It's not exactly clear how it happened, but the Red Tape Empire, once the greatest and most feared empire in the land, met its untimely demise due to an infestation of bureaucratic red tape.
The empire was founded by the great Emperor Bureaucratis, who ruled with an iron fist and a penchant for paperwork.
Emperor Bureaucratis established the empire with a series of sweeping reforms, including the invention of the first ever "Form 27-B: Request for Permission to Do Something."
The empire expanded rapidly, fueled by a culture of efficiency and productivity... or so it seemed.
The empire reached its peak during the Golden Age, with towering monuments, grand infrastructure projects, and an endless supply of free pens and paper for the bureaucrats.
However, as with all things, it was not meant to last.
As the empire grew in size and scope, so did the red tape.
A bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions, the Red Tape Empire became a byword for inefficiency and stagnation.
In the end, it was not a invading army or a natural disaster that brought down the empire, but the simple, yet insurmountable, barrier of paperwork.
Legend has it that the last emperor, Emperor Bureaucratis the Less, was last seen weeping alone in his office, surrounded by stacks of unfinished paperwork.
The empire was no more, and the people rejoiced... or at least, those who had managed to navigate the system.
Read more about the rise and fall of the Red Tape Empire
Read about the empire's greatest moments, or most epic failures