EVIL EMPIRES - Terrible Writing Advice

Fantasy writer need to at least play crusader king so they know how diplomacy, heir, and internal political system work 😂

The army's incompetence could be easily explained by propaganda hyping up the small amount of professionals. The rest are reluctant conscripts used for policing, so they can't really handle serious combat. When the weakness becomes known, the Empire is invaded by disgruntled neighbours who want various bits of territory back, leaving the hero and his rebels with a weak rump state that has to be a vassal in order to survive.

Dont forget to make the uniforms of the evil empire very iconic and distinctive.

I hate how empires are almost always written as the bad guys even though real life is a lot more complicated. The Persian empire for example was ironically MORE democratic and humane than many of the so called "Democracies" that existed at the time. Not that it was perfect by any means. But compared to many other countries at the time. The Persian empire was practically a utopia for the ancient world. Some countries joined the empire voluntarily due to the benefits of being apart of the empire at the time. Many Greeks were considering joining them as well.

just don’t let a guy with a phd in theoretical physics and a crowbar take on the entirety of the universal union. (He’s a highly trained professional)

I love the hunger games for doing this right

I smell Star Wars tropes...

Final Fantasy loves evil empires, but what I love about XIV is how they handled that empire. You could have removed the Warrior of Light (player character) from the story entirely and the empire still would have fallen due to infighting, constant war with nearby nations, succession disputes, overfunding mad scientists’ superweapons, and high-ranking officials selling their souls to demons for more power. All the protagonists did was speed up the process a little bit.

In fact, they actually do remove your character from the conflict by sending you to a parallel world FOR AN ENTIRE EXPANSION. And when you come back, the government has messed itself up so much that all you really have to do is glance in their direction for their civilization to completely collapse

Lore of EVIL EMPIRES - Terrible Writing Advice momentum 100

as you are saying the empire got destroyed without the emperor it's rare though

I mean, if a Drakian Primarch is killed, a new one will replace it

that's why the draka are karma houdinis

We're the Romans not Nazis themselves?

So just rip off star wars and the nazis

A funny subversion of the Empire destroying a village trope would be if it wasn't authorized by the Big Bad Emperor, but rather some general or some other higher up who knew about the 'Chosen One' and wanted to impress the Emperor... only to be killed (assuming the Emperor doesn't care about body counts and funeral costs) or demoted for going above his boss's head. Bonus points if the village the general destroyed had a vital resource that the Emperor needed, and now is halted because of some idiot's machinations and beliefs in some dumb Chosen One legend.

Love the use of the video game code 😂🤣😂🤣

Emp:The evil bully empire almosts takes over Haltmaland by hijacking the Access ark

EVIL EMPIRE, LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!

Believe it or not I’m using this to write a “good” empire

Having an “ evil” anything as a nation is a bad idea. A corrupt government doesn’t mean everyone from that nation is evil.

I feel like using the Nazis as an example of how Evil Empires don't last long is a bit misleading. The Nazis existed in a different time period, where they were destroyed by being in constant war with everyone around them. Now days wars like that can't happen as easily because we live in the age of the Nuclear Bomb, which has served well as a deterrence.

You can't rely on your neighbors to come in and smack the Dictator out of office anymore. Dictatorships have to be solved domestically now and that's an almost impossible task. I'd rather use the CCP or the Soviets as modern examples of an Evil Empire, and how it's survived much longer than the Nazis. Of course this is excluding Economic Struggles (what ended the Soviets reign), which could kill an Evil Empire, but even then that's reliant on the idea that the Dictators in charge are stupid.

Imagine if the video was just 3 seconds long and he just said Star Wars but worse

One soldier getting taken out by a single arrow from a hunter gather.

What about GOOD empires.....

I seem to remember reading one novel about an evil empire/megacorp thing where the main villain was the public relations guy.
I don't think the story made too much use of the angle that being the public face of the organization would have given him, though, which is a shame because it's definitely an interesting one. It's something I'd like to see explored with a little more focus.

I actually like the idea of a comedy about the PR department of an evil empire desperately trying to cover up/excuse/propaganda the clownish atrocities the empire commits

Step 1: Nazis
Step 2: profit

Here's a story I wrote:
The Empire in my world was once democratic but really in reality only for its native citizens, it held a large colonial empire that exploited natives while pushing itself to be the superior race. They become legitimized after winning a war against another empire (which was more open about its lack of democracy) and become the leader of "freedom". However, the cost of this victory was high: many died in the war, and the colonies realized the price of being under imperial rule and began guerilla wars all across the empire. As a new ideology begins to spread in the imperial homeland following economic collapse due to overextension and widespread unrest, a group of influential generals, heroes of the previous war, launch a coup against the prime minister who was perceived to be helping this ideology spread. They turn the emperor into a powerless puppet and attempt to root out "treason", but tensions escalate after misguided terrorists kill the emperor, putting his even more powerless underage son on the throne. With the monarchist structure weakened, the army forms a regency council and escalates the crackdowns, but this results in a civil war. Fast forward years later, the new rebel faction manages to win hearts and minds, and executes the underage emperor just to gain "legitimacy" without caring about the fact that he was a literal child, and in the meanwhile the military junta flees the nation and the new rebel republic is victorious. However, as the rebels begin to turn on each other due to a lack of a common enemy, eventually extremists within the movement seize power and begin to tear down the old structure of the empire and build a new "modernized" one, but this has a heavy toll in lives. At the very end, it becomes clear that the citizens of the old empire are in no better shape than it was before the civil war, and despite the fact that their nation is shattered and its colonies gone, the new rebel government decides it wishes to bring forward their revolutionary ideals to the rest of the world by force if needed, ending the story on the prospect of global war.

Two of my favorite CONCEPTS for evil empires are the Horde from She-ra and the Princesses of Power and the First Order in The Force Awakens (none of the other movies in that trilogy though). Both presented the idea of a colonial military made up of soldiers that were kidnapped from their homes as babies/children and raised in a military setting with intense amounts of propaganda, then preventing retaliation using systematic abuse. It would have made an interesting story seeing these characters who escaped trying to help other escape from this kind of army. It could also show how systems create mindsets that cause people to stay in them.

It would also be a very morally ambiguous story because our heroes are fighting what are essentially child soldiers (some of whom might actually be children), and one of our main characters used to be exactly like them, so it feels like they are killing siblings, comrades, even themselves. This could also show the empire's evil in another way besides just destroying random villages; it creates child soldiers.

That's why my latest story (that made me come back to this video) is about a slightly stereotypical evil empire, but from the perspective of those inside it (across many different branches). It would show the intricate inner workings of these evil empires (specifically the kind in She-ra) and how they actually run, as well as why people stay in them and the actual raw horror of them. Because evil empires can be terrifying when they want to be, what with the war crimes (which, when portrayed right, can make you legitimately hate them) and the way the manipulate people and stay running.

Here’s my idea for an Evil Empire.
Evil Emperor Burneyvillage XVII (and yes that’s actually what he’s called): My empire, which I henceforth name The Evil Empire, will be the most evil empire in all the land! All shall fear me!
Steve (Evil Emperor Burneyvillage XVII’s second in command): Alright, while you’re doing that, I’ll handle all the boring parts of handling an empire so you can spend more time devising evil death traps, menacing armor, and things like that.
Evil Emperor Burneyvillage XVII: Yes you go do that, and plunder me some valuables from the nearby peasant village while you’re at it.
Steve: Of course, Evil Emperor Burneyvillage XVII.
Also Steve: Makes The Evil Empire actually a pretty good place to live while convincing Evil Emperor Burneyvillage XVII that the frequent rebel uprisings (that don’t exist) are being easily destroyed with maximum collateral damage

Going back and watching the whole series so when I heard "glory to the empire!" I reflexively expected "and to this video's sponsor, skillshare!"

I kept developing my empire and ended up making it kinda understandable even with incredible corruption

Anyone else find it kind of funny this video and OSP's video on evil empires came out only about a month apart?

STOOOOOOOOPID

The only impressive thing about the evil empires troopers is the fact that they are extremely good at missing a single target when 20 of them are firing upon them at once.

Remember guys, make sure that they never actually kill any of the main crew. That would be problematic for the plot. Some readers may think that this just proves their incompetence, but don’t worry! Just have some side characters tell us that they destroyed many civilizations we don’t care about ruthlessly!

This was actually helpful for my story I’m writing… mostly on what not to do on my evil from the outside empire I’m writing.

Think of your typical DnD fantasy evil empire, think of all the horrible things they have, beast men slave camps, twisted demonic entities, witches/ warlocks conducting their dark arts, cultist make packs to wield unholy power and dark intimidating aesthetic all around.

Now picture all that being the most human and caring empire in the setting.

Bandits and raiders run rampant because of corruption of local militant, the church brands anyone who defies them a heretic to be burn at the stake, knights are no better than polished up thugs and the common people are taxed, extorted and indoctrinated to the point where they see no problem with the holy church conducting their business as young maidens disappear. The Nobility are treated as gods who could do no harm. Angels and Demons are the same, uncaring of who wields their power as long as the belief of their god is strengthen in some way.

The beastmen races were hunted to near extinction just for mere sport. As such only highwaymen murders and murders fill their camps to scav off extinction. Most cultist are desperate, grief stricken parents that are in a last ditched effort to save their unwilling (and deemed an unworthy) sacrificed children from a cruel and far accepted religion. Witches, Warlocks and Necromancers either became so from their success/failure to save their child’s soul, were the children to be sacrificed themselves or were the sacrifice of a unsuccessful holy summoning.

The main faction are still bad guys doing bad things to other bad guys for good reasons.

Why you become a cultist? To lay my daughter to rest who became a Banshee after she was taken to be “Cleansed” at the temple and destroy the everything that was involved in that.

Why are you a necromancer? My son was transformed into a Revenant when the gods rejected his soul as a sacrifice for a celestial summoning. I was able to partly heal his soul and continue to learn more so that I may help him.

Why are there so many slaves in this camp? They were murders, bandits and cut throats turned into nothing more than flesh golems. They have no soul.

making an interesting world in which wars have to be fought with underhand and dirty methods, such as cutting off supply chains to starve and therefore produce less efficiency and minimal materials therefore creating a complex moral dilemma in which the main character has to come to terms with the brutal reality of war and realize that not every situation has silver lining, especially if for the “greater good”? nah, just make sure some random dude from a backwater town not only outsmarts but overpowers an empire with a vice grip on its territory by killing one guy!

You forgot the Soviets.

Sea monsters or something

You know.... A starwars show just about the inner politics of the Empire would cool to see. Like game of thrones sort.

Evil

This is why Stormtroopers are basically the mascots of Star Wars.