The Kingdom: Difference between revisions

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** In the recent books, though, it got subtly subverted by the fact that first the Manticore itself finally discovers joys of imperialism ([[Word of God]] has it that its name is now Star [[The Empire|''Empire'']] of Manticore), and second that the previous [[The Empire|Empires]] are now either more or less good guys, or fair game for them.

***In canon "Empire" is used to maintain a legal fiction of partnership between Manticore and little powers that are running to her to beg protection from the bad guys. Calling Elizabeth Queen of Manticore and oh yes, Queen of yada, yada, yada is felt to be less of a slight then calling her Empress of the Star Empire of Manticore, and oh yes Queen of Manticore. Local politicians are standing for Parliament as soon as political loose ends are tied as they would not if it was felt to be a matter of simple conquest. It is really more a concept of "Commonwealth". Of course Manticorans do not have some ascetic saintly aversion to increasing their power. However they did not have a fiendish plot to conquer people either, they just happened to win enough battles to make other nations think them a good bet. Furthermore, the Manticorans don't ''want'' a traditional empire gained by conquest and plunder. Such things are too wasteful in lives and money to attract the desire of [[Proud Merchant Race|good businessfolk]]. What they want is partners in trade, politics and war. By contrast the Solarian League vampirically sucks dry every planet it can [[Stupid Evil|even when]] it would profit more in the long run by turning down the pressure and letting colonies prosper [[Pragmatic Villainy|enough to provide revenue.]]

** One thing Manticore does have is an attractive queen and princesses (Weber loves princesses and [[Everything's Better with Princesses|so do his readers]]). Some princesses are [[Badass Princess|pretty scary.]]

**Grayson is officially more a [[Theocracy]] than a kingdom. It does not fulfill the [[Stereotype]] though it's evil twin Masada does: rather the term reflects the amount of ecclesiastical influence. In any event much of it's workings would qualify it more as [[The Kingdom]] though it uses different titles than Manticore does.

* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'' has a good kingdom that is turned to evil when the Queen has the King murdered during a war. The resistance centers around, of course, the last legitimate heir ({{spoiler|or so he thinks}}) to the king that managed to escape assasination. The Princess on the other hand is misguided by her mother, and only a [[Enemy Mine]] situation gets her on the right side eventually.

* The [[Land of Oz|Kingdom of Oz]].

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* Barrayer in Vorkosigan saga calls itself an empire and in fact has one or two protectorates. However it is in many ways closer to this then to being an empire. It has a fairly compact government and is only a medium sized state by galactic standards lacking the sprawl characteristic of both [[The Empire]] and [[The Federation]], as well as the spectacular tyrannies of many variations of [[The Empire]]. Moreover while it has a [[Secret Police]] and a [[Deadly Decadent Court]], both of these are rather toned down and are far less sinister then many variations of this trope; at least they were since Aral's Regency.

* The Old Kingdom in the ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' books. It has no other name, which fits as it is magically kept in [[Medieval Statis]] in contrast to its neighbor to the South. And if the rightful rulers are not present, the Kingdom ''will'' fall into disrepair.

== Music ==