History Main / GalacticSuperpower

* The writer doesn't want to go to the extra work of creating and developing lots and lots of tiny nations and creates a dominant Galactic Superpower to save time. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools And to be honest]] detailing more than one nation is not really necessary unless the story involves politics.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The Ytirflirks managed to take over a large sector of space near their homeworld, but made a mistake when they tried to scope out earth using their mothership. It wasn't earth's heroes who were their undoing, but the most prevalent of the races they'd enslaved who took the opportunity to revolt.
[[/folder]]

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', the Trans-Galactic Republic spans ''ten'' galaxies, all outgrowths from the [[StarWars original]]. The trope definition implies any galaxy with a single major government counts, so the Citadel Council's (former) space also qualifies. Averted with Pandora's surrounding galaxy--there's not really a government to speak of.

*** Legends placed the Galactic Empire as encompassing a total of seventy million worlds spanning the whole galaxy, though sixty-nine million of those were colonies or vassal states rather than "true" Imperial territories.

*** ''Literature/PebbleInTheSky'': The Galactic Empire capital is the [[NamingYourColonyWorld planet/system Trantor]], and has essentially conquered or absorbed all rivals. It stands strong.

[[folder:Fan Works]]

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', the Trans-Galactic Republic spans ''ten'' galaxies, all outgrowths from the [[StarWars original]]. The trope definition implies any galaxy with a single major government counts, so the Citadel Council's (former) space also qualifies. Averted with Pandora's surrounding galaxy--there's not really a government to speak of.

** The Covenant, a religious empire stretching across a good chunk of the Orion Arm founded by the San'Shyuum (Prophets) and Sangheili (Elites) and based around worship of the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]], themselves an ancient version of this trope who effectively controlled the entire Milky Way (controlling some 3 million habitable planets). The Covenant are on a remarkably tiny scale compared to the objects of their worship, "only" controlling a few hundred populated planets with claims on a lot of other unpopulated ones, which still makes them a juggernaut and by far the single most powerful ''known'' faction in the galaxy during the games' timeline. They were never ''unchallenged'', with [[EnemyCivilWar civil war]] being rampant, other races existing outside of their direct rule (sometimes as clients), factions of the Covenant races creating their own independent empires that would then wage war on the "main" Covenant (like Atriox's Banished), and of course, the UNSC (with about 800 planets, moons, and asteroids and 39 billion people) fighting them for thirty years, but their position as superpower of the Orion Arm was never really in question while they existed. After the Covenant splinters into a multitude of warring factions post-''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', this trope becomes averted as the galaxy is beset by a huge variety of warring great powers and minor powers. The four great powers in the aftermath seem to the human-led UNSC, the Elite-led Swords of Sanghelios, the Brute-led Banished, and Jul'Mdama's Elite-led faction (members simply call it "the Covenant", as they believe themselves to be the empire's unbroken continuation). ''Warfleet'' kind of subverts this though by noting that nothing beyond the Orion Arm has been explored by either the UNSC or the Covenant, so no one really knows what's out there. Most of the Orion Arm isn't explored either - ''Warfleet'' says that only a few thousand star systems have been explored, which comes out to maybe a millionth of the stars in this arm alone.

** The Expanded Universe placed the Galactic Empire as encompassing a total of seventy million worlds spanning the whole galaxy, though sixty-nine million of those were colonies or vassal states rather than "true" Imperial territories.

* The Hater Empire in ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder,'' under the rule of GalacticConqueror Lord Hater. While they seem to own a good chunk of the show's native galaxy in Season 1, they've taken a serious hit by Season 2 thanks to [[TheTrickster Wander's antics]] and Lord Hater's singleminded obsession with destroying him, causing dozens of other villains to come out of the woodwork to compete for power.

* The Hater Empire in ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder,'' under the rule of GalacticConqueror Lord Hater. While they seem to own much of the show's native galaxy in Season 1, they've taken a serious hit by Season 2 thanks to [[TheTrickster Wander's antics]] and Lord Hater's singleminded obsession with destroying him, leading to dozens of other villains coming out of the woodwork to compete for power.

* The Hater Empire in ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder,'' under the rule of GalacticConqueror Lord Hater. While they're a superpower in Season 1, they've taken a serious hit by Season 2 thanks to [[TheTrickster Wander's antics]] and Lord Hater's obsession with destroying him, leading to dozens of other villains coming out of the woodwork to compete for power.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Most of the ''known'' Milky Way is controlled by the [[FictionalUnitedNations Citadel Council]] (basically encompassing the "first world" equivalent of the MEU), but because of the limitations of mass effect drive and laws against opening mass relays willy-nilly barely 1% of the galaxy is actually explored. 50,000 years ago the Prothean Empire dominated, and in previous cycles other empires ruled. The Citadel Council is implied to be an unusual methods, as it's a federation of powers rather than an empire. Still, they're on the scale you'd expect such a superpower to be on- it's repeatedly stated throughout the games that Citadel Space encompasses trillions of people and thousands of garden worlds, with many barely-populated industrial/resource extraction worlds and moons for every garden world. The asari, turians, and salarians are the strongest races in roughly that order, with humanity being a distant fourth about on par with minor members like the elcor in terms of economy and demography. Also, while Citadel Space controls most of the known galaxy, there exist many independent worlds (populated by the same species as Citadel Space) and whole species outside of their sphere of influence - most of them in the Terminus systems, which is to Citadel Space as the third world is to the first world.

[[folder: Western Animatio]]

* Subverted in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Most of the ''known'' Milky Way is controlled by the [[FictionalUnitedNations Citadel Council]] (basically encompassing the "first world" equivalent of the MEU), but because of the limitations of mass effect drive and laws against opening mass relays willy-nilly barely 1% of the galaxy is actually explored. 50,000 years ago the Prothean Empire dominated, and in previous cycles other empires ruled. The Citadel Council is implied to be an unusual methods, as it's a federation of powers rather than an empire. Still, they're on the scale you'd expect such a superpower to be on- it's repeatedly stated throughout the games that Citadel Space encompasses trillions of people and thousands of garden worlds, with many barely-populated industrial/resource extraction worlds and moons for every garden world. The asari, turians, and salarians are the strongest races in roughly that order, with humanity being a distant fourth about on par with minor members like the elcor in terms of economy and demography. Also, while Citadel Space controls most of the known galaxy, there exist many independent worlds (populated by the same species as Citadel Space) and whole species outside of their sphere of influence - most of them in the Terminus systems, which is to Citadel Space as the third world is to the first world.

** The Protoss Empire was a version of this; according to the first game's manual, they "ruled" hundreds of planets, but what that really meant was that they declared themselves the protectors of hundreds of pre-spaceflight planets inhabited by hundreds of different species. Due to their AlienNonInterferenceClause, the protoss didn't colonize those planets themselves, and only lived on a handful of worlds. The bulk of the Protoss Empire's protoss population appeared to live on their homeworld of Aiur. While the Protoss Empire is the strongest, there are other protoss factions in the form of the Nerazim, Purifiers, and Tal'darim. By the time the first game begins the Protoss Empire is the strongest faction in the Koprulu sector, though they could be weaker than the far-off UED.
** The zerg have the main Zerg Swarm under first the Overmind and then Kerrigan as their strongest faction. Besides them there are just the feral zerg (who operate in packs on an animal-like intelligence), those corrupted by Amon, and the secluded Primal Zerg, who eventually get brought into the fold anyway. After Kerrigan ascends and Zagara takes over, the Zerg Swarm splinters. In the absence of Kerriga, the Overmind, or Amon, the zerg broods really aren't much of a power at all.

* The Imperium of Man in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' spans the Milky Way galaxy, but there are many worlds within that expanse that are controlled by other factions which the Imperium is constantly at war with. And the Eastern Reach where the Tau reside is still being explored.

** The Protoss Empire was a version of this; according to the first game's manual, they "ruled" hundreds of planets, but what that really meant was that they declared themselves the protectors of hundreds of pre-spaceflight planets inhabited by hundreds of different species. Due to their AlienNonInterferenceCause, the protoss didn't colonize those planets themselves, and only lived on a handful of worlds. The bulk of the Protoss Empire's protoss population appeared to live on their homeworld of Aiur. While the Protoss Empire is the strongest, there are other protoss factions in the form of the Nerazim, Purifiers, and Tal'darim. By the time the first game begins the Protoss Empire is the strongest faction in the Koprulu sector, though they could be weaker than the far-off UED.
** The Zerg have their main swarm under first the Overmind and then Kerrigan as their strongest faction. Besides them there are just some feral off-shoots, those corrupted by Amon, and the secluded Primal Zerg, who eventually get brought into the fold anyway. After Kerrigan ascends and Zagara takes over, the Zerg Swarm splinters. In the absence of Kerriga, the Overmind, or Amon, the zerg broods really aren't much of a power at all.

Compare SpaceFillingEmpire. May be led by a GalacticConqueror. Contrast with, and may overlap with, an UngovernableGalaxy. Often overlaps with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, unless there's a specific reason given for why planets are so spread out (e.g. hyperspace lanes in ''Franchise/StarWars''s or jump-points in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'') when logically there'd be no reason to, for example, go all the way to Perseus to colonize a world when there are millions of perfectly good ones you haven't touched in Orion.[[note]]Most space-faring sci fi universes have several dozen to several thousand inhabited planets, and even very high-scale ones like ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', or the Forerunner era of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', top out in the millions. The current scientific consensus is that there are [[https://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243281814/study-says-40-billion-planets-in-our-galaxy-could-support-life#:~:text=Transcript-,A%20new%20study%20in%20the%20Proceedings%20of%20the%20National%20Academy,in%20the%20Milky%20Way%20galaxy. 40 billion]] planets potentially inhabitable planets in our galaxy. Even if that's overestimated ten-fold and there are actually only 4 billion, that would still mean that the totality of populated systems in most of these franchises would fit quite easily into less than a millionth of the galaxy's volume assuming uniform distribution of inhabited worlds (~4,000 planets), or a thousandth for the biggest ones (~4,000,000 planets). That's what happens when you have a disk of 8 trillion cubic light-years containing 400 billion stars![[/note]]

Compare SpaceFillingEmpire. May be led by a GalacticConqueror. Contrast with, and may overlap with, an UngovernableGalaxy. Often overlaps with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, unless there's a specific reason given for why planets are so spread out (e.g. ''Franchise/StarWars'''s hyperspace routes or ''Franchise/MassEffect'''s mass relays) when logically there'd be no reason to e.g. go all the way to Persus to colonize a world when there are millions of perfectly good ones in Orion.[[note]]Most space-faring sci fi universes have several dozen to several thousand inhabited planets, and even very high-scale ones like ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', or the Forerunner era of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', top out in the millions. The current scientific consensus is that there are [[https://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243281814/study-says-40-billion-planets-in-our-galaxy-could-support-life#:~:text=Transcript-,A%20new%20study%20in%20the%20Proceedings%20of%20the%20National%20Academy,in%20the%20Milky%20Way%20galaxy. 40 billion]] planets potentially inhabitable planets in our galaxy. Even if that's overestimated ten-fold and there are actually only 4 billion, that would still mean that the totality of populated systems in most of these franchises would fit quite easily into less than a millionth of the galaxy's volume assuming uniform distribution of inhabited worlds (~4,000 planets), or a thousandth for the biggest ones (~4,000,000 planets). That's what happens when you have a disk of 8 trillion cubic light-years containing 400 billion stars![[/note]]

Compare SpaceFillingEmpire. May be led by a GalacticConqueror. Contrast with, and may overlap with, an UngovernableGalaxy.

** The Covenant, a religious empire stretching across a good chunk of the Orion Arm founded by the San'Shyuum (Prophets) and Sangheili (Elites) and based around worship of the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]], themselves an ancient version of this trope who effectively controlled the entire Milky Way (controlling some 3 million habitable planets). The Covenant are on a remarkably tiny scale compared to the objects of their worship, "only" controlling a few hundred populated planets with claims on a lot of other unpopulated ones, which still makes them a juggernaut and by far the single most powerful ''known'' faction in the galaxy during the games' timeline. They were never ''unchallenged'', with [[EnemyCivilWar civil war]] being rampant, other races existing outside of their direct rule (sometimes as clients), factions of the Covenant races creating their own independent empires that would then wage war on the "main" Covenant (like Atriox's Banished), and of course, the UNSC (with about 800 planets, moons, and asteroids and 39 billion people) fighting them for thirty years, but their position as superpower of the Orion Arm was never really in question while they existed. After the Covenant splinters into a multitude of warring factions post-''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', this trope becomes averted as the galaxy is beset by a huge variety of warring great powers and minor powers. The four great powers in the aftermath seem to the human-led UNSC, the Elite-led Swords of Sanghelios, the Brute-led Banished, and Jul'Mdama's Elite-led faction (members simply call it "the Covenant", as they believe themselves to be the empire's unbroken continuation).

* Averted in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', where despite there being only three races (five if you count the Purifiers and Primal Zerg as distinct), all of them are divided into many different factions, and none of these factions are powerful enough to subvert all of the other ones. Additionally, the games are set in a rather small portion of space, a single sector of maybe a hundred planets, rather than a whole galaxy. That said, there are a few great powers worth noting:

** The Protoss ''were'' actually this at their height under the Protoss Empire, but [[DyingRace in their current situation]] are a mere fragment of what they once were and divided on top of that. Their strongest faction is the Khalai, followed by the Nerazim, Purifiers, and Tal'darim in that order.
** The Zerg have their main swarm under first the Overmind and then Kerrigan as their strongest faction. Besides them there are just some feral off-shoots, those corrupted by Amon, and the secluded Primal Zerg, who eventually get brought into the fold anyway. After Kerrigan ascends and Zagara takes over, the Zerg Swarm splinters.

* The Terran Confederacy in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' was thought to be the largest and dominant power in the Koprulu sector until contact with the Protoss. After its fall the succeeding Terran Dominion temporarily united ''all'' Terran colonies, though the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate later broke free again. The scale of the United Earth Directorate is not known.