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Requisite Royal Regalia: Difference between revisions
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* '''[[Staff of Authority|A Sceptre]]'''. A staff with a fancy ornament on top. Fiction usually acknowledges that it's just there to look impressive, unless it's justified by having magic powers or using it as a weapon. Can vary in length. In some cases the sceptre itself may invest the bearer with the monarchy's authority, allowing them to deliver rulings without directly consulting the ruler. The sceptre is descended from a ceremonial mace, used to literally browbeat recalcitrant nobles back into line.
* '''[[Ring of Power|A Royal Ring]]'''. Or course Royalty has plenty of rings, but in fiction [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]] applies, so if a ring is mentioned, it will have some significance. Often this is a way to identify the long lost heir, or as a way to mark royal seals (as they often were used in [[Real Life]]), or sometimes they have magical powers. The royal seals are sometimes on a "Signet ring", which is very important. Some royal houses have Keepers of the Seal, whose job it is to guard the seal, although it usually is not on a ring in that case..
* '''An Orb'''. Usually carried only for coronations and the paintings thereof. Usually topped with a cross, kind of like a [[Monty Python and
* '''[[Pimped-Out Dress]]'''. This is optional in modern times, but if the story takes place before the 20th century (or equivalent of the world the story is taking place in), a [[The High Queen|queen]] or [[Princess]] will own at least a handful of these ([[Princesses Prefer Pink|usually colored pink]]), unless she has [[Rebellious Princess|run away]] or been exiled from royal life. And the [[Blue Blood|peeresses]] will have their own fancy dresses, just never as grand as the royal ladies'.
* '''[[Opera Gloves]]'''. This is also an optional trope, but if the story takes place in the 1870-1914 period (e.g., [[The Prisoner of Zenda]]), the [[The High Queen|queen]] or [[Princess]] will be wearing these (usually in white kid leather) on formal occasions.
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== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* In ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' the King and Queen of Camelot each have a crown; the King's crown is a simple circlet with engravings, whilst the Queen's crown is much more elaborate, with plenty of jewels.
** Uther has two crowns, the gold circlet and a more typical crown. Arthur's new one is rather typical but not the same as Uther's.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] has quite a few crowns as magic items.
** The Circlet of Blasting, which fires a maximised Searing Light once per day.
* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', King Thorgrim [[The Magnificent|Grudgebearer]] has an extremely special crown worn by every dwarf High King, and just in case anyone would confuse it with another oversized solid gold crown it has magical runes on it. The phoenix crown was such a symbol until the [[Elves Versus Dwarves|dwarfs stole it from the elves]]. The king of Brettonia has one as well but it's not quite as fancy as the others. [[Our Ogres Are Hungrier|Ogre]] Overtyrant Greasus Goldtooth has a specially made crown hammered into his skull that increases his intelligence beyond that of your [[Dumb Muscle|average ogre]].
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* [[Real Life]] aversion: beauty pageants usually give the winner a tiara (and sometimes an ermine cape and scepter) and she is called a beauty queen. No royalty, but what the hell.
* Will most certainly show up any [[Awesome Moment of Crowning|coronation]], even if the other accessories don't.
* The [[Real Life]] [[wikipedia:St
** She does have to wear the lighter but even more ultra-fancy [[wikipedia:Imperial State Crown|Imperial State Crown]] every year for the Speech from the Throne. She has been observed [[Ermine Cape Effect|eating breakfast and reading newspapers with the thing on her head]] on the morning of a State Opening of Parliament to get used to the weight (two pounds).
* Any contest that crowns a 'King' (rarely 'Queen' in sport) will often have this and a cape as props for the winner. American Go-Karting, for example, has 'King of the Streets', a race where the winner gets these (as well as some more useful prizes, like cash and test rides).
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Played with in the ''[[Tale Spin]]'' episode "Waiders of the Wost Tweasure". A queen had lost a royal heirloom, but everyone in the kingdom had [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]], so she called the heirloom "the wuby wings". So Baloo and his friend thought "ruby rings". Well they were actually wings made of ruby.
* The Mickey-lookalike Prince from the Disney featurette ''The Prince and the Pauper'' had a royal ring to prove his identity, even when he was dressed in peasant clothes. When he becomes king he gets the full treatment with an ermine cape, a crown, and a scepter.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Indeed, one of the few occasions where a scepter has a central role in a story is the [[Tintin]] tale ''King Ottokar's Scepter'', where the new King of Syldavia will be forced to abdicate if he can't find the titular object. It's all a front for an attempted Anschluss.
* There is an [[Assassin's Creed]] comic that reveals that the staff of Tsarist Russia is a Piece of Eden.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Real Life]], sorta: every parliamentary body in Canada has a Ceremonial Mace which represents the power and authority of the reigning monarch. It's only a "sorta" example because they aren't actually requisite for Queen Elizabeth II herself. Instead, it's required for the actual business of Parliament to proceed. Without the Mace, a Provincial or Federal Parliament isn't even allowed to ''sit down''.
** The ceremonial mace is common in most English-speaking legislatures; the UK parliament at Westminster started the tradition (the Mace of the House of Commons -- Cromwell apparently asked for 'that fool's bauble' to be removed as he angrily dismissed the Rump in 1653, but it didn't take), and the new devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly both have very cool-looking, postmodern maces. The Australian House of Representatives and various other Commonwealth legislatures also have maces. Even the United States House of Representatives has [[wikipedia:Mace of the United States House of Representatives|a mace]]: thirteen ebony rods bound with silver (echoing the ''fasces'' of the Roman Republic) topped with a silver eagle on a globe; this is a subversion, because the US is, of course, a republic, with no king.
*** If you're wondering why the US House has a mace, recall that the US was once a collection of thirteen British colonies, most if not all of which had maces in ''their'' legislatures. It just didn't seem ''right'' that a directly-elected legislature would meet without a mace. Why this logic didn't apply to the Senate is unclear, but perhaps the Senate, whose members were elected by the state legislatures at the time, was seen as more of a diplomatic-like body.
** Every Commonwealth governmental assembly has a Royal Mace as part of the way that the commonwealth works. The (British) Houses of Parliament have three, two in the house of Lords. In 1965 the (then over 160 year old) Royal Mace of the Bahamas was thrown from the building by the opposition leader over the way the party in power was redrawing the constituency borders (he claimed they where trying to dilute his party's voter base). It worked, they could not go on until the mace was retrieved.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The throne of Gondor in [[The Lord of the Rings]] remains unoccupied. The Steward has a smaller chair under it.
** The same is true for the throne of Ankh-Morpork in ''[[Discworld]]'', although the reason no one uses the real one is that it's rotten.
*** Also from ''[[Discworld]]'' is the Scone of Stone, a parody of the Stone of Scone, which the Low King of the Dwarfs must sit on during the coronation.
** [[Narnia|Narniahas]] the Four Thrones of Cair Paravel.
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