Good overlords in SF & fantasy

Cafe Society
21

Aragorn/Elessar of Tolkien’s LOTR, as noted above. Also most of the rulers of Numenor, Gondor and the Elven-kingdoms.

The stately King Alastair of the Kulu Kingdom, and the young Ione, leader of the Tranquility habitat, both wield near-absolute powers for good in Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn Trilogy.

The titular ruler in Jerry Pournelle’s King David’s Spaceship.

The ill-fated King Robert Baratheon of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series (although he was pretty self-indulgent, he certainly wasn’t evil).

Col. Alois Hammer in David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers series acquires quite a bit of political power over the years, rising to become a mostly-benign planetary autocrat, IIRC.

Star, empress of the Twenty Dimensions, in Heinlein’s Glory Road. Her power is absolute - she can have someone executed on a whim, but never would, because she’s been so well-trained for the job (including accessing the memories and personalities of past emperors and empresses).

Feric Jaggar of Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream is a “good overlord”… at least by his own lights. Still not someone I’d care to meet.

22

The Lady Anna and the Lady Secca from the Spellsong Cycle. Lady Anna took over after the former weak but well meaning Lord of Defalk was killed in an invasion, and after killing the foreign king who tried to move in during the power vacuum. She was technically only a Regent for the heir, but being an extremly powerful sorceress ( and strong willed, clever, etc ) was actually stronger than any former ruler of Defalk. She defended it against repeated invasions, reformed the government ( with plenty of casualties ), placed a number of females in power in the formerly patriarchal Defalk ( again, with plenty of casualties ), ended an artificial drought, set up a roadbuilding program via sorcery, and in general shaped Defalk in her image. Lady Secca twenty years later was forced to execute the heir, who proved both incompetent and willing to sell out his own country to it’s mortal enemies in order to stay as a puppet ruler; she took his place as ruler because she was the only one the Lords would accept. She did so after finally defeating those same enemies.

Lord Kalvan from Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen : Accidentally transported from our world to a more primitive one, Calvin Morrison sets up an Empire to oppose the corrupt and ruthless Temple of Styphon, which rules via it being the sole source of ‘fireseed’, aka gunpowder, which it passes off as a miracle of Styphon. He just happens to be a a veteran who knows how to make gunpowder. Pretty consistently works for the general benefit of his people.

Emperor Herdan of the Fourth Imperium and Colin McIntyre, founder of the Fifth Imperium. Herdan took power after a nasty six sided civil war, during which the former authorities lost legitimacy in the eyes of the public. He couldn’t give up power even if inclined, since as the man who ended the wars he was the only one left that most of the population regarded as an acceptable authority. In order to ensure there was never such a war again, he set himself and his successors up as having sole control of the military, enforced by computers integrated in all major military equipment. In order to keep this from turning into a tyranny, he set up a parliament, the legal process to remove an Emperor via popular vote, and routed his computer-enforced military authority through Fleet Command’s central computer, also known as Mother.

Mother is non-sentient ( so no personal ambition ), can’t be reprogrammed in certain areas touching the Imperial succession ( so can’t be subverted ), and is empowered and capable of judging the Emperor’s legal status and competency to be Emperor. Someone who’s insane or stupid is disqualified; someone who’s voted out will suddenly find all his military machinery obeying his successor and not him.

Colin McIntyre basically ended up in a similar position as one of the very few people acceptable to everyone as humanity’s central authority ( and humanity needed one, what with genocidal aliens coming ). He also needed the military equipment of the dead Fourth Imperium, which meant working through Mother and having himself declared Emperor.

The Protector of Grayson from the Honor Harrington series. After taking back the power that his ancestors lost, he’s proceeded to reform his planet socially, while at the same time building it into a significant military power and economic prosperity.

23
  1. However much it seems like a good idea, take no action without consulting with at least two counsellors who have a reputation for common sense. (The Filoman Rule – from Filoman the Well-Intentioned, in L. Sprague de Camp’s Novarian Series, a king who had every fine and good quality but common sense, and was always upsetting the kingdom with idealistic schemes, such as granting criminals pensions as a disincentive to steal.)
24

I started to mention Peter Pevensie, High King of Narnia, particularly as even kings who reigned after his time recognized his over-lordship; Caspian in particular seemed to feel that he was ruler only in Peter’s absence.

Then, of course, it occurred to me that the High King above High Kings in Narnia is Aslan himself.

I’m not sure if we should count Elessar, though, We really see very little of his kingship.

25

Yes – but Lewis obviously did not choose the name “Peter” at random. “What you bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven,” etc.

26

We see a glimpse of it, enough to know it was a golden age. About 120 glorious years where there was peace for those who sought it or adventure for others. There was prosperity and health, good fortune and a beautification of the main city of Minas Tirith. Bridges were rebuilt, roads were made safe. It is just a glimpse, but it spoke volumes. Of course this glimpse may have required reading everything available and not just the appendixes of the LotR. I think I picked some of that up from Unfinished Tales and the Letters of Tolkien.

We need more rules, we only have 8 so far.

  1. Don’t split your kingdom between your kids. Leave it strong and ensure your kids are placed with good and fulfilling jobs that prevent them from wanting to gain the Kingship.

  2. Build a good loyal military that does not police the kingdom. (The USA rule)

27

Queen Elizabeth III of the Star Kingdom of Manticore from the same books must count as a pretty benevolent overlord too.

The “King Lear rule”. :slight_smile:

28

The Children of the Lens are developed to be humanity’s overlords/guardians in the fullness of time. Complete with incest!

A pity that “Doc” Smith didn’t live long enough to explore that theme more fully. He spent too much time mucking around with the Arisians and neutronium-eating BEMs.

29

I don’t think she counts as an “overlord”, which is why I used the Protector instead. The point is made several times in the series that the Protector has far more personal power than she does.

30

Yah - the Manticore political system is pretty clearly a thinly-veiled “United Kingdom in Space”, which would make the Queen a constitutional monarch with little real power. Or, rather, she can do anything she wants - once. And then Parliament would take away her power to do it again.

31

Grand Duke Tremane would get a vote for me as would the King of Rethwellan who ruled at the same time as Selenay. I can’t remember his name or find it on-line, but I’m sure it’s a mouthful.

32

King Triton from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

33

You seem to be implying that I stopped my reading there. Are you TRYING to get the bees sicced on you again? Twice in one week?

34

For that matter, the Sons of the Sun in Karse prior to Solaris were pretty much absolute powers within their borders.

35

Solaris would qualify as a benevolent overlord. I don’t think her predecessors were, though.

36

I just looked it up.

It does seem that she has quite a lot of power; just not “overlord” levels of power. And most of it has to be used indirectly, or negatively; she can fire whom she chooses, and give orders to be implemented by her Prime Minister. But if the Prime Minister decides to ignore her, all she can do is fire him, and she can only say “Yes” or “No” to any potential replacements.

37

Duh…yeah, that WAS the point of the thread, wasn’t it? :smack:

Solaris doesn’t count, though, since she’s actually pretty well constrained, even if she were inclined to be wicked, by K’Vandis actually being involved in the benevolent ruling of his people.

The King of Rethwellan you were looking for was Faramentha, Siege. Karathanalan, his brother, was the first Rethwellan prince that Selenay fell for, the one who betrayed her to try to take power in Valdemar. Their other brother, Darenthalis, came to replace him as envoy after he was killed in his own uprising, and gained a companion, a Heraldship, and a wife, as Selenay then fell for HIM, although this time he was Companion-approved…

38

No, I was just admitting that the glimpse was not so obvious as most of the other examples. As to the Bees, you might want to try a different attack on someone friendly to Beornings. :wink:

39

:: comes out of workshop, shrugging off protective armor, and holding up small remote control ::

Eh? What was that? Sorry, Jim, I was loading the napalm-covered wolverines into the flaming wolverine cannon, and those buggers screech really loudly, so I’ll need you to repeat. Also, would you mind standing on that big red X there? Thanks!

40

Fair enough criticism; nomination withdrawn. :slight_smile: