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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"A complex web of intrigue, in which death comes as poison, or a dagger in the night. That kind of murder is like a fine wine."''
|'''Corkus''', ''[[Berserk Abridged]]''}}
The history of the [[Deadly Decadent Court]] is proud and [[Blatant Lies|completely true]], [[TV Never Lies|you can certainly believe everything this article says at face value]] without bothering to check the [[Pothole|Pot Holes]].
It is a monarch's court where the [[Pride|powerful, yet humble]] [[Blue Blood|nobles]] gather to make decisions [[Aristocrats Are Evil|for the common good.]] Unlike the [[Standard Royal Court]] where the [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|"royals" spend their time idly]], the Deadly Decadent Court is quite serious about its work; [[Evil Tastes Good|taking no pleasure]] in ensuring [[The Hedonist|decadence]] is outside of the judicial courts, hence the name.
They stem from [[Big Screwed-Up Family|esteemed houses]] with [[Royally Screwed-Up|an ancient and deserving history]] who [[Feuding Families|work together]] in their effort [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|to best serve]] [[The Caligula|their beloved king]], [[God Save Us From the Queen|his gentle consort]], and [[The Dung Ages|beautiful country]]
Of course, a certain [[Ermine Cape Effect|sense of decorum]], [[Make
But it's not all just work here. With their [[Wicked Cultured|exquisite taste]], the court is [[Evil Is Stylish|quite charming.]] An occasional [[Masquerade Ball]], [[A Fete Worse Than Death|feast]], or [[Gladiator Games|other festivity]] help them relax after a hard day of fulfilling their duty to their [[Gullible Lemmings|loyal citizens]] is done.
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Berserk]]'', it seems like all the major nobles in Midland are out to get Griffith, who ends up as the target of two assassination plots by the jealous nobility. Griffith, however, is no slouch himself, and all of the nobles who take part in the assassinations end up dead.
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* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the Britannian Royal Court comes off as this, given the scheming nobles and [[The Social Darwinist]] [[The Emperor|Emperor]]. The Chinese court has this as well, with the scheming Eunuchs being the Chinese counterpart to the Britannian nobles.
== Comic Books ==
* The Russian noble houses in ''[[Nikolai Dante]]'' especially the ruling Makarovs and the Romanovs.
* Most, if not all incarnations of the Hellfire Club in the [[X-Men]] Comics. While they are not technically royality, they try their best to invoke this.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has the deadliest court in modern American fantasy. In a [[Crapsack World]] where seven powers duke it out to gain control of the realm, [[Magnificent Bastard
* The nobles from the ''[[Bitterbynde]]'' books. The heroine, being a borderline [[Mary Sue]], makes a few faux pas and has to run away when her pretense gets
* The royal court from the ''[[Chronicles of Amber]]'', basically a [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] and their lackeys. So much backstabbery your brain will give up and go [[Xanatos Gambit|Xanatose.]]
* The nobles from the first novel of ''[[The Final Empire]]'' when their society is still intact. They indulge their extravagances while the rest of the population is nearly starving and there's the extra fun of some of them secretly being ''Mistborn'' which means powerful sorcerers and born assassins.
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* The Imperial Court of Golgotha, homeworld of [[The Empire]], in ''[[Deathstalker]]'' series by [[Simon R. Green]] is this writ large [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]].
** His Forest Kingdom Series and Hawk and Fisher books also feature a wide variety of these. Special mention has to go to the court in ''Blood and Honour'', where they recklessly dally with [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch abominations]].
* In William King's [[Warhammer
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
** The crop duster comment was actually because a particular set of noblewomen insulted Hospitaller Verity because she was the smallest and plainest person for kilometres around.
* The Japanese Imperial Court in the ''[[The Tale of Genji|Tale of Genji]]'' - and Real Life - was an epitome of this trope. If its members weren't plotting against each other they were having illicit sex with somebody else's wife or mistress.
** The Heian Court started out much more
* The entire first "book" in ''[[Dune]]'' is practically one long convoluted case of court intrigue. The Emperor, who was secretly in league with the Baron, was trying to off the Duke by giving him a deathtrap "promotion" to take control of a flailing production operation that he surely had no hope of turning around, while the Illuminati-like women's convent neared its ultimate goal and began pulling the political strings in new and dangerous directions, all ending in the collapse of the Corrno Imperium and another Jihad.
** Special Mention to House Harkonnen, who are revoltingly decadent and incredibly dangerous - the Baron is a fat, revolting, gluttonous, implied paedarest, as well as being a sadist, his nephews are 'just' maniacal sadists, torture is something of an after-dinner entertainment ( a passage shows Harkonnen workers cleaning up the remains of one of these in one of Brian Herbert's books, a favourite pastime of Caligula), and the whole affair generally resembles Ancient Rome at its worst (gladiatorial arenas, paedophilia and all.) The aesthetic is pretty bizarre, with sweeping robes and gold combined with stinking oil and huge pollution, smoke and filth - the Harkonnen are clothed and live in finery, but completely filthy both morally and physically.
* In [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novels, the White Court. It helps that those involved are all [[Horny Devils|White Court vampires]] that make [[Xanatos Gambit
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', the court of Issus.
{{quote|''The First Born do no work. The men fight--that is a sacred privilege and duty; to fight and die for Issus. The women do nothing, absolutely nothing. Slaves wash them, slaves dress them, slaves feed them. There are some, even, who have slaves that talk for them, and I saw one who sat during the rites with closed eyes while a slave narrated to her the events that were transpiring within the arena.''}}
* All four fey courts in [[Wicked Lovely]] have elements of this, but the worst would have to be the dark court, and the winter court.
* The court of Herod Antipas, under the pen of romantic writers (e.g. in Oscar Wilde's play ''[[Salome]]''). King Herod is depicted as an incestuous womaniser; Queen Herodias a murderous schemer. The princess Salome, of course, has a famously pathological infatuation with John the Baptist.
* The royal court of Terre d'Ange, in Jacqueline Carey's [[Kushiel's Legacy]] series. Everyone sleeps around, there is much scheming and backstabbing, and there are [[Masquerade Ball|Masquerade Balls.]]
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[The Devil in Iron]]" what Octavia is willing to flee from even when she's frightened of [[Conan the Barbarian]].
** In "[[Rogues in the House]]"
** In "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]" Salome turns her country into this.
* In ''[[Sano Ichiro]]'', the entire court, save Sano himself is caught up in a web of political scheming and sexual depravity right under the hilariously stupid shogun's nose.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Kull]]'' story "The Shadow Kingdom",
{{quote|''Strange to him were the intrigues of court and palace, army and people. All was like a masquerade, where men and women hid their real thoughts with a smooth mask.''}}
* Aluwna in [[Star Trek: The Genesis Wave]] has aspects of this, as noted by Regimol (a Romulan agent):
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''Captain Picard'': “Their overseer was recently murdered.”
''Regimol'': “See, reminds me of Romulus”. }}
* ''[[The Egyptian]]'': The palace has a higher child mortality rate than the poor quarter of the capital city.
* ''Maledicte'' by Lane Robins stars a god-touched murderer dropped into a shark tank of limp-wristed sociopaths. In other words, a
* Lord Iron from "[[The Cambist and Lord Iron]]" is a member of such a court.
* The emperor's court in ''[[Chronicles of Magravandias]]'' is famous for its rare imported pleasures and exotic slaves. And the death and disappearance of inconvenient people.
* The French court in ''[[La Reine Margot]]'' certainly falls into this as you're almost guaranteed to die the second you're not useful to the Valois, or specifically to Catherine.
* In [[Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Planet of Adventure]]'': the Yao people of the Kingdom of Cath. Adam Reith rescues Ylin Ylan, the Flower of Cath, from barbarians, which ends up complicating his life more than it should.
* The court of the Eastern Emperor in Mercedes Lackey's [[Valdemar]] series is a classic example of this. The nobles all live in ridiculous luxury, at one point the Emperor directly lampshades that the Empire must be undergoing an economic crisis 'because the Court nobles have visibly less time and effort to spend on ostentatious grooming displays' (which would not be happening so long as they had any solvency left at all), and the backstabbing is prominent to the point that the Imperial Guard has to be ''mind-controlled'' to prevent subversion, the Emperor doesn't even bother making sure that his cabinet ministers are given a briefing on classified matters because anybody at this level of government who doesn't have a spy system capable of finding out such things on their own is too incompetent to survive, the heir apparent to the throne is openly known to be a retired assassin and nobody cares (indeed, its considered a quite respectable entry on his resume), and your average group of Imperial Advisors can't get through a simple staff meeting without either bribes or blackmail flying every which way across the table.
** At one point a defecting Imperial Governor is cursed by High Priest Solaris of Karse to never be able to tell a lie again. From Solaris' POV, she was inflicting a significant but not overly awful punishment against the killer of her trusted advisor as well as ensuring the trustworthiness of a doubtful ally. From Governor Tremane's point of view, he was being cursed to ''be incapable of functioning in society at all''. The revelation that its actually possible to survive non-Imperial politics without having to constantly deceive and misdirect virtually everyone you meet actually hurt his head to contemplate.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* Mark Antony's and Cleopatra's Court in ''[[Rome]]'' is so decadent it turns former [[Magnificent Bastard]] Mark Antony into a fat whiny crybaby.
* The non-renegade Time Lords in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' often got depicted like this, especially in Robert Holmes TV stories and the [[Darker and Edgier]] spin-offs. Now that they're officially dead the Doctor likes to imply that they were [[Nostalgia Filter|dedicated and unselfish defenders of the universe]]. At least, until it became a question of "us or the rest of the universe", and they settled on "us."
** [[Expanded Universe]] tells us just how much the Doctor's lying-even before the Time War there was a specialized branch of Time Lord bureaucracy ''specifically'' to act as a
* The Masterpiece Theater series ''[[I, Claudius]]'', starring Derek Jacobi and numerous other high-profile British actors. This series, based on a series of novels, recounts the life of Claudius, the awkward fool who would be emperor... and the drama, treachery, and intrigue that happened in the royal household. It's even more intense when you consider that it is based on historical events. But then, truth is stranger than fiction.
* King's Landing in [[Game of Thrones]]. Don't trust anyone, and watch what they're putting in your wine...
*Washington D.C. in [[NCIS]]
== Other ==
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* [[William Shakespeare]]'s Sonnet 25:
{{quote|''Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
''But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
''And in themselves their pride lies buried,
''For at a frown they in their glory die.'' }}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Pick an Elysium (or court) with Fae or Vampires in any ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' game, and this is what they're like. Granted, you'll have biker lords and harlot duchesses along with your typical "proper" lords though, oddly on an equal footing.
** Mage caucuses and consilii can veer into this as well.
** The article picture from ''[http://www.weregeek.com/ Weregeek]'' features a perfectly typical Elysium. Medieval decor, biker vampires, Victorian vampires, and Bela Lugosi ripoffs.
* The Seelie and Unseelie Courts of [[Dungeons
* The Various Courts of [[The Fair Folk|Raksha]] in ''[[Exalted]]'' are like the above, and everyone's a [[Reality Warper]] to boot. The Realm's various social organizations come close to this as The Empress valued competition among her underlings and descendants. Heaven is a cross of this and the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] as its a deadly decadent ''bureaucracy''.
** Pretty much all Exalted types have charms that can encourage or discourage this type of behavior. Abyssals take the cake, however, as they possess a Socialize charm that causes any social group they use it on to devolve into infighting and backstabbing. In other words, they can ''create' a
* ''[[Ars Magica]]'' covenants are prone to becoming like this when they fall into their Winter phase, with larger, more powerful covenants and Domus Magni being major antagonists because of it. Coeris, the House Tremere home covenant (yes, [[Vampire: The Masquerade|''that'' Tremere]]) is especially ripe for it because of their extremely competitive and cutthroat political policies and general impenetrability by anyone who can't beat them at Certamen.
* The Dark Eldar in in ''[[Warhammer
** The Imperium has more than fair share of its own gilded viper nests.
* The courts of ''[[Warhammer|Warhammer Fantasy's]]'' Dark Elves are essentially based on control, cruelty and the dominion of the powerful to exercise utter obedience in those underneath them. The ''Hanil Khar'' is an annual pledge of allegiance to the ruler of a city that regularly features the ''cold-blooded torture'' of any who dare to bring insufficient tribute, with outright execution common to those who ''really'' fail to produce. Keep in mind, this is their ''awards ceremony'' here. Another indicator of the murderous nature of Druchii court life is the rigid etiquette of social space that evolved because the Dark Elves are ''so damn paranoid'' about being straight-up assassinated. Very tellingly, it is measured in sword-lengths. Lowborn Dark Elves may not approach a lord closer than three sword-lengths without being summoned, retainers may remain within two lengths, and lieutenants, trusted retainers and lower-ranking highborn may approach to a single sword-length. Within a sword-length is the most intimate space, and is reserved for lovers, playthings and, very characteristic of the Druchii, ''mortal enemies''. You have to really think about the parties that these guys attended that forced ''this'' sort of system to be adopted.▼
*** ''[[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]]'' goes into details, often on the places nastier than most. In the Calixis sector, [[Mega City|Hive]] Sibellus (the capitol ''of'' the sector capitol world) is a rather cut-throat place, seeing how there are lots of big wigs vying for attention of the Sector Governor; Malfi (capitol world of a subsector, a very corrupt place, that produced one of the most dangerous heretical sects around, but still grumbling about the capitol being assigned to Scintilla) has a tradition of vendetta and the best assassination devices in the sector come from that world. And what provincial nobles are up to, nobody knows until they do something particularly horrible and/or stupid. Per "You know you're playing [[Dark Heresy]] when..." thread on FFG forums:
{{quote|18) in your adventure, there is a choice between attending a dinner party or fighting a horde of vengeful Orks.
19) In this adventure, the party chooses to fight the orks, figuring they have a higher change of survival.
20) Said party figured absolutely correctly.}}
▲* The courts of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Warhammer Fantasy's]]'' Dark Elves are essentially based on control, cruelty and the dominion of the powerful to exercise utter obedience in those underneath them. The ''Hanil Khar'' is an annual pledge of allegiance to the ruler of a city that regularly features the ''cold-blooded torture'' of any who dare to bring insufficient tribute, with outright execution common to those who ''really'' fail to produce. Keep in mind, this is their ''awards ceremony'' here. Another indicator of the murderous nature of Druchii court life is the rigid etiquette of social space that evolved because the Dark Elves are ''so damn paranoid'' about being straight-up assassinated. Very tellingly, it is measured in sword-lengths. Lowborn Dark Elves may not approach a lord closer than three sword-lengths without being summoned, retainers may remain within two lengths, and lieutenants, trusted retainers and lower-ranking highborn may approach to a single sword-length. Within a sword-length is the most intimate space, and is reserved for lovers, playthings and, very characteristic of the Druchii, ''mortal enemies''. You have to really think about the parties that these guys attended that forced ''this'' sort of system to be adopted.
* ''[http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/uncle-louis Uncle Louis]'' is pretty much "Deadly Decadent Court: the Tabletop Game". All players are nobles competing for the favor of Louis XVI. Also, they all plan to have him deposed and replaced with a puppet of their choice. For one, if they fail to do so before turn limit, [[Nonstandard Game Over|they all lose]] - the peasants are going to [[French Revolution|revolt and chop off everybody’s head]].
== Theatre ==
* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'':
** [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Count]] De Guiche pays a court of [[False Friend]] s who speak of him behind his back, uses ([[Aristocrats Are Evil|Viscount]] De Valvert to abuse lesser nobles [[The Beard|bullying Roxane]] and [[Bullying the Dragon|Cyrano]], [[Disproportionate Retribution|sends one hundred men to punish a poet]] and this trope is constantly conversed by all the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Gascons]] as a proof that De Guiche is [[No True Scotsman|No True]] <s>Scotsman</s> [[No True Scotsman|Gascon]]. Oh, and remember, [[Serious Business|you will not go anywhere in this court unless you have wit!]]. Subverted In [[Real Life]]: De Guiche was one of [[Magnificent Bastard|Cardinal]] [[Man Behind the Man|Richieleu’s]] collaborators and they transformed France from a poor backward country into [[The Empire|a continental power]].
** Parodied with Ragueneau’s situation: At Act II, Raguenau is called ''"King of the Bakers"'' but is clear that his court of poets [[False Friend|friends are only flattening him to eat at his expense]], that his neglected queen, Lisa, [[Your Cheating Heart|is cheating him with the Musketeer]], that his own employees are abusing his [[Conspicuous Consumption]], [[Crack is Cheaper]] attitudes, that all those things will lead him to ruin, and when his only real friend, Cyrano, lampshades this, the ''"King"'' cannot accept the truth. At the beginning of Act III, the Kingdom (the bakery) is lost.
* Arguably, Judge Turpin's [[Masquerade Ball]] in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' (though since it only features in one scene it might be more of a [[Fete Worse Than Death]]). All of them stand there and laugh while the judge rapes Lucy.
* ''[[As You Like It]]:'' The court is a treacherous place where everyone is miserable until they head to [[Arcadia]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', the royal court of Ivalice, inspired in part by the War of the Roses, who [[Gambit Pileup|manipulate]], [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|backstab]], [[False-Flag Operation|frame each other]], and ally themselves with the [[Legions of Hell]] (wittingly or not) to achieve succession and absolute rule.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'''s House Solidor and the Archadian Council are no better. Including the "join forces with [[Eldritch Abomination
* The Iron Council of [[The Empire|Magnagora]] in ''[[Lusternia]]''. They're monstrous even by the standards of a city twisted by [[The Corruption]] and populated by [[Fantastic Racism|racist mutants]]: backstabbing, murder and ''cannibalism'' are all actively encouraged means of advancement, and their [[Physical God]] chief advisor is the resident [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] [[The Chessmaster|chessmaster]].
* The court of Orlais in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' is, according the Leliana's stories, totally this trope. The Orlesian [[Aristocrats Are Evil|aristocracy]] is perpetually involved in [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|"The Game"]], constantly vying for increased influence in the court through pretty much any means possible.
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** Don't forget that if you play a noble dwarf PC, five minutes into the game you can ''order someone assassinated''. And Gorim, your second, treats it as an everyday occurence. And if you do choose to have him killed, the assassination happens ''within the hour.'' Apparently, the noble dwarves of Orzammar have an express assassination service.
{{quote|'''Gorim''': ''That fool doesn't know how weak his house is, or how low he sits in it. Shall I have him killed?''}}
*** Being fair, your character is in the royal family and can thus be presumed to have access to the ''very best'' assassins. More run-of-the-mill nobles would probably have had to wait for tomorrow morning's assassin delivery.
** This is so common in Zevran's home country, Antiva, that assassin's guild the Crows of Antiva practically run the place from behind the scenes. Nobles can hire Crows for assassination without anyone batting an eye.
* The [[Interactive Fiction]] game Varicella plops you in the middle of such a court; the first time you play through you'll spend a while exploring then run out of time and get killed. The next time you'll solve a few more puzzles, until in the end you know exactly how to make every move count.
* The Italian Nobles in [[Assassin's Creed II]] are all about killing one another in order to advance their own goals (especially in the case of the Templars). [[Truth in Television]] actually.
* The Aristocrat Club in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' consists of a bunch of orphaned children playing rich and powerful nobility, complete with constant intrigue and rivalries, accompanied by complex rituals which often involve torture and/or hazing of one another, as well as cruelty against animals.
* In Crusader Kings 2, your court is filled with people conspiring against you, and vice versa. [[Evil Plots]] are a core game mechanic.
* Most aristocrats depicted or mentioned in ''[[Darkest Dungeon]]'' are depraved, cruel hedonists, with two notable examples:
** The Ancestor had pretty much a court of his own, composed entirely of sycophants who would revel in the worst acts of debauchery. Standing out in particular are the sadistic Baron who would [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture servants or sometimes other members of the court for his - and a few others' - amusement]], the gluttonous Vicount who would gorge himself with exotic food even if it had already rotten, and of course the Countess who would infect them all (with the Ancestor's unwitting help) with the Crimson Curse, turning them into insectoid monstrosities with a craving for human blood. Now called the Crimson Court, these aristocrats are even more repulsive in their debauchery than they were as humans, the Baron making a big spectacle out of his torture sessions and the Vicount resorting to cannibalism to satisfy his gluttony.
** The tyrant the Jester used to work for had a court of sadistic backstabbers who would regularly torture, humiliate and even attempt to assassinate the Jester for their amusement. He slaughtered them all when he could no longer take it and still keeps an exceptionally grim view of the upper class and suicidal tendencies. Even the horrors of the Estate are nothing to him after what he went through as a court jester.
== Web Original ==
* The City of [[Theatrica]] and its citizens. The society considers itself classless and entirely noble, relegating peasant status to all non-Theatricans (thereby keeping the elite/pleb contrast intact).
* As the page quote says, the Elven court in ''[[8-Bit Theater
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* A bit of a [[Truth in Television]] trope, since nations with absolute rulers and a wealthy aristocracy have tended to breed Deadly Decadent Courts like flies. Imperial Rome, Imperial China, the Byzantine Empire, and pre-Revolutionary France are the archetypal examples that most writers seem to crib from.
** Non-royal "courts" often work too, such as the Soviet Union.
** In Stalinist Soviet Union, the somewhat "puritanical" version of this trope was in effect. There was officially not supposed to be any decadence, luxuries or other stuff of the sort, but there were plenty of luxuries for Stalin and his close comrades, though how much they enjoyed them is a different matter. [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|Stalin gave his mother a palace]], for example, but she refused to make a use of it, sleeping in the servants' quarters and cooking her own meals. In post-Stalinist times, the decadence finally came to the town, though it was still discreet and subtle, never fully shown to outsiders.
** Hell, Simon Sebag Montefiore called his excellent book on Stalin ''The Court of the Red Czar''.
** The Byzantine Empire was so infamous for this that another term for this trope is "Byzantine politics."
** Even if it sounds strange, The Hittites. The royal court of Hattusa was truly a deadly place- full of relatives ready to betray the king at the first opportunity.
* The court of [[Saudi Arabia]] approaches this, although exile, shaming, and [[Reassigned to Antarctica|reassignment to Antarctica]] are preferred to outright killing; after all, almost all members of the court are (half)-brothers or cousins (being descendants of King [[Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud]]), and the public image of family unity must be maintained. However, by all accounts, the internal politics of the Al Saud are quite
** As of 2013 the succession crisis has been resolved with a minimum of bloodshed, most likely due to the fact that the ongoing Syrian and ISIS crises, and lack of overt US support, has made everyone in the Saudi royal family agree that this is not a good time to be scoring own-goals. Normal backstabbing service will presumably resume if and when the external situation stabilizes.
*** As of 2018 the succession crisis has been further resolved by the Crown Prince successfully solidifying his power base to the point that he could start a widespread crackdown against domestic corruption and intrigue, to the point where more than a few of his siblings and cousins have been arrested.
* Probably apocryphal, but worth repeating. The astrologer at Louis XI's of France's court had (quite by accident) accurately foretold the death of someone close to the king. Louis decided to have the unfortunate astrologer executed, but had a last question: "When do you foresee your own death?" The astrologer replied: "That I cannot divine, but it will be three days before Your Majesty's death." After that, the (in real life) superstitious Louis gave the astrologer all possible protection.
* [[The Prince|Machiavelli]] himself strongly recommended that rulers avoid these, as aside from the [[Aristocrats Are Evil|obvious risks]] there's the fact that the high taxes required to support it tend to encourage rebellions.
* [[Adolf Hitler]]'s inner circle was full of people vying to outdo the other - they called it the ''Obersalzburg Kamarilla''.
* In his biography ''Champlain's Dream'' the author David Hackett Fischer comments that Samuel Champlain found tribal politics in New France and Lobbying in Paris similar because both Indian chiefs and courtiers were treacherous and murderous. [[Not So Different|which group]] the author was primarily trying to insult is not clear right away.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Settings]]
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