Historical Empires

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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 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 hands-off 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!
• Chinese Empire (221 BC-Present): Though already unified under a king as late as 841 BC, 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, 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 years.
• "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.
• Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD (Western)/1453 AD (Eastern)/1475 AD (Trebizond)): The codifier for fictional 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. 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. 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 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). 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.
• Ummayyad Caliphate (661-750): The Largest of the four classical caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. Its 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.
• 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, 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 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 Ultramarino Português has something to do with some smurfs made by a British company of Grimdark. Due to 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).
• 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 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.
• 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. Ultimately destroyed by a band of Conquistadors under Hernan Cortes and his craftiness in exploiting how the native city-states all hated the Aztecs.
• 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 over which the sun has still yet to set. 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 (Napoleon's La Garde Impériale).
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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 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.
• Soviet Union (1922-1991): THE HEAD OF THE SECOND WORLD. The successors to the Russian Empire, 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. In it's height of power, the USSR's GDP was around half of USA, but its military budget equaled it.
• 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. 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.

Notable Fictional Empires

Fantasy

• The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy): Holy Roman Empire with bald monks, lots of gunpowder and 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 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 (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 (Legend of the Galactic Heroes): What if Otto von Bismarck was a neo-Nazi 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, all according to his plan 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.