History Main / HighPriest

* ''Literature/NewJediOrder'': High Priest Jakan, head of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] religious caste, is a recurring supporting villain during the last third of the series. His boss, [[EvilOverlord Supreme Overlord Shimrra]], is somewhere between Priest King and GodEmperor.

* In ''Literature/{{The Heroes Of Olympus}}'', [[spoiler: Octavian declares himself 'Pontifex Maximus' in the final book, The Blood Of Olympus. It doesn't work out too well for him, and by the epilogue, Jason is bestowed the title and builds temples all over New Rome for all the gods.]]

* ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': Teroenza heads the fake Ylesian religion, and High Priest is his title.

** That trump card being that besides being consul, Caesar was ''also'' the Pontifex Maximus, i.e. the chief priest of Rome. Several years earlier, he had been elected to this lifetime post, which was the closest thing the Roman religion of the time had to a high priest.[[note]]Technically he was outranked by the ''rex sacrorum'', or "King of Sacrifices", but (1) the ''rex sacrorum'' had so many interminable ritual duties to please the gods he functionally had no time to actually deal with day-to-day religious administration and (2) guess who picked the ''rex sacrorum''? You get three guesses, and two don't count. (That's right, it was the Pontifex Maximus.)[[/note]] On top of this, Caesar had been raised for the priesthood and had been ''Flamen Dialis'' (chief priest of the cult of Jupiter)[[note]]Ceremonially and spiritually very important, but actually kind of an albatross for an ambitious Roman, as ''de facto'' a ''Flamen'' could not have a political career. It was ultimately to Caesar's benefit that he was stripped of his priesthood.[[/note]] for two years (admittedly he was only about 18 at the time, but he seems to have done the job correctly). Thus at every turn Caesar [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours used this superior religious knowledge to overturn Bibulus's readings of the birds and proclamations of holidays]]. Since Caesar was both popular and (thanks to his long history of religious office) seen as having superior knowledge of the ways of the gods, Bibulus' attempts to thwart Caesar with religion were completely ineffectual.

** Weirdly, the consuls of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Even though they were elected politicians--with one-year terms at that--consuls were ''ex officio'' augurs (interpreters of the activities of birds, a major form of divination in Rome) and had authority to set the dates of holidays. They frequently did this to their own political advantage. A fascinating--and darkly comic--example of these powers in practice came in 59 BCE, when UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar (the famous one) was consul with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Bibulus--who disagreed with Caesar on practically every point and had nursed a personal grudge against him for at least five years by the time they became consuls[[note]]Caesar and Bibulus had served together as aediles in 64 BCE, and Caesar had consistently outshined Bibulus in the main function of the aedileship, organizing festivals and games. Bibulus particularly seems to have thought that Caesar got more credit than he deserved for games that both he and Bibulus had taken part in organizing thanks to Caesar's charisma and PR machine (apparently refusing to recognize that Caesar had fronted most of the money for the games through loans he had personally taken out).[[/note]]--kept trying to use his authority as an augur and proclaimer of holidays to interfere with Caesar's populist political agenda. Caesar, however, had a trump card...

Expect AuthorityGrantsAsskicking to be in full effect in fantasy fiction, especially if ReligionIsMagic.

* In ''Wecomic/GirlGenius'' [[ShowWithinAShow Heterodyne shows]] often have a High Preistess as a StockCharacter who serves as Barry's GirlOfTheWeek.

** In ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'', the main antagonist is High Priest Dios. Although the previous examples of Discworld high priests aren't evil, according to Pyramids, high priests have a general tendency to be evil. "There is no such thing as a good GrandVizier. A predilection to cackle and plot must be part of the job spec. High Priests are much the same way. No sooner than they get the funny hat they start goving orders about feeding babies to the sacred crocodiles and throwing virgins into volcanoes."

Expect AuthorityEqualsAsskicking to be in full effect in fantasy fiction, especially if ReligionIsMagic.

* ''Fanfic/AgesOfShadow'': After [[FallenHero Jade]] takes over the [[{{Cult}} Shadow Walkers]] and reorganizes them into a ReligionOfEvil based on the [[AGodAmI worship of her "Yade Khan" persona]], she grants her appointed leader the title of "Himinion" (clearly a portmanteau of "High Minion"). The two accepted means of gaining this position are direct appointment by Jade herself, or earning it by [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority ritual trial]]; the Fourth Himinion took the title via [[KlingonPromotion covert assassination]], which got him killed and replaced almost instantly by Jade.

* [[BigBadDuumvirate Angelo]] from ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'' is the high priest of '[[PathOfInspiration Angelo's Kids]]' on account of founding the religion himself. He's also an obscenely powerful user of both [[TheArchmage arcane]] and [[ReligionIsMagic divine]] magic who can direct-dial miracles, so [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority the shoe fits]].

** Weirdly, the consuls of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Even though they were elected politicians--with one-year terms at that--consuls were ''ex officio'' augurs (interpreters of the activities of birds, a major form of divination in Rome) and had authority to set the dates of holidays. They frequently did this to their own political advantage. A fascinating--and darkly comic--example of these powers in practice came in 59 BCE, when UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar (the famous one) was consul with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Bibulus--who disagreed with Caesar on practically every point and had nursed a personal grudge against him for at least five years at this point[[note]]Caesar and Bibulus had served together as aediles in 64 BCE, and Caesar had consistently outshined Bibulus in the main function of the aedileship, organizing festivals and games. Bibulus particularly seems to have thought that Caesar got more credit than he deserved for games that both he and Bibulus had taken part in organizing thanks to Caesar's charisma and PR machine (apparently refusing to recognize that Caesar had fronted most of the money for the games through loans he had personally taken out).[[/note]]--kept trying to use his authority as an augur and proclaimer of holidays to interfere with Caesar's populist political agenda. Caesar, however, had a trump card...

UsefulNotes/ThePope is the TropeCodifier, hence why many High Priests reside in Vatican-style cities, worship Abrahamic-analogue Gods, and [[ChristianityIsCatholic borrow Catholic aesthetics]]. Compare the GodEmperor, who usually leads and is worshiped by the religion in question. There is a good chance he will carry a [[StaffOfAuthority Staff or]] HatOfAuthority. If the High Priest is also the leader of the government, you've likely got TheTheocracy. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant For a priest who's the other kind of high]], see JunkieProphet.

UsefulNotes/ThePope is the TropeCodifier, hence why many High Priests reside in Vatican-style cities, worship Abrahamic-analogue Gods, and [[ChristianityIsCatholic borrow Catholic aesthetics]]. Compare the GodEmperor, who usually leads and is worshiped by the religion in question. There is a good chance he will carry a [[StaffOfAuthority Staff or]] HatOfAuthority. If the High Priest is also the leader of the government, you've likely got TheTheocracy. For a priest who's the other kind of high, see JunkieProphet.

UsefulNotes/ThePope is the TropeCodifier, hence why many High Priests reside in Vatican-style cities, worship Abrahamic-analogue Gods, and [[ChristianityIsCatholic borrow Catholic aesthetics]]. Compare the GodEmperor, who usually leads and is worshiped by the religion in question. There is a good chance he will carry a [[StaffOfAuthority Staff or]] HatOfAuthority. If the High Priest is also the leader of the government, you've likely got TheTheocracy.

* In ''Literature/{{Kane}}'' novel ''Bloodstone'' there is Gerwein, high priestess of the female-only Temple of the moon goddess Shenan. Barely thirty and very beautiful, she's also haughty, cold and a very talented politician. And she has access to a great library, not to mention some powerful artifact. Oh, and the Temple brings up orphans to become virgin sacrifices, just in case (even though human sacrifice is officially forbidden).

** Weirdly, the consuls of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Even though they were elected politicians--with one-year terms at that--consuls were ''ex officio'' augurs (interpreters of the activities of birds, a major form of divination in Rome) and had authority to set the dates of holidays. They frequently did this to their own political advantage. A fascinating--and darkly comic--example of these powers in practice came in 59 BCE, when UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar (the famous one) was consul with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Bibulus--who disagreed with Caesar on practically every point--kept trying to use his authority as an augur and proclaimer of holidays to interfere with Caesar's populist political agenda. Caesar, however, had a trump card...

** Ecclesiarch, the head of the Adeptus Ministorum, or Eccelsiarchy, the state church of the Imperium of Man.

** That trump card being that besides being consul, Caesar was ''also'' the Pontifex Maximus, i.e. the chief priest of Rome. Several years earlier, he had been elected to this lifetime post, which was the closest thing the Roman religion of the time had to a high priest.[[note]]Technically he was outranked by the ''rex sacrorum'', or "King of Sacrifices", but (1) the ''rex sacrorum'' had so many interminable ritual duties to please the gods he functionally had no time to actually deal with day-to-day religious administration and (2) guess who picked the ''rex sacrorum''? That's right, the Pontifex Maximus.[[/note]] On top of this, Caesar had been raised for the priesthood and had been ''Flamen Dialis'' (chief priest of the cult of Jupiter)[[note]]Ceremonially and spiritually very important, but actually kind of an albatross for an ambitious Roman, as ''de facto'' a ''Flamen'' could not have a political career. It was ultimately to Caesar's benefit that he was stripped of his priesthood.[[/note]] for two years (admittedly he was only about 18 at the time, but he seems to have done the job correctly). Thus at every turn Caesar [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours used this superior religious knowledge to overturn Bibulus's readings of the birds and proclamations of holidays]]. Since Caesar was both popular and (thanks to his long history of religious office) seen as having superior knowledge of the ways of the gods, Bibulus' attempts to thwart Caesar with religion were completely ineffectual.

* ''Series/ThePower'': Allie founds a new religion whom she's the head of, based on Goddess worship.