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Whatever the reason is, the dying out may be viewed as a tragedy, because someone appreciates the [[Uniqueness Value]] of the [[Dying Race]] and so regards them as an [[Endangered Species]].
 
Sometimes the race will be trying to save themselves. This might lead to [[Only You Can Repopulate My Race]]. If they accept their fate, they may want to [[Fling a Light Into Thethe Future]].
 
If the race is reduced to just a single individual, that is the [[Last of His Kind]], not this trope. But then again maybe [[There Is Another]], too. See also [[Humanity's Wake]] for when humanity is made extinct. Contrast [[Racial Remnant]] for when a race doesn't die out completely.
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== Film ==
* In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' movie, the Vulcans become an endangered species.
* In ''[[Children of Men]]'', the human race is unable to reproduce as {{spoiler|almost}} everyone is infertile.
* The race of aliens in ''[[Dark City]]'' are definitely this; it's the reason the city was built in the first place.
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* The Martians in [[Roger Zelazny]]'s classic story, ''A Rose for Ecclesiastes''.
** As much existential as it is biological in this case.
* Nearly all elves ever because... it was used by [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]. Although the Elves weren't dying, since they are technically immortal, they were going into the west, which is what happens when you kill an elf. However this meant their society in [[The History of Middle Earth (Literature)|Middle Earth]] behaved just like a dying race.
** The Ents from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' are a much better fit even than the Elves. Although they're nearly immortal, the fact that all of their females have vanished means they can't reproduce themselves, and therefore they are on a slow but inevitable road to extinction.
*** ''Everyone'' in that setting is dying. Elves are leaving, Ents are unable to reproduce, Dwarves are... the one dwarf we hear from jokes about how rare dwarven women are. Goblins and Orcs find themselves dying off in droves after the fall of Mordor, reduced to being monsters under beds and gremlins that mess with machinery. The last Balrog and the last Giant Spider die and retreat from the world, respectively, in the course of that story, and the last of the [[Giant Flyers]] that the Riders use dies as well. The time of human heroes is over and will never recover, which means that even humanity is doomed to a slow, sick death. The only ones untouched are the Hobbits, and even they are breeding only slowly, and growing increasingly human-ish.
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* And the Vadhagh in [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''The Swords Trilogy'' {{spoiler|(at first)}}.
* [[John Varley]]'s ''Millenium''. The future human race can't reproduce because their DNA has been damaged by pollution. This also appears in the [[Film of the Book]].
* ''[[The Alchemy of Stone (Literature)|The Alchemy of Stone]]'' by Ekaterina Sedia. Mattie's quest is to save an ancient race.
* The alien race that the AIs have contact with in [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]'s ''Sunstorm''.
* In an early [[Discworld]] book, one troll mentions that they were a dying race. This is not mentioned in later books.
** It's suggested that vampires ''not'' wanting to become this trope is a major motivation for the foundation of [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|the Uberwald Temperance League]]. With human technology and civilization on the ascent, they know it's their only chance.
* In the sequel to ''[[The Sparrow]]'' ''Children of God'' {{spoiler|the Runa uprising against their Jana'ata overlords nearly wipes out the entire race. The only hope of survival is a "reservation" system which will allow the 1500 or so Jana'ata remaining to repopulate without having to rely on eating the Runa.}}
* Dragons in ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]''.
* An alien race known as the Takoi in a ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] novel. The reader is given an option on risking himself to save them. {{spoiler|It doesn't work.}}
* The protagonist of ''[[The Man Who Fell to Earth]]'' comes from a planet suffering a debilitating drought; about 300 of his kind are left, and he must establish himself on Earth as a businessman powerful enough to have a rescue ship constructed and launched to bring them to Earth, where they can blend in with humanity and thrive.
* The Neanderthals from the ''[[EarthsEarth's Children]]'' series are, of course, destined for extinction, although it's hinted that at least some of their hybrid offspring may interbreed with modern humans and so have descendents.
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe, the giants can be considered as such: Wizards have killed many of them, and the few that are left have a tendancy to fight each other to the death.
* The [[Star Trek Novel Verse]] portrays the Andorians as this. Their complex four-sex biology is failing them and their window of fertility has dropped to only four or five years. The Andorian culture has reorganized itself around [[Arranged Marriage]] for quads of young people who are genetically compatable. Unless their genome can be repaired, the Andorians face extinction within fifteen generations. Note that events in later stories - [[Star Trek Destiny]] most notably - make the problem even worse.
* [[Our Dragons Are Different|Kantri]] of [[Tales of Kolmar (Literature)|Tales of Kolmar]] are just starting to enter this phase in ''Song In The Silence''. Five thousand years ago the total population of sentient "greater" Kantri was cut in half and the remaining two hundred retreated to isolation on an island. In that time their numbers haven't rebuilt at all, in fact the opposite is true, though the dying is very slow. The species is just becoming collectively dispirited and there are fewer mated pairs and fewer births all the time; they live long, but not forever. Only a few of them recognize that it's happening in that book. {{spoiler|In later books it's solved, and they manage to flourish.}}
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* Eon from ''[[Ben 10: Race Against Time (Film)|Ben 10 Race Against Time]]'' is trying to save his dying race by taking over Earth.
** Another ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' example is the Highbreed, who consider themselves so superior to other races that they want to destroy all life in the universe because ''their'' race is dying out due to... get this... inbreeding.
* The Asgard from ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'', who survive only through cloning, and have found that every new generation of clones suffer a slight degeneration. {{spoiler|Then, after thousands of years of cloning, they decide to commit mass suicide instead of dying slowly and give all their knowledge and technology to humanity.}}
* The unnamed aliens from ''[[UFO]]''.
* ''[[Quatermass and The Pit]]'' features a dying race of alien [[Ancient Astronauts]] who apparently attempted to genetically engineer humanity to become their successors.
* ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' - Several examples:
** The Minbari - fewer are born with each generation and the greatest of their souls are no longer found among them, for {{spoiler|their souls are being reborn into humans (a large plot point in the series)}}.
*** We later get a full explanation for this: {{spoiler|The Minbari were, at one point, introduced to a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] time traveler, [[Really Got Around|who mated with a minbari and so did his descendants]]. At the present time, the windfall his genes caught has begun to turn and the human DNA sequences are gradually being removed from the Minbari genome by outbreeding. When the Minbari reach first contact with humanity (which by an extreme coincidence happens to be the very same time traveller), they find pieces of those genetic sequences (who were originally human in the first place) in his genome and reach the above conclusion.}}
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* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' - ''Humans''. It is eventually subverted tough.
** {{spoiler|Cylons play it straight after the resurrection hub is destroyed.}}
* ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' pilot "The Cage" (and two-part episode "The Menagerie"). The Talosians are condemned to eventual extinction because their power of mental illusions acts like a addicting drug. They consider their dreams to be more important than reality, so they gave up travelling, building, and creating. They can't even repair the machines left by their ancestors.
** "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]].
* ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "Up the Long Ladder". The inhabitants of the planet Mariposa reproduce by cloning and are suffering from a disorder called [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Replicative_fading replicative fading] that occurs when DNA is cloned too many times. If not corrected, they won't be able to reproduce.
* ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "When the Bough Breaks". The inhabitants of the planet Aldea have become sterile as a side effect of their planetary cloaking device. The Aldeans decide to steal children from the Enterprise to carry on their civilization.
* ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'': the Taelons are dying.
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'''s Ancients, the ones who gave John the wormhole information.
* In between the old and new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor used "the Moment" to wipe out all the Time Lords, leaving just him, {{spoiler|an [[Opposite Sex Clone]] genetic anomaly that may or may not "count", a handful of part-human hybrids, and, at least for a time, his arch-enemy the Master}}.
 
 
== Music ==
* The Squonk in the [[Genesis (Musicband)|Genesis]] song of the same name.
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* Craftworld Eldar from ''[[Warhammer 40 K40000]]''. The Dark Eldar, meanwhile, use mass cloning and [[Uterine Replicator|Uterine Replicators]] to replenish their numbers and avert this.
** In regular [[Warhammer]], 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."
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== Video Games ==
* The [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Krogan]] from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' due to the "genophage", a biological weapon that reduces the number of live krogan births to a fraction of its normal level. This actually turns out to be carefully tuned to keep their population stabilized rather than to cause extinction; because krogans are from a [[Death World]], they're [[Explosive Breeder|Explosive Breeders]] ''and'' live [[We Are Asas Mayflies|around a thousand years]] (if nothing kills them first). This meant that their population ''exploded'' once removed from their natural environment -- until the genophage leveled things out. Given that krogans are almost universally [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]] who are fond of [[We Have Reserves]], their culture hasn't quite caught up with their new biology yet.
** 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.}}
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** Warcraft has (high) elves as a dying race too but not for the reasons mentioned above: While reproducing slower than humans, high elves were doing relatively well until the setting's [[Zombie Apocalypse]] hit them. Unlike other elf tropes though, Warcraft elves appear capable of recovering...[[Crapsack World|if only they could catch a break]].
** The Night Elves are no longer immortal after the destruction of the World Tree. However, with the sweeping changes and threats to Azeroth recently, their culture has changed from their static ways of druid sleep into a far more active one; becoming a dying race has them more active and powerful than ever before.
* In ''[[Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]]'', the bestiary entries of various monsters state that their races are dying. The goblins were already slowly vanishing from the world before Gabriel started killing them in droves. The last Ogre also dies by Gabriel's hand. The only Dragon left in the world is a corpse animated by necromancy and Gabriel kills that too. {{spoiler|He even kills the last Old God Pan.}} The Aghartians fell long ago to the Lycans, and Gabriel destroys the last remnants of their civilization the Titans {{spoiler|[[Kill the Cutie|as well as the last Aghartian Claudia]] thanks to [[Mind Control]].}} By defeating the Lords of Shadow, Gabriel (seeing a pattern?) also breaks the power of the Lycans, Vampires, and Necromancers.
* The Prophets of [[Halo]] were already rapidly declining when the war with humanity started. The Covenant Prophets all come from the gene pool of a single ship launched from their now-destroyed homeworld, meaning they have to be very careful to avoid inbreeding. Then High Charity, their major population center, was consumed by [[Zombie Apocalypse|The Flood]]. According to their file on ''Waypoint'', there are less than a thousand members of their species left in the whole galaxy.
 
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** Also the roundabout [[Trope Maker]]-as in, when [[Word of God|David Morgan-Mar]] discovered that this page did not exist yet, he made it himself.
* The [[Catgirl|Mirrakae]] in ''[[Linburger]]''.
* The Bradicor in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]''.
* The Harlzoids briefly show up in the backstory of ''[[Spacetrawler]]''. They are finished off by food poisoning from an improperly-calibrated food synthesizer.
* In ''[[DMFA]]'' it's stated that fewer and fewer Angels are being born, and this has caused much alarm in the Angel community.
* The Dark Elves of ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'' have all but vanished by the time the story takes place, having been replaced by their children, the titular drow, who [[Bizarre Baby Boom|evolved to better survive in the Underworld]]. The ones that are left have largely given up hope of ever seeing the surface again.
** Among the drow the Beldrobbaen Clan, more or less a nation onto itself, is in a similar state, having lost an entire generation of children during a demonic accident. Since then entire houses have died out and the clan is widely thought to be on its last legs.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* The Atlanteans in ''[[Atlantis: theThe Lost Empire]]''. Although they are granted close to eternal life, their [[Creative Sterility|culture is slowly dying away]] as their memories fade. They can't even read their own language any more or even use their own technology.
 
 
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