Benevolent Mage Ruler

aka: Sorceror King

When a sorcerer gains enough knowledge of magic, Alchemy, Elemental Powers, or the innermost workings of magic, he may use his powers to Take Over the World. This is not that trope.

The Benevolent Mage Ruler is a fair and just ruler. This type of sorcerer king (or queen) will usually rule over Fantasy settings. Often in charge of one of two warring factions; his kingdom and an evil empire.

This sometimes overlaps with Emperor Scientist, especially where Clarke's Third Law, Alchemy Is Magic, and/or Magitek is in this setting. But this trope is different as while the Emperor Scientist focuses on the sciences (and is usually evil or Mad), this character type is more in tune with the art of magic (and is usually good). This also overlaps with The Philosopher King, The Good King, The High Queen, Princesses Rule, and She Is the King.

Compare Emperor Scientist and Magocracy, the sci-fi and Vast Bureaucracy counterparts, and Rank Scales with Asskicking or Asskicking Leads to Leadership depending on how he became King or Queen in the first place. For a smaller-scale version, when he is the master of only one or a few ordinary humans, see Muggle in Mage Custody. Contrast Sorcerous Overlord.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Magic Kingdom Levianta in the Evillious Chronicles was ruled by a prophetess named Maria Moonlit before going on a search to select another Benevolent Mage Ruler, a powerful sorceress who could help save the country. The selection process didn't end well.
• Lord Ainz from Overlord (2012) is somewhere between this and Sorcerous Overlord- while he is an Ob(liv)viously Evil undead lich king who plans to Take Over the World, he is actually quite benevolent as evil overlords go, and the kingdom under his rule actually seems to be better off than it was under the "rightful" king. He also took on the actual title of Sorcerer King, after rejecting other titles like the Wise King or the Handsome King. He has stated that his goal is to create a peaceful kingdom where all races can live together side by side. Unfortunately, all but three of his underlings are completely evil and are persuaded that Ainz is far craftier and eviller than any of them by far, and that any show of benevolence towards Puny Humans is just to better trap them. The fact that he's trying to run his company like an ideal Japanese corporation (Ainz was a lowly salaryman 20 Minutes into the Future in his previous life) in a Medieval European Fantasy doesn't help either. It helps that he was born in a Bad Future where MegaCorps controlled most of the entire world and there was an immense level of class disparity and oppression by the corporate elites and does not want to be the sort of leader who treats his own subordinates the way he was.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Rimuru Tempest is both the King of Tempest and renowned as the Great Demon Lord, who possesses all manner of magical abilities that let him destroy nations on his own, nevermind having dozens of subordinates who could and would do the same at but his word. He is shown to be very benevolent to his citizens and uses his abilities to increase the prosperity of his nation, which further endears him to them. One of the nation's first advantages is that Rimuru can provide them with the most advanced healing potion in the world, which they can either use themselves or sell, giving them an economic advantage over neighboring nations right off the bat. Humorously, Rimuru had no intentions of becoming a ruler, originally just wanting to save a small goblin village from being destroyed, but his growing influence thanks to his power and the number and quality of his subordinates (many of whom grow to become as strong as Demon Lords who rule their own nations), eventually results in the birth of a grand nation with himself at its head.
• Clow Reed from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- was the world's most powerful sorcerer who ruled over Clow Country. As it turns out, though, he wasn't the original ruler due to time-travel mess-ups.
• The Pharaoh was like this in Yu-Gi-Oh!. The ability to summon your spirit creature is rare. The ability to summon your own, and seal and release other people's, was a power only he and his court possessed. And the Pharaoh himself was the only one able to call out the gods themselves.

Comic Books

• Believe it or not, Doctor Doom is actually a benevolent ruler towards his own people (some of the time), and he is an extremely powerful mage as well.
• In Doctor Strange, Strange's Love Interest Clea is this during the times when she rules the Dark Dimension.
• Papa Smurf in all versions of The Smurfs is the benevolent ruler of Smurf Village and one of the most powerful wizards of his time.
• W.I.T.C.H.: Elyon eventually becomes a benevolent Sorceress Princess to the Kingdom of Meridian, a stark contrast to her brother Phobos, who ruled for many years as a Sorcerous Overlord.

Fan Works

• Harry Potter in The Difference One Man Can Make. Appearing in the middle of north of the Wall with only what he carried with himself at the time, Harry slowly managed to gain power among the Free Folk tribes, to the point he ends up becoming pretty much the Wizard-King-beyond-the-Wall, although Harry is only such because the Free Folk, for the most part, agree that he is a great leader. Plus, he uses his magical abilities to kickstart a working economy and help produce all sorts of foodstuffs at a faster rate than what should be possible, benefitting the entire society. Unfortunately, many that live south of the Wall think of him as a Sorcerous Overlord, and some (among them King Robert) are considering possibly attacking the Free Folk because of the threat they appear to be.
• The Myth of Link & Zelda: Survivors of the Calamity: Princess Zelda would have become the ruling Queen of Hyrule had the Great Calamity not happened. It was a natural trait among the women of her family to wield great amounts of magic power.
• At the end of A Warm Blizzard, a Frozen fanfic, Prince Hans is revealed to be a pyrokinetic as a counterbalance to Elsa's cryokinesis, and uses it to thaw her out after a witch cast a spell on her. When he was a child, a magical binding was put in place so he won't be able to use his fire powers, but a magical scissor removes this binding. He and Elsa later become Arendelle's magical Ruling Couple.

Film — Animated

• Elsa in Frozen ends up as this due to her ice powers.
• Nicodemus in The Secret of NIMH is the wise and kind leader of the rats, and has magical powers.

Film — Live-Action

• The White Queen from Alice in Wonderland (2010) (and its sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass) has trace amounts of this, especially when she magically clears away the chains and cobwebs surrounding the grandfather-clock which doubles as a portal to Time's realm.
• Oz the Great and Powerful:
  • Glinda becomes this after Oscar wins her kingdom back. It runs in the family, as her father was also a powerful wizard.
  • Meanwhile, Oscar is not the genuine article, but a con artist who previously worked as a magician for a traveling circus. But he uses his technical knowledge and stage magic to create the impression that he truly is a wizard.

Literature

• Belgariad: Belgarion of Riva is Rivan King, Overlord of the West, and a powerful sorcerer. And a good guy.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has the magician Coriakin, who governs an island inhabited by dim-witted dwarves known as the Duffers. The Duffers see him as the opposite trope because he forces them to work in his garden with the use of tricks and magical spells, but in reality, he has to do it because the Duffers are Too Dumb to Live, and would not survive without his oversight (this is an obvious metaphor for the relationship between God and humanity, and, in particular, for "working in God's vineyard").
• The Crimson Shadow: Brind'Amour (an old wizard who is a just, kind man), after he becomes king of Eriador.
• In the Deptford Mice books, the Starwife is a squirrel queen who possesses incredible magical powers. While she is known for her fiery temper and rudeness, she is genuinely well-meaning and everything she does is for the good of all.
• In the Discworld, Magrat is a Witch who ends up as the Queen. She wasn't intending to be a Queen: she thought she was walking out with the Court Jester. But after machinations on the part of the Senior Witches, Verence the Jester turns out to be the heir to a suddenly vacant throne. And she and her husband are benevolent, although the Lancrastrians find it a rather exhausting kind of benevolence (they keep trying to improve the kingdom, while their subjects mostly think it's fine the way it is.)
• The Dragon Knight: The titular Dragonknight is a baron who's also a magician (albeit a low-level one, since being a feudal lord means he can't dedicate his life to magecraft).
• Dune: Paul Atreides and his son Leto II are magically powerful men, though how "good" they are to their subjects is debatable, considering how many billions died during the jihads of Paul's Fremen and how Leto played tyrant in order to get people to leave the stagnant core worlds and scatter throughout the universe. They have the ability of prescience and conscious control over their bodies to an improbable level. And of course Leto II merged with a sandworm and became the Trope Namer for God-Emperor.
• The Fire's Stone: Chandra is the heir to her father's throne, but just as devoted to her studies of magic as she is to ensuring her country is safe. She refuses to lose either of these things.
• In the Web Serial Flight of the Godkin Griffin Shraeven, a newly conquered province of the Godkindred Kingdom that still considers itself a country, has nobility who are chosen by the gods instead of by bloodline, indicated by markings on their body and wielding of Elemental Powers as gods are the sole source of magic in this setting. Angharad, the new governor of Shraeven looks like she is being set up to make Shraeven independent and be their new queen as god after god marks her. But after destroying the physical form of the Godkindred's God-Emperor she gives rulership of Shraeven to her "native guide" (and lover) Ragna, and becomes Priest-Sorcerer-Queen of the Godkindred instead.
• The Hands of the Emperor: The emperor and Lord-Mage of the world of Zunidh, Artorin Damara: after the catastrophic fall of his empire, he is still universally worshipped as a fair and benevolent presence and tirelessly works to create powerful works of magic for the betterment of the world or the amelioration of the Fall's many bad consequences (such as the weather, time and magic not working properly anymore).
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • The backstory, detailed in the Mage Wars trilogy, introduces Urtho, the Mage of Silence, who fits this trope to a T. Using a combination of magic and science, he created gryphons, hertasi, tervardi, and possibly others. Sadly, he became drawn into a war with the evil mage and would-be world conqueror Ma'ar... a war that shattered their world.
  • The founder of Valdemar, the eponymous King Valdemar, also counts. (His Queen was a sorceress as well.) To ensure that all future rulers would also be benevolent, he wove a magic spell and combined it with a prayer to every god he'd every heard from, resulting in the Companions and the creation of the titular Heralds.
• InCryptid: Trapped in Another World, sorcerer Thomas Price plays up the Self-Made Myth that he's a ruthless Wasteland Warlord with a harem to deter attacks by any of the other factions in the Death World. His realm, protected by a magical membrane (that also has a Universal Translator spell) is the best place to live on that world, with protection from other warlords, equality for women, and better air and water than anywhere else. And he doesn't take any of the women as lovers, since he still has hope that his wife Alice will find him.
• The Raven King of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a.k.a. John Uskglass, the Black King of the North, who ruled Northern England along with a large Faerie Kingdom and a land on the far side of Hell for several centuries and had magical power on par with Lucifer. Even three centuries after his departure, he is still well-loved in Northern England, with Childermass declaring loyalty to the King at the end of the novel for which, it is hinted, the Raven King heals his cheek, and he is suggested to have left in order to protect England from threats to her magical borders.
• Land of Oz:
  • Princess Ozma is a good and magical ruler of a fairyland. She's willing to help Ojo free his enchanted uncle, even after he didn't wait to get permission and committed the crime of picking a specific plant needed for the release spell^note The plant was frequently used in spells, including evil ones. When another ingredient proved unobtainable, Ojo's group found Ozma had contacted Oz and Glinda for other methods to restore his uncle.
  • Glinda of Quadling Country, the good witch of the south, in the books is the witch that figures out the secret of the silver slippers and tells Dorothy how to get home. She's sterner than Ozma or the Witch of the North, but her people are perfectly happy with her.
  • Locasta/Tattypoo of Gillikin Country, the good witch of the north, is the witch that first helps Dorothy in the books, after her crash landing in Munchkin land, and her people are said to be very happy.
• Night World:
  • Hecate was the Queen of the Witches; her title is even right there in her name. By all accounts, she was a good and wise ruler, who is revered by witches to this very day. She notably fought against the dragon shapeshifters to free both witches and humans, the latter of whom the dragons had enslaved. She spared the youngest dragon princess, who was only a toddler, instead raising her amongst the witches in the hopes she would be kinder than her brethren.
  • Hecate's daughter Hellewise Hearth-Woman served as the ruler of the witches after her mother's passing, though it's unclear if she inherited Hecate's title of queen along with her position, as she's never exactly addressed this way. She is depicted as a caring, compassionate leader who gave her own life to protect her people; she also created a law preventing witches from harming humans with their powers, encouraging the two species to live in harmony.
• The Quest of the Unaligned: Subverted with King Kethel and Queen Tathilya. They're the rightful rulers of the realm of Caederan, the most powerful mages in the Realm, and benevolent enough to make fine rulers. The problem is that they are too "air-headed" (both literally and figuratively) to realize that by favoring wind over the other three elements, they've thrown the whole kingdom out of whack. However, this trope is played completely straight with their son and daughter-in-law, Crown Prince Alaric and Princess Laeshana.
• The Farseer dynasty in Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings saga are psychically gifted with a variety of powers. Whether they fall here or under Sorcerous Overlord depends on the monarch: Kings Shrewd and Verity are definite examples of The Good King, while Regal is a prejudiced asshole and part of the first trilogy's Big Bad Ensemble.
• The Riddle Master Trilogy: Most of the land-rulers (all of them, if you count the land-rule itself as a magical ability) have some sort of power, a variety of shapeshifting. None of them, however, are wizards, as that's a whole different class of people. The High One, who is the highest authority in the realm, is perhaps a more straight example of the trope, given that he has a far vaster array of powers, though even then he mostly concerns himself with matters of land-rule.
• In The Savior's Series, the Savior is supposed to be this to Thessan; the powers of each successive Savior have kept Thessan a rich and fertile land, greatly reducing pestilence and famine, and resulting in there being no wars over resources for centuries. However, it turns out that the current Savior has been stripped of much of her political power and is more-or-less a Puppet King to Brontes and the senate.
• Second Apocalypse: Kellhus becomes a cross between this and a Sorcerous Overlord. His rule is brutal, but it's entirely devoted to saving the world from an Ancient Conspiracy.
• The Silerian Trilogy: The fire mage Yarhdans used to be this for Sileria. Elalar's son is prophesied to be the next one, with both fire and water magic, uniting the Guardians and water lords.
• In The Sixty-Two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd, Caliph Arenschadd is a wizard. His rule is mostly benevolent apart from his tendency to put curses on people when he loses his temper, and even that is generally regarded as better than, say, chopping people's heads off, since none of the curses are lethal and most are more annoying than really harmful.
• Jonathan IV of Conte becomes king of Tortall in the fourth book of Song of the Lioness, Lioness Rampant. Jon was born with magic and uses it throughout the series, most notably when Duke Roger threatens the kingdom, Jonathan uses the Dominion Jewel, brought to him by Alanna, to counteract Roger's spells.
• Spitfire has Ruzena the Briar Queen, who invented a method of arcane study and invention that unified the scattered people of her land into the nation of Voswain and brought them prosperity.
• Star Wars Legends
  • Several Supreme Chancellors of the Galactic Republic were also Jedi Knights. In fact, there was a 400-year period when the Republic was ruled by only Jedi chancellors. All of them were this trope, and the Republic lived another thousand years because of their leadership.
  • After the defeat of the Empire at Endor, the Hapes Consortium was ruled by the force sensitive Teneniel Djo, who ruled as Queen Mother from 11 to 27 ABY. After her death she was followed by her daughter Tenel Ka, who was a fully-trained Jedi Knight. She later resigned from the Order so that she could focus her full attention on the Hapan throne, knowing that the Consortium would tear itself apart if she stepped down as Queen Mother.
• The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: One of the Good Queens is a magic user who's very concerned with what's right and swiftly joins the heroes after they alert her to bad things going on in her country.
• Vond the warlock from Lawrence Watt-Evans' novel The Unwilling Warlord. Vond gains access to tremendous magical power and easily conquers several small kingdoms, creating an empire. But Vond is not a bad ruler: for example, he helps peasants to grow crops with his magic. He mostly plays with his warlockry, spends time with his harem (assembled without any coercion), and delegates the "boring stuff" to the ruling council. And then it gets kinda doubly subverted, when the Calling - every warlock's bane - catches up with him...
• Villains by Necessity: Mizzamir, a kindly elven mage, serves as one to Natodik, which he apparently rules.
• Worlds of Shadow: Pel, a good man, becomes one after gaining magic in the world of Faerie.

Live-Action TV

• In The Book of Boba Fett, it's confirmed that Tarre Vizsla, the Mandalorian Jedi previously introduced in Star Wars Rebels, was also the ruler of Mandalore. While details of his reign are scarce, the fact that his lightsaber has become the Ancestral Weapon of Mandalore and one of the few things that can unite the famously divided Mandalorians implies he left a powerful legacy.
• Fantasy Island: Played with. Mr. Roarke is the Chief Magistrate of the island (aka Chief Justice) but several episodes show an ordinary police force under him. Some episodes mention an elected island council. Once there's an election for the position of Honorary Lord Mayor, which Mr. Rorke wins in a unanimous vote against Tattoo. In spite of Mr. Roarke's powers (or maybe because of them), the various permanent residents seem to live in a free and democratic country.
• In the finale of Game of Thrones, Bran is crowned King Bran the Broken, ruler of the Six Kingdoms. Bran shows little interest in the mundane management, leaving it to his royal advisors primarily, and seems content to simply practice his Greensight magic for the good of the realm. This presumably makes him The Good King.
• The Once Upon a Time season 7 ends with Regina, the former Evil Queen and the most powerful mage in the series world at that point, becoming one of these by casting a spell based on love to bring the Realms of Story together in Storybrooke, which was originally her trap for the fairy-tale inhabitants but eventually became a beloved home base. She's even declared "the Good Queen" by one of her former enemies.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible: King Solomon of Judah is frequently depicted as The Archmage, oftentimes to the point of it being said that he either invented magic or was the person to make it accessible to mortals. Numerous mystical texts, particularly on the subject of demonology, are attributed to Solomon, and between the three monotheistic religions he's been told to perform such feats as the binding of hundreds of thousands of demons, journeying the breadth of heaven and hell, commanding the winds and the flames, and speaking to animals. In fact, the famous "Seal of Solomon" (two intertwined triangles) has become one of the symbols most strongly associated with Western mysticism - it being said that Solomon's command of spirits was so vast that even millennia after his death the mere invocation of his signature strikes fear in their hearts. Interestingly, he's never explicitly mentioned to be a magician in the bible (although he is in the Koran, and his magical abilities are readily acknowledged by Jews, Christians and Muslims). More interesting yet is the fact that in all three religions, magic is largely thought to be evil and forbidden (with the exception of mystical Judaism, which permits "White Magic"). Solomon gets a special exception from the rule as he was acknowledged by God Himself as the wisest and most benevolent of all mortals and his most beloved, meaning whatever Solomon did could not, practically by definition, be bad.
• Queen Himiko was the semi-legendary shaman queen of Yayoi-era Japan, having ruled the equally semi-legendary kingdom/confederacy of Yamataikoku ^note Exact location is unclear, it may be either in the north of Kyushu or in the modern-day Nara prefecture in the late 2nd and first half of the 3rd century. She is only attested in Chinese ^note Specifically the kingdom of Wei, as China was in the middle of the Three Kingdoms Period records ^note Japan only started writing things down in the 8th century. According to Wei records she used her magical powers to bring peace to Wa (literally meaning "dwarf", that's how China called Japan then), which had around a hundred petty kingdoms locked in civil war for decades, by uniting 30 of these kingdoms under Yamatai rule. Records about Himiko are quite scarce and the only contemporary ones are from China (Japanese documents contradict them and only occur much later).

Tabletop Games

• Forgotten Realms:
  • King Gareth Dragonsbane of Damara is an epic-level paladin and cleric of Ilmater. His magics are divinely given and tied to him remaining Lawful Good, and in the course of gaining the throne he helped drive out an occupying army from neighboring Vaasa's Sorcerous Overlord.
  • Also, three of the Seven Sisters, all of whom are Chosen of Mystra and powerful sorceresses, ruled realms as these. Alustriel Silverhand (Chaotic Good) spent 134 years as the High Lady of Silverymoon before stepping down, then was chosen as ruler of the Confederation of the Silver Marches two years later, and in both cases, her rule proved a boon to the whole region. Meanwhile, her sister Alassra is Chaotic Neutral but ruled as the Witch-Queen of Aglarond for decades, fighting hard to keep the country from being conquered by neighboring Thay. Meanwhile, Laeral Silverhand is the wife of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun of Waterdeep and though she doesn't actually rule the town (it has a council of lords rather than a single ruler), she is heavily involved in its running.
• Runelord Sorshen from Pathfinder used to be a classic Sorcerous Overlord in Ancient Thassilon ten thousand years prior to the setting's present. While her fellow Runelords attempted to return to their old ways after being unsealed in the present day, Sorshen has mellowed out considerably and has established her realm as a haven for artists and outcasts. Given that five of the other six Runelords ended up being slain by adventurers, this seems to have been a wise move.
• Princess: The Hopeful has eight Queens six of whom fill this trope. Each has their own style of governing and magic.
• Warhammer 40,000: The God-Emperor of Mankind, among other things, was considered the greatest psyker (the franchise's term for psychics and sorcerers) of all time, capable of bending the fabric of reality and destroying much. His power was considered godlike, despite his insistence otherwise. As usual, we have to note here that in any other setting, he'd be a Sorcerous Overlord, as billions lie dead from his direct actions, never mind those of his followers. Did we mention that 40k is GRIMDARK yet?
  • Magnus the Red, one of the Emperor's twenty demi-god sons, was the only one of his brothers to inherit their father's psychic might (a few had psychic gifts of their own, but nowhere near the extent that Magnus did) and was generally considered second only to the Emperor in power; he was this trope over his planet of Prospero, a planet of scholars and mages, where magic was used to sky-rocket standard of living over the rest of the Imperium. It was the destruction of Prospero by his magic-hating brother Leman Russ ^note in his defense, Leman was tricked into thinking the Emperor wanted him to do it, and this was after Magnus had used his powers to cause a colossal disaster that sparked Magnus' Start of Darkness and led to him becoming a Fallen Hero. He later used his power to re-create Prospero, but this time as a full Sorcerous Overlord.
• Warhammer has several examples among its more magical races, though they are almost unheard of in the human realms.
  • The High Elves are ruled by a Phoenix King, elected from the male nobility of Ulthuan, and an Everqueen - who is always the eldest daughter of the previous Everqueen, conceived after a year-long ritual marriage to the Phoenix King. All Everqueens are powerful sorceresses by birthright, and some of the Phoenix Kings have also been powerful wizards (Bel-Korhadris the Scholar-King and Bel-Hathor the Sage most prominently).
  • Likewise, the Wood Elves of the Loren Forest have Queen Ariel, who is a great wizard.
  • The Slann Mage-Priests, rulers of the Lizardmen, might also count, although their morality is starkly alien and so it is a matter of uncertainty as to whether they're Benevolent Mage Rulers or Evil Sorcerous Overlords. Both at the same time probably.
  • Kislev is currently ruled by a Tzarina who is one of the most powerful and talented Ice Witches in the country. This is very handy when their Northern neighbors are Chaos-worshiping vikings who Rape, Pillage, and Burn for a living.

Theatre

• Shakespeare's The Tempest has Prospero, a magician who was the Duke of Milan before he was deposed by his scheming brother and exiled to an island. He was indeed a good ruler of Milan until his devotion to his studies of magic caused him to neglect his duties (hence the revolt). During the time when he rules his island by magic, he is more morally ambiguous (including keeping the air spirit Ariel and the savage Caliban as his slaves), but still more or less fits the trope.

Video Games

• Half the characters in Age of Wonders are this. The other half are the other trope. Which one you are depends on your choices.
• Jieun of Dandelion grows into this in the Happily Ever After "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. In the game proper, he's merely a Sorcerer Wise Prince.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • As is only natural for a Mage Species, the leaders of the Altmer (High Elves) tend to be such rulers. Powerfully skilled in magic, they also tend to be benevolent toward their own subjects (though the races of Men may disagree). Queen Ayrenn from The Elder Scrolls Online provides an exceptional example.
  • Typically averted for the Dunmeri (Dark Elven) Great House Telvanni. Though a Magocracy through and through, their accepted practice of Klingon Promotion and belief that Might Makes Right turns the majority of their rulers in Evil Sorcerers or, at best, Pragmatic Villains whose benevolence stems only out of self-interest. Master Aryon from Morrowind provides a Downplayed example in line with the latter statement.
• EXTRAPOWER: Blackberry's goal in reviving the ancient wizard Diamond Mine is under the belief that he would be this type of ruler over the world. Zophy and his companions oppose her believing that he would be a Sorcerous Overlord instead. Given that his followers in ancient times had sealed him inside a diamond, they might be onto something. In Attack of Darkforce, she misses out on the window to fully revive Diamond Mine and instead performs a ritual to become the second generation Diamond Mine — Diamond Black. It remains to be seen whether she becomes the Benevolent Mage Ruler she imagines or a Sorcerous Overlord for Zophy to bring down.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers has the Crystal Exarch, the founder and Benevolent Mage Ruler of the Crystarium, the main center of resistance against the sin eaters that are slowly destroying the world.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, if Lilina, the Lady of Black Magic-in-training Lilina makes it to the end, she's said to have become the very wise and powerful Duchess of Ostia, who manages to lead the Lycian League into becoming the Kingdom of Lycia. As a plus, if she marries Roy via an A support, they grow into a Ruling Couple and lead Lycia together.
    • Since Princess Guinevere of Bern is in the magic-using Sage class (the same Lilina can promote into), she'll probably become this when she takes over the throne of Bern at the end of the game.
  • Tellius has Empress Sanaki of Begnion. She's seen in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance but in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn she is a mage-type class capable of using all classes of magic, and quite the wise ruler despite her age.
    • The Light Priestess Micaiah also counts after Radiant Dawn, once she becomes queen of Deain. She's also Sanaki's elder sister and the true heir of the Begnion, but decides against taking it since Sanaki is already doing a good enough job.
  • Fire Emblem Fates has the Black Mage Leo in the Birthright path, who becomes King of Nohr after the death of the actual Crown Prince (Xander) and the abdication of the rightful successor (Princess Camilla), plus Princess Elise's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Alexander of King's Quest is a reasonably competent magic user by the time he returns to Daventry and becomes a prince. When he goes to the Land of the Green Isles to seek Princess Cassima, he ends up being crowned king. Granted, his spell casting tends to be limited to Utility Magic, but that doesn't mean he can't be deadly with it.
• The Legend of Zelda: Whenever the titular Princess is an adult, she's always this trope. In fact, Breath of the Wild establishes that the divine magic passed down the women of her line is so vital for protecting Hyrule from Ganon that the current Zelda's inability to awaken that magic is noted to be a very dire set of circumstances.
• Might and Magic: Though he used the title of Grand Vizier, Gavin Magnus of Bracada is still the ruling King of the wizards' nation of Bracada, and was a fair and benevolent one at that. This carried on into the spin-off series Heroes of Might and Magic Then the world blew up, and he went off the deep end.
• Super Mario Bros.: Princess Peach has powerful White Magic as well as a large variety of other magic powers. She doesn't get to show this off in the main games because of her status as the Damsel in Distress ( except in the first game where she was kidnapped by Bowser specifically because her magic could reverse the transmutation spell he cast upon her kingdom) but in the various RPG games, Super Princess Peach, Super Smash Bros, and the various sports spinoffs she gets to show off the full extent of her magical abilities.
• Toyosatomimi no Miko from Touhou Project (who happens to be based on Prince Shoutoku), a powerful Taoist hermit, likes to style herself as this.
• Lord British in the Ultima series is an extremely powerful (if aging) magician and a benevolent ruler of the land named after him, Britannia.
• Warcraft:
  • The High Elves of Quel'Thalas were ruled by the Sunstrider dynasty, all powerful mages, until Kael'Thas went off the deep end.
  • Jaina Proudmoore while she was the ruler of Theramore.
  • The Kirin Tor leaders of The Magocracy of Dalaran, including Antonidas (who perished against the undead Scourge in the Third War), Rhonin (who sacrificed himself to localize the Horde's manabomb that destroyed Theramore), the above-mentioned Jaina Proudmoore and eventually the Council of Six.

Web Animation

• In RWBY, the King of Vale was said to possess fantastical powers and brought about 80 years of peace and prosperity following the conclusion of the Great War. Though offered the opportunity to Take Over the World, the King instead established democratic ruling Councils in each kingdom and ended the monarchy. Historians question the accuracy of the stories about his powers because there's no evidence to suggest magic actually exists. The truth is more complicated: The King was a previous incarnation of Big Good Ozpin, an ancient Wizard cursed with Resurrective Immortality. In his first reincarnation, he had attempted to rule mankind as this trope but failed because his wife, Salem, favored the role of the Sorcerous Overlord. Their opposing ideals eventually lead to tragedy, and they became enemies that have secretly fought over the fate of humanity for thousands of years.

Web Comics

• Kill Six Billion Demons has a complicated relationship to this trope. Zoss, The Conquering King, is widely held as an object of reverence, and his conquest of Throne after the gods had abandoned it ushered in a Golden Age, where the first Demiurges (people capable of jumping from their home universes onto Throne) stayed on the throne and ruled as wise philosopher kings. That said, Zoss only got to the point of being the God-Emperor of The Multiverse through copious amounts of violence, and his successors amongst the younger Demiurges began conquering the worlds they'd originated from with Zoss doing nothing, and ultimately he left as The Universal War tore his entire creation to shreds and left the scraps to the current Big Bad Ensemble.
  Incubus: A traitor king that abandoned his kingdom. For all your majesty, all your power... Your heaven is rotten, old man.
• In Mario & Luigi: Cleanup Crew, Princess Peach starts using her magic powers after she learns trouble's afoot.
• Our Little Adventure has two mentioned so far. The first one is Queen Trilanna, the ruler of Everwood. The second is King Tegretol, ruler of Silverfronds. They both rule their lands justly and fairly (though a little chaotically) and they're working together to prevent the Souballo Empire from taking over Silverfronds.

Web Original

• The Millennial King was created by /tg/ when the board wondered why there seemed to be no good Necromancers. The titular king uses his undead minions to eliminate the need for menial labor and respects the right of his people to refuse undeath. This is usually not a problem, as there is no shortage of volunteers.

Web Videos

• Daniel Thrasher: While "benevolent" might be a stretch, in "When you meet a jazz demon in medieval times", it's revealed that the King has been faking much of his buffoonery and is actually an accomplished wizard, being able to banish a group of jazz demons with a Scatting incantation.
• Season 1 of the Empires SMP has Gem, who's the ruler of the mountainside kingdom called the Crystal Cliffs. She's a sweet lady who does a lot to keep her more volatile allies in check.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko became Fire Lord after beating his younger sister Azula in an Agni Kai (firebending duel) for the title, and proved to be a much better ruler than her, his father, and even his grandfather. He would retire a few years before the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra started, totaling some 65 years. His daughter and successor Izumi hasn't been confirmed to be a bender but given her very powerful lineage, she can be assumed to be one of these as well.
• Prince Dexter of Little Wizards is in training to become one of these, being the rightful heir to a kingdom who was ousted by an Evil Sorcerer who decided he wanted to rule. His ultimate goal is to become powerful enough that he can defeat the Sorcerous Overlord in a Wizard Duel.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Alicorn Princesses have extreme magical powers. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can move the sun and moon respectively, Cadence used The Power of Love to repel King Sombra from the Crystal Empire, and now Twilight Sparkle becomes a princess at the end of the third season, making her a mix of this and Emperor Scientist.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power had Castaspella, Queen of Mystacor and Angella, Queen of Bright Moon. She Ra/Adora and Glimmer also had magical abilities, but they're princesses.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power inherits this as a reboot. Queen Angella continues to be this, but there is also Princess Perfuma, Princess Mermista, and Princess Frosta, who are unmarried but each rule their own kingdoms and have dominion over an element (Plants, Water, and Ice respectively)).

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