On Worldbuilding: How an Empire Falls? [ Game of Thrones l Avatar l Byzantine ]

spoilers for the grand tale that is the arc of history but every Empire eventually Falls and they fall for a host of reasons economic downturn infighting engaging in a land war and ager or going up against the Sicilian when death is on the line like all of history how empires fall is complicated incredibly complicated we'll be splitting this discussion into four parts of reality versus revolution the three C's succession crises and repercussions and usually I wouldn't be able to do multiple weeks with just a single video but lucky for me and you today's video is sponsored by Squarespace I even have a sign of my own and to celebrate to this unexpected little trilogy I'll be putting up the script for each of these videos parts one through two three all on there for you to refer back to yourself and give them like research notes so if you want them to go get those but also start your free Squarespace trial today and Squarespace comps they're shallow few Jimmy and use a my code that's important hello future me to get 10% off your first purchase cook the link down below welcome to part 3 of a planned 15 minutes one part series my mod even said Tim this is gonna be three parts and I was like what no but but Here I am 36 hours of no sleep later you were right happy now firstly reality vs. revolution it's very common to read stories where the evil empire falls due to the Glorious Revolution of discontented Lumberjacks and communists berry pickers but the reality is that empires often fracture and decline slowly over years or even decades the Western Roman Empire collapsed over two centuries due to a myriad of economic military and government problems that we'll discuss soon the eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantines Rosenfeld gradually over the next thousand years the Mongol Empire fractured into four parts following a succession crisis and then was slowly eating away at by numerous small revolutions for a whole century it took nearly six decades for the British Empire to break apart due to a shift against colonization in the geopolitical realm even the Umayyad Caliphate which was overthrown in the Abbasid revolution declined economically and politically for two decades before the actual revolution happened when world building an empire that falls revolution it's critical to keep in mind that it's often preceded by a long period of economic instability cultural fracturing and a shifting political environment what is true is that the fracturing of an empire has often been found to be exponential it breaks a little bit then it breaks a little bit more and then it breaks all at once the revolution often doesn't come until that final stage when the Empire is at its weakest if your story is about a revolution it can help ground it in a realism by showing that shift in the economic well-being for everyday citizens seeing the struggle to maintain border states or the instability between factions and the government to show why revolution is possible now but it wasn't possible before a common exception to this is short-lived empires like Nazi Germany which collapsed incredibly quickly very soon after its formation and one problem that we have as writers is that if the Empire is already in decline then it can make it feel like a less of a threat for our heroes in the Hunger Games the capital loses virtually every battle from the start and is clearly at a weak point at the beginning of the Revolution Collins addresses this problem by shifting the tension away from whether the rebels will succeed to whether characters will survive and the morals around the methods of rebellion Gale intentionally allowing the deaths of children and coin wanting to punish the Capitals children in the aftermath if your empire is already in decline think about the areas of your story that the reader cannot predict or will have opinions on and develop those as driving points of tension in the narrative but let's talk about how kids can destroy absolutely everything including the empire that you worked so hard on with a succession crisis Empire governments especially at the start are often heavily reliant on the legitimacy of that central living leader think Napoleon Alexander the Great Sargon of Akkad meaning the transfer of power to the next ruler becomes a lot more difficult one kind of succession crisis is where there is no clear successor after the death of Genghis Khan this uniting figure for the Mongol Empire the legitimacy of that central authority began to slip eventually Munga Khan died in 1259 with no declared successor leading to infighting between his sons Kublai and our egg without ginga's there was no agreement about who deserved the title of Great Khan between the citizens of the Empire all of those who could have great calm leading to the Empire fracturing into four parts and from this point the empire would progressively lose more territory and within this it's important to think about how your empire actually legitimizes its rulers in Georgia Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire the Blackfyre rebellion began when the king legitimized his bastard son and gave him the sword that was traditionally given to the heir to the throne the sword of Aegon the conquerer that central figure this temporarily fractured the kingdom and led to numerous rebellions throughout history against the true bond is whether your empire is an oligarchy a meritocracy or an autocracy consider which traditions and symbols people recognize and respect that may arise from that central figures life and how they may weaken the Empire by complicating their transfer of power another kind of succession crisis is where the Empire purposefully divides itself amongst its successes because why just why this doesn't happen very often in fiction but the best historical example of this is the Carolingian Empire Louis the pious ended up splitting his empire along these lines and well what do you think happened to the sliver of land between sort of France and sort of Germany multiple people feel entitled to that mental of authority and it just collapses from infighting and lastly a common kind of succession crisis that is particularly relevant to the fall of an empire is where the single of an all-powerful ruler is removed by the powers that keep them there sadly infection empires kings cons and Supreme Leader's often just stay in power because plot but in reality Emperor's or central authority figures are kept in power by generals or wealthy benefactors parliamentarians or government officials who all have something to gain by keeping them there in avatar last airbender long thing was the de facto ruler of bassing say what's most important to his royal Majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing se it's my job to oversee the rest of the city's resources including the military puppet it's the earth Kings trust in him that keeps him in power but it's the Dai Li the secret police who in four his will across the city however the daily eventually choose to replace him with Azula his power was dependent on them keeping him there a similar instance can be found with the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire who often played a suspicious role in choosing the knick Sultan it was quite Hunger Games yet points if the tension in your story revolves around political drama during the fall of an empire then these questions are particularly pertinent who are the factions that keep the current power structures in place in your Empire why did they remain loyal and what could motivate them to change but the reason that this kind of succession crisis so often contributes to the fall of an empire is the aftermath nobody agrees on who should replace them or what kind of government system should come after it was members of the Roman Senate Brutus and Cassius that removed Caesar from power with 23 Democratic steps to the chest but their actions nearly fractured the Empire when they threw it into the bloody liberators Civil War as people disputed which government structure should rise up it didn't create an instant era of peace and prosperity for all a succession crisis can come from having no clear legitimate successor having multiple legitimate successors or the fallout of calling the legitimacy of the current ruler into question the first causes conflict between those who could be that successor the second destroys the important support of central authority and the third causes of disputes over who should replace them and which kind of government system should rise in their place and within this it's crucial to consider how power transfers in regards to traditions symbols or how powerful factions within the government legitimize rulers the Lord ruler and Sanderson's final Empire in the Mistborn series avoided this entirely by using its magic system to become eternally youthful meaning the Empire never faced the problems around the transfer of power because it always retained that central figure thirdly the three C's so in the first part of this series we discussed how communication control and Commerce keep an empire working and I encourage you to go check that out for a more in-depth discussion necessarily if any one of these things that keep them working are lost then they become more likely to collapse losing communication can [ __ ] the Empire's capacity to coordinate and defend itself across its huge territory in I'm a 40k a thing called the astronomic on allows the Empire to communicate across impossibly large distances govern across the galaxy and coordinate min and resources around to respond to threats inside and out in the cataclysmic event known as the noctus a tiene the Empire lost access to the astronomic on plants became isolated and the Empire lost the ability to contact and assist those who needed it many planets were wholly slaughtered and some planets try to exercise this newfound independence and secede the whole Empire virtually fractured for a period and had to be entirely reforged all because it lost the ability to communicate interestingly the inverse of this can also contribute to the collapse of an empire too much communication between citizens for the most part for the original colonies in the Americas were relatively separate entities they communicated mostly through trade rather than official networks but with increased networking in the first mailing system it wasn't just each colony communicating with the crown in Britain anymore but the colonies communicating with one another on the rotary evolution new rebels opposed taxes and tariffs this network meant that they could more easily coordinate resources and men to put up an effective effort alone each of the colonies were doomed but through increased communication between citizens they became a more likely to develop a mutual cultural identity which they did and be they were more able to secede from the Empire as we discussed maintaining control of the filthy peasants is vital for the survival of any Empire trying to your citizens an empire doesn't just fall because it loses its impure it Falls because it loses the methods of control that we discussed in the first video Terra propaganda self-governance preferential tea and assimilation as well as a number of other things losing those means losing Texas resources Commerce members of the military coordination the ability to easily move forces through a given region and it's that the causes the downfall of an empire in all wealth 1984 we see how Winston begins to see through the propaganda designed to make him want to be a part of Oceania and fear those living outside of it when he begins reading books no longer believing that propaganda he begins to make for revolution now in the story this fails well horribly but it does raise an interesting point effective state propaganda is largely dependent on the state being the primary source of truth and information about the well-being of the nation and the outside world for its citizens in constructing the fall of your empire consider how connected your citizens really are this also means that the failure of propaganda is a lot more likely to play a part in the fall of science fiction empires where technology makes it a lot easier for citizens to communicate other ideas and interpretations of events to one another in medieval worlds that's a lot easier to imagine that the town's only source of information about the rest of the Empire is provided by the occasional traveler in the government meaning they have nothing to compare it to they would just believe it if it read the Huns are a terrible civilization in age of you oh wait no that's that's not propaganda that's true how centralized or decentralized the power structure is in an empire is crucial to its formation and survival but it's also crucial to whether or not it will fall the Ching dynasty in China collapse due to its extremely centralized power it increased the power of the central state with its legal estill Asafa chol approach attempting to impose a standardized culture on the states using harsh punishments focusing on large industrial projects and military expansion leaving the local issues of the states unresolved naturally people felt wholly alienated and dominated this lid - revolts and it collapsed within 15 years now these flaws in extremely centralized power heavily at the Roman Empire the mongol empire and figures like Alexander the Great to de-centralized a lot of their power but empires well they're fickle things interesting too much power from the center can also contribute to its downfall the provinces start wondering wait why are we paying taxes to this dude with a crown that can walk insanely fast for someone of that size again this was precisely part of the reason that the Chinese Jo dynasty fell it was so decentralized that the centers power was dwarfed by the surrounding three states of Chinchin - power had slowly divested in its declining years with each state essentially having its own military structure and managing its own agricultural sector - powers that are usually reserved for the central authority soon enough it just broke apart because there were no teeth behind that central power and the local bodies didn't need it in world building your collapsing empire you might consider which powers the central authority needed to maintain control and which powers it is losing weakening instability to assert itself across its territory a unified military is usually the most basic power but which critical historical powers arise out of your fictional world what happens if it gives up the power to tax a vital resource produce a certain in advanced sci-fi technology or it hands over the power to run a Wizarding education system to its regions resulting in a group of mages loyal to the states rather than to that central authority every Empire will be underpinned by different fundamental powers and the divestiture of those will contribute to its fall now holding together this vast range of people groups with different cultures and languages is hard and one method to deal with this is giving the Empire a unifying culture that helps and maintain stability in other words assimilation this can range from the brutal suppression of native languages and cultures like what happened under the British Empire to Maori in New Zealand to unifying cultural practices like incentivizing a path to citizenship or the Colosseum in Rome in the waning years of the Roman Empire a number of Germanic tribes were taken into the Empire but the strategies used to help them assimilate into a single military a single culture and become citizens were largely abandoned this led to a constituent military group that the Empire depended on but didn't truly think of themselves as part of the Empire this particular dynamic would contribute to the destabilization and the eventual fracturing of the Western Roman Empire in which the Germanic tribes played a major role in its fall either attempted to change the culture of our people to fit the Empire to much doing so too quickly or not helping them assimilate at all can result in that region of the Empire fracturing secondly it's not uncommon for the secession of one people to spark the secession of others around them this is why empires tend to fracture a little bit and then a little more and then all at once this is what we saw happened with the late Carnot says these people saw others around them rebelling and wish to reassert control of themselves - they never truly assimilated into the Mongol empire fundamentally all of these different strategies come down to the most important thing and Empire needs good farm placement I mean preferential tea making it preferable for a citizen to be a part of the Empire rather than outside of the Empire this can be through self-governance assimilation propaganda or otherwise or terror because leaving means signing up to the enemy of the state club most empires absolutes a great example of preference reality contributing to the fall of the Empire is elsewhere and the elderscrolls the Khajiit heavily depend on the moon both culturally and religiously when the two moons vanished in what was known as the void nights it was chaos of course economic downturn and widespread panic their faith in the Empire to preserve their way of life began to wane why should these men in a far-off land ho to authority over them when they couldn't even help protect them from the real threats in contrast to the Aldmeri Dominion claimed responsibility for bringing the moon's back some years later leading to a wave of support for them to join the Dominion as they preferred being part of an empire that they felt could protect them and so they did they seceded contributing to the Empire's collapse individuals will prefer to be part of an empire for different reasons Economic Opportunity religious freedom security protection of their way of life and others consider how the events of your story affect the personal motivations of your characters how they change them and how widespread that change is a region won't secede because one person feels their way of life is threatened but a might if a large group feel that way but alas the lifeblood of any state any Empire any anarcho-syndicalist commune that takes turns where each person gets to act as the executive officer of the weak Commerce economic disaster is almost an historical constant prior to change in a government system either violently or peacefully this is at two levels the government having no money and the people having no money one of the advantages of empires that makes them work and wealthy is how interconnected and free their trade is a wider variety of goods can be exchanged at more competitive prices but this interconnectivity is a double-edged sword because of a thing called economic contagion the economic prospects of more people are intertwined meaning collapse in one place has more widespread consequences but how does this economic downturn happen well it's a vicious cycle a lot of the time an unstable economic climate means a lower business confidence lower business confidence means people save more than they spend people saving means that less money is cycling through the economy and that means a more stagnant and unstable economic climate all leading to an unhappy populace and eventual collapse the byzantines lost the ability to finance the defense's buy enough food during famines and repair government buildings when they were destroyed funnily enough they actually couldn't afford to hire the very mechanic who invented the cannons they would be employed by made the second in the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the effects of economic downturn are both internal and external firstly instability means people are more likely to revolt or secede increasing the likelihood that the Empire will collapse internally secondly at lowers government revenue crippling its administration preventing it from defending its borders and increasing the likelihood that it will collapse externally as powers outside encroach or regions secede which in turn reduces faith people have in the Empire but let's talk about the one thing that empires expects less than the Spanish Inquisition disease the Roman Empire fell for a dozen reasons but it was undermined in its final centuries by three different intercontinental pandemic events the Justinian ik plague of the Antonine plague and the plague of Cyprien this massive loss of life meant losing commerce and trade as people fled urban centres and made communication networks a lot slower and for a time its military shrunk making it least capable of defending its borders meaning you had to rely on foreign mercenaries weakening faith of the people in the Empire if you're looking to distinguish the fall of your sci-fi Empire from others an intergalactic pandemic events that eviscerates its economy communication networks and government structures maybe the way to do it authors tend to relegate a fix of disease to history or fantasy but microbial pandemics are far from irrelevant and finally let's talk about what happens when death plays the xylophone repercussions because the fall of the major government system in a region always results in just a peaceful dissolution of the states and establishment of democracy like in Star Wars yeah no that is just spitting in the face of reality because humans are really not good at agreeing on what to do after we take down the government we're more into the hole to shot a civil war and chaos we're really good at that the sudden collapse of an empire whether it be malevolent or not has repercussions what happens to its colonies what happens to those dependent on its social welfare system the collapse may dismantle many things that people oppose but it also dismantles important support systems that society relies on the story of the promise deals with the aftermath of the fire nations hundred year empire building expansion with the colony of you down the earth Kingdom wall to the finest citizens holy gone and the fire nation believed they were protecting people who had built their lives there it led to nearly a whole nother war an assassination attempt on those behind are the plans for peace the major political figures of the day turning on one another when they had once been united before the fire empires fall and it's implied that there may have been racially motivated pogroms taking place whether your empire collapses from incompetence revolution or rapid secession this often leads to a horrific power struggle both locally and centrally as people vie for what they feel would work best the French Revolution was built on the ideas of liberalism democracy not stealing your allies gold opposition to arbitrary power but it ended up with Napoleon and autocrat just the same in the wake of a bloody and chaotic overhaul of the political system of France Panem in The Hunger Games is essentially an empire and Katniss kills president coin when she realizes that she will bring about a new retributive reign against those who lived in the Capitol including their children a vengeance retribution and a desire for power are very much real motivations for those who want to do away with an empire consider how these play into the aftermath of your story more so than the lead up especially if major characters in your story have these as part of their motivation did they just forget what may have happened to them and are they happy to let the once ruling class walk free are they happy to just listen no a group of people seized power and this is kind of a pet peeve of mine stories that center around to the fall of an empire have a tendency to take the hivemind approach to galactic empires where all the rebellion needs to do is kill the person wearing the crown or the top members of government wielding the pointy stick of gulag authority but the reality is that history is complicated removing the hid per se of an empire doesn't necessarily mean an empire will collapse Llumar was one of the most influential caliphs in Islamic history he was the ruler of the Russian and Caliphate for a decade but even after his assassination the Empire took up a new successor and it continued to expand and prosper huge sprawling empires across continents and galaxies or dimensions will still persist so long as they maintain networks of control communication and commerce even if they have to change and adapt to survive a rebellion doesn't just have to kill the person who currently controls the Empire they have to destroy that ability to control in the first place we have talked a lot about empires in this series a 15 minute video turned into 25 and a 1 part series turned into a trilogy that is literally the length of a feature film if only there was a way for me to share all my notes with you on this trilogy of videos oh wait there is because while history is complicated website building doesn't have to be and I would know because I've been able to build my own website with today's sponsor Squarespace where I put up all the scripts for each of these videos for you to keep for yourself win world building your empire that way you'd have to refer back to the video every single time I found it's pretty easy to design a website that looks professional but doesn't take hours of coding which is nice for me it'll be really cool to see where I can take this website with you as I've never really had one before what I really want to know though is what you want from this kind of website should we showcase pieces of writing from the community should we show pictures of Mischka let me know down in the comments below Squarespace is flexible for any kind of artists to youtuber writer emperor dictator or to turn Empire Builder whatever you might be in a nest 365 24/7 support when you need it lucky for both me and you Squarespace is offering you 10% off your first purchase with them if you just go to Squarespace com /hello future me or click the link down the description below to start building your own website that's squarespace.com slash hello future me and get started today link in the description you should just totally do it it really ups the channel so what have we discussed today firstly empires often fracture slowly over the decades or centuries and where they are overthrown by revolution this is usually preceded by a period of political and economic instability secondly succession crises create a political instability that often leads to civil war and destroy the political cohesion needed for an empire this is often due to uncertainty and how transfer of power should happen thirdly losing communication networks or too much communication between citizens can undermine central imperial authority to aggressive assimilation too much centralized power or too little causes States to rebel or secede collapsing the Empire fourthly consider why people groups prefer to stay in the Empire and what story events change that loss of Commerce means higher unemployment lower living standards and increased likelihood of a revolt it also decreases government revenue preventing it from fulfilling its duties and that lowers faith in the Empire fifthly disease can [ __ ] communication control systems and commerce sex leave the aftermath of a fallen Empire is complex factions will fight for who should be in control where groups held together by the Empire will come to heads and regions will have to adapt without these central government networks you know I said to myself Tim this is gonna be a shorter video then the first one don't don't worry how wrong I was I made it to the end of the series three parts essentially a feature-length film this was a lot of fun it's brought a host of people to the channel so thank you thank you for joining go check out the rest of my content the website made my patreon if you're interested in the meantime I have to go write a three thousand word essay that's doing like 24 hours or something gosh come follow me over on all my social media links down below stay nerdy sup URIs and I will see you in the future

Channel: Hello Future Me

Views: 361,764

Rating: 4.9655418 out of 5

Keywords: HFM, hello future me, how to train your dragon, httyd, avatar, legend of korra, legend of aang, the last airbender, atla, firebending, earthbending, waterbending, airbendering, night fury, toothless, dragon, british empire, spanish empire, roman empire, byzantine, caliphate, game of thrones, westeros, blackfyre rebellion, ned stark, explained, history, simple, warhammer, 40k, mongol empire, qin dynasty, han dynasty, zhao dynasty, squarespace, mistborn, 1984, the elder scrolls, skyrim

Id: jAKfs0TaOR4

Length: 26min 19sec (1579 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018