This new RPG delves into the period of Japan's history known as Feudal Japan where the shogun's had more power than the emperors and the military class known as the samurai rose to fame. Pick it up now in PDF with a POD version coming soon. Ultimate Medieval Guide: Feudal Japan (Savage. (A clever writer could make it like the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, also elected, but such issues as who are the electors and who is eligible to run never come up.). Feudalism is at its core a system driven by whatever handful of intense individual personalities are active at any given moment, and therefore it's likely to.

Text from the Chronicle of the Morea The Chronicle of the Morea (: Το χρονικόν του Μορέως) is a long 14th-century history text, of which four versions are extant: in, (in verse), and. More than 9,000 lines long, the Chronicle narrates events of the ' establishment of in mainland. West European Crusaders settled in the (called at the time) following the. The period covered in the Chronicle was 1204 to 1292 (or later, depending on the version). It gives significant details on the civic organization of the. Dbt Skills Training Manual Marsha Linehan Books.

—, and,,, (in or ). A form of which can incorporate elements from the High Middle Ages right up to the Victorian Age. The chief characteristic is that social status is legally enacted and.

Occasionally we are told that the king/emperor is, but it makes no difference in their authority. Certainly we never see them running for re-election.

(A clever writer could make it like the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, also elected, but such issues as who are the electors and who is eligible to run never come up.) (Elected monarchy is fairly common in history, but was generally for life; it matters at the succession, not later.) Among the commonest societies in,, and other forms of Science Fiction. Falls into two categories: • A planet has such a social structure. Often justified by having technological regression (but never further than medieval — not even to Roman times). • A multi-planet, even interstellar society. Always has futuristic technology, of course, though it may involve. Prone to, even though technology is far above medieval level.

May also involve from real medieval. Evil nobles may restrict commoners' use of high technology; medical technology is particularly common, but commoners often live lives of. The extent of which any of it can be considered 'feudal' is up for grabs.

Often an excuse to use tropes in SF. On the other hand, most historical (sedentary) societies have had legal enforceable hierarchies, and many do to this day; democracy has frequently been very ill-thought of, and has, from time to time,. Frequently, but may range all the way to and. However, it is seldom explicitly; Dystopian authorities tend to be more blatantly kept in place by naked force. This trope covers only societies where social status is legally inherited;, where the children of Party members are theoretically admitted because of an exam, and the children of proles who might qualify tend to vanish before it, does not qualify. Also, under this trope, the royals and nobles draw their authority from the law, where the ruling party of a Dystopia does not acknowledge anything as giving them their power. Often leaning towards the Romantic end of.

In some works, heroes to democracies. Partly because writers seem to be unaware of any arguments against democracy, and of the complexity of developing a stable democracy. Note that every large enough nation is divided into territories for ease of administration, and if a given territory is large enough that elections would take years hereditary governors would be practical, which makes some kind of feudal hierarchy much more likely. So this trope may be in settings without. Likewise it should be noted that democratic republics predate the middle ages in Europe, which to a large extent occurred specifically because the last of them at the time (Rome) imploded so totally and left behind such a vacuum.

So it's probably not so far fetched when you really think about it. Feudalism is at its core a system driven by whatever handful of intense individual personalities are active at any given moment, and therefore it's likely to spring up in some form wherever ideologically or culturally driven institutions have failed nearly totally leaving behind a distressed populace that's just desperate for organization/direction. It is not at all implausible to think it could happen again, in fact one could even argue that the world might be heading in that general direction even now. • Terra II in. The six city-states are modeled after various cultures of, one being feudal Japan, and another medieval Italy. • Not to mention the ones modeled on Czarist Russia, Imperial China, Nazi Germany, and modern-day America.

• The Kingdom of Sphere in rules the moon. Tensions between them and the Earth Federation are a significant plot point. • In The Britannian Empire is ruled directly by the Emperor and the royal family. While being an oppressive regime it is certainly not a dystopian future, as the countryside in the homeland is full of. It also doesn't actually take place in the future, calculating the calender of the reveals that it takes place in the 1960s. Still counts though, because feudalism was pretty much dead by the 20th century in and, despite being set in the '60s, it has all the trappings of the contemporary period and then some, including mecha. • In the 'United Emirates of ORB' have this sort of structure, with the Chief Representative and Prime Minister supposedly being elected from one of the five noble houses, but in reality seems to be a simple hereditary handover until the positions are left vacant due to death or the Chief Representative getting kidnapped.

• ORB's governmental structure is pretty close to the real life example of Malaysia, whose ruler is elected from (and by) the hereditary kings (or appointed governors in case of governorates) of its member states, though in Malaysia's case the position usually simply rotates on the basis of seniority as per gentleman's agreement between electors, and it depends less on the individual electors' power. •: Clow Country turns out to be a kingdom that sprang up thousands of years. • In, the major countries of what used to be North America are either monarchies with at least some semblance of constitutionalism or tribal factions like Adeska. Given that the state of affairs is ultimately tied to the, it's justified.

• In, the colonists of Mars, who set out to discover and use the planet's phenomenal, declared independence from Earth and formed the, with lead researcher Rayregalia as their new emperor. Below him are the Counts of the 37 Clans, who have knights as vassals of their own. The feudal system actually has some degree of: activating an, which powers the Empire's and, requires the activation factor, which Rayregalia somehow bound to his own bloodline and can grant at will to his vassals. • In, we know the Zeons are the bad guys because they have hereditary nobility murdered billions with and a. Also, they have hereditary nobility. • The Zanscare Empire of takes the feudalism schtick even further.

Their entire stated goal is to reinvigorate human society by replacing the increasingly impotent democracy of the Earth Federation with a return to a traditional feudal way of life. Might have actually done some good if it hadn't been for Fonz Ka Gatie manipulating things for his own benefit. • In, in the 27th century, Earth has basically become. Dmitri even thinks the fact that the Romanovs ruled the first Russian Empire gives him a greater claim to the throne than Vladimir. • takes place sometime in the future after the collapse of modern society and has the world being controlled by various different factions that treat the areas they control like fiefdoms. The Carlyle family, (which is noted as being somewhat more enlightened and benevolent than most) even divides up the population into three castes, one of which is '.

(The other two categories being family and 'waste', although at least the Carlyles are willing to allow for a fair amount of social mobility should people show talent, and don't engage in behaviors, as some of their rivals do.) • The presented in, of a sorts. Red Skull managed to organize all the supervillains to kill off most of the heroes and afterwards they divvied up America into four 'kingdoms'. 'President' Red Skull loosely ruling the whole country and directly controlling the Eastern Seaboard, Doctor Doom took the Bible Belt, Magneto wanted Nevada, and Abomination had California. Though by the time of the series start Magneto's territory had been seized by a new Kingpin who, in turn, is usurped by Peter Parker's granddaughter 'Spider-Bitch', and Abomination was killed by the Hulk and his inbred clan of cannibalistic hillbilly gangsters (the 'landlords' of Logan's family farm.).

•: Played with in the series. Set a thousand years in the future on a colony planet whose founders were virulently anti-technology and deliberately set up a regressed society that is at around the 16th-18th centuries in terms of tech. Granted, they had a good reason. • In and 's stories, the imaginative to the point of autohypnosis Hokas have emulated human societies, and since some have kings and nobles, they emulate them.

They have a Victorian Britain with a Hoka Queen Victoria. •: • The Prince In Waiting trilogy is set mostly in England, centuries after a nuclear-war-like natural disaster. England is a bunch of warring ruled by princes, but with a dominant anti-technology religion in which people worship Spirits. Christians are an oppressed minority, and mutants are a lower caste. • In trilogy, Earth has been conquered by technologically advanced aliens, who deliberately maintain the native population at a medieval level. In the backstory Pern was colonized by space travelers and the dragons were genetically engineered, but for most intents and purposes Pern is medieval (to the point where biological pest control is considered revolutionary). This was intentionally engineered by the colonists, who deliberately chose a world that was too resource-poor to support anything more advanced.

• features a good number in her SF: •. • In, the upper-crust that come to the planet often have titles that indicate their home worlds are like this. • 's: • One of his short stories, The Fourth Vocation of George Gustaf explores the possibility that even in a highly technological society, humans are hard-wired to need royalty; the sentient computer(s) running much of Earth's near-utopian future manipulate George, a highly successful but bored intellectual, into becoming King of Earth by 'allowing' him to run a sociological experiment in which he claims to be heir of most of the defunct thrones of Europe and Asia. Then they rewrite the human database with the intention of keeping him on the throne - with no way of proving his original hoax. • His recent novel has an aristocracy arising in the next forty years due to class warfare. The ultra-rich came up with a 'New Deal' that stratified society into ten estates. While it's not quite feudalism many of the tenth estate consider the Enlightenment a failed experiment and reason that since so many past societies were feudal it must work.

Their plans are somewhat waylaid by the discovery of the Artifact though. • also features one, due to the US collapsing after a nuclear war, with violent survivalists taking over part of the country as its new feudal overlords. • Justified in 's with the planet Barrayar, in that the erratic nature of wormhole travel isolated their colony before it was properly established, leading to loss of technology and reversion to a semi-medieval culture. Just when the warlords had been united and pacified, the planet was reconnected to the galaxy and promptly invaded by an, forcing them to get modern in a generation. Hence a high-tech, star-traveling culture run by a hereditary aristocracy, complete with oath-bound retainers, servile serfs, and an Emperor constantly watching his back for pretenders and plots.

There is a strong suggestion that the system is transitioning to a more democratic system as the old feudal order changes, but so far most of the characters are aristocrats so the focus is on their interactions among themselves. With the addition of the planets Komarr and Sergyar to their territorial possessions the Barrayaran Empire officially evolves into the multi-planet version of this trope. It is noted that Sergyar, a formerly uninhabited planet now undergoing colonization, is legally the property of Emperor Gregor. • Justified and played with in.

In the future of 2025, the developed world is still trapped in the Victorian Age, embroiled in a power struggle an Indianized British Empire, Damascus-based Caliphate, Africa-based France, China-Japan and a Satanic Russian Empire. • A number of Russian sci-fi novels portray future Russia as a restored monarchy with a prosperous economy. Despite being a monarchy, civil rights are still enforced. This likely stems from the idea that Russian people need a single strong ruler who gets things done and doesn't get bogged down with politics and bureaucracy. The same novels will often portray the US as an and/or a, which may or may not be caused by another civil war. • In the series, the UN, after becoming a true world government for Earth, has over the centuries become this, with hereditary positions and a rather explicit caste system. • Theodore Judson's novel The Martian General's Daughter takes place in the late 23rd century on an Earth with a massively changed socio-political landscape.

The main superpower is the,. The empire's society and political philosophy is modelled after many previous eras of history, including the Roman and Greek empires of Antiquity and 18th and 19th century monarchies; the story is based on the life of the Ancient Roman emperor Commodus. Similarly to the writer's previous but unrelated novel, Fitzpatrick's War, the novel mixes high sci-fi technology with a deliberately aesthetic.

• The atevi in the series have a social structure whose closest Earth analogue is feudalism. This is due the the of the atevi, which makes it pretty much impossible for them to have a social structure which isn't feudal-like. The of humans living on their planet still have a democracy. • In 's Gather, Darkness! A super-scientific elite run the world in the guise of a sustained by high-tech miracles, and keep everyone else as uneducated peasants. They are opposed by an underground of witches using equally super-tech magic. • In 's ', both Elva and her husband belong to a hereditary elite, with the authority and responsibility to make judgments.

It opens with Elva having made the circuit that is the Freeholder's duty. • The Foxen Protectorate in, the highest level of authority on the homeworld is a Council of Countesses. • In 's Sargasso Of Lost Spaceships, the locals still honor their erstwhile noble families, even after being conquered by the Empire. • In the, Paradox is structured on a feudal system. The highest authority is the Sacred King, followed by the nobility, and there are limits to the social standing that a peasant can attain. • In the ' the unnamed future year has degenerated to this.

• In Sasya Fox's Brynton is ruled by a number of noble houses that have a tendency to treat their subjects, and many off-worlders too, like slaves, even if they aren't actually slaves (and many are). The novel starts on board a passenger ship carrying refugees away from their latest civil war. • Of the thousands of planets settled by humans in and Christopher Nicholas Gilmore's, a good number of them have monarchies, although none of them are actually visited by French during the novel. He does mention to his wife that, in his experience, planets with a monarchy tend to be more stable in the long run. Since all of humanity is, a monarch can rule for quite a long time, barring a violent death, adding to the stability (i.e. Democratic planets tend to go into a never-ending cycle that involves democracies becoming dictatorships, dictatorships breaking down into anarchies, anarchies becoming theocracies, and theocracies eventually going back to democracy. This cycle can take decades, or centuries, or even millennia.

• In 's, the Atlas colony is divided into several landholdings ruled by hereditary lords, all of whom are descended from the colony ship's top officers. The colony itself has no monarch, and all major decisions are made by a council of the landholders. Most people don't live in very nice conditions, while the landholders live in palaces. The territories are connected to the original landing site (called First Landing), which is the de facto capital, via maglev tubes.

The hub is also where the temple is located, as well as the. Just like in, there are good and bad landholders. Koman and Sardili are examples of the former kind, who try to treat their people well and frequently engage personally into local affairs.

In fact, Victoria Koman is unique in that she doesn't care as much about blood as the other landholders. After the death of her oldest son in a mining accident and her daughter running off to live with some villager, her only choices for successor are one of her two remaining sons (who aren't very bright) or her adopted son (the only remaining member of the Van Petersen family, whose holding was taken over by the ambitious landholder Franz Dokken). She ends up going with the latter option. • In the, the AI Jacob Dust is fond of storybooks, and chose to model the post-Breaking social structure of the Jacob's Ladder after Arthurian feudalism. • Scott Meyer's is set in a universe where the many human-colonized worlds are ruled by noble Houses. In order to maintain civility and understand between the disparate worlds and Houses, the Arbiters have created the position of a Master of Formalities, who act as advisers to the nobles as to the proper forms of behavior. Wollard is the Master of Formalities for the elegant House Jakabitus, which has been engaged in a centuries-long war with the brutish Hahn Empire.

In order to avoid widespread devastation, the war has been limited to a single unimportant planet and mostly consists of the soldiers doing little in terms of actual fighting. Is averted, as it's mentioned numerous times how certain technological advancements have altered how things are done in the galaxy. At the same time, Wollard looks down on the New Palace of House Jakabitus, since it's merely 1000 years old, unlike the more grandiose (in his mind) Old Palace.

•: The Tearling is a monarchy founded by escapees from a dystopian America. • In 's series, the titular has a peculiar mix of this trope and a system of guilds monopolizing certain industries. The Interdependency's ruler is called (apparently, the 'x' is silent) of the House of Wu. Other noble Houses rule other star systems or minor holdings inside the systems. Larger Houses also act as Guilds.

The Parliament is made up of representatives of the noble Houses, although the Emperox can always veto a bill. • The Archduchy of Crius in has a similar original to the Honorverse in that it's original colonists established themselves as nobles when a large number of refugees arrived on their planet. They since took it by establishing a hereditary warrior class and building castles as well as divine justifications (having begun as a ). It's notable that while it seemed perfectly normal to them, other human colonies viewed them as for it. • Many planets visited by are ruled by oligarchies with noble titles, including Colonel Hammer's homeworld of Niuew Friesland.

Though the planet in 'The Tank Lords' appears to be run as traditional feudalism, with barons as landlords of illiterate peasants, including one servant boy who assumes the Slammers are some kind of nobility because they have combat vehicles. •: • The Doctor runs across these in ', ', ' and on many more occasions. See also the system spanning version. • What the vampires set up in '.

• There are a few Feudal Lords (barons, dukes, etc.) on different planets in. In one episode, Mal goes to a party full of aristocrats and winds up fighting one of them in an old-fashioned sword duel. • Another episode features a local Baron hiring to '.' • It makes sense, since even the society of the core planets of have a lot of visible throwbacks to 19th century culture. While the outer rim planets, the members of high society on the core planets evoke and the American Reconstruction and Gilded Age eras (contemporaries of pretty much ). • In, Lwaxana Troi is a. Betazed is the name of her planet, and may therefore imply quite high ranking nobility.

However, the series did never elaborate on the extent of the actual political power of Lwaxana's family, so for all we know, all this titles might not even impress other Betazoids that much anymore. This is a good bet, considering Deanna's description of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx is 'an old clay pot with mould growing in it.' After all, she is called 'Mrs.

Troi', not 'Lady Lwaxana' or 'Your Excellency'. • Many of the encountered in appear to be feudal empires, although with those stuck in it's often not clear if (and if so, how) that applies to the planet as a whole or just the area around the Stargate that can be explored in a reasonable time. Equipment Calibration Flow Chart here. • In shares in the Company are tied to land ownership on the planet Qresh. And land ownership is hereditary, a lot of the protagonists' jobs are caused by the dynastic politics of the nine major families. •: People wall themselves up, similar to medieval towns. • In the CAMELOT Trigger setting for FATE, which is King Arthur, John Arthur is High King of Earth (mostly by virtue of blowing up the Skynet-esque MerGN-A's main processor and sending her fleeing).

Other planets have similarly feudal arrangements: the Guinevere-equivalent, Valerie le Guin, is officially Valerie IV, Regent of Venus, and the Jovian moons are covered in squabbling minor houses known as Petty Titans. Even the Saturnian Senate seems to be more of an oligarchy of wealthy families than an actual democracy. •, the Jurai Empire, the largest stellar empire in the show, is ruled over by four Imperial Houses, from which the Emperor is 'elected' - it's never explained how they're elected, but the candidate pool doesn't seem to be that big, and generally goes to the most powerful candidate. It presumably comes down to whoever wants, as it was their agreement with her that gives Juraian royalty their powers. • Pretty much all the major powers in, though Democracies like the Trun Union are not unheard of.

The United Hathuha Republic is a bit of an odd case, as its leader is elected (though not by the general public), but many of its member states have monarchies. • Though Trun's president spends more time than he does actually ruling his country, and Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes is in fact a federated constitutional monarchy with elected parliaments both on the local and federal levels, which just happens to have monarchies for most of its member nations, and a for its emperor. • in is basically. • There are a few monarchies in the - the Hapes Consortium is (despite its rather like name) a hereditary absolute monarchy and major galactic power. • An even bigger example is the Legacy-era (set 137 years after the films) Galactic Empire which has evolved into a semi-benign hereditary monarchy. • from the are a absolute monarchy, with in charge and the upper ranks of the four high castes (warrior, priest, shaper, and intendant) filling out the.

Though Vong titles aren't strictly hereditary, Domains (powerful extended families) essentially function as feuding noble houses. • Emperor Palpatine replaced the elected senate with regional governors known as 'Moffs' but they were appointed rather than hereditary. • In, the space-faring human civilization is stated to be a 'confederation' but families such as the House of Abrasax, which has titles and seals and and all that, seem to dominate the economy. • Bunches of star nations in David Weber's, including but not limited to the Star Empire of Manticore (constitutional monarchy), Grayson (constitutional monarchy with strong theocratic undertones) and the Andermani Empire (absolute monarchy with rather monarchs).

Then again, the whole series is Horatio Hornblower Many other forms of government are also seen, ranging from various forms of to to so-called. • Manticore had an interesting for its nobility: The oldest noble families are descended from the original colonists who footed the initial investment for the trip out to the Manticore system, with the Queen's family being descended from the biggest investor. • Manticore was initially established as a corporativist society not unlike Beowulf or Mesa, but it had to fall back on feudal structure after.