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{{quote|''"A thousand years they have ruled. Yet now, there are only ten. A dying race, ruled by a dying Emperor, imprisoned within themselves, in a dying land."''|''[[Dark Crystal]]''}}
[[In
A race of sentient beings is past its prime. There are only a few of them left, and they're slowly dying out.
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This may be for any of a number of reasons. It may be caused by [[Creative Sterility]] - or it may cause it. It could be the result of a [[Depopulation Bomb]] or [[Gendercide]]. Sometimes the race is almost [[Immortality|immortal]], and thus suffers from the [[Immortal Procreation Clause]]. The race may live in a time that's [[Just Before the End]]. They could be dying out because another race has [[Gotta Kill Them All]]; if ''humanity'' is the target, it's [[Kill All Humans]].
Whatever the reason is, the dying out may be viewed as a tragedy, because someone appreciates the [[Uniqueness Value]] of the
Sometimes the race will be trying to save themselves. This might lead to [[Only You Can Repopulate My Race]]. If they accept their fate, they may want to [[Fling a Light Into the Future]].
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* ''[[Metroid]]'': It's kind of implied in [[All There in the Manual|the manga]] that this is why the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Chozo]] trained Samus to be a warrior when they adopted her.
* The Shadow Angels in ''[[Genesis of Aquarion]]''.
* The Borrowers in ''[[The Borrower Arrietty]]''.
* This is something that worries the vampires in ''[[Karin]]''. There are more vampires dying than there are children being born. The protagonist's parents are looked up to by younger couples since they have three children while most other parents only have one at most.
* The Saiyans in the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' franchise. The destruction of their home planet left only a handful left, and most of the survivors will concede that most of them were jerks anyway. Still, each new series in the franchise introduces children (or grandchildren) of those survivors, so there does seem to be hope the species might recover.
== Comic Books ==
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** The Ents from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' are a much better fit even than the Elves. Although they're nearly immortal, the fact that all of their females have vanished means they can't reproduce themselves, and therefore they are on a slow but inevitable road to extinction.
*** ''Everyone'' in that setting is dying. Elves are leaving, Ents are unable to reproduce, Dwarves are... the one dwarf we hear from jokes about how rare dwarven women are. Goblins and Orcs find themselves dying off in droves after the fall of Mordor, reduced to being monsters under beds and gremlins that mess with machinery. The last Balrog and the last Giant Spider die and retreat from the world, respectively, in the course of that story, and the last of the [[Giant Flyers]] that the Riders use dies as well. The time of human heroes is over and will never recover, which means that even humanity is doomed to a slow, sick death. The only ones untouched are the Hobbits, and even they are breeding only slowly, and growing increasingly human-ish.
**** Though really, the humans aren't all that doomed - the elves even acknowledge that it is time for them to become the rulers of Middle-Earth, and that they will decide its future. The remnants of the Dunedain (and therefore the Numenoreans) may be almost gone, but humanity in itself is (as of the end of the books) on the rise. The hobbits remain and do not really decrease, thanks to their peaceful ways and philosophy of enjoying life.
* Thomas Burnett Swann used this in most of his novels for all the mythological creatures that were being displaced by encroaching humans.
* The people of Elric's race in [[The Elric Saga]].
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* The Neanderthals from the ''[[Earth's Children]]'' series are, of course, destined for extinction, although it's hinted that at least some of their hybrid offspring may interbreed with modern humans and so have descendents.
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe, the giants can be considered as such: Wizards have killed many of them, and the few that are left have a tendancy to fight each other to the death.
* The [[Star Trek Novel Verse]] portrays the Andorians as this. Their complex four-sex biology is failing them and their window of fertility has dropped to only four or five years. The Andorian culture has reorganized itself around [[Arranged Marriage]] for quads of young people who are genetically compatable. Unless their genome can be repaired, the Andorians face extinction within fifteen generations. Note that events in later stories - [[Star Trek: Destiny]] most notably - make the problem even worse.
* [[Our Dragons Are Different|Kantri]] of [[Tales of Kolmar]] are just starting to enter this phase in ''Song In The Silence''. Five thousand years ago the total population of sentient "greater" Kantri was cut in half and the remaining two hundred retreated to isolation on an island. In that time their numbers haven't rebuilt at all, in fact the opposite is true, though the dying is very slow. The species is just becoming collectively dispirited and there are fewer mated pairs and fewer births all the time; they live long, but not forever. Only a few of them recognize that it's happening in that book. {{spoiler|In later books it's solved, and they manage to flourish.}}
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* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' - Several examples:
** The Minbari - fewer are born with each generation and the greatest of their souls are no longer found among them, for {{spoiler|their souls are being reborn into humans (a large plot point in the series)}}.
*** We later get a full explanation for this: {{spoiler|The Minbari were, at one point, introduced to a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] time traveler, [[Really
** The Narn and the Centauri are both said to be dying races according to Kosh. However, this is more philosophical than literal - Kosh meant that both were trapped in a cycle of revenge and fixated on each other's deaths to their own detriment, and were therefore (from a Vorlon point of view) on the path to eventual destruction. Both the Narn and Centauri are in fact populous and relatively vital.
** The Hyach are a more literal example; though there are still quite a few of them around, their genome is slowly collapsing due to having become dependent on a counterpart species that is no longer around {{spoiler|because the Hyach killed them all}}.
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* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' - ''Humans''. It is eventually subverted tough.
** {{spoiler|Cylons play it straight after the resurrection hub is destroyed.}}
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** "Return to Tomorrow" featured a race that had been all but destroyed in a massive war thousands of years ago, and by the time the episode occurred only three individuals had survived as [[Soul Jar|disembodied consciousnesses preserved in storage devices]].
* ''[[Star Trek: The
* ''[[Star Trek: The
* ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'': the Taelons are dying.
* ''[[Farscape]]'''s Ancients, the ones who gave John the wormhole information.
* In between the old and new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor used "the Moment" to wipe out all the Time Lords, leaving just him, {{spoiler|an [[Opposite
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Craftworld Eldar from ''[[Warhammer
** In regular [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], the Elves are dying off due to the various catastrophes that have hit them over the millennia. Dark Elves, again, don't seem to have this problem (presumably they breed at least fast enough to make up the numbers from their sacrifices). Dwarves are also dying, and have stayed in decline since the destruction of their greatest kingdoms.<ref>
* "
** The Jarrel in ''[[GURPS]] Aliens'' have it. However, they are trying to recover and start growing again.
** It was eliminated on 4e on charges of not actually being disadvantageous. You can still simulate it by taking other disadvantages, you'd just ''actually have to earn your points.''
* ''[[Stormbringer]]'' supplement ''Stormbringer Companion'', adventure "The Crystal of Daerdaerdarth". Valyk's Island holds a race of creatures known as the Kay, who were created using sorcery by the Melnibonean wizard Earl Valyk thousands of years earlier. They're in decline because 80% of their breeding females die soon after birth.
* [[All Trolls Are Different|Trolls]] in ''[[
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' examples:
* Dwarves of the [[Forgotten Realms]] may or may not be this trope, depending on which products you credence. Some of the 2E products suggest that dwarf males may be marrying human women (and breeding true) as a counter to their own race's slow birth rate and scarcity of females.▼
** The Wind Dukes of Aaqa, also called the Vaati, exemplars of Law who created the legendary Rod of Seven Parts. The genocidal actions of the Queen of Chaos devastated their once-magnificent empire, and while she was defeated and banished in the end, with her consort Mishka the Wolf-Spider slain, it was truly a [[Pyrrhic Victory]] for the Vaati. Reduced to about 1% of their former population, the survivors are immortal, but have a very low birthrate. Despite the many millennia since, their population will likely never recover.
** Yuan-Ti once held vast empires, and were a serious competitor with humans for the role of dominant species. However, their empires fell for a variety of reasons - infighting, slave rebellions, neglect from their deities, and their leaders succumbing to madness - and now struggle to maintain what they have, their dreams of reestablishing their empires only dreams.
** Mind flayers, oddly enough. While Illithids once held vast interplanetary empires, the slave uprising of the Gith decimated them and entire illithid worlds were demolished. While still [[The Dreaded|dreaded and feared by most races]] for their potent psychic abilities and brain-eating habits, illithids now only dwell in hidden enclaves deep below the world's surface, competing for land with other Underdark races and frequently warring with [[Arch Enemies| both the githyanki and githzerai]], who are both intent on changing their status from this Trope to "extinct".
▲** Dwarves of the [[Forgotten Realms]] may or may not be this trope, depending on which products you credence. Some of the 2E products suggest that dwarf males may be marrying human women (and breeding true) as a counter to their own race's slow birth rate and scarcity of females.
* In "B4: The Lost City", an early D&D adventure, the weird underground humans of Cynedicea are this trope.
* The Doreen, Kraken and Scurrilans from ''[[Fifty Fathoms]]''. The Doreen habitats were destroyed by the recent apocalypse, the Kraken were hit hard by first said apocalypse and by the [[Big Bad
== Video Games ==
* The [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Krogan]] from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' due to the "genophage", a biological weapon that reduces the number of live krogan births to a fraction of its normal level. This actually turns out to be carefully tuned to keep their population stabilized rather than to cause extinction; because krogans are from a [[Death World]], they're [[Explosive Breeder
** It actually becomes a plot point in the second game, as Mordin's loyalty mission is rescuing a former colleague of his who is working to cure the genophage so that the krogan can breed again. Mordin reveals over the course of this mission that the krogan were adjusting to the genophage and their numbers were increasing again, so the salarians put the genophage on them ''again'' to control their numbers. The genophage causes only 1 in 1000 babies to be born alive. You do have the option to save the genophage's data at the end of the mission, though.
*** The third game makes curing the genophage a plot point. You can either do exactly that, or sabotage the effort. {{spoiler|If both Wrex and Eve are alive, it's hinted that their stabilizing influence will keep the Krogan from becoming a threat to the universe if you cure the genophage. If either or both are dead, then it's strongly suggested that the Krogan Rebellions are going to start up again if you give them the cure.}}
* ''[[
** The Dragonkin, creator of dragons, has only three individuals, Sakirth, Sithaph and Strisath left. However, they appear to be males...
** The Light creatures hiding in the depths of the swamp caves are the remains of the once proud race of Myriad.
** Only 15 Skavids and a handful of Aviansie remain on [[
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. The Forsaken. Sort of. {{spoiler|They are unable to reproduce, thus they wouldn't be able to maintain their numbers as the undead become... redeadified.}}
** {{spoiler|As of Cataclysm they've hijacked the Scourge's Valkyr to make more Forsaken undead, so whether this is still true is up to scrutiny at this point.}}
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Alien Tropes]]
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