Ethnicity Monarch

Stan: Hey, Token. I just wanted to let you know that everything is cool now. My dad apologized to Jesse Jackson.
Token: Oh I see, so I'm supposed to feel all better now.
Stan: Well, yeah.
Token: You just don't get it, Stan!
Stan: Dude, Jesse Jackson said it's okay!
Token: Jesse Jackson! Is not the Emperor! Of Black People!
Stan: [softly] He told my dad he was...

— South Park, "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson"

The Ethnicity Monarch is a character that is proclaimed (by themselves or others) as the ruler of a specific ethnic group, culture or species.

This character blurs the lines between The High King and the King of the Homeless, and can also be one or the other. What defines this type of ruler is that their primary form of authority does not come from land or physical borders. They are considered the authority on a specific group of people, no matter where members of that group live. The King of Dragons, for example, would be the ruler of all dragons everywhere in the world and beyond.

That said, it's likewise possible for this to fall victim to Circular Reasoning. Let's start with someone declaring themselves the King of Dragonia, and Dragonia happens to be the only known place Dragons are found. Under this logic, this person is now the King of Dragons as well, and by extension all Dragons are also Dragonians. This likewise can mean that any place that Dragons live is considered part of Dragonia, and he's the King there even if it's beyond the original borders. After one final leap of logic, if Dragons are found that don't originate from Dragonia, the so-called King of Dragons may still demand fealty because otherwise their title isn't technically true.

If you're confused, you're not alone; this sort of semantic slippery sloping is often how wars get started.

This is ubiquitous among Single-Species Nations, where being the ruler of a country and the ruler of a species are functionally the same thing. May be the leader of a Barbarian Tribe. Also likely to be applied to a Monster Progenitor. Usually, the Monster Lord not only overlaps with this but is physically different — possibly bigger and tougher than the rest of their species. Dracula is often called "lord of the vampires" in some works, and Satan, Maou or some other similar entity is often the ruler and king of all demons in various works of fiction.

See also Ethnic God, especially if said deity is a God-Emperor. Compare Odd Job Gods, who may be the god of a particular group of people.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime:
  • Benimaru and his sister Shuna are the prince and princess of the oni (later Kijin) race.
  • Gabimaru and his family are the rulers of the lizardfolk (later Dragonnewt) race.
  • Geld is the name held by two different leaders of the Orc (later High Orc) race.
• So I'm a Spider, So What?:
  • Queen Taratects are the queen (and Monster Progenitor) of all Taratect monsters.
  • The Demon Lord is the ruler of all demonkind, regardless of whether they agree with the person appointed to be or not.

Comic Books

• Marvel Comics:
  • There are the Skrull, Kree, and Shiar Empires, all with their own rulers. Typically, their authority is only over Imperial territory, but they're also treated as the rulers of a homogeneous racial group. This is especially apparent in Young Avengers when it's discovered that Hulkling has the ancestry of both Kree and Skrull royalty, which prompts both Empires into fighting over which gets to "claim" him.
  • Various immortal or divine beings, such as Asgardians, Olympians, and so on are ruled by monarchs like Odin or Zeus who are stated to the ruler of all their kin, whether or not they currently live within their godly realm.
  • The Inhumans: Black Bolt (and later Medusa) is the ruler of the Inhuman race. While the Inhumans typically do have a country they rule (Attilan), they have often relocated, and when new Inhumans appear (such as Kamala Khan), Bolt and/or Medusa tends to exert their authority over them.
  • Namor, a.k.a. The Submariner, is the King of Atlantis, and the oceans in general. In one particular story, Atlantis was destroyed and the Atlantean people scattered throughout the world, blending in with the human population. Despite this, Namor was still assumed to be their king and it was implied that he would gather them all together again when the time was right.
  • X-Men: In several stories, Magneto is appointed to the position of head of state of some sort of nation or base that becomes an autonomous mutant state. In particular, within the story House of M, is first declared the ruler of the mutant state of Genosha, but after a brief war against the United States, expands his territory until he has become King of Earth and primary defender of mutantkind.
• DC Comics:
  • Wonder Woman and her mother Hippolyta have each had the title of Queen of the Amazons, although the latter is usually the one in command. During the relaunch of DC Infinite Frontier, Diana's sister Nubia becomes queen as Diana is now Guardian of the Multiverse and Hippolyta has taken the Wonder Woman mantle. While most of the Amazons reside on Paradise Island there is a group in Egypt, that does not recognize Hippolyta as Queen initially, and a group in the Amazon Rain Forest.
  • Aquaman is the king of "All Marine Life", according to some interpretations of the character. His ability to talk to sea creatures is sometimes limited to how dependent said creatures are on water. So fish will heed his commands almost instantly while aquatic fowl may take a bit more coaxing. Some interpretations also say that the animals have the choice of refusing his commands if they're not happy with them, but most respect Aquaman as their champion.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Most, if not all kingdoms, seem to be sorted by races, like the human kingdoms, the three Dwarf Kingdoms, the elf kingdom, and the Fairy kingdom of the Shining Concord Empire.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan works often have godlike monarchs who rule over entire species, such as a ruler of all dragons or all griffins, as an extrapolation of how all ponies are ruled by Celestia and Luna in the show.
  • Codex Equus: Most species are ruled by one or more God Emperors such as Equestria's princesses, the Changeling Progenitors, the dragon gods Bahamut and Tiamat, the breezie gods Sefyr and Mab, and so on.
  • The Moonstone Cup: All major species are united into cohesive nations with a single leader. Examples named in the story include Luna and Celestia the pony princess, and formerly pony empresses; Najstariot the dragon queen; Hadalsnan al-Dhi'b, the king of the ghuls; and Amarok, the ruler of the giant wolves of the north.
  • Small Scale: The immortal Bahamut rules over all dragons like Celestia rules over all ponies.
  • Where Loyalties Lie: Each race has its own immortal, deific ruler who governs a part of the natural world and serves as the psychopomp for its respective race. Besides Luna and Celestia, who govern ponies and the day/night cycle, the story describes Emperor Magnus, who governs griffins and the wind.

Films — Live-Action

• Alien: In the Expanded Universe, the Xenomorph species is ruled by a Queen Mother, which even outranks the more commonly-known Queens. The Queen Mother telepathically controls every Xenomorph in the known universe and can even control humans and other species whether living or dead.

Literature

• Discworld:
  • Trolls are made of "metamorphorical" rock, meaning they take the forms of various types of minerals. A diamond troll, because he can regulate his body temperature and thus overclock his silicon brain, is automatically the indisputable king of all trolls. In Thud! we meet such a one, Mr. Shine.
  • The Low King of the Dwarves is their "highest" authority, so much so that the ability of a potential new one in The Fifth Elephant to revoke the dwarfish status of anyone living above ground is a serious threat to the ones living in Ankh-Morpork.
  • The Elves are all ruled by their King and Queen, although the dramatic difference between the Queen's agressive designs on the Disc and the King's phlegmatic belief that it'll fall to them eventually means that they specifically side with one or the other.
  • Archchancellor Ridcully is the recognized leader of all wizards everywhere by virtue of being the Archchancellor of Unseen University. There is another Archchancellor running a university in Fourecks, but that's too far away to matter apparently. The opening of a second Unseen University in much close Brazenecks in Unseen Academicals, with its own Archchancellor (original UU's former Dean of Students), comes very close to starting a war over whose authority trumps whose, but fortunately they decide to settle the matter on a game of Football.
• His Dark Materials: John Faa is the King of the Gypsians and is able to ask for money and conscripts from each family.
• Inheritance Cycle: The elves, dwarves, and werecats each have a monarch, although the first two are only found in their own lands (the forest of Du Weldenvarden and the Beor Mountains, respectively) and the third is (presumably) nomadic. The elves and dwarves have an Elective Monarchy, though in both cases of succession seen on-page the elected monarch was related to the previous one. It's unknown how the werecat king is chosen.
• Kushiel's Legacy: The Tsingano Magical Romani mostly travel in groups called kumpania with their own leadership, but the four most powerful kumpania select the Tsingan Kralis, a lifelong appointment that's the highest Tsingani authority. Hyacinthe refuses the appointment in Kushiel's Avatar, since his own people had wrongfully cast him out and only want him back for his magical power.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A few characters or factions attempt to exploit this trope to their benefit or the benefit of others.
  • The ruler that sits on the Iron Throne of Westeros is not only proclaimed King of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, but also "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men", making them ruler of pretty much every human being who originated or settled within the continent, no matter where they may be.^note The Ironborn are not considered to belong to any of those three groups, and worship their own god. They're also technically not on the continent, but on islands off the western coast. However, the last time they tried to declare independence they lost in a Curb-Stomp Battle. It's unclear whether the Iron Islands are counted as one of the Seven Kingdoms, which actually contain nine distinct realms.
  • The King Beyond the Wall is an honorary title that is given to any leader who has done the impressive task of uniting the various clans of Free Folk under a common banner. However, this authority is considered a courtesy—said "King" has no legitimate leadership or authority to give orders to any tribe but their own. The Free Folk, after all, pride themselves on being free.
  • Mother of Dragons is an epithet given to Daenerys Targaryen as the last known person in the world who is able to bond or communicate with fire-breathing dragons. Though the title is technically a formality as there are only three dragons, and Daenerys' only connection with them is her magical bloodline, no one is in a position to argue because three dragons is more than enough to bring entire nations to their knees.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Silmarillion: The High King of the Elves is Ingwë, a Time Abyss who might have been one of the first generation awakened by Iluvatar. Although he's revered by all elves and is ranked above the High Kings of the other elf tribes, he rules from the Home of the Gods, and therefore has no active role in Middle-Earth; his influence in Tolkien's Legendarium is only seen through his descendants.
    • In Middle-Earth, the senior-most King of the High Elves is styled 'High King of the Noldor'. It is held by Fingolfin for most of the First Age, before being briefly held by Fingon and Turgon, each ruling for a couple decades at most, before being held by Gil-Galad for the remainder of the First Age and the entirety of the Second. After Gil-Galad's death in the War of the Last Alliance, the title is technically defunct (of the three legitimate claimants, two have no interest in ruling anything larger than a small city, and the third is in the Undying Lands), and Lord Cirdan the Shipwright is left as the steward of Gil-Galad's broken former kingdom in Lindon.
    • In the First Age, the King of Doriath was the undisputed ruler of the Wood Elves, with other Wood-Elf lords deferring to him. In the Second Age, Oropher took up this mantle as King of the Woodland Realm, with his son Thranduil inheriting it in the Third Age- and by the events of The Hobbit was the only King of Elves in Middle-Earth Period.
  • By the middle of the Second Age, the King of Khazad-Dum had become the de facto King of all Dwarves, with the destruction of the Kingdoms of Nogrod and Belogost at the end of the First Age, and the destruction of the Dwarf Kingdom of Gundabad in the middle of the Second Age. When the Dwarves were evicted in the Third Age and their seat of power was relocated to Erebor, the King Under The Mountain took up this role, and other Dwarf territories styled their ruler simply as 'Lord'.
  • The Hobbit: The Lord of the Eagles is the ruler of the giant Eagles who live in the Misty Mountains. This is exaggerated in the epilogue, where he becomes King of All Birds due to his part in the Battle of Five Armies.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible refers to Jesus Christ as "the King of the Jews" in the new testament. This upset both The Roman Empire and the official Jewish leadership ^note Namely the Pharisees, whose doctrines developed into the Rabbinic Judaism we know today, while Christianity rapidly became its own faith., since Jesus was born a commoner with no actual political authority. In Christian belief, though, his role as The Messiah and the son of God more than made up for that.
• Mesopotamian Mythology: Pazuzu is known as the king of the wind demons, befitting of his ability to inflict plagues and bad weather upon those who anger him.
• Norse Mythology: Surtr is the king of all fire giants, and will one day lead them in their battle against the gods during Ragnarok.

Stand-Up Comedy

• Gabriel Iglesias has referred to himself as The King of the Mexicans after being called that by Chris Rock. As he recounted in his last special, he managed to get backstage and into Chris' dressing room, and Rock greeted him thusly, "look who it is! Look who it is! It's the King of the Mexicans!"

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: Bahamut is stated to be the King and most powerful of the metallic dragons. This portrayal of the character was later adopted by various forms of media, such as Final Fantasy. Other dragon septs have similar godlike rulers; Tiamat, the ruler of the chromatic dragons, is the most well-known, but others include Sardior for the gem dragons and Gruaghlothor for the ferrous dragons. Their specific natures has varied over editions — sometimes they're actually the Ethnic Gods of their associated dragon groups, and other times they're "merely" immortal, extremely powerful rulers — but in all cases they claim authority over and allegiance from all members of their draconic families in all worlds.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Humanity is united under the Imperium of Man, ruled by the mythical God-Emperor of Mankind. Every human in the galaxy is expected to show fealty to the Emperor, whether they're part of a star-spanning state in their own right or eking out a tribal existence on a forgotten backwater, and disobedience is ruthlessly clamped down upon. The Imperium's founding myth is the Great Crusade, a galaxy-spanning military campaign in which the Emperor's legions located and claimed every human-settled planet they could find, whether through diplomacy or force of arms.
  • Szarekh the Silent King was once the ruler of all Necrontyr. In the modern day, after his having been absent from the galaxy for millions years, the Necrontyr empire has long since fractured into hundreds of squabbling dynasties, but Szarekh is determined to unify the Necrons under his rule once more and lead them to victory against their many enemies. This is contested by some of the more successful Phaerohs, such as Imotekh, who would rather see themselves in this role.

Theatre

• Tsukino Empire: As the planet Natura was destroyed and the descendants of its inhabitants live within the Tsukino Empire, the still-recognized Natura royal family would be examples of this. Musa, Queen of Natura becomes the Chancellor of the Empire after the previous holder of that office, well... did as chancellors are wont to do. Several of the main cast are part-Naturan, though, including Koki who is part of the royal family, so it isn't clear how much they are regarded as a separate group... or what will happen now that their planet is reclaimed from the alien invaders.

Video Games

• Dragon Age:
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: It's revealed in Trespasser that the Elven gods (collectively known as the Evanuris) were actually very powerful Elven mages who ruled over their people as gods.
  • Within the Evanuris, Ghilan'nain is the "Mother of All Halla" and either the creator and/or first of their kind. In the lore, she later also becomes their goddess after ascending to divinity.
• El Sword. After you dig through Nasod mooks in the Altera reion's dungeons, you'll later fight Nasod King in its final dungeon. As well, storywise, Elsword later frees someone inside King Nasod's bod; said someone introduces herself as Eve, the queen of Nasods.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In some games, Bahamut is the king of dragons and the most powerful.
  • Fat Chocobo, in the various games, is usually considered the ruler of all Chocobo and has god-like powers inherent to his station.
• The Elder Scrolls: Alduin is the leader and ruler of all dragons. It's debatable whether he himself is a dragon because he is actually a god in dragon form.
• The Legend of Zelda: The various races tend to have their own leaders, though the exact terminology is different depending on both the game and the race. The only real consistency is that both Hylians and Zoras have monarchies.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Depending on the continuity, Sindel or Kitana reigns as Queen of the Edenians, meaning all of the people that originate from their realm, Edenia. In the reboot continuity, Edenia is stated to be permanently gone as its own realm, which means that all Edenians are now Outworlders. Some still look up to Sindel/Kitana as their leader, but it's irrelevant because all Outworlders have to obey whoever rules as Khan.
  • Goro is the Prince of the Shokan (half-Dragon) race. Later, he is succeeded by Sheeva.
• Shantae: Giga Mermaid is the queen and ruler of the mermaids, as well as the largest.
• World of Warcraft: On paper, the Warchief of the Horde commands the allegiance and obedience of all things orcish on both Azeroth and Draenor. In practice, a weak warchief may find his will subverted by a particularly strong or cunning clan leader, up to the point of being completely usurped.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater: Bahamut is the god and king of dragons, and rules by his own divine mandate.
• Homestuck: Her Imperious Condescension is the empress of all trolls everywhere, ruling over their galactic empire with an iron grip and tolerating no dissension or rebellion.
• Problem Sleuth: The Weasel King, as his name states, is the ruler of all weasels.

Western Animation

• Family Guy: Parodied in "April in Quahog". When Peter thinks the end of the world is at hand, he decides to say the "you-know-what-word" in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. However, he returns with a crown, cape, jeweled staff, and sash reading "King of the Black People", as Peter was apparently so respected for doing something so risky that the African-Americans named him their leader.
• In Gargoyles, Oberon is king of the Third Race, who are native to the magical island of Avalon. However, Oberon banished them all for 1,001 years, during which time they live among mortals but are still subject to Oberon's laws. (Though pretty much everyone twisted them a bit.) Likewise, when it's time to return to Avalon for the Gathering, the members who refuse (Banshee and Puck) are tracked down and punished.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: Tarakudo proudly proclaims himself to be the Lord of all Oni, as well as the most powerful of their ranks.
  Tarakudo: You have no idea who you are dealing with.
  Uncle: [cocky] Enlighten me.
  Tarakudo: Bow before Tarakudo, King of the Shadowkhan, Lord of all Oni!
  Uncle: So you ARE Japanese!
  Tarakudo: [knocks Uncle down with a telekinetic strike] Consider yourself enlightened.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: This is downplayed with most rulers, who are the monarchs of entire species by virtue of most species only living in one nation, but played straight with the Dragon Lords, who are the rulers of all dragons everywhere. Dragons are shown to live scattered through at least Equestria in addition to the Dragon Lands proper, but the Dragon Lords' magical summons is able to reach any dragon, including ones that live in other countries and aren't part of the main dragon culture. The current incumber, Ember, explicitly refers to herself as lord of all dragons.
• South Park: Defied in "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson," in which the Marsh family deals with the fallout after Randy uses the word "nigger" on national television. Trying to make amends, Randy publicly apologizes to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a black man and prominent figure in national politics, and Stan brings this fact to his black friend Token to try to make everything okay. It doesn't work.
• Wakfu: Amalia and Armand Sheran Sharm are the daughter and son of King Oakheart Sheran Sharm and (deceased) Queen Sheran Sharm, who are both rulers of the Sadida Kingdom. The Council of Twelves in Season 2 demonstrate that this applies to all the other races of the World of Twelve, the exception being the two rival cities of Bonta and Brakmar.

Real Life

• Before the concept of "nations", this was typically how sovereign power worked; things like genetics or phenotypes were largely unknown or irrelevant, so language, religion or habitat determined what "ethnicity" people were, and those people may not be bound to arbitrary "borders". It wasn't until larger states and empires began assimilating diverse groups/communities and nationalizing citizenship that ethnicity became secondary. But even then, those states almost always have The Proud Elite who trace their ancestors back to the founding ethnic class and thus want national identity to be closely-tied to ethnicity, desiring to create an ethno-state.
• According to Wikipedia, many different men have been called King of the Gypsies, but it's not clear whether any of them actually had such authority over all (or even most) of the Romani.
• In the High Middle Ages, this was related to the concept of Personality of Law, with the first question being asked by judges in the post-Roman Gallia being under which law was the parties. Each person lived under its laws, or more precisely the laws of the collective to which he belonged: for example, a Roman might be under the Corpus Juris Civilis, a Frank might be under the Salic law while a Burgund might be under the Gondebald Law.
• In the Ottoman Empire, each Millet, that is to say, religious-based grouping^note And not ethnically-based; for example, an Orthodox Greek was legally nearer from an Orthodox Arab than from a Muslim Greek. lived under its own laws, had their own courts, and paid to the Sultan its taxes as a body, under the direction of their leaders, who often were the major clerics.
• In a lesser degree, in The Netherlands and in Belgium, each religious/spiritual community had its own institutions and political parties, under Pillarisation.
• The title "Ethnarch" was applied to some of Rome's vassal kings who ruled specific ethnic groups or homogeneous kingdoms. Most famously Herod Archelaus, ethnarch of Judea.
• The "Exilarch" was the leader of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia until the 11th century. The position was hereditary, with the family claiming descent from King David.
• The Pope is at least tangentially related to this trope, being both a monarch (of Vatican City) and the spiritual leader of the world's Catholics.

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