0% Approval Rating: To say that the people of Malica REALLY don't like the Heartless Empire is putting it mildly...
Aristocrats Are Evil: Naturally. A lethal combination of power, privilege, unimaginable luxury, and truly vast amounts of wealth created a nobility that would make Prime Minister Honest flattered. Those who're on an eternal power trip usually don't last long when the peasants have had enough and decide to rebel en masse. Or at least you would think that it would work like that, but the fact of the matter is that heavily armored cavalry tend to crush peasant rebellions in most cases so most of them don't particularly care about how badly they treat their peasants. Rebellion is made even more difficult by the fact that often tyrannical nobles, like in the real world, would grant favors to a portion of the peasant population at the expense of all the other peasants, pitting the peasants against each other. However, as the war with the Commonwealth turned less and less in their favor, the nobility quickly saw the writing on the walls and fled the Empire while they still had the chance.
Badass Army: Despite the Empire's unstable nature, their military is one of the strongest in the Axis. While the Commonwealth did slowly overcome them, they suffered heavy casualties in nearly every battle against the Empire's armies. The Warlords themselves were responsible for a multitudes of Commonwealth defeats.
Big Bad: For Malica's story overall, though interestingly enough it ends up becoming...
Big Bad wannabes: It ends up becoming this by the time the Warriors and Guardians of Light reappears as the Combine more or less usurp the position from them and most of the story in Malica involves dealing with Hitt'lon and his horrors then Malevolent and her empire, although the Warriors of Light do fight against the Heartless Empire more frequently before the Guardians woke up.
Black And Red And Evil All Over: Aside from using shadowry eldritch horrors as shock troops, the Heartless Empire uses ALOT of rather evil looking symbolism, emblems, and building designs as well as a clearly Nazi-inspired military uniform of the Empire's Imperial military, all of which tend to involve black or red colors in them so yeah, this is a given.
Card-Carrying Villain: The Empire usually range from this to Pragmatic Villainy, but usually its' the Council members (for the most part), Nobles, Imperial corporations, and the Warlords (half of the time) that tend to fall into this category doing all manner of monstrous things for the Evulz and freely acknowledge what they are doing is evil and enjoy it, though they do have standards that they won't cross and once someone does that individual usually dealt with in a brutal and rather vicious manner.
Child Soldier: Near the end of the Empire and the War, the Empire began to force children as young as 8 into the frontlines out sheer desperation and predictably this was seen as a sign by the Commonwealths of the increasing insanity of the Empire following the civil war's conclusion.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Yeah, the Empire has these too, though both Malican states have this problem, its' just the Empire's is far worse then the Union's as there quite a few places within the Empire's feudalistic structure that includes what is effectively a Corporate Fiefdom which typically have some of the universe most corrupt businesspeople controlling them, James Shinra of Shinra Incorporated being the most infamous among them.
Cult: The Empire has a few of these floating around, although most are decidedly in the shadows of society, but two do appear to have some level of state endorsement, or at least, tolerance, and those being the cult that worships Darkness (which only members of the Empire's nobility does this to any sizable percentage, with the rest of the Empire's population not involved in the cult whatsoever, and the cult the Executioners, a group the Empire uses for public executions half of the time, and said cult is particularly horrific which preaches total obedience to law and anyone who breaks said rules should be killed in the most gruesome and brutal methods available... which including public flayings... and the wearing of their skin by the executioner in question (causing the Empire to utterly horrified by them, including the co-monarchs, and the majority of the Empire's government, military and public terrified of the Executors and the only reason why they bother with them is the Empire being terrified of what sort of carnage the Executors would do if the Empire doesn't at least try and limit their brutality, and worse yet the setting heavily implies that the cult these horrifying Executioners belong to is a another sub-cult of the wider cult that worships the Entities and more specifically they indirectly worship both the Great Judge... and the Outsider).
FF14's Ascians... or rather a reorganized version of them... also exist within the Empire but... changed... instead of trying to cause apocalypses to slowly restore their broken god, they're now omnicidial nutcases trying to end the universe due to the influence of some malevolent deity that some remnants of the first iteration of cult's surviving members discovered in the years after Dawntrail, which is all but stated to be the Hunter, especially given the horrific corruption these particular incarnation of the Ascian cultists appear to have.
Dark is Evil: Their banner is dominated by Black, their soldiers take design inspirations from the Nazis and are often dressed in black, ruled by a self-proclaimed Empress of Evil, and possibly one of the more monstrous states to exist in Malica, obviously they fall squarely into this.
Decadent Court: Possibly the most exaggerated example in the story, save for possibly the Combines. The Heartless Imperial's nobility is constantly vying for more power and authority, with backstabbing, assassinations, and poisoning being commonplace. Many of the younger ones are utter rakehells, who dress in masks and costumes and go on killing sprees, while even the nicest were apathetic or completely dismissive of the peasantry.
Doom Troops: The Empire's forces are almost universally this in design, being primarily black in color with red accents and red glowing lens and unlike the Union's similarly designed forces, they are a straight version of it.
The Dreaded: Not to the extent of the Combines, but they had an extremely fearsome reputation. Especially the 13 Warlords, as entire rebellions surrendered when the Warlords came to the battlefield.
Even among the Warlords there is one that even THEY dread and that being Kefka, the mad clown himself, who is understandably dreaded by everyone in the Malica universe as well, Union or Imperial.
Dystopia is Hard: The Heartless Empire is a HUGE deconstruction on 'the Bad Guys Win' AU. Much of the storyline in Malica makes it clear just how much of dysfunctional mess the Empire is with near constant infighting among its' various organizations. Additionally, its' overall incompetence frequently causes problems for the Empire as a whole which is only made worse by extensive corruption and outright wastefulness that by the time the heroes of the Ethirys System and Second Keyblade War were found and awaken, the Empire is on the verge of collapse and it didn't take much to fully implode it into outright civil war as what happened immediately after Hitt'lon was killed and most of the thirteen warlords were killed either by the Heroes themselves or as a result of the war Hitt'lon started.
The Empire: Obviously its' this and a clear villainous example of such having conquered half of the Malica Universe, and rules over most of it directly, there are some subordinate states that control large chunks of it, each one of them are empires in their own right.
Second Garlean Empire is effectively a glorified remnant of the First Garlean Empire created by Fadius Arvina, former legatus of the First Garlean Empire's Vth Imperial Legion who underwent a mental breakdown when the First Garlean Empire was collapsing and in the process created a ideology that took the beliefs of the First Garlean Empire and took it to extremes that the former First Garlean Imperials would find monstrous and deranged. Funnily enough they do not control any territory on their homeworld, much less their old homeland, instead he took what followers he had and colonized a planet far from his home system and over time created the Second Garlean Empire, but the way he run said empire was so dysfunctional it nearly brought it to ruin by the time the Empire of the Heartless was created, forcing him to align with people he genuinely hated and its' implied he and his forces have been trying to build up their forces to revolt against the Heartless Empire... keyword is "trying" as it folded almost instantly the second Hitt'lon began his rampage across the few systems the Second Garlean Empire controlled and once the Heartless Civil War erupted, the Second Garlean Empire fractured into different competing factions, with Arvina powerless to stop it.
Gestahlian Empire, or just Kafka's Empire as he revived the old empire he used to run and its' less a Empire and more a personal fiefdom controlled by him and run by a nihilistic cult which encourages the hedonistic indugles of its' ruling class while brutally oppressing everyone that resides in its' territories. But once Kafka defected to Hitt'lon's side, his empire was promptly carved up by his rivals in the Warlords and Council and ceased to exist.
Nova Chrysalian Empire is the state created by Caius Ballad and compared to the former two sub-empires is more functional and holds more territories then both put together, but still runs into the same overarching problems that plagues the Heartless Empire, but definitely was in a better position once the Heartless Civil War erupted
Enemy Civil War: Its' honestly amazing that the Empire lasted as long as it did but eventually it did collapse into a truly chaotic civil war following the end of the Uliscor's War, becoming little more then a free-for-all with Maleficent's Loyalists, Anti-Imperial Rebels (who were obviously supported by the United Commonwealths), and the Ascian Cult (sort of) being a united force with all the various Imperial factions, be they council members, Military officials, and surviving warlords, all fighting each other just as much as they do the other three factions.
Enemy Mine: The Heartless Empire did this during Hitt'lon's rampage, mostly putting aside their differences with the Commonwealths to deal with Hitt'lon's forces but once he was dead went back to fighting the Commonwealths... for all of a few minutes before dissolving into a civil war.
Even Evil Has Standards: Rape is heavily frowned upon in the Empire. One noble family was lynched by the soldiers of the Empire after discovering that they kidnapped and raped several men, women, and children. Funnily enough this is something they share with the Combines, its' one of (MANY) reasons the vast majority of the Combine governments despises Ormaikonor.
This is such a well know taboo that when Professor Hojo suggest his supersoldier project that involves kidnapping demigoddesses and turning them into breeding slaves, Shinra flatout told him that the Empire would use that as a excuse to nationalize their company and suggested he destroy all records of this proposal with a thinly vailed threat against him if he does not carry this out.
Additionally, the way the Second Garlean Empire ran its' state horrified the Empire, be it leadership or common public but tolerate it due to the troops it provides regardless of how it was effectively a glorified stellar nation-size death camp
Everyone within the Empire are flatout terrified of the Executioners, a monstrous group of cultists who wears peoples' skins while also conducting some of the Empire's most brutal and horrific methods of executions, among which includes public flayings, so with those details its' not surprising that the Empire's government, military or public (high-class or low-class) would be both horrified by them and disgusted.
Fascist But Inefficient: Both played straight and deconstructed. The Heartless Empire is as stupid and inefficient as totalitarian states come, but it still does a lot of damage to its people and neighboring worlds just with its cruel incompetence. Their military is pretty much one of the few things holding the Empire together even without the Combines, because literally everything else is stupidly inefficient, and the only ones that aren't in the army are the administration wing of the Empire which is also the second thing holding it together. And the war has gone on for so long and has been so brutal that morale is at an all-time low, with only fanaticism and terror being able to hold their heads above the water.
This is even more apparent with the Second Garlean Empire, as it functionally acted similar to the TNO's SS-controlled Burgundy, complete with being run by a ideological fanatic and just plan insane man either unaware or actively pretending his ideologies isn't destroying his nation.
Feudal Future: This is effectively what the government is at the end of the day given that each of the Council members have their own little fiefdoms, Warlords having fairly large states within the Empire, and non-council and warlord-aligned nobles having considerable power and can basically do whatever they want to the people of the Empire.
This is best shown with its' sub-empires that the Heartless Empire are overlords of, like the Second Garlean Empire, Gesthlian Empire and Nova Chrysalian Empire.
Good Republic, Evil Empire: Is the "evil empire" to the Commonwealths "good republic"
Know When to Fold 'Em: the core reason that explained why the more competent and or less fanatical members of the Empire went into hiding following the conclusion of the civil war, they saw the writing on the wall and sees no point in continuing to fight, which Xehanort kicked started with his own mysterious disappearance following the death of his heartless.
Last Villain Stand: Another reaction found within the Empire post civil war and most notably among its' more fanatical elements and surprisingly Maleficent herself, instead of going into hiding she dragged the war on for another two years and did anything and everything to try and stop the Empire's ultimate defeat but instead she brought more death and ruin to her empire in the process and further broke what was left of her forces.
Mad Scientist: Professor Hojo and Azmodan of the 13 Warlords.
Megacorps: The Empire had quite a few of these running around, most infamous being Shinra Incorporated, but they were not alone as there existed numerous others. Although its' slightly downplayed as the various megacorps weren't nearly as powerful as the Council members or the Warlords and they have been nationalized by the government of the Empire on more then one occasion, hell, even Shinra had to trend carefully when dealing with the Imperial government as any wrong move (or a move that the Council didn't like) Shinra does will result in them being broken up or outright nationalized.
One Man Army: They have SEVERAL, not just the Warlords, hence why they have conquered half of Malica.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Large chunks of the Heartless Empire's aristocracy, ruling officials and military are outright and open human supremacists who believe humans should rule and all other species should either be second class citizens at best or outright slaves or even just killed at worse. The irony of them being not only lead by a Dark Fae (Maleficent) but also having seversal members of the Imperial Council made up of Non-Humans is not lost on anyone in and out of Malica.
Pragmatic Villainy: This is the other range that the Empire goes to and is where the Military and the Warlords (half of the time) falls into. Yes, what they do is INCREDIBLY brutal and violent but it rarely goes into self-destructive territories, and all of their monstrous tactics and actions is meant to serve a clear purpose, be it conquest or just keeping troops in line through terror tactics.
Red and Black Totalitarianism: Their flag is predominately black in color with red as a prominent secondary color and was Malica's most monstrous Empire in recent memory contracted and maintained by military oppression, cruelty and the deaths of trillions.
Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Like many fascist states there's intense rivalries between the various branches of the Imperial government, to the point it actively started to hurt their efforts and goals, which only gotten worse post-civil war as many competent members of the government where either killed or purged outright.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: A position alot of the more sane and or competent members of the Heartless Empire took after the civil war and the realization that the Empire days was numbered and promptly fled and went into hiding, something that Xehanort was most infamous for doing.
Secret Police: It doesn't have one but FOUR secret police organizations, two of which compete WITH EACH OTHER and were loyal only to the two co-monarchs, and the other secret police are actually thirteen separate orgs but lumped together due to their similar behaviors and alignment with the thirteen warlords in some way, and the last one is the organization that's meant to police the Empire's society is woefully corrupt and prone to near constant infighting, of which eventually got it purged and replaced by another one that more or less resembled the Spanish Inquisition.
State Sec: The Shadow Legion, which is the second most powerful army in the Empire.
Inter-Service Rivalry: Much like Nazi Germany, because of their Social Darwinist beliefs, many of the other branches of the Imperial government refuse to work for each other and spent so much time spying, plotting, and undermining one another that carrying out the function they were actually supposed to do became secondary to trying to one-up everybody else. Sometimes things would get so bad that the taskforce meant to police the Imperial Government would have entire wings of the government executed for incompetency. Xehanort and Maleficent privately admits that they regret setting the government up like this and when things got truly desperate, the two enacted martial law and dissolved the branches.
Undying Loyalty: Funnily enough the Thirteen Warlords have this towards the Co-Monarchs, though Kafka is a notable exemption, with most of them utterly loyal to Maleficent especially.
Vestigial Empire: Downplayed, yes its' military is still able to hold its' own and fight pretty effectively, but that's the only thing going well for them as otherwise the Empire has been slowly decaying away since its' creation, especially after centuries of war has only done to cripple the Empire. Its' economy functionally doesn't exist anymore, its' politics is plagued with infighting and becoming more and more fractious and factional, with its' frontier slowly slipping away from its' hold. The only things keeping it together was the military, the Thirteen Warlords and Maleficent. Once the military was severely weakened and most of the warlords were killed in the conflict with Hitt'lon, not even Maleficent could hold it together as it violently imploded into civil war almost immediately after the conclusion of Hitt'lon's War.
Villainous Breakdown: More or less entered something like a governmental version of this after the civil war and they in turn became increasingly more desperate and or fanatical, slowly starting to enact policies and actions that's exactly what the Nazis did once the war fully came to the homefront, IE on-the-spot executions of "deserters and or cowards", forcibly conscripting kids as young as 8 into active combat, and officers, most of whom were fanatics as those were the types that survived the civil war and the purge that followed. Ontop of all that many of those same officers tend to go off the deep end horribly and frankly went mad due to a combination of stress, anxiety and the sudden realization that they are going to lose. Furthermore, its' very much hinted that Maleficent was slowly losing her mind near the end of the war since she didn't even try and go into hiding like Xehanort did and continued pushing for more and more desperate measures to at least put the war into a stalemate then the increasingly more likely unconditional surrender the Empire is going to be forced into.
Villainous Legacy: Sure the Empire fell and most of its' leaders being killed either in the civil war or its' chaotic final days but its' influence is still felt across Malica, most prominently in the Holy Human Republic. Outside of that is the sentient caused of the Empire's cruel reign and atrocities which will be remembered by the people of Malica for generations to come.
We ARE Struggling Together: All throughout the war many of its moving parts frequently butted heads and fought each other constantly over everything, even as the more pressing need to fight the Commonwealths was known. Somehow this only gotten worse post-civil war, especially once the Commonwealths began to actively move into the Empire proper and slowly conquering it.
