History Main / JusttheFirstCitizen

* UsefulNotes/JosefStalin [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zags]] this trope. Despite the almost absolute power Stalin wielded over the Soviet State, his official title was simply, "General Secretary of the Communist Party." He was also awarded the rarely used higest military rank, "Generalissimus" after the war. His rivals during his rise to power jokingly called him "Comrade Card-Index." He also allowed himself to be called simply ''Vozhd'' ("chief" or "boss") by his personal staff or others close to him. On the other hand, he ''unofficially'' allowed all kinds of grandiose epithets and decorations to be awarded to him, such as, "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness," and "Coryphaeus of Science."

* ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'': At the height of his power while exiled in Myr, Rhaegar effectively rules the city-state, but never styles himself king. Instead, he settles for the titles of Governor of the South and Protector of the City.

* A variant occurs in ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. After Eva Braun marries Hitler an officer briefly stumbles over what to call her, since they never bothered to come up with a title for the wife of a Führer. She tells him to just call her ''Frau Hitler''. [[labelnote:Translation]] Frau is German for "Miss." She's simply taking his surname as her own, as is standard in marriages. [[/labelnote]]

* ''King'' at its root means "offspring of a family" -- that it was of RoyalBlood, a ''good'' family, is implied, but it comes from the same root as ''kin''. ''Queen'' at its root means "woman" (same Indo-European root as the Greek ''gyne'', as in "gynecology"; the sense evolution is "woman -> wife -> wife of someone important -> wife of the king -> female monarch").

* ''King'' at its root means "offspring of a family" -- that it was of RoyalBlood, a ''good'' family, is implied, but it comes from the same root as ''kin''. ''Queen'' at its root means "woman."

* "Prime Minister", in those countries where the government leader has that title, is just the first minister among equals (''primus / prima inter pares'') in parliament, no matter how much power (s)he actually has. In the UK, the title was originally meant as an insult despite also carrying the title "First Lord of the Treasury".

** Elrond, while "mighty among Elves and Men" and fairly powerful, is simply called "Master Elrond". Elves barely have any concept of "rank"; while they attach prestige to lineage, an individual's actual power mostly derives solely from other elves being willing to follow him (though if a given leader doesn't make many mistakes, other Elves will tend to prefer status quo to revolution). Their political model is basically, in anthropological terms, a pre-chiefdom tribal one, like that of the Sioux or Apache. Mind you, the Elves ''do'' have more traditional sophisticated monarchies, and in ages past there were many Elf kingdoms,[[note]]The First Age had more than you can realistically count, while Gil-galad ran a decent-sized kingdom in the Second Age.[[/note]] but in the Third Age the only proper kingdom of Elves remaining in Middle-Earth is that of Thranduil at the northern end of Mirkwood (Legolas' people); the other remaining Elven kingdoms are in Valinor. Also, Elrond is very much an example of ModestRoyalty.

** Though the Stewards of Gondor aren't kings, they control the nation with the same authority the now-defunct line of kings had. Aragorn would have a harder time claiming the long-vacant kingship if not for the suicide of Denethor, the last Ruling Steward, the death in battle of his first son and near-death of the second, although it turned out the second was fine with handing over control to Aragorn. (It probably helped in the latter case that Aragorn clearly intended to spend a good chunk of time in the north reestablishing Arnor as a kingdom, leaving his Gondorian Steward to run things in the south.)

** Though the Stewards of Gondor aren't kings, they control the nation with the same authority the now-defunct line of kings had. Aragorn would have a harder time claiming the long-vacant kingship if not for the suicide of Denethor, the last Ruling Steward, the death in battle of his first son and near-death of the second, although it turned out the second was fine with handing over control to Aragorn.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein’s ''Literature/{{Friday}}'' has an especially nasty one: "(T)he father of the present First Citizen climbed to the throne over uncounted dead bodies and his son stays on that throne by being even more ruthless than his father"” He later gets assassinated, ending the danger for Friday to become one of those dead bodies.
* Not his official title, but in Creator/HarryTurtledove's Literature/{{Timeline 191}} series, Jake Featherston prefers to be called "Sarge" even after becoming President of the CSA.

* Lynette, First Citizen of Vault City in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''. Lovingly referred to as "First Bitchizen" by the fan community.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' Naked Snake goes through a lot of military organisations (most of them [[NGOSuperPower NGO Super Powers]]) as their leader, first is the Mercenary outfit [[{{VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker}} MSF (Military Sans Frontiers)]] [[spoiler: until it's blown up]], then the [[{{VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV}} Diamond Dogs]] which is basically a beefed up version of the previous organisation, both are situated on oil rigs out at sea. Then he goes on to be in charge of [[{{VideoGame/MetalGear}} Special Operations FOXHOUND]] [[spoiler:and a large military fortress on the southern tip of Africa known as [[ArcWords Outer Heaven]]]], and then [[spoiler: his own nation of [[{{VideoGame/MetalGear2}} Zanzibar Land]]]]. Throughout all of this he takes no military or political rank, simply being known as [[LivingLegend Big Boss]].
** [[DragonTheirFeet Revolver]][[spoiler:/Liquid]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Ocelot]] himself manages to become the most [[{{VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4}} powerful man in the world]] [[spoiler:by taking control of every weapon in the world]] using his [=GoP=] system. Yet he never takes any kind of rank or title, only ever being mentioned or addressed by his code name.

* The first Roman Emperors called themselves simply "The First" (''Princeps'', from which the word ''prince'' is derived, originally from the historical honorary title ''Princeps Senatus'', that is, the person allowed to speak first, which by the late Republic evolved into a post not unlike the modern Speaker position), after the example of [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Augustus]]. The later emperors, while finally acknowledging that the Republic effectively no longer existed, styled themselves by the equally generic ''Dominus'' (master of the house).

* UsefulNotes/JosefStalin [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zags]] this trope. Despite the almost absolute power Stalin wielded over the Soviet State, his official title was simply, "General Secretary of the Communist Party." His rivals during his rise to power jokingly called him "Comrade Card-Index." He also allowed himself to be called simply ''Vozhd'' ("chief" or "boss") by his personal staff or others close to him. On the other hand, he ''unofficially'' allowed all kinds of grandiose epithets and decorations to be awarded to him, such as, "Father of Nations," "Generalissimus," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness," and "Coryphaeus of Science."

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Kirk & co. come across a Roman Empire-[[RecycledINSPACE analogue planet]] where Kirk's buddy Captain Merrick has become First Citizen Merikus. Subverted in that it's clear he has no power whatsoever. It appears the only reason for keeping him around is to lure other Federation ships to restock their gladiator supply.

* The Tau from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' apparently have a dozen words for variations on "First among equals". The Ethereals especially are just one of five equal castes, and ''definitely'' not a ruling class of any kind.
** Also, the Emperor of Mankind. Even though his soul is literally crafted from the human sacrifices of thousands of psychics, deep down he's just another human who has his seriously dickish moments. He established himself as the Be-All-End-All messiah of Mankind while explicitly declaring that he was NOT God, that a God of Humanity NEVER existed, and that the reason why he is in charge is because he's the most powerful human in the galaxy, period. Unfortunately, this goes horribly wrong, especially when it came to his overly-religious son Lorgar. 10,000 years later, the inverse of this happens; everybody worships him as a god, so he now has the power of one, but he's also dying.
** His "son" Roboute Guilliman took the title of "Lord Commander of the Imperium" following the Emperor being placed in the Golden Throne and effectively ruled the Imperium as a second emperor for a time until he was fatally wounded in battle. [[spoiler: He reclaimed the position after being revived 10,000 years later.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Earthdawn}}'' sees the leader of the globe-spanning Theran Empire being named the First Governor instead of "emperor." However, this is an EnforcedTrope -- one of the founders of Thera summoned several massive earth elementals to create a Sphinx statue that would sit outside the First Governor's palace, watching him for signs of corruption (including making Thera into an empire), and would go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge at its discretion. Not taking up the Name of Emperor is a safeguard against that, even though Thera essentially HAS become TheEmpire. They also make sure to make the expansive First Governor's Mansion mostly invisible from the outside, though it's unlikely such a powerful magical construct would be fooled.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
** Kirk & co. come across a Roman Empire-[[RecycledINSPACE analogue planet]] where Kirk's buddy Captain Merrick has become First Citizen Merikus.
** Actually somewhat odd, as it's clear he has no power whatsoever. It appears the only reason for keeping him around is to lure other Federation ships to restock their gladiator supply.

* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula'', Count Dracula rules UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire not as a king, but as "Prince-Consort". UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria was reduced to a vampire bride and little more than a puppet to him, whose existence is the only thing legitimizing his claim. After [[spoiler:being dethrone]], he becomes supreme leader of the Central Powers while using the mere title of "Graf" (Count in German), though he is technically outranked by Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor Franz-Joseph, Sultan Mehmed V and Tsar Ferdinand, therefore is a DragonInChief.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. In his role as leader of the Asha'man, Mazrim Taim takes the title ''M'Hael'', which literally just means "leader" in the Old Tongue, something that doesn't seem that impressive. However, taken without specifications, it carries the implication that he leads ''everyone and everything'', making it a rather grandiose title after all. [[spoiler: After Taim gets promoted to [[QuirkyMinibossSquad the Forsaken]] in the last book, he actually changes his ''name'' to M'Hael]].

** Supporting the "Constitution was abolished" [[FanWank theory]] is the fact that one character is introduced as "Majority Leader of the National Legislature." The US Congress has ''two'' chambers, so no single person could ever be ''the'' majority leader. And for that matter, in the House of Representatives, the majority leader is actually only the second-ranking position, after the Speaker of the House. Furthermore, the US doesn't actually have a ''national'' government, it has a ''federal'' government. It is ''possible'' that, since Rand's philosophy was pretty clearly meant to be a precise inversion of Soviet Communism, she chose to represent the US as being controlled by a similar governmental system.

** Though the Stewards of Gondor aren't kings, they control the nation with the same authority the now-defunct line of kings had. Aragorn would have a harder time claiming the long-vacant kingship if not for the suicide of Denethor, the last Ruling Steward, the death in battle of his first son and near-death of the second.

** The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, whose title simply means "member of a political family". The fact the Patricianship tended to be limited to certain families for some time blunts that it was technically an elected office, though: in ''Night Watch'' it's mentioned that the guilds elect him, and the Patrician has an official residence. One man, one vote... he's the man, so he gets the vote.

* The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork in the Literature/{{Discworld}} series, whose title simply means "member of a political family".
** It does seem to be a real elected office, though: in ''Night Watch'' it's mentioned that the guilds elect him, and the Patrician has an official residence.
** One man, one vote... he's the man, so he gets the vote.

* A variant occurs in ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. After Eva Braun marries Hitler an officer briefly stumbles over what to call her, since they never bothered to come up with a title for the wife of a Führer. She tells him to just call her ''Frau Hitler''. [[labelnote:Translation]] Frau is German for "Miss." She's simply taking his surname as her own, as is standard in marriages. [[/labelnote]].

* A variant occurs in ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. After Eva Braun marries Hitler an officer briefly stumbles over what to call her, since they never bothered to come up with a title for the wife of a Führer. She tells him to just call her ''Frau Hitler''. [[labelnote:Translation]] Frau is German for "Miss." She's simply taking his surname, as is common in marriages. [[/Labelnote]].