be unchallenged to do anything they want.
Of course, both of those pale in comparison with the True Sith Empire, hiding in the Outer Rim, gathering strength to attack the weakened Republic. In fact, according to the novel Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, Revan is the only reason why the Sith Emperor doesn't immediately strike at the Republic, which, thanks to Revan himself, is quite vulnerable to attack. Instead, he manages to keep the Emperor doubting for 300 years before the attack finally happens.
Despite the name, the United Earth Federation of Supreme Commander is very much an empire, and a military dictatorship at that. Slavery of sorts is practiced, and there's at least some degree of restrictions on political freedom-the Infinite War began when outlying colonies began rejecting Earth rule and joining the Aeon. Earth's response was military in nature, one thing lead to another, and the Infinite War kicked off.
No, you're thinking of the Earth Empire, the UEF is what's left of the Empire and overall much nicer.
The UEF is still explicitly a military dictatorship-only a fraction of the UEF's population is allowed to vote, all the top officials are military personnel, active or retired, and oppression by military police is still in effect.
The UEF is the state formed by the Earth Empire's military (EarthCom) when the Empire collapsed. So yeah, it's essentially a military dictatorship.
The Aeon would also count, since they happen to led by a warmongering commander who plans to usurp the princess, and their goal is to brainwash everyone into accepting The Way, and cleanse all nonbelievers.
A few corrupt officials and officers aside, this is generally averted in Tales of Vesperia, where The Empire is not the primary antagonist.
Secret of Mana has an empire simply called The Empire that wants to harness the power of the Mana Fortress. A group in one of its towns was formed to work against it.
The East European Imperial Alliance from Valkyria Chronicles is basically your standard Empire.
The Dilzweld Empire from Arc The Lad is a typical example of The Empire. Their army seems unstoppable— at the start of the game, they are about to attack The World Alliance (Huh, kinda sounds like The Federation, don't it?), the grouping of the other five mighty nations, and they are certain they can win. Although, they might have some trouble with that, considering whole platoons of their gun-packing Army (they have mechs and airships, too) are defeated with little difficulty by a group of adventurers armed with a sword, an axe, a bow, and some kind of barbed fishing fly on a string.
A better example from Arc the Lad is the Romalian Empire, who were actually somewhat competent and are basically the cause of all the problems in the entire series. The Academy from Arc the Lad 3 fit this trope too, albeit they are a collection of scientists and scholars.. with platoons of soldiers with heavy machine guns and plans to rule the world.
Romalia is a subversion: it started as a commercial empire, because a Romalian merchant was the first to discover spirit stones and to use them as an energy source: When Arc the Lad start, Romalia has been the world first super-power for already 1000 years, thanks to its control of the energy supplies, and things started to go really bad only one generation ago.
FreeSpace has the Ancients' Empire in its Back Story, which fell 8,000 years before the game begins, annihilated by the Shivans. The Back Story is told from the Ancients' point of view, chronicling their rise and fall, painting them somewhat sympathetically as victims of the "Cosmic Destroyers"... it's easy to forget that they were a galaxy-spanning war machine conquering planets and enslaving species left and right: "And we saw other advanced life, and we subdued it, or we crushed it..." The Shivans could almost be seen as the heroes in this case.
The Vasudans are also governed by an Empire, though it seems to be a fairly benevolent one. It's also specifically mentioned to be a Parliamentary Empire. Indeed, the Vasudans' survival and economic prosperity following the devastation of their homeworld is largely attributed to their current Emperor, who is quite progressive and favors further integration with the Terrans in the sequel.
Super Mario Bros. has the Bowser Empire/Kingdom, or whatever it's called. Heavily militarised, run by a despotic monarch and frequently invading the Kingdom... but oddly, in later games it's shown that not only are Bowser's soldiers mostly just doing their jobs, they actually like, respect and admire Bowser, and are quite loyal and proud. (if not understandably scared of pissing off the giant super-strong turtle-dragon king)
Inverted with the Lanvaldear Kingdom and the Malkuth Empire in Tales of the Abyss. Through Luke's POV, Malkuth Empire should be the Big Bad and his own kingdom Lanvaldear is good. Turns out, neither is really good nor bad. If anything, Malkuth Empire is shown to have a much more benevolent.
Played quite straight in the MMORPG Pardus, where the Empire has won every war it was involved in up to this point(no, I'm not talking about the backstory either). This is even more surprising when you consider that the Empire(along with the other factions, The Federation and the Union) is completely player run!
However, that is in orion, one of its three universes (servers). In Artemis, the empire loses quite often, with the federation mostly winning due to having the most members and the best organisation. Then again, wars are not really common, being mostly once a year.
Overlord II has the Glorious Empire, a copy-paste of the Roman Empire, seeking to eradicate all magic in the world. Of course, by "eradicate", The Emperor means gather it all in one spot then use it to become a god and reshape the world. Standard stuff.
Averted in the Disciples series. The Empire, the human force and the local Jack of All Stats race, are more often than not generally the good guys, though there were some corrupted nobles that gained a lot of power during the time skip between the Original game and the Sequel, because the Emperor did mostly nothing for the entire decade. Once they got a new King, they cleaned up their act considerably. And then the Elves invaded them for poorly explained reasons.
Dragon Age has two: the Tevinter Imperium (a Vestigial Empire by the time of the game, though apparently by Dragon Age II they've all but regained their former glory) and the Orlesian Empire, the true Empire of the game's present setting.
Magnagora, the Engine of Transformation from Lusternia. It's ruled over by a Deadly Decadent Court, its most populous race are racist mutants twisted by The Corruption, and it uses The Undead as shock-troopers to blitz and overwhelm its enemies. Despite their obvious inclinations, they can be surprisingly subtle and manipulative in their perpetual bids for power.
The Auroran Empire of Escape Velocity Nova is mostly The Alliance merged with Proud Warrior Race, but they do have their Imperial moments and aspects. The real example in Nova is the Bureau, working through The Federation - they are an autocratic organisation (headed by a Chairperson) seeking to suborn all humanity under their rule, and already have control of one of the three major states of Known Space.
The Terran Dominion in StarCraft, ruled by Emperor and former terrorist, Arcturus Mengsk.
The UED later in Brood Wars.
The Terran Confederacy was this in all but name, as well as lacking a single ruler. Their most famous acts are nuking a planet for some of the citizens speaking out against them and sending assassins to decapitate an entire family. No wonder many humans actually welcomed Mengsk's new government.
The, well, Empire in Gratuitous Space Battles, which is one of the most powerful galactic civilizations, a technologically-advanced powerhouse that has existed for thirty thousand years and counting and is bent on conquering what parts of the galaxy they haven't taken yet. Their "Emperor" is a bit "under the weather" - no one's seen him in about a thousand years or so, but the Empire itself keeps marching along.
The Galaxy-spanning Taiidan Empire in Homeworld can perhaps best be described as what would have happened if the Galactic Empire from Star Wars had been allowed to remain intact for 4000 years. Not very pretty.
The Back Story reveals that the Hiigarans were pretty imperialistic in the old days, boldened by the fact that they had one of the three original hyperspace cores, giving them immense power. They use it to transport their fleet past the Taiidani defense lines right above the Taiidani homeworld, raining destruction on it. After the Bentusi interfered and took away their core, not to mention wiped out a sizable chunk of their fleet, the vengeful Taiidani struck back and drove the Hiigarans from their homeworld, which they took for themselves as repayment.
Caesar's Legion in Fallout: New Vegas, modeled off of Imperial Rome, have the Evil part down, adopting traditions of cultural extinction and genocide, slavery and crucifixion. Their objective in the game is to establish the Empire part.
Caesar however still thinks they're The Horde, and wants Vegas to be their Rome thus making them a true Empire.
Eien No Aselia has the Sargios empire, the strongest nation on the continent. The people are actually perfectly content since they don't have to do any of the fighting and are benefited by the imperialistic nature of the empire.
The Junaris Empire of Vanguard Bandits. The largest nation on the continent, they came into power by rebelling against the Pharastia Kingdom and continue to war with them to the current day. They're the most consistent enemy on every path in the game.
Interestingly, if you win the game as the Empire, Emperor Yoshiro grants you the rank of shogun. Of course, historically, the shogunate usually held all the power in Japan, while the Emperor was merely a figurehead.
The Terran Empire in Ground Control II, originally the Draconis Empire, who renamed themselves after conquering Earth. They then spend centuries solidifying their hold on the Inner Sphere colonies and building up their military. They then strike out at the Northern Star Alliance, crushing all resistance mercilessly. The leader of the Terran fleet is Imperator Vlaana Azleea, AKA the Butcher of Ariel, charged by The Emperor to bring all the colonies under Imperial control, even if it means bombing them into nothingness. The Empire is partly modeled after the Roman Empire, including the ranks (imperator, centurion) and the fact that their foot soldiers are called legionnaires.
Web Comics
The Order of the Stick: Elan's father Tarquin not only controls his own three-pronged empire, but he uses his understanding of the world's narrative structure to deduce that it MUST succeed for a significant amount of time...or else there would be no drama in a lone hero opposing it someday!
The Souballo Empire from Our Little Adventure is probably going to be the main antagonistic force of the comic.The adventuring group is just about to get on a boat to the continent where its holds a huge foothold.
Last Res0rt has the People's Republic of Celigo, which is allied with the Star Org (and it's up for debate which half is really in control).
Homestuck: It's never seen in action being that the main characters are all teenagers, but the Alternian Empire from which the trolls hail was reportedly a formidable and dominating conquering force constantly at war across the universe, seeking to conquer and add more territories to its own. After hundreds - possibly thousands - of years of this, the Vast Glub and the meteor apocalypse on Alternia put an end to that.
Web Original
Tech Infantry has several factions, both human and alien, that occasionally or always fit this trope. The Earth Federation was determined to be the only government of the human species, and aggressively expanded at the expense of various alien empires, who were trying to do the same to them. Then they get replaced by the Middle Kingdom after one faction finally wins the seemingly endless human civil war, and they are even worse in this department. Various alien empires, from the Arachnids to the Jurvain also fit the trope.
In the Chaos Timeline... well, since this is a realistic (hi)story, it's a question of your POV. The New Roman Empire, the German Technocracy and others might all qualify.
The Enforcers of the Plot Continuum, the PPC'sEvil Counterpart, are dedicated to multiversal conquest and apparently already rule large sections of their multiverse. On finding out about the prime multiverse, it's been hinted they've now set their sights on it.
The Sith Council and The Galactic Empire are modern fations in The Gungan Council that have the most planets out of any other faction.
Western Animation
The Fire Nation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's even All There in the Manual that they're conquering the world for the same reason real empires did: they industrialized first and now need resources.
Wouldn't their actions in the Grand Finale have destroyed the resources they were trying to claim?
Here's a list which shows pretty much all of them. Some of the most notable ones are described below, in mostly chronological order:
The Akkadian empire of Sargon the Great and the Assyrian Empire have both been called the first true empires in history, and probably many of the tropes associated with this were invented by the Assyrians.
Still an empire by any reasonable definition of the term
The Macedonian Empire that Alexander the Great created out of his conquest of Greece and the entire Persian Empire.
Although not the first one by any stretch of the imagination, the original Trope Namer (and, in the Western tradition at least, the Trope Codifier) is the Roman Empire*
Imperium, from which the term "empire" is derived, originally referred simply to quasi-military authority, particularly over matters of life and death, and an imperator was simply a high-ranking and particularly honored commander, usually of praetorian or consular rank. Some terms in other languages, such as the German "Kaiserreich/Kaiser" and the Russian "Tsarstvo/Tsar" are derived from Caesar's name.
. Although The Roman Republic that preceded it was actually responsible for conquering the majority of that territory, at its height it encompassed most of the civilized world of ancient times (neighbouring Persia and far-distant India and China notwithstanding), introduced it in many other regions, and its society altogether lasted for more than two-thousand years (although as a Vestigial Empire for much of the latter part). Owing to the enormous legacy they left behind many later empires claimed to be either the continuation of the Roman one, a successor, or to be led by a "Roman" emperor. The Byzantines were by far the most credible, but the Papacy, the Carolingians, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Tsardom, and the Ottomans all laid claim to it as well.
China, at various times throughout history; indeed, the modern PRC seems quite interested in controlling places like Tibet or Taiwan, although not necessarily militarily. In an inversion, Taiwan(officially "The Republic of China" (as distinct from "The People's Republic of China"), was up until recently just as keen to regain control of the mainland from what they saw as a bunch of illegitimate rebels. At its height in the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese reached territory as far as the caliphate, and such was the veneration of the Emperor that the Baten Kaitos example about dissing the Empire having "all the attractiveness of stepping on one's own foot" is not so far off (although the Chinese were willing to dethrone the Emperor if they thought Heaven didn't want him in power, AKA he was incompetent).
As a side note, in the old days, China and Rome were aware of each other and, in fact had embassies in each other's empires.
The Islamic Caliphate, way back when. All five of them, in fact, although it may be a stretch to describe the Caliphate of Cordoba as an empire, since it spanned only southern Iberia. In fact, the Umayyad Caliphate was the fifth largest contiguous empire in existence, spanning from Spain and Morocco to Persia.
The Mongols. When Genghis Khan and his kids were done they had amassed the largest contiguous empire in history, incorporating China, the 'stans, much of Persia, Thailand, Korea, and the northern Muslim world, almost all of Russia, and a decent chunk of eastern Europe. To put it into context: the area conquered by the Mongols was and is home to a third of the human race.
Some New World empires:
The Aztecs, who ran one of most brutal empires ever, and expanded at an ungodly fast rate during their first several years, absorbing and oppressing numerous local tribes. They actually left pockets of resistance and encouraged rebellion among their subject peoples so that they could descend upon them and drag their warriors off for Human Sacrifice. There's a reason why most of their subject peoples sided with the Spanish when they invaded. Not that this dramatically improved the situation.
The Incas, although the Inca state was more properly The Federation. The Quechua name for the Inca state was Tawantinsuyu, which translates as "The Four Provinces." Though military expansion did occur, the Inca would often inform neighboring peoples of the economic advantages of integration. Most regions that composed Tawantinsuyu joined political union under the Inca without any warfare.
The Ottoman Empire. Eventually controlled most of the Middle East, North Africa, virtually all of Southeastern Europe, and the Crimea. It probably reached its height during the 17th-century Siege of Vienna, but suffered a serious case of stagnation afterwards, with one territory after the other broken off from it. By the 20th century it was so far gone that many came to refer to it as "the Sick Man of Europe".
Interestingly, mostly just before the Empire showed that it still had quite some fight in it, and was not going to just roll over and die (which happened more than once).
The Spanish Empire, along with Portugal was one of the first maritime superpowers. Before the British adopted the phrase from them, this was "the empire on which the sun never sets".
The Portuguese empire, to an extent. Most of their early colonizing efforts were (unlike their Spanish counterpart above) more comparable to the Carthaginians than the Romans, as they more often established trading outposts rather than conquer and subject huge swaths of territory.
Austria under the Habsburgs could be a subversion of this trope at different times. Partly because people generally weren't sure how to actually describe it, as it wasn't like most other empires. Indeed, it could come out as The Federation at times, though Your Mileage May Vary.
The French had various periods in which they were this, the Napoleonic Empire and the French colonial empire of the mid-19th to mid-20th century being the most notable.
German philosopher Oswald Spengler claimed in his non-fiction book The Decline of the West that every culture/civilization eventually will end in this. Rome, Imperial China, the Muslim world and other cultures did, Western civilization isn't yet there. (Note he wrote the book in the 1920s.)
Nazi Germany, as well as the many territories it conquered and subjugated. In its heyday it encompassed an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Caucasus mountains, and from the Polar circle to the North African desert - not counting the enormous colonial empire under Vichy French control.
Elements of the Nazi leadership (including Hitler himself, notably) envisioned the creation of a Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (Großgermanisches Reich Deutscher Nation), which would consist of Greater Germany (Germany plus Austria and Czechia), the Netherlands, Flemish-speaking Belgium and France, the Channel Islands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Aaland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, German-speaking Switzerland, even more of France, part of Yugoslavia, and eventually even parts of Italy, together with all the territory conquered in the east (Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Moscovia, etc). Had they succeeded, it would have been one of the largest contiguous empires in history - and the most brutal.
Japan still has an Emperor and fit many of the tropes up until the end of World War II. By mid-1942 they had acquired one of the largest empires in human history, radiating out from the Japanese Home Islands in virtually every direction. Although claiming to be "liberating" the rest of Asia from European and American colonial rule, their actual intent was to just control it themselves. Nowadays, it's a constitutional monarchy not unlike the United Kingdom and an empire In Name Only.
Till the middle of the 20th century, Empires were actually considered the ideal form of government, kinda like Democracies today. The failure and collapse of all the old colonial empires and the new ideas propagated by both the USA and USSR saw perceptions change.
It Makes Sense in Context. As you are likely to have an Evil Overlord one way or another, there is something to be said for one that kills off all the other Evil Overlord s and then has so large a realm that he has to be to busy to to bother you much.
The USSR. Though it claimed to stand against imperialism, it pretty much practiced it all the way. It turned the Eastern bloc of Europe into satellite states, and it garrisoned Soviet troops in those states to impose communist rule. It suppressed any form of opposition against it, and it had no problem in using armed force to do so. Famously, Ronald Reagan actually called them "the evil empire".
One must note how the Soviets came out of World War II. After you lose 20 million people, you want to make sure such a calamity never happens again. Indeed, "Nobody is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten."
A good portion of those twenty million people were killed off by the Soviets themselves, if only as part of Stalin's regime and its practice of Scorched Earth tactics. In fact, there were points in the so-called Great Patriotic War where the Soviet's callousness toward their own troops outmatched the Germans'; the most glaring examples of this were Stalin ordering the NKVD to execute any "deserters" (basically anyone suspected of so much as having second thoughts toward fighting), as well as Marshal Georgy Zhukov ordering immediate executions of any and all returned/escaped prisoners of war and their families. That said, the Soviets had always been the "evil empire" from its formation; just look what they did in places like the Ukraine (Holodomor) or Poland (Katyn Forest), as well as in Russia itself.
There's been debates on whether the United States Of America counts as an "Empire" during the last half of the 20th Century and into the 21st, as it is currently the most dominant nation politically, economically and culturally. A superpower nation defined by its opposition to the Soviet Union, it meddled in the politics of smaller nations across Asia, Africa and Latin America as part of the Cold War. While the government is a "Federal Republican Democracy" with limits on its power, the foreign policy is dictated entirely by The President of the United States, AKA Leader Of The Free World and arguably the most powerful man on the planet. Adding to this is that the United States leases military bases across the globe, and still holds territories in the Caribbean and South Pacific. The argument against the U.S. counting as an Empire is that for all that, the United States never openly established itself as one by title or by overt takeover of foreign nations after having expanded its borders to the Pacific Ocean in the 1800s (even with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the U.S. worked quickly to establish local governments... whether they've been successful is open to debate).
To more precisely evaluate whether or not the US is an empire, one needs to define precisely what an empire is. "Is it imperialism to influence the activities of governments you helped create?" seems to be the big question here. While it's true that US foreign intervention always worked towards establishing local governments, many wonder just how independent such governments are from the nation that facilitated their creation. As with everything else, only time will tell...
On a smaller scale, the Inland Empire, an impossible labyrinth of snowy peaks, scrubby fields and vast swaths of abandoned housing tracts. Once a bountiful agricultural area, was overdeveloped to Dubaiesque proportions until the bottom fell out. Along with Orange County, considered to be the "evil" part of southern California. Really, though, only in name.
