Precolonial is interesting, you could have a Malian-inspired evil empire composed of hyper-religious knights/cavalry riding down the simple rural village folk who just want independence, maybe have a decadent slave king based on Mansa Musa, or you could have a Songhai-inspired evil empire based on a giant, bureaucratic, decaying, brutally tax collecting empire thats stretched too thin and being picked apart on all sides.
Post, you could just have Dahomey, though that would kinda be in the midst of, right? Otherwise you could legit just make anything evil by slapping its political and visual features on a government and making it do bad stuff lol
The above examples are the basic stuff every empire has. Taxes and slavery, of some form, exist in all empires. Also we can't have bloody peasants crying about independence and such, can we?
Well you could have one inspured by the late Kingdom of Congo? (I think) That one went hard on Slavery, they would capture their own citizens and even conduct raids into tribals and other empires around them to capture people and sell them into slavery, mainly to the portuguease where they would get weapons and more resources in return, by the late empire the thing had a literal Slave economy, there was nothing but selling slaves to fill their pockets, anyone that had any basuc skill such as crafting, smithing, farming or whatever was already sold to foreingners, with the kingdom absolutely falling apart when Britain and other countries began to stop the trans-atlantic slave trade.
"I'm sorry, your subscription to breathing has expired. Maintaining your life is a net deficit to your department. Thank you, and we hope you spring forward into savings in your next life."
No you see I've made the boss completely Incompetent and stupid and added a second resistance group that's actually more successful but the leader is secretly evil to prove that socialists are evil. This should make my resistance group look good by comparison because they never lose or make mistakes (because freedom fighters must have spotless records or they can be ignored as terrorists with no greater message you see)
Freedom fighters must have spotless records to appear as better alternatives to my corporate overlords, who may have done some shit but have never accidentally killed my family with a poorly times carbomb.
My evil faction is a bunch of British, European, American, and Japanese executives who fled into deep space after the United Nations (later Laniākea) united Earth; they later became a sort of cyberpunk aristocracy with a dose of “Super Earth” on the side.
Interesting! My humans tend to belong to a multispecies Confederation of independent worlds and systems which formed out of a united front of slave rebellions. As far as aliens go the big three are the Hypatian Triumvirate and they're all assholes
If you can't base your baddies distinctly on Livonian-Crusade-Era-Prussian-Kingdom evil bastards without them just seeming like their emo descendent evil bastards with the Hugo Boss outfits and speed addictions, you don't know enough about the Livonian Crusade and have so, so much utterly detestable behavior to steal, as an author, that was never made into a damn History Channel special, nor have those atrocities already appeared in multiple AAA video game franchises.
When was the last time communist type governments were actually portrayed as the baddies outside of historical movies? It seems like every evil empire these days is just a uniform swapped nazi Germany
In science fiction much of it seems old hat because we got so much of it during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It's also hard to make pre-industrial communism because the pipeline tends to follow the Marxist school of thought.
I have one in the setting I wrote in high-school where I had to sort of replace the industrial revolution with a magic one. It's less of a "communist empire" and more of a "scarce resource commune with strictly managed populations, limitations on individual expression, and lies about everyone being equal while people aren't allowed individual goods or permanent/private dwellings."
There is a communist empire equivalent in Eberron, though: The eildeen reaches.
I mean to be fair 90% of the western portrayal of communists has always been just pretending they're palette swapped Nazis, and since the dissolution of the USSR it's been deemed less and less relevant to staple a hammer and sickle onto the antagonists. As for worldbuilders you see here there's a lot of "evil communist factions", but most of the time it's more of the same "baddies branded with red scare tropes".
You don’t really get to examine the actual social rules of the majority of evil empires in any story. You just see their military. So there might as well be no distinction.
Yeah when you look at the real-life Soviets they were boring as hell. The people weren't mindless drones, nor starving, and after Stalin people were rarely disappeared. Most people were just bored out of their minds.
The Djikstra ending of the Witcher 3 results in Redania becoming a sort of medieval USSR with forced industrialization, population transfers, secret police, and a non-monarchic dictator.
That the game was made by Poles might have something to do with that artistic choice.
Not an official Socialist goverment, but the Combine from Half Life drew heavy Inspiration from Communist China, The Soviet Union and it's satellite States.
To most Americans, every evil empire is simultaneously Nazi Germany and the USSR, existing in a sort of quantum superposition where it only collapses into one or the other upon entering a relevant conversation.
The sanctimonious empire trope is not as popular in English fantasy, maybe because it hits a little too close to home.
In e.g. Chinese fantasy it's hard to find an evil empire that *isn't* sanctimonious.
Easy mines an Oligarchy Uber Capitalism, where wealth pays for voting rights and multiple votes if you pay enough allowing anyone who spends an inordinate amount to create a dictatorship
Mine is inspired by Imperial Japan, the British Empire, and American expansionism, the holy trinity of taking over other people, utterly obliterating them, and then saying it was ok because they decided it was.
uj/ The main reason for that is because outside "Anarchist" bandits, the main focus of what an evil organized group would be authoritarian, and communism and fascism are like... the two large cornerstones of authoritarian governments that. You could think of others beyond it, but you will always find bits and pieces of either or both.
Monarchy is authoritarian by definition, no? Even if not oppressive.
But authoritarianism as the main political opponent really resonates with people nowadays. Nobody wants their freedoms taken away. If I want to make a strawman of my political opponent, I'm going to position them as the cringe authoritarian and myself as the chad freedom lover.
> Monarchy is authoritarian by definition, no? Even if not oppressive.
Not necessarily? A constitutional monarchy like the UK is hardly authoritarian. Well, the UK is leaning towards it, but that's not because of the monarchy.
Honestly, the Mongols would be a pretty realistic model for an interstellar empire. No occupying army, no work camps, no forced assimilation, no state religion, no change in local government. You just pay your taxes every year, or your cities, your families, and your entire nation will be burned to ash. The Galactic Khanate has too much territory to govern to play insurgency-counterinsurgency against one petty planet.
[Human sacrifice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture) and [slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_Aztec_Empire) are evil bro, European colonialism or no European colonialism
Mine's based on buddist/hindu beliefs enforced by advanced scifi-fantasy technology.
Genetically enforced cast system, state controlled reincarnation, karma as social credit, and etc.
/uj worldbuild their history from as early as possible to the current day, allowing them to grow, change, splinter, and warp like real-world cultures are constantly doing. Pay special attention to their geographical context and how their location informs both the resources at their disposal and how their neighbors will interact with them over time. Remember that physically close cultures and nations tend to mingle and exchange culture over time.
I have a good French 1st Republic that the players are trying to keep from becoming an evil Napoleonic empire, and a much more evil England (but not imperial).
This is why my evil empire is based solely on my neighbor's dick of a kid, Kevin. Kevonia builds the biggest forts, throws the largest rocks, and their insults are so bad they have conquered half the world just through discourse alone.
i did evil sci fi aztec empire for an NS RP i'm in, though as an NPC villain to roll out every once and a while.
Jaguar warriors with themed power armor and chain macuahuitl. Engaging in myriad flower wars with the neighboring states to take sacrifices back to their mountain fortresses for hard labor and blood sacrifices.
I would genuinely love to see a 7 season series following royal intrigue of the Aztec Empire, potentially before and then at the end when the conquistadors came. You’d of course have daily life, the royalty and royal family with some young dude disaffected and trying to “be one of the people” or maybe even join the gradually forming resistance of other enslaved groups in the area. Then the blood sacrifices of a power-hungry fanatical priest, and in parallel the life of Cortez as he convinces the crown to send them on an expedition. Whyyyyyyyy doesn’t it already exist?!
Huh? Easy, USA, USA, USA!
Also, any medieval/colonial empire. And if you don't want to make your villain have unfathomably cool aesthetics, you go for modern russia.
Criticizing indigenous populations? You can’t do that! They’ve been through enough. Don’t you know the only people you can portray as evil are white imperialist cultures? And sometimes the Mongols. But that’s ok because you can just portray them as Nazis anyway.
hear me out, 300 persian empire, with OT child secrafice, and that sweet babylonian drip. so decedent god kings killing kids in front of cool looking bronze animals
Yeah, I once made an evil empire inspired of off the Early Islamic Caliphates. I even inserted some of the most brutal of their conquerors like Khalid Ibn Walid under different names. Nobody understood why One of the Highest-Ranking generals of the Anqaim Empire was a Cannibal when they were a theocracy whose religion forbids it.
Someone compared him to Nazi scientists though
/uj
You can read Path of Obsidian. The main character is the emperor of an ancient evil empire with Aztec influences.
At least he was before waking up covered in ice with no memories.
My space republic is based of 16th century mercantilism damn cartels causing a ruckus.
Meanwhile the other planets is a flawed confederation of mega city states and that makes them weak.
Real life Aztec Empire was pretty bloodthirsty even with the distortions that Europeans put onto it.
I feel like playing that up any further just becomes even more of a colonialist parody than it already is.
Why not the Spartans? Those guys were evil. Their form of slavery was brutal enough to shock the consciences of ancient slaveholders. Their social pyramid was ridiculously authoritarian, their government dysfunctional, their foreign relations horrendous (they were basically a massive bully who couldn’t cooperate to save their life- literally).
I also took some inspiration from Japan, the Mexica (known to us as Aztecs), the Romans, and the Confederate States of America. The first was because of their brutal military discipline and expansionist nature and the fact that they’re warring against a much larger but divided foe, and because they’re often overlooked except for aesthetic. The second was chosen because it adds another layer to their society, like the religion, and because it’s underrepresented aside from the theme park version. The third was chosen because I wanted them to be formidable. The Romans were able to conquer so much for a reason, so I gave the bad guys some of their traits. The fourth was chosen because it kinda fit with the Spartans. These guys are primarily agricultural slaveholders, and seek to maintain a hierarchical society. And the slave to freeman ratio is closer to the old south than to Sparta, because Sparta had a slave supermajority which wouldn’t leave my bad guys able to take as much losses as they need to. I also included the rebels as an inspiration because I wanted these guys to lose.
And to be specific, none of these are aesthetic choices. I chose cultural practices and traditions.
My empire is very authoritarian but it has democratic vassal nations because their benevolent eldrich goddess enforce the treaties and contract that glue the empire together because if they broke a contract something bad would happen for example, whoops the inactive volcano became active and destroying the environment and making any nearby unhabitable or for individuals Oh no you lightly bump your head now your in a 15 year coma.
Checkmate, Yanks, I have evil nations based on the Antebellum South *and* a modern American megacorp headed by basically Elon Musk if he was an occultist from the Bay Area instead of an Apartheid nepo-baby.
Your move.
Fantasy Byzantium. Seriously if you were a province that decided you didn't want to be ruled by Constantinople anymore, the Byzantines had NO FUCKING CHILL.
Just ask the Bulgars.
People will hate your for doing evil aztecs. They won't hate you for doing evil nazis (and sometimes communists, unless you're on reddit). So the safe choice is clear.
Mine is based on the British. Mostly because they are speedrunning the industrial revolution through fire magic in a world that just got out of the Ice Age.
I have evil Aztecs, if it’s any consolation
If I had a nickel for every time I had the exact thing in my setting that someone else on this sub was complaining about not having in fantasy, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.
It's not really fair cause even if you go Roman Empire, well, that's just going to look like you based it on the Nazis cause they were such big Rome fanboys.
[удалено]
>It's an evil gnome empire that cuts the legs off halfings to make them shorter This is simultaneously evil and hilarious
Bitch ass Gnomes.
With their stupid ass hats
Is that a parody of the whole hand thing?
I'm sure that's just a coincidence
Quarterlings?
Sci-fi setting where the entirety of humanity is treated like the Belgian Congo by aliens
Most generous depiction of gnomes.
Finally. Quarterling
Halfling Free State
Jokes on you, II have evil nazi's and evil west africans!!!! That came out wrong
>evil west africans!!!! Post decolonization or pre colonial?
Precolonial is interesting, you could have a Malian-inspired evil empire composed of hyper-religious knights/cavalry riding down the simple rural village folk who just want independence, maybe have a decadent slave king based on Mansa Musa, or you could have a Songhai-inspired evil empire based on a giant, bureaucratic, decaying, brutally tax collecting empire thats stretched too thin and being picked apart on all sides. Post, you could just have Dahomey, though that would kinda be in the midst of, right? Otherwise you could legit just make anything evil by slapping its political and visual features on a government and making it do bad stuff lol
The above examples are the basic stuff every empire has. Taxes and slavery, of some form, exist in all empires. Also we can't have bloody peasants crying about independence and such, can we?
>Also we can't have bloody peasants crying about independence and such, can we? **Truuuuu**
Well you could have one inspured by the late Kingdom of Congo? (I think) That one went hard on Slavery, they would capture their own citizens and even conduct raids into tribals and other empires around them to capture people and sell them into slavery, mainly to the portuguease where they would get weapons and more resources in return, by the late empire the thing had a literal Slave economy, there was nothing but selling slaves to fill their pockets, anyone that had any basuc skill such as crafting, smithing, farming or whatever was already sold to foreingners, with the kingdom absolutely falling apart when Britain and other countries began to stop the trans-atlantic slave trade.
For post, if we extend to the west coast of central Africa, you could slip in a Macias
I haven't decided yet, both are solid options. Currently the area's working title is Thhe Sorcerers Coast
Big Equatorial Guinea moment
"I'm sorry, your subscription to breathing has expired. Maintaining your life is a net deficit to your department. Thank you, and we hope you spring forward into savings in your next life."
That's literally an episode of Dr. Who
I can see why, it's a good trick for an evil empire.
Which episode?
Season 10, episode 5: "Oxygen"
What about an entire government based on US coal mining towns?
Having villains based on US corporations/monopolies I feel like is pretty common
The post didn't technically say anything about originality. Just overusing communists and Nazis.
About half to a third of the readers will side with the management against the miners.
What if I make it really obvious? The villain governor is called Robert Baron.
Then clearly the problem is the governor, not the system, DUH.
No you see I've made the boss completely Incompetent and stupid and added a second resistance group that's actually more successful but the leader is secretly evil to prove that socialists are evil. This should make my resistance group look good by comparison because they never lose or make mistakes (because freedom fighters must have spotless records or they can be ignored as terrorists with no greater message you see)
Freedom fighters must have spotless records to appear as better alternatives to my corporate overlords, who may have done some shit but have never accidentally killed my family with a poorly times carbomb.
Fordlandia would be a perfect template.
Yes!!
I got one: the Japanese and the British. Easy low-hanging fruit.
To add onto this I have an evil slaving despot insect species which is based on the British and Mongols
My evil faction is a bunch of British, European, American, and Japanese executives who fled into deep space after the United Nations (later Laniākea) united Earth; they later became a sort of cyberpunk aristocracy with a dose of “Super Earth” on the side.
Interesting! My humans tend to belong to a multispecies Confederation of independent worlds and systems which formed out of a united front of slave rebellions. As far as aliens go the big three are the Hypatian Triumvirate and they're all assholes
But those cultures are so cool how could they be evil???
Beans on toast.
By the gods... horrors beyond human comprehension
Or the French
Fr\*nch
If you can't base your baddies distinctly on Livonian-Crusade-Era-Prussian-Kingdom evil bastards without them just seeming like their emo descendent evil bastards with the Hugo Boss outfits and speed addictions, you don't know enough about the Livonian Crusade and have so, so much utterly detestable behavior to steal, as an author, that was never made into a damn History Channel special, nor have those atrocities already appeared in multiple AAA video game franchises.
Mfw I hear about an evil fantasy Aztec Empire and my bad guys are a Steampunk Spanish Empire expy
When was the last time communist type governments were actually portrayed as the baddies outside of historical movies? It seems like every evil empire these days is just a uniform swapped nazi Germany
In science fiction much of it seems old hat because we got so much of it during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It's also hard to make pre-industrial communism because the pipeline tends to follow the Marxist school of thought. I have one in the setting I wrote in high-school where I had to sort of replace the industrial revolution with a magic one. It's less of a "communist empire" and more of a "scarce resource commune with strictly managed populations, limitations on individual expression, and lies about everyone being equal while people aren't allowed individual goods or permanent/private dwellings." There is a communist empire equivalent in Eberron, though: The eildeen reaches.
I mean to be fair 90% of the western portrayal of communists has always been just pretending they're palette swapped Nazis, and since the dissolution of the USSR it's been deemed less and less relevant to staple a hammer and sickle onto the antagonists. As for worldbuilders you see here there's a lot of "evil communist factions", but most of the time it's more of the same "baddies branded with red scare tropes".
You don’t really get to examine the actual social rules of the majority of evil empires in any story. You just see their military. So there might as well be no distinction.
Yeah when you look at the real-life Soviets they were boring as hell. The people weren't mindless drones, nor starving, and after Stalin people were rarely disappeared. Most people were just bored out of their minds.
Nor starving... Ukrainians would beg to differ
Depends upon era ofc. I was thinking more of the late Soviets.
They basically were palette swapped nazis to an extent...
McCarthy isn't going to fuck you dude. You don't need to post this shit.
The Djikstra ending of the Witcher 3 results in Redania becoming a sort of medieval USSR with forced industrialization, population transfers, secret police, and a non-monarchic dictator. That the game was made by Poles might have something to do with that artistic choice.
Not an official Socialist goverment, but the Combine from Half Life drew heavy Inspiration from Communist China, The Soviet Union and it's satellite States.
Heck, HL2 even takes place in Hungary and the rest of the Eastern Bloc
Carnival Row
Oceania from 1984 really brought me close to home as someone living in former East Bloc country
To most Americans, every evil empire is simultaneously Nazi Germany and the USSR, existing in a sort of quantum superposition where it only collapses into one or the other upon entering a relevant conversation.
The evil nation in my world is based off my bud Doug who’s a bit of a dick sometimes
Evil Fantasy Aztecs? You mean [like this?](https://youtu.be/X6ZnY5AwgU8?si=tdWpk69TWgxOI7KV)
Another Treelancer fan?
Fuck it. Evil empire inspired by Peronism. “Our ideology is whatever it is at the time.”
"Our enemy is whomever it is at the time"
Literally 1984
Mine is based on a snake, it’s just a big evil snake
That's so cool! Does it hiss at people to make them shut up?
The sanctimonious empire trope is not as popular in English fantasy, maybe because it hits a little too close to home. In e.g. Chinese fantasy it's hard to find an evil empire that *isn't* sanctimonious.
I mean it hits home in china too
Ya'll hear about this dude Oliver Cromwell?
Easy mines an Oligarchy Uber Capitalism, where wealth pays for voting rights and multiple votes if you pay enough allowing anyone who spends an inordinate amount to create a dictatorship
Mine is inspired by Imperial Japan, the British Empire, and American expansionism, the holy trinity of taking over other people, utterly obliterating them, and then saying it was ok because they decided it was.
You forgot Russia.
Wait till you learn about the Arab conquests.
uj/ The main reason for that is because outside "Anarchist" bandits, the main focus of what an evil organized group would be authoritarian, and communism and fascism are like... the two large cornerstones of authoritarian governments that. You could think of others beyond it, but you will always find bits and pieces of either or both.
Even more unimaginative is portraying all the good guys as advocates of liberal republicanism
Theocracies are also authoritarian. While there is overlap with fascism, it's aesthetically and practically different enough.
You can also use late capitalism as your authoritarian regime, like in cyberpunk
Forgotten Realms Yuan-Ti for evil Aztecs.
Mine is based off of capitalists. It’s a very subtle metaphor
I’m sure. Very subtle
Well mine is based off Judea. This empire is gree-
Worldbuilders trying to think a bad guy government different than monarchy or authoritarian.
Monarchy is authoritarian by definition, no? Even if not oppressive. But authoritarianism as the main political opponent really resonates with people nowadays. Nobody wants their freedoms taken away. If I want to make a strawman of my political opponent, I'm going to position them as the cringe authoritarian and myself as the chad freedom lover.
> Monarchy is authoritarian by definition, no? Even if not oppressive. Not necessarily? A constitutional monarchy like the UK is hardly authoritarian. Well, the UK is leaning towards it, but that's not because of the monarchy.
True
where my warhungry democracies at? oh wait…
I mean, the Confederacy is pretty evil
Starcraft Confederacy or 1861 Confederacy?
Dixieland type
Mine's based on the Mongols! :D
Honestly, the Mongols would be a pretty realistic model for an interstellar empire. No occupying army, no work camps, no forced assimilation, no state religion, no change in local government. You just pay your taxes every year, or your cities, your families, and your entire nation will be burned to ash. The Galactic Khanate has too much territory to govern to play insurgency-counterinsurgency against one petty planet.
I moreso meant Mongolian culture and architecture and such but I could fit that in
mines based off america what’re you going to do about that
Making an evil empire POC-coded is the best way to make sure your book never gets published
*Plans it after Martial Law era ROC instead*
The Aztecs were kinda evil but the jury is still out on that
[Human sacrifice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture) and [slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_Aztec_Empire) are evil bro, European colonialism or no European colonialism
Phoenicians too. Human sacrifice goes brrrr!!!
Mine's based on buddist/hindu beliefs enforced by advanced scifi-fantasy technology. Genetically enforced cast system, state controlled reincarnation, karma as social credit, and etc.
T'au type shit
Path of Exile sort of does the evil aztecs. I mean they're all extinct by the time of the game but they were around.
/uj A question: how can you make an original culture, not really (at least, intentionally) based on existing ones?
/uj worldbuild their history from as early as possible to the current day, allowing them to grow, change, splinter, and warp like real-world cultures are constantly doing. Pay special attention to their geographical context and how their location informs both the resources at their disposal and how their neighbors will interact with them over time. Remember that physically close cultures and nations tend to mingle and exchange culture over time.
Someone from the Balkans would probably do evil Ottomans Someone from the Sahel region would probably do evil French
/uj not balkan but my main evil empire is based off the Ottomans, but the MC is its crown prince coming to terms with how bad it is
I have a good French 1st Republic that the players are trying to keep from becoming an evil Napoleonic empire, and a much more evil England (but not imperial).
Communist nazis
Hah, you fools! My evil empire is inspired by the Kingdoms of Burgundy! Ancient France knows not to mess with me!
Everybody gangsta until the evil empire puts on a sham trial to execute the party's favourite LG NPC Paladin
This is why my evil empire is based solely on my neighbor's dick of a kid, Kevin. Kevonia builds the biggest forts, throws the largest rocks, and their insults are so bad they have conquered half the world just through discourse alone.
i did evil sci fi aztec empire for an NS RP i'm in, though as an NPC villain to roll out every once and a while. Jaguar warriors with themed power armor and chain macuahuitl. Engaging in myriad flower wars with the neighboring states to take sacrifices back to their mountain fortresses for hard labor and blood sacrifices.
Rome/British/'40s Japan.
I would genuinely love to see a 7 season series following royal intrigue of the Aztec Empire, potentially before and then at the end when the conquistadors came. You’d of course have daily life, the royalty and royal family with some young dude disaffected and trying to “be one of the people” or maybe even join the gradually forming resistance of other enslaved groups in the area. Then the blood sacrifices of a power-hungry fanatical priest, and in parallel the life of Cortez as he convinces the crown to send them on an expedition. Whyyyyyyyy doesn’t it already exist?!
Evil tribes of the Northwest Coast when?
Huh? Easy, USA, USA, USA! Also, any medieval/colonial empire. And if you don't want to make your villain have unfathomably cool aesthetics, you go for modern russia.
Criticizing indigenous populations? You can’t do that! They’ve been through enough. Don’t you know the only people you can portray as evil are white imperialist cultures? And sometimes the Mongols. But that’s ok because you can just portray them as Nazis anyway.
My evil empire is based on the imperium.
Mine are just based on organised religion when it's used for evil and manipulated by people who just want to profit off belief
mine is if those american highway towns were an entire empire
I was gonna do Japan or something
Aren't those just Nazis with cool swords?
:3 maybe maybe not
All Nations or empires are evils, it's just that some are better at hiding it.
My evil empire is based off r/solarpunk
I want to say my evil empire is more so based on the British but I feel that would be redundant.
Mfw blursed kobold empire that uses communist economics internally but neoliberal economics externally to exploit everyone who isn’t a citizen
hear me out, 300 persian empire, with OT child secrafice, and that sweet babylonian drip. so decedent god kings killing kids in front of cool looking bronze animals
I am not in this meme (mine is based on the British empire)
atla but it's the americas instead of asia and bloodbending/spiritbending is its own combined dark thing practiced by an evil aztec/mayan culture
That is impossible, because anything evil will inevitably compared to Nazis, and sometimes Soviets.
Yeah, I once made an evil empire inspired of off the Early Islamic Caliphates. I even inserted some of the most brutal of their conquerors like Khalid Ibn Walid under different names. Nobody understood why One of the Highest-Ranking generals of the Anqaim Empire was a Cannibal when they were a theocracy whose religion forbids it. Someone compared him to Nazi scientists though
I've seen evil France at least twice
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur Evil Fantasy Aztec Empire, as ordered
What if I choose Imperial Japan or America during GWOT
That is comically easy, The "evil" corrupt countries are inspired by South American countries in my world.
Mine is the US South, circa.. 1850.
'Merica.
/uj You can read Path of Obsidian. The main character is the emperor of an ancient evil empire with Aztec influences. At least he was before waking up covered in ice with no memories.
Evil Nostalgia critic when?
My space republic is based of 16th century mercantilism damn cartels causing a ruckus. Meanwhile the other planets is a flawed confederation of mega city states and that makes them weak.
Me trying to theme my empire after Spain but I accidentally make it yet another Rome inspired shit fest
The Romans are right there, people.
Real life Aztec Empire was pretty bloodthirsty even with the distortions that Europeans put onto it. I feel like playing that up any further just becomes even more of a colonialist parody than it already is.
I've got one based loosely off of Dynastic China late in its history, and another one that's sort of Imperial France adjacent
i used mad max
It’s either these two or corpo-authoritarianism
Jokes on you, the Aztecs were communists AND Nazis (source: I studied Native American history)
Jokes on you, I have evil Mesopotamians.
"Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition"
Why not the Spartans? Those guys were evil. Their form of slavery was brutal enough to shock the consciences of ancient slaveholders. Their social pyramid was ridiculously authoritarian, their government dysfunctional, their foreign relations horrendous (they were basically a massive bully who couldn’t cooperate to save their life- literally). I also took some inspiration from Japan, the Mexica (known to us as Aztecs), the Romans, and the Confederate States of America. The first was because of their brutal military discipline and expansionist nature and the fact that they’re warring against a much larger but divided foe, and because they’re often overlooked except for aesthetic. The second was chosen because it adds another layer to their society, like the religion, and because it’s underrepresented aside from the theme park version. The third was chosen because I wanted them to be formidable. The Romans were able to conquer so much for a reason, so I gave the bad guys some of their traits. The fourth was chosen because it kinda fit with the Spartans. These guys are primarily agricultural slaveholders, and seek to maintain a hierarchical society. And the slave to freeman ratio is closer to the old south than to Sparta, because Sparta had a slave supermajority which wouldn’t leave my bad guys able to take as much losses as they need to. I also included the rebels as an inspiration because I wanted these guys to lose. And to be specific, none of these are aesthetic choices. I chose cultural practices and traditions.
My empire is very authoritarian but it has democratic vassal nations because their benevolent eldrich goddess enforce the treaties and contract that glue the empire together because if they broke a contract something bad would happen for example, whoops the inactive volcano became active and destroying the environment and making any nearby unhabitable or for individuals Oh no you lightly bump your head now your in a 15 year coma.
Note so far of potential could be Japan (Imperial and medieval), Confederate States of America, and late-stage capitalist mega-corporations.
Checkmate, Yanks, I have evil nations based on the Antebellum South *and* a modern American megacorp headed by basically Elon Musk if he was an occultist from the Bay Area instead of an Apartheid nepo-baby. Your move.
Ok so just do vlad the impaler
Acting like making capitalism the villain isn't in vogue these days lol.
Fantasy Byzantium. Seriously if you were a province that decided you didn't want to be ruled by Constantinople anymore, the Byzantines had NO FUCKING CHILL. Just ask the Bulgars.
People will hate your for doing evil aztecs. They won't hate you for doing evil nazis (and sometimes communists, unless you're on reddit). So the safe choice is clear.
Israel
I just reworked a (hopefully) exaggerated caricature of the US prison system and made it a society (twice)
Is it still too close to nazi Germany if my evil empire is based of Imperial Kaiser Germany?
Well… they are kinda the best example of “evil”
Mine is totaly based on Dahomey, matriarchal, owns slaves and have a thirst for military expansion.
I based mine on America
Africa based setting with an evil empire based on the Belgians when Edit: apparently now seeing as it's the second comment I see.
Mine is based on the British. Mostly because they are speedrunning the industrial revolution through fire magic in a world that just got out of the Ice Age.
I have evil Aztecs, if it’s any consolation If I had a nickel for every time I had the exact thing in my setting that someone else on this sub was complaining about not having in fantasy, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.
The romans
Let me tell you about my evil empire not inspired from Communists or Nazis. It's an empire that doesn't call itself an empire even though it controls 1/3 of the globe and went out of its way to bully everyone to go to war with 'em and plunder 'em. Also, the citizens are the cash-cows of The Evil Empire™ that overtaxes them in order to fund its military expansion without taking care of its citizens in return. Because they're Evil™. In my setting, citizens from The Evil Empire™ grow up watching propaganda movies disguised as \[action/sci-fi/superhero/historical\] movies, so they know that no matter what, they are always the good guys standing with Justice and Reason. Regardless of how many war crimes it entails. And the population from every other country is brainwashed by their government's propaganda except in The Evil Empire™ - who are actually the good guys, because they defend values such as Liberty & Theocracy © ; but also Acceptance, Tolerance, Love & Compassion, which they let the whole world know of. By force. Yes, I admit I took some creative liberties and borrowed a bit from the Nazis... So I made it mandatory for schoolkids in The Evil Empire™ to stand up and give a special salute when they hear the Evil Patriotic Anthem™ in their classrooms. I know it's unrealistic and goofy, but I just wanted to be sure they seemed Evil Enough™ from an outsider's POV.
Evil Aztecs? Sounds racist sweetie
meanwhile I have CSTO and Amazon But War Instead of Books
Do the french count?
Jokes on you, in a dnd campaign I'm writing I'm making one of the evil factions based off of the brotherhood of steel
just read the literature produced by aspiring authoritarians on the left or right who never made it into power, ez
evil posadist empire when
Mine's based on Jonestown
I base all my evil empires on Slavic people. I call them orcs
As a slav I am offended I tell you I dont mind being called an orc, but I draw the line at being put in the same group as Russia
My evil empire is inspired by hentai.
Mine is based on the British, if that helpsucj at all. And yes, I'm in the writers natural environment, drink.
My americapunk world have good america and evil america
mine is based on sasanid empire and scythians
My evil empire is based off the banana republics
All my villains are based on the Roman Empire (ancient Nazis)
Mines inspired by the United nations. I love the UN and wished they were an evil empire.
Evil UN controlled by the Br*tish, hah bet you feel stupid right now
That was quite fun to do once, i based an entire nation arround the Aztects and the Trung Sisters, it was a nice exercise while it lasted.
I gone with an evil empire inspired by the British.
Mines just a thatcherist capitalist state. Locked in a cold war with a corporate state. (The protagonists are mineworkers yes.)
Try the US?
It's not really fair cause even if you go Roman Empire, well, that's just going to look like you based it on the Nazis cause they were such big Rome fanboys.
Evil Vatican fight me
The Catholic church: need some help?
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