Tyrannical Ruler

[Death_Lord12]

What are some things that a tyrannical ruler would do? So far I've got very high taxes and slavery but I need more than that. So what would you do to make a tyrant?

Thanks in advance.

[Uncle Pine]

Google "site:giantitp.com Red Fel" and read basically any post from him. He's just that good (uncapitalized). These (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413418-Can-somebody-point-me-to-Red-Fel-s-masterpost-on-how-to-do-evil-*right*) two (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448542-Compliance-Will-Be-Rewarded-A-Guide-to-Lawful-Evil) are good starting point.

Afterwards, if you're still in need of more ideas you can draw inspiration from here (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlord). Just a few examples taken from the very top of that list:

Creating a demonic army by dropping pregnant women in an eldritch abomination and brainwashing the offsprings.
Abusing a powerful artifact/magic item that is particularly efficient at killing people.
Trying to expand his domain to a different plane of existence.
Allying with monstrous races to make his army stronger.
Using healing magic and overwhelming power to become a messiah to a Good city or civilization located outside his domain.

[Vizzerdrix]

Limit the growing season. People have a very hard time rebeling on empty bellies.

Close the boarders and spread lies about neighboring kingdoms.

Educate the young with heavy brainwashing.

Ban religion, or better yet, be the focus of your own.

Their are quite a few exelent examples in history, but I won't say anything further as I don't want to violate the tos*



*fun fact: those are the call letters for a local radio station.

[Malimar]

When a person says "tyranny", which is to say Lawful Evil government, I think first of Emperor Palpatine (and his cronies Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader) of Star Wars. What crimes were they guilty of? Dismantling the democracy (if you're in a position to be tyrannical, you've probably already done that) and building and using the Death Star, which could be generalized to a broader "disproportionate retribution for perceived crimes". (In the EU, the Empire's crimes also included racism, sexism, slavery, and, IIRC, poisoning a planet while pretending to clean it up to keep the inhabitants in their debt.)

Disproportionate retribution also makes me think of what the Dominion (also very LE) did to the Cardassian populace when the Cardassians started rebelling in the last few episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Other LE Dominion tactics: genetically modifying (in a setting without genetic engineering, you could just use brainwashing; consider 1984) their servants into absolute loyalty; expansion through conquest.

[Falontani]

I believe there was a Lawful Evil kingdom featured in the Order of the Stick. If you looking for some more fun ideas.

[jdizzlean]

This round of Villanous Comp (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541650-Villainous-Competition-XXIV-Wrong-For-The-Right-Reasons) might prove handy in giving you some more examples of tyrannical rulers

[MesiDoomstalker]

Excessive laws that restrict personal freedoms, usually branded for "the good of the state" or some-such. Make sure any laws that are used to put down, deter, or oust rebels/rebellions need to have a cover reason for those who aren't rebellious to buy it. Strict sun-down curfew to curtail clandestine rebel meetings? "For the saftey of the common people from ruthless vagabonds and highway men" which are paid by the Tyrant's coin purse to be just menacing enough to get the populace to buy it.

In general, nothing should be out of reach of the government. Any personal property, any gold, food, products or even services can be 'appropriated' with no compensation. Again for "the good of the state."

[Arbane]

Sumptuary laws. The first guard who tries to tell the PCs they're not allowed to wear their favorite cloak/ride a horse/carry a sword will go down in history as The First Cause Of the Evil Empire's Collapse. :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Lots of good stuff here, especially the reference to Red Fel, but you can't forget the assassination of dissidents. Any rebel leader or would-be-leader is a threat to the state's power that needs to "disappear for the good of the people."

[Silva Stormrage]

Lots of good stuff here, especially the reference to Red Fel, but you can't forget the assassination of dissidents. Any rebel leader or would-be-leader is a threat to the state's power that needs to "disappear for the good of the people."

Or even more ruthless harvest them. Perhaps the tyrant can create some kind of HP draining ritual which deals X damage to a helpless creature and creates a potion that heals 1-5 HP or cures a disease. The dissidents recover 1 hp/HD/day at minimum so just keep them strapped up and harvest them and then give half of the potions to the army and the other half to the hospitals of his kingdom. Watch as his people love his methods as they are offered almost free healing and diseases become a thing of the past. All they have to do is disregard a few "Traitors" to get it. Many people would sign up for that kind of thing.

Look up liquid pain factories too, no reason you can't do both.

As a DM you can also make custom rituals that suit your purpose. One idea that I had is based off of the "Global Enchantment" (Aka spell that affects the entire world) from the game Dominions 4 called "Well of Misery". What it does is basically siphons a large chunk of suffering out of the world and condenses it into magic gems to fuel death magic. Maybe the Tyrant can have a variant of that spell over his city. Day to day life seems to go very well for those working for the Tyrant and who speak out in favor of his policies and if you speak against him well things just happen to go poorly for you, your marriage becomes unhappy, you suddenly catch a disease or your horse has a heart attack. Things like that.

Both of these also give options for the PC's to sabotage.

Basically if you want a successful tyrant you want horrible horrendous things to happen to those who cross them. But you also want the people to either bear with it or be grateful for the benefits those horribly actions give them.

[Malimar]

Ooh, it just occurred to me, speaking of Cardassians, they're LE, too (maybe halfway to LN), and a major thing they do: show trials. The target's guilt and verdict are of course decided in advance.


As a DM you can also make custom rituals that suit your purpose. One idea that I had is based off of the "Global Enchantment" (Aka spell that affects the entire world) from the game Dominions 4 called "Well of Misery". What it does is basically siphons a large chunk of suffering out of the world and condenses it into magic gems to fuel death magic. Maybe the Tyrant can have a variant of that spell over his city. Day to day life seems to go very well for those working for the Tyrant and who speak out in favor of his policies and if you speak against him well things just happen to go poorly for you, your marriage becomes unhappy, you suddenly catch a disease or your horse has a heart attack. Things like that.
Somehow this reminds me of 8-Bit Theatre's Black Mage and his spell that is powered by love: every time he casts it, it consumes love and the total amount of love in the world goes down.

[Feantar]

I began writing an essay, but realised it had some problematic conclusions; namely that a smart Tyrant isn't, or at least would never be called, a Tyrant. Or a Dictator, or anything of the sort. So, the question is, why are you asking. Are you trying to create an interesting enemy? A dark evil overlord type of enemy? A cliche villain? Trying to add something to the history of your world? Trying to give a clear target to your players? Are a player, and just got the opportunity to become a tyrant? Because the suggestions would be really different depending on your requirements.

From your initial suggestions I imagine you're trying to create a singularly evil individual. To that end, suggestions follow - when there's an opportunity for nuance, I'll note it:

Sophont (sentient, around human level) sacrifice: It has measurable results in D&D and can actually cover a lot of spell-casting for a non caster Tyrant. Extending this, another good idea is a Soul Trade.
Race/Species based slavery: It is easier to justify (not better, don't misunderstand me). If you point at a slave and they have an easy visual cue that others them in the eyes of the populace, it removes the fear that they could become one of them. Best if this was an actual evil race to begin with, like having kobold slaves, and using a they deserve it excuse. More importantly, it makes it more interesting for the players to have to defend and possibly ally with creatures that are usually enemies.
Ingrained corruption: Corruption is not limited to the ruler, it has spread everywhere - this is intentional and has been engineered by the tyrant to redirect possible rebellions to interpersonal conflict. Due to lack of resources, no hope of justice and arbitrary reward systems, people turn against each other; so the populace is desperate, unwelcoming and corrupt themselves. Think of a whole kingdom with black and grey (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndGrayMorality) (warning - that is a TV Tropes Link) morality.
Brainwashed Warrior Caste: Something similar to Jannissaries; children kidnapped at a young age from dissenting areas and raised to become elite soldiers. That works on two fronts. First, they are very loyal to the Tyrant, especially if they enjoy benefits. Second, for those dissenters, fighting their enemies might mean having to fight their own children.
Fiend Cults: Just that - beside the standard deities, fiends are worshipped, maybe with a mild attempt at posing as new but legitimate deities. Think of a metropolis that has a local deity of Justice, Enforcement and Divine Right named Shamdon who is actually Asmodeus. It should be somewhat evident to outsiders but not blatant for locals.
Vassalage: In a sense, slavery light. Most commoners are owned by their respective lords. While that means said lords can draft them and tax them, it has one more important consequence. They are not allowed to resettle, or move freely within the kingdom. Limiting free movement limits the flow of information and increases the productivity of propaganda (mostly in the form of town criers and sanctioned travellers).

[Calthropstu]

Some things that have been done in history:

Romania had a system of serfdom. The lord of the land had complete control of the serfs. Some abuses included:

All unmarried women would be regularly required to service the soldiers under his command.
The soldiers under his command were drawn from other towns so that they did not have loyalties to the local populace. Furthermore, they were not allowed to take wives from the local populace.
In addition, soldiers were required to regularly transfer to prevent social connections.

Much of tyranny is not preventing the local populace from rebelling but preventing the soldiers from joining them.

Aside from that, the worse abuses came not from the leaders of a nation, but those supposedly acting with his authority. The law that was featured as the cause of Braveheart was really a thing... lords fornicating with newly wed women as a "blessing" to the marriage.

Obviously, other things such as imprisoning detractors and political opponents, false flag operations, slavery, blood sacrifices would be a thing.
They would also always have some "great evil" working in the background that they "protect" you from. The sacrifices, for example, would be for people to appease some imminent violent calamity.
Tyrrany is not constant awful deeds, everything a tyrant does has a purpose. He does keep his government running, and honestly believes that what he does is for the good of the people. Obviously he deserves certain perks for all his hard work. Since he protects them and leads them, he deserves their absolute loyalty. They are sworn to him so their lives are his to determine.

[hamishspence]

The law that was featured as the cause of Braveheart was really a thing... lords fornicating with newly wed women as a "blessing" to the marriage.


Apparently there isn't much historical evidence of it being a law - more a custom - a case of "lords can break laws and get away with it because they are powerful":

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DroitDuSeigneur

[Zombimode]

What are some things that a tyrannical ruler would do? So far I've got very high taxes and slavery but I need more than that. So what would you do to make a tyrant?

Thanks in advance.

Play Tyranny (the CRPG). Besides being a very good game it presents an in-depth view on how a (Fantasy)-tyranny could play out.

[SirNibbles]

Excessive laws that restrict personal freedoms, usually branded for "the good of the state" or some-such. Make sure any laws that are used to put down, deter, or oust rebels/rebellions need to have a cover reason for those who aren't rebellious to buy it.

So pretty much the EU?

Make sure you have a parliament that the people elect but don't give it any legislative power- that's reserved for the commission which you personally appoint.

Suppress opposition speech as 'hate speech'.

[RollynT.Glal]

I'm going to assume you're setting is based roughly on Dark Age/Medieval/Renaissance Europe because most are. Keep in mind that while the people in those times were similar to us, they were human after all with wants and needs just as we have, their world and the way they interacted with it was so vastly different that most people fail to realize how utterly foreign our world would be to them. The differences in these two worlds leads to equally different methods and definitions of tyranny.
Tyranny is first and foremost the idea that those in power are abusing that power to the detriment of their subordinates for their own benefit.

First is time. We measure time with precision instruments, cross time zones with down to the second accuracy and have calculated our celestial movements out for hundreds of years. Time to us is hard, it marches forth regardless of weather, current events, and most certainly not your personal mood. Time to a medieval dirt farmer (we'll call him Zeke) was a much softer thing. "A season" was not three months to the day, it was from planting to the solstice, if that was 3 months and a week that's ok, two and a half months well we might be worried about the crop a little but thems the breaks. This difference in time is important because we look at the passing of time as something that must mean an improvement in quality, of knowledge, technology, life, everything. If I can say I have worked at my new job for 1 year and ten days exactly, even look up the amount of actual time I've worked down to the minute I'd expect a certain amount of improvement out of myself and the job; but Zeke only knows he's been farming for his whole life, and his father farmed for his whole life and so on. No improvements had been made or if they had they were on such a small scale or at such a slow pace that Zeke didn't notice. To him things just are the way they've always been, in fact rapid change feels unnatural to Zeke. By extension of this anything that threatens the status quo seems unnatural even if it'd be an improvement.

Communication is another thing that totally separates our world from Zeke's. We can send nearly unlimited amounts of information to potentially everyone in the world at almost instantaneous speeds. This is the biggest achievement in human history and I bet until I said it you've never considered it to be anything but ordinary. Even the oldest of you on here (I'm 25) who remember the early days of the internet or before still had telephone, telegraphs, automobiles or train delivered mail, television, or radio. Every last one of these technologies were utterly unfathomable to Zeke. In his day to get info you had to physically write a letter and send it (if you were rich and educated) or personally physically get to where you needed to be to get that info. This could take weeks. This is not limited to big events, conspiracies, or any other thing that would be considered news. Simple things like "who is this stranger who claims to work for the king"? Nowadays we generally know who the police are, we know who government agents are, and we can reliably assume to know who the people we are familiar with actually are. Zeke has to take people at their word, or not trust anyone he didn't personally grow up with. This makes it very easy for anyone to be tyrannical just by swinging into town claiming to be a agent of the king and being their way. They don't have to be abusive but they can game the system to get power over Zeke and abuse that power.

Finally there was the way in which the government is set up. In our world most of us with time enough to waste on an RPG forum live with a government that is a democracy or derivative thereof. We expect to have a say in how we are governed and/or by whom. We expect that our government will take our interests into account, and that it will at least attempt to protect us from threats. Zeke lives under a feudal system which could probably best be described as a totalitarian authoritative monarchy that is just too weak to actually exercise the amount of control it wants to. He has no say in who rules him or how, he doesn't expect his interests to sway any government decision, he's too small a consideration to matter after all, and he knows for a certainty that he is responsible for protecting himself and that it may be the government that is the threat. This divide is because in the feudal system the government is the military and the military is wholly separate from the populace. Sure one guy in the town might be a retired soldier but that really means he walked for a few weeks fought with a spear he wasn't trained to use against a dude who was also using a spear he didn't know how top use, survived, and walked back. He's not a professional soldier they work for the lord, or the king.

I missed a ton of points I wanted to make but this is such a huge wall that it's been banned from MTG Tournaments already. The main point of all this is tyranny today is fragile, it needs to be enacted swiftly and enforced with an iron fist or the people will topple it, we just have too much power as individuals nowadays due to the nature of our world for tyranny to thrive organically. Tyranny in Zeke's day was incidental. The guy with the sword makes the rules. End of story. Peasant revolts were slaughtered because they were annoying, not because they posed a real threat. If your choices were capitulation or death, and this is the way things have always been and as far as you know always will be, why rock the boat?

[Ramza00]

A tyrannical ruler needs dragons. (technically the blonde hair girl I am thinking about is an Avenger, not a Ruler but stay with me!) Still my point stands, a tyrannical ruler needs Dragons...or some other way way of asymetric power where they can be better at offense than the common person is being able to be at defense.

Why is this important? Because the asymetric power balance allows the Tyrant to force their rule on others by setting up lose / lose situations where they get tribute or they will create far worse losses both physical, emotional, but most importantly economic where it just makes sense to pay the tribute / taxes for you can not win by direct offense against the Tyrant Ruler.

Aka watch these two videos and think about how you can create power dynamics where you can extract more resources from the commons and there is nothing the commons can do about it. Dragons is one such method, Knights and Castles is another such method (knights find it easy to sleep in safety, but due to the force multiplier of Calvary they can extort taxes from the population unless you literally create an army that is 10x to 30x time the size of the number of Calvary Knights.)


CGP Grey's The Rules for Rulers and its sequel Death & Dynasties (Rules for Rulers Follow-up)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

And here is the second video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_qpNfXHIU

[PersonMan]

I'm going to assume you're setting is based roughly on Dark Age/Medieval/Renaissance Europe because most are. Keep in mind that while the people in those times were similar to us, they were human after all with wants and needs just as we have, their world and the way they interacted with it was so vastly different that most people fail to realize how utterly foreign our world would be to them. The differences in these two worlds leads to equally different methods and definitions of tyranny.
Tyranny is first and foremost the idea that those in power are abusing that power to the detriment of their subordinates for their own benefit.

Going off from this, I'd bring up another thing I've: legitimacy. In a more modern context, "for the greater good of the people" or "an evil force will destroy us if we don't do this" are used to legitimize tyrannical rule because said rule needs a source of legitimacy. A fantasy setting could easily have rulers with literal divine mandate, which legitimizes everything they do and potentially makes rising against them doomed (because either you fail, and die - or you succeed, and now have an angry deity to deal with) unless supported by another divine agent.

[Segev]

Tyranny tends to spring from a desire for power and a paranoia that it will be taken from its holder.

So, what will a tyrant do? He will do whatever he feels he must to ensure nobody dares, nor can, rise against him. He will ensure that nobody who is not unquestionably loyal to him is armed with anything that can threaten his own forces: swords, bows, crossbows, spears, magic of nearly any sort will be outlawed or heavily regulated.

In a magical setting, magical means of controlling thought and will are likely to be employed, though at the same time, the tyrant will live in fear that someone in his mind-control staff will attempt to use it on him. So they, too, will be carefully chosen and possibly also kept Charmed, at a minimum.

Clerics of gods other than his own will be regulated or illegal. Mages will be enslaved to him (whether overtly, or through laws requiring they work exclusively for him). Magic not under his control will be illegal.

He will buy loyalty with lavish parties and personal gifts to those who give him valuable service. This will be expensive, leading to those high taxes. He will not trust wealth in the hands of those not beholden to him; he will ruin businesses that are successful without his hand being in them, and will only permit success to befall those who serve him well and loyally.

He will tolerate no dissent. Humor will be suppressed, not entirely deliberately, but the threat that, if it seems to mock the tyrant or his regime, you will be jailed or executed after being made an example of. This will lead to people watching their quips, because it could be considered to be about the tyrant.

He may well create a unifying antagonist whose presence and threat justifies the tyrant's power. His strength is made to seem essential for the safety of "all."

[Ramza00]

One of the books you should read things about this book (or you can read the original but it is often better to just read parts of the original and then people's response to it) is Thomas Hobbes Leviathan. Leviathan (1651, 2nd revised edition 1668) is considered one of the most important books in history, but also philosophy about how a government should be run up there with Machiavelli's The Prince (1532 though parts were published earlier) and Plato's Republic (roughly 380 bc)

(I am dramatically simplifying) Now Thomas Hobbes just recently suffered the English Civil Wars (1642 to 1651 actually 3 wars with less than 2 years temporary piece between the two sides in a 10 year period), and Hobbes wrote a great book of political thought on why we need Tyrants for Tyrants are better than the state of nature, and things such as civil wars are representative of the natural state of nature without some form of organization principle that cause people to band together and create a monster but that monster is better than the diffuse monster of the state of nature. The term Leviathan comes from a biblical monster (remember the King James Bible was just published 40 years earlier). Hobbes also wrote another book after Leviathan called Behemoth, while Leviathan is an abstract idea of the nature of humanity and Hobbes argument an ideal society would be one run by a tyrant, Behemoth is more of a historical telling of what happens when this does not occur and in Behemoth Hobbes chronicles his own interpenetration of the English Civil War(s) and where things went wrong.

But yeah Leviathan and Behemoth are two biblical monsters and Hobbes picked these two monsters for it furthers a story told in the bible but I am dropping this due to our rules on this forum. Hobbes liked the logic of this story and thus he sees it as a greater metaphor about the nature of humanity and how we need certain types of rules / governmental structures.

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Now Hobbes and his tyrant thought in Leviathan, is the origin of concepts like Social Contract Theory, and Rights of the Individual (for individuals do have some rights even under Tyrants). This in turn caused a whole lot of people to write their own opinion of politics and how to organize a society after Hobbes agreeing with him in part and disagreeing with him in other things.

And this is how we get the age of enlightenment idea of how to organize a government. Locke, Rousseau, and others it was all started with Hobbes and his Tyrant and how Hobbes argued a Tyrant is not really that bad for it is better than the alternative. Even if many of these people after Hobbes very much disagreed with Hobbes and advocated things like democratic principles they recognize the ideas of things like social contract theory and rights of individual for humans will give up some of X in order to get more of Y...and when you are tyrant you have more control over things like X, Y, and Z, thus you are better at funneling less of X and more of Y if that is what the populace want and they will love you or hate you for it but you are still on the top of the pyramid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment#Politics

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So my advice is google Thomas Hobbes and people who responded to Hobbes for it will help you understand why Tyrants do happen and sometimes this is very good and sometimes very bad.