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Empire with a Dark Secret: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.EmpireWithADarkSecret 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.EmpireWithADarkSecret, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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So play nice and don't delve any further, ''capiche''?
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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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
== Film ==
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* Borogravia in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]''. Turns out {{spoiler|the Duchess who supposedly runs the country has been dead for years, their patron deity Nuggan has dwindled to nothing due to [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|lack of belief]], and approximately a third of the top military leaders, if not the entire army, is composed of [[Sweet Polly Oliver|women disguised as men]].}}
* Germany in the book ''[[Fatherland (Literature)|Fatherland]]''.
* The Human Empire from Yulia Latynina's ''[[Inhuman]]'' is bloated and evil; a great deal of this is explicit, but corruption often turns out to run even deeper than initially thought. Better yet, a veteran of its foundation eventually explained to his great grand-son, one of the protagonists, that it used to be less corrupt and more [[Complete Monster|monstrously evil]] back then, [[Necessarily Evil|because that really was the only way to save humanity]] from the intelligent, rapidly-breeding, rapidly-growing, omnivorous Ttakas. That biological weapons were used is public knowledge; that {{spoiler|the [[The Virus]] behind the rampant [[Recycled in Space|Assassins in Space]]-like [[Murder, Inc.|terrorist]] [[Path of Inspiration|organisation]] was originally created in the First Emperor's labs ran by the aforementioned veterans in order to brainwash human [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]] into fighting with the reckless abandon required, along with some lesser things,}} is not quite as well known.
* This is very nearly the entire story of [[Ursula K Le Guin|Ursula K. Le Guin's]] tale ''[http://www.markaelrod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/omelas.pdf The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas]''.
** Basically, it goes like this: She starts out describing a utopia. Then she decides that the readers won't believe in it, and starts trying to add things to change that... but none of them work until she settles on all the happiness and inspiration in the society relying on [[Powered By a Forsaken Child|one horribly abused child]]. Right around then is when it solidifies into a little crystal of horror.
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* The Imperium in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' 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
** The ruling caste of the Tau Empire use mind control to inspire absolute loyalty in their subjects and hold their empire together. It's also very heavily implied that a piece of technology they gave to a vassal-species to enable direct mind-to-mind communication enabled them to extend said mind control over said species. Said ruling caste were also genetically engineered by the Eldar using the pheremone glands of a Q'orl Hive Queen and inserted into Tau society for their own ends.
** The [[Machine Worship|Adeptus Mechanicus]] who keep all of the technology running worship a being known as the Omnissiah. In the overwhelming majority of cases this is another aspect of the Emperor, but around 1% worship the most powerful of the star-eating abominations known as the C'tan, the Void Dragon, which is currently [[Sealed Evil in A Can|asleep under the surface of Mars]]. And to make matters worse still, it is the 1% who are actually correct.
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