Dark Land

Dark Land, also called Bowser's Keep, Bowser Land, and World Eight, is a mid-sized nation northeast of the Mushroom Kingdom, the eighth state of the satellite Mushroom World. Dark Land is the base, home, and headquarters of Bowser, his family, his cronies, and his army, the Koopa Troop. This region is the most common place to find Bowser, and is often where he takes Peach when she is kidnapped.

Government
Officially, Dark land is a absolute monarchy, but it is ruled far more like an autocracy or a dictatorship. Indeed, in Dark Land, Bowser is king and [[wikipedia:head of state|head of state][. What Bowser says goes, and Bowser is always right, even when he is wrong.

Bowser has metaphorical life-or-death control over all creatures in his state. Bowser can snatch a Goomba out of a local shop and conscript him into the army. He could grab a Koopa from his office and make him be a janitor down at a department store. Bowser's total power stretches far and wide, but secretly, he loves his minions and rewards those who valiantly fight Mario, even if that "fighting" is trying to walk into him.

Bowser, as the head of state, rules the country. When he leaves to concoct his grand master plan, he leaves either Kamek (a Magikoopa who raised him) or Kammy (his Magikoopa assistant) to rule in his place as regents, depending on if he took either one of them with him.

The Capital of Dark Land is the largest Bowser's Castle at the time. Since Bowser tends to out-do himself every time he constructs a new castle, the capitol rarely remains in the same place. As of writing, the capitol of Dark Land is back in Dark Land, but, over the years, it has been Peach's Castle of Toad Town One, Castle 8-4 (also Peach's Castle), over the Mushroom Kingdom, Star Haven, Bowser's Keep, and in a remote corner of the universe.

Imperialism
Bowser's thirst for power and land is endless. He always tries to annex nearby sovereign states into his empire. For instance, Bowser took a small scale move early in his career and invaded the Mushroom World, placing his children in charge of each satellite state, himself occupying Dark Land.

Other times, he heads out to sea, challenging Yoshi's Island or Isle Delfino. He has tried to annex the Mushroom Kingdom, too, but it seems that he can't seize the entire nation, only Peach's castle. His dispersed army does what it can to hold the kingdom in place.

Bowser, at one point, even tried to create a new land and claim it as his, because no one else owned it. Specifically, he tried to generate a new miniature galaxy- complete with its own solar system -over which he would have exclusive control. He did so as far from the Mushroom Kingdom as possible. Yet, Mario stopped him even there, imploding his star. Bowser narrowly escaped death due to it.

After the spectacular failure in outer space, Bowser went back to his roots and tried to conquer nearby countries. Needless to say, Mario easily destroyed him.

At its all-time largest, around 2008 or so, Bowser placed the Mushroom Kingdom into its regency, stole the Princess, and instated military forts and space stations all over the Universe, and scattered through space. He didn't bother the Mushroom World too much, but severely hurt dozens of other planets and galaxies, holding an Mario Galaxy intergalactic empire hundreds of thousands of miles across.

Much earlier, in the 1990s, Dark Land also seized the Mushroom World and its land, the second largest annexation, but nothing in comparison to the grandeur of his galactic conquest.