2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Mecha

2022-10-10T15:59:12Z

2600:1017:B40C:90ED:E5FA:2B35:DBDD:195D: Undo revision 851730 by 70.95.199.120 (talk)

{{stub}}
''Not to be confused with [[Macha]].''

Mecha are typically GIANT ROBOTS normally operated by bags of flesh. Thought to have originated in Greek myth with Talos, but it's the Japanese that revitalized the concept. They needed something to fight off Godzilla and company.

They come in two types: Real Robot and Super Robot. Where "Real" involves mechs which are ostensibly realistic in operation, (see [[Battletech]], Mechwarrior) "Super" are built to kick reason to the curb and do the impossible. The super type predates the real type by about 10 years or so, first popularized by Go Nagai's manga, ''Mazinger Z'' in the early '70s, whereas the Real variety has its roots in the now-prolific Gundam franchise, which started at the dawn of the '80s.

This topic can be further discussed at [[/m/]].

Usually seen in the following sizes:
* Power Armour. This fits over the body of the pilot. Size dependent on the species of whoever's wearing it.
* Small. About the size of a car or SUV. Appleseed presents these nicely. [[Warmachine]] warjacks usually scale into about this size. Also see [[Dreadnought|Dreadnoughts]]
* Medium. About the size of a smaller building (15 to 25 meters). See generic Gundam or Macross mechs. ASs from Full Metal Panic and [[Warmachine]] warjacks can be this big. A Reaver Titan fits into the higher end of this category.
* Large. Size of a 20 story building. Think Eva Units from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Jaegers from Pacific Rim.
* Huge. Stuff north of 200 meters and rising. [[Titan|The largest Titans]] fit the bill nicely. Also the three tallest experimental units in Supreme Commander or Battle Macross (~1200 meters) which dwarf both Titans or any real man-made structures. Protoculture is a hell of a drug.
* XBOX HUEG. Anything larger than Huge would go here. From moon-sized to the size where you can toss planets and and even galaxies with ease. Examples includes, Getter Emperor (which is evolution incarnate) of Getter Robo, Unicron from the Transformers, Mata-Nui from Bionicle, and the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (<s>It actually is about the size of our sun. The misconception comes from the fact that the final battle was happening in super spiral universe, where everything is powered by emotions. So basically if the heroes thought that this battle would decide the fate of entire galaxies, they fought on galaxies. The size of mecha is proved when antispiral mecha is shown to have an earth sized planet on it's head which could not be seen if mechas were truly galaxy-sized</s> The databooks have confirmed it's size to be 10 million light years tall, one hundred times the size of the Milky Way).

Then there are various sub-types:
* Mechanized. Typical giant robot made from [[METAL BOXES|metal]].
* Flesh. They are usually called "bio mecha" and are made of fleshy bits. See Eureka 7 or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or early Attack on Titan, but it became shit after blatantly ripping off Code Geass at the very end. Not [[Tyranid]] Bio-titans, however, due to lack of pilots.
* Will powered. Mechs powered by raw fighting or other such fiery emotion. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the go-to example. Sometimes present in Code Geass. Some Gundams, especially those with Pychoframes. Could theoretically fit the bill for [[Eldar]] Titans and Wraithlords, and on the same note Warjacks. This type is more often implied than directly stated. More likely to be of the super variety.
* Combiners. These mechs are composed of various other mechs. See Power Rangers and Voltron. See ALSO GaoGaiGar. Also more likely to be of the super variety.
* Transformers. Mechs that have two or more forms they can switch between. See Macross and (durr) <s>Transformers</s> [Transformers are sentient robots, not mecha. They have passengers, not pilots.] for examples. Can be of either the super variety or the real variety.
*Syd Mead. TURN A. GUNDAM.

== A dying genre in Japan, yet still thriving in the west ==
As you can see, from Battletech to Transformers. Most of these franchises are mainly from the west. Even long running Japanese franchises like Gundam and Super Robot Wars rely on the western fanbase to recoup their costs in the west. "But 1d4chan", you say, "what about,,,,,", yeah stop right there. The genre is all but dead on the Asian side of the Pacific. With only the big franchises Super Sentai(the show butchered into Power Rangers) and Gundam earning any profits within Japan at all (the former due to popularity with kids despite several seasonal flops, sometimes two in row, while anything Gundam hardly comes cheap). Even the most recent as of when this article was made, Voltron: Legendary Defender, primarily focuses their attention on the western side of the fandom.

There a few reasons for this. (Mostly male) Japanese Otaku's tastes have dumbed down since the 2010s, turning away not only from mecha but science fiction all together. As they prefer fantasy, slice of life, and waifus over sci-fi and anything else that reminds them of reality.

In short, Japanese Mecha is dying because it has nothing that appeals to the current generation of Japanese Otaku:
*No waifus.
*Sci-fi protags who aren’t 10 year old school girls.
*No high school.
*No isekai
*No swords.
*No flashy Shounen style combat
*Not enough sexualization
*No children to sexualize (aka doesn't cater to lolicons/pedophiles)
*TLDR: Japanese Otaku are morons with tastes that range from basic to lower than shit.

There have been efforts to try and get the female side of the anime fandom interested in mecha by adding a few pretty boys into the cast like Gundam Wing/IBO or focusing on romance instead, but most of these efforts outside of the major franchises have failed.(Eureka 7 is only success in the latter.) Resulting in flops. So Japanese companies have given up trying to hook women into the genre. For the foreseeable future, the western fandom is pretty much the ones holding the Mecha genre up on their own. The only reliable source of revenue for most mecha franchise IP’s now are plastic model kits. Even then, that’s also not an exclusively market either due to model building of characters also taking off and subsuming some established players like Gunpla (plastic Gundam models) producers.

== Mecha Games ==
Mecha in tabletop games are usually implemented as vehicles with fluff about arms and legs. A reskin of Steve Jackson's [[Ogre (Wargame)|Ogre]] describes it as a giant robot, but the rules are no different than when it was a giant tank. Some games have the fluff baked-in so strongly it's hard to think of their mecha as mere tanks-with-arms.

* [[Battletech]] by [[FASA]] (now by [[Catalyst Game Labs]]) , the ur-example of tabletop giant robot wargaming.
* [[Robotech]] RPG by [[Palladium Books]]. Famous for introducing the idea of MDC, hit-points used only by mecha that are different from the SDC hit-points used by people, and having handguns(!) that could switch between SDC/MDC. Palladium lost the rights to Robotech which means the license has now been handed out to two different companies starting in Summer 2019.
* [[Rifts]] also by Palladium. Okay, so Rifts is a little bit of everything, and that includes Giant Robots and Power Armor. Nearly every major setting has some kind of mecha, with certain books being shameless mecha showcases.
* [[Mechaton]] by [[Vincent Baker]]. Build unwieldy monstrosities out of LEGO blocks, pit them against each other.
* [[Mekton]] by [[R. Talsorian]]. Absolutely <s>batshit</s> [[Awesome|awesome]] RPG that goes all the way up to Demonbane levels of crazy.
* [[Gundam Senki]] by [[T.O.Y International Inc/Aspect]]. It uses a licensed version of the [[Mekton]] Zeta system with some modifications, namely with suit stats. Released in Japan in 2000, it has not been officially translated to English and remains in limbo, however fan translations do exist.
* [[Heavy Gear]] by [[Dream Pod 9]]. They're supposed to be exosuits, but might as well be midget-mecha.
* [[Jovian Chronicles]] also by [[Dream Pod 9]]. Where Heavy Gear operates more like the anime VOTOMS, Jovian Chronicles is their attempt at Gundam (specifically Zeta Gundam). Was originally a Mekton setting.
* [[Gear Krieg]] again, by [[Dream Pod 9]]. A [[Weird Wars]] game where modular tigers and shermans with legs battle and pulp is forever.
* [[Gamma Wolves]] by [[Osprey Games]]. A post apocalyptic Earth sees "frames" of various look and make duke it out for whatever garbage they can get their smelly, irradiated hands on.
* [[Battle Century G]] by Gimmick Man. Tabletop RPG that focuses on cinematic feel with a tension gauge, which gives everyone bonuses to offense, essentially turning the game into rocket tag as the fight goes on.
* [[Strike Legion]] includes frames as part of its quest to be every soft science fiction cliche at once.
* [[Lancer]] by Massif Press. The sorts of mechs you make are quite bizarre in both form and function, but the setting gives a feel more in line with Titanfall.

Mecha

2022-10-10T15:58:57Z

2600:1017:B40C:90ED:E5FA:2B35:DBDD:195D: Undo revision 851742 by 188.216.209.11 (talk)

{{stub}}
''Not to be confused with [[Macha]].''

Mecha are typically GIANT ROBOTS normally operated by bags of flesh. Thought to have originated in Greek myth with Talos, but it's the Japanese that revitalized the concept. They needed something to fight off Godzilla and company.

They come in two types: Real Robot and Super Robot. Where "Real" involves mechs which are ostensibly realistic in operation, (see [[Battletech]], Mechwarrior) "Super" are built to kick reason to the curb and do the impossible. The super type predates the real type by about 10 years or so, first popularized by Go Nagai's manga, ''Mazinger Z'' in the early '70s, whereas the Real variety has its roots in the now-prolific Gundam franchise, which started at the dawn of the '80s.

This topic can be further discussed at [[/m/]].

Usually seen in the following sizes:
* Power Armour. This fits over the body of the pilot. Size dependent on the species of whoever's wearing it.
* Small. About the size of a car or SUV. Appleseed presents these nicely. [[Warmachine]] warjacks usually scale into about this size. Also see [[Dreadnought|Dreadnoughts]]
* Medium. About the size of a smaller building (15 to 25 meters). See generic Gundam or Macross mechs. ASs from Full Metal Panic and [[Warmachine]] warjacks can be this big. A Reaver Titan fits into the higher end of this category.
* Large. Size of a 20 story building. Think Eva Units from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Jaegers from Pacific Rim.
* Huge. Stuff north of 200 meters and rising. [[Titan|The largest Titans]] fit the bill nicely. Also the three tallest experimental units in Supreme Commander or Battle Macross (~1200 meters) which dwarf both Titans or any real man-made structures. Protoculture is a hell of a drug.
* XBOX HUEG. Anything larger than Huge would go here. From moon-sized to the size where you can toss planets and and even galaxies with ease. Examples includes, Getter Emperor (which is evolution incarnate) of Getter Robo, Unicron from the Transformers, Mata-Nui from Bionicle, and the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (<s>It actually is about the size of our sun. The misconception comes from the fact that the final battle was happening in super spiral universe, where everything is powered by emotions. So basically if the heroes thought that this battle would decide the fate of entire galaxies, they fought on galaxies. The size of mecha is proved when antispiral mecha is shown to have an earth sized planet on it's head which could not be seen if mechas were truly galaxy-sized</s> The databooks have confirmed it's size to be 10 million light years tall, one hundred times the size of the Milky Way).

Then there are various sub-types:
* Mechanized. Typical giant robot made from [[METAL BOXES|metal]].
* Flesh. They are usually called "bio mecha" and are made of fleshy bits. See Eureka 7 or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or early Attack on Titan, but it became shit after blatantly ripping off Code Geass at the very end. Not [[Tyranid]] Bio-titans, however, due to lack of pilots.
* Will powered. Mechs powered by raw fighting or other such fiery emotion. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the go-to example. Sometimes present in Code Geass. Some Gundams, especially those with Pychoframes. Could theoretically fit the bill for [[Eldar]] Titans and Wraithlords, and on the same note Warjacks. This type is more often implied than directly stated. More likely to be of the super variety.
* Combiners. These mechs are composed of various other mechs. See Power Rangers and Voltron. See ALSO GaoGaiGar. Also more likely to be of the super variety.
* Transformers. Mechs that have two or more forms they can switch between. See Macross and (durr) <s>Transformers</s> [Transformers are sentient robots, not mecha. They have passengers, not pilots.] for examples. Can be of either the super variety or the real variety.
*Syd Mead. TURN A. GUNDAM.

== A dying genre, especially in the west ==
As you can see, from Battletech to Transformers, the genre is dead in the West too. Most of these franchises are dying videogames or Michael Bayslop. Even long running Japanese franchises like Gundam and Super Robot Wars rely on the indochinese fanbase to recoup their costs in the west (because the west hates mechas for "not being realistic enough"). "But 1d4chan", you say, "what........about............", yeah stop right there. The genre is all but dead on the Californian side of the Pacific. With only the big franchises earning any profits being from Japan (the former due to popularity with kids despite several seasonal flops, sometimes two in row, while anything Gundam hardly comes cheap). Even the most recent as of when this article was made, Voltron: Legendary Defender, was created from a butchered Japanese production and focused more on which pilot was sticking his penis into other men than on the big robot.

There a few reasons for this. Japanese Otakus like building models and Western mecha models are trash. As they prefer beauty over the ugliness of "realism", the west has nothing to offer Japan.

In short, Mecha is dying in the west because it has nothing:
*No waifus (the west hates beauty).
*Sci-fi protags who aren’t 10 year old school girls (they need more pronouns and genders to appeal to the west).
*No high school (school reminds western audiences of being bullied for wearing a MLP shirt in high school)
*No swords. (giant robots with swords are cool, but the west hates being cool)
*No flashy Shounen style combat (MUH REALISTIC CLUNKMECHS)
*Not enough sexualization (unless the character is a 500 pound transdyke)
*No children to sexualize (like the movie Cuties)
*TLDR: Westoirds are morons with tastes that range from basic to lower than shit.

There have been efforts to try and get the female side of the anime fandom interested in mecha by adding a STRONK FEMALE CHARACTERS but most of these efforts outside of the major franchises have failed. Resulting in flops. So Japanese companies have given up trying to hook the west into the genre. For the foreseeable future, the western fandom is pretty much tdead. The only reliable source of revenue for most mecha franchise IP’s now are plastic model kits and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.

== Mecha Games ==
Mecha in tabletop games are usually implemented as vehicles with fluff about arms and legs. A reskin of Steve Jackson's [[Ogre (Wargame)|Ogre]] describes it as a giant robot, but the rules are no different than when it was a giant tank. Some games have the fluff baked-in so strongly it's hard to think of their mecha as mere tanks-with-arms.

* [[Battletech]] by [[FASA]] (now by [[Catalyst Game Labs]]) , the ur-example of tabletop giant robot wargaming.
* [[Robotech]] RPG by [[Palladium Books]]. Famous for introducing the idea of MDC, hit-points used only by mecha that are different from the SDC hit-points used by people, and having handguns(!) that could switch between SDC/MDC. Palladium lost the rights to Robotech which means the license has now been handed out to two different companies starting in Summer 2019.
* [[Rifts]] also by Palladium. Okay, so Rifts is a little bit of everything, and that includes Giant Robots and Power Armor. Nearly every major setting has some kind of mecha, with certain books being shameless mecha showcases.
* [[Mechaton]] by [[Vincent Baker]]. Build unwieldy monstrosities out of LEGO blocks, pit them against each other.
* [[Mekton]] by [[R. Talsorian]]. Absolutely <s>batshit</s> [[Awesome|awesome]] RPG that goes all the way up to Demonbane levels of crazy.
* [[Gundam Senki]] by [[T.O.Y International Inc/Aspect]]. It uses a licensed version of the [[Mekton]] Zeta system with some modifications, namely with suit stats. Released in Japan in 2000, it has not been officially translated to English and remains in limbo, however fan translations do exist.
* [[Heavy Gear]] by [[Dream Pod 9]]. They're supposed to be exosuits, but might as well be midget-mecha.
* [[Jovian Chronicles]] also by [[Dream Pod 9]]. Where Heavy Gear operates more like the anime VOTOMS, Jovian Chronicles is their attempt at Gundam (specifically Zeta Gundam). Was originally a Mekton setting.
* [[Gear Krieg]] again, by [[Dream Pod 9]]. A [[Weird Wars]] game where modular tigers and shermans with legs battle and pulp is forever.
* [[Gamma Wolves]] by [[Osprey Games]]. A post apocalyptic Earth sees "frames" of various look and make duke it out for whatever garbage they can get their smelly, irradiated hands on.
* [[Battle Century G]] by Gimmick Man. Tabletop RPG that focuses on cinematic feel with a tension gauge, which gives everyone bonuses to offense, essentially turning the game into rocket tag as the fight goes on.
* [[Strike Legion]] includes frames as part of its quest to be every soft science fiction cliche at once.
* [[Lancer]] by Massif Press. The sorts of mechs you make are quite bizarre in both form and function, but the setting gives a feel more in line with Titanfall.

Mecha

2022-10-10T15:57:12Z

2600:1017:B40C:90ED:E5FA:2B35:DBDD:195D: Undo revision 851731 by Cum guzzler (guzzles cum) (talk)

{{stub}}
''Not to be confused with [[Macha]].''

Mecha are typically GIANT ROBOTS normally operated by bags of flesh. Thought to have originated in Greek myth with Talos, but it's the Japanese that revitalized the concept. They needed something to fight off Godzilla and company.

They come in two types: Real Robot and Super Robot. Where "Real" involves mechs which are ostensibly realistic in operation, (see [[Battletech]], Mechwarrior) "Super" are built to kick reason to the curb and do the impossible. The super type predates the real type by about 10 years or so, first popularized by Go Nagai's manga, ''Mazinger Z'' in the early '70s, whereas the Real variety has its roots in the now-prolific Gundam franchise, which started at the dawn of the '80s.

This topic can be further discussed at [[/m/]].

Usually seen in the following sizes:
* Power Armour. This fits over the body of the pilot. Size dependent on the species of whoever's wearing it.
* Small. About the size of a car or SUV. Appleseed presents these nicely. [[Warmachine]] warjacks usually scale into about this size. Also see [[Dreadnought|Dreadnoughts]]
* Medium. About the size of a smaller building (15 to 25 meters). See generic Gundam or Macross mechs. ASs from Full Metal Panic and [[Warmachine]] warjacks can be this big. A Reaver Titan fits into the higher end of this category.
* Large. Size of a 20 story building. Think Eva Units from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Jaegers from Pacific Rim.
* Huge. Stuff north of 200 meters and rising. [[Titan|The largest Titans]] fit the bill nicely. Also the three tallest experimental units in Supreme Commander or Battle Macross (~1200 meters) which dwarf both Titans or any real man-made structures. Protoculture is a hell of a drug.
* XBOX HUEG. Anything larger than Huge would go here. From moon-sized to the size where you can toss planets and and even galaxies with ease. Examples includes, Getter Emperor (which is evolution incarnate) of Getter Robo, Unicron from the Transformers, Mata-Nui from Bionicle, and the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (<s>It actually is about the size of our sun. The misconception comes from the fact that the final battle was happening in super spiral universe, where everything is powered by emotions. So basically if the heroes thought that this battle would decide the fate of entire galaxies, they fought on galaxies. The size of mecha is proved when antispiral mecha is shown to have an earth sized planet on it's head which could not be seen if mechas were truly galaxy-sized</s> The databooks have confirmed it's size to be 10 million light years tall, one hundred times the size of the Milky Way).

Then there are various sub-types:
* Mechanized. Typical giant robot made from [[METAL BOXES|metal]].
* Flesh. They are usually called "bio mecha" and are made of fleshy bits. See Eureka 7 or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or early Attack on Titan, but it became shit after blatantly ripping off Code Geass at the very end. Not [[Tyranid]] Bio-titans, however, due to lack of pilots.
* Will powered. Mechs powered by raw fighting or other such fiery emotion. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the go-to example. Sometimes present in Code Geass. Some Gundams, especially those with Pychoframes. Could theoretically fit the bill for [[Eldar]] Titans and Wraithlords, and on the same note Warjacks. This type is more often implied than directly stated. More likely to be of the super variety.
* Combiners. These mechs are composed of various other mechs. See Power Rangers and Voltron. See ALSO GaoGaiGar. Also more likely to be of the super variety.
* Transformers. Mechs that have two or more forms they can switch between. See Macross and (durr) <s>Transformers</s> [Transformers are sentient robots, not mecha. They have passengers, not pilots.] for examples. Can be of either the super variety or the real variety.
*Syd Mead. TURN A. GUNDAM.

== A dying genre, especially in the west ==
As you can see, from Battletech to Transformers, the genre is dead in the West too. Most of these franchises are dying videogames or Michael Bayslop. Even long running Japanese franchises like Gundam and Super Robot Wars rely on the indochinese fanbase to recoup their costs in the west (because the west hates mechas for "not being realistic enough"). "But 1d4chan", you say, "what........about............", yeah stop right there. The genre is all but dead on the Californian side of the Pacific. With only the big franchises earning any profits being from Japan. Even the most recent as of when this article was made, Voltron: Legendary Defender, was created from a butchered Japanese production and focused more on which pilot was sticking his penis into other men than on the big robot.

There a few reasons for this. Japanese Otakus like building models and Western mecha models are trash. As they prefer beauty over the ugliness of "realism", the west has nothing to offer Japan.

In short, Mecha is dying in the west because it has nothing:
*No waifus (the west hates beauty).
*Sci-fi protags who aren’t 10 year old school girls (they need more pronouns and genders to appeal to the west).
*No high school (school reminds western audiences of being bullied for wearing a MLP shirt in high school)
*No swords. (giant robots with swords are cool, but the west hates being cool)
*No flashy Shounen style combat (MUH REALISTIC CLUNKMECHS)
*Not enough sexualization (unless the character is a 500 pound transdyke)
*No children to sexualize (like the movie Cuties)
*TLDR: Westoids are morons with tastes that range from basic to lower than shit.

There have been efforts to try and get the female side of the anime fandom interested in mecha by adding a STRONK FEMALE CHARACTERS but most of these efforts outside of the major franchises have failed. Resulting in flops. So Japanese companies have given up trying to hook the west into the genre. For the foreseeable future, the western fandom is pretty much dead. The only reliable source of revenue for most mecha franchise IP’s now are plastic model kits and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.

== Mecha Games ==
Mecha in tabletop games are usually implemented as vehicles with fluff about arms and legs. A reskin of Steve Jackson's [[Ogre (Wargame)|Ogre]] describes it as a giant robot, but the rules are no different than when it was a giant tank. Some games have the fluff baked-in so strongly it's hard to think of their mecha as mere tanks-with-arms.

* [[Battletech]] by [[FASA]] (now by [[Catalyst Game Labs]]) , the ur-example of tabletop giant robot wargaming.
* [[Robotech]] RPG by [[Palladium Books]]. Famous for introducing the idea of MDC, hit-points used only by mecha that are different from the SDC hit-points used by people, and having handguns(!) that could switch between SDC/MDC. Palladium lost the rights to Robotech which means the license has now been handed out to two different companies starting in Summer 2019.
* [[Rifts]] also by Palladium. Okay, so Rifts is a little bit of everything, and that includes Giant Robots and Power Armor. Nearly every major setting has some kind of mecha, with certain books being shameless mecha showcases.
* [[Mechaton]] by [[Vincent Baker]]. Build unwieldy monstrosities out of LEGO blocks, pit them against each other.
* [[Mekton]] by [[R. Talsorian]]. Absolutely <s>batshit</s> [[Awesome|awesome]] RPG that goes all the way up to Demonbane levels of crazy.
* [[Gundam Senki]] by [[T.O.Y International Inc/Aspect]]. It uses a licensed version of the [[Mekton]] Zeta system with some modifications, namely with suit stats. Released in Japan in 2000, it has not been officially translated to English and remains in limbo, however fan translations do exist.
* [[Heavy Gear]] by [[Dream Pod 9]]. They're supposed to be exosuits, but might as well be midget-mecha.
* [[Jovian Chronicles]] also by [[Dream Pod 9]]. Where Heavy Gear operates more like the anime VOTOMS, Jovian Chronicles is their attempt at Gundam (specifically Zeta Gundam). Was originally a Mekton setting.
* [[Gear Krieg]] again, by [[Dream Pod 9]]. A [[Weird Wars]] game where modular tigers and shermans with legs battle and pulp is forever.
* [[Gamma Wolves]] by [[Osprey Games]]. A post apocalyptic Earth sees "frames" of various look and make duke it out for whatever garbage they can get their smelly, irradiated hands on.
* [[Battle Century G]] by Gimmick Man. Tabletop RPG that focuses on cinematic feel with a tension gauge, which gives everyone bonuses to offense, essentially turning the game into rocket tag as the fight goes on.
* [[Strike Legion]] includes frames as part of its quest to be every soft science fiction cliche at once.
* [[Lancer]] by Massif Press. The sorts of mechs you make are quite bizarre in both form and function, but the setting gives a feel more in line with Titanfall.

Chaos Spawn

2022-10-08T19:28:07Z

2600:1017:B40C:90ED:E5FA:2B35:DBDD:195D: Undo revision 851461 by 80.44.229.225 (talk)

{{Awesome}}
{{Heresy}}
{{Topquote|The Gods blessed you too much, and now I shall end your misery! Such a fate does not await me!|Thorgar the Blooded One, on the you-know-whats.}}

{{Topquote|Quantity has a quality all its own|Attributed to many but it does explain what both players and the Chaos factions really use them for.}}

{{Topquote|Embrace your death! You are fortunate that you will only be cognizant enough to suffer the first one!|A Malignant Plaguecaster transforming an unfortunate Chaos Space Marine for disappointing the Plaguefather.}}

{{Topquote|AGSJHGJGFHKJBJHGFTYGUHJ|Your typical Chaos SpawNOFUCKINGDAMMIADSGZHFDAGSAQADGSSADSG- {{BLAM}}}}

{{BLAM|+Under request from multiple high-ranking members of the Ordos Malleus and Hereticus, we have situated an Inquisitor to watch over the writers in case they say... that-which-shall-not-be-named.+}}
[[Image:Chaos Spawn Original.JPG|thumb|right|300px|The very first artwork of Chaos Spawn by [[Tony Hough]], from [[Realm of Chaos]] which makes his concept of it as old as the rest of Chaos. Wait, did I say it? Noo I DIDN'T '''NNOOOOSADNAFAISBFSDFSDGFGGGBB''' {{BLAM}}]]
This is what happens when you have [[Extra Heresy|stepped over a line that even Chaos doesn't cross]]. On top of all that, they're basically multiple Candlejacks. If you even say '''Chaos Spawn''', you will be consumed by Chaos and become Chaos Spawn yoursel-JIGHDGGGUGEUGIGHOWHOQHOHWWP{{BLAM}}

Ahem, as my predecessor was about to say, they're so awful in 40k that even saying their full name here causes the speaker to mutate into one. They're mutants whose appearances are always extremely varied and grotesquely horrible, as if someone got [[Lovecraft]], H.R. Giger, and John Carpenter to team up and make monsters.

==[[Warhammer Fantasy]]==
[[File:Adrian Smith Chaos Spawn.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjIXwkX1e48|NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE] ]]

In Warhammer Fantasy, Chaos Spawn WAIT NO SFHASKFJHSFAHLASLKHFSL--{{BLAM}} ...these ''things'' are mutations that only afflict those who worship Chaos (allowing anyone who isn't a rapeviking or insane wizard to say their name without fear!...Unless you meet Count [[Mordrek]] the Damned who can turn anyone into them with his Sword of Change. Then you are screwed hard.). Exposure to Chaos for the faithful (or unaligned) instead causes mutations that corrupt the afflicted into more [[Beastmen|feral forms]].

Usually these mutations occur amongst common citizenry when the Winds of Magic blow too strongly from the miniature [[Eye of Terror|Eyes of Terror]] at the poles of the world, and patrols are required to cull them before they join the ranks of the [[Hordes of Chaos|forces of Chaos]], although who it is that leads the purges differs from race to race.

The [[Empire]] relies on the familiar Inquisition and Witch Hunters. [[Kislev|Kislevites]] instead rely on their Dvoryanin and Boyars (nobles) to account for the status of the outlying populations. [[Bretonnia]]n nobles consider all the peasants to be little better than this usually, and said peasants usually self-police due to their extreme devotion to the nobility (however, simply taking all babies born with mutations to leave in the forest is what caused the Beastmen to grow so prolific in the first place). Elves ([[High Elves|High]], [[Wood Elves (Warhammer)|Wood]], and [[Dark Elves|Dark]]) are near immune to mutation, as are Ogres unless they serve willingly. [[Lizardmen]] and the Undead ([[Vampire Counts|Vampire]] and [[Tomb Kings|Egyptian]]) are both immune to mutation, with the latter actually able to reverse-corrupt things. And there have been no reported cases of [[Orcs]] with mutations, so no one knows what happens to them. Though goblins, when exposed to warpstone, do experience mutation, as is seen in the Skarsnik novel.

Degeneration into Spawn occur far more often amongst [[Warriors of Chaos]] than Chaos Space Marines for two reasons. First is due to their EXTREME fucking devotion to the Chaos Gods, to the point that every last Norseman seeks to become a [[Daemon Prince]] and the Chaos Gods spread their blessings liberally. Spawns amongst the Norsemen tribes are usually used somewhere between biological weapons and war dogs depending on the degree of the mutations. The other reason is that Chaos Space Marines are still Space Marines with redundant hearts, lungs, thicker bones, and more muscles. A Marine can withstand more mutations than a human can without descending into becoming a Chaos SpNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBLBLBLE!{{BLAM}}. Anyway, it gives them a slightly higher chance of becoming Daemon Princes than mortals since they can withstand the gifts of their gods better. On top of that, Chaos Space Marines have more varied levels of devotion to the Chaos Gods, with the [[Iron Warriors]] outright removing mutations with cybernetics, and most traitor marines would see turning into a Spawn as an ignoble end to their career, much like getting interred into a dreadnought.

Spawn fear symbols of [[Sigmar]] and similar gods, and the power of nature as channeled by the Wood and High Elves can cleanse mutations from a subject. In particular, a [[Defenders of Ulthuan/Sons of Ellyrion|book series]] depicting High Elves fighting Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos describe how the Champion of Slaanesh prior to Sigvald the Magnificent is cleansed of all Slaanesh's blessings by simply touching the [[Everqueen]]. Slaanesh, very VERY pissed, began pouring his Daemonic energy directly into the Champion. When the Everqueen let go of his hand, that energy immediately turned him into a... a thingamy ((NICE save Acolyte, you're learning))... on par with a Greater Daemon.

Tabletop-wise: much like 40k's old versions, Fantasy Sp- they're terrible. They have low stats, slow movement speed with the inability to march or charge things (that last part is basically the stamp of death in Fantasy anyway). Their Marks of Chaos are random and cannot be counted on even working. Sadly, you'll probably need a few to run a few of these things in Warriors since there's a chance upon failure to become one for some of your options. In addition, some choices of Lords or Heroes come with some as pets ([[Cultist-chan]] should really be the poster child of Warriors rather than 40k cultists).

Alternate take: Warhammer Fantasy is all about having a good, fun time with your opponent rather than today's super-competitive scene. It's inherently fun to have the possibility of your unit champion turning into a Daemon Prince, and having the chance of becoming a Chaos Spawn as an unfortunate, but humorous downside. Especially given you hhHHHHHNNNN'''NNGGGGGGGRRFWBWRBLFBWFRBRLFFFBRNR''' {{BLAM}}

The most significant of these creatures in Warhammer is [[Scyla Anfingrimm]]. The only one of them who still has the favour of a god.

In the video game devoted to Warhammer Fantasy, Total War: Warhammer, Chaos Spawn--'''OHFUCKNOAAAHHHDGRBLEAAGHGHGHGAASFGGHGHAFLFLFLFLFEEEAAAAAAAAAAAH!''' {{BLAM}}

...er... They're actually fantastic. Small but workable unit size, reasonably to low cost, good HP pool, very high damage and most importantly, they will never break. Two units of them in any Chaos army means the AI isn't winning today. Still, having no armor-piercing damage and no armor meaning they aren't good against late game units, nor would they do any better when facing ranged units, especially when fighting a Wood Elves opponent who likes to spam [[cheese|10 units of Glade Guard with Starfire Arrow]]. Beastmen have their own variation that can do poison damage, especially when Morghur's staff can summon them anytime within his range, like Deep Strike into range units' firing line.

Total War Warhammer 3 gave each chaos faction a fluffy variant of them. Khorne ones are killy, Slaaneshi Spawn are fast and have AP, Tzeentch ones have the annoying barrier but also keep the Wyrdspawn RORs armor sundering; nurlge ones are tanky and deal poison.

==[[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40k]]==
[[File:Tony Ackland Chaos Spawn.jpg|thumb|300px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtgFKdWcKXY|NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE] ]]
The '''Chaos Spawn ''dammit don't you ever learn'' AIEEEEBLAAAAAAAAAAAHGGHGH-'''{{BLAM}}

The UNITS in question were, in 4th and 5th Editions, considered by many to be the worst unit in any [[Chaos]] army book and, quite possibly, the entire game of Warhammer 40k (the Pre-[[Jeremy Vetock|Vetock]] Space Pope coming in a close second, [[Pyrovore|until the Tyranid "champion" of Cruddace arrived]]). They were so bad, absolutely nobody took them. Not even for flavor or joke games. Even today they're still rare; the stigma is that deep. It became a meme that to even utter their name causes a horrid mutation turning you into a Chaos Spawn yourself. Wait! No! I didn't mean it-'''OHSWEETEMPERORMOTHEROFGLARBLBLBLBLBL'''{{BLAM}} {{BLAM|We're going to run out of writers at this rate.}}

Ahem... Continuing where my predecessor left off, you-know-whats should only be referred to as you-know-whats. That or [[Harry Potter|they-who-shall-not-be-named]]. Even though you-know-whats have received a nice crunch buff since then, the meme still remains since [[Tzeentch|it fits the fluff pretty well]].

In fluff, aspiring champions of Chaos normally devolve into said units for any of the following reasons: if they use Chaos solely for their own gain, their patron god thinks they're not worthy of their favor or have fallen out of their favor, they can't handle the sheer amounts of mutations they go through during their ascension into a full-fledged [[Daemon Prince]], or, you know, it's [[Tuesday]] and [[Tzeentch]] is feeling bored since there's not a lot of "Just as Planned" going around. When this does happen, Chaos Spawns ((Wait for it.)) devolve into no more than mindless heaps of mutated flesh who attack anyone near them and ((Wait, did he actually get away with it? Inform the Inquisition!)) eventually die after a short period due to their unstable form, and... did I just-- '''No... NOOOOOOO! GLARBLRAWRGLARBL'''{{BLAM}}((Never mind.))

The only known canon exception to this rule is the beast called [[Foulspawn]], who somehow managed to become a Daemon Prince of Nurgle after being transformed into one of the abominations (and only because Nurgle found the result funny!) Only [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] can comprehend how truly goddamn useless these things are. Generally by looking in a mirror. Khorne only knows why he hasn't been turned into one yet. Though it turns out ADB knows - it's because he's refused to commit to any one Chaos God, [[Derp|so it's not possible for one of them to inflict this on him because the others won't allow it]].

Though not likely as canon, there's also Angra Mainyu, a [[Word Bearers|Word Bearer]] who turned into a Daemon Prince just in time to join the latest Black Crusade. Then he just had to go batshit insane and utterly fuck it all up so hard that the Gods had no choice but to demote him to gribblyhood. His forces, meanwhile, were immediately usurped by the former prince's number 2. The reason we say it's not canon? Because it was fluff to a showcase of some bloke's Chaos army on an ancient version of the GW's Australia website, not some strange bit of lore from a Codex.

According to [[Black Crusade (RPG)|Black Crusade]] and ''The Tome of Fate'', the [[Heretek]]s of The Hollows (specifically Magos Onuris of Forge Polix) have taken an interest in improving them to be useful. These "Death-Masques" have cybernetic implants forcibly installed into what's left of their brains and nervous systems. This combination of auger arrays, arcanocogitators, and drug-delivery systems not only allow Hereteks to control Death-Masques like giant, fleshy [[Servitor]]s, but actually selectively mutate their bodies, enabling the Heretek to reshape a Death-Masque into a more useful form or give it whatever bio-weapons would be best for the present situation. This is [[awesome]] but alas, GW would never let us actually use something like this in-game when we could be having the "fun" with a pathetically random failure of a gribbly beast.

In very rare cases, the will of Tzeentch and the influence of the Warp can cause a group of Unnameable Beasts to fuse together into a [[Mutalith Vortex Beast]], an even more vile abomination that is difficult to even look at without hurting oneself.

==On The Tabletop==
===Warhammer Fantasy===
Although a terrible option due to their randomness and point cost (akin to the [[Daemons]] army fittingly, which is interesting because it shows just how better the Vikings are than their masters), they aren't unusable; like most things in the more balanced Warhammer they simply aren't as good as other options although taking them won't lose you the game. Thanks to a more recent update to the game making it possible for your models to suddenly turn into one of the fucking things, players should now own some (thanks Games Workshop, my wallet was getting too heavy to carry!) in case the Dice Gods turn on them. Luckily, each Chaos Spawn sprue comes with two spawns built in and extra appendagaaaaAAAAWWWAW'''AWWAAWAWAWWBLWBLWBLDYEHTERYEETFDF''' {{BLAM}}

===40k Part 1: Why These Units Used to Suck===
You-know-whats were just absolutely horrible before 6th Edition. Costing the same as three actual Chaos Marines, they would wander around the board aimlessly with a throw of the Scatter Dice, moved D6, had the Rage special rule and died to [[Bolter]] fire, earning your opponent a free kill point. They fucking sucked, essentially. There is considerable evidence that they were originally supposed to have the Feel No Pain rule, ergo making them marginally useful as a meat shield, but sadly the 4th Edition Codex, through a series of misprints, lacked this.
To drive home just how bad these things were if they actually got into combat, there is no way statistically they could win combat against equal points worth of GUARDSMEN, the resulting extra wounds they would take from No Retreat would wipe them out immediately since they had no save. The ONLY thing they could tar pit was [[Fire Warrior]]s and even then the odds were in the FIRE WARRIORS' favor.

===40k Part 2: The Redemption===
[[File:ChaosSpawn2.jpg|450px|thumb|left|[[Fail|Failure]] no more. Yet the brave Guardsmen keep coming, despite witnessing stuff like that. Where's Creed when you need him!?]]

[[Phil Kelly]] remembered that under that mass of writhing limbs and stupidity, there's [[Vraks|generally]] a Chaos Space Marine (and/or more likely had just finished watching John Carpenter's "The Thing"). So brace yourselves for a shocker: '''they're actually pretty damn good'''.

New features include...
*A lower point cost (30, as opposed to the previous 40).
*Causing fear while being fearless themselves.
*No longer moving randomly or at a goddamn crawl. In fact, they move as fast as Metal Bawkzes and do not give a shit about terrain.
*Rage now meaning that they get +2 attacks on the charge, making it actually useful.
*A D3 roll every turn that determines what mutation they get for that turn. They can get a 4+ armor save, a roll of 2D6 for their number of attacks (you pick the higher one), or poisoned attacks (at 4+ to wound).

With the removal of No Retreat, they also won't automatically shit themselves with a lost combat. Indeed, being Fearless, they barely care at all.

Their stats are otherwise unchanged, so ''holy shit'', it's almost worth taking two or three of them and throwing them headlong at the enemy as a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|multi-wound distraction to soak up fire for you]]. Almost. Okay, that is not true. 30 points for a model with 3 T5 wounds that can move 12", has useful special powers, can be taken in squadrons and can become T6 with Nurgle is frankly excellent. Mark of Tzeentch could conceivably boost their staying power slightly too. Stay away from Khorne and Slaanesh, though. Unless you run into [[Grey Knights]] or [[Dark Eldar]], for whom the Spawn is just a mild annoyance.

Alternatively, run several Khorne-marked spawn towards any vehicle with rear AV 10 and watch them wreck all in their path, until your friends realize just what they are capable of and gun them down in a panic, [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|which hey, can also be according to plan.]]

Actual serious use is fielding them as escort for a Jugger Lord. More wounds for less then a bike squad, and no encouragement to shoot... which your choppy lord should never do. Plus, they make your majority armor save nothing, meaning those grav weapons the loyalist scum keep using wound on 6s only.

Fun fact: renegades can get an unmarked three Chaos Spa-*cough*-MCHERBINFERBER deal for only 55 points. Three Chaos Spawn for under the price of two. Let the good times roll!

...Hey, wait a minute, everything's cool! '''I didn't say the words! I DIDN-GLARBABLAHBALHABALAHH!!''' {{BLAM}}

===40k Part 3: The One Where You Actually NEED Them===
In the new Chaos Space Marines Codex there's a table, like the one in the Warriors of Chaos Army book, on which your HQ rolls when killing an enemy character (keep in mind: not IC, just C). It's a 2D6 table with some of classics: +1S, +1T, +1W...

But one of the results... forces you to swap your awesome super killy Chaos Champion with... err, the-one-which-shall-not-be-named! So now you '''have to buy''' a box of these sick horrors in order to play. At least for Chaos Warriors, the time when your Marauder Chieftain turns into a Spawn and ''still does more damage than it would normally'' is truly priceless. The same thing probably works for Cultist Champions, and still proves to be useful, since the you-know-what detaches from the unit and could be used to tie up something shooty with poor melee capabilities, like Devastator squad or Crisis team, for a turn or two. All Traitor Legions can also take them as auxiliary choices, and they are the cheapest of the bunch. So give your Warband a mascot for full decurion benefits.

Rage and threats to eviscerate every GW employee that isn't Phil Kelly, are expected, but really, [[Warriors of Chaos|it's 'bout time you fucking newbies had to deal with this Chaos Spawn shit anyway]]...

Ohh my God-Emperor no WAIIIII... '''RAWRAWRASDAFGSFDS''' {{BLAM}} (Automated Message From Cadia: We are out of Usable speakers and will be employing new ones at the Recruitment Center nearest you.)

{{BLAM|(...why do we do this in the first place?)}}

 
 Tee hee hee, they may be horrible in combat but my little Spawns succeeded in destroying Cadia's entire propaganda machine!! Just As Planned!! 

Let us hold a memorial for all those turned into Chaos Spa- Oh boy, that was close... I nearly said it. NOT TODAY. This writer's too smart to say Chaos Spawn... '''OH DEAR EMPEROR NO, PLEA-GRARRGAGFD''' {{BLAM}}

 Kekekekekekekeke! 

Hey wait a minute Tzeentch. How come you can you say chaos spawn without mutating? Wait....'''SHIGRHQHQGDAAAARGLEFLADCHALLOIII''' {{BLAM}}

 Kekekekekekekeke! I'm a god! I can say Chaos Spawn all I want! Chaos Spawn! Chaos Spawn! Chaos Spawn! Kekekekekekeke--- '''WAIT NO SCREWADHWAAAAHGHTSKAFHTAGN''' {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}}

I'm guessing that was [[not as planned]].

 [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Creed CREEEEEEEED!!!!]

...I really have no idea how he pulled that one off... 

===40k Part 4: Just as Planned===
Certain psychic powers of Tzeentch can turn enemy models into you-know-whats, AKA you get them for free. Originally the "Boon of Mutation" spell used to be an extremely short range save-or-die assassination power for removing multi-wounded HQs, and while it only had 1/3 or even 1/6 chance of working against most of its intended targets, it was one of the few ways of circumventing Eternal Warrior at the time and could be used even when the sorcerer is locked in melee - the you-know-what summoned used to be just cherry on the top after you popped an enemy Chapter Master or Farseer with it. The modern "Baleful Devolution" is a much more comfortable 18" focused witchfire with a more reliable S6 AP and even multiple (if random) number of hits, but it only summons gribbly things on sixes to-wound (which also add Instant Death), and as a focused witchfire while it can snipe specific models, it can be LoS-ed. Thus it's more about sniping special weapons or sergeants and occasionally creating witchfire-sponges within charge range of a target unit you want to charge.

Aetaos'Rau'Keres can even transform entire units with his template "Boon of Mutation". Because what else could force you to buy dozens of Chaos Spawn models? Then again he's 999 poi... Oh fuck, I swear I didnmlgrabomUMFROP'''ARGHMRMROMGH''' {{BLAM}}

===40k Part 5: 8th edition===
Well, 8th edition did arrive. The gribblies here got buffed, but they're still quite mediocre. For the same point cost as a Terminator they move faster and can hit harder with their random amount of randomly buffed attacks, but they're squishy and cannot deep-strike; meaning they'll just end up suffering from a sudden case of ballistic projectile to the face. You might want a model in case of double "1" when rolling on the Chaos Boon table or to fill a FA slot for cheap, but for the rest they're outclassed by other choices. That said, the Thousand Sons have a couple of useful Stratagems that are made specifically for them, including one that lets them select a buff manually instead of rolling for it and another that transforms any of their own characters into a you-know-what (named [[Fluff|The Flesh-Change, no less]]) for free.

>Alternate opinion: while nothing to build an army around, taken in units of one, they're a very cheap way to fill Fast Attack slots, and a single... you know what roving the battlefield has its uses if it can stay out of sight until the late game or otherwise avoid getting shot (they also tend to be fairly low priority targets in the early game as your opponent usually has better things to shoot at), they can do work in the late game. They're punchy enough to threaten depleted units of troops or tackle a wounded character and have a reasonable chance of eating their face, and they're cheap enough that you can just fling them at said wounded captain or whatever and just shrug if they whiff and die. Not bad for a chaos spawn AH GODDAMMIT I ALMOST WAHSAFHWSFAFSGAGDV {{BLAM}}

===Age of Sigmar===

With 5 wounds and 10 bravery, Chao...these fellas have some good stats for heavy infantry/meat shield status. The 2D6 movement and attacks characteristics can lead to some pretty unpredictable results, so don't expect everything to go as planned. All and all, not a bad addition to a Slaves to Darkness, Beasts of Chaos, or mixed Chaos army. Probably the most meh Spawn at the moment - wait, I only said half, it doesn't counNOOOOOSGADGSAGDFDGASFDWGASFAEWSDDAGSGGDWGSD {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Apparently the latter half triggers it as well with sufficient context? Useful information for the Inquisitorial archives.}}

==Total War: Warhammer==
Them (ahem) you-know-whats are a common unit that you'd find in the armies of the Chaos Factions.
With the advent of Warhammer 3, they are now available in monogod flavours as well as their Undivided form

Tzeentchian Spawn get barriers. 

Nurglish Spawn are difficult to kill. 

Khornate Spawn are good at killing things. 

Slaaneshi Spawn get Devastating Flanker. 

Regular old Chaos Spawn don't get anything special, though. They're all Unbreak--'''''GRABFFRARGHH'''''

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
Image:Chaosthingies.png|On the bright side, their kit is really fun to mess with and has so many spare parts, you won't need to worry about not having enough horns and tentacles for your conversions anymore. also the chaos spawn have some bootiful hea- NO! PLEASE! WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYLFGERSU GWLRIGUSEUILGEHRIDDSFSFWGLARASHHHHBLBLBLBLB {{BLAM}}
Image:Chaos_Spawn_2.gif|Kiss it!
</Gallery>

{{BLAM|+'''''This article is dedicated in loving memory to those souls who gave their coherence and sanity in the cause of explaining Chao... these fucking things.'''''}}

+'''''Addendum: If you want to refer to Chaos S- the things without calling them by their true name, just call them John Carpenters and you won't have to say Chaos Spawn...wait, did I just say Chaos Spawn without anything happening? Heh...that's a relief. I thought saying chaos spawn turned you inTOAAAAGGHEBRYRHFKFGL'''''+{{BLAM}}

{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{Death Guard}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Emperor's Children}}
{{Lost-and-Damned}}
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Warriors of Chaos]]
[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category:Slaves to Darkness]]
[[Category:Meme]]
[[Category:Slaves to Darkness]]

Historical Empires

2022-10-08T17:21:03Z

2600:1017:B40C:90ED:E5FA:2B35:DBDD:195D: Undo revision 846957 by 42.241.194.95 (talk)

{{Cleanup}}

The common definition of an empire, as opposed to a kingdom, is that a commonly but not always divinely-ordained Emperor rules over subjects of multiple cultures, races, and/or religions. '''''Empire''''' is derived from the Latin word '''Imperium''', which means "authority" and more specifically the authority to command numerous Roman legions.

=What does this have to do with /tg/?=

Historical empires are a commonly-referenced source for fantasy and sci-fi cultures. For example, the Holy Roman Empire had a lot of influence on the design of the Empire of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Most roleplaying settings feature big, huge empires based on historical empires or the decaying remnants of such. And empires are common window dressing for board games like Twilight Imperium. Empires give you more options than typically smaller, more parochial kingdoms.

=Notable Historical Empires=
Not an exhaustive list, though there are relatively few empires compared to kingdoms in history due to the size and demands of maintaining one.

==Ancient==
Empires first emerged as the economic and agricultural needs of individual city-states outgrew the palace economy they had hitherto relied upon and priest-kings began to covet the lands and wealth of their neighbors.

*'''Akkadian Empire''' ''(circa 2234-2154 BC)'': The oldest known empire in human history, arising in the Fertile Crescent in northern Mesopotamia. Arose when Sargon of Akkad conquered the cities of the Sumerian civilization and then conquered its neighbors and subjugated their kings.
*'''Neo-Assyrian Empire''' ''(911 BC–612 BC)'': An empire which had in its foundation a belief that if their army ever lost a battle, the world would end. Unsurprisingly, it lasted until slightly after they lost their first major battle.
*'''Egyptian Empire''': Depending on your definition, one could define it as starting with the Old Kingdom unifying the Egyptian city-states until the fall of Ptolemaic Egypt to the Roman Empire. Mind you, the civilization is not the Empire. For details, please consult relevant professionals and their works instead of a wiki for tactical genius.
*'''Achaemenid Empire''' ''(550–330 BC)'': Most famous for being conquered by Alexander and, along with Egypt, providing visual inspiration for the [[Thousand Sons]]. Infamous for how they're depicted in the [[/pol/|oil-slicked fantasy epic]] that is 300, the Persian Empire was not, in fact, a highly decadent empire of monsters and evil god-kings; only a regularly decadent empire that was actually quite lenient for empires of the time - Slaves were outlawed among Persians (but not their subjects), and slaves had more rights than usual; women could own businesses and they were very off-hand in their dealings with their vassal kingdoms. It was still a militaristic empire, mind, but they were not some evil eastern "other" for the Greeks to defeat - in fact, the "Greeks" did not exist yet! The people that would become the Greeks were as different culturally from each other as they were from the Persians, and many even saw the Persians as closer to them culturally than some of the other city states! Why was that? Well, a good number of Greek city-states (particularly the ones in Anatolia or very close to it) had had years of either being tributary to the Persians or had incredibly good trade relations with them.
*'''Chinese Empire''' ''(221 BC-Present)'': Though already unified under a king as late as 841 BC (re-dating based on astronomy ''claims'' to trace further exact years way into 2100BC and there is evidence of complex agrarian civilization going back well before that), the Chinese did not live under an Emperor until 221BC. They survived interim catastrophes by coming up with the Mandate of Heaven (if the dynasty turns into a bunch of idiots then your local emperor definitely isn't favored by the gods and every peasant can hang them off), their equivalent of a common law, in the Zhou (not empire), and enhanced social mobility with a general disregard in right of blood (began in the Qin(Chin), first empire) and the test system for enlisting government officials (began in the Sui, some 600 years later). Lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in the early 20th century, after the European imperialist ambitions exploited the hell out of the Chinese state and societal structures being essentially the same for almost 3000 (yes, really) years (and also these 3000 years of prevailing against all odds made the Chinese aristocracy complacent to such an extent that the Russian nobles the Soviets had shot looked progressive by comparison). Resurgent, you may say.
*'''"Greek Empires"''' ''(Ipsum Lorem)'': More or less just Sparta and Athens. Athens was a naval power that dominated after the Persian Wars and formed a "league" that roughly amounted to an Empire. Got roflstomped by the Spartans who formed their own "league" that resulted in them becoming an empire to replace Athens, until everything devolved back into city state violence until this nerd named Alexander showed up.
*'''Macedonian Empire''' ''(330-323 BC)'': One of the largest Empires in ancient history, created by Alexander the Great. Conquered Persia, the largest Empire in history at the time. Shortly after the empire achieved its height, Alexander died at only 32 years old and his Empire was split into several smaller countries such as Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Kingdom, ruled by dynasties started by his generals, called Diadochi.
**'''Seleucid Empire''' ''(323-63 BC)'': The only one of the Diadochi Kingdoms to be called an Empire. By far the largest of the Diadochi Kingdoms, it stretched at its largest extent from western Anatolia all the way into modern Pakistan, although that period didn't last very long. In spite of the difficulties of managing a realm of such a size, they stuck around for a very long, because of a whole couple of clever alliances struck with proto-Indians and the gradual assimilation of its Persian populace. Its strength started to vain in the middle of the 2nd century BC when a couple of political intrigues messed up the day of the ruling dynasties as well as the the constant warring with Ptolemaic Egypt in Syria and modern-day Israel and the somewhat-resurgent Greek states in the west. Its final demise came at the hand of the Romans, when Pompeius dismantled the remainders of the Seleucid Empire in Antioch in 63 BC.
*'''[[Roman Empire]]''' ''(27 BC – 476 AD (Western)/1453 AD (Eastern)/1475 AD (Trebizond))'': The codifier for <s>fictional</s> empires everywhere, and (through borrowing/stealing Greek technology) largely blamed for turning Europe from a backwater land of barbarians into the home of the most ambitious superpowers in history. Has lots, and I mean LOTS, of successors whether it be the directly-descended Spanish and French Empires, or the more-religiously-oriented Roman Catholic Church, et cetera. Roma Invicta.
**'''Byzantine Empire''' ''(395-1453 AD)'': Originally the chopped off eastern half of the Imperium Romanum with Greece, Egypt and Anatolia as its most important core territories. It came into being when the last Emperor of both halves of the Roman Empire, Emperor Theodosius, made Constantinople his permanent residence and gave the leadership over the Empire to his two sons, Honorius and Arcadius. The Eastern Empire survived the cataclysmic events of the Migration Period (not in small part due to generous bribes to the Huns and throwing the western half under the bus) much longer than its western cousins did and even enjoyed a long period of relative peace between 400 and 503, during which time the East Roman Emperors consolidated their Empire and greatly strengthened its civil institutions. The first major points of its eventual demise came at the hands of the Seljuk Turks and Mamelukes, who conquered Egypt and all of the Empires holdings in Anatolia as well as the sack of Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204. After the sacking of its capital, the Empire only persisted as merely a rump state with holding in Thrace and Greece and saw its ultimate end when the attempt of the Polish King Wladyslaw to save Constantinople from the Ottomans failed at the Battle of Varna in 1444 and the city subsequently was conquered in 1453.

==Medieval==
Many medieval empires that are known to fa/tg/uys claimed legitimacy, in some way or another, from the Roman Empire. Even the Ottoman sultans claimed to be Kayser-i-Rum, or Caesar of Rome. New World empires, obviously, did not, and most Asian empires embraced the trappings, if not the lineage, of the Chinese Empire. The great empires of the ancient period thus laid the foundation for the creation and culture of many modern nation-states through the transmission of medieval successors.

*'''The Holy Roman Empire''' ''(962–1806)'': Sometimes called the [http://europeanhistory.about.com/cs/germany/a/Otherreichs.htm first Reich]. Started as a powerful medieval state, but ever since the beginning of [[High Middle Ages]] started to devolve into something "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." (Voltaire) So complex that its easier to explain what it was not than what it was. If you know how the [[Empire]]'s politics works, that's the HRE in a nutshell. In essence, the HRE was more of a loosely-connected confederation of innumerable fiefdoms, counties and kingdoms (over 300 by the late 1600s) formally unified under the leadership of the Romano-German Emperors. Its political power in Europe rested entirely on the willingness and ability of the current Emperor to keep his underlings in line, but by the 1300s the Emperor's authority began to crumble and was completely gone when the Thirty-Years-War (1618-1648) ravaged a third of its population and foreign powers (mainly France, Prussia and Sweden) started to chip away at its territory. Saw its ultimate end when Napoleon defeated the Prussians and the Austrians in short succession, prompting the major dukedoms that were still left to formally leave the Empire, and the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II abdicated the imperial crown in 1806. Luckily, the Hapsburgs had installed a backup empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, meaning they retained the title of Emperor even when the HRE dissolved.
**Named "The Holy Roman Empire" because the Pope of the day went around baiting kings with religious recognition to earn more loyalty from the brainwashed, god-fearing masses. The Pope did this because, after seceding from the Roman Empire ruling in the east and declaring its independence from the Emperor-dominated Orthodox Church papacy, the Roman Catholic Church needed to sponsor a Roman Emperor of their own.
**Was preceded by the '''Carolingian Empire''' that lasted for about eight decades until it was partitioned into three successor kingdoms. One got split and merged in between its siblings, the other of which would evolve into the Holy Roman Empire, and the last one into the Kingdom of France; thus laying the groundwork for the greatest Hatfield-McCoy feud in history. The Ottonian House that founded the HRE liked to claim descent from the Carolingian House and Charlemagne as a result.
**Note that the Byzantines in the East also laid claim to the title of Roman Emperor and occasionally acknowledged the Holy Roman Emperors as their equals. This was a pretty messy period though and a detailed explanation would require a full article of its own.
**As to the frequent asked question why there were so goddamn many states on the territories that up the HRE, one needs to look at German inheritance custom, which survives to this day. It was the normal custom for each son of a noble family to inherit a piece of the realm after the previous ruler's death and found their own little dukedoms, especially if the sons couldn't agree on who got what. Add to that an incomprehensibly complicated net of political marriages with the addition of bishoprics which were issued by the Vatican and free cities (plus a number of other miniscule imperial territories like the "Imperial valley of Zell) and you get a clusterfuck of fractured territories that were constantly at each others throats and only banded together when the perfidious French tried something.
*'''Ummayyad Caliphate''' ''(661-750)'': The Largest of the four classical caliphates established after the death of Muhammad.It's borders stretched from Northern Spain to Pakistan. Overthrew the last Rashidun ("Rightly-Guided") Caliph Ali in order to gain power. At it's apex, it was one of the mightiest empires the world had ever seen and cemented Islam's new role as a religion of caliphs and kings. When one thinks of the Islamic Golden Age, it's either these guys or the dudes that took them down, the Abbassids. The Ummayyad's were rebels who promoted an early form of Arab nationalism throughout the Islamic World, as well as shifting the role of the Caliph from an elected position to a hereditary one. Eventually, their rampant Arab nationalism would get them overthrown by the Abbassids and the last remaining heir fled to Muslim Iberia, where they established the Emirate of Cordoba
*'''Abbasid Caliphate''' ''(750-1258)'': A caliphate born in a revolution against the Umayyads, the Abbasids are what you think of when you think of the Arabian Nights. Opulent cities glistening with the fruits of empire, [[Dark Eldar|crafty viziers who hide behind puppet sultans]], and all the glories of Baghdad in it's prime. Notable achievements include the many inventions and advancements of the Islamic Golden Age, Dominating the Mediterranean (Just look at Sicily), and battling the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of Central Asia. Unfortunately with the coming of the Seljuk Turks, their hegemony would shatter and eventually their dynasty would become nothing more than a line of puppet kings hiding out in Mamluk Egypt.
*'''Ethiopian Empire''' ''(1137-1935/1941-1974)'': an empire of Africans, and one of the only two African nations to remain independent of the West, depending on your view of Liberia. Also used to have Judaism as the official religion and then switched to its own version of Christianity. Its last Emperor, Haile Selassie, was revered by a religious movement as [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God incarnate (which, notably, he neither started nor approved of)]].
*'''Portuguese Empire''' ''(1139-1975)'': The lesser Iberian empire that liked keeping their maritime maps secret, becoming the first global empire in the world. Notable for the founding of Nagasaki, moving their capital and court to Brazil to escape Napoleon, and coming back from the brink of dissolution three times. Also, their nicknames, Portugal Overseas: [[Ultramar]] Português or the Império [[Ultramarines|Ultramarino]] Português has something to do with some smurfs made by a [[GW|British company of Grimdark]]. Due to [[Inquisition|secrecy]], nobody has found the old Portuguese royal sea route maps.
*'''Mongolian Empire''' ''(1206–1368 AD)'': '''The Empire made from Empires.''' Your stereotypical savage-nomad-kill-burn-kill-maim-burn empire. But only because they liked their reputation to precede them and do the conquering without the bloodshed and the damage to their soon-to-be territories. Was more civilized than Alexander the Great and their empire lasted even longer than his when you think about it. The empires they conquered were actually at THEIR golden ages too, like the Khwarazm and Song (China).
**Like Romans, once a people surrendered, they welcomed scholars and engineers with their new ideas, especially that of war, and they went from steppe cavalry with arrows to heavily armored cavalry with horse trains, gunpowder, and siege weapons. Religiously tolerant/gave no shits. Built a lot of bridges and blazed a lot of trade routes. Remember Marco Polo was writing about their empire. Put the Four Khanates and the conquered China (Yuan) together, and lol, the second largest human empire, ever, at 88% the size of the British one. Mind you, the Mongol Empire was ''continuous'', though, unlike the British Empire with isolated territories and islands. But the British are a seafaring empire, so there's that.
**Through the 4 sons of Genghis Khan, was the progenitor of other vast, mostly Muslim, empires. Its last successor, the Mughal Empire, only fell in '''''1857'''''.
*'''Ottoman Empire''' ''(1299–1923)'': A vast and powerful Muslim empire that started out as an amalgamation of nomadic tribes uniting to fight off Mongol raiders. From there they became a small Turkish state in Anatolia that conquered Constantinople, the Balkans, Middle East, and North Africa. In its heyday, it was huge, technologically advanced, well-governed and constantly driving forward, the terror of Europe. Its Janissary Corps the most feared and elite group of soldiers in Europe or the Middle East. Yet beginning in the 1600s the Empire began to transition towards a more sedentary state, and while it kept parity with its contemporaries well into the 18th century, missing out on the advances that came with Europe's Seven Years War and then its age of Colonization created a gap the Ottomans were incapable of surmounting. Adding to this was the introduction of Nationalism into the boiling pot of ethnic tensions, (with the Greeks being the first to win their independence in a brutal civil war), the conquest and liberation of much of its territories in Europe by the Austro-Hungarians in the mid 1700s and the Pre-WW1 Imperial Powers of Europe frequently exploiting the political weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire to their benefit. Its eventual end came with World War 1, when the German-allied Ottomans suffered a series of embarrassing defeats against the British-lead Arab minorities and the Russian Empire in the Caucasus. Trying to exterminate the Armenians in the largest Genocide up until the Holocaust did little to alleviate its decline. Kemal Atatürk ultimately dissolved the Empire in 1923 and founded the Republic of Turkey.

==Modern Period==
Note that when WWI started, the crowned rulers of Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Greece, and Romania were all related by blood or marriage, making both the war the single biggest family feud in history, as well as the royal family the single most successful genepool in all ecology. A similar feud, but between the rival Houses of Bourbon and Hapsburg, sparked pretty much all European wars between 1400 and 1798.

*'''Spanish Empire''' ''(1402-1975, at its height 1516-1700)'': Starting with the discovery of America by Columbus, it quickly colonized huge swaths of the New World, making Spanish the official language of most of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Annihilated the Aztec empire in the process of plundering its gold and silver. They established a trade route with China from the Philippines to Europe going through America, which was one of the first oceanic spice routes of the Early Modern World (the other one being the Portuguese route to India). In its hay day, the Spanish Empire was a frightening entity, controlling the overwhelming majority of trade with Silver and Gold, fielding the largest army and navy in Europe and only adding to it was the union between Spain, Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire under the Habsburg dynasty which dominated much of the history of 1500s central Europe. Its strength started to fade when economic stagnation and an over-reliance on its colonies paired with a serious succession crisis (the result of generations of relentless inbreeding within the Habsburg dynasty) in the early 1700s made its oversea holdings more of a liability than a boon. Adding to this were the constant efforts of the Dutch, British and French to chip away at its powerbase in the Caribbean. In the early 1800s, when mainland Spain was thoroughly beaten into submission by Napoleon, the colonial elites in the new world saw no use in their status anymore and declared independence in quick succession between 1810 and 1830. The final nail in the coffin was the establishing of the Monroe-doctrine as a central tenet in US foreign policy, which saw the Spanish kicked out of Cuba and the Philippines in 1898, ceding its last holdings in the Americas to the United States. While no longer a global empire they still held some territory in North Africa and brought back dictatorship after the Facist victory of the Spanish Civil War. Definitively ended once at for all when dear Franco died leading to democracy.
**When talking about the Spanish and Portuguese empires the Treaty of Tordesillas is worth a mention. Created by Pope Alexander VI, the treaty split the New World between the Spanish and the Portuguese, which is why the Portuguese settled Brazil and got to Japan because that was east of the line.
***Also, between 1578-1668 the Spanish and Portuguese Empire were under the same crown, turning it into the biggest colonial entity until the XIXth Century.
*'''Aztec Empire''' ''(1428–1521)'': Inspiration for [[Lizardmen]] buildings and homeland. It had a weird political structure because it was technically the alliance of 3 city-states, each with their own sovereign priest-king, that split up the spoils of war and regular tribute from their conquered territories in accordance to their contribution to the alliance. Infamously incapable of metalsmithing despite their greatest and most dangerous foes, the Purépecha Empire, knowing how to forge bronze.
**The real reason they were conquered by a band of Conquistadors under Hernan Cortes was not that they beardy crack team of war vets and military engineers of the reclamation of Spain from Muslims, not horses, not cannons, not guns (guns aren't all that deadlier than arrows until in the 19th century with machine guns. Guns are easier to handle and train with, and that is what made them useful), but his craftiness in exploiting '''how the native city-states all hated the Aztecs.''' Because they kept demanding humans for their ritual sacrifices, even going so far as to plant spies to instigate rebellions every decade or so, and spies informing Aztec warriors of all enemy intel to easily reconquer them... all just to justify their taking of even more sacrifices/slaves as "punishment." (Really similar to what Spartans did to their vassal cities). Unlike the greedy and short-sighted Columbus who was reviled by his own men for stealing their cut and discoveries (once they even allied with natives to kill him in his sleep). It doesn't matter how good you are, a few hundred men can't control 10s of 1000s of natives especially when you have limited supplies, arms, and bullets. Cortes promised the natives a good life and equal treatment as new subjects of His Majesty of Spain if they cooperated, and later even pushed to get his mestizo children legitimately recognized by the Church. As it turns out, he was the nicest and most successful conquistador as a result (debatable. There's a reason he's a national hero to Spain and Hitler levels of evil to Mexico). Still killed a lot of people but that was in war rather than pointless massacres and backstabbing/slavery of cooperative natives like Columbus.
***A good example of this are the Tlaxcaltecs. Cortes kept his promise to them. Chichimecs and peoples of Mayan descent also hated the Aztecs and banded together with Cortes.
*'''Inca Empire''' ''(1438–1533)'': Notable for it's size, road systems and the fact that it got so big without horses or wheeled vehicles. Unfortunately for them they got hit with the full Guns, Germs and Steel package when the Spanish showed up.
*'''Mughal Empire''' ''(1526–1857)'': A Muslim-Mongol superpower. After squandering the treasury on buildings and war, British influence managed to increase its presence on the subcontinent. Technically spent its last century as a British vassal.
*'''[[British Empire]]''' ''(1583-1997)'': At its height, the British Empire ruled a quarter of the Earth's land. Began the decolonization process after World War II and the Empire is considered to have ceased to exist as such when Hong Kong was formally turned over to China. Even so they still have handful of overseas territory [https://what-if.xkcd.com/48/ over which the sun has still yet to set]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars Had a hilarious war over trying to peddle drugs into China.] And again. God Save the King/Queen.
*'''Russian Empire''' ''(1721-1917)'': Big, powerful but often backwards in technology and social development. Came into being by destroying the Swedish Empire and proceeding to look east for colonial gains, getting around the nasty conflicts over America that the British and French had. At its height stretched from modern Poland to the Kuril Islands that it annexed from the Japanese, until the Japanese got pissed and took it back, along with stealing Korea and a large portion of Manchuria. Figures that when it ''finally'' started to catch up it decided to enter a world war.
*'''First French Empire''' ''(1804–1815)'': "Vive la Napoleon!" A pampered child of [[/v/]], too. '''Also the O.G. [[Imperial Guard|IMPERIAL GUARD]]''' (Napoleon's La Garde Impériale). In case you don't know about Napoleon, here is the tl;dr version of his and his Empires exploits: Starting as a lowly Lieutenant in the Revolutionary French army, he innovated many tactics of that time (incidentally inventing the basic concept of modern maneuver warfare in the process) and took many of the numerous enemies of the first French Republic by surprise, resulting in astounding victories for France in Italy and Egypt. He then did a Julius Caesar after the government of the Republic lost the support of the masses and installed himself as its sole military dictator, first with the title of First Consul, later crowning himself as Emperor of the French Napoleon I in 1804. His military and logistical genius saw France ground the major powers of Europe fall to their knees in short succession and by 1806, only the British were left to oppose him (although he couldn't do much to defeat them, as the Royal Navy handed him and his incompetent Admiralty a devastating defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar in the same year). Satisfied with his supreme rule over most of continental Europe, he grew a bit complacent which gave his enemies time to reorganize and reform their armies. The first major blunder of his career came when he tasked his Marshals with putting down a rebellion in Spain in a Guerilla War clusterfuck (fun fact: The word Guerilla itself was the name the Spanish rebels fighting Napoleon gave themselves) that rivalled later wars like Vietnam or the Eastern Front in WW2, which they consistently proved to be incapable of putting down, binding precious manpower and resources. THis however was overshadowed in every way by his historic defeat during the Russian Campaign in 1812, where a combination of underestimating the resolve of the Russian Tzar Alexander, overestimation of his own capabilities to overcome the massive distances in Russia, logistical fuck-ups from start to finish and the simple fact that France by that point had exhausted its reserves to the absolute breaking point lead to a devastating and humiliating defeat. This emboldened his former allies to form a new coalition to combine their forces and force him out of Europe in 1813. He did make one (and arguably doomed from the start) last attempt to grab power in 1815, when he was finally defeated at the by now near-mythical Battle of Waterloo.
**Seriously, fa/tg/uys need to stop with the tired French surrender monkeys meme and actually learn some history other than parrot arrogant British mockeries of their rivals. The French up until the Franco-Prussian War had the largest land forces in Europe, because after the Revolution, the military forces of the Republic were filled with people for the first time feeling like they mattered to the country, and this helped Napoleon immensely since his genius in logistical capabilities that let him to outnumber his enemies on the battlefield when least expected and minimize losses so they can keep on going and soon attack the next enemy army.
**Their defeats in WW1 in the trenches were not because they were stupid surrender monkeys like Italians, but too brave to a fault: they kept charging into MG nests and if they didn't make it, they thought they were simply not trying hard enough. Just like many scientific concepts at the time (like Social Darwinism), some generals misused the science/philosophy of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lan_vital "Élan vital"], which basically meant a creature is its will to live. Which in military terms, a military force is not dead until its commanders finally throw in the towel, so to keep up the pressure of life, one must never cease attacking. This on the surface The French learned that mindless charges and machismo won't win wars the hard way in WW1, but the Japanese took WW2 to learn it from their devastating losses by American hands.
**Next time you compare them to the British Empire, try minding that unlike Britain, they had to divide their forces among the sea, AND the land (The real reason Napoleon invaded Russia was because of England's blockade + Russia's refusal to cooperate with his isolation plans for the English). Do mind that a war on two fronts was only ever really won in history by Americans in WW2 (Pacific and Europe) by sheer industrial-economic might (One steel mill in Pittsburgh produced more steel than all of the 3rd Reich, for instance).
*'''Austrian Empire''' ''(1804–1918, including time spent as the Austro-Hungarian Empire)'': Ripped apart after WWI. On the height of its power, Hapsburg Austria commanded respect across Europe through a strong army, reinforced through its very liberal policies towards non-Germans (Hussars were an Austro-Hungarian invention, after all). It served as a collective buffer between the Ottomans to the south and the rest of Europe alongside serving a relatively liberal oasis of refuge for multiple ethnicities at the mercy of Russian or Ottoman encroachment. Unfortunately, by the 20th Century, rising ethnic nationalism replaced the regional feudalistic sense of loyalties among the multiple ethnic groups in the Empire. By the time the run-up to WW1 started, Austria had fallen by the way side and was overshadowed in every way by its larger cousin, the German Empire, (ironically enough mainly because of it and Prussia) and although the peace between the Austrians and the Hungarian state structures was tenuous even at the best of times, it persisted quite successfully for a state whose structures looked like a relic well before it collapsed. [https://academic.oup.com/jsh/article-abstract/46/4/971/1065356 Lick a Stamp, Lick the Kaiser!]
*'''Brazilian Empire''' ''(1822-1889)'': Like Russia but more backwards and way less powerful. It was one of the premier powers on South America alongside Argentina. Stopped existing when the rich landowners that controlled the country [[grimdark|got sick of the Emperor's shit for making the slaves free so they sacked him and declared a republic. Oh how ironic the monarchy was better than the "free" republic.]]
*'''Empire of [[Japan]]''' ''(538–1947)'': They've had an emperor since 538, but didn't actually make significant foreign or cultural conquests of any sort since the prior two attempts to do something in Korea ended in eventual expulsion. Japan really got into the empire-building business after it was first to industrialize among the nations of Eastern Asia, which wouldn't be that much of an advantage were it not for the fact that most nations around them (Russia, Korea, China) were in pretty bad shape so the Japanese had little trouble defeating and conquering them...except their own staggering ineptitude in some areas like the land-army and the navy actively undermining each other or not making any friends by being genocidal pricks, in some ways being arguably worse than the Nazis. For what it's worth, Japan did manage to build a respectably-sized empire starting from the 30s but saw it all collapse due to aforementioned assholery, poor supply lines and taking on the United Motherfucking States of America.
**As critical as we are, it would be dishonest to deny how rapidly the Japanese were able to modernize after Commodore Perry's visit in the mid 1800's. The Meiji restoration for all intents and purposes put Japan into a position of dignity and power after the tumultuous downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Japan also led the world in military aviation along with Germany in the 1930s, having developed the Zero and especially the aircraft carrier concept, which would be helpful in defending a seaborne empire. To put in the rapidity of Japanese growth into perspective, the US annexed Hawaii precisely because they feared the Hawaii would fall into Japanese hands if they didn't get there first, despite the island being a retardedly far distance from Japan.
**Note that while modern Japan is still named the same as the Japanese Empire was, the name is now officially translated as Japanese State rather than Japanese Empire. It also still maintains an Emperor as a constitutional monarch.
*'''German Empire''' ''(1871–1918)'': '''The Second Reich,''' put together by Otto von Bismarck's political genius and Prussian efficiency, it took a collection of feuding principalities and, in a few decades, turned them into the greatest industrial power in Europe until it was exhausted fighting pretty much every other industrial power that mattered, twice. Bismarck famously kept the Austrian Empire out of the German Empire owing to the long-standing Prussian-Austrian rivalry within the HRE and the fact that incorporating the Austrians would've meant bringing in huge masses of non-German populations.
*'''(Great) Germany (Grossdeutsches Reich)''' ''(1933-1945)'': Colloquially known as '''[[Nazi|Nazi Germany]]'''. The '''Third''' and shortest '''Reich''', though not for lack of ambition. Owing to Bismarck keeping the Austrians out of the German Empire, their first major conquest beyond the historic borders of Germany was Austria. They claimed to be the greatest industrial power in Europe until they exhausted themselves fighting pretty much every other industrial power that mattered.
**Did you know the term Nazi was a derisive slur originally used by their political enemies? The political party was actually named NSDAP, '''Na'''tionalso'''zi'''alistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or "National Socialist German Worker Party". They were called Nazis because, in German, it was an insult for Bavarian hillbillies, and most National Socialists came from Bavaria.
*'''Soviet Union''' ''(1922-1991)'': '''THE HEAD OF THE SECOND WORLD.''' <s>The successors to the Russian Empire,</s> Too many people forget the USSR was a body of many nations and peoples (to the point a lot of ex-Soviet peoples wistfully think of the old days when all were equal under the Soviet rule and Russians weren't jingoistic and neo-Nazis were unheard of), even when Russia was its most powerful unit with no doubt. With a Global Ideology based on [[Communism]]. But do keep in mind that not all (self-proclaimed) Communist nations were actually part of the Soviet Union (quite a number of them were just de facto dictator/monarchs with Anti-Western ideologies that proclaimed they were going to save the downtrodden people with Communism, and also get monetary supplement from USSR for being Anti-West). After defeating the 3rd Reich, managed to extend its influence over Eastern Europe and thanks to the appeal of Communism was also able to influence states on almost every continent. But was unable to keep up economically or militarily with the United States and eventually finally fell apart with a whimper at the end of the Cold War.
**In it's height of power, the USSR's GDP was around half of USA, but its military budget equaled it. And during the Cold War, American military budget was almost 10% of its GDP compared to 4.5% of today, compared to around 3% to 1st world nations who depend on the US military to protect them from China/Russia.
**Really screwed themselves over with a 20% GDP military budget. Every ruble spent in the military is one not spent in civil industry and commerce. But even this is heavenly compared to bleak militaristic shit holes like North Korea.
***That, and their version of Vietnam, called the Soviet-Afghanistan war. Started on the same year when China invaded Vietnam, in 1979. Ended in 1989. Not long before the collapse of the Union.
**The reason for its downfall are not easy to boil down. Aforementioned oversized military budget, being caught in the Cold War did a substantial part, but also a culture of administrative corruption and cronyism the Soviets inherited from the state structures of the Russian Empire. The whole economy was centrally planned around the ideal of maximizing productivity through a series of four or five-year-plans in which certain goals, issued by the Communist Party, were meant to be achieved. However, the slow, monolithic bureaucracy that would give the [[Administratum]] a run for its money in how inefficient in worked, made achieving these goals impossible, be it through the tedious gears of administrators that had to approve every single thing on their desks or just straight up incompetence: The Socialist ideal pushed people from the factories and lowest stratas of society into high level government offices they were in no way equipped or capable to manage. The constant atmosphere of fear and terror that drooled out of the KGB also made sure that no serious innovative initiatives could take place; you had to accept the party line or say goodbye to your (and your families) few privileges, if you had some sort of power or ability useful to the Soviet State. This created a self-destructive culture of officials and directors frequently falsifying factory and bureaucracy records, which were then further edited the higher they went up in order to earn a promotion, make themselves look better or just avoid the all too watchful eye of the KGB - it was only after Chernobyl and the beginning of Perestroika under Gorbachev when the Soviet Leadership started to grasp how deeply fucked the entire Soviet economy even was. The revelations from these inquiries very quickly lead to the collapse of the USSR within just 5 years through the people that finally had enough of the Communists. Gorbachev, for the shit he (on some accounts, rightfully) gets was by 1986 presented with a problem that was impossible to find a solution for, even for more capable statesmen he ended up being.
**These aforementioned problems were further exasperated by rising ethnic tensions in many parts of the multi-ethnic USSR, starting in the Baltic states. The economic situation was so catastrophic that the US (and West Germany) tried desperately to prop up the USSR with billions of Dollars in relief money and debt cuts, as declassified CIA and White House documents show. The current climate of continuing aggression from the Russian side and Western sanctions might have been avoided, if these plans came to fruition, but the USSR was gone before the US had any chance to implement them.
*'''The United States of America''' ''(1776-Present)'': '''THE HEAD OF THE FIRST WORLD.''' There is much controversy over whether the global Hegemony established by the United States counts as an empire or not. The merriam-webster definition of empire reads: ''a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority'', which even before you consider out of territory influence the vast amount of states with different cultures certainly means American meets the technical dictionary definition of empire, which means everybody still argues about but that some people are just more nerdy about how they do it then others. For argument's sake, we will consider the American Empire a reality here. What is not in doubt is that since the end of WWII, and especially since the end of the Cold War the United States has held near total sway in terms of global power, though recent moves by a resurgent China look to be eroding American Global Power and Influence. Which is all Bush Jr.'s fault for wasting energy on the Middle East when he should have checked China and Russia.
**Much of the Global Hegemony of the US results from ordinary political pushes and pulls that happen between nations popularly called 'soft power'. It's just that America is seriously advantaged in this game, what with the largest consumer market, dollar currency, lack of resource dependency (America produces the most oil. Shocking, I know. America just needs even more of it), Lack of hostile/powerful neighbors being and military might. It also benefited greatly from the end of WWII, when the vast majority of its economic competitors were debt-laden bombed-out ruins that had to relinquish all their colonial possessions, giving America enormous market-share for several decades in international trade. Of course this share shrank after the rest of the world got back on its feet, but by that time America’s economic hegemony had been well-established.
***As a consequence of this, the US is home to the two biggest stock exchange markets on the planet with their combined value dwarfing their ten other rival exchanges combined. And the fact the US government’s financial regulators take a backseat but can sanction any country or company makes many global companies take pause on their rules.
**Controls the mightiest military force in human history. #1 largest military budget, and this is large as the those of nations in #2 to #10 combined. And excluding China and Russia, all those nations are American allies anyway (maybe except India and Saudi Arabia). Keep in mind that GDP Percentage-wise, '''this is less than half of American military spending during the Cold War.''' Should an alien invasion occur, they are your first and last hope. As a man once said, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyRmxjhYrmw&ab_channel=TheRussianBadger|America is the final boss of planet Earth.]
***And the military with most real combat experience to boot.
**With NATO, and many nations asking to station American troops around the world (and America pays a large chunk of the expenditures for them too), many nations voluntarily depend on American protection, especially from China or Russia nowadays.
**Still to this day, no nation in history has ever held as much power as it did as the United States of America. And compared to the other 2 contenders (The Spanish and British Empires), still is the most conscious of human rights and freedoms. (Keep in mind, while the US is a bit behind in human rights/freedoms/corruption than some European nations, most other 200 nations in the world have appalling oppression to the point the people there just don't even complain about it because they've been inoculated by [[grimdark]]. If you live in a country that can still complain about injustices happening within it, then there is still hope.)
** The USA is also frankly fascinating in that it achieved something similar to the Roman Empire but even better - it produced a dominant culture that can (relatively) easily assimilate various ethnicities and other cultures and strengthen itself through this process. If you know English and are a skilled worker, you can get a green card, live in the US for 5 years and then take a test to become a citizen, then you can open up a store that sells Sushi/Burek/Pizza and earn millions as you introduce a hitherto-unknown new dish to the country. America is the Borg except you get to keep your biological distinctiveness while culture and tech are shared to strengthen everybody.
**And finally, the simply IMMENSE cultural impact that the USA had/has on the whole PLANET also helps maintain it's status. Don't believe me - Mickey Mouse, Coca-cola, the frigging American flag will likely get recognised virtually anywhere in the world. Hollywood may as well be up there with the Army for the amount of influence it exerts on other countries.

=Notable Fictional Empires=
==Fantasy==
*'''[[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)]]''': Holy Roman Empire with bald monks, lots of gunpowder and [[Meme|Karl Franz]].
*'''Nilfgaard''' ([[The Witcher]])): Roman Empire + some HRE and Nazi Germany (at least in the late books) '''again''', although this time you'd probably want to live here than in the most of the oppressive feudal racist and constantly warring Northern Kingdoms. Especially with the fact that it almost became constitutional monarchy before Torres var Emreis took over.
*'''Mordor'''([[Lord of the Rings]]): Traditional evil empire lead by an immense final boss that lives in a tower. The Dark Lord Sauron rules Mordor directly, but his influence extends to Harad in the south, and Rhun to the east, with the humans living there serving as his vassals. He also commands Orc forces in Dol Guldur, the Misty Mountains, and (nominally) Isengard. Hard to pinpoint the exact aesthetic of Mordor, but there are certainly ancient middle eastern imperial influences, such as shield design and armor shapes.
:*'''Numenor''': A human empire that existed in Middle Earth's second age, and was the most advanced Human civilization. Started out as a benevolent island nation with trade colonies on the coastline of Middle Earth, but over time its political leadership was taken over by faithless, jingoistic militarists who conquered large parts of the continent and ruled with an iron fist. Numenor was destroyed when they were tricked by Sauron into invading the Undying Lands, which caused the sinking of Numenor. Those who survived the sinking founded the much smaller kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.

==Science Fiction==
*'''Galactic Empire''' ([[Star Wars]]): An amalgamation of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (under Stalin), several colonial or semi-colonial empires (Britain, Japan) and USA during Vietnam War. It's background also borrows many things from Rome, with an elected dictator gaining an absolute power to prevent the stagnation of previous democratic regime. Probably the most famous "Galactic Empire" in science fiction, despite having several precedents.
* '''[[Star League]]''' ([[Battletech]]): Basically HRE in space with [[mecha]]. Formed under House Cameron, it was more prosperous, technologically advanced, and much more peaceful compared to the [[Succession Wars|three century clusterbang]] that came after its collapse. Was looked back at fondly by the greater powers as the pinnacle of human civilization and something they all wanted to reform under their own banner.
*'''Galactic Empire''' ([[Isaac Asimov|Foundation]]): Space Rome. Asimov based the Foundation series on Gibbons' "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" and so the Galactic Empire is a sclerotic, decaying empire doomed to collapse and be replaced with a new, more vibrant empire. At least, until he went back to write some sequels.
*'''Galactic Empire''' ([[Anime|Legend of the Galactic Heroes]]): What if Otto von Bismarck was a neo-Nazi [[LARP|LARPER]] who went full Julius Caesar on the Galactic Republic? Well, then you'd get the Galactic Empire.
*'''Empire of the Known Universe''' ([[Dune]]): Feudalism in space, its first iteration. Emperor doesn't play much role here (at first, at least), and usually has to meet the needs of Spicing Guild (the real ruler of the Universe) or interact with other Great Houses, who are as powerful as him. Eventually the Imperium turned into an oppressive dictatorship of the all-knowing and all-seeing immortal half-worm half-human hybrid, [[Just As Planned|all according to his plan]] [[Emprah|to elevate the Humanity]].
*'''[[Imperium of Man]]''' ([[Warhammer 40K]]): Dune and Warhammer Empire's evil child. Catholic-themed Soviet Union at first, extremely oppressive Catholic Middle Ages Europe with some Nazi flavor later, Catholic-themed Late Roman Empire/Republic now( with some more bit of the middle ages). Of note is that the Imperium despite its reputation of stagnation ironically stands out as evolving and changing politically over time in many different ways, reflecting an aspect of real life empires often overlooked.

[[category:History]]