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Empire with a Dark Secret (view source)

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Hey, guess what? Your [[The Empire|entire civilization]] lives [[Dark Secret|on a lie]]. It might be a secular version of a [[Path of Inspiration]], or maybe no one in the world has ever realized that the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] powering your homes and healing your sick is actually [[Powered by a Forsaken Child]] - but in any case, [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], right?
 
The publication of this ''verboten'' knowledge by an [[Intrepid Reporter]] might spell doom for all civilized society, incite universal rebellion, or simply make you [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]].
 
So play nice and don't delve any further, ''capiche''?
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== Fanfiction ==
 
* There's more than one ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' fic that posits the existence of the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Nations]] ''themselves'' as this trope. Depending on [[Dark Fic|how dark the story is]], it usually results in mass chaos and [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] scenarios.
 
== Film ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
 
* The Imperium in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has gobs and gobs of this. Most of it self-delusional as well.
** The [[Physical God|man]] they revere as their Emperor is a semi-conscious anti-theist hooked up to a life support machine [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|which runs on the power of the thousands of psyker souls it eats daily]], for a start.
*** To be fair, he was actually more of a [[Nay Theist]] who acknowledged the existenc of the [[God of Evil|Chaos Gods]], but tried to suppress all religion in the hopes of [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|starving them to death]]. To be even more fair this plan was [[Failure Is the Only Option|doomed from the start]], because the gods of the Warp feed on emotions in general, and not just the faith of their followers, so the fact that the Imperium is revering him as a [[God-Emperor]] who fights the forces of Chaos in the Warp and keeps the universe safe is actually a pretty good plan, because [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|enough people believing it helps make it true]], and if the Imperium at large found out and lost their faith the likely result is that he would die and Chaos really would win. That the secret is still pretty sinister is just another sign of of how much a [[Crapsack World]] the 40K verse is.
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* In Mass Effect 3, it is revealed that the Asari, who didn't become galactic top dog by being wisest and smartest, {{spoiler|but by having a working Prothean beacon. It turns out, their entire religion is actually fake cover cover for said beacon. If you have DLC character, he also confirms that Protheans actively interfered with Asari evolution to make them what they are. Liara doesn't take these revelations well.}}
* The UPEO in [[Macekre|the Japanese original]] ''[[Ace Combat]] 3: Electrosphere'', secretly controlled by the two big corporations. Although, UPEO is more of a "UN-mandated global military with a dark secret" than any sort of empire.
* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft II]]'' the Terran Dominion, Mengsk dark secret on sending the Zerg to attack Tarsonis, and his willingness to eliminate anyone who gets in his way. Also the Dominion has been secretly been creating a Zerg hybrid.
 
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:The Secret Index]]
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:Empire with a Dark Secret{{PAGENAME}}]]
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