Deadly Decadent Court: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{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]]''}}
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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 Up Is Evil|beauty]], [[The Dandy|elegance]], and [[Pimped-Out Dress|style]] is [[Dress Code|expected]] of all [[Fish Out of Water|newcomers]] who want to [[Propaganda Machine|uphold this proud tradition]], and if one isn't able to, they know it's their duty to [[Stealth Insult|discreetly but clearly explain customs to them.]] After all, even their [[Malicious Slander|casual conversation]] is often [[Feed the Mole|about matters of import]], and they must [[Arranged Marriage|consider their children's future]]. They do [[Compliment Backfire|expect manners]], though their [[The Beautiful Elite|artless dignity]] is often hard to imitate. And their [[Religion of Evil|piety]] is unquestionable.
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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 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.''}}
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* 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.
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''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.
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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...
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* The Seelie and Unseelie Courts of [[Dungeons and Dragons]] are the epitome of what happens when the Deadly Decadent Court is run by [[The Fair Folk]]. The Unseelie Court is noted as downright lethal runless you are very, very carefully prepared.
* 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 40000]]'' fit this trope to a t. The Dark City basically started out as a composition of trade hubs and private realms of noble houses that were outside the jurisdiction of the rulers of the old Eldar empire. It was there the spread of decadence that would eventually lead to the Fall of Eldar started, and many of those same noble houses continue to exist 10 000 years later (altho many have reinvented themseves as Kabals), still continuing the behavious that lead to the Fall.
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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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** 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
* 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.
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