The Remnant / Video Games

• The Eruseans from Ace Combat do this twice. The first time, after sacking their capital Farbanti and splashing the V-22s carrying their military leaders in the penultimate mission of Shattered Skies, a group of officers and the last 15 members of their pilot corps takes over the last trump card, Megalith, prompting the final Airstrike Impossible. The second is covered in the Arcade Mode of The Unsung War, where a force calling itself "Free Erusea" attempt an uprising. The Leasath also do this after their commanding officer is defeated in Skies of Deception, though our Intrepid Reporter narrator notes that they shouldn't last long.
• In Alpha Protocol, this is an almost-inevitable consequence of the Alpha Protocol system, because there are so many layers of deniability built into the program that each agent can become an organization unto himself, and when the program is exposed, it just shuts down and the government denies everything, leaving its remaining agents completely unattached. Conrad Marburg's Deus Vult is one such organization, and though it's not outright stated, it is strongly hinted that G22 is actually the remnant of a previous iteration of Alpha Protocol known as G19.
• In Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, the necromancer Korlasz leads the remnants of Sarevok's followers after Sarevok's defeat. Taking her out is the first mission of the campaign, before the new threat emerges.
• Call of Duty
  • The Loyalist faction from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is reduced to this by Modern Warfare 3, where they act as a PMC who helps the player (themselves acting as the remnant of the disavowed Task Force 141 from the previous game).
  • The OpFor fought in the US Marine campaign of the first game is also reduced to an insurgency by the start of Modern Warfare 2, lacking all the heavy equipment they once had and forced to fight like guerillas.
  • In "Project Nova", in Call of Duty: Black Ops, the German forces fought in the Artic circle count, as Nazi Germany practically ceased to exist in May, 1945, while the mission itself takes place five months after the end of the War in Europe.
• From Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Colonel Barnesby and his Confederate remnants are undaunted by the end of The American Civil War, and start up a gun-running operation in the hopes of putting together enough money to finance a second rebellion.
• The player could actually become a remnant soldier in the online mode of the game Chromehounds. If your nation was the first to be taken over, you could then elect to either join one of the remaining two nations or strike out on your own, fighting against both in hopes of liberating the conquered third.
• Chrono Trigger features a few incarnations of forces from the past in later eras. The Reptites of the Giant's Claw cross over into Lost World, while the only way to improve relations between the Humans and Fiends in 1000 AD is to take out Magus' surviving generals in 600 AD. Doing this with Magus in your party leads to some rather rewarding special dialogue.
• In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, it's shown that after the death of Greater-Scope Villain Junko Enoshima at the end of the previous game, her Apocalypse Cult Ultimate Despair and their grip on the Villain World she created is on the decline thanks to the efforts of Makoto and the Future Foundation, with its members now referred to as "Remnants of Despair". Zig-Zagged by the fact that while things aren't as bad as they once were, it's still A World Half Full since about half of the human race is still Brainwashed and Crazy with no end in sight after the failure of the Neo World Program. Calling them "Remnants" seems more optimistic than anything.
• In The Darkside Detective, the gravedigger in the cemetery took the job after crashing his plane there during the War. He doesn't get out much, and is apparently unaware that the War is over.
• In the Tau campaign of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, when the Imperial Guard are defeated, the narrator mentions that many of the survivors continued to stage guerrilla attacks against the aliens. Also, in the actual game, the forces remaining in any enemy-controlled province after their main headquarters on the "Risk"-Style Map has been captured probably count.
• During the Dead Space series, EarthGov serves as the government of Humanity. However, they are shown to be willing to torture people who have come into contact with the Markers in order to create even more of them because of the promise of creating a new energy source, including series protagonist Isaac Clarke who ended up tortured by them for three years following the events of the first game. By the beginning of Dead Space 3, the once powerful EarthGov has been totally wiped out by the Unitologists uprising, with the platoon that you work with being the last remnants of their military. By the end of the main game and its Awakened DLC, sergeant John Carver is the only member of the platoon that survives to the end.
• In Dirge of Cerberus, the organization named Deepground appears and wreaks havoc on the world. It soon turns out they are a little-known experimental group from within Shinra's SOLDIER project and were kept hidden underground. It's stated that in the handover between President Shinra and his son Rufus that Rufus was never informed about the group, so by the time they see the surface in Dirge of Cerberus 3 years have passed since the end of the original game and they have been preparing for their mission without knowledge that the Shinra company that caused their formation is basically no more.
• Disco Elysium: The Deserter, the true culprit behind the murder of the Hanged Man, is this. He is a Communist commissar that kept fighting the war, hidden in the island from civilization, ocasionally going into Martinaise to get food and supplies, and spying on the city from afar, plotting his revenge on the bourgeoisie, the foreign occupiers, and the working class traitors who've allowed the Revolution's legacy to to die, although the true reason he killed the Colonel was a fit of jealousy, as he was sleeping with Klasjee.
• Dishonored 2: The Regenters are believers of the former Lord Regent Hiram Burrows from the first game and people that hates the Empress Emily Kaldwin, enough that they were alright at the idea of assassinating her and her friend when the former was just 14.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Grandmaster Nimzo from Dragon Quest V is heavily implied to have been a follower of Aamon from Dragon Quest IV who managed to complete his master's goal of achieving godhood through the Secret of Evolution long after Aamon's defeat.
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2 starts when the Builder is found by survivors of the Children of Hargon, who fled when their god Malroth was defeated by the heroes of Dragon Quest II.
• In Dungeon Keeper 2, the Sylvan Elves formerly under the command of Lord Ronin continue to fight against Keeper Asmodeous. Interestingly, and very unusually for this trope, if left to their own devices they'll actually win. Granted it won't resurrect their commander, but they'll get their territory back. Of course, the mission objective is to kill Asmodeous yourself in order to prevent this, with the assumption being that the player has destroyed the remaining Elves in the process. Later, the remainder of Lord Bramble's forces don't give up either, but they're more interested in surviving in what remains of his fortress than actually aggressing against the two Keepers in the area.
• In Dynasty Warriors 8, the Jin Campaign's Alternate History storyline sees them defeating Shu and Wu halfway through... and then spend the other half dealing with an incredibly stubborn Remnant of Shu's old military, Jiang Wei, who rallies various allies (including remnants of Wu's forces) in a bid to retake Shu.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Following the events of Morrowind, the Oblivion Crisis, the Red Year, and finally the subsequent Argonian Invasion, Dunmer-controlled Morrowind has become this. What little habitable land was left was mostly taken over by the Argonians, while only a few northern areas of House Redoran territory remain. Most of the Dunmer people were forced to flee to Solsthem (a frozen over, barren rock of an island) and Skyrim (where they are treated as second class citizens to the native Nords). Great House Indoril is a particular example, following the fall of the Tribunal Temple, with which House Indoril was heavily intertwined. While still better off than House Hlaalu (which was scapegoated and Unpersoned by the other Houses), the Indoril are one of the weakest Council Houses as of the 4th Era.
  • Skyrim:
    • The Blades, an Ancient Order of Protectors who have long served the emperors of Tamriel as bodyguards and spies, were decimated during the Great War and officially disbanded by a term in the White-Gold Concordat, which is enforced by the Thalmor ruthlessly hunting down the surviving Blades. The remaining Blades have been forced underground to await the coming of a new Dragonborn to follow, which is precisely what happens during the main quest. You can further assist them into becoming an Order Reborn by recruiting new members.
    • The Dark Brotherhood has only one Sanctuary remaining in all of Tamriel, in a remote forest in Skyrim, and the Legion already knows its location and could wipe out the Brotherhood at any time. They also don't have a Listener, so they can't even pick up the contracts that reach the Night Mother via Black Sacraments and are forced to rely on the rumour mill to find jobs.
    • The Skyrim Thieves' Guild branch is reduced to a single tavern in a sewer, their connections are all but gone, and they are considered little more than petty hired thugs with a veneer of civility. The Guild's sorry state is due to Mercer Frey's betrayal. He stole Nocturnal's Skeleton Key (draining the Guild's luck since this upset their patron Daedra Nocturnal), embezzled the Guild's fortune using the Key, and murdered the Guild's charismatic leader Gallus when he got too close to the truth (which cost the Guild all of Gallus' connections).
    • Once you've completed the Civil War questline in favor of either the Imperial Legion or Stormcloaks, the other side becomes this. Though despite what your commander says, you can't wipe them out without a Game Mod since their outpost officers are still flagged as "Essential" characters.
    • The Empire itself is a mere shadow of its former glory. Summerset Isle, Valenwood and Elsweyr have seceded and become the Aldmeri Dominion, Black Marsh and Hammerfell have become independent states (and Black Marsh has expanded to include some of southern Morrowind) and only Cyrodiil, Skyrim and High Rock remain under Imperial control. Of these three, only High Rock has been untouched by war and disaster and it is only tangentially aligned with the Empire as of the events of the game. A Stormcloak victory in the Civil War would see Skyrim secede from the Empire and the Empire perhaps fatally fractured for good.
    • At the start of the Dawnguard DLC, the Hall of the Vigilant, the headquarters of the Vigil of Stendarr, gets wiped out by the Volkihar vampire clan. This leaves the wandering Vigilants throughout Skyrim as the remnant of the order.
• Escape Velocity: In the Playable Epilogue to four of six plotlines in EV Nova, the Bureau is ousted from their control of the Federation and its lawfully elected government is restored to power. But you periodically run across Bureau remnant forces flying their trademark RAGE Gunboats, battling Federation Navy ships.
• The Fallout series has plenty, since it takes place After the End.
  • The series' recurring villainous faction is the Enclave, éminence grise members of the pre-war U.S. government who rode out the apocalypse in their bunker before emerging to retake the wasteland. Responsible for unscrupulous projects such as the Forced Evolutionary Virus and Vault Experiment, over the course of Fallout 2 they try to kill everyone that doesn't match their criteria of "pure" human, which considering all the radiation is pretty much everybody except themselves and Vault Dwellers who have never left their vaults (which doesn't stop them from coming in and killing them anyway). They get defeated. So when you encounter them in Fallout 3, you're fighting the remnant of The Remnant, and then in the Broken Steel expansion you fight the remnants of that. As of Fallout: New Vegas the Enclave is all but extinct, but you can convince a handful of survivors to rally for one last hurrah at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, where they'll become the stuff of legends. That said, the game hints that there are probably more Enclave holdouts in the Midwest, such as the Chicago outpost visited by ED-E.
  • Many members of The Master's super mutant army survived his death, and by the time of Fallout 2 eighty years later, the smarter ones have settled in peace in the city of Broken Hills. While super mutants can be encountered as particularly dangerous raiders, New Vegas reveals that most are happy to readjust to a peaceful life. Unfortunately, the Nightkin have had their sanity shattered due to use of their stealth technology, and still wage war on non-mutants for various crazy reasons, even as their non-nightkin brethren are working to cure them of their afflictions.
  • The Brotherhood of Steel technically qualifies, as they're descended from a group of former United States Army soldiers. In a twist, it's revealed in the first game that the soldiers were mutineers and the Brotherhood was effectively a secessionist movement. Unlike most examples on this page, they're relatively heroic, if rather racist and exclusionist.
    • The Brotherhood of Steel itself seems to be heading this way after the events of New Vegas and Fallout 4, potentially much more so if the players don't like the Brotherhood. First New Vegas canonized the NCR-Brotherhood war, which either eradicated most West Coast chapters or drove them into hiding like the Mojave chapter. The tone of Elder Maxison's terminal entries make it sound as if the East Coast chapter of the Brotherhood is by far the most active chapter and that the Brotherhood as a whole depends on them.
  • Fallout 3 features the Chinese Remnant, ghoulified pre-War Chinese infiltrators lurking in the ruins of Washington D.C.
  • The Point Lookout DLC also has Desmond Lockheart and Professor Calvert, two high-ranking pre-War intelligence officers who have carried on their old rivalry for two hundred years, even though the nations they once represented no longer exist. And it's implied that there are others like them still playing the "Great Game."
• Many un-updated Random Encounter zones can produce an effect similar to this after external plot changes, such as The Empire's troops in South Figaro's secret tunnel after the Floating Continent in Final Fantasy VI.
• In Final Fantasy XIV, this is the ultimate fate of the IVth Legion, now reduced to a group of bandits that are seeking to create their own land and the last real antagonistic group of Garleans post-Endwalker.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, defeating King Zephiel with all legendary weapons available and intact unlocks the chapters leading to the true ending of the game. The very first of these, "The Ghosts of Bern", pits Roy against the remnant of the Bern army, led by the final Wyvern General under orders from her deceased king.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade pits Eliwood and Hector's army against the remnants of the Black Fang. By that point in the game, nearly all of the founding members are dead, with only one of the two Reed brothers left to carry the name of the Fang. All of their other leadership and members have been replaced by Nergal and his morphs. After "Cog of Destiny," the enemy forces cease being human.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has it again: Even after the Grado Empire is defeated by Prince Ephraim's forces, the Grado Remnant remains a persistent foe. Of note, Grado's prince is still alive, and is the one giving the orders.
  • On most routes of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, there will be at least one commander from the opposing faction remaining for the final battle after their leadership is crushed:
    • On Crimson Flower, Ashe and Annette, if not recruited, are the last two members of the fallen Holy Kingdom of Faerghus still fighting after the death of King Dimitri and leading what's left of the Faerghus military to reinforce the Knights of Seiros and a dragonified Rhea/Seiros. Particularly noticeable since they're doing this inside their own burning capital torched by the Knights themselves in a final effort to kill the Black Eagles.
    • On Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, Myson and Odesse, two sorcerers working for "those who slither in the dark", are on hand to reinforce a transformed Edelgard and a resurrected Nemesis, respectively. Particularly noticeable with Odesse, as he's leading likely what's left of the group after the destruction of their home base of Shambala. Defeating either of them causes their remaining forces to vanish.
• The Force Unleashed: Jedi survivor Rahm Kota and his militia, who go from fighting the separatists to fighting the Empire, and are still around over a decade after Order 66.
• In Freedom Planet 2, it’s revealed that when Brevon, the Big Bad of the first game, was defeated, some of his forces were left stranded on Avalice. These forces are lead by General Serpentine, Brevon's right-hand man, who still swears loyalty to his master.
• In FreeSpace, we get two factions of Remnants.
  • In the first game is a Vasudan group calling themselves "The Hammer of Light" who refuse to accept their government's cease-fire with the Galactic Terran Alliance, and believe that the genocidal Shivans are a prophesized god-race. The Vasudan Empire declares them a terrorist group and they are believed to have been wiped out some time after the formation of the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance.
  • In the second game, the Terran Admiral Bosch forms a Polaris-based militant group called the Neo-Terran Front. Their aims are to overthrow the current Terran government and break ties with the now-friendly Vasudans, motivated mainly by good old-fashioned racism (speciesism in this case). They are declared a rebel group and wiped out over the course of the game. It was actually all a front by Bosch, who really wanted an excuse to plunder some Vasudan ruins and revive an abandoned Terran project to communicate with the Shivans. He is successful in this endeavor, and survives the game... albeit in the custody of the Shivans, and who knows what they intend to do with him.
• Galaxy Angel: The second game begins with a series of attacks perpetrated by a fleet of raiders on the borders of the empire, which are quickly revealed to be led by an admiral who survived the war against Eonia. Unsurprisingly, he's just being manipulated by the game's true antagonists and disposed of once he's no longer of use.
• The Godfather: The Game counts an enemy Family as wiped out once you bomb and take over their Compound, but any businesses that you have yet to take over still shows as under their control, plus in certain spots even in Corleone turf you may still find pockets of enemy mobsters.
• In Guild Wars: Prophecies after the Charr invade the Ascalonian capital, Prince Rurik realizes his people are fighting a Hopeless War and choose to lead the majority of the remaining population to Kryta. His father, King Adelbern, refuses to surrender his homeland and continues fighting against the Charr as did the Ebon Vanguard to the far north. Between games Adelbern's war ended with a Last Stand in Ascalon City where he invoked the Foefire, killing the remaining Ascalonians and binding them as ghosts to continue fighting.
• Guild Wars 2:
  • The Flame Legion are the descendants of the Shaman caste which once ruled over Charr society. Long since cast out by the rest of Charr society, they continue to wage war on the other Legions in an attempt to impose their beliefs.
  • The White Mantle ruled over Kryta for a few years before they and their Mursaat masters were defeated and driven out. Centuries later the cult lingers in secret, stirring up political dissent and funding bandits to harass the Krytan rulers they view as usurpers.
  • Ebonhawk was the last bastion of Ascalonians against the Charr conquest of their nation. This ended when the threat of the Elder Dragons forced the races to unite. The people of Ebonhawk are bitter about this betrayal with many forming the Separatists, a band of outlaws intent on sowing discord between Charr and human.
• Halo: One of the enemy factions in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians is a Covenant remnant led by religiously fanatical Elites who disregard the Arbiter's peace treaty with humanity. The Covenant fighting on the planet Genesis are the remnants of the remnant, with the Arbiter having rooted them out of their last stronghold on Sanghelios.
  • The Didact, the Big Bad of Halo 4's main campaign, is leading the remnants of his Promethean Warrior-Servants in tandem with the Covenant remnant against the UNSC, despite there being no plausible means of restoring the Forerunner Ecumene to its ancient glory.
  • The Expanded Universe and gaiden games include several other Covenant remnants unrelated to the one we see in 4 and 5, such as the Keepers of the One Freedom (who are unique in their relative tolerance towards humanity).
• Hearts of Iron IV Game Mods:
  • Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg:
    • The Entente is almost an entire alliance composed of this trope:
    • The British Empire has become an In Name Only institution after radical socialist revolutionaries toppled the government in London. Canada (now the home of the exiled British monarchy), large parts of the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand (now united as the “Australasian Confederation”), and a democratizing rump of British India continue to identify as parts of “the empire”, but in reality they are a coalition of independent states.
    • The remnants of the Third French Republic’s military managed to hold on to much of Northern Africa after socialist revolutionaries seized mainland France, forming the second major arm of the Entente.
    • Lastly, there’s the Kingdom of Sardinia, the last territory ruled by the House of Savoy, the former reigning dynasty of the now-dead Kingdom of Italy.
    • If Germany is overrun during the Second Weltkrieg, but still holds its African colonies, the German monarchy and government can flee to them and attempt to keep fighting. The Netherlands can do the same if they still hold Indonesia.
    • Several examples in China:
    • After Chiang Kai-shek’s defeat in the Northern Expedition, the Kuomintang has been scattered, but remnants of their forces survive in Yunnan and Fujian provinces, waiting for their chance to rise up again.
    • After the German-backed restoration of the Qing dynasty in Beijing, the Fengtian clique in Manchuria is now the last remnant of the Xinhai republic.
    • During the course of the game, if one of China’s major factions is defeated, but has allies in the Sichuan Clique, they can retreat there and form a last redoubt.
  • The New Order Last Days Of Europe, set in an Alternate-History Nazi Victory, features numerous examples:
    • Several remnants of the Soviet Union and the Red Army:
    • Genrikh Yagoda has relocated the remnants of the Soviet government to the Siberian city of Irkutsk, but controls only the surrounding area, with the rest of Russia crumbling into warlordism.
    • The West Russian Revolutionary Front was formed by surviving Red Army divisions west of the Urals. It saw some success, briefly re-starting the war with Germany and nearly seizing Moscow. However, their offensive ran out of steam, and the Front became a remnant of itself, holed up near Arkhangelsk and only surviving because the Germans were too exhausted to keep pursuing them.
    • East of the Urals, there’s also the Central Siberian Republic, a democratic state founded by prominent Soviet intellectuals with dissident sympathies. It saw some brief success, but also collapsed when its own generals (being former Red Army officers with no loyalty to democratic institutions) mutinied at the first sign of trouble. It now only controls the minor city of Tomsk.
    • The Pacific Fleet in Kamchatka are the last remnant of the Soviet Navy. They were forced to turn to piracy just to survive in one of the harshest peninsulas in the world with no supplies. They get an Alas, Poor Villain moment if they are wiped out.
    Their sorrow scattered to the heartless sea.
    • The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party were nearly annihilated after the Japanese sacked Chongqing. However, some warlords in the mountains loyal to the KMT were never fully defeated, and there’s still some scattered bands of communist guerrillas in Shanxi.
    • The very last Free French garrison continues to cling to the Ivory Coast.
    • Whenever one of Nazi Germany’s far-flung, poorly managed, guerrilla-laden colonies inevitably collapses, there’s often a faction (or two) representing the stranded German settlers and garrison personnel.
    • The Southern Urals is home to Magnitogorsk, which houses Trofim Lysenko and whats left of his clique.
    • ... and this isn't even counting the various resistance fighters who don't have their own country at the game's start! Seriously, TNO has tons of characters.
    • Chita ruled by Mikhail II stands out for being a remnant not of the Soviet Union, but of the White Army. They've been holding out for a long, long time.
    • Nowa Polska is a homeland in Russia for what's left of the Polish nation after Germany wiped it off the map. It's the last Polish nation left.
    • There are many people from the old British Empire still fighting on. The royal family has fled to Canada, while on the island itself several members of HMMLR were old United Kingdom officials.
    • There are several more Chinese examples who are remnants of the Kuomintang. Most of them were Chiang-aligned warlords. These include the Ma Clique, Xikang, Guangxi, and Xinjang. All of them are still resisting the Japanese.
    • In the Philippines, what's left of USFIP (US Forces in the Philippines) is led by colonel Wendell Fertig and still fighting the Japanese. They work with the Filipino natives to chase out the Japanese.
• Heroes of Might and Magic IV: most of the nations on the new world of Axeoth are survivors who escaped from the Armageddon on the world of Enroth. One such nation is the kingdom of Palaedra made up of former Erathians and ruled by the just Lord Lysander, who refuses to accept the crown because he's not of Gryphonheart blood. He learns at the end of the campaign that he is, in fact, a Gryphonheart and says ruefully that he won't have an excuse not to accept the crown anymore.
• Homeworld: Cataclysm with the Taiidani empire. In the original Homeworld, exiles literally march to the heart of their very empire. There was already rebellion, and the rebels found it very useful that exiles took the capital of The Empire and killed the emperor. In the time of the expansion, the Imperial capital is controlled by the exiles, and the rebellion is establishing a new government. However, this fails to stop several Taiidan warlords and splinter factions from trying to attack the still vulnerable ex-capital and try to establish the empire again. By the time of the full sequel, what’s left of the Taiidani joins the Vaygr in trying to destroy Hiigara.
• The primary active threat in Horizon Zero Dawn is the Shadow Carja, the survivors of the losing side of a civil war who enjoyed the conquering, enslaving, and mass human sacrifice policies of the late Sun-King that inspired the rebellion that got him killed and want to go back to it. The true Big Bad is the Man Behind the Man who is puppeting them.
  • This continues to an extent in the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, with a couple side-quests focusing on Shadow Carja who survived the final battle of the previous game and still refuse to accept that they lost and seek to build up their strength and rise again. There's also an additional side-quest about a group of peasants from Shadow Carja territory who refuse to bow to the new Sun-King of the Carja because he's a patricide and regicide (no matter how much his father deserved it), but have no intention of continuing the war and just want to find some unclaimed land where they can be left alone.
• In Just Cause 2, Rico can take a mission to find a missing pilot that ends up leading him to an island populated with hundreds of Imperial Japanese soldiers manning and using a towering machine that generates thunderstorms to shoot down planes and sink boats.
• The Last of Us Part II: Abby, Owen, Manny and a handful of others were former Fireflys who are now part of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF). While they have assimalated into the WLF and are aligned with their goals, they (and especially Abby) still want revenge over what happened at the end of the first game. Them executing their revenge is the catalyst for most of the second game's plot.
• Ganon's followers on several occasions in The Legend of Zelda:
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the series' Trope Codifier for this. The Legend of Zelda ended on a happy note: Ganon's dead, Link has the Triforce, Zelda's free, and Hyrule is back under its original rulers. But the sequel keeps the camera running. Ganon's warriors have regrouped and summoned up new allies, and now they're harrying the countryside and making reconstruction impossible. They have two objectives: to keep Hyrule weak enough that it can be reconquered easily, and to draw out Link so they can sacrifice him and get their master back. It doesn't work in the actual story (Link was just that good), but Ganon's return is the Game Over screen, so you'll be seeing it happen a time or two.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games. This time it's Koume and Kotake, the Gerudo witches who brought Ganondorf up and made him everything he is today. It doesn't go so well this time.
• Metal Gear
  • Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake: Despite losing Mother Base, the Metal Gear, half the army's aces, most of the army, and Venom Snake, Big Boss reconsolidates his forces in Zanzibar Land using the very hostages Outer Heaven took in the first game. In essence, they used to think that Big Boss was only a deluded war maniac (which he may or may not be from all the brain damage) and his war against the secret robot leaders of the United States was just the insanity talking... until said leaders ordered a missile strike on the hostages to eliminate any witnesses, killing some of their families. The survivors enlisted under Big Boss' dying army to fight his losing secret war as one final spiteful revenge.
  • In Metal Gear Solid and its sequel Sons of Liberty, the terrorists joins forces with a renegade Russian outfit led by Col. Sergei Gurlukovich. A most sympathetic character, the Colonel took Cold Warriors who had nowhere to turn after the Wall fell and made them into a mercenary force. Sergei's top guy, Ocelot, hints that certain corners of the Russian armed forces are disgusted with the current state of their country. The Colonel himself has a personal motive: After the USSR collapsed, his hometown was bought up by the U.S. and turned into an atomic testing site. Gurlukovich is delusional enough to think that if he can steal Metal Gear and deliver it into the Russians' hands, it will mean a renaissance for his country.
• In Metal Slug 3's fourth stage, a large hideout teems with scraggly, demented, though dangerous enemy soldiers. These are said to be holdouts from an old war. Humorously, their hardware is so trashed they have to improvise: they "fly" planes by rigging them to pulleys on the ceiling, and use "tanks" that are just hollowed out vehicles carried by two men.
• Neo Contra has the titular organization Bill and Jaguar battle throughout the whole game. They are apparently the political rebels who are trying to defy the governments by setting up their powers.
• The Terran Republic we see (and play as) in PlanetSide is the tiny portion of the Terran military that was stranded alongside everyone else when the wormhole to Auraxis abruptly closed. In Planetside 2, they're the military command that took over the Auraxis colony fleet after much of it was damaged or destroyed passing through the Auraxis wormhole. Despite being separated from their command, the Terran Republic is still a powerful force that equals the New Conglomerate and Vanu Sovereignty in strength.
• Pokémon villain teams almost always have a few members continue their criminal activities in the post-game after their leader has been defeated and their organization disbanded.
  • A small group of Rockets post-disappearance are fought in the Extended Gameplay of the Red and Blue remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen; it's implied that the last ones you fight are the same people who go on to lead the efforts in Gold and Silver.
  • In Pokémon Gold and Silver, the remnants of Team Rocket from Giovanni's sudden disappearance in the last game are the main antagonists, trying to call Giovanni back to them. In the DS remakes, there's also an event involving Time Travel where it turns out Giovanni was going to come back to lead them, but a combination of the signal suddenly stopping and the player soundly thrashing him along the way convince him to go back into exile.
  • In the remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Matt or Courtney (depending on the version) leads a group of Team Aqua/Magma grunts, respectively, in trying to sabotage a rocket launch that will destroy a meteor so the meteor will wipe out the world as revenge for their respective bosses being defeated.
  • Platinum has Team Galactic turn into this after their leader Cyrus is beaten, led by their scientist Charon. He outright tells you that they're not going to be quite as bad as they had been, and his plan is to extort money rather than destroy reality.
  • Pokémon Black and White: After Ghetsis, the true leader and mastermind is defeated he and his son N vanish, leaving behind the seven sages, and a couple of random Team Plasma members. The sequel, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, sees the organisation fully rebuilt after a two-year Time Skip... into two opposing factions.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, Xerosic of Team Flare continues his own criminal activities and experiments after Lysandre is taken out, becoming the antagonist of the Looker storyline, though he is mainly concerned with his own personal research.
  • Pokémon Ranger:
    • In the original game, a couple of Go-Rock Squad members who are still around after Gordor's Heel–Face Turn try to steal a Manaphy Egg
  • In one of the post-game downloadable missions in Shadows of Almia, ex-Team Dim Sun members form a new team called Team Debonairs lead by Dragon Ascendant Kincaid.
• Red Dead Redemption II:
  • A random encounter has Arthur stumble across a lone Union soldier patiently awaiting orders. Except the game is set in 1899, meaning he's been waiting for orders from a long over war to come for 34 years. John can encounter him as well in the Playable Epilogue 8 years later, and he's still waiting.
  • Arthur also has run-ins with the Lemoyne Raiders, a Confederate remnant group that's still trying to free their state from federal oversight. They're generally a mix of older men who likely fought in The American Civil War, and younger men who have been recruited to the cause.
• In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the Peacekeepers under Pravin Lal are all that remain of the United Nations. In fact the crew and refugees aboard the Unity are all that remain of the human species, as the Earth is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust not long after the Unity leaves.
• The player can unintentionally become this in Sid Meier's Pirates!. The four European nations that have established colonies in the Caribbean go back and forth between being at war, peace and alliance with each other at random, so it's entirely possible to have a letter of marque from nation A, raid a city ruled by their enemy nation B, and then learn that the war ended before you launched the attack. Of course, since it's possible to be a chartered privateer in the service of all four nations simultaneously, once you're far enough along in the game, it doesn't really matter.
• In StarCraft, the Confederacy just won't seem to go away after being defeated by Arcturus Mengsk. One remnant group joined the United Earth Directorate shortly after they invaded the sector.
  • The Confederacy appears in a cool map, Deception, having made strange alliances.
  • Ironically, there are UED remnants left in the K-Sector after their defeat, some of them serving as mercenaries; in fact, a lot of the remnants of old Terran factions appear as mercenaries that can be hired in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.
  • Mengsk himself spent a few months as a remnant force between the sacking of his capital of Augustgrad and being able to reclaim it from Kerrigan's Swarm. There are also several prominent protoss examples (ranging in size from "the majority of the Fleet of the Executor" to "a couple dozen civilian refugees") on Aiur following the zerg invasion of that world; though most of them escape sooner or later and are absorbed into (or found, in the case of Artanis's group) the Daelaam Protoss government on Shakuras.
• The opening mission of Star Fox: Assault has you destroying the last remnants of the Venom army before you move up in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil.
• Star Trek Online has the True Way. They're a terrorist group composed of rogue Jem'Hadar and Cardassian soldiers that wants to overthrow the civilian-dominated Cardassian government that came into being post-Deep Space Nine and resume the Dominion War.
  • The 2800 mission arc is a time-travel twist on the 'holdout that haven't heard/refuses to believe the war is over' variant — the eponymous 2800 are 2800 Dominion warships that disappeared in the wormhole in 2374, at the height of the Dominion War... only to emerge in 2409, 34 years after the War ended, quickly capturing Deep Space Nine. It even goes so far as to have the solution be an analogue to bringing in the old commanding officer (the Federation brings out the Female Changeling imprisoned after the war, and gets her to co-operate by offering to return her to the Dominion for her assistance). That is to say, the intended solution. Unfortunately, while the Vorta falls in line, the Jem'Hadar First goes nuts and decides that a suicidal last stand is preferable to surrender even against a Founder's orders.
  • While the Tal Shiar starts out as State Sec crossed with de-facto rule of the Romulan Star Empire ^note it's not really The Man Behind the Man since it's common knowledge that the relationship between the Tal Shiar and the Empress is more akin to untrusting allies than a ruler and her subordinates, by the end of the Romulan storyline they have been reduced to this, having splintered from the remnants of the Star Empire in the wake of Sela's disappearance and reeling from Hakeev's death. What remains of Imperial loyalist forces are almost too weak for this trope — when Sela returns the escort force they manage to gather consists of an armed freighter and a Mogai warbird (a mid-size warship).
  • While there have been no story effects of it — Word of God have indicated it was mostly an excuse to keep related PVE queues running^note which looks odd in light of all the other PVE queues the story has gone past but still remains available — this happens at the end of the Iconian War. The surviving Iconians decide to withdraw to Iconia with their forces and remain there if they're allowed to do so undisturbed... except for T'Ket, who swears she will continue to fight against the Klingon-Federation-Romulan Alliance (and since the Heralds are all sworn to one specific Iconian or the other she does have an army to continue to fight with).
• In the Star Wars games set in the Legends continuity, the remaining Imperials after the Battle of Endor are literally known as The (Imperial) Remnant. That's what happens when you cut off the head of the snake...
  • As the page quote suggests, the Empire itself has to deal with a couple of these in Star Wars: Battlefront II, with early missions past the events of Revenge of the Sith involving a Geonosian restarting a Trade Federation droid producing plant on Mustafar and then the cloners on Kamino restarting production of Jango Fett clones to oppose the Empire.
  • The Dark Forces Saga had the Empire Reborn faction, created by a former student of Darth Vader by the name of Hethrir, which was confusingly also referred to as the Imperial Remnant despite having no ties to the main one.
  • The Old Republic era had the Sith Triumvirate of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, a terrorist organization made up of remnants of Darth Revan's Sith Empire. Unlike other, similar factions throughout the ages, their focus was less on restoring The Empire and more on killing Jedi wherever they could find them so they could do whatever they wanted virtually unopposed. The result became known as the First Jedi Purge, with Order 66 being the Second.
  • Furthermore, a solid chunk of Darth Revan's forces were remnants of the Exar Kun Sith Empire before that, so Darth Sion and potentially a few other Sith had served in three almost back-to-back wars.
• The Divine Crusaders in Super Robot Wars Original Generation show up again in the sequel as the Neo DC, and then again in the Gaiden Game. It helps that the Divine Crusaders are a walking Shout-Out to Zeon, and that they had help from another faction.
  • The Divine Crusaders example happened earlier in Super Robot Wars 3, with the Principality of Zeon reforming the group as the Neue DC.
  • Endless Frontier also has a variant with the Einst, who get bonus points for being the remnant of a eldritch abomination faction. Remnants of this faction also appear in Original Generation Gaiden, but not as examples of this trope.
  • Despite their usual splinter group not showing up, the Titans from Zeta Gundam will play this role whenever Bandai Namco decides to go post-series. A straight example comes from the Super Robot Wars Alpha series as the Titans are given a thourough ass-kicking in Alpha Gaiden, then their remains show up in Alpha 2.
• According to the official bio for Team Fortress 2's Soldier, after being rejected from all branches of the military he flew to Europe on his own and embarked on a 'Nazi killing spree', which ended when he heard news of the war's end. In 1949.
• Total Annihilation: Kingdoms Iron Plague: After Lokken was defeated in the first game, a small band of cultist called The Cult of Lokken still fight to restore Taros's former glory, and they are successful in reviving Lokken from the dead.
• The "Rusty Hole" chapter from Twilight Syndrome: Kyūmei-hen features an old Japanese man in a living in a network of underground tunnels beneath a construction site who believes World War II is still going on, following orders from a shadowy CO to keep watch over the place. The plot thickens as the story presents the questions of whether he is still alive or not, whether his CO really exists at all, and what exactly he's been guarding.
• Abundant in the Warcraft universe — enemies are never fully killed off, they periodically return after slowly rebuilding. Arthas, of all people, lampshades this at one point by complaining "Doesn't anyone stay dead anymore?"
  • The early missions of Warcraft III feature orcish holdouts from the Second War, clinging to "dying traditions" and using armies evocative of Warcraft II. Later expansions, including World of Warcraft, turn the tables by featuring a xenophobic Alliance admiral campaigning against the (reformed) orcs even after a truce between the Alliance and the Horde.
  • The upper reaches of Blackrock Mountain are ruled by Rend Blackhand and his "Dark Horde," the few ogre, troll, and orc clans from the first Horde who believe the Second War never really ended. What makes this self-proclaimed "true Horde" dangerous is that they know their ongoing battle is largely hopeless, but they keep fighting anyway.
  • Meanwhile in Outland is the "Fel Horde," demon-corrupted orcs left behind following the destruction of the Dark Portal. They've since thrown their lot with Illidan after he conquered Outland from the Burning Legion.
  • The trollish tribes such as the Amani or Gurubashi are actually the remnants of ancient, mighty empires. Thousands of years later, their capitals are mostly ruins, and their (cannibalistic) culture and technology are primitive compared to the rest of the world. The various wars they have waged against the other races in recent years are failed attempts to reclaim what they lost.
  • When Arthas rolled into Quel'thalas at the head of the Scourge forces during the events of III, 90% of the High Elf race was slaughtered. The survivors, few in number and cut off from the Sunwell, took to naming themselves Blood Elves in remembrance of their fallen. The Scourge not only devastated their population but their cities and their culture as well; Blood Elves use different magic (fire rather than frost or water, and more Blood Elves are becoming warlocks, something inconceivable to many High Elves), and they dress differently. Taking this further, the Blood Elves have thrown their lot in with The Horde, and the scant handfuls of High Elves who still cling to the old culture and The Alliance view them as race traitors.
  • After Arthas' death at the end of Wrath of the Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon becomes the new Lich King in order to keep the Scourge in check. However in the subsequent Cataclysm expansion it's revealed that Darkmaster Gandling took advantage of the new Lich King's weakness to take control of the Scourge forces in the Plaguelands.
  • The Scarlet Crusade see themselves as righteous successors of the kingdom of Lordaeron, which was destroyed by the Scourge in Warcraft III. This naturally brings them into conflict with the Forsaken, the Horde-aligned faction of free-willed undead that the Crusade sees as indistinguishable from the non-sentient undead Scourge. But with both factions using rather questionable methods, their conflict can be seen as Black-and-Grey Morality at best.
    • The Scarlet Crusade is a particularly enduring Remnant as well. Over Wrath of the Lich King it lost its leadership in Northrend, and by the Cataclysm expansion their forces in the Eastern Plaguelands were turned into undead, their fortress in the Western Plaguelands was taken over by the Argent Crusade, and they're basically down to the Scarlet Monastery and some scattered holdings in Tirisfal Glades. The game attributes their continued survival to High Inquisitor Whitemane — as a Priest, she can revive the fallen.
  • The Twilight Hammer cult served the Big Bad of Cataclysm and by the final raid of the expansion, their numbers were supposedly down to only a few dozen. They nonetheless continue to show up in both Legion and Battle for Azeroth, albeit as minor enemies rather than a significant faction.
  • Two sects of black dragonkin on the Dragon Isles still remain fanatically loyal to Deathwing and his desire to end the world, despite his death and the fact that the surviving Black Dragonflight has cleansed itself of his corruption.
• Warframe: At the end of "The New War", the new Narmer empire carved out by the Sentients upon their conquest of the Origin System is shattered, as most of their Murex fleet is destroyed and their leader Ballas finally killed off. While the Origin System returned to its original state, Narmer continues to exist, now led by Archon Pazuul in its mission to rebuild itself.
• Any time a faction is defeated in Warlock: Master of the Arcane, all their cities and units remain in the game as "Neutrals". These cities do no longer play to win and are hostile to everyone, except other neutrals.
• Wing Commander: Played straight then averted in Prophecy. The rag-tag Kilrathi band you encounter is this at first, carrying on the war against the Terran Confederation even after the rest of Kilrathi society has accepted its defeat in the third game. Later they ally with you against the new alien menace; how much aid they offer depends on the player's choice whether to open fire on them at Hawk's urging or leave them be.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: In the Hearts of Stone expansion, Geralt can encounter a remnant of the Order of the Flaming Rose. During the time of the first game, this was one of the most powerful factions in Temeria. By the time of the third game, the faction lost almost all of its power due to the political schemes of King Radovid V. What is left of the Order are nothing but roving bandits wearing ornate looking armour.
  • The Scoiatael (elven rebels) had also become The Remnant of The Remnant. In the first game, they had military presence right outside Temeria's capital, even started a rebellion inside it's walls. By the second game, they became roving bandits that joined Saskia's rebellion out of Enemy Mine. By the third game, there is only one camp left in Velen, that resorted to robbing caravans for supplies and is likely finished off by Geralt in a side quest.
• XCOM 2 puts the player in this role, taking place in a universe where XCOM failed to stop the Alien Invasion in the previous game and humanity capitulated to the Ethereals. XCOM refused to surrender and reorganized as La Résistance to the new ADVENT government. You, the Commander, are explicitly the very same Commander who led XCOM in the first game, busted out of an ADVENT lab to take up the fight once more.
• XCOM: Chimera Squad has Sacred Coil, one of three criminal groups being investigated by the eponymous squad in connection to the assassination of City 31's mayor. While most Half-Human Hybrids in the city have acclimated to life alongside humanity, Sacred Coil consists of ADVENT loyalists seeking to help the Elders return and retake control of the planet. They've kept ADVENT's black and red color scheme, and make heavy use of the Mecha-Mooks favored by ADVENT's peacekeepers.