The Last Emperor is a character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.
About the Last Emperor[]
The individual known only as the Last Emperor was the final claimant to the title of Emperor of the Galactic Empire. He succeeded the line of Dagobert IX on the planet Neotrantor (formerly Delicass) around 300 F.E.
His "reign" was the ultimate expression of the Empire's irrelevance. By this period, the Empire on Neotrantor was not even a shadow of its former self; it was a phantom, a local kingdom clinging to an empty title with no authority beyond its own city. The Galactic community, now dominated by the Foundation, the Second Foundation, and other emerging powers, paid it no heed. The Last Emperor ruled over nothing but the memory of greatness.
He possessed none of the power, fleet, or grandeur of his predecessors. His role was purely symbolic, a figurehead for a governmental structure that had long since ceased to function on a galactic scale. Historical records from this era are sparse, indicating his rule was utterly inconsequential to the broader sweep of psychohistory, which had long since predicted and moved beyond the Empire's fall.
The Last Emperor died on Neotrantor in 355 F.E., exactly one hundred years after the Great Sack of Trantor. His death was unceremonious and went unnoticed by the galaxy at large. With no successor or any institution left that cared to appoint one, his passing marked the absolute and final end of the Galactic Empire, a political entity that had endured for twelve millennia. His name, like his reign, was lost to history, remembered only as a chronological endpoint.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- The character is never named and possesses no known biography beyond the few facts of his succession and death. All other details are extrapolated from the historical context provided by Asimov and the authors of the authorized sequels. The date of his death is a point of discussion among scholars, with 355 F.E. being the most commonly accepted correction to the timeline.