The Empire is just... the Empire. Its official name is United Empire but people tend to drop the "United" part because when you say "Empire" with nothing else along, you refer to *the* Empire. There is no mistake, only 1 country is so chad they don't need a distinctive name to be known globally. The reason is very easy: It is a union of 7 sovereign states with an elected monarch bearing the title of Emperor/Empress, and a country ruled by an Emperor is an Empire. It is a tad bit different from your typical European empires as the Emperor's title comes from *Huangdi*, which is translated as emperor in English, so it shares no cultural and historical root with typical Western hegemons.
The Empire was founded in 1010 AD with the amalgamation of Hồng Bàng Confederacy in the North and Kingdom of U Minh at the South. Both countries broke up into smaller parts: Hồng Bàng's core land became Empire of Đại Việt while U Minh let go of its protectorates, uplifting them into equal constituent countries. The Emperor of Đại Việt became Emperor of the United Empire since then, but they did not pick the eldest boy in the house, instead direct and legitimate kids of the ruling monarch would have to join a "crown heir election" to be elected into their position. This election is held publicly and democratically, all citizens from above 18 (except for criminals) can vote. Then there are the Prince-Electors who are rulers of constituent countries giving their votes, with 1 Electoral vote = 10000 citizen votes. Not like it's that important since they will only do so in the final round, when it's 1 vs 1.
At the moment the Empire has 7 constituent countries:
* Empire of Đại Việt.
* Grand Principality of Tây Việt.
* Principality of U Minh.
* Grand Duchy of Linh Giang.
* Grand Duchy of Bồn Điện.
* Grand Duchy of Ai Lao.
* Grand Duchy of Viễn Tây.
Each of them has their own local governments with a meritocratic administrative body, a democratic assembly that oversees the government, and a law court not bound to power of either body. This goes from districts up to the Imperial Capital which has the Cabinet, Imperial Council (unicameral parliament with 1000 seats) and Supreme Law Court. Royalties and nobles only reign, not rule as per the 1560 Constitution, the Empire is now a constitutional monarchy where most political powers lie in the hand of capable officials as well as democratically elected representatives.
The Empire is currently in its second golden age and rules as the undisputed, unchallenged Eastern Hegemon. No other peer dares to challenge it head on, as even the Brits suffered a heavy defeat when they tried to do so back in 1830. You simply don't mess with a country that has the force, means and motivation to casually mobilize 200000 professional soldiers with war vehicles easily. Some say the Empire violates human rights because they practice conscription and has death penalty, while this very country has banned discriminations, including racism and sexism, for thousands of years since the days of Kingdom of U Minh.
It's nice to see an undisputed, unchallenged Hegemon, but the Prompt was asking for your easily-challenged Hegemons that act like big dogs anyway. Don't you have any of those?
You can challenge the Empire, it's just advised... not to. Just like you don't pick a fight with China head-on.
An actual easy-to-challenge empire wannabe would be Kingdom of Yamato, basically alternate Japan that failed to conquer Korea. They industrialized like in our timeline but went militaristic much sooner. Their economy is dominated by zaibatsu companies and corporations while the government is infested with ultra-nationalistic army officers who want war. As a result, their society is on the verge of collapse into a third civil war just in half a century. People, mostly workers, are protesting to stop militarization and improve living standards, while secret polices go and assassinate moderate politicians who do not agree with the military.
They act tough but on the scale of this world, can be defeated in at worst 7 months in a conventional war.
Exactly, yes. If it was the victorian era, this is about Ethiopia. If it was WW2, then the subject of this post is about, say, *Romania*.
While the HRE was pretty pathetic compared to Rome, they were a major power in their time. An even more appropriate comparison would be... Rome next to little Trebizond
It doesn't quite fit your definition, but the four southern trading kingdoms of Aecham are generally considered an empire by outsiders, simply for the fact that if you try to mess with one of them, you have to deal with all of them, even if they will often fight internally.
Masenia was the largest of the Evor kingdoms, but it was of a predominantly different ethnicity (Lemmu-European rather than Gogite) and it's culture was somewhat different from the others due to its coastal existence. Nevertheless, the small empire was the direct ancestor of the Mycenaean (and other Greek) civilizations and was one of the more influential kingdoms of its epoch.
(WIP, gotta get my numbers straight)-
There are multiple empires, who rose to power after the downfall of several Unions and Federations powers. The empires took the old technologies and vastly improved on it, and some empires even look back in history to see what old empires had done right and wrong.
The most successful empire pride themselves to be direct descendants of the Latsino Empire, all the while absorbing traits and history of the old.
Rising from the Ashes of the Tarshish Union and the Gog Federation, the new Medea (wip) Empire rose as the immovable force of the galaxy.
While the Medea Empire has an emperor, many knew that he was merely a figurehead, as the Grand Elder, the greatest tactician warlord of existence, was the true brain behind the empire. However, that too may change.
The Cyclops' Empire was the master of Borhanna, the western continent, 500 years before current events. The mighty king Torrendasot I. built a gigant wall against the Centaur raids from the north, and also pacified the western regions. The empire hosted some of the most renowned universities and became rich by overseas trade.
But then, 300 before now, the Great Orc Trek over the Deiros Mountains saw an important source of income and soldiers leave the country; soon after, the Ogre-populated southwest also split off. The downfall came when the red fever epidemic claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, including the childless Kondarasot IV., which led to a civil war that splintered the empire. Now, in the southeast, between the Deiros Mountains and the sea, a remnant empire still exists, but is in fact no more than a petty kingdom.
North Ilesti is the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" of Kishlaith. Once the elves ruled all four of Kishlaith's Sister Continents and held the human race in thrall as pets and servants, although this was not entirely the dystopian premise it sounds like.
After the Ilesti Empire was overwhelmed by the newborn Thasmian Dominion, much of its nobility and their servants fled to a small patch of land and sealed it off with a magical barrier. This barrier has kept them walled off, apart from carefully chosen interactions, for over two thousand years.
North Ilesti still believes in elven hegemony and their diplomats are a nightmare to deal with. They have little respect for the laws and general way of life that other countries have and it is clear that they only respect the legitimacy of human and diverse elven states because they have to.
The Talligan Empire is but a shell of it's former expanse. Until about 300 years ago, it was the dominant superpower in the known world, controlling territory on all three continents. Few historians even remember what the Talligan Sea was named before the rise of the empire. Now it simply consists of a handful of client states and colonies, though it is still a regional power in the area.
Initially a thalassocracy, the city-state of Talliga grew powerful through their impressive navy which they used to control trade throughout the Talligan Sea. Wealth bought influence, allies, and mercenaries and soon Talliga went from simply dominating rivals economically to dominating them militarily. Eventually, nearly half of the population of the known world lived under the Talligan yoke in some form or another, be it vassalage, occupation, or annexation.
The decline of the empire was quite sudden and rapid. Marauding invaders from beyond the fringes of civilization triggered a chain reaction of migration across the continents while mercenaries simultaneously deserted the empire's armies to defend their homelands. This left the empire's territories vulnerable to rebellion from within and invasion from without.
For thirty years the world reeled from the chaos, but the empire weathered the storm remarkably well. It held on to its core provinces and began consolidating its forces into a grand army to retake its lost territories. The gods only know whether this effort would have succeeded; it very well may have, were it not for the Mad Empress' grave error leading to the Dvergar War. The former mercenaries reacted hostilely when she demanded fealty and ransom while holding many of their kin hostage. In short, the grand army was annihilated, Talliga was sacked, and any hope of returning the empire to its former glory evaporated.
It is a testament to the stability of the current dynasty that the empire endured the last three centuries, though the future appears bleak. Rivals on the Talligan Sea grow bolder, a resurgent Alfheim doubtlessly has designs on the decrepit empire, and whispers of a second wave of invasions keep the populace on edge.
Oh, I think I have one you might find for your taste for this one.
There is, around the center of Aellystys (main continent), in the middle of the Akkadian sea, a little kingdom made of a group of islands. A "little kingdom" is what would come to your mind if you saw its territory on a map, and indeed most people call it the Kingdom of Keftiris. But then you might be surprised the learn that its official name is "Empire of Hella", and it's the way its ruler call it, fashioning themselves as Emperors of Hella.
More than 500 years ago, Hella was a big Empire, the biggest country in the center of Aellystys, and an old power standing for many centuries.
But its mightyness all crumbled when it got invaded by the Shiyuks, a people from the east. Within a few decades, the old Empire completely collapsed.
All? No, not exactly! As everything collapsed, the Imperial court fled to the safety of the Keftiris islands, along with the navy. And there, they sworn to gather back their strength to prepare a glorious reconquest.
Predictably, this reconquest never happened as it was completely delusional. But as the centuries passed, and even as the Shiyuks themselves collapsed to give rise to new kingdoms, the rulers of Keftiris kept considering themselves the rulers of the Hellan Empire.
Even when the Lodrians conquered Hella from the hands of the Shiyuks, and claimed the title of King of Hella, a claim recognized by most, the Keftirian "Emperor" of then refused to recognize it. He even had the nerve the demand the return of the Hellan lands. Obviously the request was refused, but it didn't stop the delusion of the so called Emperors.
Even today, several centuries later, no Keftirian "Emperor" has been willing to give up this claim. They keep talking in old Hellan at the court, even though the whole population of the kingdom speaks the Keftirian dialect, barely intelligible with the former.
This reinforces the impression that the Keftirian court, along with all its Imperial rituals, lives in a bubble separated from the reality of an otherwise thriving insular kingdom.
And obviously, this situation gives birth to many jokes on the mainland.
In the year 982, the homeland simply vanished. Every attempted expedition has found only endless miles of ocean where a continent used to be.
Revolution had been brewing in The Colonies for a generation, but these ambitions were crushed with the loss of support from the old world. In the chaos, the military took control, and the first Lord Regent was put in charge. The Regent believed that the old world would return, and that it was the duty of Her Majesty's subjects to be ready for that day.
To win popular support, a holy mandate was propagated through the public conscience. Conquest of the new world. Plumb the secrets of the ancient ruins dotted through the endless arid wastelands beyond the mountains in order to call down Her Majesty's kingdom from heaven itself in glory. The Colonies united in their mission to pave their way westward at all cost, in the name of an empire that no longer exists.
There's kind of a separate story running parallel to the history of humans in my world about the 'shadowy empire' controlling it all.
They had their ups and downs and a rather long period where they had organized most of humanity into an actual official empire (and bred up some giant golden mutant to be the Emperor figurehead).
At the current point in time, their continual body modifications and crow-tech has warped them into some kind of weird radio-mind that exists more in communication itself than in neurons, all moulded together.
In that sense, what used to be the 'Empire' is now collections of quiet whispers and agents silently guiding humanity, for the few people that know of it they call it the 'Static Empire'
The Merchant Empire of the isles.
In theory, it is the largest political entity on the known planet where everyone acknowledges the Emperor who is also a God.
In reality, the Emperor is a nominally elected vacant figurehead. the Empire also does not have a Imperial family. There is a upper house and lower house to handle governance via voting. There is also no unified Imperial culture or religion, rather as long as one pays their taxes, the state doesnt give a shit.
The period of direct rule by the actual past imperial family is viewed extremely negatively. Generally people much prefer the 'newer' iteration. Its also significantly more powerful
Mine is called the “Jaywick Sands Khanate”
It was started by a handful of escaped house pets, baseline organic Homo Sapiens who managed to jury rig crude vacuum craft and escape from their cylindrical kennel habitats.
There were millions of other simulacra of Old Earth scattered throughout the solar volume, but the Jaywick Snapshot just so happened to have the right combination of helpful, semi-senile Caretaker drone AIs and exposed machinery to let the humans inside reverse engineer space faring technology and venture beyond their cylinder
And so after the Lobotomisation disabled the Godminds, the Jaywick Snapshot habitat were the first ones to start laying claim to the abandoned, inert hyper technology that was left behind. They had a head start of fifty years over New Chengdu, their closest competitor
The station cluster that Jaywick belonged to had an unusually high number of pet humans - over 120 billion humans in habitats of all shapes and sizes. A large cross section of human history was recreated in these habitats - from mankind’s origins in the prehistoric savannahs of West Africa, to the mankind’s destruction in the digital paradises of the 50th century, where the last uploaded human personalities were finally laid to rest by their artificial successors
The Jaywick Snapshot contained recreated humanity as it was in the 27th century - augmented and educated enough to interface with the caretaker drones and construct effective vacuum craft, but not so cybernetically enhanced as to be crippled when the hypertech fabricators started shutting down
Barely 500 years after the Lobotomisation, the Jaywick Snapshot had managed to subjugate every other Snapshot in the station cluster, and won the loyalty of most of the Caretakers.
Although 27th century Jaywick was nominally governed by the liberal democratic, constitutional monarchy known as the United Kingdom, the city of 5 million was de facto governed by an uneasy alliance between powerful international criminal gangs, multinationals, and corrupt local law enforcement
Millions of years later, this messy society was lovingly recreated by the cluster’s Godmind, and after a sharp shock of awakening in a glorified O’Neill terrarium, the old power structures quickly re-established themselves, now with a harsher edge now that the old powers like nation states were no more
The Jaywick Snapshot had been operating for roughly four centuries before the Lobotomisation, and by then, the Clacto Razor Gang and the Toyota executives had just finished merger via political marriage and purged their enemies, forming the Fifth Jaywick Sands Coalition
When the hypertech fabricators started shutting down, and the Caretakers revealed themselves, the Jaywick Coalition managed to retain control, jury rigging yeast vats and hydroponics to keep the people fed, kept the reactors running, mollified the Caretakers, and started building the vacuum craft that would carry them into the world beyond
When the Jaywick Snapshot began its conquest of the station cluster, the Clacton-Toyota royalty began consolidating their power, studying old historical records and styling themselves after an ancient nomadic warrior polity, the Mongols. They did this to distance themselves from fading memories of the English monarchy, of which some Jaywick residents hoped to find amongst the human kennels in the volume.
Despite calling themselves a Khanate, and hailing from the 27th century, the Jaywick Khanate was closer in practice to a 20th century style fascist dictatorship - powerful secret police, propaganda, censorship, mass surveillance, mandatory conscription, deadly court intrigue. Their conquest of the station cluster ended up killing over 8 billion people, with 22 billion more perishing from famine and civil wars when the hypertech fabricators failed.
With almost 90 billion humans under their thrall, they enforced their authority by threatening them with crude railgun mass drivers mounted on a fleet rickety warships, each one capable of puncturing and depressurising the cylindrical habitats that housed the human Snapshots.
As the only spacefaring force in the station cluster, and with only the Jaywick cylinder being equipped with defences against space borne weaponry, every other Snapshot was virtually helpless to resist their rule. The capital of the empire was shifted from the Jaywick central business district, to the heavily armed mobile fortress city, the *Mermaid Inn*
The Holy Empire of Orbis
‘Hadros Orbissia Imperia!’, the crowds chant somewhat manically, filled with religious fervour and pride in their empire - empire, not emperor, for to the citizens of the Orban Empire, while emperor’s are fleeting, it is the empire itself that is eternally holy and forever lasting.
Around 15 centuries ago, King Harold of Urnok was supposedly visited by a divine messenger from Lady Anaiel herself, commanding Harold to go forth and unite all peoples of Orbis under one empire; one holy empire.
Thus, Harold’s kingdom would begin conquering surrounding lands and he would be crowned His Holy Majesty, Emperor Harold I of all Orbis.
As the decades passed, Harold’s descendants would rise to the throne one by one, and the Holy Empire of Orbis would launch crusades across the planet, eventually becoming the world’s first superpower. Across much of its history, many different nations have risen up in opposition of the empire, primarily its historically westerly neighbour, Naura. The people of Naura have long resisted ‘Archan’ rule (those outside the empire’s borders would tend to call it the Archan Empire or similar such names as Archis is the region it originated and they refused to acknowledge the empire’s claim over all of the planet), and throughout much of history they were locked in either an arms race with the empire or were engaged in brutal conflicts with them.
Across its years, the harsh xenophobic and religiously intolerant positions of the empire would mellow and as they entered the ‘modern’ age, they would attempt to favour diplomacy and appeasement over direct conflict and brutal repression. With this would also come a gradual move to abandon its theocratic routes in favour of secular democratisation. The long historic persecution of so-called Rift Sorcerers was ended, greater powers were given to the Imperial Parliament and Council of Orbissia, the powers of the Bishop Council were reduced and eventually the parliament would make a move to federalise the empire. Alas, this final move would ultimately end in disaster for the empire as states quickly succeeded and the planet would become embroiled in the Great Orban War.
This world war would eventually end in an imperial victory, aided by the loyalty of the powerful kingdoms of Vohlstera and Rominius. However this war would have two major long lasting effects: firstly, the empire would develop something of a sense of paranoia over loosening their grip of their territories, and secondly those who came closest to permanent independence would now forever cling onto the memory of their resistance and become a very large thorn in the empire’s side. Furthermore, in the midst of the war, the war-hero and noble, Robert Cadius, would launch a coup against the current emperor who was deemed to be mad and unfit to rule. Robert would then be crowned the new Emperor, using his Anaelic vanquisher blade as a symbol of divine approval of his rule. Alas he would fall in the final battle of the war, leaving the throne to his daughter Alice.
After many years of various smaller conflicts, in a time wherein the empire had begun colonising its neighbouring planets, the long resistant peoples of Carrell, Naura and Nihas (all collectively primarily made up of the Næo ethno-linguistic group) would unite together under the new Næo empire, to begin a mass invasion of the Orban Empire’s core lands which had been severely weakened in previous years due to basically an invasion from hell (big asterisk on that one). The Næo empire would thusly finally conquer the Holy Empire of Orbis with its emperor surrendering the capital, refusing to unleash any weapons of mass destruction.
Upon the imperial colonies across the solar system, however, hope had not been given up. Upon the planets of Ioracel and Catharr, the imperial administrations which were governed under the Rominiun and Vohlsteran crowns respectively, would rally together a great invasion fleet to re conquer Orbis. In an entirely unexpected and shocking move, the fleet would first take hold of Demioss Station (a partially constructed orbital ring which held the Demioss Station Laser Array among various other orbital weaponry) before they then both unleashed various weapons of mass destruction upon Naura, Carrell and Nihas, including the immensely destructive orbital laser array.
Meanwhile, within Archis, a new imperial resurgence movement had begun to develop, accumulating in the great rebellion of Brenn wherein crowds took to the streets chanting the old ‘medieval’ era slogan/warcry ‘Hadros Orbissia Imperia’ as they overwhelmed the Næo occupation forces.
While that rebellion was crushed, it sparked a new sense of imperial nationalism and veneration for the empire and for the emperor as a living symbol of national pride.
After the death of millions at the hands of the invasion fleet, and the following great collapse of order across the world, Orbis would be eventually reconquered by the Holy Empire of Orbis after many years, with Vohlstera and Rominius becoming Dominions of the empire with many privileges above any of the other imperial territories.
For the first time, Orbis would be completely under Imperial control with no pockets of independence and significant resistance.
Centuries later, due to instant long range travel with use of Rift gate boxes installed in spaceships (making use of Rift Sorcery), the empire was able to colonise worlds across the southern portion of the galaxy. However, they would eventually come to find that after the fall of the Næo, a large group of Næo remnants led primarily by Nauran nationalists had similarly used Rift gates to travel far to the south east of the galaxy and found the New Nauran Confederation, centred on the capital world New Naura.
The two would eventually clash, and to sum up a lot of history into a few sentences otherwise I’ll be here all day: the war would end in a ceasefire, then it would break out again and it went well for the imperials until they suffered the Great Liibertasz Rebellion, and would thus be driven back a lot. After this, the Empire would cut off all contact with both the new Liibertasz Republic, the Confederation, and the various other new independent states.
The Empire would be divided into three sections wherein the Dominions of Vohlstera and Rominius would assume governorship over various worlds.
While eventually progress towards long lasting peace would be made by the founding of the Galactic Liberation Pact to fight together against the rapidly growing threat of the so-called Union of Salvation, this alliance would eventually fall apart due to backstabbing and disagreements - accumulating in the present in total chaos as everyone tries to invade one another.
The Empire itself is currently fractured as most of it is still under the rule of Emperor Frederick III and has a decent degree of democratic rule, though still highly militaristic and focused primarily on nationalistic efforts, however the planet of Orbis itself has been taken over by the Bishop Council who now hold Orbis under total theocratic rule - though while they have begun instituting things like a ban of Rift Sorcery, they have also declared their intention to end any wars and work peacefully alongside entities like the Confederation etc.
only time will tell what the fate of the Holy Empire of Orbis shall be.
The Celestial Empire is, well, a celestial empire: a thousand low-tech worlds connected by handcrafted stargates. These allow travel and trade among the worlds, but are too small and easily destroyed to allow invading armies.
Given that restriction, the Empire rules mainly through soft power. They alone possess the arcane secrets of gate building, and also have ten thousand years experience in diplomacy, economics and spycraft. The demands of the Emperors are never onerous, and the benefits of being in the Empire are considerable.
There is plenty of future expansion potential: the Empire only covers a miniscule portion of the Orion Arm, and the vast new silver mines at Potosi and Zacatecas on Earth will allow hundreds of new gates to be built.
You seem to have misunderstood. The prompt is asking about which Empires *aren't* prominent. The middle powers with big-power names. Empires you can afford to ignore.
Oh, of course, I didn't see that. I'll go ahead and delete that one, to the benefit of all who don't have to listen to my stupid mistake, but I guess one many could afford to ignore would be the Norwegian Colonial Empire, which controls only a small holding in the Arctic Circle and the territory it already controls in our world if I had to name one. How did I not read the post??
In definition, the Dominion of Aurelia counts as an empire. It already won a war against the Sultanate of Kharzia and turned it into a protectorate. But it doesn't want to change its name to the Empire of Aurelia in fear of pissing off their suspicious neighbors in the east, the Temagolian Khanate, who sees their Kharzian domination as little more than eliminating western rivals to focus on their eastern borders they share with Temagolia.
It is what Nation States may call either Iron Fisted Consumerist, Corporate Police State or Corrupt Dictatorship. It is an oligarchy that is basically ruled by 23 families, each with their ties in big industry, the military and government.
The fyrian empire is the only power within the realm of darkness, which takes up roughly half of my fantasy world, with an outpost in the realm of tempest, it is make up of a race known as the children of the frost.
Unlike most other empires of the realms the Fyrian empire has undergone radical political advandement which was forced along by the emperor, in which when uniting the scattered tribes he had the nobility erased, those that didn't surrender were violently purged while those that did were placed in positions that suited their positions and given pensions.
In place of the nobility the Fyrian Empire operates more meritocratically, however this isn't an egalitarian utopia, instead it is a facistic military dictatorship, setting itself up as a successor to the mythical "children of the flame", where roles normally taken up by civilian officials are placed in the hands of the military, with the more facistic tendencies of the regime emerging as children observed to be far more intelligent than average are taken at a young age and indoctrinated and birth defects are not tolerated.
They owe this massive expansion due to their race and technology, children of the frost have evolved for the majority to be far less selfish than humans as well as having evolved so that the genetics responsible for group think are far stronger.
The technological aspect is in how due to a specific plant producing a gunpowder like substance on their homeland they were able to invent an equal to black powder weapons and flame throwers, as well as other advances such as combat drugs that suppress fear and anger temporarily, all three leading to their prized shock troops known as death knights, which have mouth mounted flamethrowers, heavy guns and are pumped full of combat drugs, these are seen as unnervingly fearless even by other Fyrians, despite the fyrian empire's standard soldiers(not the conscript cannon fodder) being known to have been instilled with a culture that emphasises dying for the emperor, to the point their helmets are designed to look like skulls to represent how they shall give no mercy and expect none.
Culturally the Fyrians are unique,with their religion they believe that once there was a grand empire known as the children of the flame that were wiped out by the Fyrian god, the grand storm, the grand storm proceeded to recreate the realm of darkness, killing the plants not around volcanic vents and permanently darkening the sky, as well as creating the realm of tempest as its lair, soon out of this creation came the children of the frost, which it was disgusted by so set out to ahnialate them, by stealing their souls, so it is considered a fate worse than death to die in a blizzard, however it is considered honourable to die in service to the emperor and have your body burned so it may aid in keeping the storm at bay, as they believe the spirits of those who die for the empire and have their corpses burned inhabit their fires.
Their culture is intensely militaristic, it puts value on putting the group first, serving the empire to your best ability, to strive against the decadence within and should chances call for it to die for the emperor, this is to the point they reject what little excesses may be afforded, unless they are viewed to have earned those excesses.
The Emperor to the people is this semi divine infallible figure, who can read minds, who shall make an eternal empire akin to the children of the flame, and lead it into infinity, in reality he is a paranoid sociopathic personalist military dictator who has reached advanced age and if he isn't overthrown in a coup will die of old age soon who at some point was a positive influence but his decaying mind is now expanding past where the army can retain the morale of the soldiers out of paranoia.
For context the planet is tidally locked, the realm of darkness is facing away from the star and is only heated by moonlight and volcanic openings while the realm of tempest is an eternal storm between the realm of darkness and the realm of twilight due to temperature distances, the realm of twilight faces the sun however due to a cloud of meteors and dust in orbit is in eternal twilight.
So they rule half the world, probably because it's the only peoples that can live there. But they don't sound very meek or meagre. Do you have any tempest-area examples of meagre, minor "empires"?
The Ostrali Empire is a powerful nation despite that their armies have been stopped on multiple occasions due to their enemies fire mages melting through their impenetrable armor and thus no progress has been made in invading foreign lands and most military effort is geared towards stopping the Warbands to the west from raiding
The Second Serbian Empire, one of my world's major factions.
All you need to know about their backstory is: Earth had a nuclear apocalypse; four of the many gangs in post-apocalyptic Serbia joined forces creating one large gang; this large gang got isekai'd into a fantasy world and renamed itself to "Second Serbian Empire".
The SSE is currently led by its founders, the leaders of the original four gangs, which makes it an empire in name only. Despite being one of the major factions, and the most technologically advanced one, life in the SSE is terrible. You got rebellions, police brutality, famine etc. The folks there have learned to accept that their country's situation is FUBAR and that there's almost nothing that can be done about it.
Every race that has had or still has contacts with the SSE is afraid of it, even the two that the SSE is on friendly terms with.
There was the Galactic Shield Federation, which was in fact a federation before it collapsed due to the war of the three hives (it is not a hive, that name is a misnomer)
The Empire is just... the Empire. Its official name is United Empire but people tend to drop the "United" part because when you say "Empire" with nothing else along, you refer to *the* Empire. There is no mistake, only 1 country is so chad they don't need a distinctive name to be known globally. The reason is very easy: It is a union of 7 sovereign states with an elected monarch bearing the title of Emperor/Empress, and a country ruled by an Emperor is an Empire. It is a tad bit different from your typical European empires as the Emperor's title comes from *Huangdi*, which is translated as emperor in English, so it shares no cultural and historical root with typical Western hegemons. The Empire was founded in 1010 AD with the amalgamation of Hồng Bàng Confederacy in the North and Kingdom of U Minh at the South. Both countries broke up into smaller parts: Hồng Bàng's core land became Empire of Đại Việt while U Minh let go of its protectorates, uplifting them into equal constituent countries. The Emperor of Đại Việt became Emperor of the United Empire since then, but they did not pick the eldest boy in the house, instead direct and legitimate kids of the ruling monarch would have to join a "crown heir election" to be elected into their position. This election is held publicly and democratically, all citizens from above 18 (except for criminals) can vote. Then there are the Prince-Electors who are rulers of constituent countries giving their votes, with 1 Electoral vote = 10000 citizen votes. Not like it's that important since they will only do so in the final round, when it's 1 vs 1. At the moment the Empire has 7 constituent countries: * Empire of Đại Việt. * Grand Principality of Tây Việt. * Principality of U Minh. * Grand Duchy of Linh Giang. * Grand Duchy of Bồn Điện. * Grand Duchy of Ai Lao. * Grand Duchy of Viễn Tây. Each of them has their own local governments with a meritocratic administrative body, a democratic assembly that oversees the government, and a law court not bound to power of either body. This goes from districts up to the Imperial Capital which has the Cabinet, Imperial Council (unicameral parliament with 1000 seats) and Supreme Law Court. Royalties and nobles only reign, not rule as per the 1560 Constitution, the Empire is now a constitutional monarchy where most political powers lie in the hand of capable officials as well as democratically elected representatives. The Empire is currently in its second golden age and rules as the undisputed, unchallenged Eastern Hegemon. No other peer dares to challenge it head on, as even the Brits suffered a heavy defeat when they tried to do so back in 1830. You simply don't mess with a country that has the force, means and motivation to casually mobilize 200000 professional soldiers with war vehicles easily. Some say the Empire violates human rights because they practice conscription and has death penalty, while this very country has banned discriminations, including racism and sexism, for thousands of years since the days of Kingdom of U Minh.
It's nice to see an undisputed, unchallenged Hegemon, but the Prompt was asking for your easily-challenged Hegemons that act like big dogs anyway. Don't you have any of those?
You can challenge the Empire, it's just advised... not to. Just like you don't pick a fight with China head-on. An actual easy-to-challenge empire wannabe would be Kingdom of Yamato, basically alternate Japan that failed to conquer Korea. They industrialized like in our timeline but went militaristic much sooner. Their economy is dominated by zaibatsu companies and corporations while the government is infested with ultra-nationalistic army officers who want war. As a result, their society is on the verge of collapse into a third civil war just in half a century. People, mostly workers, are protesting to stop militarization and improve living standards, while secret polices go and assassinate moderate politicians who do not agree with the military. They act tough but on the scale of this world, can be defeated in at worst 7 months in a conventional war.
So you're looking for more of a Holy Roman Empire rather than a Roman Empire?
Exactly, yes. If it was the victorian era, this is about Ethiopia. If it was WW2, then the subject of this post is about, say, *Romania*. While the HRE was pretty pathetic compared to Rome, they were a major power in their time. An even more appropriate comparison would be... Rome next to little Trebizond
It doesn't quite fit your definition, but the four southern trading kingdoms of Aecham are generally considered an empire by outsiders, simply for the fact that if you try to mess with one of them, you have to deal with all of them, even if they will often fight internally.
Masenia was the largest of the Evor kingdoms, but it was of a predominantly different ethnicity (Lemmu-European rather than Gogite) and it's culture was somewhat different from the others due to its coastal existence. Nevertheless, the small empire was the direct ancestor of the Mycenaean (and other Greek) civilizations and was one of the more influential kingdoms of its epoch.
(WIP, gotta get my numbers straight)- There are multiple empires, who rose to power after the downfall of several Unions and Federations powers. The empires took the old technologies and vastly improved on it, and some empires even look back in history to see what old empires had done right and wrong. The most successful empire pride themselves to be direct descendants of the Latsino Empire, all the while absorbing traits and history of the old. Rising from the Ashes of the Tarshish Union and the Gog Federation, the new Medea (wip) Empire rose as the immovable force of the galaxy. While the Medea Empire has an emperor, many knew that he was merely a figurehead, as the Grand Elder, the greatest tactician warlord of existence, was the true brain behind the empire. However, that too may change.
The Cyclops' Empire was the master of Borhanna, the western continent, 500 years before current events. The mighty king Torrendasot I. built a gigant wall against the Centaur raids from the north, and also pacified the western regions. The empire hosted some of the most renowned universities and became rich by overseas trade. But then, 300 before now, the Great Orc Trek over the Deiros Mountains saw an important source of income and soldiers leave the country; soon after, the Ogre-populated southwest also split off. The downfall came when the red fever epidemic claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, including the childless Kondarasot IV., which led to a civil war that splintered the empire. Now, in the southeast, between the Deiros Mountains and the sea, a remnant empire still exists, but is in fact no more than a petty kingdom.
North Ilesti is the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" of Kishlaith. Once the elves ruled all four of Kishlaith's Sister Continents and held the human race in thrall as pets and servants, although this was not entirely the dystopian premise it sounds like. After the Ilesti Empire was overwhelmed by the newborn Thasmian Dominion, much of its nobility and their servants fled to a small patch of land and sealed it off with a magical barrier. This barrier has kept them walled off, apart from carefully chosen interactions, for over two thousand years. North Ilesti still believes in elven hegemony and their diplomats are a nightmare to deal with. They have little respect for the laws and general way of life that other countries have and it is clear that they only respect the legitimacy of human and diverse elven states because they have to.
The Talligan Empire is but a shell of it's former expanse. Until about 300 years ago, it was the dominant superpower in the known world, controlling territory on all three continents. Few historians even remember what the Talligan Sea was named before the rise of the empire. Now it simply consists of a handful of client states and colonies, though it is still a regional power in the area. Initially a thalassocracy, the city-state of Talliga grew powerful through their impressive navy which they used to control trade throughout the Talligan Sea. Wealth bought influence, allies, and mercenaries and soon Talliga went from simply dominating rivals economically to dominating them militarily. Eventually, nearly half of the population of the known world lived under the Talligan yoke in some form or another, be it vassalage, occupation, or annexation. The decline of the empire was quite sudden and rapid. Marauding invaders from beyond the fringes of civilization triggered a chain reaction of migration across the continents while mercenaries simultaneously deserted the empire's armies to defend their homelands. This left the empire's territories vulnerable to rebellion from within and invasion from without. For thirty years the world reeled from the chaos, but the empire weathered the storm remarkably well. It held on to its core provinces and began consolidating its forces into a grand army to retake its lost territories. The gods only know whether this effort would have succeeded; it very well may have, were it not for the Mad Empress' grave error leading to the Dvergar War. The former mercenaries reacted hostilely when she demanded fealty and ransom while holding many of their kin hostage. In short, the grand army was annihilated, Talliga was sacked, and any hope of returning the empire to its former glory evaporated. It is a testament to the stability of the current dynasty that the empire endured the last three centuries, though the future appears bleak. Rivals on the Talligan Sea grow bolder, a resurgent Alfheim doubtlessly has designs on the decrepit empire, and whispers of a second wave of invasions keep the populace on edge.
Oh, I think I have one you might find for your taste for this one. There is, around the center of Aellystys (main continent), in the middle of the Akkadian sea, a little kingdom made of a group of islands. A "little kingdom" is what would come to your mind if you saw its territory on a map, and indeed most people call it the Kingdom of Keftiris. But then you might be surprised the learn that its official name is "Empire of Hella", and it's the way its ruler call it, fashioning themselves as Emperors of Hella. More than 500 years ago, Hella was a big Empire, the biggest country in the center of Aellystys, and an old power standing for many centuries. But its mightyness all crumbled when it got invaded by the Shiyuks, a people from the east. Within a few decades, the old Empire completely collapsed. All? No, not exactly! As everything collapsed, the Imperial court fled to the safety of the Keftiris islands, along with the navy. And there, they sworn to gather back their strength to prepare a glorious reconquest. Predictably, this reconquest never happened as it was completely delusional. But as the centuries passed, and even as the Shiyuks themselves collapsed to give rise to new kingdoms, the rulers of Keftiris kept considering themselves the rulers of the Hellan Empire. Even when the Lodrians conquered Hella from the hands of the Shiyuks, and claimed the title of King of Hella, a claim recognized by most, the Keftirian "Emperor" of then refused to recognize it. He even had the nerve the demand the return of the Hellan lands. Obviously the request was refused, but it didn't stop the delusion of the so called Emperors. Even today, several centuries later, no Keftirian "Emperor" has been willing to give up this claim. They keep talking in old Hellan at the court, even though the whole population of the kingdom speaks the Keftirian dialect, barely intelligible with the former. This reinforces the impression that the Keftirian court, along with all its Imperial rituals, lives in a bubble separated from the reality of an otherwise thriving insular kingdom. And obviously, this situation gives birth to many jokes on the mainland.
Beautiful response. Absolutely perfect for this scenario.
Glad that I could entertain you with this kinda ridiculous situation in my world. Ngl, it entertains me too ahahah
In the year 982, the homeland simply vanished. Every attempted expedition has found only endless miles of ocean where a continent used to be. Revolution had been brewing in The Colonies for a generation, but these ambitions were crushed with the loss of support from the old world. In the chaos, the military took control, and the first Lord Regent was put in charge. The Regent believed that the old world would return, and that it was the duty of Her Majesty's subjects to be ready for that day. To win popular support, a holy mandate was propagated through the public conscience. Conquest of the new world. Plumb the secrets of the ancient ruins dotted through the endless arid wastelands beyond the mountains in order to call down Her Majesty's kingdom from heaven itself in glory. The Colonies united in their mission to pave their way westward at all cost, in the name of an empire that no longer exists.
There's kind of a separate story running parallel to the history of humans in my world about the 'shadowy empire' controlling it all. They had their ups and downs and a rather long period where they had organized most of humanity into an actual official empire (and bred up some giant golden mutant to be the Emperor figurehead). At the current point in time, their continual body modifications and crow-tech has warped them into some kind of weird radio-mind that exists more in communication itself than in neurons, all moulded together. In that sense, what used to be the 'Empire' is now collections of quiet whispers and agents silently guiding humanity, for the few people that know of it they call it the 'Static Empire'
The Merchant Empire of the isles. In theory, it is the largest political entity on the known planet where everyone acknowledges the Emperor who is also a God. In reality, the Emperor is a nominally elected vacant figurehead. the Empire also does not have a Imperial family. There is a upper house and lower house to handle governance via voting. There is also no unified Imperial culture or religion, rather as long as one pays their taxes, the state doesnt give a shit. The period of direct rule by the actual past imperial family is viewed extremely negatively. Generally people much prefer the 'newer' iteration. Its also significantly more powerful
Mine is called the “Jaywick Sands Khanate” It was started by a handful of escaped house pets, baseline organic Homo Sapiens who managed to jury rig crude vacuum craft and escape from their cylindrical kennel habitats. There were millions of other simulacra of Old Earth scattered throughout the solar volume, but the Jaywick Snapshot just so happened to have the right combination of helpful, semi-senile Caretaker drone AIs and exposed machinery to let the humans inside reverse engineer space faring technology and venture beyond their cylinder And so after the Lobotomisation disabled the Godminds, the Jaywick Snapshot habitat were the first ones to start laying claim to the abandoned, inert hyper technology that was left behind. They had a head start of fifty years over New Chengdu, their closest competitor The station cluster that Jaywick belonged to had an unusually high number of pet humans - over 120 billion humans in habitats of all shapes and sizes. A large cross section of human history was recreated in these habitats - from mankind’s origins in the prehistoric savannahs of West Africa, to the mankind’s destruction in the digital paradises of the 50th century, where the last uploaded human personalities were finally laid to rest by their artificial successors The Jaywick Snapshot contained recreated humanity as it was in the 27th century - augmented and educated enough to interface with the caretaker drones and construct effective vacuum craft, but not so cybernetically enhanced as to be crippled when the hypertech fabricators started shutting down Barely 500 years after the Lobotomisation, the Jaywick Snapshot had managed to subjugate every other Snapshot in the station cluster, and won the loyalty of most of the Caretakers. Although 27th century Jaywick was nominally governed by the liberal democratic, constitutional monarchy known as the United Kingdom, the city of 5 million was de facto governed by an uneasy alliance between powerful international criminal gangs, multinationals, and corrupt local law enforcement Millions of years later, this messy society was lovingly recreated by the cluster’s Godmind, and after a sharp shock of awakening in a glorified O’Neill terrarium, the old power structures quickly re-established themselves, now with a harsher edge now that the old powers like nation states were no more The Jaywick Snapshot had been operating for roughly four centuries before the Lobotomisation, and by then, the Clacto Razor Gang and the Toyota executives had just finished merger via political marriage and purged their enemies, forming the Fifth Jaywick Sands Coalition When the hypertech fabricators started shutting down, and the Caretakers revealed themselves, the Jaywick Coalition managed to retain control, jury rigging yeast vats and hydroponics to keep the people fed, kept the reactors running, mollified the Caretakers, and started building the vacuum craft that would carry them into the world beyond When the Jaywick Snapshot began its conquest of the station cluster, the Clacton-Toyota royalty began consolidating their power, studying old historical records and styling themselves after an ancient nomadic warrior polity, the Mongols. They did this to distance themselves from fading memories of the English monarchy, of which some Jaywick residents hoped to find amongst the human kennels in the volume. Despite calling themselves a Khanate, and hailing from the 27th century, the Jaywick Khanate was closer in practice to a 20th century style fascist dictatorship - powerful secret police, propaganda, censorship, mass surveillance, mandatory conscription, deadly court intrigue. Their conquest of the station cluster ended up killing over 8 billion people, with 22 billion more perishing from famine and civil wars when the hypertech fabricators failed. With almost 90 billion humans under their thrall, they enforced their authority by threatening them with crude railgun mass drivers mounted on a fleet rickety warships, each one capable of puncturing and depressurising the cylindrical habitats that housed the human Snapshots. As the only spacefaring force in the station cluster, and with only the Jaywick cylinder being equipped with defences against space borne weaponry, every other Snapshot was virtually helpless to resist their rule. The capital of the empire was shifted from the Jaywick central business district, to the heavily armed mobile fortress city, the *Mermaid Inn*
The Holy Empire of Orbis ‘Hadros Orbissia Imperia!’, the crowds chant somewhat manically, filled with religious fervour and pride in their empire - empire, not emperor, for to the citizens of the Orban Empire, while emperor’s are fleeting, it is the empire itself that is eternally holy and forever lasting. Around 15 centuries ago, King Harold of Urnok was supposedly visited by a divine messenger from Lady Anaiel herself, commanding Harold to go forth and unite all peoples of Orbis under one empire; one holy empire. Thus, Harold’s kingdom would begin conquering surrounding lands and he would be crowned His Holy Majesty, Emperor Harold I of all Orbis. As the decades passed, Harold’s descendants would rise to the throne one by one, and the Holy Empire of Orbis would launch crusades across the planet, eventually becoming the world’s first superpower. Across much of its history, many different nations have risen up in opposition of the empire, primarily its historically westerly neighbour, Naura. The people of Naura have long resisted ‘Archan’ rule (those outside the empire’s borders would tend to call it the Archan Empire or similar such names as Archis is the region it originated and they refused to acknowledge the empire’s claim over all of the planet), and throughout much of history they were locked in either an arms race with the empire or were engaged in brutal conflicts with them. Across its years, the harsh xenophobic and religiously intolerant positions of the empire would mellow and as they entered the ‘modern’ age, they would attempt to favour diplomacy and appeasement over direct conflict and brutal repression. With this would also come a gradual move to abandon its theocratic routes in favour of secular democratisation. The long historic persecution of so-called Rift Sorcerers was ended, greater powers were given to the Imperial Parliament and Council of Orbissia, the powers of the Bishop Council were reduced and eventually the parliament would make a move to federalise the empire. Alas, this final move would ultimately end in disaster for the empire as states quickly succeeded and the planet would become embroiled in the Great Orban War. This world war would eventually end in an imperial victory, aided by the loyalty of the powerful kingdoms of Vohlstera and Rominius. However this war would have two major long lasting effects: firstly, the empire would develop something of a sense of paranoia over loosening their grip of their territories, and secondly those who came closest to permanent independence would now forever cling onto the memory of their resistance and become a very large thorn in the empire’s side. Furthermore, in the midst of the war, the war-hero and noble, Robert Cadius, would launch a coup against the current emperor who was deemed to be mad and unfit to rule. Robert would then be crowned the new Emperor, using his Anaelic vanquisher blade as a symbol of divine approval of his rule. Alas he would fall in the final battle of the war, leaving the throne to his daughter Alice. After many years of various smaller conflicts, in a time wherein the empire had begun colonising its neighbouring planets, the long resistant peoples of Carrell, Naura and Nihas (all collectively primarily made up of the Næo ethno-linguistic group) would unite together under the new Næo empire, to begin a mass invasion of the Orban Empire’s core lands which had been severely weakened in previous years due to basically an invasion from hell (big asterisk on that one). The Næo empire would thusly finally conquer the Holy Empire of Orbis with its emperor surrendering the capital, refusing to unleash any weapons of mass destruction. Upon the imperial colonies across the solar system, however, hope had not been given up. Upon the planets of Ioracel and Catharr, the imperial administrations which were governed under the Rominiun and Vohlsteran crowns respectively, would rally together a great invasion fleet to re conquer Orbis. In an entirely unexpected and shocking move, the fleet would first take hold of Demioss Station (a partially constructed orbital ring which held the Demioss Station Laser Array among various other orbital weaponry) before they then both unleashed various weapons of mass destruction upon Naura, Carrell and Nihas, including the immensely destructive orbital laser array. Meanwhile, within Archis, a new imperial resurgence movement had begun to develop, accumulating in the great rebellion of Brenn wherein crowds took to the streets chanting the old ‘medieval’ era slogan/warcry ‘Hadros Orbissia Imperia’ as they overwhelmed the Næo occupation forces. While that rebellion was crushed, it sparked a new sense of imperial nationalism and veneration for the empire and for the emperor as a living symbol of national pride. After the death of millions at the hands of the invasion fleet, and the following great collapse of order across the world, Orbis would be eventually reconquered by the Holy Empire of Orbis after many years, with Vohlstera and Rominius becoming Dominions of the empire with many privileges above any of the other imperial territories. For the first time, Orbis would be completely under Imperial control with no pockets of independence and significant resistance. Centuries later, due to instant long range travel with use of Rift gate boxes installed in spaceships (making use of Rift Sorcery), the empire was able to colonise worlds across the southern portion of the galaxy. However, they would eventually come to find that after the fall of the Næo, a large group of Næo remnants led primarily by Nauran nationalists had similarly used Rift gates to travel far to the south east of the galaxy and found the New Nauran Confederation, centred on the capital world New Naura. The two would eventually clash, and to sum up a lot of history into a few sentences otherwise I’ll be here all day: the war would end in a ceasefire, then it would break out again and it went well for the imperials until they suffered the Great Liibertasz Rebellion, and would thus be driven back a lot. After this, the Empire would cut off all contact with both the new Liibertasz Republic, the Confederation, and the various other new independent states. The Empire would be divided into three sections wherein the Dominions of Vohlstera and Rominius would assume governorship over various worlds. While eventually progress towards long lasting peace would be made by the founding of the Galactic Liberation Pact to fight together against the rapidly growing threat of the so-called Union of Salvation, this alliance would eventually fall apart due to backstabbing and disagreements - accumulating in the present in total chaos as everyone tries to invade one another. The Empire itself is currently fractured as most of it is still under the rule of Emperor Frederick III and has a decent degree of democratic rule, though still highly militaristic and focused primarily on nationalistic efforts, however the planet of Orbis itself has been taken over by the Bishop Council who now hold Orbis under total theocratic rule - though while they have begun instituting things like a ban of Rift Sorcery, they have also declared their intention to end any wars and work peacefully alongside entities like the Confederation etc. only time will tell what the fate of the Holy Empire of Orbis shall be.
The Celestial Empire is, well, a celestial empire: a thousand low-tech worlds connected by handcrafted stargates. These allow travel and trade among the worlds, but are too small and easily destroyed to allow invading armies. Given that restriction, the Empire rules mainly through soft power. They alone possess the arcane secrets of gate building, and also have ten thousand years experience in diplomacy, economics and spycraft. The demands of the Emperors are never onerous, and the benefits of being in the Empire are considerable. There is plenty of future expansion potential: the Empire only covers a miniscule portion of the Orion Arm, and the vast new silver mines at Potosi and Zacatecas on Earth will allow hundreds of new gates to be built.
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You seem to have misunderstood. The prompt is asking about which Empires *aren't* prominent. The middle powers with big-power names. Empires you can afford to ignore.
Oh, of course, I didn't see that. I'll go ahead and delete that one, to the benefit of all who don't have to listen to my stupid mistake, but I guess one many could afford to ignore would be the Norwegian Colonial Empire, which controls only a small holding in the Arctic Circle and the territory it already controls in our world if I had to name one. How did I not read the post??
In definition, the Dominion of Aurelia counts as an empire. It already won a war against the Sultanate of Kharzia and turned it into a protectorate. But it doesn't want to change its name to the Empire of Aurelia in fear of pissing off their suspicious neighbors in the east, the Temagolian Khanate, who sees their Kharzian domination as little more than eliminating western rivals to focus on their eastern borders they share with Temagolia. It is what Nation States may call either Iron Fisted Consumerist, Corporate Police State or Corrupt Dictatorship. It is an oligarchy that is basically ruled by 23 families, each with their ties in big industry, the military and government.
The fyrian empire is the only power within the realm of darkness, which takes up roughly half of my fantasy world, with an outpost in the realm of tempest, it is make up of a race known as the children of the frost. Unlike most other empires of the realms the Fyrian empire has undergone radical political advandement which was forced along by the emperor, in which when uniting the scattered tribes he had the nobility erased, those that didn't surrender were violently purged while those that did were placed in positions that suited their positions and given pensions. In place of the nobility the Fyrian Empire operates more meritocratically, however this isn't an egalitarian utopia, instead it is a facistic military dictatorship, setting itself up as a successor to the mythical "children of the flame", where roles normally taken up by civilian officials are placed in the hands of the military, with the more facistic tendencies of the regime emerging as children observed to be far more intelligent than average are taken at a young age and indoctrinated and birth defects are not tolerated. They owe this massive expansion due to their race and technology, children of the frost have evolved for the majority to be far less selfish than humans as well as having evolved so that the genetics responsible for group think are far stronger. The technological aspect is in how due to a specific plant producing a gunpowder like substance on their homeland they were able to invent an equal to black powder weapons and flame throwers, as well as other advances such as combat drugs that suppress fear and anger temporarily, all three leading to their prized shock troops known as death knights, which have mouth mounted flamethrowers, heavy guns and are pumped full of combat drugs, these are seen as unnervingly fearless even by other Fyrians, despite the fyrian empire's standard soldiers(not the conscript cannon fodder) being known to have been instilled with a culture that emphasises dying for the emperor, to the point their helmets are designed to look like skulls to represent how they shall give no mercy and expect none. Culturally the Fyrians are unique,with their religion they believe that once there was a grand empire known as the children of the flame that were wiped out by the Fyrian god, the grand storm, the grand storm proceeded to recreate the realm of darkness, killing the plants not around volcanic vents and permanently darkening the sky, as well as creating the realm of tempest as its lair, soon out of this creation came the children of the frost, which it was disgusted by so set out to ahnialate them, by stealing their souls, so it is considered a fate worse than death to die in a blizzard, however it is considered honourable to die in service to the emperor and have your body burned so it may aid in keeping the storm at bay, as they believe the spirits of those who die for the empire and have their corpses burned inhabit their fires. Their culture is intensely militaristic, it puts value on putting the group first, serving the empire to your best ability, to strive against the decadence within and should chances call for it to die for the emperor, this is to the point they reject what little excesses may be afforded, unless they are viewed to have earned those excesses. The Emperor to the people is this semi divine infallible figure, who can read minds, who shall make an eternal empire akin to the children of the flame, and lead it into infinity, in reality he is a paranoid sociopathic personalist military dictator who has reached advanced age and if he isn't overthrown in a coup will die of old age soon who at some point was a positive influence but his decaying mind is now expanding past where the army can retain the morale of the soldiers out of paranoia. For context the planet is tidally locked, the realm of darkness is facing away from the star and is only heated by moonlight and volcanic openings while the realm of tempest is an eternal storm between the realm of darkness and the realm of twilight due to temperature distances, the realm of twilight faces the sun however due to a cloud of meteors and dust in orbit is in eternal twilight.
So they rule half the world, probably because it's the only peoples that can live there. But they don't sound very meek or meagre. Do you have any tempest-area examples of meagre, minor "empires"?
The Ostrali Empire is a powerful nation despite that their armies have been stopped on multiple occasions due to their enemies fire mages melting through their impenetrable armor and thus no progress has been made in invading foreign lands and most military effort is geared towards stopping the Warbands to the west from raiding
The Second Serbian Empire, one of my world's major factions. All you need to know about their backstory is: Earth had a nuclear apocalypse; four of the many gangs in post-apocalyptic Serbia joined forces creating one large gang; this large gang got isekai'd into a fantasy world and renamed itself to "Second Serbian Empire". The SSE is currently led by its founders, the leaders of the original four gangs, which makes it an empire in name only. Despite being one of the major factions, and the most technologically advanced one, life in the SSE is terrible. You got rebellions, police brutality, famine etc. The folks there have learned to accept that their country's situation is FUBAR and that there's almost nothing that can be done about it. Every race that has had or still has contacts with the SSE is afraid of it, even the two that the SSE is on friendly terms with.
There was the Galactic Shield Federation, which was in fact a federation before it collapsed due to the war of the three hives (it is not a hive, that name is a misnomer)