History LastOfHisKind / Literature

** The dragons were driven extinct during the Dance of the Dragons, a SuccessionCrisis caused by the death of Viserys I Targaryen in 129 AC. Following the Second Battle of Tumbleton, the last dragon to survive was Sunfyre, Aegon II's mount, who [[KillItWithFire roasted his rival claimant, Rhaenyra]], before dying of its wounds a month later. During Aegon III's reign, a dragon miraculously managed to hatch, but it was sickly and died after producing five eggs, which did not hatch. It was termed "The Last Dragon", since it was the last time dragons were seen ''at all'' until the birth of Daenerys' three children in 299 AC.

** Arafel, in ''The Tree of Swords and Jewels''.

* Thomas Burnett Swann's ''Minotaur Trilogy'' (which was written backwards), Eunostos is the last of the Minotaur race following the untimely death of his uncle Silver Bells. At the (chronological) end of the story he has a human girlfriend, so the possibility of half-Minotaur offspring is not ruled out. (Certainly not for want of trying, if his girlfriend's wry innuendoes are anything to go by.)

* In James White's ''Second Ending'', a man awakes from [[HumanPopsicle cryo sleep]] post-WorldWarIII to discover that he's not just the last human being but the last biological life form [[spoiler: apart from a few seeds of grass]] left on a completely dead Earth, with just a bunch of moderately intelligent robots to keep him company. He then spends [[TheSlowPath millions of years]] dipping in and out of cryo sleep while his robots work to restore the planet.

* In the ''Swords'' Trilogy by Creator/MichaelMoorcock, Corum Jhaelen Irsei is the last Vadhagh [[spoiler: until he meets and proceeds to accidentally kill some. And then until some come over from another plane of existence.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'', Minty Mazata is the last surviving member of the Greater Noble Houses of Mixitor - almost all of the rest of her [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire-like species]] were wiped out in a genocidal uprising by their 'bloodservants'. Technically, this makes her by default leader of the exiled remnant of her people. It's a pity she's a murdering drug baron.

* In a story within the story in ''Literature/{{Momo}}'', a scientific expedition encounters the last surviving specimen of a majestic prehistoric species. The head scientist geeks out about it for a while before being reminded that the reason they were exploring this region in the first place is that the creature has been a hazard to shipping. In the end, they find a way to deal with it without killing it.

* ''Who Goes There?'' In John W Campbell's novella that was the basis for ''The Thing'', scientist Blair hypothesizes that the creature they dug out of the ice after 20 million years is this, as the race it came from must surely have passed away in the interim and they will never again find its like. From this flows the decision to thaw it out in air rather than soaking it in formalin, never dreaming that it could possibly come to life again.

* The ''Last Herald-Mage'' trilogy of the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series has Vanyel, the last of said mages after the others are killed off one by one.

* In ''Literature/ExpeditionaryForce'', Skippy fulfills this trope, being the sole active Elder AI in the galaxy. [[spoiler:In the final book, he becomes this for real after killing all other Elder AIs to prevent them from following their objective.]]

* In ''Literature/ExpeditionaryForce'', Skippy fulfills this trope for a large part of the series, being the sole active Elder AI in the galaxy. [[spoiler:In the final book, he becomes this for real after killing all other Elder AIs to prevent them from following their objective.]]

* Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Queen Jadis (who "[[{{Prequel}} later]]" becomes the White Witch in ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'') is the last survivor of Charn - by her own doing. And she brags about it.

* ''Literature/{{City of Bones|1995}}'' by Creator/MarthaWells: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Khat, who is the last bio-engineered Krisman of his specific lineage. His home enclave is very anxious for him to find a kris mate and continue his bloodline, but he has absolutely zero angst about refusing.

* The Apocalyptic Poem ''Darkness'' by Creator/LordByron has the last two humans see each other for the first time and the sight of one other causes them to both die of fright.

* In Creator/KarlEdwardWagner's Literature/{{Kane}} story "Two Suns Setting" Kane meets Dwasslir, the last king of the old race of giants, who is conscious of their decline and wants to give them new pride.

** The [[BrattyHalfPint petulant]], [[IllGirl sickly]] 6-year-old Robert Arryn is the last of his House and inherited the Vale after his father's death. His heir and first cousin once removed, Harrold Hardyng, comes from outside the House, but will become "Harold Arryn" should Robert die without issue.

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': The HiveQueen is the last of the [[BeePeople Buggers]], after Ender unwittingly destroys their homeworld. She is kept by the repenting Ender in a cocoon for nearly 3000 years before he finds an appropriate planet for her to settle. Unlike Ender, who experiences the 3000 years as a considerably shorter time due to relativistic travel, the Queen's mind works differently, and her thoughts are unaffected by TimeDilation, meaning she has been conscious for 3000 years as a cocoon. This changes at the end of ''Speaker for the Dead'', when Ender finally allows the Queen to hatch on Lusitania. Technically, even after that, The Queen remains the last of her kind, as all others are merely drones with no will of their own (in essense, due to their HiveMind, they are her extentions), until she bears other queens to send to other planets. Interestingly, for the longest time in Bugger history, it was every Queen's goal to become this: the only Queen. Queen's would kill their daughters until she herself grew too old and one would usurp her for control of the hive mind. It wasn't until one Hive Queen stopped killing her own daughters and started cooperating with them instead that they began to put an end to wars of domination between the rival hives and actually started developing their civilization.

* Possibly OlderThanPrint: In at least some of the Myth/KingArthur legends, Merlin is the last of the Shape Changers (In Mallory, for instance, he never appears in the same shape twice running).

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise:

** For a good chunk of the timeline, Luke Skywalker is the last and only Jedi. Also, by tradition and design, Palpatine is the only Master Sith Lord. There are more characters from various other Force-using traditions, but it gets messy quick on what counts as a Jedi or Sith. In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Luke has a moment of despair when Obi-Wan's spirit contacts him to say goodbye, thinking that that's it, now he's the last one, before being corrected. Specifically, while Yoda was the last of the ''old'' Jedi, Luke is the first of the new. Obi-Wan and Yoda believed their Order's failure to stop the Sith from taking over the galaxy proved that the old Jedi ways needed to go; when Yoda died, the Jedi's flawed teachings went with him.

** In ''Literature/TalesFromAGalaxyFarFarAwayVolumeOneAliens: The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku'', [[spoiler:the titular treasure turns out to be the clone trooper CT-6116 "Kix", who was cryogenically frozen due to him discovering Order 66 ahead of schedule. Given the clone troopers' accelarated aging, Kix is generally assumed to be the last surviving clone trooper in existence.]]
** For a good chunk of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'''s timeline, Luke Skywalker is the last and only Jedi. Also, by tradition and design, Palpatine is the only Master Sith Lord. There are more characters from various other Force-using traditions, but it gets messy quick on what counts as a Jedi or Sith.
*** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Luke has a moment of despair when Obi-Wan's spirit contacts him to say goodbye, thinking that that's it, now he's the last one, before being corrected. Specifically, while Yoda was the last of the ''old guard'' Jedi, Luke is the first of the new. Obi-Wan and Yoda believed their Order's failure to stop the Sith from taking over the galaxy proved that the old Jedi ways needed to go; when Yoda died, the Jedi's flawed teachings went with him.

*** This happens at other points in the timeline as well; ''Jedi vs. Sith'' and the first ''Literature/DarthBane'' novel has Bane deliberately engineering this by way of [[spoiler:getting the entire rest of the current Sith Order to kill themselves with a thought bomb, leaving only him and his apprentice]].
* In ''Literature/SummerInOrcus'', the villain Zultan Houndbreaker is notorious for his genocide of an entire peaceful and enlightened race of anthropomorphic Dogs. The protagonist eventually learns that there is one Dog left alive, [[spoiler:when she sees Zultan without the face-concealing helmet that he always wears in public]].
* In Terry Goodkind's ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, Kahlan Amnell is the last Confessor, Darken Rahl [[spoiler: having killed all the others.]]

* For a good chunk of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'''s timeline, Luke Skywalker is the last and only Jedi. Also, by tradition and design, Palpatine is the only Master Sith Lord. There are more characters from various other Force-using traditions, but it gets messy quick on what counts as a Jedi or Sith.
** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Luke has a moment of despair when Obi-Wan's spirit contacts him to say goodbye, thinking that that's it, now he's the last one, before being corrected. Specifically, while Yoda was the last of the ''old guard'' Jedi, Luke is the first of the new. Obi-Wan and Yoda believed their Order's failure to stop the Sith from taking over the galaxy proved that the old Jedi ways needed to go; when Yoda died, the Jedi's flawed teachings went with him.
--->'''Obi-Wan:''' Not the last of the old Jedi. The first of the new.
** This happens at other points in the timeline as well; ''Jedi vs. Sith'' and the first ''Literature/DarthBane'' novel has Bane deliberately engineering this by way of [[spoiler:getting the entire rest of the current Sith Order to kill themselves with a thought bomb, leaving only him and his apprentice]].

** In ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'', it's said that Ponce de Quirm was marooned on a Literature/{{Discworld}} version of Mauritius and ate the resident dodos into extinction. [[WhatAnIdiot He did leave one alive so he wouldn't upset the balance of Nature.]]

** Likewise, with the exception of District 12, [[spoiler: each district, if they have at all, only have one Victor by the end of the Second Rebellion, thanks to the Capitol rounding up and executing them for their (alleged) conspiracy. District 12 gets lucky to keep three since [[PlotArmor they're all the main characters]]. In total, only 7 out of 59 or so Victors survive living in 5 districts, when previously everyone had one.]]

* In the final ''Literature/HomecomingSaga'' novel, ''Earthborn'', [[spoiler:Shedemei]] is shown to be the last living member of the Harmony colonists on Earth. She's sustained by a combination of cold sleep and the life-extending power of the Cloak of the Starmaster. An elderly Digger woman figures out that [[spoiler:Shedemei]] is the legendary [[CrystalDragonJesus "One Who Was Never Buried"]], but [[spoiler:Shedemei]] has to play coy, because she can't trust her to remember that that's supposed to be a secret.