History Main / MasterRace

** This is a racial belief of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Altmer (High Elves)]]. While they are indeed responsible for much of Tamriel's [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas art, science, philosophy, language, and religion]], and ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch while there are exceptions]]) they [[CulturalPosturing have no issue letting the other races know]] just how superior they believe they are. They are the direct descendants of the [[{{Precursors}} Aldmer]] and consider the other races of Mer as [[TheSocialDarwinist a result of "degeneration" over the ages]]. (And [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence don't even bother]] trying to bring up the [[HumansAreBastards races of Men]]...) Their religious beliefs state that they are the true descendants of [[OurGodsAreDifferent the Aedra]], and actively try to breed themselves back into their ideal, including killing undesirable progeny. (They believe that doing so releases the spirit so that it has a chance to be [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] in a better form.)
** Dremora are an intelligent race of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] who are most commonly found in the service of [[DestroyerDeity Mehrunes Dagon]] as his LegionsOfHell. Dremora believe themselves to be superior to other lesser Daedra, even go so far as to refer to themselves as "The Kyn" ("The People" in the Daedric tongue). Seeing as most lesser Daedra aren't civilized or sentient, they do have a point. However, it is unknown what their view is on the other lesser Daedra that are sentient, such as the Mazken and Aureal, despite interacting with both races to some extent in Battlespire and Morrowind, respectively. [[PunyEarthlings And don't even get them started on mortals]]...

*** The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] are an Altmeri religious extremist faction which takes the aforementioned Altmer beliefs UpToEleven. Following the [[[VideoGames/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]], they managed to take over key positions in the government of the re-formed [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]] and seek not just Altmeri dominance, but quite possibly ''[[OmnicidalManiac undoing creation itself]]'' in order to, as they believe, return their spirits to a state of pre-creation divinity, free from the limits of mortality.

* The Thalmor in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' don't just want to kill everyone who isn't an elf -- they want to remove the ''possibility'' of mankind existing (though partly for reasons that aren't actually to do with elven supremacy. Still, their propaganda proudly trumpets Elven Supremacy).
** On the other side, the Stormcloak uprising believe that humans - particularly Nords, who are big, blond, and [[FantasyCounterpartCulture north-western European]] - are the supreme race. In the Stormcloaks' home city, Windhelm, Dark Elves and [[LizardFolk Argonians]] are forced to live in ghettos.

* The Fishmen, most notably of the Arlong Pirates, in ''OnePiece.'' In a world mostly made-up of water, being able to breath on both land AND water, and also just naturally be strong, is admittedly a very positive trait. Doesn't stop the Straw Hats for too long, though.

* The UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars are ''widely'' based on subjective measures of quality and superiority, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement and that's all we'd like to say on the matter]]; but one thing fans of any platform tend to agree on is that PC gamers are, allegedly, supremacists who look down on people for using consoles, instead of blowing large sums of disposable money on high-end gaming computers. So much so, in fact, that PC gamers are often explicitly referred to tongue-in-cheek as [[GodwinsLaw "the glorious PC gaming Master Race"]], which originated as a [[http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/98500/2445038-4694434071-PC_Ga.jpg joke]] from WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation.

* A variant of this was common in the more tyrannical communist regimes of the 20th century, but with social classes rather than races. Most people harassed and/or interrogated and/or sent to 're-education camps' under Stalin and Mao were well-to-do-farmers, landlords, priests, lawyers, doctors, journalists, managers, clerks, accountants, schoolteachers, university lecturers and researchers, scientists, civil servants, police and military officers - jobs with 'bourgeoisie', 'rightist', 'capitalist', and/or 'feudal' leanings. This was all done in the name of empowering ''the peasantry/proletariat''. This even extended--and extends--to *descendants* of people from the wrong social classes, regardless of their own actual jobs. This is quite definitely ''not'' what Marx had in mind, but in the 1960s Maoist China needed targets for the Cultural Revolution and, well, [[PromotedToScapegoat there they were]]...

* More recently, NorthKorea has given up on even pretending to be communist and adopted something which very much resembles race-based fascism, but with a twist. Koreans are the "cleanest race", but they're also child-like and guileless because they's so darn pure. This conveniently explains why they need a strong leader to protect them and why government censorship is necessary to preserve their innate innocence. The Americans and the Japanese are AlwaysChaoticEvil, of course. The Chinese are second best to the Koreans, but still not good enough for race-mixing. North Korean women who get pregnant from Chinese men are forced to have abortions, in order to avoid the "pure" Korean race being defiled.

* The LemonyNarrator in ''[[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]]'' does this often, as she props up her own race of earth ponies above all other pony races.
** Partially subverted in-universe in that as seen by the text, in history and in biology, Earth Ponies are actually presented as slightly inferior, and rather that it seems as though the narrator is just pretty [[BiasSteamroller blind in her bias]].

* The Highbreed in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', believe themselves to be this, arguing they were the first race in the universe (of course, there is most likely no way to prove if they are right or not). This attitude also drives their FreudianExcuse of attempting to wipe out all other life in the universe: they were so obsessed with making themselves "pure" that they ''sterilized'' themselves and are slowly dying out. Their entire plan is just a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum designed to wipe out every other race so that they can't watch the Highbreed die from their own mistakes.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Required: Blonde hair; blues eyes.\\

->''In opposition to this, the Volkish view recognizes the importance of mankind in its racially innate elements. In principle, it sees in the state only a means to an end, and as its end it considers the preservation of the racial existence of men. Thus it by no means believes in an equality of the races, but with their differences it also recognizes their superior and inferior values, and by this recognition it feels the obligation in accordance with the Eternal Will that dominates this universe to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and to demand the submission of the worse and the weaker. Thus in principle it favors also the fundamental aristocratic thought of nature and believes in the validity of this law down to the last individual.''

* The [[AbsoluteXenophobe Itorloo]] from [[Creator/RaymondZGallun Raymond Z. Gallun]]'s "Seeds of the Dusk" (1938) who consider themselves this (despite being confined to a single dying planet), cruelly treat the numerous other sapient races inhabiting the Earth and plan to invade Venus and exterminate its inhabitants for no better reason than that they want a younger, warmer world. This story was written in 1938, when the real [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] were already well embarked on the career of aggression which would result in [[WorldWarII global cataclysm]].

-->'''Logan:''' "The idea was to create super soldiers for WorldWarTwo."

* The UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars are ''widely'' based on subjective measures of quality and superiority, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement and that's all we'd like to say on the matter]]; but one thing Sony and Nintendo fans tend to agree on is that PC gamers are, allegedly, supremacists who look down on people for using consoles, instead of blowing large sums of disposable money on high-end gaming computers. So much so, in fact, that PC gamers are often explicitly referred to tongue-in-cheek as [[GodwinsLaw "the glorious PC gaming Master Race"]], which originated as a [[http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/98500/2445038-4694434071-PC_Ga.jpg joke]] from WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation.

* The Cyrgai in Creator/DavidEddings' ''[[Literature/{{Elenium}} Tamuli]]'' are a bit of a deconstructive parody. For a fun question, how do you ''really'', '''really''' piss off a MasterRace? You seal them in an area so that anyone who tries to cross a line in the sand dies, no saves. After thousands of years of being isolated in this way, the Cyrgai suffered what would likely befall any master race given enough time: They've become so massively inbred and obsessed with their own physical perfection that they are a race of entirely beautiful, statuesque ''morons''.

* The Stone Summit of ''GuildWars'' believed this of dwarves and tried to enforce their vision of enslaving all non-dwarves in the Shiverpeaks.

** [[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Khan Noonien Singh]] was considered the "ubermensch" ("superman" in German), mentally and physically superior to normal humans. Interestingly, this "ubermensch" was portrayed as an UsefulNotes/{{India}}n male rather than a white male. This might have something to do with the term "Aryan" having Indian (and {{Iran}}ian) roots, before the term was adopted by white supremacists like the {{Nazi}}s.

->''In opposition to this, the Volkish view recognizes the importance of mankind in its racially innate elements. In principle, it sees in the state only a means to an end, and as its end it considers the preservation of the racial existence of men. Thus it by no means believes in an equality of the races, but with their differences it also recognizes their superior and inferior values, and by this recognition it feels the obligation in accordance with the Eternal Will that dominates this universe to [[TheSocialDarwinist promote the victory of the better and stronger, and to demand the submission of the worse and the weaker.]] Thus in principle it favors also the fundamental aristocratic thought of nature and believes in the validity of this law down to the last individual.''

** [[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Khan Noonien Singh]] was considered the "ubermensch" ("superman" in German), mentally and physically superior to normal humans. Interestingly, this "ubermensch" was portrayed as an {{India}}n male rather than a white male. This might have something to do with the term "Aryan" having Indian (and {{Iran}}ian) roots, before the term was adopted by white supremacists like the {{Nazi}}s.

*** The term "Aryan" in fact originates from the {{India}}n and {{Iran}}ian cultures ("Aryan" is a popular male name in the Indian subcontinent and Iranian plateau). Linguists used the term to refer to the Indo-Iranian languages (a branch of the Indo-European languages), before white supremacists began applying the term to all Indo-European peoples and assumed the original Aryans to be white. In Nazi Germany, this led to the "Gypsy Question" since the Roma ("Gypsies") originated from the "Aryans" of India, but they were still killed in UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust for lacking the "racial purity" of white Germans. The Finns and Japanese were declared "Honorary Aryans" and Nazi party ideologues went to great pains to explain this label.

->''In opposition to this, the Volkish view recognizes the importance of mankind in its racially innate elements. In principle, it sees in the state only a means to an end, and as its end it considers the preservation of the racial existence of men. Thus it by no means believes in an equality of the races, but with their differences it also recognizes their superior and inferior values, and by this recognition it feels the obligation in accordance with the Eternal Will that dominates this universe to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and to demand the submission of the worse and the weaker. Thus in principle it favors also the fundamental aristocratic thought of nature and believes in the validity of this law down to the last individual.''

** They believed that Nordic Europeans were superior to everyone else...and then claimed Ancient Greece and Rome as "Nordic".

* Before the 20th Century, there was The Confederate States of America, which was ''literally'' founded upon "the great truth that the Negro is not Equal to the White man; that slavery, subjugation to the superior race, is it's natural and normal condition", with several seceeding states declaring that their reason of seceeding from the United States was to protect their "peculiar institution". That's right, they rebelled against the US government for the sake of keeping black people as slaves.

** And the mockingly-named "[[IncrediblyLamePun Master]] [[DudeNotFunny Race]]" which came into being when TheMaster temporarily turned every human on Earth into a copy of himself.

* The ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' episode "Operation: Rebirth" has this with discussion on the super soldier experiment used on CaptainAmerica.

* ''Webcomic/{{Galaxion}}'' has Miesti, {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s with a decidedly [[Series/SG1 Goa'uld]] feel to them. No glowing eyes, though.

* Before the 20th Century, there was The Confederate States of America, which was ''literally'' founded upon "the great truth that the Negro is not Equal to the White man; that slavery, subjugation to the superior race, is it's natural and normal condition", with several seceeding states declaring that their reason of seceeding from the United States was to protect their "peculiar institution". That's right, they rebelled against the US government for the sake of keeping black people as slaves. Even today, the rampant racism that plagues the DeepSouth is evidence of their dark past, [[WonTheWarLostThePeace and how Confederate ideals are not yet truly dead...]]

* Before the 20th Century, there was The Confederate States of America, which was ''literally'' founded upon "the great truth that the Negro is not Equal to the White man; that slavery, subjugation to the superior race, is it's natural and normal condition", with several seceeding states declaring that their reason of seceeding from the United States was to protect their "peculiar institution". That's right, they rebelled against the US government for the sake of keeping black people as slaves. Even today, the rampant racism that plagues the DeepSouth is evidence of their dark past, [[LostTheWarWonThePeace and how Confederate ideals are not yet truly dead...]]

* Before the 20th Century, there was The Confederate States of America, which was ''literally'' founded upon "the great truth that the Negro is not Equal to the White man; that slavery, subjugation to the superior race, is it's natural and normal condition", with several seceeding states declaring that their reason of seceeding from the United States was to protect their "peculiar institution". That's right, they rebelled against the US government for the sake of keeping black people as slaves. Even today, the rampant racism that plagues the DeepSouth is evidence of their dark past, [[LostTheWarWonThePeaceand how Confederate ideals are not yet truly dead...]]