Editing Historical Empires (section)

=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]]