All Legionnaires wear authentic Roman lorica footballica.
"All great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice... the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."
In the tumultuous times After the End, people crave a semblance of order and stability. Whether a Wasteland Warlord trying to claim legitimacy, a community trying to build an Escapist Sanctuary, or a group looking for a blueprint to rebuild society, people turn to the Ruins of the Modern Age for inspiration. They adopt the trappings of a former group or institution, whether it be names, uniforms, symbols, hierarchies, or ideologies, with some even having the end goal of returning to a pre-apocalyptic standard of living.
Of course, their methods are not without flaws. In a Future Imperfect world, they may be working on incorrect or incomplete information, and make blatantly wrong assumptions about the group they're imitating. They may mistake some cultural symbol for a pre-apocalyptic religion. They may model their government after the fascists and tyrants of the past, or outright try and form a Fourth Reich. They may not have the means or resources to properly imitate their forebears, making their efforts look like a rather pathetic attempt at playing pretend. Expect them to appear in a decidedly negative light in stories with An Aesop about unhealthy attachments to the past and moving on.
Compare Days of Future Past, Feudal Future, Foreign Culture Fetish, Precursor Worship, and All Hail the Great God Mickey! Compare and contrast Anachronism Stew, Cargo Cult, The Apunkalypse, Scavenger World, and Low Culture, High Tech. Often overlaps with Gang of Hats, where a post-apocalyptic faction's most notable trait is imitating a pre-apocalyptic group.
Not to be confused with people who LARP with a post-apocalyptic theme.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The natural result whenever any of the Kemono Friends try to recreate things they discover existed in the human era. Some attempts go better than others, but even the comparatively flawless idol concert uses "tickets" stamped on by flippers, the bus the gang learns about is mistaken for a living being (or a dead one, before its battery charges), and the owls tend to a library cluelessly because nobody in Japari Park can read or write.
Film — Live-Action
- Doomsday is set in Britain after a deadly epidemic resulted in Scotland becoming cordoned off and left to die. After a generation, survivors are discovered, and the protagonists are sent there to investigate. Turns out at least one group chose to recreate a medieval society, knights and castles and all. (The other tribe is a bunch of cannibal punks.)
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Proximus Caesar named himself after the ape Caesar, but also consciously evokes Ancient Rome, having learned about it from his pet human Trevathan, who can read books to him.
Literature
- Emberverse, set in the modern times after electricity and gunpowder were suddenly turned off by aliens, has a slew of these running around the American Pacific Northwest. Of particular note is a feudal kingdom consciously patterned on Norman England by one Norman Arminger, a history professor-turned-warlord.note
- The Galactic Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a 36th century worlds-spanning polity that greatly resembles 19th century Prussia. Its Origins Episode shows this was a deliberate effort on the part of its founder Rudolf von Goldenbaum looking to the past after humanity experienced its third post-industrial civilizational collapse (the first on Earth from nuclear war, the other two across colonized space). But this went far past aesthetics, as Goldenbaum held wildly-reactionary views on race and sex, enforced with a fascistic bent most comparable to Nazism. The Empire ended up liberalizing gradually over the following the centuries, but the aristocracy and fashion remained.
- The Mists of Avalon: It's mentioned that Arthur fought a battle against a British warlord who declared himself Emperor of Rome, had his men wear dug-up Roman armor, and launched an ill-fated attempt to reunite the long-gone empire.
- Warlock of Gramarye is a more literal case, being set on a Lost Colony planet that was originally settled by members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. As a result, the planet's been in Medieval Stasis for centuries.
Live-Action TV
- Fallout (2024): After the destruction of Shady Sands and the collapse of NCR power in Los Angeles, there's a group dressed as sheriffs who call themselves the "Governmint" and claim to be the last legitimate authority in the region. However, it's clear that they're little more than a gang who extort other criminal operations in the area.
- Vikings: King Ecbert of Wessex holds a deep admiration and fascination with the former glory of the Roman Empire, with him often remarking upon the tragedy of the present state of the world compared to their times of progress and prosperity. Thus, he goes out of his way to shape his rule as if he was a Roman Emperor, regularly studying Roman manuscripts, incorporating their knowledge into his leadership style and battle tactics, surrounding his home with Roman art and sculptures, and even having a Roman-style bath built which he regularly uses, even while discussing politics and military stratagems. He even commits suicide in a decidedly Roman manner, slitting his wrists in his bath.
Tabletop Games
- Gorkamorka: A variation with the Digganobz, degenerate cave-dwelling humans who have long forgotten the Imperium and instead seek to emulate the most powerful civilization they know: the orks. The orks themselves tend to find the digganobz' dressing up as orks then running around shooting things
◊ hilarious, so they're less inclined to kill them on sight.
Video Games
- 60 Seconds!: One group of wasteland bandits the family can encounter is a group dressed in green who call themselves the Merry Men, saying they want to "take from the rich and give to the poor." Of course, having a functioning fallout shelter means the family is very rich by their standards, so they loot a bunch of supplies and leave.
- After the End: A Post-Apocalyptic America:
- Numerous feudal and tribal kingdoms, such as California, Ontario, and Costa Rica, use the names and flags of the antediluvian states and provinces that once reigned there.
- There are other examples of pre-Event groups being revived in unusual forms, such as the Pinkerton Detectives becoming a mercenary army for hire and the Knights of Columbus becoming a chivalric order of armed knights.
- In western North America, rulers wear a ten-gallon hat with a golden star as a symbol of authority. Further north, it's common for knights and leaders to wear wide, flat-brimmed hats in the style of The Mounties.
- In the Crusader Kings II version, the Holy Columbian Confederacy is a monarchy ruling over much of the South that revived the name and regalia of the Confederate States of America, albeit with far less racial animus than its predecessors, including having black and mixed-race nobility.
- The Crusader Kings III version of the mod changes the H.C.C. into the Holy Columbian Commonwealth, which bases its government far more on the Holy Roman Empire.
- Americanists, besides having a whole religion venerating the Founding Fathers, dress in 18th-century fashion and hold noble titles derived from American political offices and military ranks. They even have a feudal presidency reigning in Washington.
- Fallout:
- Founded at the end of the first game and becoming a political powerhouse in the ensuing decades, the New California Republic is a government founded by a coalition of major settlements in southern California based off the model of the pre-War American government, including a federal legislature, a judiciary, a standing military, and minted currency (originally gold coins, later paper bills). Its flag is even the same as the old California flag, with the sole difference of the bear being a Nuclear Mutant with two heads.
- Played with in the case of the Khans, as well as their successors the New Khans and the Great Khans. They get their name and aesthetics from a pre-War biker gang, who in turn took their name from ancient Mongol warriors, though the distinction between the two has become muddled with time. One mission in New Vegas involves helping the Great Khans learn more about the historical Mongols, inspiring them to "find themselves" culturally in the hopes of one day creating a proud nation of their own.
- Fallout 3 has Tenpenny Tower, a nearly intact pre-War hotel whose proprietor, Alistair Tenpenny, lives the high life of an old-world aristocrat. He bans all wasteland mutants (especially ghouls) from his premises, and only allows in people who can afford his exorbitant rent and meet his exacting standards of taste.
- Fallout: New Vegas:
- The Three Families of New Vegas are in fact former tribes that were given a Technology Uplift and a casino by Mister House in exchange for abandoning their ways and adopting pre-War names and aesthetics. The Mojave Boot-Riders became the Rat Pack-inspired Chairmen, the Slither Kin became the Omertas, and a Cannibal Tribe whose name is deliberately kept secret became the White Glove Society.
- Caesar's Legion, as the name implies, models itself off of the Roman Empire, including the nastier elements like mass crucifixion, brutal massacres of enemy towns, and chattel slavery. This was a deliberate choice by its founder, the eponymous Caesar, who became enamored with his namesake after reading the Commentarii and believes that following Rome's blueprint is the best way for a society to advance from squabbling tribes to civilizational greatness.
- The Boomers are a tribe of former Vault dwellers who took over the abandoned Nellis Air Force Base and made it a major part of their identity. Many of their members wear military gear and bomber jackets, and even regularly train in pre-War flying simulators, despite the base not having any operable planes whatsoever.
- The Kings are a gang of Elvis Impersonators, based in the ruins of an old Elvis impersonating school. Since the records of Elvis's name and music were lost, they concluded that a building dedicated to teaching people how to imitate a man called "the King" was some kind of religious institution.
- In the New Vegas mod Fallout: Dust, Legion centurion Aurelius of Phoenix has become a mad cannibal and proclaimed himself "King of Aurelia, Hoover Canyon, and the Holy Roman Empire." He acts as if he's ruling a medieval kingdom, trying to levy taxes and livestock from (nonexistent) peasants.
- Go on, try and guess what group of their forebears the Knights of Camelot of the Fallout: London fame are trying their best to emulate.
- In Fallout 4, the Commonwealth Minutemen take their name and aesthetics from the Minutemen militias of The American Revolution, such as wearing tricorn-esque hats and longcoats and wielding laser muskets.
- Horizon Forbidden West:
- The Tenakth are a society built around venerating a pre-apocalyptic military museum. They adorn themselves with red-white-and-blue and eagle motifs, worship a group of American soldiers called "the Ten" (a paratrooper unit called JTF-10), and use titles like "chaplain" and "marshal" for their officials. They're also considerably more meritocratic and egalitarian than their neighbors, allowing both men and women to rise through the ranks by demonstrating their combat prowess.
- The Quen tribe models their leadership off of a corporation, with their governing council being called the "Board of Overseers" and the leaders of military or government branches being called "Ceos" (pronounced "See-oh"). Their pantheon of revered ancestors is made up of prominent corporate tycoons of the mid-21st century. One Ceo imitates sacred ancestor Ted Faro so much that he comes to believe he's Faro's reincarnation, dressing like Faro (and forcing Aloy to dress like her genetic ancestor Elisabet Sobek) when he explores Thebes.
- Killing Floor: Four characters (all of whom are crossover promotions for the World War II combat games Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm) all insist on keeping their World War II uniforms and gear for varying reasons. Ricky Vega and Hayato Tanaka were extras on a historical war movie set when the army of cloned zombies ate London, while "Herman the German" was an obsessive history nerd known for his exacting replicas of everything (including firearms), while Soviet "reenactor" Nikolai just bummed free drinks at reenactments. All of them are stated to get really into using the might of The Second Great War to crush zeds, with Hayato admitting he's now fully free to shout "Banzai" while decapitating someone.
- Killing Floor 2: Hayato Tanaka returns with his World War II gear, now noted to have trouble differentiating between his fantasies of being an awesome wandering samurai murdering demons, which isn't far off from what he actually does. He's joined by Tom Banner (the promo character for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare), another historical reenactor who excitedly donned his armor and sword to save "fair maidens from monsters" from a zombie outbreak plaguing all of Europe, and insists on only talking in Ye Olde Butchered English.
- Metro:
- One faction is a neo-Nazi group who have instituted a totalitarian regime over several stations and proclaimed it the Fourth Reich. Besides their usual hatred of ethnic differences, they also persecute anyone with mutations or birth defects with extreme prejudice.
- The Fourth Reich's Arch-Enemy is the Red Line, who in turn have patterned themselves off the Soviet Union. They have the largest standing army in the metro system, have political commissars infamous for executing suspected spies and dissidents, maintain their own gulag system, and have been locked in a brutal struggle with the Fourth Reich for years.
- The New Order: Last Days of Europe:
- One of the more interesting Siberian states to spring up out of the Soviet collapse is in Kemerovo, led by former Soviet general Nikolai Krylov. After an apparent mental breakdown, he said he was given a divine mandate to reunite Russia, proclaimed himself Rurik II (after the medieval Ruthenian king), and founded a government that was an eclectic mix of medieval and Soviet structures. If the player actually reunites Russia under him, he reveals on his deathbed it was all a ruse to give the people of Russia a semi-mythic figure to rally around.
- Another group of post-Soviet warlords are the Aryan Brotherhood, who base themselves off of Nazi Germany and have adopted their own twisted version of Nazi racial ideology. They're (understandably) despised by every other Russian warlord group for imitating the people who destroyed their country, as well as by Nazi Germany to the west for still being Slavic untermenschen.
- In the World War III events, there are several allusions to this trope, such as kingdoms using the names of old governments, feudal mercenaries using the names and ranks of long-gone military units, and academics devoted to pre-apocalyptic studies building a university in old-world architectural styles.
- Sunset Overdrive: After what's basically a city-wide Zombie Apocalypse, the citizens of the Kingdom of Fargarthia (AKA the Fargathians or just the Fargarth) are a group of hardcore LARPers who act out their 12th century fantasy setting full-time. They refuse to embrace any modern technologies, and frequently have incredibly backwards and dangerous ideas, much to the chagrin of the only non-roleplayer, Wendy.
Western Animation
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: The various Uplifted Animals that populate the post-apocalyptic world have all structured their respective cultures on human subcultures. The Mod Frogs dress like mobsters, the Newton Wolves dress like Ivy League professors, the Timber Cats dress like lumberjacks, etc. And Scarlemagne, the villain of the first two seasons, named himself after Charlemagne and forced his followers (previously known as the Goth Apes) to dress like 18th-century French nobles.
Real Life
- For centuries after the fall of the (Western) Roman Empire, various Dark Age European tribal chiefs, warlords, and kings lay claim to the title of Roman Emperor as a show of authority and power. The only one who was particularly successful at it was Charlemagne, who had both the political power to rule most of Western Europe and the legitimacy of being crowned by the Pope. The kingdom he founded would go on to be known as the Holy Roman Empire.
- Another more depressing example is Haiti, a name which was proposed during the Haitian Revolution by the African-descended slaves (who made up over 90% of the island's— then called either Hispaniola or Saint-Domingue— population) as a deliberate throwback to indigenous Taíno name for the island. The original "Haitians" had long since been driven to near-extinction by the Spanish (through a combination of the obvious method and being deported as slaves and homogenized into other ethnic groups).
- After apocalypse, various historical tech - including armor and weapons - will be rather useful. After all, our ancestors were very experienced in making crafts out of simple materials (such as wood, stone, bone, cloth, leather, low-quality metal, etc) - and parts of said knowledge is still written in books and stuff. Naturally, that may result in various post-apocalyptic products resembling their historical equivalents, to varying degrees of resemblance.