The Evil Counterpart to The Republic. The Foil to The Good Kingdom. The Shadow Archetype (or evil twin sister) to Hegemonic Empire. The Rival to The Federation. The Arch-Enemy of La Résistance. The Logical Extreme of the Rising Empire.
The Empire's central defining grand ambition is world (or interstellar/galactic/universal) domination. Amassing an evil army, it sets out to conquer all of its neighbours and be the sole superpower by force of arms. Taking cues from history, it often resembles historical empires (or empire-esque regimes) in some way. Led by The Emperor, who is usually also an Evil Overlord, Emperor Scientist, God-Emperor and/or some kind of theocratic cabal. A theocracy of a Religion of Evil will almost certainly be the Empire. The Dictatorship can also overlap with the Empire, especially if they are ruled by a clique of totalitarians.
The Empire is typically Obviously Evil, but may still attempt to 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. A People's Republic of Tyranny may overlap with these titles. The Empire may be genuinely 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. In nearly all instances, the Empire features an original founding polity, usually a race or nationality, who stand above and enjoy special privileges that are denied to the Empire's various subject peoples. Overall will adhere to the trope Order Is Not Good.
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, especially if that means the Empire could start attacking a nation's homeland in order to transform it into a territorial posession. They may also be helped by Les Collaborateurs. There may also be one or more powers that oppose it, often good 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 clique to overthrow the government or dynasty and replace it with something even more cruel and brutal, or a nationalist, racist or xenophobic separation movement. The actual legal definition of an empire is basically a country or polity that gets to boss around several other ones.
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 Hive is a factor, expect an Enemy Mine with The Federation against it, or occasionally vice versa. If The Good Kingdom is in the same universe, expect the Empire to occupy it (at best) or assault it (at worst); The Good 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 bet on it being the Token Evil Teammate.
Note that just being called an Empire is not sufficient to qualify a nation for this trope. There are many stories, especially in the Heroic Fantasy and Historical Fiction genres, with polities called "empires" that are less overtly antagonistic. These types of empires may be better described as an expansionist monarchy, a culturally dominant Hegemonic Empire, a militaristic federation, a nationalist republic, or a more centrally controlled alliance.
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. One of its provinces may be a Voluntary Vassal, rather than a conquered one. The Empire tends to have its Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy.
For works named Empire, see this disambiguation page.
Suffice it to say that the Trope Namer is the Imperium Romanum. Other than that, No Real Life Examples, Please!. Most Real Life historical empires have fallen under the Hegemonic Empire class; infamously cruel empires tend not to last very long in the real world.
See People's Republic of Tyranny when The Empire pretends to The Republic or The Federation despite not being either one itself.
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Examples:
- Akame ga Kill!: The Empire is ruled by an obscenely corrupt Evil Chancellor on behalf of the child emperor, uses its powerful military to subjugate its people and expand its tyrannical rule, and is opposed by a populist resistance army. Not to mention that the aristocracy seems to be almost exclusively populated by sadistic psychopaths who take pleasure in abusing the common people. Ultimately, the depths of the Empire's depravity is what allows Tatsumi and the rest of the assassins of Night Raid to justify their work as Necessarily Evil.
- Albegas has the Dellinger Empire, a race of fascist aliens that seek to grow their ranks by absorbing the most skilled of warriors and most powerful of robots. When Earth refuses to hand over Albegas, they take it as an offense and escalate their brutality.
- Berserk has several.
- The Kushan Empire are loosely based on the Ottomans, although their name is derived from a different historical empire
, with some Mystical India elements. They're a cruel and expansionist state who make use of slavery and demonic magic involving Human Sacrifice to power their war machine, and whose preferred method of conquest is to crush their enemies with overwhelming force.
- The Tudor Empire is Midland's warmongering and expansionist neighbor, having instigated a war against them for control of their lands.
- Griffith seems on his way an empire of his own with his New Band of the Hawk, with the support of the Holy See and a path to the throne of Midland.
- The Kushan Empire are loosely based on the Ottomans, although their name is derived from a different historical empire
- Britannia in Code Geass is one of the three space filling empires that compete to control of the world's territory, and while the European Union (a federal republic) and the Chinese Federation (a federal monarchy) are hardly innocent lambs themselves, the Britannians are easily the nastiest of the superpowers because of their institutionalized racism, social darwinism, and Might Makes Right foreign policy. They invade and occupy the independent country Japan in order to gain control of their supply of the strategic mineral Sakuradite, renaming the country Area 11 and establishing apartheid-style discrimination against the native Japanese inhabitants. The protagonist Lelouch takes control of the Japanese resistance and sets about trying to liberate Japan from Britannian tyranny.
- Fist of the North Star features multiple empires carved out by Wasteland Warlords in the ruins of the post-apocalyptic world. The biggest was forged by Raoh, the King of Fists, in the name of bringing order to the wasteland by forcibly uniting all others under him. Others include Shin's KING organization based from the city of Southern Cross, which the anime makes even bigger by adding several other unrelated groups of villains to it, and the Celestial Empire.
- Future Robot Daltanious has two notable ones: The Helios Empire (where Kento, Earl and Emperor Palmillion are from) and the Zaal Empire (the Galactic Conquerers that want to Take Over the World). And then it's revealed that the Helios Empire are a bunch of bastards as well.
- Gigantor has the Demon Empire, led by Uchuumaoh. After it was destroyed, he sought Earth as a potential new home for his subjects.
- GoLion has the Galra Empire, which is made up of several planets unfortunate enough to fall under their colonialism. Altea and Earth are amongst them.
- Naruto has the 5 great nations. Run by totalitarian dictatorships, the 5 great nations are military states that, among other things, frequently wage massive wars on and/or in small countries where they rake in massive civilian casualties.
- The Gundam metaseries has several examples:
- The Principality of Zeon in Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite the misnomer (the head of state's official title was Sovereign), it practised all the human rights abuses and genocidal tendencies seen in any given "Evil Empire". The twist, however, is that they manage to be both this and La Résistance, Playing the Victim Card throughout and making it seem like they were forced to declare war on the Earth Federation to gain their independence; in fact, the One Year War is known as the Zeon War for Independence 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 was already an independent republic under the previous founder Zeon Zum Daikun, the same man that the Zabis (specifically the patriarch Degwin) assassinated to subvert the Republic of Zeon into a totalitarian absolute monarchy.
- The Zanscare Empire of Victory Gundam which was bigger, stronger and more brutally oppressive than even Zeon was. Their main goal was a total cleansing on the Earth Sphere (presumably so that their Jovian backers can move in) by telepathically devolving humanity to a general infantile state. Notably, execution (such as by guillotine) was a standard punishment for failure in their ranks.
- The Crossbone Vanguard and the Jupiter Empire of Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam. The Crossbone Vanguard was essentially a pirate themed Zeon-wannabe militia which sought to establish an aristocratically ruled dominion in Side 4, Cosmo Babylonia. Unlike Zeon however, it actually succeeded, but Cosmo Babylonia ended up collapsing on its own. Beside them, the Jupiter Empire, being more or less a precursor to Zanscare, sought to eradicate all life in the Earthsphere and then rule over the resulting wasteland. It also practiced many of Zanscare's tendencies, such as executions being commonly used for punishment, even for the most minor of crimes.
- OZ, and latter White Fang of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing play this role. OZ overthrew the corrupt United Earth Sphere Alliance so the world could be ruled by the aristocrats of the Romefeller Foundation, and then stamped out even minor rebellions through overwhelming force (namely in the usage of Mobile Dolls). To counter them, White Fang was formed in order to free the space colonies from their influence... by plotting to devastate the Earth with the space fortress Libra.
- ZAFT / PLANT of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. While they do have reasonable cause to go to war with the Earth Alliance, they tend to get pretty dirty - creating a energy crisis, troops murdering POWs, and generally being ruthless in battle. And it gets worse when the radical faction takes over the leadership and escalates the war.
- The Earth Alliance isn't any better, they are lead by a group called Blue Cosmos who have no qualms of using nukes to destroy PLANT colonies, and want to destroy PLANT just because they're Coordinators.
- The Human Reform League in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, rival to the Union and AEU, and seems to be based on both Communist China and the Soviet Union. Out of the three superpowers, the HRL seems to be the worse behaved: Human experimentation on refugee children, supporting a militant group to gain control of Ceylon. They're also the most antagonistic towards Celestial Being. On the upside, the League managed to avoid the worse excesses of Zeon.
- And with Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, the Vagan have since joined the ranks of Gundam's many empires. Unlike most Gundam villain groups, the Vagans actually have a sympathetic reason backing them up: their nation began from Martian colonists who had been abandoned by the Earth Federation of the Advanced Generation universe and forced to endure living in a radioactive environment, resulting in much suffering and death. As such, the main drive for the Vagans is to escape their hellhole and return to Earth; unfortunately, they also want to exterminate Earth's native population along the way, as they see them akin to a disease that plagues their "Eden". And so just like the Zeon before them, the Vagans have no qualms committing genocide left and right, deliberately targeting civilian areas, even colonies and settlements with no Federation military presence, just For the Evulz.
- It gets even worse when their dear leader Fezarl Ezelcant, apparently channeling the spirit of Gihren Zabi across dimensions, revealed his real plan: selectively cause disasters and massacres, among both the Earthnoids and the Vagan, to kill off the weak and then bring the "strong", i.e. anyone that survives, into forming a perfect race. Obviously the guy's two Newtypes short of a White Base, but his followers are so fanatically loyal to him (such that they've been compared to the Helghast) that they don't see it; though for what it's worth, it seems Ezelcant's agenda is only known to a select few.
- CONSENT from G-Saviour. They're pretty much what happens the Earth Federation itself becomes indistinguishable from the Principality of Zeon.
- Religious anime film The Mystical Laws has the Godom Empire, led by Tathagata Killer. It is an expansionist, militaristic, and atheist superpower originated from the Republic of East Asia (an euphemism for China) product of a coup he organized on the country's previous government. Its goal is to establish a One World Order under Tathagata's leadership and destroy all religions in the process. Furthermore, his connections with a mysterious woman named Leika Chan, owner of a trading firm, ensured the Godom soldiers have the most advanced weaponry to conquer nations undeterred, even going as far as to build an "Ultimate Destructive Weapon", allegedly for intimidation. However, it's revealed at the end that Tathagata Killer was controlled by a demon all along. In reality, the whole thing was orchestrated by said demon to instigate humanity's damnation by crushing the returning Savior—whose current life is Shou Shishimaru, the protagonist—and by extension, humans' belief in him, God, and the Spirit World before activating the weapon .
- 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 Fullmetal Alchemist. 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. 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.
- Actually, it used to be due to physiology, during the infancy of space travel, which is the purpose for which the Abh were created in the first place, but now with Casual Interstellar Travel, it is very much racism/classism.
- The opposing faction known as United Mankind, an Alliance of the three largest non-Abh galactic polities, are also seen to demonstrate culturally-invasive practices meant to absorb and hegemonize their dominant philosophies as well as espousing the belief that all Abh are 'rogue biological machines' which either need to be returned to human servitude or eliminated completely for the safety of 'real' humanity. It's something of a crapshoot either way.
- Information from StrikerS Sound Stage X portrayed Ancient Belka as this. It was a powerful civilization with superior magic and technology that took over other worlds, until infighting and the Lensman Arms Race led to the destruction of their world and most of their civilization, with its remnants moving to an autonomous district in Mid-childa.
- The Hellas Empire from Negima! Magister Negi Magi 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.
- The Galactic Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Subverted insofar it's not actually that much worse than The Federation, especially after Reinhart becomes de facto ruler, rids the empire of the Decadent Court, and reforms the system to become more friendly to commoners.
- Played Straight, then subverted in Zoids: Chaotic Century with the Guylos Empire. They get the fancier equipment and the more villainous characters who seek to sow strife, but while initially an antagonizing force, it is discovered that it is mostly through the manipulations of the high-ranking nobleman Gunter Prozen that caused war to break out and, once the rightful ruler is returned to power, the Guylos Empire becomes a vital ally to the heroes and a more benevolent force. It keeps the name "Guylos Empire", however.
- The Digimon Emperor in Digimon Adventure 02 manages to conquer a good chunk of the Digital World, enslaving its inhabitants via mind control rings. Once Ken undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, his empire effectively ceases to exist.
- The American Empire/Imperial Americana from Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed.
- The Alvarez Empire, a combined power of over 700 legal and dark guilds in Fairy Tail. It is located on the western continent, while Ishgar, the setting where most of the series took place, is on the eastern continent.
- Altair: A Record of Battles: The Baltic and Rhein Empire, based on the real-life Holy Roman Empire. While conditions from inside are rarely shown, its aggressive expansionist policy makes it the enemy of all the republics, kingdoms, and stratocracies on the continent.
- Panzer World Galient has the Marder's Empire. The story begins when Marder's troops invade the capital city of the peaceful kingdom of Arst, killing dozens of people, murdering the king, kidnapping the queen and conquering the country. During the next decade, Marder expanded his empire, encroaching upon most of planet Arst and killing brutally whoever opposed him. The twist is he doesn't care for Arst, he only wants to seize the planet resources in order to launch an interplanetary war.
- Attack on Titan:
- Everyone living within the Walls is allegedly a descendant of a previous one, the Eldian empire. This empire is said to have used the power of the Titans to build a great kingdom for the People of Ymir, conquering and oppressing all other races through genocide and eugenics. A century prior to the series, a great conflict resulted in the empire collapsing, with King Fritz the 145th fleeing to the neighboring island of Paradis and constructing the walls to protect the Eldians. However, members of the Restorationist movement claim this story is mere propaganda and the Eldians actually used their powers to help all of humanity and build a thriving kingdom...before being betrayed and driven out. Eren Kruger speculated that both stories were nonsense, and the real history had simply been lost to time because of the competing propaganda wars.
- Marley, the militaristic nation that serves as the Greater-Scope Villain of the series. After overthrowing the Eldian empire, they established power by rounding up the Eldians left outside the Walls, placing them into Internment Camps and completely removing all rights from them. Propaganda teaches that the Eldians are "children of the devil", and must be kept under strict control to protect the world — and Marley is a "merciful" nation for permitting them to live inside their camps (as military assets). The nation heavily resembles Nazi Germany, with its abuse of a minority population and militaristic ambitions on the world. It wages wars on its neighbors in order to expand the empire, using the Titans to conquer neighboring countries and make them colonial territories. And when advancing technology meant a greater need for fossil fuels, the government announced that King Fritz had declared war on them and threatened to destroy the world with his army of Wall Titans. This provided justification to recruit Child Soldiers from the ghettos and offer them "Honorary Marleyan" status in exchange for their military service, in order to launch an invasion and extermination campaign against the Walls.
- The World Government in One Piece are a corrupt and brutal oligarchy determined to exert control over the world and its past. The twist is that, instead of conquering the world directly, they form and oversee The Federation of many kingdoms, each of which provide tribute and recruits for its Navy and other positions. While broadly accepted as legitimate, the story goes out of its way to show the World Government is coercive toward (potential) member states, wildly heavy-handed to any perceived threat, and led by a nobility who literally think themselves gods above all others. In practice, they are an empire with a small civilian population of nobles and slaves, many client states, and an enormous foreign-born military and bureaucracy. It's not even truly an oligarchy but an absolute monarchy/dictatorship. The "Empty Throne" that symbolizes how no one person rules the world has an owner: Imu.
- Hunter × Hunter has the Kakin empire, ruled by Nasubi Hui Guo Rou, who is forcing his children to fight to the death to become heir to the throne.
- Voltes V: The main antagonists are The Boazanian Empire, a Galactic Superpower that constantly expands by colonizing other planets. According to the Boazanian Fantastic Caste System, those with horns are allowed to join the nobility, and those without them are forced to live as slaves - since the Boazanians plan an Alien Invasion on Earth, you can guess where this is going. In the Grand Finale, The Hero's father topples the Boazanian Empire and starts a new era of peace and equality, doing away with the planet's bloody history once and for all.
- Rave Master: The main law enforcement and government in the series is the empire imperial army. However they meet their end when their leadership is wiped out and several of its members join the Demon Card organization. Ironically they were the ones who created not just one but two of the series Big Bads.
- EDENS ZERO: The Nero Empire is an empire that was built within a single generation by Emperor Poseidon Nero himself under the guidance of his Dice, until his influence controlled the entire Aoi Cosmos, ruling over every government on every planet within his empires borders.
- Izetta: The Last Witch: The Empire of Germania is an imperialist military dictatorship that seeks to conquer the rest of Europe and eventually the world, commit war crimes on both the occupied territories and on the frontlines, have concentration camps for political opponents of their regime. Their Emperor Otto is shown to have an interest in Witches and plans to incorporate Izetta’s power and the legend behind her into his conquest.
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: There are three of them that act as some of the dominant powers in the world.
- The Kou Empire having elements of Imperial China, being a large military nation with aggressive policies using any reason to attack other nations, and considered to one of the most powerful in the current era because of the number of Dungeon Capturers and armies under their command.
- The Reim Empire is fashioned after the Roman Empire, being world's largest nation as well as its most powerful and longest leading superpower in terms of military, technology, and economy in the world.
- The Parthevia Empire based off of the Parthian Empire, was once a powerful nation but after a war with Reim they have decreased in terms of power and influence.
- Legends of the Dead Earth:
- In Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5, Lex Luthor created an empire spanning a thousand worlds which he rules with an iron fist. Its capital is the world city Metropole.
- In Impulse Annual #1, the Dargonian Empire rules hundreds of star systems and has a tendency to respond to overt acts of defiance with severe reprisals.
- Wonder Woman:
- Volume 1: The Saturnian Empire consists of the bodies orbiting Saturn the citizens can live on, and those which they can't but can mine and is looking to expand by conquering earth. The Empire runs on fear and harsh consequenses and has been paying slavers to abduct humans for use as slave labor.
- Volume 2: The Sangtee Empire is a galactic empire where chattel slavery is legal and the combined government and state religion control population through the outlawing of natural procreation and women. Any trespassers to the empire are enslaved, with the women sent to border planets to mine in harsh conditions until their deaths. Wondy starts up a resistance that forces the empire to abolish slavery.
- The Khundian Empire is a galactic level expansionist empire where the ruling Khunds are a Proud Warrior Race who regularly give Green Lantern Corps members and other space-faring heroes a hard time.
- The ruling class of the Durlans is expansionist with strong xenophobic flavors in the modern age, they believe themselves better than most races from outside Durla and once joined with the Khunds, Dominators, Daxamites, Gil'Dan and others to invade earth. However their society is already badly fractured and well on its way to the violently isolationist policies it will have in the 31st century when one of their number defects to join the Legion of Super-Heroes.
- The Gil'Dishpan/Gil'Dan are a violent imperial ruled caste divided culture which has a long tradition of conquering other worlds with a large percentage of naturally fluid water.
- In Batman: Holy Terror, the United Kingdom and the Americas are all ruled by the Commonwealth, a more brutal version of the government established by Oliver Cromwell.
- The Green Lantern foes the Tchk-Tchk were an insectoid race whose expansion beyond their own planet the Guardians took issue with. When their empire was forced back to their home planet they quickly ran out of resources and only survived by uploading their brains and abandoning their physical forms.
- The Skrull and Kree Empires from the Marvel Universe are both aggressive and expansionistic. Unlike the Shi'ar (below), both actively attempt to conquer less-developed worlds through infiltration or military invasion. Both are quite vexed by how impossible a target Earth has been.
- The Shi'ar Empire has mostly been an aversion, Depending on the Writer and on the perspective of the characters. To the X-Men, the Shi'ar Empire has mostly been an ally (except for when they're dealing with a corrupt official or a mad emperor), but to the intergalactic rebels/pirates the Starjammers they were definitely the Empire.
- Since the 2000s, they've mostly been played straight as this trope, with it serving as a justification for why Lilandra's had such a hard time holding onto the throne - her more pacifistic and reasonable policies (which weren't universal, either) were deeply unpopular with a large section of the Empire's officials and populace, who were all of the more expansionist outlook. Vulcan actually made himself popular by returning to this mode, and by slaughtering the Scy'ar Tal, who were open about their ambitions of Shi'ar genocide (after the Shi'ar had done the same to them, unprovoked). Gladiator, since he very reluctantly took the throne, has mostly cleaved to Lilandra's policies and doesn't seem to be notably unpopular... though this might have something to do with the fact that a) Marvel's cosmic empires have been wracked by crisis after crisis, so there hasn't been any real time to do any expanding, b) no one's mad enough to try and take on Marvel's primary version of Superman, who does not believe in Thou Shalt Not Kill.
- The conflict of Dreadstar is dominated by a war between two powerful empires for control of the Empirical Galaxy. The Monarchy is nominally controlled by King Gregzor but is really ruled by various corrupt factions in the military and aristocracy, the most powerful of which is the enigmatic Evil Chancellor Z; the Instrumentality is The Theocracy, being run by the church and its spiritual and political head is the Lord High Papal. They're both about equally evil, but the Instrumentality is more dangerous because it's more competently lead and it ends up winning the war when Z sells the Monarchy out.
Other
- Asterix: True to history, the Roman Empire. The state's official stance is to call all other nations barbarians who will be "civilized" either with or without their consent. There are also plenty of corrupt prefects, governors and centurions who scheme at everybody else's expense. The irony of course is that in this time, when Caesar was dictator, it was still The Roman Republic.
- Fables: The Empire of the Adversary is an irresistible force that has swept over and conquered the mythic worlds of the Homelands with its armies of goblins, monsters, and warlocks; the main characters are refugees who managed to flee to the mundane world. It rules somewhat hegemonically, permitting conquered kings to remain in power —or, if they make trouble, replacing them with magical fetches to rule in their place— provided that they pay heavy taxes and put their armies and magic at the Empire's service. All magical items are confiscated and hoarded, while powerful magical beings are required to either accept service or be sealed and imprisoned. By the comics' time it is just finishing consolidating power over the last of the European fable worlds, and then begins a major push into the Arabian ones.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): The world-spanning Eggman Empire, named after Dr. Eggman. Originally composing solely of Robotnik/Eggman and his toady nephew Snively as the "organic" membersnote with the subjects being robots or roboticized victims, over time they begin to include more willing organic members and leaders, albeit still with cybernetics that could be messed with at a moment's notice by Eggman if he decided they were failing too much or getting too uppity for his liking.
- Sonic the Comic has The Drakon Empire ruled by Master Scholar head of the House of Knowledge, Sister Haggra head of the House of Magic and Emperor Ko-Dorr head of the House of War, also the creators of Chaos energy.
- The Asura Empire in the Mexican comic Karmatrón y los Transformables is trying to take over the entire known universe.
- Requiem Vampire Knight: Draconia is the most powerful country in Hell, governed by Count Dracula as an theocratic absolute Vampire Monarch. The government and population are evil by default since they are damned monsters (with the exception of the enslaved lamias) and pretty much rule the world through their mighty military. Their biggest rival is Dystopia, which is a undead version of The British Empire if populated by reptilians.
- Star Wars Legends has had a total of seven Sith-led empires with partial or complete control of the galaxy, with the first five being shown in the Old Republic video games below and the sixth being Darth Sidious' Galactic Empire from the films. In Star Wars: Legacy, The Republic was eventually reorganized into A Lighter Shade of Grey constitutional monarchy known as the Fel Empire (the Fel dynasty being direct descendants of Han & Leia Solo) with its own Gray Jedi order known as the Imperial Knights. However, the Fels were overthrown by the Sith, leading to Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire. Following Krayt's defeat, the government was reorganized into the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
- Paperinik New Adventures is plagued by the Evronian Empire, ruled by the namesake emotion-feeding Planet Looters from their Planet Spaceship. They wouldn't really bother with it except the survivors of their conquests and their descendants provide them with a stable supply of emotions (that they feed on and also power much of their technology, though they're trying to away with the latter) and slaves (a byproduct of the technology that drains the emotions leaves the victims as emotionless slaves). The scariest part of the Evronian Empire, however, comes from the fact the Evronians are prone to Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and extremely Genre Savvy: whenever their numbers grow too much to keep their propensity for betrayal under control they turn a new planet in a spaceship, embark half of their numbers and a new emperor on it, and send it to create a new Evronian Empire somewhere else in the galaxy, meaning that even with the destruction of the one threatening Earth there's still an unknown number of Evronian Empires that may or may not realize the local one has fallen and decide to move in.
- Code Jedi: The two empires of the series are the Holy Britannian Empire and the Galactic Empire. While Britannia was born from the remains of the old British Empire and eventually become the dominant superpower on Earth, intending to conquer the rest of the world while stripping the citizens of conquered nations of their rights and referring to them as numbers, the Galactic Empire has control over countless worlds in their respective galaxy and far surpasses Britannia in military power and resources.
- Code Prime:
- The Decepticons are a militaristic and ruthless regime led by Megatron. He initially sought to reform the inequalities in Cybertronian society, but over time, his darker ambitions came to dominate his original purpose. Now, he leads the Decepticons in a conquest across the galaxy, waging war against their greatest enemies, the Autobots. Upon arriving on Earth, Megatron secretly allied himself with the future Emperor Charles zi Britannia, supporting the Britannians from behind the scenes until Optimus Prime and the Autobots revealed themselves.
- Born from the remnants of the old British Empire, the Holy Britannian Empire is a fascist nation and Earth's dominant superpower. They seek to conquer the world, stripping conquered citizens of their rights and referring to them as mere numbers. However, they ultimately receive the same cruel treatment they inflicted on others after being conquered by the Decepticons.
- The Compendium Of Forgotten Secrets: The Endless Empire embodies all of the traits associated with brutal expansionism, being a kingdom of serpentine people where the lords allow rebellion just to crush it, and that is constantly subduing more countries through subterfuge or overwhelming power.
- In Eggman Generations, as usual, Eggman's goal is to establish the Eggman Empire. His alternate selves want empires for themselves.
- MRA Trilogy's "Intergalactic Femnazi Empire", lead by the Asari and Reapers. Suffice to say, it's a major case of informed villainy, they're not seen doing anything wrong and in fact seems a relatively pleasant place to be, being only disliked by the Poe's Law subjected Straw Misogynist protagonists.
- Vakudos from Hottie 3: The Best Fan Fic in the World certainly runs the Midnight Cage and his chain of over 150 conquered alternate Earths like one. His title is "Emperor" for crying out loud.
- The Empire of Darkness in Hottie 4: Even Better Sequel
- Queen of Shadows:
- In the new reality Jade finds herself in, she's Queen of a Shadowkhan Empire that's slowly conquering Japan one island at a time — they've already taken over Shikoku, and are in the middle of conquering Kyushu when the story starts.
- There's also Shendu's Dragon Empire, which has conquered about half of China and a portion of Southeast Asia. Though apparently, the Ben Shui Chosen One is keeping him from advancing westward.
- Fallout: Equestria: In the original story and most of its Recursive Fanfiction, there is the Grand Pegasus Enclave. While they don't appear to be an autocratic government, they are nonetheless highly militaristic, their society strictly regulated, and they eventually aim to conquer the Equestrian Wasteland.
- In the Pony POV Series, the Shining Armor Arc reveals the existence of the deer-dominated Hooviet Empire, a thinly-veiled expy of the Soviet Union (with elements of Nineteen Eighty-Four for flavor), which serves as Equestria's greatest rival. As it turns out, the Empire was supposed to collapse decades before the current story, but when the Shadow of Chernobull escaped its can, it — in the form of Makarov — altered reality and history to fulfill the Hooviets' desires to keep the Empire alive and vital. When he/it is eventually erased by the Blank Wolf, all the changes made to reality are undone, leading to a world where the Hooviets collapsed on schedule, dissolving into numerous free states, much like its real world counterpart.
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos: The Demon Empire is an autocratic and top-heavy Hegemonic Empire that rules half of the entire universe. The Angel Federation is the only thing keeping the Empire from ruling all of it. Slavery is legal (although heavily regulated) and Demon law is both harsh and unbending. Despite all of it, it's considered the closest thing to a unified culture the universe has; nearly every world uses Demon kredits, even if they live far on the frontiers.
- Ages of Shadow: Under Boaz's leadership, the Shadow Walkers emerge from hiding to begin carving out a kingdom in the Middle East known as the Himinate (after Boaz's title, Himinion). It expands for several decades, until King Cheherazad, backed by Persia, manages to take down the Shadow Walkers' leadership, scattering the remainders.
- A Brief History of Equestria has the Griffon Empire and the Mongrellian Horde, both of which collapsed by the time of the Warming. And then a couple of generations later, Talonhoof the Reviled took control of the remnants of both by force and fused them together into a single massive nation, which he then led in a war of extermination of Equestria.
- In The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds, the Griffin Kingdoms reformed as the Griffin Empire. Two of the kingdoms broke away before that happened and joined Equestria; Gilda and Gustav's families are both from those regions.
- in the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal, Howondaland, the Disc's Africa, is given a more fully realised treatment based on the power blocs of 19th and 20th century Africa in our own world. Two major players locked in mutual and ethnic hostility are the neighbouring states of Rimwards Howondaland and the Zulu Empire. This is presented as an example of Gray-and-Grey Morality: Rimwards Howondaland is locked into The Apartheid Era and while nominally a democracy (if you're white) has an oppressive Secret Police. The Zulu Empire is presented as having many positive qualities but is still a nepotistic monarchy in which members of the Royal House get the best of everything, as well as demanding submission from its own non-Zulu subject peoples that verges on a form of apartheid imposed by a dominant black tribe on other tribes.
- This Discworld builds on canon and has Ankh-Morpork as the Expy of post-imperial Britain. Ankh-Morpork still has the hangover of recent Empire to contend with. Some places, like the Guano Islands, simply don't want to become independent; they like it as it is, thanks, with Ankh-Morpork footing all the bills. There also inconvenient hangovers of Empire in various parts of the Disc. Fourecks and the Foggy Islands are relaxed about it and agree there are useful cultural and sporting ties. Upper Aceria falls into the same bracket, despite its Quirmian enclave being awkward. the Semi-United States of Aceria is a bit more problematic. It's a long time since Ghat was an Ankh-Morporkian colony, but the Morporkians were there for long enough to leave Crockett behind. And see above for Rimwards Howondaland.
- In The Institute Saga, the autocratic and oppressive Kree, Skrull and Shi'ar empires are all mentioned or feature in the prequel.
- In the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series, there are several examples in the greater cosmos.
- There's the Galra, obviously, which covers the most territory by far, and is an oppressive regime.
- The Gem empire, despite covering far less territory overall, has completely conquered their entire home dwarf galaxy and portions of every other surrounding galaxy with a thoroughness the Galra can't match, and Moonstone believes that they would have conquered the universe by now if they weren't so methodical about extracting everything useful that they can before moving on.
- The Kree have an empire as well, though Carol has resulted in it being significantly defanged.
- The Nova Corps is technically an empire, but they're fairly hands-off as long as a world remains affiliated and doesn't engage in "bullshit like slavery", as Carol puts it. This is part of why, despite the Akiridions being one of the oldest and most loyal members of the empire, Nova Prime has given orders not to interfere with Morando's coup. The fact that they will need Akiridion's military forces against the Black Order is another factor.
- Krypton had an interstellar empire back in its heyday, one that was far-reaching enough that Kara is deeply confused that no one else she's met with knowledge of the wider galaxy has ever heard of it.
- As per Mass Effect canon, the Protheans once had an empire that dominated the Milky Way. Though instead of the Reapers (who don't exist here), they were instead destroyed in a rebellion by a coalition of repressed races, spearheaded by the Kree and Skrulls.
- The Cluster, though they're a relatively small example, settling mostly for colonizing Kree planets that have been hollowed out by the Gems. Which doesn't keep them from being viewed as a potential threat by Earth.
- The Shi'ar, as per Marvel canon, are the dominant power in the Andromeda galaxy, though it's noted that here, the Gems' presence in the Local Cluster stymies them somewhat.
- Vow of Nudity: The main antagonist is the Genasi Empire, which aims to conquer and enslave all other races. They have a massive technological and magical advantage and seem to conquer a new land in each story.
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Story of Arceus: "The Nido Kingdom" was a regime bent on taking over Tulaan. Fascist, but Inefficient, Team Azure was able to help bring it down before it spread.
- Invaders of Irk:
- Same as canon, the Irken Empire is this and, by the time of the first story in the series, has conquered much of its home galaxy with footholds in nearby galaxies as well.
- The Planet Jackers are considered to be this, given their reach and influence even outside of their habit of stealing planets to throw into their sun.
- Mention is also made of an Arlatan Empire that was an enemy of the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance before the former's destruction at the hands of the latter and the Irken Empire.
- A Red Rose in the Blue Wind: The Eggman Empire is an imperialist dictatorship led by the egomaniacal Dr. Ivo Robotnik/Eggman, who seeks nothing less than the conquest of all existence. Although the Empire has occasionally managed to establish a foothold, it has never held onto power for long, thanks to the constant opposition of Sonic and his allies. Now, the Empire has turned its sights on a new world: Remnant, where it plans to form a dangerous alliance with Salem and her faction to finally achieve its goals.
- The Galactic Empire from Star Wars. An oppressive, despotic, militarized regime lead by an evil tyrant who rules it by force after orchestrating a galactic civil war that transforms a flawed but democratic Republic into its darker evolution. Palpatine did this carefully and step by step; even after officially declaring the People's Republic of Tyranny to have become an Empire, he waits another twenty years before using the Rebellion as an excuse to abolish the Senate. In the sequel trilogy, a smaller military junta called First Order takes up the mantle (and all the tropes) of the Empire while a true successor to the Empire builds up in secret.
- The Confederacy in C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America. First, they conquer the North. Then, they conquer all of Central and South America (Truth in Television, as that was the Confederate's plan if they had won the war), as well as the Caribbean. Then, as an Axis country in World War II they conquer Japan. A throwaway line suggests they've recently done the same to the Middle East.
- The Necromonger Empire of The Chronicles of Riddick serves as an example of an empire that travels from place to place, and doubles as a Religion of Evil.
- 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.
- The United Citizen's Federation of Starship Troopers is this, being a Federation In Name Only. Their supercilious self-image just means they have to conquer the Klendathu Arachnids as revenge, who would actually qualify as the Empire themselves if they weren't the ones being invaded at the time.
- The dreaded Ko-Dan Armada waiting beyond the frontier of the Star League in The Last Starfighter.
- The G.I. Joe: Retaliation has America become this after Cobra has Zartan become the President of the United States. This means that G.I. Joe becomes La Résistance with the help of Joseph Colton.
- The Nova Empire from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Comic depiction aside, what little we see of its capital, Xandar, is a pristine, cosmopolitan semi-urban landscape (it was based off of Singapore's Gardens by the Bay). However, it's not all great: apparently the local (heavily militarized) law enforcement can send you to prison without a trial (none onscreen, at least). It is possible that the Corps was pushed to desperate measures, as they were dealing with a severe terrorist threat at the time of the movie.
- The Persians in 300 are elevated into a dark realm built upon mass slavery and imperial deification, and are out to conquer Greece because Xerxes apparently just felt like it. Mostly they're an endless horde of Mooks for the Badass Army of the Spartans to fight, with the occasional monster ninja and demonic executioner here and there.
- The Confederacy in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The vampires effectively control the south, using the slave system as an endless supply of food. With Adam's death and the end of the slave system, the empire collapses and most of the vampires flee the country.
- Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning: when Pirk recreates the P-fleet by conquering Earth with the help of the Russian president and advanced technology, he quickly disposes of the president and titles himself Emperor. However, his "glorious rule" then takes a swan dive, as the new empire seems more concerned with building a Space Navy than worrying about the people. They also find out that, being unable to reverse-engineer the FTL drive means that they're stuck in the Solar System without any other habitable worlds to conquer.
- The main antagonists of 2019: After the Fall of New York are a fascist state that caused the apocalypse that rendered most of humanity infertile, and are committing horrific crimes in a desperate attempt to fix things.
- The main antagonists of Vlad Tepes are the Ottoman Empire, who are trying to conquer Wallachia.
- The Imperium in Rebel Moon is a despotic spacefaring regime the heroes aim to overthrow by banding together a rebellion.
- Mythica: The Vitalions, an empire from over the sea, conquered Deira years ago, before the events of the films. Although they aren't the main antagonists in the series and one of them, Thane, is among the heroes, it's made clear many Deirans still want them gone. This happens by the time of Stormbound after the year of the dead, which had broken the Vitalions' grip on Deira, with those who remain being hunted down to be hanged wherever Deirans find them.
- Several examples from Star Trek that The Federation encounters from the outside, like the Dominion and the Romulan Star Empire, and the Mirror Universe version of the Federation itself, the Terran Empire (insignia pictured above).
- The Klingon Empire in the original series had shades of this, but by the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation they were more or less firmly established as The Horde.
- The Romulan Star Empire was created by a renegade group of Vulcans who rejected their founder's stoic teachings, instead basing their lifestyles around passion. Otherwise they're pretty transparent Space Romans, ruled by a Senate and a Praetor. They replaced the Klingons as the go-to Evil Empire in the TNG era, and managed to come out of the Dominion War as the overall winner by only joining late. However, after their own star goes supernova and destroys Romulus and Remus, they reformed themselves into the Romulan Free States.
- 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.note 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 Cardassian Union is an imperial military dictatorship, run by several military officials in a governing body known as the Central Command, rather than one Emperor. It is more similar to the USSR or Oceania than a traditional empire, controlled by a political body. The Cardassian Occupation of Bajor has shown the Cardassian Union to be particularly brutal. They're later overthrown in a coup d'etat which restored the civilian leadership. However, they prove to be even worse as they turn Cardassia into a Dominion member state. As it becomes more and more clear that they're just a vassal of their new "allies", La Résistance forms. The Dominion, who are Eviler than Thou, decide to simply wipe out the Cardassians by Orbital Bombardment when their entire military rebels against them.
- The Dominion was written to be an Evil Counterpart of the Federation. While the latter is bonded by love and peace, the former is bonded by fear and intimidation. In addition, it's far more theocratic than other villain empires in the franchise. It was intended to have multiple Dominion races appear aboard their starships, but they ended up just having the Founders, the Vorta middle management, the Jem'Hadar shock troops, and their Alpha Quadrant allies (Breen and Cardassians).
- The Federation itself is compared to one in-universe, with several characters pointing out that despite their outward appearance of benevolence, there's something incredibly insidious about how they worm their way into situations and make it so that other races come to need them, while others point out how they're no different than the Borg, since they assimilate all kinds of people and cultures while no-one even notices.
- Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard sees the timeline altered so that instead of the Federation, there's the Confederation of Earth, a xenophobic military state that is conquering the galaxy and enslaving all non-human races. The Confederation is similar to the Terran Empire but lacks its Chronic Backstabbing Disorder complex that became its downfall, instead going on to conquer the Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, and the Borg. Its most ruthless military leader is General Jean-Luc Picard, who has led numerous campaigns of conquest against other races aboard his flagship the CSS World Razer (think Enterprise-D but armed to the teeth) and has personally slain alien leaders (including Martok, Dukat, and Sarek), whose skulls he keeps in his trophy room.
- 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 black ops organization 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. At least 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'. Even the disaster on Miranda was almost the exact opposite of what they were trying to do.
- 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 Peacekeeprs are a slight variation, though, since, by agreement with the other races, they are not allowed to control any planets (they operate mainly as an intergalactic protection agency). They are still a force to be reckoned with and are obsessed with racial purity. The Peacekeepers are, for the most part, Sebacaens, who are revealed in the wrap-up movie to be genetically-modified Transplanted Humans.
- Several antagonistic races in Doctor Who have empires, though for most they're usually formed as a means to an end. For instance, the Dalek Empire was created by the Daleks to further their goal of exterminating all non-Dalek life and the Cyber-Empire was formed by the Cybermen in their process of their objective to convert everyone into Cybermen.
- The Sontaran Empire is a straight example, as the Sontarans a militaristic race of clones whose whole society depends on waging perpetual war, although for them conquering isn't as important as fighting.
- The Draconian Empire is a grayer example. It's a vast spacefaring feudal civilisation with a society stratifed along class and gender lines, but can be honorable and reasonable in its dealings with others.
- The portrayal of the Earth Empire varies, some cases being shown as relatively benevolent while in others it's xenophobic and authoritarian.
- The Federation in Blake's 7, despite the sarcastic name (its logo is the Star Trek Federation's, given a hard twist to the right).
- Super Sentai has a lot of evil factions that explicitly have "Empire" in their name, something that was especially in the older series. However, most tended to be this In Name Only and territory their base. Some straight up examples are:
- The Tailed-People Clan Jashinka Empire from Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, an army of lizard humanoids looking to take over Earth and Kill All Humans. Although from what we see of there society, their sphere of influence doesn't seem to stretch much farther than the Grand Gizmo.
- Underground Empire Tube from Hikari Sentai Maskman. A once peaceful kingdom that lived underground until they suffered a coup de'tat and were reformed into a militaristic, expansionist power. Tube is actually one of the straighter examples of this trope, since their sovereign rules over multiple underground tribes.
- Machine Empire Baranoia in Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, an empire of machines from outer space looking to wage a Robot War on humanity.
- Space Empire Zangyack in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger are probably the best example, being a vast interstellar empire with numerous alien races under them that has already conquered most of the known universe, with Earth being one of the few planets they haven't subjugated yet.
- Parodied in Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger with the Neo Dimensional Brain Reconstructive Underground True Empire of Baros lol, which is led by Tsu Shogun, an Otaku who is obsessed with Sentai Villains, and only consists of him, Malsheena and a few Mooks. They do not even have a spectacular lair, as Tsu Shogun plans his attacks from a rented storage depot. Prior to that, near the end of the first season, Doctor Z reorganized the corporate-themed villains into the Delusion Empire.
- While referred to as a "shogunate", Uchu Sentai Kyuranger's Jark Matter is definitively the Empire, being a brutally oppressive, galaxy-spanning, planet-looting dictatorship under the rule of Don Armage. It also helps that they borrow a lot from a more famous Galactic Empire.
- Great Star League Gozma from Dengeki Sentai Changeman are a subversion. Initially, they seem like a vast space empire, having conquered many planets before their invasion of Earth. However, their true purpose is to prepare planets to be devoured by their ruler Star King Bazoo, who is actually a Planet Eater called Gozma Star. Almost all of the planets Gozma conquers have been eaten by Bazoo.
- In Andromeda, the Nietzschean plan during their rebellion against the All 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 Commonwealth itself originally started as the Vedran Empire before it became more egalitarian and switched to a republican form of government, with the Vedran Empress (the Vedrans are a matriarchal society, so it's always an empress) remaining as a figurehead like the monarch of the UK is for the real-life British Commonwealth. This was mostly the result of necessity, as the Vedran Empire has grown so large that its client races began to vastly outnumber the ruling Vedrans. The conversion to the All Systems Commonwealth is likely the only thing that saved the Empire from collapse. The conversion occurred a long time before Earth was discovered by the Commonwealth and joined, so humans (and their various genetically engineered offshoots like the Nietzscheans, Inari, Castalians and Heavy Worlders) were never in the position of a "conquered" race of the Empire.
- In Stargate SG-1, the Goa'uld Empire was an evil empire in name only (the "empire" part, they're a proudly evil bunch). Territorially it was the most powerful grouping in the Milky Way Galaxy, but in fact it was deeply fractioned between numerous regional System Lords who constantly fought each other for supremacy, and after the death of the Supreme System Lord Ra in the original movie any semblance of unity was long gone. This initially worked in the humans' favor so they could focus on taking out each threat one by one, but frequently one of the Goa'uld would emerge victorious over the others to fill the Evil Power Vacuum and attack Earth directly.
- The Centauri Republic in Babylon 5 is an empire in everything but name (though it is referred to sometimes as the "Centauri Empire", it is not its official name). In the past, the Centauri ruled over several worlds including the Drazi, the Brakiri and most notably (because they were particularly brutal with them) the Narn, gaining the nickname of "Lion of the Galaxy". But by the time the show starts, the Centauri have no control over any non-Centauri race and all their former colonies are already independent, whether because they used diplomatic means like the Drazi and Brakiri or because they fought a very violent liberation war like the Narn. Series creator J. Michael Straczynski described them once as a Space "British Empire" with a love/hate relationship with most of its former colonies.
- Barbarians Rising places the Roman Empire in this role for most of its run, with the eponymous barbarians set as La Résistance or The Alliance.
- Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire: One of these controls the area where the series takes place, with the usual oppression, and Dongalor (its representative there) plans on using an ancient magical weapon for even worse.
- Kamen Rider Build: Seito set themselves on their way to becoming this when they invade and conquer Hokuto, before setting their sights on invading Touto next and reunifying Japan under themselves. The Corrupt Corporate Executive pulling the strings behind them wants to take this a step further and use Seito to create an "immortal empire" ruling over the world.
- Chouseishin Series:
- The Daruga Empire in Genseishin Justiriser are a vast interstellar empire stated to already control the galaxy when they first appear. The Hades Army the Justirisers spend the first half of the series fighting turns out to be just one division of the Daruga Imperial Army.
- Chousei Kantai Sazer-X: Neo Descal is a galactic empire formed by the descendants of the Descal Space Pirates after they conquered Earth. By the time of the Bad Future, they've already taken over a plethora of planets and are on their way to conquering the universe, with the fledgling La Résistance unable to do much against them.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron envisions a dominion that spans all of Middle-earth, where he can impose his vision of order through oppression and brutality. His ultimate goal is not just territorial domination but the complete subjugation of Middle-earth to his singular vision.
- Foundation (2021): The Galactic Empire has ruled the known universe for thousands of years, keeping its constituent worlds in line with an iron fist. And for the last several centuries by the time the story begins, it's been ruled by the Genetic Dynasty, a series of clones of Emperor Cleon I, a megalomaniac who felt that only he could keep the Empire going; as such, the clones are as much victims of the Empire as their subjects, as they're kept in line by strict traditions designed to keep them exactly like their forebear. By the time the series starts, mathematician Hari Seldon has predicted that the inherent stagnation of all of this has already set the Empire inevitably on the path towards collapse, leading to the overall Myth Arc as both his Foundation and the Dynasty separately work to react to this (the Dynasty desperate to stay in power and the Foundation preparing for building a new empire after the collapse), which brings them into conflict with each other.
- Open Blue has two rival empires, Avelia (A mix of Imperial Spain and Great Britain) and Sirene (Imperial Germany), and a Vestigial Empire, Yaman (Imperial Russia). The Backstory features the Iormunean Imperium, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Ancient Rome, as precursors armed with weapons blessed by their god who suffered a Götterdämmerung. Ironically, the three present empires are all part of a larger Federation, the Axifloan Coalition.
- The Sith Council and The Galactic Empire are modern factions in The Gungan Council that have the most planets out of any other faction.
- The Empire of There is no GATE; we did not fight there highly resembles a fantasy Roman Empire, with the presence of many things based on Roman culture (such as some names, buildings, martial styles, the treatment of slaves, racism, and other aspects). Presented as a necessary evil and a light in the darkness despite its many faults, because it brought order to the otherwise bloody and uncivilized world.
We all recognize Rome as one of the greatest cultures and Empires that has ever existed. In spite of the slavery, in spite of the oppression, in spite of the naked racism, Rome was a shining beacon in the dark world.
The Empire is far more than Rome could ever hope to have been.
- BattleTech:
- The Draconis Combine fits this to a tee. In fact, it's repeatedly stated in the sourcebooks that the Kurita family (who rules the Combine) believes that it is their destiny to rule all of humanity one day.
- While the Star League acted like The Federation when dealing with the Inner Sphere its treatment of the Periphery states was less than charitable. They were conquered in a brutal invasion and then heavily taxed and denied a say in League policy.
- All of the Successor States are empires. The Draconis Combine is less subtle about it than the others, but all five are cut from the same ruthless cloth and are ruled by dynastic emperors. Their primary opposition, the Clans, are The Horde, and the closest things in the Inner Sphere to a democracy were the Free Rasalhague Republic, which got conquered by Clan Ghost Bear, and the Outerworlds Alliance, which later merged with Clan Snow Raven. Though the Clan did allow Rasalhague to retain their parliament and Elective Monarchy, however Princes tend to be Ghost Bear Khans ever since they claimed Prince Ragnar as a bondsman.
- Recently Clan Wolf has renamed itself into the Wolf Empire thanks to an alliance with a branch of House Steiner, whom they later invaded.
- Bulldogs! has two main rival factions that serve this trope - the self-proclaimed superior species with the Devalkamanchan Republic and the serpentine "peace at any cost"-types in the Union of the Saldralla.
- Dungeons & Dragons: From the various settings:
- Forgotten Realms: The Magocracy of Thay is ruled by the eight most powerful members of the evil Red Wizards, who support their regime with Black Magic and slavery, and later falls under the control of the powerful lich necromancer Szass Tam.
- Greyhawk: The Empire of Iuz is a theocracy under the absolute rule of the demigod Iuz, Lord of Pain. Since his dogma is more or less a Card-Carrying Villain's primer and his clergy handle most of the day-to-day duties, it's not the most pleasant place.
- Nentir Vale: 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.
- La Notte Eterna: The Karevi all belong to the Empire of Hidden Lands, a vast subterranean empire ruled by a cruel emperor and that worships an evil god.
- GURPS being a Universal System, it has some published settings in which this trope appears:
- Banestorm: The role is taken by Megalos. Some of its citizens are decent people, and it's not explicitly committed to evil, but it's literally corrupt to the core.
- GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque: The Great Majestic Solar Empire is actually "a nation with pretensions", and isn't overtly evil — but it has very strong imperialist ambitions, and uses both military strength and diplomatic subtlety in pursuit of power, driving the formation of “the Great Pact”, which definitely functions as The Alliance against it.
- Heavy Gear: The New Earth Commonwealth tries to forcefully reunite the other colonies via military force, sending its Colonial Expeditionary Force to bring the colonies to line with mixed results. The factions on Terra Nova temporarily join forces to resist the CE Fs aggression.
- The Resistance: La Résistance is trying to defeat the implicitly evil Empire.
- Rifts: The Coalition States 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. 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.
- Ringworld RPG: The great Agaman empires are the primary rising forces of their area of the Ringworld, where they have spent the past several centuries steadily expanding and vassalizing or destroying other hominid nations. They view themselves as being destined to rule the world, and there's not much that others can do to stop them.
- Rocket Age: The human superpowers are this to the rest of the solar system, especially the Nazis.
- Traveller:
- The First Imperium when the Terrans contacted it in the Interstellar Wars (which is as far back as Traveller sourcebooks go) was a Vestigial Empire. The second was essentially the first following conquest by the Terrans but the size and senility of the first Imperium simply overwhelmed their bureaucratic resources causing the Imperium to collapse entirely almost as soon as the end of the Interstellar Wars.
- In Megatraveller and The New Era, Lucan's Imperium fits the bill nicely, including setting out on a superweapon project to find a Final Solution (in those terms) to the ongoing civil war.
- Warhammer 40,000 has a multitude of examples:
- The first, the Imperium of Man, a ruthlessly oppressive, fanatically theocratic, and utterly xenophobic feudal power, is notable for its 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. It was even greater at its peak, and even after 10,000 years of war, corruption, and sheer ineptitude of its government and citizenry, it still intends to survive until it's ultimate destruction...assuming that ever happens.
- The Tau are A Lighter Shade of Gray (or perhaps A Lighter Shade of Black, depending on who you ask) compared to the Imperium, but remain an aggressively expansionist empire. They offer new species the option of joining them instead of simple extermination, they're willing to use diplomacy instead of war if it's more likely to get what they want, and the living standard for citizens of their empire is quite high. However, they have an extremely rigid (possibly psychically enforced) caste system that includes other incorporated races as subordinate auxiliary forces, have no problem manipulating their various opponents against each other, and sometimes their quasi-religious philosphy "The Greater Good" can mandate many less than pleasant actions...
- Various Chaos Warlords (both human and not-quite-humans-any-more) also sometimes manage to carve out their 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 Eldar used to have a galaxy spanning empire of their own, obtained by conquest. It was brought down by their own decadence, after centuries of murderous depravity spawned Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess.
- The Necrons likewise had an empire to rival or exceed the Eldar, but were so drained by their fight against the Old Ones and their own gods that they decided to slumber in countless tomb worlds to recover their strength. Millions of years later, they are beginning to re-awaken, and are not pleased to discover newer races inhabiting planets they believe to be rightfully theirs. Usually they don't bother trying to conquer and rule, instead moving straight to extermination of anyone in their way.
- Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: The new Sigmarite Empire is a collection of largely antonymous, self-governing city-states that were either founded or heavily supported by settler from Azyr. While all at least nominally acknowledge Sigmar as their God-King, the degree to which they actually follow his decrees varies wildly. Being a Points of Light Setting, most of them are separated by too much distance filled with Chaos-worshippers, undead, and Orruks to really come to each others' aid, and have to rely on their alliances with local factions of the Grand Alliance of Order for help if they get attacked, rather than expecting help from a fellow Free City on the other side of the Realm; the ones that refuse to make such inroads... don't last long.
- Warhammer Fantasy Battle: The Empire itself averts this trope, being based on the Real Life Holy Roman Empire with an elected emperor and mostly fighting defensive wars, but straight examples exist elsewhere in the setting:
- The Skaven Under-Empire sprawls beneath most of the world, and its rulers seek to conquer everything else one day. They have the potential of doing this, if they would put aside their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder for one minute and not try to eliminate each other while fighting their enemies.
- Naggaroth, the land of the Dark Elves. Unlike other states, which are often ruled by either Decadent Courts or monarchs with limited actual power, Naggaroth is ruled with absolute, unquestioned authority by Malekith the Witch-King. It is functionally divided into domains ruled by Dread Lords, who regularly feud with each other, but none of them dare try and challenge Malekith. Naggaroth is infamous for its ruthless slavers, and the unbridled cruelty of its residents.
- Toa Empire from BIONICLE fits this trope. When Takanuva is sent into an Alternate Universe, he ends up in a world where Toa "protect" Matoran by forcing them under their rule and killing anyone who dares to object.
- Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword 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.
- Sunrider has two historical empires in its backstory.
- The Holy Ryuvian Empire was a theocratic stated ruled by a succession of God Emperors, and it controlled the entire galaxy for tens of thousands of years before it went into a sharp decline. By the present day it has become a Vestigial Empire consisting of a single backwater planet.
- The New Empire was founded in the wake of the Ryuvian Empire’s collapse, and its rulers saw themselves as successors to the Ryuvian God-Emperors. It was an oppressive place where the elite lived in luxury on the paradise planet of Eden Prime, while the rest of their citizens toiled in poverty. They tried to conquer the entire galaxy and were the dominant superpower for several hundred years, until the fledgling Solar Alliance defeated them in the Alliance-Imperial War and stopped their conquest cold in its tracks. Over the next century a revolution would sweep through its territories, causing the New Empire to collapse—and be reorganized into the People’s Alliance for Common Treatment, or PACT—several years before the start of the game.
- Dreamscape: The vampires of the Underworld are an empire of their own, which includes Vampire Lord. In his flashback in "Confronting the Dark", Vampire Lord reveals they gave him the title of 'Lord' (from Vampire Knight) after he saved them from a Fog of Doom.
- Girl Genius: The Wulfenbach Empire, founded by Baron Klaus Wulfenbach during the chaos following the Other's reign of terror and based around the principle of "don't make me come over there!" Given that most rulers in the setting are Mad Scientists this generally means that Klaus is putting down a rebellion quite often, and few of them are good, possibly even the one our intrepid heroine finds herself forced into simply by being a lost heir to one of the more influential (and crazier) Spark families.
- The worst part of this is that the Wulfenbach Empire is the most effective government in the known history of Europa. The last Empire on its scale was the semi-mythical Storm King's domain centuries ago. In fact, after a two year timeskip in which the Wulfenbachs have lost most of their territory from rebellions, the Empire is thought of as a lost Golden Age and many fiefdoms suddenly finding themselves under attack beg to rejoin. All that after just two years.
- While it is an empire, it has no actual Emperor. Klaus goes by the relatively humble title of "Baron Wulfenbach" since he doesn't really give a damn about noble titles. Martellus claims this is one of the reasons the noble families kept rebelling against him. If Klaus had proclaimed himself Emperor, the nobles would have gladly followed him. Not taking the title meant he was not playing the game, and they couldn't forgive the insult.
- 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.
- Sarilho: a Mediterranean Empire.
- The Monster & The Girl: the Bright and Glorious Empire of One Hundred Galaxies
- 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).
- In Nip and Tuck Show Within the Show Rebel Cry, the Federation is an Empire.
- 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 about to get on a boat to the continent where its holds a huge foothold.
- Awaken: The Empire of Nova are benevolent on the surface and their citizens seem to trust them, but it is implied by Nyl that they killed Piras' father to hide a secret, the outside world is not nearly as bad off as they tell their citizens, the Blue Pest that they always warn about is actually Flux and they used the "Blue Pest" plague as an excuse to round people up.
- The Kingdom of Aurum in Ghosts Among The Wild Flowers seems to be getting set up as antagonists. Its ruler wants the Ghost Treasure (apparently for his son's sake,) and its minions are quite willing to detain and interrogate people about same.
- Crimson Knights has the Soburgian Empire, located south of the Northern Kingdoms and currently in the midst of a bitter civil war.
- The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés sums it up rather eloquently in the Last Rule of Politics: "Kingdoms are good. Empires are evil."
- 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.
- Taerel Setting: Pre Age of Awakening, that would of been the Xerea zu'aan empire, now they are a Vestigial Empire, even since much of their population was converted into blood thirsty vampires.
- Decades of Darkness has the *USA and the Brazilian Empire.
- 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's Evil 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.
- Pixiv Fantasia I: Aizerun. The empire holds an ideology that basically amount to fantastic fascism. A country of Beastmen used to exist in its southern territory. Used to.
- The Avatar franchise:
- The Fire Nation during the time 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 in the Industrial Age did: they industrialized first and now need resources which they can get from their less advanced neighbors—though their stated purpose, that many sincerely believe in, is to bring the blessings of their prosperity and enlightened government to the whole world. Come Korra's time, the Fire Nation is indeed much more peaceful yet pacifistic because even though they're atoning/have atoned for the hundred years war, too many are still easily remembering the Fire Nation causing that war and thus they don't want to risk more bad blood.
- The Earth Kingdom in The Legend of Korra has traits of an empire, being the largest nation there is. It is ruled by the previous Earth King's evil and tyrannical daughter, Hou-Ting. Unlike her immediate predecessors, the Earth Queen's rule is more centralized (for one thing, the Dai Li are actually loyal to her), though she still has some trouble establishing order and collecting taxes outside the boundaries of Ba Sing Se due to the unpopularity of many of her rulings. After Hou-Ting's assassination, Kuvira spends three years bringing order to her chaos-ravaged land under the orders of the United Republic of Nations, only to strike out and form her own despotic Earth Empire.
- The Irken Empire from Invader Zim is organized, militaristic, expansionist, and also strangely frivolous. Their M.O. has them inserting a covert operative to scout a planet for weaknesses, send in an invasion force, looting the place for resources, enslaving the survivors as a client race if they're useful or exterminating them if not, and converting the planet for a single purpose, such as a parking structure or a food court. They're weird like that. They also determine authority solely by height, with their leaders called "The Tallest." The only reason they're so successful is that everyone else in the universe is way stupider than they are.
- ThunderCats (2011) reveals that the Cats' civilization, though initially presented as The Good Kingdom, has become this, through a belief that Cats Are Superior, and serious cases of Future Imperfect and Written by the Winners. Though not straight-up evil, it's clear that militarism, Animal Jingoism, Fantastic Racism and a Fantastic Caste System are all a part of everyday life. So while it's a nuanced take on the trope, one can easily have mixed feelings when the Lizards and Mumm-Ra destroy it.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Just as with the show it is rebooted off of, The Horde, officially known as the Galactic Horde in this series, is a totalitarian empire that spans galaxies. It’s founder and emperor, Horde Prime considers it a monument and extension of himself, and so he rules with an iron fist. For at least a few millennia, they have conquered many galaxies and the people they conquer are expected to worship their emperor like a god. Any who refuse to conform to Horde Prime’s standards are either disintegrated, or enslaved.
- Steven Universe: The Gem Homeworld is led by the Great Diamond Authority, consisting of Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, White Diamond and formerly, Pink Diamond. They conquer worlds, sucking the life and energy out of them to make more Gems, and have little to no regard for organic life. Homeworld has a Hive Caste System, lots of Fantastic Racism, especially towards Pearls, and do not have an issue with shattering Gems and using them for the fusion experiments and the Cluster if they don't conform to their standards.
- Sendokai Champions: The Zorn Empire, an interdimensional conquering faction; they have the twist that they organize a tournament of Sendokai (a sport similar to how soccer is played in Inazuma Eleven), with the winner team having their dimension spared from the conquest.
- Storm Hawks has the Cyclonian Empire. Based from Terra Cyclonia, the largest of the terras on the world of Atmos, the empire spans across the largest area of known terras and seeks to expand its reach across the entire world through military conquest. Judging from its leader, that ambition seems to be a familial one passed down through the generations, and she's perfectly willing to resort to various Doomsday Devices or brute force to see that dream come true in her lifetime. If only those pesky Storm Hawks would stop getting in the way...
- Wander over Yonder implies the existence of quite a few of these thanks to most of its Rogues Gallery aspiring to galactic domination. In Season 1, Lord Hater's empire is a Galactic Superpower, but by Season 2, Villain Decay has caused him to lose much of his territory, resulting in a scramble for power between rival empires.

