Shadow Dictator

The mask of tyranny.

"You know, I'd really like to know how the "almighty Despot" looks. I mean, why is it that nobody has ever even seen a picture of the guy who runs our city!?"

— Civilian, The Nameless Mod

They rule the entire city/country/world/galaxy... but has anyone ever seen them?

Sometimes, an Evil Overlord will forego the Malevolent Mugshot spam in favor of staying hidden from their society, ruling from the shadows — or perhaps their face is all we see of them. They will not make any public appearances nor grand speeches, instead relying on their followers to spread and enforce their word.

The reasons for this secrecy may vary. They may simply want to avoid potential assassins. They may not even exist at all, be on life support, or could be Dead All Along, or not even human to begin with. The Man Behind the Curtain is also possible. Overlaps with No One Sees the Boss, which deals with the overarching conspiracy surrounding our mystery person. May overlap with The Man Behind the Man if they prefer to act with intermedies or use a Puppet King as a face.

Compare Unseen Evil and The Spook

Not to be confused with Shadow Government.

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Examples

Advertising

• Apple's famous 1984 ad is set up this way with a young woman throwing a sledgehammer at the screen as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother^note who is presumably supposed to represent IBM).

Anime and Manga

• In Arachnid, Alice eventually discovers that her new-found best friend Yoriko Tajima is not only the immortal, telepathic Boss of the Organization, but that she has also been using her powers to rule Japan from the shadows since World War II.
• In Attack on Titan, it is revealed that the society within the Walls is ruled by one. The Fritz royal family were actually puppets, and the true royal family is House Reiss, led by King Rod Reiss, Krista's (AKA Historia Reiss) biological father.
• Embryo from Cross Ange. While the Mana users are left to do their own thing for their Fantastic Racism, he's in control of what's giving them power, is the one who created this world, and can control the people as he wish.
• By the second season of Death Note, most of the world's countries have declared their support for Kira, and the United States eventually backs down and obeys his orders. Japan doesn't, however. Nobody actually knows what Kira looks like, only that he/she/it will kill anyone who commits a wrong. The cult who is building a temple to Kira assumes that Kira is an old man with a beard, though in actuality, Kira is a handsome young man who makes use of a few proxies.
• Ribbons Almark for the first season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. He's fully revealed in season two and becomes a major player in the plot.
• In Naruto, Pain starts out as one. He rules the Hidden Rain Village as a god after annihilating everyone even remotely associated with the old leader, but nobody's ever actually met him in person. Sasuke intends to become one as well.
• In One Piece, the mysterious Great Imu is revealed as the true ruler of the World Government, someone that the Five Elders (thought to be the actual rulers) bow to. Their existence is a complete secret to everyone but a few people, and it's believed that if knowledge of them got out, the world would descend into war and chaos as Imu's existence undermines the very premise the World Government was founded on, that there is not and never should be a single king that rules over all.
• In Psycho-Pass, Japanese society is overseen by the Sibyl System, a Master Computer that quantifies people's tendencies to commit crimes by doing biometric scans in real time and authorizes police to either do a Precrime Arrest or execute them on the spot. This is seen to be the most fair, unbiased system possible because a computer is the ultimate measure of objectivity. The Sibyl System may have started off as a computer, but by the time the show begins, it is now a Wetware CPU composed of over 400 brains of sociopathic killers who are essentially the ruling council of Japan, because even the Japanese government has to filter its decisions through Sibyl. By the end of the first season, Akane Tsunemori is the only person in the world who knows the true nature of Sibyl.
• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle has the King of Vices, who runs the Republic of Heiburg as military dictatorship and directs a cabal of assassins from the shadows, but no one knows their true identity. Many citizens suspect the King is the country's Obviously Evil champion, Rosa Granhide, but it turns out that the real King is actually Rosa's aide and that Rosa herself is just a brainwashed decoy.
• Yatterman Night takes place in the only town remaining on Earth, as the latest of a long generation of Yatterman duos rules over it with an iron fist. They are never seen by the populace, but robot duplicates of them patrol the area. At the end of the series, it's revealed that Dokurobei actually ran things from the shadows eons after causing the near-destruction of humanity.

Comic Books

• Fantastic Four: In the very early days, Doctor Doom ruled Latveria like this. Rumors abounded about a mystery man who'd overthrown the king and aristocracy and imposed his own rule, but the new Latverian government denied them, because after all, that'd be crazy, right? Once Doom revealed he was ruler of Latveria to the Fantastic Four (in FF Annual #2) this all went out the window.

Film

• The Father from Equilibrium, inspired by 1984. Though we do see broadcasts featuring him, they are faked, since the original Father died and DuPont was chosen to replace him.
• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, few of his own people had ever seen the wizard, and those who claimed to have seen him disagreed as to who or what they'd seen. He turns out to be The Man Behind the Curtain, using special effects to create an illusionary appearance.
• While not a world leader, Dr. Mabuse in Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler and its sequels has a vast crime network that allows him to control the economy of pre-WWII Germany. Mabuse goes mad at the end of the first movie. In The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, someone follows the "manual of crime" he scrawls in the madhouse before he dies. Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse and subsequent movies feature would-be masterminds copying his methods.
• The Viceroy of Turaquistan in War, Inc.. His identity is a closely guarded secret. On the omnipresent TV screens that broadcast his platitudes, he is represented by a rotating montage of headshots — everyone from Theodore Roosevelt to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Flipper.

Literature

• In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Big Brother is never seen in person, yet his face is worshiped throughout Oceania. Given that one of the characters claims that Big Brother cannot die, it's pretty likely that he doesn't exist in the first place. A member of the Inner Party explains the reason for this, describing how people are more empathetic towards a person than towards a faceless system. The existence of the revolutionary leader Goldstein is similarly questionable, as is pretty much everything we're told about world politics... or anything else.
• Discussed in Battle Royale. As Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada discuss the nature of the totalitarian Greater East Asian government, Kawada suggests that the head of the government, known as the Leader to the public, may just be a figurehead, with the true power lying elsewhere. However, there's no indication given of whether or not this is true.
• God from The Bible is a more benevolent version. Islam takes the Shadow Dictator part very seriously, considering all anthropomorphic images of God and The Prophet Muhammad as blasphemy.
  • Ironically, averted with Jesus himself, as the first chapter of the Book of Revelation has John interacting directly with him, writing down His messages to the seven churches. Verses 12-17 even give a broad description of Him. He looks a lot like the traditional Grandpa God image, but other elements that stand out are the gold belt around His waist, His eyes glowing like fire, His feet shining like polished brass and His voice sounding like a roaring waterfall.
• Lord Azzur, ruler of Port Blacksand in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
• The Real President of the Galaxy in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Also the current Galactic Emperor, who "is now nearly dead, and has been for many centuries." Someone had the inspired idea of putting him into a Stasis Field whilst on his death-bed, and since he apparently didn't think to appoint a regent or formally abdicate due to ill-health, political power has now bloodlessly shifted to the old parliament and the president they appoint. Or so the general public believes; the truth is a bit more complicated and, this being the work of Douglas Adams, considerably weirder.
• Spoofed in How To Be A Villain by Neil Zawacki, when the author suggests that not actually existing might be a possible strategy for a Big Bad Wannabe. Everyone's afraid of you, but as no-one knows where you are they can't kill you either.
• Metro 2035 has Aleksei Bessolov, the leader of the Invisible Watchers, a remnant organization consisting of the elite Russian oligarchy remnants residing in the fabled "Metro 2", but he never makes an appearance. He is revealed to be the true mastermind pulling the strings across Moscow Metro and is the one behind the foundation of Hanza, Polis, Red Line and the Reich. Eventually he makes an appearance in this novel when he meets Artyom for the first time and reveals the true extent of his and his organization's shadowy manipulations to the people of the Metro.
• Monstrous Regiment: The sovereign of Borogravia is the Duchess, who has not been seen in decades since she went into mourning after her husband's death, and is suspected to be dead. It is eventually revealed that she did indeed die some time ago, but her spirit has remained as a harassed demi-goddess because the citizens of the country have got into the habit of praying to her.
• Adam Selene, leader of the Lunar revolution, in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Actually the virtual avatar of the supercomputer AI Mycroft Holmes, aka "Mike".
• Malkariss in the Redwall series only communicates by speaking to The Dragon Nadaz through his statue, refusing to let anyone see him directly. When we find out what he actually looks like, he turns out to be weak and crippled, making him The Man Behind the Curtain.

Live-Action TV

• Wolfram and Hart's "Senior Partners" in Angel. A very justified example, in that they're elder demons who reside in a Hell dimension, and only communicate with Earth through proxies.
• Fear the Walking Dead: The PADRE organization is led by a figure also called Padre, who only communicates with anyone outside his inner circle from the other side of one-way glass via a PA system that distorts his voice. It's eventually revealed that the original Padre, the US Army General who founded PADRE, was killed by walkers years ago. Since then, his son has been using this trope to maintain the facade that he's still alive, creating a figurehead for their people to rally behind.
• Jeremiah: Daniel, who's never seen by his people, except for the very top officials. It turns out they invented him, to be the ideal leader.
• Kamen Rider:
  • The Great Leader has ruled at least five NGO Superpowers by giving orders through an audio-only communication device and keeping his true appearance hidden. He seldom shows up in person, and considering he's really an ethereal, shape-shifting entity it's entirely possible those weren't his true form either.
  • The GOD General Commander in Kamen Rider X, who is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to the Great Leader, never shows himself in person and instead gives orders to the lower members of GOD using tape recordings of his messages.
• On Lost the Others follow the orders of Jacob who only talks to Ben. Locke suspects that Jacob is not real and Ben is the one really giving orders. Jacob is real and quite powerful but Ben was actually tricked into following the orders of the Man in Black.
• The Prisoner (1967). Who is Number One? You are, Number Six.
• Command from Scandal runs the United States and by extension the world. The world just doesn't know it.
• Star Trek: The Original Series. In "Patterns of Force", a Starfleet historian sets up a Nazi dictatorship on an alien planet in order to unite its warring people. By the time Captain Kirk arrives on the scene, he's been secretly deposed and kept in a drugged state so he can be used to make televised speeches while The Starscream runs the planet.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. he Dominion is ruled by the Changeling Founders, a race of shapeshifters. The Founders' contempt for "solids" means that they avoid interaction with non-Changelings, save for their Vorta and Jem'Hadar underlings. Most of them cloister themselves in the Great Link, with a small number serving as spies, infiltrators, or Dominion representatives. It's apparent that several races that have been victimised by, or even belong to the Dominion believe that the Founders are just a myth (which carries the implication that for any who don't believe that the Vorta run the show, the identity of the Dominion's leaders is a mystery).
• Super Sentai:
  • Dai Sentai Goggle Five: Führer Taboo is a literal shadow dictator. He gives orders from behind a translucent wall that leaves only his silhouette visible.
  • Dengeki Sentai Changeman: Star King Bazoo only appears as a giant hologram floating in space and never shows his true form. We eventually learn there's a good reason for this — he's actually a living planet, and the hologram is an illusion.
  • Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman: Similar to Bazoo above, Galactic Empress Meadow only appears to her subordinates as a floating face in the sky, being projected out from an unknown point somewhere in the universe.

Tabletop Games

• In Castle Falkenstein, Aaron Burr, the President for Life of the Free State of Orleans, hasn't been seen in public in more than a quarter of a century, causing the entire country to slip into Wretched Hive territory. Since he's over 100 years old at this point and his mistress is Marie Laveau (a Hollywood Voodoo sorceress in this setting), he might be dead...or he might be undead.
• Hc Svnt Dracones has Mega Corps with "Shadow Presidents" whose identities are unknown to everyone but themselves and their immediate successors and predecessors, but who pass on the access codes to networks of agents threaded throughout their MegaCorp so they can keep ambitious executives and subsidiaries in line. In recent history four of the ten shadow presidents in the solar system have died without designating a successor. Two of whom were usurped by entities that pried the passwords from their brains and assumed their roles, while the other two positions are vacant.
• Yawgmoth, dark god of Phyrexia from Magic: The Gathering. He is referred to on cards, but never depicted or even directly quoted. Even the tie-in novels keep his appareances low, because he spends most of his time in a sleeping state to preserve his world. As such, most Phyrexians have never seen him and neither have his enemies. The only books in which he makes any real appearance are the prequel The Thran and the Grand Finale Apocalypse.
  • In the Modern Horizons set, Yawgmoth did finally receive his own card (Yawgmoth, Thran Physician), but it depicts him prior to his ascension to godhood.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The city of Waterdeep in Forgotten Realms is governed by a ruling council known as the Lords of Waterdeep, whose members are shrouded in secrecy (referred to individually as Masked Lords) and are often the subject of rumors regarding their true identities. The Open Lord is the only member within the council whose identity is publicly known. All that is known about the Masked Lords is that they have to be native Waterdhavians and that anyone who falsely claims to be a Masked Lord is often sentenced to death.
  • The "ruler" of Sigil, the Lady of Pain, in Planescape is seen partially, but direct interaction tends to be a bad idea.
    • The Silent King of the Dead Nations in Planescape: Torment is never seen by anyone but Hargrimm, who speaks for him. Because the Silent King is dead, and not the restless kind of dead, and the Dead Nations would collapse if anyone knew this.
  • The Dark Powers from Ravenloft. Many Darklords also qualify, as some do not openly rule their domains, lurking in the shadows behind a stand-in, servant, or puppet. Some citizens don't even know they exist at all.
• The God-Emperor of Mankind in Warhammer 40,000. Most notably, the followers of Chaos call him a corpse while the human Imperium of course largely exalts him as a god guiding the organization. Neither of the people involved in this debate are particularly unbiased, however. All the evidence used by his supporters have equally plausible counter-arguments and rationalization proposing why they happen — for instance, Imperials will emphatically claim that the Emperor's power prevents the forces of Chaos from overrunning reality, something far more likely to be done by Necron technology and the fact that the Chaos Gods simply find the slow death of the galaxy far too amusing to get their game on. Lore however largely states the God-Emperor is actually alive as a fact (Well, for a given value of it since he's stuck on the life-support chair the Golden Throne and as editions have gone by the Emperor has been visually displayed on his throne as increasingly skeletal and withered in appearance), considering the thousand of psykers a day sacrificed to keep him alive to let him direct the Astronomicon which is necessary for the Imperium on whole to be able to function together across the galaxy — and there is no one else capable of taking over for this. However, said lore also says that the amount of psykers required to power the Golden Throne is inflating and failures in its mechanisms have been found that are beyond its engineers' ability to repair, and as mentioned there remains a large amount of in-universe conjectures and factoids about what and if the Emperor does anything outside of this.

Video Games

• Detroit: Become Human: During Connor's interactions with Amanda, she appears to be the Black Boss Lady in charge of Cyberlife as a whole. Only later is it revealed that she's simply a program developed by Elijah Kamski, who modeled her after his former teacher and mentor who died years ago. Outside of Kamski himself, who may or may not have been orchestrating the events of the game from behind the scenes during his retirement, the current leadership of Cyberlife isn't identified.
• The Shi Emperor in Fallout 2 Turns out to be an advanced non-AI computer used to advise the actual ruler: Ken Lee, officially a representative of and advisor to the Emperor.
  • President John Henry Eden in Fallout 3 is an AI.
  • Mr. House in Fallout: New Vegas. Not an AI, but something else entirely.
• The unnamed Eastern European-esque Empire in Gadget: Past as Future is led by Paulo Orlovsky, whose government constructed the various machines you see in-game, and re-purposed the therapeutic Sensorama as a Mind-Control Device to brainwash anyone who disobeys him. When a group of scientists find that a Comet of Doom will strike the Earth, Orlovsky works to paint the scientists as terrorists and suppress news of the comet. You're sent by Army Commander Theordore Slowslop to find these scientists and investigate what they're up to, but end up brainwashed by the Sensorama into working for them instead. It's left ambiguous as to which party succeeded after then, as the game grows slowly more surreal down the line.
• The ruler of Tolbi city, Lord Babi from Golden Sun. Even though the heroes get to see him in the game, very few normal people actually see the old geezer themselves.
• In Gratuitous Space Battles, the leader of the Empire has apparently become this, at least officially:
  The current emperor took power over 1,100 years ago, and despite coming from a species whose lifespan rarely exceeds 100, the official line is that he merely 'under the weather' which is why he is no longer seen in public.
• Despot in The Nameless Mod is never seen, doesn't use an avatar when he PMs people and leaves everything to his second in command Ghand, but as he is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander things fall to the de facto second in command, King Kashue.
• Subverted in Phantasy Star IV: the immortal wizard (and Phantasy Star I veteran) Lutz reigns over the magic users of the planet Dezolis from the depth of the Esper Mansion... except his body grew too old to even be maintained through hibernation and life prolonging methods inherited from Algo's golden age, so now he uploads his mind into capable young sorcerers, like party member Rune, and send them around the Algo solar system to seek signs of Dark Force's reemergence. The actual ruling of the Esper Mansion is apparently left to the mortal elder mages, with Lutz only taking part in some ritual ceremonies when he's around.
• Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins: Notes from Titus XVI indicate Titus I manipulated all future generations of Archean emperors behind the scenes as a bid to maintain his power and immortality, having them secretly perform experiments to find a way to extend his life.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: No one in The Empire has actually seen the Emperor, not even the Darths on the Dark Council. He does have a network of "voices" and "hands" — avatars who have sacrificed their very existences to providing him a public face. That doesn't stop the Empire from their fanatic loyalty. Too bad it's completely misplaced as he's an Omnicidal Maniac who doesn't give a damn about his empire or anything but wiping out everything in the universe but himself.
  • At the end of the Jedi Knight class quest, the Knight confronts and "kills" the Emperor himself. The Emperor persists as a Force ghost, as powerful Sith are wont to do. Then, in Shadow of Revan, Revan himself plans to reincarnate the Emperor and kill him properly this time — except that, while he's successful at the first part, the second is beyond his abilities. The Emperor had deluded Revan into believing he could kill him; what if anything actually can has yet to be seen. The upshot of this is, the Dark Council is in charge for all practical purposes. The Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion reveals why the Emperor hasn't been seen in centuries: he was busy forming another empire under another identity that comes out of nowhere to conquer both the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. We don't get to see his true face until he's finally Killed Off for Real in the Onslaught expansion.
• Tyranny: The overlord of The Empire, Kyros, is an enigma to almost everyone. Male characters tend to portray them as female, female characters tend to portray them as male (unless they're lesbians), and the ones who do know deliberately obfuscate the issue, be it because it's their job or because they think it's funny. There are even those who speculate Kyros has actually been replaced multiple times, is actually a group of people using the same name or even some strange beast.
• In Suzerain, the former President of Sordland, Colonel Tarquin Soll is retired from politics. That doesn't stop him from still holding significant power under the Constitution, which has a provision that makes him, and him alone, immune to persecution, and having influence over the Old Guard faction of the United Sordland Party, who are doing their best to stop constitutional reforms.
• You, as the President of the United States, in Shadow President.

Webcomics

• In Drowtales, no one has seen Queen Val'Sharess Diva'ratrika Val'Sharen for 16 years. She is dead and three of her daughters, who arranged her death, now rule as the Man Behind the Man. They pulled this off because Diva was already well known for liking solitude, though the illusion is starting to crack, with both the Sullisin'rune and the Sarghress factions suspecting the truth. After a timeskip she starts appearing again but this is actually a Body Double, and when the double is publicly assassinated the ruse is ended for good.
• The king of Legara in Looking for Group has not been seen for years resulting in some suspicion among the upper ranks of his Legion. He was eventually revealed to be an immortal Tavor who had inherited the throne by killing the previous king. Why he had gone into seclusion is uncertain, though it may have been an attempt to avoid being recognized by Cale.
• In Sluggy Freelance, His Masterness, the ruler of 4U City, fulfilled this trope for quite some time. He was eventually revealed to be that universe's Riff, succeeding that universe's Schlock.

Web Original

• The Emperor of Warhammer 40,000 above is deconstructed in If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device. After ten thousand years of silence, the Emperor regains the ability to speak, and almost immediately gives an order to disband the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition. While the Ecclesiarchy stands down, a good chunk of the Inquisition believes that the order was falsified, because the Emperor had never given them a direct order before. Not even the word of the Adeptus Custodes, the only ones allowed in the Emperor's presence without permission, persuaded them; their leader suspected that the Custodes had betrayed the Emperor.

Western Animation

• The new prime minister of Canada was this in the South Park "Christmas In Canada". It's a very obvious parody of The Wizard of Oz, right down to the prime minister being a massive booming face surrounded by smoke which turns out to be operated by Saddam Hussein from a nearby spider-hole.
• Played With in Star Wars Rebels. Emperor Palpatine meets Ezra via hologram in the final episode, but he takes the appearance of his Supreme Chancellor days to make himself look more friendly and benevolent, despite this being post-Revenge of the Sith where he claims to have been hideously scarred by the Jedi. Ezra sees right through it and so Palpatine drops the act and (still as a hologram) immediately comes out In the Hood as normal, confirming that his previous image was just a ruse but implying that this how he wants the galaxy at large to see him. He also claims that he spends most of his time running the galaxy, when in fact he spends most of his time studying the Force and trying to acquire more and more Dark Side power.

Real Life

• Comedians joked about this with former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, who allegedly spent a significant portion of his term at 'an undisclosed location'.
• For years many people suspected that Osama bin Laden was already dead and his terrorist organization was controlled by others. This was proven wrong in 2011 when US troops stormed his compound in Pakistan and killed him but he still counts as an example, because while the rumours of his death turned out to be untrue Bin Laden had still been de facto retired from leading Al-Qaeda for some time due to his failing health, and didn't have many more years left one way or the other.
• Kim Jong-il's voice has only ever been broadcast once, for seven seconds at a 1992 military rally. His speeches were usually read out on radio or television by actors. In 2008, it was claimed that he had died in 2003 of diabetes and had been replaced by a body double at public appearances. There were also rumors that, even if he was still alive, he was extremely sick and not exercising power. He was even Photoshopped (badly) into a photo of some soldiers. He nominated his son Kim Jong-un as successor in 2010 and made a few public appearances, quashing rumors of his death. Then died for real in December of 2011.
  • It should be noted that the president of North Korea is still Kim-il Sung, who died in 1994. Surprisingly for a place like North Korea, however, they do publicly acknowledge that he's dead; his status as President is roughly analogous to the tradition that no officer of the US armed forces may outrank George Washington.
• Before being beaten in World War II, the Japanese Emperor was thought to be a god, and most Japanese people weren't even supposed to look at him in person for less than a second, lest their eyes be burned by the sun's rays as punishment. Supposedly, when he went on the radio to announce their surrender, hearing his voice was as much of a shock as the surrender itself.

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