Basic Trope: Phased life cycle of a powerful state.
- Straight: The Troperian Empire emerged from a small settlement on the periphery of the world, which over time turned into a Hegemonic Empire that managed to subjugate all its rivals but, after a couple of centuries, lost its grip, began to fade, and eventually became just a page of history.
- Exaggerated: The Troperian Empire has gone the distance from expansion and stabilization to decay and collapse to subsequent reassembly thrice over the past hundred years, more and more rapidly each time.
- Downplayed: The Troperian Empire was never a truly powerful force in its region and consequently never experienced genuine prosperity, but after a period of initial growth, its position nonetheless deteriorated, which, however, did not ultimately lead to the inglorious end of the empire.
- Justified: The Troperian Empire was able to take advantage of the power vacuum in the region, subdue a number of less powerful states, and use the resulting advantage for internal prosperity. But the lack of effective reforms to meet the challenges of the new era gradually led to stagnation, the impossibility of competing with new predatory neighbors, and the final collapse of the empire.
- Inverted: Being in the Long Night phase and fighting for existence, the Troperian Empire managed to survive and freeze in decline. After some time, the empire stabilized the situation and then conducted a new expansion.
- Subverted: The expansion of the Troperian Empire has led to the conquest of an entire continent, but instead of stopping and thus setting the stage for the next phases of the cycle, its emperor is already preparing plans to conquer the entire world...
- Double Subverted: ...which, however, never happened due to the death of the conquering emperor, the subsequent struggle for power in the empire, and its rapid oblivion.
- Parodied: The Troperian Empire is only the name of the store chain, and the phases merely demonstrate its commercial potential.
- Averted: Instead of any significant changes, the Troperian Empire froze at the reached level of development for thousands of years.
- No state has ever reached the status of an empire.
- Lampshaded: "Incredibly, but it seems that the Troperian Empire no longer has the strength and ability to carry out new conquests. Instead, they are more fixated on themselves, so their sunset is very likely in the future, just like it was with all the others before them."
- Invoked: By the grace of fate, Emperor Robert, a former aristocrat-adventurer, found himself at the head of a young empire, eager for new conquests. Despite the impressive successes, the emperor is not enthusiastic about doing the administrative reorganization of the empire; rather, he does not want his potential heirs to gain greater glory than himself. Knowing that any rise is invariably followed by a fall, Emperor Robert wants his reign to be the peak of the empire's development, thereby laying a time bomb in the very structure of his state.
- Exploited: Adventurer Bob witnesses the moment of incomparable greatness of the Troperian Empire, but in this he also notices the tendencies of the future decay of the empire, being aware that unprecedented flourishing corrupts, leading to much more passivity than ever before, and therefore begins to conduct subversive activities in order to accelerate the whole process and achieve wealth and fame at the expense of the empire.
- Defied: Emperor Chris wants to avoid a possible crisis, being frightened by the terrible fate of previous empires in similar situations, and therefore tries to rule like his glorious ancestor, Emperor Charles.
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