Dying Race: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' - ''Humans''. It is eventually subverted tough.

** {{spoiler|Cylons play it straight after the resurrection hub is destroyed.}}

** "Return to Tomorrow" featured a race that had been all but destroyed in a massive war thousands of years ago, and by the time the episode occurred only three individuals had survived as [[Soul Jar|disembodied consciousnesses preserved in storage devices]].

* ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'': the Taelons are dying.

* ''[[Farscape]]'''s Ancients, the ones who gave John the wormhole information.

== Tabletop Games ==

** In regular [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], the Elves are dying off due to the various catastrophes that have hit them over the millennia. Dark Elves, again, don't seem to have this problem (presumably they breed at least fast enough to make up the numbers from their sacrifices). Dwarves are also dying, and have stayed in decline since the destruction of their greatest kingdoms.<ref>Not at all helped by their obsession with grudges that constantly cause them to go from one war to the next</ref>

* "Dying Race" (by that exact name) is a racial disadvantage in ''[[GURPS]] Aliens'': "For whatever reason, the race's death rate has exceeded the birth rate. If this trend isn't reversed, the race will be extinct in a few generations."

** It was eliminated on 4e on charges of not actually being disadvantageous. You can still simulate it by taking other disadvantages, you'd just ''actually have to earn your points.''

* ''[[Stormbringer]]'' supplement ''Stormbringer Companion'', adventure "The Crystal of Daerdaerdarth". Valyk's Island holds a race of creatures known as the Kay, who were created using sorcery by the Melnibonean wizard Earl Valyk thousands of years earlier. They're in decline because 80% of their breeding females die soon after birth.

* Dwarves of the [[Forgotten Realms]] may or may not be this trope, depending on which products you credence. Some of the 2E products suggest that dwarf males may be marrying human women (and breeding true) as a counter to their own race's slow birth rate and scarcity of females.

* In "B4: The Lost City", an early D&D adventure, the weird underground humans of Cynedicea are this trope.

** It actually becomes a plot point in the second game, as Mordin's loyalty mission is rescuing a former colleague of his who is working to cure the genophage so that the krogan can breed again. Mordin reveals over the course of this mission that the krogan were adjusting to the genophage and their numbers were increasing again, so the salarians put the genophage on them ''again'' to control their numbers. The genophage causes only 1 in 1000 babies to be born alive. You do have the option to save the genophage's data at the end of the mission, though.

*** The third game makes curing the genophage a plot point. You can either do exactly that, or sabotage the effort. {{spoiler|If both Wrex and Eve are alive, it's hinted that their stabilizing influence will keep the Krogan from becoming a threat to the universe if you cure the genophage. If either or both are dead, then it's strongly suggested that the Krogan Rebellions are going to start up again if you give them the cure.}}

** The Dragonkin, creator of dragons, has only three individuals, Sakirth, Sithaph and Strisath left. However, they appear to be males...

** The Light creatures hiding in the depths of the swamp caves are the remains of the once proud race of Myriad.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. The Forsaken. Sort of. {{spoiler|They are unable to reproduce, thus they wouldn't be able to maintain their numbers as the undead become... redeadified.}}

** {{spoiler|As of Cataclysm they've hijacked the Scourge's Valkyr to make more Forsaken undead, so whether this is still true is up to scrutiny at this point.}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]