History Main / ShadowDictator

* While not a world leader, Dr. Mabuse in ''Film/DrMabuseTheGambler'' and its sequels has a vast crime network that allows him to control the economy of pre-WWII Germany. [[spoiler: Mabuse goes mad at the end of the first movie. In ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' someone follows the "manual of crime" he scrawls in the madhouse before he dies. Subsequent movies, not as good, feature would-be masterminds copying his methods.]]

* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. [[BigBad Palpatine]] meets Ezra via hologram in the final episode, but he takes the appearance of his Supreme Chancellor days to make himself [[FauxAffablyEvil look more friendly and benevolent]], despite this being post-''Revenge of the Sith'' where he claims to have been hideously scarred by the Jedi. Ezra sees right through it and so Palpatine drops the act and (still as a hologram) immediately comes out InTheHood as normal, confirming that his previous image was just a ruse but implying that this how he wants the galaxy at large to see him. He also claims that he spends most of his time running the galaxy, when in face he spends most of his time studying the Force and trying to acquire more and more Dark Side power.

* Kim Jong-il's voice has only ever been broadcast once, for seven seconds at a 1992 military rally. His speeches are usually read out on radio or television by actors. In 2008, it was claimed that he had died in 2003 of diabetes and had been replaced by a body double at public appearances. There were also rumors that, even if he was still alive, he was extremely sick and not exercising power. He was even Photoshopped (badly) into a photo of some soldiers. He nominated his son Kim Jong-un as successor in 2010 and made a few public appearances, quashing rumors of his death.
** Then died for real in December of 2011.
** Should be noted that the president of North Korea is still Kim-il Sung, who died in 1994. Surprisingly for a place like North Korea, however, they ''do'' publicly acknowledge that he's dead; his status as President is roughly analogous to the tradition that no officer of the US armed forces may outrank George Washington.
* Before being beaten in World War 2, the Japanese Emperor was thought to be a God and the Japanese people weren't even supposed to look at him because they weren't worthy. Supposedly, when he went on the radio to announce their surrender, hearing his voice was as much a shock as the surrender itself.

May [[TheMan not exist at all]], or could be DeadAllAlong, or [[EldritchAbomination not even human]] to [[CosmicHorrorReveal begin with]]. TheManBehindTheCurtain is also possible. Overlaps with NoOneSeesTheBoss, which deals with the overarching conspiracy surrounding our mystery person.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tyranny}}'': The overlord of TheEmpire, Kyros, is an enigma to almost everyone. Male characters tend to portray them as female, female characters tend to portray them as male (unless they're lesbians), and the ones who do know say ''not telling is funnier''. Whatever they are, they might be alien.

** At the end of the Jedi Knight class quest, [[spoiler: the Knight confronts and "kills" the Emperor himself. The Emperor persists as a Force ghost, as powerful Sith are wont to do.]] Then, in ''Shadow of Revan'', [[spoiler: Revan himself plans to reincarnate the Emperor and kill him properly this time -- except that, while he's successful at the first part, the second is beyond his abilities. The Emperor had deluded Revan into believing he could kill him; what if anything actually ''can'' has yet to be seen.]] The upshot of this is, [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Dark Council is in charge]] [[RegentForLife for all practical purposes]]. The ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' expansion reveals why the Emperor hasn't been seen in centuries: [[spoiler:he was busy forming another empire under another identity that comes out of nowhere to conquer both the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic.]]
** In the end, we never get to see his true face. BUT, in Knights Of The Eternal Throne, we do get to see his father, so we now have enough data to make a calculated guess.

* The unnamed Eastern European-esque Nation in ''VideoGame/GadgetPastAsFuture'' is led by Orlovsky, whose government constructed the various machines you see in-game, and re-purposed the therapeutic Sensorama as a MindControlDevice to brainwash anyone who disobeys him. When a group of scientists find that a CometOfDoom will strike the Earth, Orlovsky works to paint the scientists as terrorists and suppress news of the comet. You're sent by Army Commander Theordore Slowslop to find these scientists and investigate what they're up to, but end up brainwashed by the Sensorama into working for them instead. It's left ambiguous as to which party succeeded after then, as the game grows slowly more surreal down the line.

* God from ''Literature/TheBible'' is a more benevolent version. Islam takes the Shadow Dictator part very seriously, considering all anthropomorphic images of God and Muhammad as blasphemy.
** Ironically, the first chapter of the Book of Revelations has John interacting directly with God, writing down His messages to the seven churches. Verses 12-17 even give a broad description of Him. Ironically, He looks a lot like the traditional GrandpaGod image, but other elements that stand out are the gold belt around His waist, His eyes [[FireballEyeballs glowing like fire]], His feet shining like polished brass and His voice sounding like a roaring waterfall.

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* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:the society within the walls is ruled by one. The Fritz royal family were actually [[PuppetKing puppets]], and the true royal family is House Reiss, led by King Rod Reiss, [[HeroicBastard Krista]]'s (AKA Historia Reiss) biological father]].

* The Principal in the ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' manga.

* By the second season of ''Manga/DeathNote'', [[spoiler:most of the world's countries have declared their support for Kira, and the United States eventually backs down and obeys his orders. Japan doesn't, however]]. Nobody actually knows what Kira looks like, only that he/she/it will kill anyone who commits a wrong. The cult who is building a temple to Kira assumes that Kira is [[GrandpaGod an old man with a beard]], though in actuality, Kira is a handsome young man who makes use of a few proxies.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', [[spoiler:the mysterious Great Imu is revealed as the true ruler of the World Government, someone that the Five Elders (thought to be the actual rulers) bow to. Their existence is a complete secret to everyone but a few people, and it's believed that if knowledge of them got out, the world would descend into war and chaos.]]

* Discussed in ''Literature/BattleRoyale''. As Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada discuss the nature of the totalitarian Greater East Asian government, Kawada suggests that the head of the government, known as the Leader to the public, may just be a figurehead, with the true power lying elsewhere. However, there's no indication given of whether or not this is true.
* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Big Brother is never seen in person, yet [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou his face is worshiped throughout Oceania]]. Given that one of the characters claims that Big Brother cannot die, it's pretty likely that [[InventedIndividual he doesn't exist in the first place]]. A member of the Inner Party explains the reason for this, describing how people are more empathetic towards a person than towards a faceless system. The existence of the revolutionary leader Goldstein is similarly questionable, as is pretty much everything we're told about world politics... or anything else.

* The Real President of the Galaxy in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. Also the current Galactic Emperor, who "is now nearly dead, and has been for many centuries." Someone had the inspired idea of putting him into a Stasis Field whilst on his death-bed, and since he apparently didn't think to appoint a regent or formally abdicate due to ill-health, political power has now bloodlessly shifted to the old parliament and the president they appoint. Or so the general public believes; the truth is a bit more complicated and, this being the work of Douglas Adams, considerably weirder.
* Adam Selene, leader of the Lunar revolution, in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. [[spoiler:Actually the [[VirtualCelebrity virtual avatar]] of the supercomputer AI Mycroft Holmes, aka "Mike"]].
* Spoofed in ''How To Be A Villain'' by Neil Zawacki, when the author suggests that not actually existing might be a possible strategy for a BigBadWannabe. Everyone's afraid of you, but as no-one knows where you are they can't kill you either.

* Command from ''Series/{{Scandal}}'' runs the United States and by extension the world. The world just doesn't know it.

* ''{{Series/Jeremiah}}'': Daniel, who's never seen by his people, except for the very top officials. [[spoiler: It turns out they invented him, to be the ideal leader.]]

* The God-Emperor of Mankind in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Most notably, the followers of Chaos call him a corpse while the human Imperium of course largely exalts him as a god guiding the organization. Neither of the people involved in this debate are particularly unbiased, however. All the evidence used by his supporters have equally plausible counter-arguments and rationalization proposing why they happen - for instance, Imperials will emphatically claim that the Emperor's power prevents the forces of Chaos from overrunning reality, something far more likely to be done by Necron technology and the fact that the Chaos Gods simply [[ItAmusedMe find the slow death of the galaxy far too amusing to get their game on]]. Lore however largely states the God-Emperor is actually alive as a fact (Well, for a given value of it since he's stuck on the life-support chair the Golden Throne and as editions have gone by the Emperor has been visually displayed on his throne as increasingly skeletal and withered in appearance), considering the thousand of psykers a day sacrificed to keep him alive to let him direct the Astronomicon which is necessary for the Imperium on whole to be able to function together across the galaxy - and there is no one else capable of taking over for this. However, said lore also says that the amount of psykers required to power the Golden Throne is inflating and failures in its mechanisms have been found that are beyond its engineers' ability to repair, and as mentioned there remains a large amount of in-universe conjectures and factoids about what and if the Emperor does anything outside of this.

* Yawgmoth, dark god of Phyrexia from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''. He is referred to on cards, but never depicted or even directly quoted. Even the tie-in novels keep his appareances low, because he spends most of his time in a sleeping state to preserve his world. As such, most Phyrexians have never seen him and neither have his enemies. The only books in which he makes any real appearance are the prequel ''Literature/TheThran'' and the GrandFinale ''[[Literature/InvasionCycle Apocalypse]]''.
* In ''TabletopGame/CastleFalkenstein'', Aaron Burr, the President for Life of the Free State of Orleans, hasn't been seen in public in more than a quarter of a century, causing the entire country to slip into WretchedHive territory. Since he's over 100 years old at this point and his mistress is Marie Laveau (a HollywoodVoodoo sorceress in this setting), he might be dead...or he might be undead.
* ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' has {{Mega Corp}}s with "Shadow Presidents" whose identities are unknown to everyone but themselves and their immediate successors and predecessors, but who pass on the access codes to networks of agents threaded throughout their MegaCorp so they can keep ambitious executives and subsidiaries in line. [[spoiler: In recent history four of the ten shadow presidents in the solar system have died without designating a successor. Two of whom were usurped by entities that pried the passwords from their brains.]]

* Despot in ''VideoGame/TheNamelessMod'' is never seen, doesn't use an avatar when he [=PMs=] people and leaves everything to his second in command Ghand, but as he is a CloudCuckooLander things fall to the de facto second in command, King Kashue.
* The ruler of Tolbi city, Lord Babi from ''VideoGame/GoldenSun''. Even though the heroes get to see him in the game, very few normal people actually see the old geezer themselves

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': No one in TheEmpire has actually ''seen'' the Emperor, not even the Darths on the Dark Council. He does have a network of "voices" and "hands" - avatars who have sacrificed their very existences to providing him a public face. That doesn't stop the Empire from their fanatic loyalty. Too bad it's completely misplaced as he's an omnicidal nut who doesn't give a damn about his empire ''or'' anything but wiping out everything in the universe but himself.

* Subverted in ''Videogame/PhantasyStarIV'': the immortal wizard (and Phantasy Star I veteran) Lutz reigns over the magic users of the planet Dezolis from the depth of the Esper Mansion... except [[spoiler: his body grew too old to even be maintained through hibernation and life prolonging methods inherited from Algo's golden age, so now he uploads his mind into capable young sorcerers, like party member Rune, and send then around the Algo solar system to seek signs of Dark Force reemergence.]] The actual ruling of the Esper Mansion is apparently left to the ''mortal'' elder mages, with Lutz only taking part in some ritual ceremonies when he's around.

* ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'': During Connor's interactions with Amanda, she appears to be the BlackBossLady in charge of Cyberlife as a whole. [[spoiler:Only later is it revealed that she's simply a program developed by Elijah Kamski, who modeled her after his former teacher and mentor who [[DeadAllAlong died years ago]]. Outside of Kamski himself, who may or may not have been orchestrating the events of the game from behind the scenes during his retirement, the current leadership of Cyberlife isn't identified.]]

* The king of Legara in ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' has not been seen for years resulting in some suspicion among the upper ranks of his Legion. He was eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:an immortal Tavor who had [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt inherited the throne by killing the previous king]]. Why he had gone into seclusion is uncertain, though it may have been an attempt to avoid being recognized by Cale]].

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', [[spoiler: The mysterious Great Imu is revealed as the true ruler of the World Government, someone that the Five Elders (thought to be the actual rules) bow to. Their existence is a complete secret to everyone but a few people, and it's believed that if knowledge of them got out, the world would descend into war & chaos.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

May [[TheMan not exist at all]], or could be DeadAllAlong, or [[EldritchAbomination not even human]] [[CosmicHorrorReveal to begin with]]. TheManBehindTheCurtain is also possible. Overlaps with NoOneSeesTheBoss, which deals with the overarching conspiracy surrounding our mystery person.

* ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'': During Connor's interactions with Amanda, she appears to be the BlackBossLady in charge of Cyberlife as a whole. [[spoiler:Only later is it revealed that she's simply a program developed by Elijah Kamski, who modeled her after his former teacher and mentor. Outside of Kamski himself, who may or may not have been orchestrating the events of the game from behind the scenes during his retirement, the current leadership of Cyberlife isn't identified.]]

** Ironically, the first chapter of the Book of Revelations has John interacting directly with God, writing down His messages to the seven churches. Verses 12-17 even give a broad description of Him. Ironically, He looks a lot like the traditional GrandpaGod image, but other elements that stand out are the gold belt around His waist, His eyes glowing like fire, His feet shining like polished brass and His voice sounding like a roaring waterfall.

* ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'': The sovereign of Borogravia is the Duchess, who has not been seen in decades. [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that she died some time ago, but her spirit has remained as a harassed demi-goddess because the citizens of the country have gotten in the habit of praying to her.]]

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Big Brother is never seen in person, yet [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou his face is worshiped throughout Oceania]]. Given that one of the characters claims that Big Brother cannot die, it's pretty likely that he doesn't exist in the first place. A member of the Inner Party explains the reason for this, describing how people are more empathetic towards a person than towards a faceless system. The existence of the revolutionary leader Goldstein is similarly questionable, as is pretty much everything we're told about world politics... or anything else.

* Command from ''Series/{{Scandal}}''.

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:the society within the walls is ruled by one. The Fritz royal family were actually [[PuppetKing puppets]], and the true royal family is House Reiss, led by King Rod Reiss, Krista's (AKA Historia Reiss) biological father]].

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''', Pain starts out as one. He rules the Hidden Rain Village as a god after annihilating everyone even remotely associated with the old leader, but nobody's ever actually met him in person. [[spoiler:Sasuke intends to become one as well.]]
* By the second season of ''Manga/DeathNote'', [[spoiler:most of the world's countries have declared their support for Kira, and the United States eventually backs down and obeys his orders. Japan doesn't, however.]] Nobody actually knows what Kira looks like, only that he/she/it will kill anyone who commits a wrong. The cult who is building a temple to Kira assumes that Kira is [[GrandpaGod an old man with a beard]], though in actuality, Kira is a handsome young man who makes use of a few proxies.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has the King of Vices, who runs the Republic of Heiburg as military dictatorship and directs a cabal of assassins from the shadows, but no one knows their true identity. Many citizens suspect the King is the country's ObviouslyEvil champion, Rosa Granhide, [[spoiler:but it turns out that the real King is actually Rosa's aide and that Rosa herself is just a brainwashed decoy]].

* [[Anime/CrossAnge Embryo]] has traces of this. While the Mana users are left to do their own thing for their FantasticRacism, [[spoiler:he's in control of what's giving them power, is the one who ''created'' this world, and can control the people as he wish.]]
* Ribbons Almark for the first season of ''Anime/{{Mobile Suit Gundam 00}}''. He's fully revealed in season two and becomes a major player in the plot.