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Londo: And how are things at the royal court?
Vir: You know, collusion, politicking, scheming, innuendo, gossip. The same old thing.
A monarch's court where the powerful, yet humble nobles gather to make decisions for the common good.
They stem from esteemed houses with an ancient and deserving history who work together in their effort to best serve their beloved king and beautiful country — doing whatever is needed to quell threats to it. They're all like brothers and sisters, though they must resolve occasional conflicts. (And there's an occasional odd-ball.)
Of course, a certain sense of decorum and style is expected of all newcomers who want to uphold this proud tradition and if one isn't able to, they know it's their duty to discreetly but clearly explain customs to them. After all, even their casual conversation is often about matters of import, and they must consider their children's future. They do expect manners though their artless dignity is often hard to imitate. And their piety is unquestionable.
But it's not all just work here. With their exquisite taste, the court is quite charming. An occasional Masquerade Ball, feast, or other festivity help them relax after a hard day of fulfilling their duty to their loyal citizens is done.
The Fair Folk, when they aren't out tormenting us norms, are like this.
One type of Standard Royal Court. Sometimes only portions of a court are like this, as when the decadence congregates about an Evil Prince.
Examples
Anime
- It seems like all the major nobles in Midland are out to get Griffith, who ends up as the target of two assassination plots by the jealous nobility. Griffith, however, is no slouch himself, and all of the nobles who take part in the assassinations end up dead.
- In Vinland Saga, the court of King Sweyn Forkbeard is said to be so opulent it is populated with beautiful slave women taken from every corner of the world, filled with conniving politicians, and the arena of many a bloody duel to the death.
Film
- Louis XV's court as portrayed in the French movie Ridicule exemplifies this trope, showcasing how nobles' political power and status was highly dependent on their wit. One victim of a mocking jest saw his request to the King rejected, got ostracised and ended up killing himself as a result.
Literature
- A Song Of Ice And Fire has the deadliest court in modern American fantasy. In a Crapsack World where seven powers duke it out to gain control of the realm, Magnificent Bastards, Smug Snakes and Byronic Heroes trade gambits like they're in a pillow fight. And God Save Us From The Queen...
- The nobles from the Bitterbynde books. The heroine, being a borderline Mary Sue, makes a few faux pas and has to run away when her pretense gets discovered — but of course till then she's been the most graceful and beautiful of women at court as well as a thousand times purer than these cruel, superficial twits.
- The nobles from the first novel of The Final Empire when their society is still intact. They indulge their extravagances while the rest of the population is nearly starving and there's the extra fun of some of them secretly being Mistborn which means powerful sorcerers and born assassins.
- In one of the first three Wheel Of Time books, Rand al'Thor comes into a big city with such a court. At least the intrigue bit is definitely fitting - everyone tries to pull him to their side by sending him invitations. Rand tries to avoid this by burning all the invitations... which they, of course, take as a cunning political move. Ultimately, his actions indirectly lead to the assassination of the king and the entire country falling into a civil war.
- Gormenghast.
- The royal court from the Book Of Amber, basically a Big Screwed Up Family.and their lackeys So much backstabbery your brain will give up and go Xanatose.
- The court of the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland is probably like this, what with her ordering beheadings left and right.
- The court of Governor and Sole Autocrat Barholm Clerett in The General, where intrigue is an artform, treachery a given AND on top of everything else the Governor is borderline insane. As the saying goes, 'A simpleton from the Governor's Court could give lessons in intrigue to [any other royal court on the planet, save possibly the Colony's]."
- The goblin court in John Barnes's One For The Morning Glory. Explicitly described as a parody of King Boniface's.
- The high council of Menzoberranzan. Usually, the backstabbing comes from a lower-ranking House that wants to be on the high council, but frankly the entire city is afflicted with a pernicious case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
- David Eddings is very fond of this trope: it shows up in the Imperial Courts of both The Malloreon and The Tamuli, and the main characters are very enthusiastic participants: in The Malloreon, they foment discord to the point that they engineer a civil war inside the walls of the palace as cover for their escape, while in The Tamuli they help the figurehead emperor overthrow his own government and seize control by throwing a party, getting the assorted aristocrats drunk, and imprisoning the lot of them.
- The Imperial Court of Golgotha, homeworld of The Empire, in Deathstalker series by Simon Green is this writ large IN SPACE. Well, on a planet, but IN SPACE anyway.
- In the furry fantasy novel Fangs Of Kaath, the royal court of Osra is a den of decadence and coldblooded political calculation that could consider genocide as well as accommodation as solutions with equal ease. While the heroes, Prince Raschid and his love Sandhri are the first to note it's a fun place for a party with food and sexy girls galore when it is in a peaceful mood, they are otherwise repelled by its venal side and it suffers a Karmic Death at being nearly totally destroyed in the climactic battle in the end with nearly the entire villainous Royal family dead except for the straight arrow heroes who find themselves unquestionably on top and in charge of things to run their way.
- In William King's Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, Ragnor is warned in advance that Terra is this.
- In James Swallow's Warhammer 40000 novel Faith & Fire, the Battle Sisters find the aristocrats like this: hopelessly languid, using fans that could double as weapons if they were capable of fighting, and so heavily perfumed that one Sister says they obviously used a crop duster.
- The Japanese Imperial Court in the Tale Of Genji - and Real Life - was an epitome of this trope. If its members weren't plotting against each other they were having illicit sex with somebody else's wife or mistress.
- The entire first "book" in Dune is practically one long convoluted case of court intrigue. The Emperor, who was secretly in league with the Baron, was trying to off the Duke by giving him a deathtrap "promotion" to take control of a flailing production operation that he surely had no hope of turning around, while the Illuminati-like women's convent neared its ultimate goal and began pulling the political strings in new and dangerous directions, unaware that Jennifer had spilled the beans to Mark about her affair with Brad while under anesthesia.
Live Action TV
- Queen Elizabeth's court in Black Adder II tends towards this trope. She beheads someone if she's bored. Or if they don't tell her that her nose looks pretty.
- The Centaurum (the
Imperial Court Senate of the Centauri Empire Republic) on Babylon Five are a textbook example of this trope. See page quote.
- The court of Gilboa is a polished, modern-day beaurocracy where the king wears suits and rules from a conference table. That doesn't make any difference to the murderous, treacherous and utterly corrupt proceedings that go on behind closed doors, though...
Tabletop Games
- Pick an Elysium (or court) with Fae or Vampires in any World Of Darkness game, and this is what they're like. Granted, you'll have biker lords and harlot duchesses along with your typical "proper" lords though, oddly on an equal footing.
- Mage caucuses and consilii can veer into this as well.
- The article picture from Weregeek
 features a perfectly typical Elysium. Medieval decor, biker vampires, Victorian vampires, and Bela Lugosi ripoffs.
- The Seelie and Unseelie Courts of Dungeons And Dragons are the epitome of what happens when the Deadly Decadent Court is run by The Fair Folk. The Unseelie Court is noted as downright lethal runless you are very, very carefully prepared.
- The Varius Courts of Raksha in Exalted are like the above only with fluid reality too. The Realm's various social organizations come close to this as The Empress valued competition among her underlings, and descendants. Heaven is a cross of this and the Corrupt Corporate Executive as its a deadly decadent *bureaucracy*.
Real Life
- A bit of a Truth In Television trope, since nations with absolute rulers and a wealthy aristocracy have tended to breed Deadly Decadent Courts like flies. Imperial Rome, Imperial China, the Byzantine Empire, the medieval Vatican, and pre-Revolutionary France are the archetypal examples that most writers seem to crib from.
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