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Fisher King: Difference between revisions
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* In [[Simon R. Green]]'s ''Blood and Honour'', Castle Midnight starts sliding into a hellish (literally) state without a King. As soon as a King is on the throne again the darkness subsides.
* As [[Robert Jordan]]'s ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' goes on, the world becomes a worse place to live, the weather system is screwy as hell, and chaos reigns in most of the countries due to years of near constant warfare, from civil strife to human to inhuman invasion. Bubbles of Evil cover the earth killing people, and ghosts are even appearing as the Pattern itself becomes unstable. This is reflected by Rand's mental health, as he slowly goes mad. By the end of ''Knife of Dreams'' Rand is schizophrenic, {{spoiler|is missing a hand, and his eyes are damaged}}. He also has the traditional unhealing wound in his side. Moridin even refers to Rand as the Fisher King, after a crucial piece in a complicated, nearly forgotten board game. Even in book 1 (when the weather was only mildly odd and Rand not yet mad or injured) we get the phrase, 'The Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon'.
:In the conclusion of ''The Gathering Storm'', {{spoiler|Rand has gone through his [[Despair Event Horizon]] and out the other side, and it's implied he has fixed his schizophrenia--at any rate, Lews Therin won't be talking in his head anymore--and, for the first time in virtually the entire book, the clouds break and pure sunlight shines through.}} Immediately following this in the next book, Rand {{spoiler|makes an entire orchard of rotten apples grow instantly, and wherever he goes, the clouds clear up and the sun shines}}.▼
▲In the conclusion of ''The Gathering Storm'', {{spoiler|Rand has gone through his [[Despair Event Horizon]] and out the other side, and it's implied he has fixed his schizophrenia--at any rate, Lews Therin won't be talking in his head anymore--and, for the first time in virtually the entire book, the clouds break and pure sunlight shines through.}} Immediately following this in the next book, Rand {{spoiler|makes an entire orchard of rotten apples grow instantly, and wherever he goes, the clouds clear up and the sun shines}}.
* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms|Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series, this is seen as a manifestation of "The Tradition", a universal force that basically compels the world to act out fairy tales.
* A variant and partial inversion from [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Valdemar]]'' series: After Ancar usurps the throne of Hardorn, he damages the land by draining its magical energy for his own use. After he gets taken down, the locals insist that his [[Reasonable Authority Figure|replacement]] accept a magical link to the land to prevent him from doing the same, since harming the land would mean harming himself. Since the land is still damaged when this happens, this is rather unpleasant for the new king at first.
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* In the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', the eponymous forest apparently has a kind of low-level sentience, which is linked to the status of its king. If he dies, the forest reacts in a dramatic fashion. As one character mentions, reflecting on a prior such occasion, "none of us got any sleep for three weeks."
* In novel ''Inne Pieśni'' (''The Other Songs'') by Polish author Jacek Dukaj ([[Gushing About Shows You Like|pity the fact he's not translated into English, guys and girls!]]), world is ruled by both "casual" kings (who do not exhibit this trope) and ''kratistoi'', virtually demigods whose [[Determinator]][[Up to Eleven|-plus]] level force of will influences both people and land of their domains.
* Happens all the time in [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth writings. Justified when the kings in question are semi-divine, and their will and nature has direct influence on physical matter; so the land of the Valar (angels) is
:Also, the forest kingdom of Doriath is protected by Queen Melian's divine magic, an almost literal fence or maze that keeps unwanted visitors out. When the King dies and she abandons the land, Doriath is very soon overrun by its enemies. Galadriel, though an Elf, learned a lot under Melian and hence later on she does something very similar for Lórien.▼
▲Also, the forest kingdom of Doriath is protected by Queen Melian's divine magic, an almost literal fence or maze that keeps unwanted visitors out. When the King dies and she abandons the land, Doriath is very soon overrun by its enemies. Galadriel, though an Elf, learned a lot under Melian and hence later on she does something very similar for Lórien.
* In the ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant|Second Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant]]'', Lord Foul is a sort of Fisher King, or rather the Fisher King's illness. His presence corrupts the magical Earthpower, causing the Sunbane which warps the Land's weather so severely that travel is impossible without powerful magic. His defeat allows Linden to restore the natural order.
* A rather large part of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]''. The motif of dry/wet and its symbolism of life, death, and resurrection recur in the poem, and parts III and V explicitly refer to the Arthurian motif. Indeed, Eliot's notes to the poem specifically cite From Ritual to Romance, a book which discusses the origins of the Fisher King motif in Arthurian legend in much detail.
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* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|Up Jim River]]'', the emperor of Morning Dew hates his position because all his subjects believe this trope, and therefore he's to blame for anything that goes wrong.
* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' has not-quite-real worlds, including ones accidentally born out of dreams, working like this and usually dying with their creator—unless or until they acquire full independent reality. The latter, at least according to one ancient being, is the whole purpose of [[Reality Warper|Arbiters]]' existence, not that they aren't apt to accidentally create such near-realities themselves.
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