History Main / EmperorScientist

* The [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory New Kingdom Pharaoh]] Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in addition to being history's first undisputed YoungConqueror, was history's first monarch with a clear personal interest in the natural sciences--or at least what passed for them in the ''15th century BCE''. One of his greatest monuments is his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden_of_Thutmosis_III "botanical garden"]], a chamber in the innermost part of his addition to the Karnak temple complex, in which he has depicted a catalogue of the flora and fauna of the lands he ruled (most especially the ones he had conquered himself) in the kind of painstaking technical detail and accuracy (for the time) that can only come from a sincere fascination with all these strange new plants and animals in themselves. His descriptions of his border-expanding campaigns towards the Euphrates suggest he was motivated almost as much by curiosity about these strange new lands as by a desire to control them,[[note]]And to keep the Mittani from interfering with Canaan...{{Realpolitik}} is ancient and never ceases[[/note]] and his final "campaign" to Nubia was really a discovery-expedition-cum-pleasure-cruise up the Nile aimed mostly at seeing how far upriver he could go and what kind of cool stuff was up there. That makes this trope OlderThanDirt.

* The [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory New Kingdom Pharaoh]] Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty was, in addition to being history's first undisputed YoungConqueror, history's first monarch with a clear personal interest in the natural sciences. One of his greatest monuments is his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden_of_Thutmosis_III "botanical garden"]], a chamber in the innermost part of his addition to the Karnak temple complex, in which he has depicted the flora and fauna of the lands he ruled (most especially the ones he had conquered himself) in the kind of painstaking technical detail and accuracy (for the time) that can only come from a sincere fascination with all these strange new plants and animals in themselves. His descriptions of his border-expanding campaigns towards the Euphrates suggest he was motivated almost as much by curiosity about these strange new lands as by a desire to control them,[[note]]And to keep the Mittani from interfering with Canaan...{{Realpolitik}} is ancient and never ceases[[/note]] and his final "campaign" to Nubia was really a discovery-expedition-cum-pleasure-cruise up the Nile aimed mostly at seeing how far upriver he could go and what kind of cool stuff was up there. That makes this trope OlderThanDirt.

* The [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory New Kingdom Pharaoh]] Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty was, in addition to being history's first undisputed YoungConqueror, history's first monarch with a clear personal interest in the natural sciences. One of his greatest monuments is his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden_of_Thutmosis_III "botanical garden"]], a chamber in the innermost part of his addition to the Karnak temple complex, in which he has depicted the flora and fauna of the lands he ruled (most especially the ones he had conquered himself) in the kind of painstaking technical detail and accuracy (for the time) that can only come from a sincere fascination with all these strange new plants and animals in themselves. His border-expanding campaigns towards the Euphrates seem to have been motivated as much by curiosity about these strange new lands as by a desire to control them, and his final "campaign" to Nubia was really a discovery-expedition-cum-pleasure-cruise up the Nile aimed mostly at seeing how far upriver he could go and what kind of cool stuff was up there. That makes this trope OlderThanDirt.

* The [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory New Kingdom Pharaoh]] Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty was, in addition to being history's first undisputed YoungConqueror, history's first monarch with a clear personal interest in the natural sciences. One of his greatest monuments is his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden_of_Thutmosis_III "botanical garden"]], a chamber in the innermost part of his addition to the Karnak temple complex, in which he has depicted the flora and fauna of the lands he ruled (most especially the ones he had conquered himself) in the kind of painstaking technical detail and accuracy (for the time) that can only come from a sincere fascination with all these strange new plants and animals in themselves. His border-expanding campaigns towards the Euphrates seem to have been motivated as much by curiosity about these strange new lands as by a desire to control them, and his final "campaign" to Nubia was really a discovery-expedition-cum-pleasure-cruise up the Nile aimed mostly at seeing how far upriver he could go and what the heck was up there.

* Dessler from ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato''. He actually designed those weapons named after himself.

* Lordgenome from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' genetically engineered the Beastmen and other strange creatures that populate the surface of the planet to generate no spiral energy (thus avoiding the wrath of the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien anti-Spirals]]) while still being powerful enough to keep the humans in their subterranean villages.
%%* Rando from ''Manga/GetterRobo Go''.
* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', while Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari isn't an Emperor technically speaking, he's an extremely ruthless ManipulativeBastard who holds a '''lot''' of power in the already almost almighty NERV organization and has overseen/ordered many experiments to create/improve the EVA's and fight against the Angels. [[spoiler:His actual goal is to be reunited with his wife Yui, whose soul is trapped inside EVA-01 - and if he has to damn the world and himself to do it, [[LoveMakesYouEvil so be it]].]]
* Emperor Dornkirk of [[TheEmpire Zaibach]] in ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''. He is actually [[spoiler:[[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Sir Isaac Newton]]]] magically transferred to a fantasy world, and modernizes the nation he finds himself in with a heaping helping of {{Magitek}} and SteamPunk.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Charles zi Britannia. At least, by the standards of science set in the show, since he seemed to have spent a great deal of time working on the Sword of Akasha, and had a near-complete understanding of the AppliedPhlebotinum found in the show. His (technically older) brother V.V. is a much straighter example. He's the head of the Geass directorate which studies geass and would have been emperor if he hadn't received a Code when he was a kid. Since we know so little of their pasts, however, the extent to which their understanding of the show's technology and AppliedPhlebotinum allowed them to come to power in the first place is up for debate. Advanced [[HumongousMecha Knightmare Frames]] and a desire to get ahold of the precursors' LostTechnology ''definitely'' played a big role in their conquest of over one third of the world, however.
%%* Caesar from ''Return of the Overfiend''.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'': Vinsmoke Judge is not only the ruler of Germa, but is also this. The 'Scientist' part [[spoiler:applied in his youth, when he was on a research team and peer to Dr. Vegapunk himself. During their research, they discovered the 'Lineage Factor', allowing Judge to subsequently pioneer the usage of cloning and gene modification]]. As for the 'Emperor' part, being the King of Germa, he is responsible for the Raid Suit technology, [[spoiler:his {{tyke bomb}} children's superhuman powers]] and the CloneArmy that Germa 66 employs, in order to one day reconquer the North Blue.
* [[TheHero Senku Ishigami]] is a benevolent example in ''Manga/DrStone'' after waking up in a stone-age world thousands of years after every human on 21st century Earth was petrified. Senku uses his knowledge of science, ranging from engineering to cooking to medicine, to aid his comrades, and uses it to elevate a small village he discovered into the Kingdom of Science. His ultimate goal is to use science to bring back all 7 billion petrified humans.

* Arguably Father from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Only the top tier of the military even knows he exists, but he's engineered the entire history of Amestris from its founding, and the nominal ruler, President Bradley, is [[spoiler:[[EmpoweredBadassNormal a homunculus]] created by Father to serve as a figurehead]].

*** King Edgar Figaro is a GadgeteerGenius who created the technology which allows the castle to travel underground besides other things.

** King Edgar Figaro is a GadgeteerGenius who created the technology which allows the castle to travel underground besides other things.

*** In the Expanded Universe Rassilon comes across as a more villainous figure, with it being heavily implied he was behind the accident that left his friend Omega trapped in a black hole. In AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho he is a massive EvilutionaryBiologist, stealing the power of regeneration from the peaceful Vampires and preventing any race evolving that could threaten the Time Lords by imprisoning them in another Universe.

* Grandmaster Meio from ''VideoGame/StriderArcade'' appeared over Earth one day and took over [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp a futuristic Soviet Union]]. He then led russian research teams into manufacturing weapons and machines such as a [[GravityMaster gravity-control computer]] to which take over the other half of the world, while researching the mysteries of CreatingLife on the side for [[ApocalypseHow ulterior]] [[GodhoodSeeker motives]]. In ''Strider 2'', he also dables in genetic engineering to [[BioAugmentation perfect his human race]].

** Before him, Dr. Kynes became leader of the Fremen because of his attempts to terraform the planet.

%%* Dr. Eggman of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' aims to create an "Eggman Empire".

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Princess Zelda aspires to be a benevolent version of this. An avid researcher into the recently rediscovered {{Magitek}}, she is more knowledgeable about the Ancient Sheikah Technology than any other non-Sheikah. During her excursions with Link, she also gets excited studying the various flora and fauna of the fields. But her father King Rhoam [[FantasyForbiddingFather tells her to "stop playing the scholar"]] because he thinks it distracts her from her efforts to unlock her RoyaltySuperPower to defeat the soon-to-return Ganon (efforts that have been fruitless up to that point despite Zelda's fervent dedication to the task). A straighter example would be the unnamed Hyrulian monarch who had the Ancient Technology built in the first place 10,000 years ago, though said monarch doesn't get any real characterization.

* Lordgenome from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' genetically engineered the Beastmen and other strange creatures that populate the surface of the planet to generate no spiral energy (thus avoiding the wrath of the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens anti-Spirals]]) while still being powerful enough to keep the humans in their subterranean villages.

* ''Series/{{Intergalactic}}'': Dr. Benedict Lee is the Commonworld's Director (elected head of state), who's a very ruthless scientist (it turns out that his regime dabbles in things like {{synthetic plague}}s. It turns out Commonworld's constitution ''mandates'' all Directors be scientists.

* ''ComicBook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'': In ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Superman: The Man of Steel]]'' Annual #5, Lex Luthor plundered the ruins of the dead Earth to locate advanced pieces of technology (including a [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Green Lantern Power Battery]] and ComicBook/DoctorFate's helmet) which he could use to conquer other planets and establish an empire.

** Caesar (Edward Sallow) is a [[HardOnSoftScience rare example related to social sciences]], he was an anthropologist and a linguist working for the Followers of the Apocalypse and due to his knowledge of both, he was not only able to communicate with the Black Foot tribe, which captured he and his crew, but also to teach them tactics of warfare so they could conquer their enemies. He ended up becoming their leader and turning the tribe into the Caesar's Legion, a faction that dominated the entire Arizona and most part of Colorado and New Mexico, and as well conquered 86 tribes at the time the Courier finds them in game.

[[quoteright:269:[[Webcomic/GirlGenius https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Klaus2_9769.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:269:[[JustTheFirstCitizen Baron]] Klaus Wulfenbach, ruler of Europa, and dedicated researcher into the nature of the [[TheSparkOfGenius Spark]] (which he also has).]]

%%* Zurg the BigBad from ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand''.

* This trope is the cornerstone of the political ideology of ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy Technocracy]]'', where instead of politicians, scientists, economists and engineers make up a country's government. The movement gained traction during [[Main/TheGreatDepression the depression]] under [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Scott Howard Scott]] and his party: Technocracy Inc., but lost popularity around the time of the New Deal.

* In the Ancient World, you have King Juba II of Numidia, and later King of Mauretania. He was married to the daughter of UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII and Mark Antony (yes those two famous love-birds) and a respected client of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. His father fought against UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, and after defeat, Caesar took Juba as a hostage and brought him to Rome, where he learned Greek and Latin, became [[MajoredInWesternHypocrisy romanized]], and at the age of 20 wrote treatises on Roman archeology, before being sent back by UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} to sit on the throne of Juba. He wrote a lot of works on philosophy, geography, and other matters, and was cited 65 times by Pliny the Elder in his ''Natural History'', and Plutarch in ''Literature/ParallelLives'' during his "Life of Antony" called him "the most gifted ruler of his time".

* While many monarchs have been interested in the sciences, Frederick II, [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Holy Roman Emperor]], was known to actually do research, or at least what passed for research in [[TheHighMiddleAges 13th-century Europe]], and included that in his attitude towards ruling. He famously ran an experiment in which children were to be raised with no language (to see which one was the "original" language), although that didn't pan out. He also dabbled in astronomy, medicine, zoology, and anatomy, sometimes in experiments crueler than the language one (e.g.: taking two condemned prisoners, feeding them, having one run around and hunt and the other stay in bed, and then after executing them, examining their guts to see whether exercise or rest accelerated digestion). He also did the usual monarchical sponsoring of the sciences, including founding a university (in Napoli; it has since been renamed in his honor). Frederick also had an unshakeable faith in reason and distrust in magic that led him to ban trial by combat (believing that the stronger party would always win, contrary to Church doctrine holding that God would cause the "right" party to win) and doctors filling their own prescriptions (as a safeguard against quackery) that we today would regard as...well...''scientific''. Also, he was constantly fighting wars to secure and expand his territory--and try to put UsefulNotes/ThePope in his place. Unfortunately, his wars in Italy led him to give in to the demands of his German nobles, which then weakened the Holy Roman Empire after his death. Suffice it to say, although Frederick might not have been this, he probably ''would'' have been this if he had the technological base.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy Technocracy]] is the Real Life equivalent, though that requires multiple Emperor Scientists while this trope deals with one.

** Yawgmoth was a sadistic biologist who believed in reaching immortality through cybernetic implants. His people eventually caught on to his plots and sent him through a portal to the plane of Phyrexia. Over the centuries, Yawgmoth morphed Phyrexia into his own ideal of paradise and became its DimensionLord. He did later try to take over his birth plane, Dominaria, but failed.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': One of the final emperors of Ancient Allag was Amon, a brilliant (though VERY flamboyant) scientist responsible for designing the the Crystal Tower and the artificial moon Dalmund as a power source for the empire, and created cloning technology which resurrected the first emperor, Xande to lead Allag back into a new golden age. After he let Xande take back the role of emperor, Amon took on the role of Xande's chief scientist.

** Technically, the Fabricator-General of Mars also counts as this since he rules the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is pretty much a self-contained, semicutonomous political entity within the Imperium and is only part of it by treaty. They are mostly left to self-govern by the other branches of Imperial government, even the Inquisition, since without the Mechanicus everyone else in the Imperium would quickly lose any ability to maintain a technological society.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': One of the final emperors of Ancient Allug was Amon, a brilliant (though VERY flamboyant) scientist responsible for designing the the Crystal Tower and the artificial moon Dalmund as a power source for the empire, and created cloning technology which resurrected the first emperor, Xande to lead Allug back into a new golden age. After he let Xande take back the role of emperor, Amon took on the role of Xande's chief scientist.

** At one point, the entire 16th Politburo Standing Committee was made entirely of engineers.

* The Archduke's eldest son, Leopold Salvator, followed in his father's footsteps as a military engineer and inventor, patented around 1906 an all-wheel-drive and steering system for military vehicles and later [[https://patents.google.com/patent/US1355853A/en a dual-drive military vehicle having both wheels and extendable caterpillar tracks]].

The Archduke's eldest son, Leopold Salvator, followed in his father's footsteps as a military engineer and inventor, patented around 1906 an all-wheel-drive and steering system for military vehicles and later [[https://patents.google.com/patent/US1355853A/en a dual-drive military vehicle having both wheels and extendable caterpillar tracks]].

** On the reverse end of the spectrum is Dr. Xeno, a NASA scientist that woke up in post-petrification America and uses his science to form his own empire, complete with airplanes and machine guns. He believes that science can be used to control the masses, and even in the 21st century, he was open with his co-workers about how he would use his knowledge to conquer the local humans if he was sent to the distant past. [[spoiler:As a matter of fact, he was Senku's science mentor in the 21st century, [[EvilMentor and his talk about how science can be used to harm people]] inspired Senku to research how to use science to help people, such as traveling to Africa to study how to fight Ebola when he and Xeno discussed plague-carrying missles]].

** While he may also be lots of other things (DarkMessiah, CrystalDragonJesus, etc), it is made clear in no uncertain terms that The GodEmperor of Mankind was, during his lifetime on Terra, first and foremost a scientist who spent his time laboring away in the vaults beneath the planet building space marine genetics, creating his "children", etc, and that this was the source of his great power. Seriously. [[AllThereInTheManual Read those Horus Heresy art books]].