Some of us are inordinately fond of monarchies. I can't seem to write anything without one. But overall, it's a bad system of government, and having an benevolent or reform-minded monarch on the throne may not be enough to fix it.
https://medium.com/@RealDorianDawes/ethics-in-world-building-monarchies-8131ad8528f8
And so on. It's a good article, I have no plans to stop writing about kings, queens, and enlightened despots. But it certainly affects the way I thing about these forms of government, and what I might be saying without realizing it.
https://medium.com/@RealDorianDawes/ethics-in-world-building-monarchies-8131ad8528f8
Within fantasy fiction, particularly traditional “high fantasy” settings, the most common system of government is that of the monarchy. This is understandable, as much of western fantasy fiction borrows heavily from western European history where monarchies have been equally as prevalent. The familiarity of the monarchy and its wide-usage means less work has to be done in order to understand how it works in your fictional society. Most readers have at least have enough pop-cultural understanding to gain an easy frame of reference into your story.
Therein of course lies the issue with this sort of escapist narrative, of framing inherently conservative ideals of hierarchies and autocratic rule because they are free of complication. They are not free of complication, not by a long-shot, and they are certainly not ideal. Real-world monarchies have a bloody history of mass inequality, poverty, imperialism, and genocide. We retain the vision of a good monarch as a relic of propaganda of days gone past, preserved repeatedly through our own fiction. I’ve discussed previously how the ideology of the divine right of kings frequently shows itself in fantasy stories.
An under-discussed flaw in these stories is how much strain centralized authority puts on a single leader’s head.
And so on. It's a good article, I have no plans to stop writing about kings, queens, and enlightened despots. But it certainly affects the way I thing about these forms of government, and what I might be saying without realizing it.
Last edited: