History Main / TheNecrocracy

* ''Literature/TheWanderingInn'': The Kingdom of Khelt is ruled by a Revenant King, with all menial labor being done by mindless undead. Its mortal citizens live in luxury, and in return, their bodies are used by the nation following their death. While procreation and immigration are strictly regulated to control the population size, the country is generally considered a paradise, much to the pride of its rulers.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The undead King Igos Du Ikana still rules over his dead kingdom from his palace long after it was destroyed. His subjects now consist only of skeletal warriors and mummies. The Ikana military is still intact and led by Captain Keeta, a giant skeleton. His soldiers generally want to take leave of the oath they swore him so they can pass on.

* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea was referred to as a necrocracy by Creator/ChristopherHitchens given the quasi-deificication that Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have received following their deaths in 1994 and 2011, respectively. The elder KIm is still the "Eternal President" and official head of state and the younger is "Eternal General Secretary of the Party." Whether Kim Jong-un will receive similar treatment after his death is unknown.

* ''Manga/DanceInTheVampireBund'': The titular extraterritorial concession is more or less a miniature vampire nation sitting in Tokyo Bay. [[spoiler: As of Volume 8, there are even people in Tokyo seeking to get bitten in the hopes of moving there]].
* ''Literature/Overlord2012'': Ainz the skeleton [[OurLichesAreDifferent Overlord]] rules the Great Tomb of Nazarick, which is filled with undead, demons, and all sorts of monsters completely loyal to Ainz. Later on, [[spoiler:he forms the Sorcerous Kingdom, which contains the human city of E-Rantel and by Volume 12 is home to humans, nagas, giants, dwarves, undead, dragons, and other races]], with all the bureaucrats replaced with liches. Ainz himself justifies this by saying a ruler who can't die won't cause a SuccessionCrisis or be prone to emotional outbursts like lust or rage. While this is true, the fact is that Ainz doesn't have the skills to make a good ruler (he was a lowly salaryman before being transported to the New World) and is more concerned with improving work conditions for his underlings, depending on his minions to carry out his orders while remaining completely unaware that they have [[FantasticRacism zero empathy for non-Nazarick residents]].

** ''After'' "Necropolis", a constitutional crisis occurs when a zombified Chief Judge Silver returns to reclaim his post from the incumbent [=McGruder=]. Judge Dredd rules that the post was legally still occupied by a dead man, but then deposed and formally executed Silver for criminal neglect of duty during the invasion.

** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has a few too:
*** [[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Skullport Skullport]] is policed by the eponymous Skulls, an undead HiveMind of ancient mages bound to the magic field that protects the underground city.

* The Necrocracy situation in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is played even straighter in the parody ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'', where he is able to actually start ruling the Imperium.

* Creator/ChristopherHitchens has referred to UsefulNotes/NorthKorea as a Necrocracy, Thanatocracy or Mausolocracy because, while Kim Jong-il (and now Kim Jong-un) are the head of the army and head of the communist party, the "Eternal President" (legally the head of state) is Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994. Likewise, Kim Jong-il remains the nominal head of the military and party after his death. So far as anyone knows, it's a purely metaphorical example.

* ''WebOriginal/CodexInversus'': The city of Beshart is inhabited solely by undead such as skeletons, zombies, vampires, ghouls, and revenants under the rule of the lich Libenyer I, the Anti-Pope. Libenyer leads a religion that praises undeath as the highest state of existence, and which seeks to liberate the living from the pain and burden of life and convert them into the faith (that is, kill and reanimate them).

* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'': The empire of the Necromongers, whose stated mission is to cleanse the universe of all life, is governed by the Holy Half-Dead [[GalacticConqueror Lord Marshal]], a "former man" who travelled to TheUnderworld and can now command souls. It's unclear whether his subjects are undead too, but the conversion process they undergo, their inability to procreate naturally, and their pale complexions hint that they're not fully mortal either. The Quasi-Dead, former humans encased in tomb-like device to enhance their psychic abilities, definitely aren't.

* ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'': The Confederate States are in fact run behind the scenes by a vampiric bureaucracy led by the first vampire, Adam, and the slavery system is there to provide them with a regular food source.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Parodied by the batshit-insane Helmacrons who are led completely by the dead. Not the ''un''dead, the ''dead''. They believe that the most important thing for a leader is that they make no mistakes, so as a result every Helmacron in a position of authority is ritually executed as soon as they're elevated to their position.

* ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'': The rulers of the Necropolis Sect are all Vampires, and the ruled are either Necromancers, Dark Elves on their way to becoming vamps, or lesser Undead and golems of various sorts.

*** The Lahmians, a bloodline of all-female vampires descended from the first ever vampire, aim to control most of the governments of the Old World from behind the scenes.

*** One of the vampire bloodlines, the Necrarchs, are by far the least likely bloodline to desire temporal power, authority or status, as they're a family of reclusive, usually insane, scholars and wizards whose grand plans generally involve killing all the world's mortals rather than enslaving them.

It's the [[NotAMetaphor literal version]] of SkeletonGovernment. That is, a government staffed by actual dead or [[TheUndead undead:]] [[SoulJar liches]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], undead spirits and the like. The main variations are whether the rulers are fully dead or undead, whether the subjects are also all or mostly undead, and whether the nation as a whole is good-aligned, evil-aligned, or neutral.

* ''Literature/VampireHunterD:'' Count Magnus Lee effectively rules the Kingdom. Technically he doesn't rule it anymore -- people just fear him too much to actively fight against him, but he can't really go and order them around like he used to, either.
** In the original worldwide vampire nation the vampire population density was relatively high, but humans remained a major group of second class citizens, who could be treated anywhere from decent subjects to mere cattle depending on their local vampire lord's personality.
* ''Literature/TrinityBlood'''s New Humankind empire. The living 'Terrans' are second-class citizens, but most of the ruling vampire nobles try to treat them decently.
* The titular extraterritorial concession in ''Manga/DanceInTheVampireBund'' is more or less a miniature vampire nation sitting in Tokyo Bay. [[spoiler: As of Volume 8, there are even people in Tokyo seeking to get bitten in the hopes of moving there]].

* ''Literature/Overlord2012'' has Ainz the skeleton [[OurLichesAreDifferent Overlord]], who rules the Great Tomb of Nazarick, which is filled with undead, demons, and all sorts of monsters completely loyal to Ainz. Later on, [[spoiler: the Sorcerous Kingdom is formed by Ainz, which contains the human city of E-Rantel and by Volume 12 is home to humans, nagas, giants, dwarves, undead, dragons, and other races]], with all the bureaucrats replaced with liches. Ainz himself justifies this by saying a ruler who can't die won't cause a SuccessionCrisis or be prone to emotional outbursts like lust or rage. While this is true, the fact is that Ainz doesn't have the skills to make a good ruler (he was a lowly salaryman before being transported to the New World) and is more concerned with improving work conditions for his underlings, depending on his minions to carry out his orders while remaining completely unaware that they have [[FantasticRacism zero empathy for non-Nazarick residents]].

* ''Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres'' is a French comic by Eric Liberge featuring purgatory as a city populated with skeletons, which is the appearance of dead people un-living there, surrounded by a lunar desert and ruled by a strange Kafkaïan bureaucracy.
* The Necropolis Litharge from ''Comicbook/TheSandman1989'': a great metropolis where the only job that anyone seems to have is the ritual disposal of dead bodies. Their entire society is funeral-based, and it's almost all they do. Its crypts are haunted by important and scary voices.

** ''After'' Necropolis a constitutional crisis occurred when a zombified Chief Judge Silver returned to reclaim his post from the incumbent [=McGruder=]. Judge Dredd ruled that the post was legally still occupied by a dead man, but then deposed and formally executed Silver for criminal neglect of duty during the invasion.

* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'':
** Wismerhill and his entourage go on an unapproved mission to the southern provinces to invade a kingdom of the living dead. They mow down the skeletal armies outside the tombs fairly easily but are almost killed by its [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]] prince and his vampire and ghost lieutenants, surviving only thanks to their boss [[SorcerousOverlord Haazheel Thorn]]'s intervention.
** Wismerhill himself, despite looking fully human, is a type of crypto-zombie when he became one of the Lords of Negation, BlackKnight super-warriors loyal to Haazheel Thorne. Long after Haazheel's grip on them has been broken and Wismerhill has become the Emperor of all humanity, he has to resort to consuming human lifeforce for a while until his mages find a way to supply him some other way.

* The French comic ''ComicBook/ZornEtDirna'' is set in a world where Death was trapped in a mirror, so that whoever looks into it becomes immortal. Unfortunately, for those of the ruling class who aren't the king, it means they become increasingly mummy-like as time goes on and they can't die, while everyone else is stuck with a very crappy version of immortality where their bodies keep aging if they aren't decapitated (and decapitation only causes the soul to go into the killer's body). The titular twins were specifically birthed in front of the mirror in the hopes of a child who could truly kill people, but it turns out they share their power.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' examples:
** The Alara block has the plane of Grixis, a hellscape ruled by demons and lich lords.

** The Innistrad setting has towns ruled (read terrorized) by vampire nobility (though Innistradi vampires aren't undead per se, but alive and aging at a glacial pace). On the other hand, there are also benevolent ghosts protecting some places.

* The Horned King of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'' is an undead lich ruling from a dark fortress. His human minions are quite alive, but the King desires to rule over a world of mindless undead warriors because he wants to be [[AGodAmI worshipped as a god]] by his subjects. Made quite clear when he triumphantly declares that "our" time has come as he raises the skeletal army.
* Jack Skellington (a living skeleton) is described as "the pumpkin king" in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' and seems to have somewhat of a monarchical role in Halloweentown. However there's an elected mayor.

* The 2010 movie ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' postulates a near future society much like our own but governed by vampires, after most of the population turn into vampires. The remaining humans who have refused to be turned are farmed/hunted down for their blood.
* In the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' movies, ruling vampire aristocracies are seen who control the rest of vampirekind. ''Film/Blade1998'' had the society divided by House, while ''Film/BladeII'' shows vampire lords residing in Europe. They also have human servants, so-called "[[TheRenfield Familiars]]" who are more or less property of their vampire master/second-class citizens of their society.
* In ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'', the Confederate States are in fact run behind the scenes by a vampiric bureaucracy led by the first vampire, Adam, and the slavery system is there to provide them with a regular food source.

* In the ''Literature/CraftSequence,'' many cities, nations, and corporations are governed by lich-like Deathless Kings, animate and (supposedly) immortal skeletal sorcerers. Aside from that, they tend to be pretty normal people. It's just the natural consequence of accumulating power in a world where the magic system is the same thing as contract law -- your debts and obligations won't let you die.
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
** Angmar from Creator/JRRTolkien's world is ruled by its Witch-King (a wraith, which is basically undead). He had a few lesser ghosts under his command (as well as the other Nazgûl, presumably) but his forces were mostly Hillmen and Orcs.
** The history of Angmar isn't detailed in the core material (at least, it isn't detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', ''Literature/{{Unfinished Tales|of Numenor and Middleearth}}'' or ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'') so the precise nature of its government and populace is unknown. It was a human kingdom, though. They had annexed and allied with two of the three kingdoms of Arnor (Rhudaur and Cardolan) and apparently turned ''their'' dead as well. Angmar and its armies were annihilated sometime before the events of ''[=LotR=]'' when the Witch-King commanded parts of Sauron's army but would have held no kingdom of his own.
** The Barrow-Wight the Hobbits encounter is said to be a leftover from his kingdom, specifically a spirit from his side inhabiting the corpse of a human warrior from the other (who had some magic anti-wight weapons buried with him).
** The city of [[EldritchLocation Minas Morgul]] was a fiefdom of Mordor and former part of Gondor ruled by the Nazgûl directly, so that counts as a straight Type III.
* High Cromlech from ''Literature/TheScar'' by Creator/ChinaMieville. Most of the population and all the administration are {{Revenant Zombie}}s. This has interesting impacts on the culture, such as the city's language having dialects suitable for use by individuals whose [[MouthStitchedShut mouths have been sewn shut]] and whose voiceboxes have decayed. A significant population of living humans is found there to do the jobs that aren't so suitable for the non-living (though these are not detailed) but when the opportunity arises the upwardly mobile members of the living middle class shuffle off their mortal coils to improve their social circle and prospects.
** Also notable in that there is an undead ([[OurVampiresAreDifferent or rather, ab-dead]]) underclass of the city's impoverished and hopelessly addicted blood-drinkers, who are treated with [[YourVampiresSuck scorn and pity]] by both the living and truly undead residents, in stark contrast to vampires' ordinarily high rank in such settings. It's a bit of an embarrassment for any vampir ([[PhantasySpelling spelling intentional]]) trying to set themselves up as the 'aristocracy of the night' anywhere else in the world.
** The social mobility in High Cromlech suggests that it is probably one of the most reasonably-ruled and egalitarian city states in Bas-Lag, which fits Melville's usual DeconstructorFleet style.
* The Zombie Master in the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels wasn't evil. He was quite a good ruler, in fact -- he was just a zombie.

** In ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'', the Wyrmburg is ruled by an undead king who was murdered by his daughter, but decided that none of his children were fit to rule in his stead and continues to exist as a lich-like entity until one of them actually proves worthy of succeeding him.

** In ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'', Djelibeibi ''very briefly'' became one: a living ruler (Pteppic), but with several thousand years' worth of mummified relations advising him on what to do.

* England in Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' series toggles back and forth from malevolent to somewhat decent. The subjects include both vampires and "the warm". The former can be good, but the ones who wind up in authority tend to be somewhat self-serving.
* The vampires in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novels:

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novels ''Literature/RedPlanet'' and ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' it's implied that Mars is ruled by the AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence "Old Ones" ruling over the still-corporeal regular Martians.
* A variant of this (crossing over into {{Magocracy}} territory) is shown in Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's story [[http://eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/61/the-empire-of-the-necromancers "The Empire of the Necromancers"]]. The titular necromancers (all two of them) are in fact alive, but manage to set themselves up as rulers of an entire undead ''nation'' by the simple expediency of finding a long-dead desert kingdom and using their arts to reanimate everybody whose bones or mummy they can find. The necromancers are arguably evil, but lazy; their subjects, on the other hand, are more hapless victims 'living' again in a hazy, dreamlike state than anything else.
* Parodied by the batshit-insane Helmacrons from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' who are led completely by the dead. Not the ''un''dead, the ''dead''. They believe that the most important thing for a leader is that they make no mistakes, so as a result every Helmacron in a position of authority is ritually executed as soon as they're elevated to their position.
* In Michael Shea's story "The Pearls of the Vampire Queen" Queen Vulvula rules over a human nation and rejuvenates herself yearly in a ceremony called The God-Making Of The Year King, where she devours her human husband. Apart from that, she is depicted as an effective and benevolent ruler.
* Kairn Necros in ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' is initially an inversion, with a living ruling class of {{necromancer}}s presiding over a largely-undead populace. Following one of the necromancers dying and [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong]], the undead TurnedAgainstTheirMasters under her command, with the end result being a straight example of the first type, with [[OurLichesAreDifferent lazar]] ruling over the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent ordinary dead]], with all of them [[spoiler: except one lazar]] hostile to the living.
* In ''Split the Party'', the second book of ''Literature/SpellsSwordsAndStealth'', an entire village disappears and is found as mindless undead under the control of a dark god's priest. By the story's end, [[spoiler:the priest's hold over them is broken, they have their rational minds back, and all they want to do is go back to their village and keep on as they have been. Mages remain to study the situation and make sure they aren't murdered out of hand once word gets out]].
* The Viiminian Empire in ''Literature/WisePhuul'' is a complicated case. De facto, it is an inversion: the Empire is ruled by living Necromancers, with the Imperial bureaucracy staffed by undead. Legally, it plays this straight: the living Grand Chancellor and his Necromantic Council rule in the name of the long-deceased titular Emperor.
* The Red Kingdom in ''{{Literature/Baltimore}}'' is made up of vampires, warlocks, {{eldritch abomination}}s and it's ruled by a vampire known only as the Red King. It first emerged during World War I in an [[AlternateHistory alternate reality]] and has effectively replaced Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as superpowers (covering all of Eurasia, the Middle-East and parts of Africa), with the Allies fighting [[HopelessWar a losing battle against it]].

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]", a planet was ruled over by evil vampires, and the rulers had been dining on the mortal population for so long that it was down to a single small village.
** The Cybermen are often treated functionally as a technofantasy version of this.
** Xanxia in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" is the secretly undead [[TheManBehindTheMan secret ruler]] of a nation.

** In ''ComicStrip/{{If}}'', Steve Bell drew Tory politicians of the Thatcher/Major era, such as Norman Tebbit, as animated skeletons or barely-human zombies; Michael Howard was a daylight-shunning vampire, and Michael Heseltine had something of the werewolf about him.

*** The half-dragon lich Erandis d'Vol, better known as simply Lady Vol, sees herself as the inheritor of the whole world. Only the Blood of Vol and the Karrnathi loyalist group "The Order of the Emerald Claw" truly believe her (and even then only in the upper ranks. Most adherents to the Blood of Vol aren't aware of what exactly the 'of Vol' refers to, and the lower ranks of the Emerald Claw tend to think they're fighting for ''Karrnath's'' dominance over the continent).

** The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has a few too:

** The ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign setting oozes with this. Many Darklords (domain rulers) are undead creatures, such as:

*** Lord Soth (death knight) [formerly] in ''Sithicus''.
*** Vecna (lich) [formerly] in ''Cavitius''.
*** Kas (vampire) in ''Tovag''. For 4E, Kas got rebooted as a vampire. He rules a kingdom in the Shadowfell and a dominion in the Astral Sea.
*** Azalin (lich) in ''Darkon''. Azalin doesn't really give a damn about his subjects but would rather not be distracted from his escape-attempts by rebellions and pogroms and other nonsense.

*** Tristan [=ApBlanc=] (Ghost/Vampyre) in ''Forlorn'': Undead-by-night ruler (long story), living but curse-transformed goblyn subjects.

** [[http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20080416a Mavet]] [[http://dndkids.blogspot.com/2012/01/mavet-rav-revisited.html Rav]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has several examples of this trope:
** The Tomb Kings are nice for undead, since they mostly stay put in their pyramids. Several city states have large living populations ruled by mummies (part of their motivation is a desire to bring life back to the desert, after all). They mostly fight with each other, because each one is technically the rightful ruler of Khemri out to destroy the usurpers, even though their respective reigns are long done.
** The Vampire Counts often masquerade as normal kingdoms, out to take over the Empire.
*** The Vampire Counts include a bloodline called the "Necrarchs", making it a Necrocratic Necrarchy, although the Necrarchs are by far the least likely bloodline to desire temporal power, authority or status, as they're a family of reclusive, usually insane, scholars and wizards whose grand plans generally involve killing all the world's mortals rather than enslaving them.
*** The Lahmians, a bloodline of all-female vampires descended from Queen Neferata herself, pose as a vampire Illuminati who control most of the governments of the Old World from behind the scenes.
*** The lordly and aristocratic Von Carsteins embody this trope most: in their homeland of Sylvania, they rule openly as feudal lords over the terrified inbred peasantry. Technically, since the Vampire Wars five centuries ago, Sylvania is now a part of the Imperial province of Stirland, but the count of Stirland's officials have long since learned never to go there asking for taxes and the like, so it is still effectively ruled by its vampiric masters. A similar arrangement applies to the Bretonnian city of Mousillon.
*** The bestial Strigoi vampires were once noble lords who founded a powerful empire known as Strygos and ruled over its human citizens, slaking their bloodthirst by feeding on criminals. The Lahmians eventually arranged for Strygos' destruction by an Orc army, due to an old enmity between the bloodlines' founders, and the Strygoi eventually degenerated into their current savage forms. Many still dream of reestablishing Strygos or something like it, although few attempts bear fruit. The most successful of their number is Gashnag the Black Prince, who has ruled over a fief in the normally chaotic Border Princes for three centuries.
** Vlad von Carstein wanted this in a WellIntentionedExtremist way: the powers of Chaos need emotion to live, so he wanted to turn the entire world into undead so as to fully deny Chaos its victory. Sadly, the rest of the world objected.
** It's strongly hinted that the Immortal Emperor of Cathay (''Warhammer's'' China) is either a powerful but benevolent Vampire or Liche (it is known that the first vampire gave one of the heirs the elixir that makes you one to settle a debt millennia ago). There's so little detail given about the place that it could just as easily be an actual dragon.
** In the Warhammer ''Enemy Within'' campaign introduces [[spoiler: a city that is ruled by necromancy. Actually, the rulers are alive as well. But subjects who die are converted into undead to serve the living. The people quickly adapt, especially since the city is close to [[HellOnEarth the chaos wastes]] and the undead army vastly increases its ability to defend itself.]] See [[https://thetrove.net/Books/Games%20Workshop/Warhammer/Fantasy/Roleplay/1st%20edition/The%20Enemy%20Within%204%C2%BD%20-%20Something%20Rotten%20In%20Kislev.pdf here]] for more info on this.
** Nagash, the great necromancer, is literally trying to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone in the world]] and make them his undead puppets. Since he has taken up the mantle of "God of Undeath", he has 9 Mortarchs to reign as Kings under him (with two members from the aforementioned Von Carstein bloodline and at least one Tomb King Liche Priest). So far he has also successfully subjugated the Tomb King nation of Khemri and the Vampire Counts' Sylvania.
* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': Many of the kingdoms and empires in Shyish, the Realm of Death are ruled by liches, vampires, and necromancers, with undead and living citizens walking side by side in the streets. Nagash technically rules most of them indirectly, meaning that the Realm overall is ruled by an undead god SorcerousOverlord.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** The Necrons are a futuristic version of the trope. They're an updated version of the Tomb Kings from ''Warhammer Fantasy'', an entire race of the spirits of long-dead aliens encased in metal skeletons by the C'Tan. They inhabit the dead Tomb Worlds in the galaxy, and have a carefully structured imperial hierarchy, with Necron soldiers at the bottom, (Over)Lords in the middle, and the Phaerons at the top. The C'tan were shattered into pieces for tricking the Necrons into becoming their slaves.
** For that matter, the Imperium of Mankind comes pretty close to one as well. While not undead per se, the God-Emperor of Mankind is closer to death than he is to life and resembles some kind of techno-lich.
* ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'' miniatures has the Necropolis Sect. The rulers are all Vampires, and the ruled are either Necromancers, Dark Elves on their way to becoming vamps, or lesser Undead and golems of various sorts.
* ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' has the plane of the dead. They still have slavery and some rulers have actually been dead long enough to remember when it was in fashion.
* ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'', a SpiritualSequel to ''Wraith'', has brought in the Dominions of the Underworld -- strange kingdoms that lie beyond the Rivers, each one ruled by [[ThresholdGuardians the Kerberoi]] and with specific rules on the interaction between their ghostly serfs and the Sin-Eaters.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the fact that it's possible to ''walk'' to and from the Underworld means that death is no bar to kingship. The necropolis of Sijan, City of Ten Thousand Tombs, is ruled by its ghosts, who are relatively benign. The [[OmnicidalManiac Deathlord]] known as [[VillainWithGoodPublicity the Silver Prince]] runs a flourishing kingdom by reanimating corpses to serve as slave labor -- but it's a cover for his long-term evil plans (for on this, check in [[http://www.aswstudio.com/rpg/books/exa/Exalted%202nd%20Edition/Manual%20of%20Exalted%20Power/Manual%20of%20Exalted%20Power%20-%20Abyssals.pdf here]]).

** The Resurrectionists in Autochthonia want to make Claslat into one of these...for the greater good, of course. They just have no understanding whatsoever about the nature of undeath.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}''
** The supplement ''TabletopGame/{{Banestorm}} - Abydos'' features a necromantic citystate in their default Fantasy setting of Yrth.

* ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'': Cryx. While the supreme ruler, Toruk, is a dragon and so is technically alive ([[EldritchAbomination for certain values of "alive," anyway]]), the hierarchy is dotted with titles like "Lich Lord", "Necrotech", "Iron Lich" and so on. While they do have living models and even living warcasters, the first mental image most people in and out of universe have when "Cryx" is stated involves a tide of cyborg skeletons backed up by undead mages and war engines forged from iron and bone.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''[='=]s Golarion campaign setting features several:
** The kingdom of Geb, run by a once human wizard king [[{{Egopolis}} also named Geb]], it was at war with the also wizard-run neighboring kingdom of Nex. When Geb, an expert of necromancy, sent a deadly fog through Nex to kill the populace, king Nex [[NeverFoundTheBody vanished]]. Geb brooded for years over this ambiguous victory and eventually took his own life. But even death could not grant him peace, and he arose as a ghost whose UnfinishedBusiness is knowing whether or not the mighty Nex is alive or [[HesJustHiding just hiding]]. Now Geb (the nation) has various forms of undead making up most of the nobility, with skeletons and zombies tending the fields. Geb even had a slain demigoddess unwillingly raised as a lich to serve as his queen, until she managed to escape at the tail end of First Edition. It's a pretty miserable place; the upper crust are all unliving monstrosities, who never age or die and are evil to the core, the peasants must live with the knowledge that they are are worth as much dead as alive if they step out of line (literally; official policy is that when you die you are reanimated as a mindless slave), with an underclass bred solely to be food, and a depressed ghost on the throne, still unable to accept whether or not he truly won a battle centuries ago. Strangely enough, through much effort, it has acquired reasonably good trade relations with its neighbors - even Nex.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'', the planet of Eox became one after a self-inflicted cataclysm left the world uninhabitable and its populace turned to necromancy to "survive." Now technological liches called [[RecycledInSpace necrovites]] rule a populace of sentient undead that anyone can join for the right price, though the exact nature of your undeath depends on how much you're willing to pay. It's worked out pretty well for them, as the massive flesh farms they use to produce food for the varied hungers of the undead proved to be equally useful for developing cutting edge biotech that allows them a solid holding in the interplanetary economy.

* The Scourge from ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III]]'' and the Forsaken from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are groups of undead whose rulers are also undead (the Lich King and the Banshee Queen, respectively), even though their origins lie in being created to serve demons. The Sourge is straight-up evil, while the Forsaken tread the line between AntiHero and TokenEvilTeammate.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', the leader of [[spoiler:the church of Yevon, Grand Maester Mika]] is an Unsent, a ghost whose soul was never put to rest by a summoner. His idea of leadership is to kill people on a regular basis in order to keep the peace. He is well aware that this is a stopgap solution at best but refuses to try anything else because [[FalseDichotomy it might not work]]. He's also entirely resistant to the idea that his people might be better off with a ''living'' leader instead, insisting that the consistency and stability of his leadership is preferable to any kind of freedom, truth, change, or justice.
* The Undead in the ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series.
** The very enjoyable undead campaign in ''Heroes of Might and Magic IV'' is a prominent example. The Protagonist of the story is [[https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Gauldoth Gauldoth Halfdead]], a very philosophical and - as the name suggests -- [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Halfdead]] necromancer that rules his kingdom (consisting of living civilians, an undead military and workforce, and some demons that are prepared to work with the other two groups out of PragmaticVillainy) more ethically than most of the supposedly 'good' factions. He's apparently popular among the people too.
** Heresh in the ''Ashan'' continuity zig-zags this. The ruling class are undead but get their unlife from a fundamentally different source than most of their rank-and-file followers, having jumped straight to the best form of unlife through the patronage of their goddess' SpiderPeople avatars. This version of unlife mimics most biological functions ([[ImmortalProcreationClause minus reproduction]]) and is hard for the untrained to distinguish from actual life. However, lots of important necromancers in Heresh either CameBackWrong instead or are still alive for real, and the highest-ranking necromancer of them all is a FallenAngel who is very much alive and naturally immortal without any magical help.
* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'', in similar vein to ''Heroes Of Might And Magic''. Deyja and the Jademean Necromancers' Guild have both living and undead subjects, and can be reasoned and negotiated with, and while they have some shady characters, there are also plenty of trustworthy ones. However it is not ''entirely'' a Necrocracy, depending on timeline, as when you get to visit it in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'', the current king is a living human male (who later [[spoiler: is usurped by a living elven male]]), and there is no sign of discontent from the king's status as being perfectly alive. The overall result is that Deyja is a magocracy with feudal trappings ''transitioning'' towards becoming a necrocracy. It was founded by necromancers when they were driven out from the wizards' country of Bracada, but not everyone wants to become a vampire, and the ritual to become a lich wasn't invented until ''much'' later and was still in active development when Deyja was destroyed along with the rest of the planet.
* The Skeleton Lords in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' are former hunters of the Undead serving the Old Iron King who contracted the curse themselves. They are now trying to rebuild the Iron King's kingdom with them as undead rulers lording over an undead people. [[BigBadWannabe It's not very impressive]], even before the [[PlayerCharacter Bearer of the Curse]] shows up to ruin their day.
* Taken to an extreme in ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}}''. The Undead Hordes are composed entirely of the undead, from bog-standard zombies and ghosts to exotic Liches, Werewolves, and Vampires. Their leadership is a cadre of undead priests who worship and are the direct subordinates of their ''undead deity,'' the "fleshless goddess," Mortis. Her StartOfDarkness is heartbreaking and establishes her horrifying appearance, her overall goal, and burning hatred for the dwarves of the Mountain Clans.
* The Dead Nations in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' are an alliance of skeletons, zombies, and ghouls all ruled by the Silent King. [[spoiler: It turns out that the Silent King is just the regular kind of dead.]]
* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Emperor Sun Hai]] is actually a ghost.

** The [[TheOrder Order of the Black Worm]] is a secretive MagicalSociety founded by legendary/infamous [[OurLichesAreDifferent Lich]][=/=]{{Necromancer}} Mannimarco and is dedicated to the study of TheDarkArts. Many of the Order's senior members choose to follow in Mannimarco's footsteps and undertake the DeadlyUpgrade to become Liches themselves. Mannimarco and the Order show up to play villainous roles in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', ''Oblivion''[='s=] Mages Guild questline, and in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline''.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', the Count of Skingrad [[spoiler:is a vampire]], yet remains one of the most reasonable counts in the game, [[spoiler:though vampirism in The Elder Scrolls is a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent (sometimes) curable disease]].]]
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''[='s=] backstory, the city of Solitude turned into one when the "[[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Wolf Queen]]" Potema replaced her followers with [[CavalryOfTheDead undead minions]] after they deserted her. By the time of her death at the end of a protracted siege of Solitude, her court was made up of nothing but zombies, vampires, and [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Daedra]] that she summoned. By the time of ''Skyrim'' proper, a cult of necromancers is attempting to summon her spirit and bind it to their will. By the time the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] shows up to slaughter them all, [[YouAreTooLate they have already mostly completed the summoning]], [[NiceJobBreakingItHero leaving her ghost unbound and completely free to do as it pleases.]] The Dragonborn does eventually show up to finish the job, but otherwise, the revenant Potema would have doubtlessly turned Skyrim into a true necrocracy.
* Kain's empire in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' (specifically shown in ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver]]''). Started by himself as a vampire, delegated through vampiric lieutenants. It eventually started crumbling, and some of those lieutenants established their own fiefdoms, serving as bosses for Raziel to take out.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' mod ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven II'' has the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Calabim]] [[VampireMonarch Aristocracy]], which uses regular humans for slave labor and livestock while occasionally offering the Gift to particularly competent or ruthless servants. Other examples are common in modmods, such as the Scions of Patria, Legion of D'Tesh, and Aristrakh (the latter of which are a branch of the Calabim that decided to go fully undead rather than just vampiric).
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' expansion ''Shadow Magic'' has a Dark Elf leading the Undead, at one point.
* The Empire of Magnagora in ''VideoGame/{{Lusternia}}''. There are a lot of [[OurLichesAreDifferent liches]] in the upper echelons of society (and as a [[EvilSorcerer Nihilist Priest]], it's practically ''expected'' of you), but there are ordinary mortals among the aristocracy and the serfs. Still, they're all [[LawfulEvil decidedly malevolent]] (except for the poor slaves).
* In ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'', the Kingdom of the Dead, ruled by The Lord of Bones and his (equally bony and [[BuffySpeak ghosty]]) Chancellor. Death is tasked to bring the Lord of Bones' assistants back to the Lord's court, two of which have been [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere skipping out on their job]] because of TheCorruption, and the third of which is so [[BeleagueredBureaucrat overloaded with work judging the dead]] that he hasn't appeared in the Lord's court.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', undead King Igos Du Ikana still rules over his dead kingdom from his palace long after it was destroyed. His subjects now consist only of skeletal warriors and mummies. The Ikana military is still intact and led by Captain Keeta, a giant skeleton. His soldiers generally want to take leave of the oath they swore him so they can pass on.
* Vornstaag in ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'' has lived with a peaceful mixture of living and dead citizens for a long time, many living nobles choosing to become vampires because they don't want to die (though this act is considered distasteful), and many peasants getting paid in advance to sell their bodies as materials for reanimation after the natural deaths.
* The [[IncrediblyLamePun Gittish]] [[TheEmpire Empire]] in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' is a straight Type 1.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dominions}}'' has Middle Age Ermor and Late Age Lemuria as examples of the Horde variation, both being the result of disastrous magical rituals making the dead rise on their own with a decidedly unfriendly attitude towards the living (Ermor is skeletal undead, Lemuria is ghosts). Nazca is a quirkier example -- being a take on [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Incan]] ideas they originally mummified their old lords so they could continue to serve as advisers... the problem being that as this kept being done the mummies became a larger and larger element of the upper class with more and more resources having to be allocated to supporting them. In less specific examples almost every nation ''can'' be this -- various undead are ''very'' common as possible [[GodEmperor Pretender]] choices.
* In ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'', the description for the Necropolis map states the Necris faction are attempting to rule over Absalom, the capital city of Omicron 6. The Unreal Engine 3 game included with UDK also contains a Necropolis map.

* The majority of Elona has become this in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' under the rule of Palawa Joko, a lich and necromancer. He has plenty of living subjects, but they're really only there to provide a steady stream of corpses (and since he's had two centuries of presenting himself as a god who 'honors the worthy' with reanimation, they're [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror disturbingly chipper about it]]).
* Felheim from ''VideoGame/{{Wargroove}}'' is a mixture, with living and undead subjects existing side by side. In a twist, the nation is always ruled by the SorcerousOverlord who holds the [[ArtifactOfDoom Fell Gauntlet]], and the Gauntlet cannot be wielded by an undead being. Thus, while the civilians may be both living and dead, and many powerful undead hold high government position, the ruler is always a living being. The current wielder of the gauntlet is called Valder and serves as the BigBad of the campaign [[spoiler:until it's revealed the war was caused by a FalseFlagOperation by one of his subordinates.]]
* ''VideoGame/DivinityDragonCommander'' has the Undead, as a nation of total necrocracy and one of the five you must balance the approval of. Somewhat unusually for the trope, they're actually a nation of [[TheFundamentalist hardline religious ultraconservatives]] who will object to motions such as legally enforcing equal wages or recognizing gay marriage.
* The Mediterrainean Syndicate in ''VideoGame/RedAlert3Paradox'' is run by a mysterious group known as the Board of Classics. [[spoiler:Who are in fact ancient monarchs and emperors from throughout history - the likes of Xerxes, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Gilgamesh and Romulus. Kane made them immortal and left their civilisations to rot, and now they want revenge.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{AFK Arena}}'' has Bantus, the home territory of the Graveborn faction. Before it became a Necrocracy, it was an empire home to a ProudWarriorRace called the Lenu, and the amount of death within its borders that came with that made it ideal for the otherworldly lich Qaedam to reap subjects. While it ''almost'' managed to reform itself under TheGoodKing Thoran, who gave his subjects hope and was the first Esperian ruler to outlaw the cruel practice of necromancy, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam a wrench was thrown in that]] when Thoran and anyone close to him were slaughtered in a violent coup. Thoran was brought back to life [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis hungry for vengeance with any trace of anything he once stood for gone]], and his first act in his new reign was not only reversing the ban on necromancy but making surrendering your soul to Qaedam and becoming a Graveborn ''mandatory'' for all subjects -- with the punishment for refusal being [[AndIMustScream beheading so you couldn't communicate even if brought back later]] -- turning Bantus into a Total Necrocracy practically overnight.
* ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'': Before the events of the campaign ''The Rise of Wesnoth'', the Wesfolk turned their best and brightest into liches to preserve their wisdom and form their ruling class. Their worst criminals were made into undead slaves. The campaign starts because the lichlords betrayed their living subjects by summoning the orcs, which would have killed all living Wesfolk, forcing them to flee to [[TheHero Prince Haldric]]'s land.
* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'': [[spoiler:While in fact a monstrosity headed by the insane Regent Sergey Taboritsky and his twisted Imperial Cult, the Holy Russian Empire is nominally a monarchy under Tsar Alexey Nikolayevich, who died as a boy in 1917. Taboritsky is convinced HesJustHiding and [[KingInTheMountain will return to rule his empire eternally once it has been sufficiently "purified"]]. In turn, [[Film/TheDeathOfStalin when Taboritsky dies of an aneurysm, high-ranking officials desperately try to cover up his death]], hence the repeated "Remain calm, the Regent endures, Alexei lives" broadcast before the whole nightmare empire collapses into [[AnarchyIsChaos warlordism and anarchy]].]]
* ''VideoGame/SongsOfConquest'': The Barony of Loth in practice is an unholy coalition of the living and undead ruled by a cabal of mages.

* Baron Dark's empire of titular ''WesternAnimation/SkeletonWarriors'' in the short-lived animated series. Transformed into the first of the undead when he attempted to steal the Lightstar Crystal, an act that also disrupted the planet's power supply with devastating effects, the Baron gained the ability to [[MonsterProgenitor convert almost any person into a Skeleton Warrior]] that was [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide compelled to serve him obediently]]. Taking advantage of the chaos, he built up a rapidly-increasing army and enslaved much of the still-human population, forcing the human heroes to go into hiding and form a [[LaResistance resistance movement]]. Since the skeleton armies are [[PullingThemselvesTogether functionally immortal]], and they don't need to eat or sleep, ''and'' Baron Dark can change captured humans into new undead recruits, the war's presented as a surprisingly bleak and one-sided affair for a Saturday morning cartoon. [[spoiler:The good guys still win in the end, though.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', the Land of the Black Sand is populated only by zombies, although its ruler, EvilSorcerer Mozenrath, is likely not undead. (Although he has a [[RedRightHand Dead Right Hand]], so he's not exactly a normal human being either.)

* A thoughtful exploration of the concept comes from [[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/3501239/ 4Chan]] (no, really)

* In ''Literature/MagicMetahumansMartiansAndMushroomCloudsAnAlternateColdWar'', Egypt becomes this in the early 1950s after [[CurseOfThePharaoh the resurrected mummy of Ramses XI]] and his undead servants oust TheGeneralissimo Naguib, start a [[MeleeATrois four-way civil war]], and then win that civil war. To everyone's surprise, they turn out to be {{reasonable authority figure}}s once they adapt to their new time, with the Egyptian population considering them an overall step up from the previous military dictatorship.
* In the first campaign of WebVideo/CriticalRole, one major story arc was about reclaiming Percy's ancestral home of Whitestone (both the castle itself and the city surrounding it) from the usurping rule of Lord Sylas Briarwood (vampire) and Lady Delilah (a necromancer).

It's the [[NotAMetaphor literal version]] of SkeletonGovernment. That is, a government staffed by actual dead or [[TheUndead undead:]] [[SoulJar liches]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], undead spirits and the like. The main variations are whether whether the rulers are fully dead or undead, whether the subjects are also all or mostly undead, and whether the nation as a whole is good-aligned, evil-aligned, or neutral.

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'''s New Humankind empire. The living 'Terrans' are second-class citizens, but most of the ruling vampire nobles try to treat them decently.

* ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'' has Ortus, a city for the deceased with over a million undead inhabitants.
* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'' has Ainz the skeleton [[OurLichesAreDifferent Overlord]], who rules the Great Tomb of Nazarick, which is filled with undead, demons, and all sorts of monsters completely loyal to Ainz. Later on, [[spoiler: the Sorcerous Kingdom is formed by Ainz, which contains the human city of E-Rantel and by Volume 12 is home to humans, nagas, giants, dwarves, undead, dragons, and other races]], with all the bureaucrats replaced with liches. Ainz himself justifies this by saying a ruler who can't die won't cause a SuccessionCrisis or be prone to emotional outbursts like lust or rage. While this is true, the fact is that Ainz doesn't have the skills to make a good ruler (he was a lowly salaryman before being transported to the New World) and is more concerned with improving work conditions for his underlings, depending on his minions to carry out his orders while remaining completely unaware that they have [[FantasticRacism zero empathy for non-Nazarick residents]].

** The Vampire Counts often masquerade as normal kingdoms, out to take over the Empire. The funny thing is, the Vampire Counts include a bloodline called the 'Necrarchs', making it a Necrocratic Necrarchy.
*** The irony there is that, of all Warhammer's Vampire bloodlines, the Necrarchs are by far the least likely to desire temporal power, authority or status. They're a family of reclusive, usually insane, scholars and wizards whose grand plans generally involve killing all the world's mortals rather than enslaving them. The Lahmians, a bloodline of all-female vampires descended from Queen Neferata herself, pose as a vampire Illuminati who control most of the governments of the Old World from behind the scenes. The lordly aristocratic Von Carsteins, however, embody this trope most: In their homeland of Sylvania, they rule openly as feudal lords over the terrified inbred peasantry. Technically, since the Vampire Wars five centuries ago, Sylvania is now a part of the Imperial province of Stirland, but the count of Stirland's officials have long since learned never to go there asking for taxes and the like, so it is still effectively ruled by its vampiric masters. A similar arrangement applies to the Bretonnian city of Mousillon.

* A number of democratic countries have systems where if candidates die during election campaigns, their names remain on the ballot and their parties can select a new person to fill their positions if they win. The most celebrated recent example was in 2000, when Missouri governor Mel Carnahan, who was killed in a plane crash three weeks before, won the US Senate election against the incumbent senator. This marked the first time that a sitting US Senator was defeated by a dead person. His widow was appointed to fill his seat.

* ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD:'' Count Magnus Lee effectively rules the Kingdom. Technically he doesn't rule it anymore -- people just fear him too much to actively fight against him, but he can't really go and order them around like he used to, either.

* The Necropolis Litharge from Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Comicbook/TheSandman'': a great metropolis where the only job that anyone seems to have is the ritual disposal of dead bodies. Their entire society is funeral-based, and it's almost all they do. Its crypts are haunted by important and scary voices.

* In the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' movies, ruling vampire aristocracies are seen who control the rest of vampirekind. The first ''Film/{{Blade}}'' had the society divided by House, while ''Film/BladeII'' shows vampire lords residing in Europe. They also have human servants, so-called "[[VampireVannabe Familiars]]" who are more or less property of their vampire master/second-class citizens of their society.

* The Vampire world from the ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' series. Those inhabiting the nightside of the planet are either vampires or partially-vampirised slaves. Those inhabiting the dayside are just slaves (and occasionally rebels). At the end of the final book [[spoiler:This model is successfully exported to [[DownerEnding Earth]].]]

** The very enjoyable undead campaign in ''Heroes of Might and Magic IV'' is a prominent example. The Protagonist of the story is [[https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Gauldoth Gauldoth Halfdead]], a very philosophical and - as the name suggests -- [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Halfdead]] necromancer that rules his kingdom (consisting of both living civilians and an undead military and workforce) more ethically than most of the supposedly 'good' factions. He's apparently popular among the people too.

* There have been jokes that Algeria under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika became a Necrocracy after he continued his already-decades-long rule despite being visibly debilitated following his stroke. Such comments intensified after Bouteflika announced he would be [[UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring running for another term in 2019]], with many Algerians seeing this as a ploy by [[TheManBehindTheMan the country's secretive elite]] to remain in power.

** The kingdom of Geb, run by a once human wizard king [[{{Egopolis}} also named Geb]], it was at war with the also wizard-run neighboring kingdom of Nex. When Geb, an expert of necromancy, sent a deadly fog through Nex to kill the populace, king Nex [[NeverFoundTheBody vanished]]. Geb brooded for years over this ambiguous victory and eventually took his own life. But even death could not grant him peace, and he arose as a ghost whose UnfinishedBusiness is knowing whether or not the mighty Nex is alive or [[HesJustHiding just hiding]]. Now Geb (the nation) has various forms of undead making up most of the nobility, skeletons and zombies tending the fields, and even a slain demigoddess raised as a lich to serve as queen. It's a pretty miserable place; the upper crust are all unliving monstrosities, who never age or die and are evil to the core, the peasants must live with the knowledge that they are are worth as much dead as alive if they step out of line (literally; official policy is that when you die you are reanimated as a mindless slave), with an underclass bred solely to be food, and a depressed ghost on the throne, still unable to accept whether or not he truly won a battle centuries ago. Strangely enough, through much effort, it has acquired reasonably good trade relations with its neighbors - even Nex.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''[='=]s Golarion campaign setting features two:

* ''Fanfic/FFSIBelieveInYou'': Played with, but ultimate subverted. When Link and Sidon encounter the skeleton of the old lizalfos king in the Water Temple, it reanimates and, from what Sidon can understand of its angry ranting, seems intent on continuing to rule over his living subjects as a stalfos. However, after Gerald arrives and manages to speak to the king, [[spoiler:it turns out that he's quite unaware of his undead status and, on being informed, simply says "oh." and collapses into a pile on inert bones]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has the Necrophage empire origin, which creates Necrophage species, which are more or less OurVampiresAreDifferent, RecycledInSpace. That a Necrophage empire can only fills Ruler jobs and Leader positions with necrophage lands them squarely in this trope's Half-and-half flavour.

** The White Court vampires (psychic vampires, who do the incubus/succubus thing) officially rule as the most human (relatively speaking) of the vampires, they manipulate and mingle into human society just fine and graze at the edges, encouraging the attitudes and emotions they feed off of instead of keeping docile herds for themselves. Many think they should have the right to feed when they want and how much they want, without interference.

[[folder:Newspaper Cartoons]]
** In ''ComicStrip/{{If}}'', Steve Bell drew Tory politicians of the Thatcher/Major era, such as Norman Tebbit, as animated skeletons or barely-human zombies; Michael Howard was a daylight-shunning vampire, and Michael Heseltine had something of the werewolf about him.