Most Deadliest Court in Fiction.

[t209]

Here's the city with Court with squabbling Nobles.
- Elderscroll's Daggerfall (or High Rock for the most)
- Order of the Stick's Azure City (heck, nobles continue to kill each other even they lose their city).
- Dragon's Age Orzammer (Dwarves Nobles kill each other everyday Until you put your puppet benevolent tyrant on the throne if you are human noble who wanted its wealth or goodness.).
- 8-bit theater's Elven kingdom (don't even mention
Emperor Thief's Butt)
- The Discworld's Ankh Mo-Pork
Which one would be the most deadliest decadent court of the universe?
P.S- Put another in if you saw some court with backstabbing nobles.

[dehro]

how about the court of Imrryr, capitol city of Melniboné? can't beat it for byzantine decadence

also, the song of ice and fire is practically made of backstabbing nobles..who sometimes also stab you in the front

[Eldan]

You can certainly go deadlier. Silent Reach? Azzagrat? Malsheem? The Crawling City? The Tower of Pain Incarnate? Tu'narath? The City of Brass? D&D is full of supernatural deadly courts.

[LordVader]

King Robert Baratheon's court (GoT) comes to mind, as does the court of Emperor Shaddam IV (Dune).

Also, the court of Cairhien from the Wheel of Time is a particularly good example of this. Their entire society is built around the idea of "Daes Dae'mar", or the "Great Game" of political infighting. Everyone is assumed to be playing, and attempting to not involve yourself will only end up getting your friends killed anyways.

[Bastian Weaver]

Wayrest seemed to have the deadliest court in High Rock, if I remember correctly. Although Daggerfall and Sentinel had their own dark secrets, too.
Drenai empire and Ventria in David Gemmell's books are also impressive. Regicide is pretty usual instrument for the nobles in there.
And how could you guys forget about Zelazny's Amber and Chaos?

[Jaros]

I believe the Cardassian judicial system should get a mention. The verdict is always guilty, the trial is literally always just a show.

[MLai]

Oh c'mon now, a guy with a W40K avatar doesn't mention the city of Commorragh?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z__xk4BJkBA/TfKUEpq-TGI/AAAAAAAAB2M/NnZ39_1Nt3E/s400/wh_asdruvect.jpg
City-world of the Dark Eldar of Warhammer 40K, hidden within the recesses of the Webways. Pictured is Azdrubael Vect, mafia kingpin Supreme Overlord of the city.

Well anytime you have dark elves numbering more than 1, bound to find a decadent backstabbin' court.

[t209]

I believe the Cardassian judicial system should get a mention. The verdict is always guilty, the trial is literally always just a show.

Court as in Noble court! Like Byzantines and Azure City (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0414.html).

[The Glyphstone]

The White Court of Vampires in the Dresdenverse, or the Red Court from same.

[MLai]

Nobody mention those other vampires, please.
I never seen the flicks, but in some trailers that I inevitably glanced at, I saw some "court" scenes.
(I think they managed to be half-naked even during those scenes.)

[Asheram]

Not sure if it's so deadly or decadent. But I'd like to take off my hat for the Patrician in AnhkMorpork who uses the legal precedent "Quia Ego Sic Dico" (Because I say so)

[Aidan305]

I'm going to throw in a mention of Kafka here. Specifically, The Trial

For when bureaucracy goes bad.

(Yes, I know it's a different kind of court. Still applies though)

[DomaDoma]

Menzoberranzan, guys. The whole aim of the political setup is to kill the other nobles. You've got to adjust for elven lifespans, but still - Homeland and Exile were spiffing books; don't let the self-indulgent decline that came after make you forget them.

(But okay, the court at King's Landing still wins. It's the only deadly court that breeds, and breeds like a fungus, too.)

[HandofShadows]

The court of Azathoth. Just getting near it would either kill you or drive you insane. :smallwink:

[t209]

Wayrest seemed to have the deadliest court in High Rock, if I remember correctly. Although Daggerfall and Sentinel had their own dark secrets, too.

I though the whole area of High Rock was Deadly Decadent Court. The Sentinels nobles, Daggerfall nobles, Imperial Spies, Orcs, Wayrest Nobles. It's like Game of Thrones minus
the giant robot and a lich who wanted to die.

[WyvernLord]

The court of Azathoth. Just getting near it would either kill you or drive you insane. :smallwink:

This looks like a win to me.

[hamishspence]

The court of the Empress Lionstone in the Deathstalker books (by Simon R. Green) could get pretty grim at times.

[Pokonic]

This looks like a win to me.

The worst part are those idiots playing there bloody songs. I mean, it goes into one ear and out the other comes the throthy remains of your brain tissue. And dont get me started on the Daemon Sulten himself. The only one with any sanity is Nartharlotep, and half the time he is screwing with people and the other half is straight-up ruining worlds for giggles. Nice guy.

[McStabbington]

The Royal Court in Tinto Brass' Caligula. I'm not going to link to it, but suffice to say if you put "Caligula + Wall of Death" into youtube, you'll see what happens to people just to keep Caligula amused. Movie was terrible, but suffice to say I would not like to remain there for any length of time.

[dehro]

Movie was terrible

kind of to be expected though... he may be good at depicting raunchy scenes, but he remains a poor man's fellini with a passion for the female rear end.

[Hexalan]

The Nyissan Palace from Belgariad/Mallorean (and Boktor as well). Daily poisoning and assassinations are commonplace. No one questions a random guy walking around with a bloody knife. Spying is the national industry of Drasnia. The Royal Apothecary is the leader of Nyissa.

[Das Platyvark]

- The Discworld's Ankh Mo-Pork


The thing with Ankh-Morpork is that while you certainly have some lesser nobles jostling each other around, absolutely none of them are on anywhere near Vetinari's level. He is The absolute best at what he does, so while the people below him might squabble, nothing they do will amount to anything, as Vetinari's word is literally the only thing that matters, overall, and if this is somehow compromised, he is still in control, and will exert his abilities as such.

Basically, you cannot hope to beat Lord Vetinari in a scheme-off. He is simply the best there is.

[t209]

Typical Drow Politics (http://www.yafgc.net/?id=2124) (Like Wh40k, D&D, and other fantasy games).
Does Skyrim, Morrowind and Drow Tales count as Deadly Court because Noble fight eachother?

[Knaight]

Menzoberranzan, guys. The whole aim of the political setup is to kill the other nobles. You've got to adjust for elven lifespans, but still - Homeland and Exile were spiffing books; don't let the self-indulgent decline that came after make you forget them.

(But okay, the court at King's Landing still wins. It's the only deadly court that breeds, and breeds like a fungus, too.)

This pretty much covers what I was going for, though I wouldn't call Homeland or Exile good. With that said, I'd also add any and all courts that appear in Guy Gavriel Kay's books - he tends to write historical fiction based on a period where stability collapses, everything goes south, and plenty of characters die.

[HandofShadows]

Does Skyrim, Morrowind and Drow Tales count as Deadly Court because Noble fight eachother?

With Drowtales I would say no. Killing was mostly kept out of the court and on the battlefield. And for all purposes there is no court now. The only time it could have been considered a deadly court was when Snads was cleaning house right after Diva got locked up.

[TheCountAlucard]

"Most Deadliest?" :smallconfused:

[The Glyphstone]

"Most Deadliest?" :smallconfused:

Man, and I was just coming here to post that, too.

[TheCountAlucard]

Man, and I was just coming here to post that, too.But you'd already posted to this thread... :smallconfused:

[The Glyphstone]

But you'd already posted to this thread... :smallconfused:

Yeah, but the disconnect in the title didn't register for me until this morning.

[Selrahc]

The courts in a Song of Ice and Fire are probably the best depicted backstabbing courts I've seen. You push the treachery level up much past them and things start to get cartoonish and implausible.

I'm sure that, for example, the Drow or Dark Eldar have courts are much more scheming and deadly, being that the civilization archetypes for those factions revolves around sneaky backstabbing. But it is hard to believe in those as viable entities that don't instantly implode.

[Seerow]

Also, the court of Cairhien from the Wheel of Time is a particularly good example of this. Their entire society is built around the idea of "Daes Dae'mar", or the "Great Game" of political infighting. Everyone is assumed to be playing, and attempting to not involve yourself will only end up getting your friends killed anyways.

I was going to say this, but the more I think about it, the more I think that Cairhien is actually really tame compared to what we hear about the Court of Nine Moons of Seanchan. Consider Tuon is like 18 or younger, and has survived I don't even know how many assassination attempts, has killed a couple of her other siblings, and the price of messing up so badly you need to make an apology to the Empress is that you either become a slave for life, or kill yourself. Sometimes killing yourself is taken off the table because they consider that too easy.

[Cazaril]

Besides the obvious Game of Thrones, the court of Amber in Roger Zelazny's series is pretty deadly.

[t209]

Don't forget about Crusader Kings 1 and 2. Every noble wanted to kill you or one another. Including
your spymaster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xIxrx5i1To&feature=relmfu)

[The Nth Doctor]

Not sure if this counts as a court, but the Ten Who Were Taken from Glen Cook's Black Company series. Pretty much a bunch of noble lords and generals who also happen to be some of the most powerful wizards in the world who suffer from chronic backstabbing disorder. When they and their followers get to backstabbing, things get ugly.