History Main / TakeOverTheWorld

* JapanTakesOverTheWorld, which was influenced by Japan's powerful economy that emerged in the 1970s and the spread of its pop culture in the 1980s, and was especially popular in early {{Cyberpunk}} stories. However, this time it was about economics and not military and political espinoage. The lost decade of Japan in the 1990s which led to an economic and production standstill has led to another East Asian superpower filling this role, which would be...

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'' the villain wants to become emperor. (Which would be one step above the highest known ruler, who is only high king) There hasn't been an emperor for a long time, and it seems he is mainly doing it out of vanity, even though his method of achieving his goal is well thought out. While it is not clear whether he intends to rule the whole world, he does intend to rule all countries that have been mentioned - which may be the whole ''known'' world.
* Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is the definitive literary example of this trope actually succeeding, and the consequences thereof. While the world may not ''technically'' be under the control of a single power, each of the three totalitarian superstates that do rule the world are effectively in tacit alliance with one another against their own peoples, and engage in an endless proxy war the aim of which is not to win but to divert resources, manpower and focus away from their home populations. Although we are given details of only one of the three, it is suggested that all follow roughly identical ideologies. In a rather brutal lampshading, the regime insider O'Brian acknowledges that DystopiaIsHard, even for them, but they do not care, because the ultimate aim of the regime is pure power, rather than material or personal satisfaction.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible''. As he works on his latest EvilPlan (and afterwards) Doctor Impossible wonders what "taking over the world" even means, having tried everything from TimeTravel to [[NoodleIncident an army of fish]]:

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars A Fighting Man of Mars]]'', this is the jeddak of Jalar's intention -- though being a DirtyCoward, he insists on marvelous MadScientist inventions in sufficient quantities first. Also Phor Tak, who had made him those inventions and been exiled by him; desire for {{Revenge}} drives him insane.

* When 4Kids was dubbing the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' movies, they had a habit of changing the villains' motives to this, because kids wouldn't understand their original motives.

** Malladus from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'', apparently, [[spoiler:until his revival is about to be undone and he decides that an EarthShatteringKaboom is good to go as well.]] At least [[MagnificentBastard Ganon(dorf)]] was modest enough to limit himself to just Hyrule...

'''Brain:''' The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!

* ''Franchise/KamenRider'': Tons of Showa era villains had this as this as their plan. Not so much in the Heisei era, where the villains plans are usually more complex. The only villains whose end goal plan is conquering the world is Smart Brain from ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'', whose plan entails a ZombieApocalypse of sorts.

* In Fanfic/AllForLuz, [[EvilMentor All For One]] admits to [[AntiHero Luz]] that this was his purpose in life. [[spoiler:And even after death he still plans to do so as well as adding the Boiling Isles to [[MultiversalConqueror his list of conquest]].

** CorruptCorporateExecutive Mom wants to take over the world, and uses mind control chips planted in every robot (which encompasses virtually all known technology in the future) to get it in "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E3Decision3012 Mother's Day]]". This leads to the memorable line, "Go conquer Earth, you bastards!" This is inspired by the fact that Farnsworth dumped her, leading to the next one: "Hell hath no fury like the [[KillerRobot vast robot armies]] of a WomanScorned!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' it is implied that the United States has taken over the world sometime in the past and simply adopted the name "Earth". The "Earthican" Flag looks like the American flag just with the stars replaced with Earth. And when Nixon is running for president of "Earth" in the year 3000 at first they say he can't run because "no body can be president twice" implying the government of Earth is a continuation of the American government.
** CorruptCorporateExecutive Mom wants to take over the world, and uses mind control chips planted in every robot (which encompasses virtually all known technology in the future) to get it. This leads to the memorable line, "Go conquer Earth, you bastards!" This is inspired by the fact that Farnsworth dumped her, leading to the next one: "Hell hath no fury like the [[KillerRobot vast robot armies]] of a WomanScorned!"
** Bender does it in a BadFuture shown in "Decision 3012."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': In The Medusa Bug", the chaotic villainess Hexadecimal fabricates a viral bug that gradually converts all of Mainframe and its occupants to [[TakenForGranite stone]]. The only character that manages to avoid this fate is Bob, the Guardian, who eventually convinces Hexadecimal that while she may have perfect control over their world, life would be awfully dull with everyone frozen. And, really, the last thing Hex would want is predictability, so she terminates the bug and the system returns to normal.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[Website/TVTropes Earth is ours!]]
** In other words, the Internet.
* If you count humanity as one deeply fractionated empire then we've already achieved this. [[GalacticConqueror But as we all know, one world is not enough.]]
* The person in real life who set the record for most land conquered was Temujin, better known by his title Genghis Khan (even more, if you also count the conquests of his sons). He even invoked this goal when choosing that title, which roughly means "universal ruler".
* UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat conquered what [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece the Greeks]], had previously ''thought'' to be the world... whereupon he, and they, realised that it was ''a lot'' bigger than any of them had thought. Alexander is reputed to have lamented that "Of all the worlds, I have conquered none!" Alexander didn't live long enough to cement his control over most of it (dying at 33) or raise a good heir -- important in a culture where men traditionally killed one another to get the throne. [[SuccessionCrisis The empire didn't last.]]
* On the opposite side of the (old) world from Alexander, [[UsefulNotes/QinShihuangdi some other guy]] did take over the whole known-world to his people. His empire also did not last, ultimately because the penalty for lateness (death) was the same as the penalty for mutiny (death). When combined with a disregard for realistic timetabling, this ultimately led to an entire Army deciding that it might as well rebel and ''risk'' death than obey and die. Culturally, most Chinese cultures ultimately held that their nations were the ''only'' civilised nations on the planet. Ergo, to conquer the Chinese nations and [[ImperialChina rule a unified Empire of China]] was effectively to rule the (civilised) world. In three thousand years of history, no less than half a dozen nations managed to do this. After several non-consecutive centuries of political unity and cultural chauvinism, about four hundred years ago there became a serious case for asserting the pan-Chinese national identity as a valid one in itself.
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Caesar Augustus]] accomplished this, in that he took over [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic an already-powerful republic]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire made himself absolute ruler]]. Contemporaries would compare him to Alexander the Great, but Augustus pointed out that [[WonTheWarLostThePeace it was far more difficult to rule an empire than to conquer one]].
* Frederick III, the Austrian Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 to 1493, adpoted "[[FunWithAcronyms A.E.I.O.U.]]" as his motto. It was short for both the Latin ''"Austriae est imperare orbi universo"'' and the German ''"Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan"'' -- both of which translate to "All the world is subject to Austria". The Austrian Habsburgs continued to use A.E.I.O.U. until they lost power in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and it's still used by some present-day Austrian institutions.
* The Spanish colonial empire is the TropeMaker of the empire where "the Sun never set". At its height, Spain ruled Americas, Portugal, Flanders, the south of Italy, the Philippines and controlled the Mediterranean Sea. Its colonial empire only began to fall apart at the beginning of the 19th century, when people like UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar and José de San Martin came along.
* UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, maybe.
** It must be noted that UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars was an extension of the French Revolutionary Wars. Those wars began when the Girondin faction declared war on neighbouring monarchical nations in the aim of "spreading the revolution" though Danton got on board with "expanding the natural frontiers". Napoleon earned his first promotion at the height ot the Jacobin Republic and the Wars of the First and Second Coalition that triggered as a result of the First French Republic's failure to make peace (which it must be noted is very hard to do for a belligerent side). When Napoleon came to power, he formed the Treaty of Amiens with Britain which provided the only year long peace for over 25 years.
** The Peace of Amiens was broken by... Great Britain who declared war on France, after a failure of diplomatic talks in upholding the original conditions of the treaty. Napoleon ''did'' start preparing his army on the coast of Normandy and apparently made preparations to prepare for an invasion of England but whether these were defensive measures or if Napoleon eventually planned on conquering Europe all along is difficult to know. What is certain is that he wanted to make France the principal hegemony in Europe, a large and prosperous military power full of national pride that would cement and legitimize his regime. Napoleon knew all along that he came to power in a coup and that his claim of being the Emperor of France was not recognized as valid by the old aristocracy of Europe, so his peace agreements with various powers were never honoured on the part of the aristocrats and later Napoleon himself for reasons of expediency.
** In any case, Napoleon's plans for global conquest was never anything more than pipe dream, since the failure of the Haitian Expedition which led to him selling the Lousiana territory to the United States, doubling its territory overnight and bidding farewell to the New World. The French navy could never hold a candle to the British Navy which restricted Napoleon to a Land Empire forcing him to capitalize on that via his continental blockade of denying English goods their biggest market: mainland Europe. This embargo actually succeeded in weakening the British trade and it was for breaking this embargo on the part of Russia and Spain, that he made the two crippling errors that finally ended his regime.
** He did say to Benjamin Constant in 1815, 'I wanted to rule the world - who wouldn't have, in my place' but at that time, during the Hundred Days, he made overtures that insisted that he would be content to remain in France and respect already existing boundaries. The other nations were having none of it, for understandable reasons, and this led to the Congress of Vienna declaring him an {{Outlaw}}.
* The British, through a combination of trade and military action, created [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an empire that covered a quarter of the globe]] (as well as the world's oceans), across so many lines of longitude that famously "the sun never set" on their Empire. The British Colonial Empire actually has the Genghis' empire beat for the title of largest empire in history, although it wasn't created by a single conqueror.
* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany:
** Historians dispute whether Hitler's ambitions were European or global in scope. While he believed that to ensure "Aryan" supremacy Germany needed to conquer a lot of territory, he knew full well that any attempt at world conquest would take a ''lot'' of time (he was 50 when he started the war in 1939) and so only planned to make western Europe into puppet states and ethnically-cleanse all of eastern Europe to make space for ethnic-Aryan-German settlement in his lifetime, leaving the rest of the task to his successors. However, much of Hitler's supposed "planning" is post-hoc analysis. In reality he was an impulsive 'gambler strategist' playing an all-or-nothing game, resulting in the increasingly bigger alliance formed against Germany that ultimately defeated it. Despite its massive military successes in the first half of the war thanks to the Wehrmacht's leadership and efficiency, Germany is still a second-rate power compared to the continental states like America, Russia, and China. But the Nazis would likely not have had much choice about continuing to expand due to how their economy was structured by looting other countries.
--->'''Joseph Goebbels:''' The [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Führer]] has expressed his firm belief that [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Reich]] will one day control all of Europe. From there the road to world rule is practically laid bare. He who owns Europe has leadership of the world within his grasp.
** At the very ''least'' (and probably most), he wished to make Germany into an intercontinental power, one that the world simply ''could not'' deny the existence of and had a hand in every pie, so to speak. While the globe itself may not be realistically within even the Reich's grasp, having enough economic, military, and political clout to trump every other world power was something much more attainable, though whether even ''this'' was possible for the Nazis is debated to this day.
** Hitler specifically did not want to establish a blood dynasty, and given his personal situation it's doubtful he would have lived long enough to groom a descendant as a successor anyway. He also kept his subordinates squabbling for position within the Nazi Party as a means of holding onto power himself. Most likely if Hitler had succeeded the Greater German Reich would have [[SuccessionCrisis collapsed into chaos soon after his death]]. Nazi Germany's leadership was too busy playing hacky-sack with the IdiotBall to plan for long-term conquest as Hitler envisioned.
* This is the stated goal of Bungie, the makers of the game ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. It's stated all over the special features of the second two games. And the web site. And the promotional material...
* Here's [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/08/you_only_search_twice/ Google's]] plan to take over the world.
* A lot of [[ConspiracyTheorist Conspiracy Theorists]] tend to come up with stuff that involves some AncientConspiracy that plans to create a One World Order.
* Since the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the practice of large states attacking their neighbors in order to take territory for themselves has become obsolete. Nuclear warfare between the great powers is enough to keep them down, while small scale versions of this are quickly condemned and undone via international pressure due to the terrors of World War II forcing humanity to come to terms with the fact that modern conquest results in war crimes more than glory. The loophole exploited by the Americans and Soviets in the Cold War however was to instead fight proxy wars and set up an informal empire of puppet states, given that both regimes were officially ideologically anti-imperialist and didn't want to fight a nuclear war with each other. Thus, taking over the world had to be done via cultural and economic hegemony instead of conquest for both sides. Some theorists describe this as "fifth-generational warfare".
** Russia, of course, [[UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} did not get that memo]]. Neither did UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} with Kuwait. However, the former has utilized proxy states as a cover and the latter's conquest was undone quickly, somewhat reinforcing this idea.
* A lot of Biblical end times speculation has a sign of the end times being the creating of one world order, under TheAntichrist. This tends to be a stumbling block against any organization - no matter how truly peaceful or well-intentioned - whose aim is one world government.
* Many religious fanatics, from sociopathic crackpots who have no actual resources (e.g. UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his Helter Skelter plot) to those who present an actual threat to the world (e.g. [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Islamic terrorist groups like Al Qaeda]]).
** The ultimate goal of [[TheTheocracy Daesh/ISIL]], although they're focused mainly on the Middle East, they were very serious and enthusiastic about waging jihad against those that don't agree with their doctrine until their flag is hoisted on every corner of the world.
** Al-Qaeda also had a plan to do this. Like Daesh, they intended to conquer the world through military force, but they first intended to crash the global economy to make it easier. This strategy was apparently based on the fall of the Soviet Union. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda#Strategy here]] for more details. The key difference between the two groups is that Al-Qaeda sought to weaken their enemies via attrition like their founders had done so in the war with the Soviets, while Daesh wanted to take the fight directly to their foes by collapsing the local governments and actually managing to form a state of their own.
* Long before Alexander the Great, UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat of Persia became the first man to conquer what was then the known world, bringing an estimated 40+ percent of the planet's population under his control. His empire outlived him by two hundred years, and despite its portrayal in media like ''300'' was renowned for how peacefully it ruled its subjects.
* Despite his reputation, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan probably did not have any ambitions in this direction. His self-proclaimed heir, Timur(-e) Lang (Tamerlane to most Westerners), was a different story. Claiming that "as there is one God in Heaven, so there should be one ruler on Earth", Tamerlane overran most of Central Asia, and was planning an invasion of China when he died.
* Creator/FrancisEDec claimed that the goal of Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God is to take over the entire universe.
* The US for many people critical of what they call "American imperialism" is trying this or already did it. Although the criticism (even internal) is harsher against the hawks and neo-Cons. Of course many Americans would dispute that and would say that influence and domination are two different things and that actually controlling other regions and apoint their rulers as in the traditional definition of empire is different from having an incredible amount of political, economic and even cultural influence, but obviously the whole thing is under debate. The claims of American world domination are common in both far-left and far-right rethoric as among Islamic and Christian fundamentalists (notice that Christian fundamentalists outside the US tend to see this influence in a negative light as they generally associate the US with liberal and secular causes), however in some regions these claims can be part of the discourse of even the moderates of both left and right, particularly in those areas with a rooted anti-American sentiment.
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** Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, Vegeta, Frieza and his relatives, and Babidi, who all had plans for world/universal domination at one point or another. Specifically, Frieza was in the business of conquering and selling planets.

** In [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]], Bradley seemed to have this as his intention, which makes sense, him being a Hitler-expy and all.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'': Ocelot is trying to take over the world [[spoiler:to trick the heroes to into helping him freeing the world from its real secret rulers]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld, a concept that has gained influence in the 1990s with the rise of the Chinese economy and manufacturing. The [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious economic liberalization]] and large population which has also made the Chinese an influential target for corporations and movie studios back this claim alongside China's powerful army. With a recession in the 2010s and an increased desire to perpetuate a trade war to avert this trope however, this trope may now be discredited even with China's overall economic growth taken into account.

* {{Eurabia}}: Fundamentalist Muslims take over Europe if not the whole world and turn it into a repressive theocracy. The United States feared a variant of this trope post 9/11, but the refugee crisis from the Middle East in the 2010s led to renewed fears of this in Europe.

* This is the goal of Rider, aka UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, in ''LightNovel/FateZero''. Which is to be expected, given that it was his goal in RealLife. An unusual case in that he is a hero rather than a villain. He's delighted to discover that the world is larger than he had realized in life, because ''that means there's more of it to conquer''.

* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': Momonga ends up ''accidentally'' beginning a campaign to conquer the New World when his subordinate Demiurge takes an off-hand remark too seriously. His subordinates, without his knowledge, have dedicated themselves to delivering the New World to him. Momonga just wanted to make his guild famous in the New World hoping to find fellow Yggdrasil players. [[spoiler:He only finds out what his minions are really doing in volume 8 of the light novel. To save face, he goes along with it.]]
* Sadao Maou (Great Overlord Satan) from ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' tries to do this twice. Prior to the events of the series he nearly conquers Ente Isla with his four demon armies before being hurled into an AlternateDimension on the eve of his final victory. During the series he intends to take over modern Earth by ... rising through the ranks at [[BlandNameProduct MgRonalds]].

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Khan Noonien Singh wakes up after a 270-year nap and decides to take over the galaxy.
** Also, Captain ("LORD!") Garth of Izar, who declares himself "Master of the Universe" and, like Khan, plans to use the Enterprise to conquer the galaxy.
* Most villains in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' have world domination as there goal. If they're AlienInvaders, then Earth is likely just one of many worlds they seek to conquer.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS09E02DevilMayCare "Devil May Care" (S09, Ep02)]], [[FemmeFatale Abaddon]] reveals that she not only wants to rule hell but also earth and the fallen angels.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': At the end of the first half, [[spoiler:Kefka conquers the world. The goal of the second half is to dethrone him, preferably ''before'' he gets bored of nuking the survivors with the [[LightIsNotGood Light Of Judgment]] and really gets cracking on the stated goal of [[OmnicidalManiac "building a monument to nonexistence."]]]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'': This is the ''raison d'etre'' for the BigBad, TheEmperor. ''Why'' he wants to rule everything is never gone into in the game itself.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': This is the goal of the Garlean Empire, as they see themselves as the only ones worthy to rule, seeing other nations as dens of unenlightened barbarians.

* Gary from ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''. His goal is ostensibly to "take over the school", but nobody seems to have figured out what that actually means, least of all Gary.

* At the end of the first half of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', [[spoiler:Kefka conquers the world. The goal of the second half is to dethrone him, preferably ''before'' he gets bored of nuking the survivors with the [[LightIsNotGood Light Of Judgment]] and really gets cracking on the stated goal of [[OmnicidalManiac "building a monument to nonexistence."]]]].
* This is the raison d'etre for the BigBad of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', TheEmperor. ''Why'' he wants to rule everything is never gone into in the game itself.
* This is the goal of the Garlean Empire in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', as they see themselves as the only ones worthy to rule, seeing other nations as dens of unenlightened barbarians.
* The Combine from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' do this on a regular basis. When they were introduced, it became the reason the Vortigaunts invaded Black Mesa in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', as they were fleeing their conquered homeworld. Taking over Earth actually was an afternoons work for the Combine.
* [[GeneralRipper General]] [[BigBad Creeper]] from ''VideoGame/{{METAGAL}}'' plans to do so with the help of her eight reprogrammed sisters.
* This is the (repeatedly) stated goal of Murray, the mighty demonic skull in the ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series. Exactly ''how'' he is planning to do this, being a talking disembodied skull with a superiority complex, is slightly less apparent.
* Parodied in the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series with Tiax, an utterly unhinged gnome priest of Cyric, who claims his destiny is to rule the world. Appearing as a recruitable NPC in the first game, the sequel places him in an asylum from where Tiax claims that he ''already has'' taken over the world and now rules it all from inside his [[strike:little padded cell]] throne room.
* This is the ultimate goal in ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'', a RealTimeStrategy game where players take control of a wannabe overlord and set off to conquer the world with various criminal means.
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: Covenant''. When the {{Superboss}} Orobas appears he begins to spout off about his plans for world domination. At that point, however, Anastasia - who by this point has seen a half-dozen different enemies say much the same things - steps forward and asks, "AndThenWhat?" When Orobas asks what she means, she demands to know what he's going to do with the world once he conquers it. Orobas stammers for a bit, and then mutters that he'll have to think about it... at which point Anastasia tells the party to just beat him down.
* Ocelot in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' is trying to take over the world [[spoiler:to trick the heroes to into helping him freeing the world from its real secret rulers]].

* Beautifully mocked by ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: Covenant''. When the BonusBoss Orobas appears he begins to spout off about his plans for world domination. At that point, however, Anastasia - who by this point has seen a half-dozen different enemies say much the same things - steps forward and asks, "AndThenWhat?" When Orobas asks what she means, she demands to know what he's going to do with the world once he conquers it. Orobas stammers for a bit, and then mutters that he'll have to think about it... at which point Anastasia tells the party to just beat him down.

** Xykon, though it is mostly out of boredom.

--> '''Gary:'''"I keep imagining myself in charge of a large empire."

* In the ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, Lena plans to use the meteorite to rule the universe.

* AlternateHistoryNaziVictory, which was a fear during World War II, although the trope became more prolific after the regime's atrocities came to light, making it a good premise for a CrapsackWorld. A lot of the fear from this trope also drew on the fears of a pre World War I Imperial Germany taking over the world. In any case, once the World Wars concluded, a new superpower would set up itself as a contestant for world hegemon, which would be...

** Yet it's played completely straight with many of the aforementioned people whom the Baron holds down. Chief among them [[BigBad the Other]], who just so happens to really be [[Lucrezia Mongfish, the EvilMatriarch of our heroine Agatha and the PsychoExGirlfriend of Klaus]]. The Other's plan involves using {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s to make everyone in the world obey them. But as the story goes on, it's revealed that their plot has much more moving parts than anyone in the world had previously expected.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', where by the start of the story, the [[MadScientist evil mad genius]] Baron Wulfenbach has ''already'' taken over the world with his [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040806 no-nonsense straightforward plan]]. It is then doubly subverted by the Baron hating being the ruler of Europe, but doing it anyways because he believes [[VetinariJobSecurity the world needs him]] (and it probably ''does''). Indeed, the Baron took over the world largely to stop everyone else from trying to do so and wrecking everything in the process. Because the comic takes place in a world full of {{Mad Scientist}}s, there's ''always'' at least a dozen factions trying to rule the world. Without the Baron stamping them down, the entire continent would probably be aflame with the burnt wreckage of a million war clanks. There are still major holdouts, but they prefer cooperation with the empire; England and her other sunken colonies are ruled by a [[GodEmperor Goddess-Queen]], and Paris is ruled by an immortal spark who has tied the city's AI to himself.