In actuality, most corpos are run by people. Lofwyr, whose corporate umbrella includes 4758 companies, is an outlier and should not have been counted. /s
One of the reasons I can never stomach Nick Bostrom's Fable of the Dragon Tyrant because it depicts the idea of a stoic king who cares about his people.
(Also, glosses over completely how an ageless soceity would be stacked under feudal-capitalism)
Many powerful people like to make people believe (and possibly believe themselves) that they're just rulers. And it's just plainly more effective when your underlings are well-informed of your intentions (assuming you're not trying to set them up). e.g. imagine if the knight thinks that a dragon is a direct threat to the king and burns down the countryside to hunt it (any means necessary etc.), when in reality it's not a direct threat to the king at all and you were just supposed to keep the countryside safe from dragonfire.
Of course, the entire premise is that it's not obvious to the knight why a dragon must be killed and what are acceptable means to achieve that. e.g. in Faerun's Sword Coast, you'd expect that every knight is well-informed about this.
There have been various degrees of absolutely and constitutional monarchies throughout history. One famous example is the limits imposed by the Magna Carta, which only benefited nobles.
There has often been a distinction between royal property and the personal property of the royal family or members of the royal family.
For instance, many of the palaces of the British royal family are national property and Parliament has a say in their use and must provide a budget for their upkeep. The total family privately owns a significant percentage of the rented agricultural land in England, and vast amounts of residential rentals in London.
Under feudalism the king owned everything. He would delegate some rights to lesser nobles so they would hold and manage lands in his stead, but the king owned everything and everyone
The wealth was needed to pay soldiers. You needed soldiers to make sure people did what the king wanted, such as people paying taxes to get wealth. The whole thing with taxes and needing gold as money was basically invented for supporting militia, according to some.
I must have missed the part where the dragon funded infrastructure, hired knights to keep his populace safe, propped up the food stores and economy in times of famine, and negotiated with neighboring kingdoms when needed. Oh and funding research. Forgot how often dragons did that.
And for those asking about benevolent kings:
Aragorn
T'Challa/Black Panther
Mufasa
King Arthur
King Leonidas
King Tirian
Some real life good kings(and a queen)
Emperor Augustus(look up the slave who broke a crystal glass)
What? It's a fictional kingdom based on Hamlet. You're not going to split hairs over it being fiction when the second half of the equation is a dragon are you?.
42 Comments
Susaga@sh.itjust.works · 112 pts · 337d
I wanna run an adventure where a dragon secretly runs a bank, and nobody can tell because it acts exactly like every other banker.
TheBat@lemmy.world · 64 pts · 337d
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 337d
In actuality, most corpos are run by people. Lofwyr, whose corporate umbrella includes 4758 companies, is an outlier and should not have been counted. /s
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 10 pts · 337d
But Lofwyr literally controls 95% of the GDP with those companies, who are run by his extended family!
spittingimage@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 337d
No spoilers, but you should check out the Sword Interval webcomic.
MNByChoice@midwest.social · 2 pts · 335d
Thanks for the recommendation!
::: spoiler spoiler Edit: and if anyone cares about the specific dialog referenced: https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/sword-interval/ep-39-do-not-steal/viewer?title_no=486&episode_no=39, plus the comic after.
This will have spoilers given it is 39 pages into the comic.) :::
ceenote@lemmy.world · 90 pts · 337d
The king answering with anything other than some variation of "Because I ordered you to" broke my immersion.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 22 pts · 337d
One of the reasons I can never stomach Nick Bostrom's Fable of the Dragon Tyrant because it depicts the idea of a stoic king who cares about his people.
(Also, glosses over completely how an ageless soceity would be stacked under feudal-capitalism)
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 15 pts · 337d
Many powerful people like to make people believe (and possibly believe themselves) that they're just rulers. And it's just plainly more effective when your underlings are well-informed of your intentions (assuming you're not trying to set them up). e.g. imagine if the knight thinks that a dragon is a direct threat to the king and burns down the countryside to hunt it (any means necessary etc.), when in reality it's not a direct threat to the king at all and you were just supposed to keep the countryside safe from dragonfire.
Of course, the entire premise is that it's not obvious to the knight why a dragon must be killed and what are acceptable means to achieve that. e.g. in Faerun's Sword Coast, you'd expect that every knight is well-informed about this.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 336d
Ironically, this king was the one exception that was benevolent and fair. The knight, of course, was a member of MAGA - Make Arcadia Great Again.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world · 58 pts · 337d
It’s almost as if the stories of dragons were an allegory for the king or the one sin charge
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net · 12 pts · 337d
I too have played the Shadowrun Returns series
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 42 pts · 337d
A+ character concept.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 337d
Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 337d
Did kings hoard all the wealth? I thought kings had a monopoly on violence, not necessarily wealth
Trevita17@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 337d
You need massive amounts of wealth to gain and maintain a monopoly on violence. So they did both.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 337d
Also if you possess a monopoly on violence wealth is not difficult to obtain
edgemaster72@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 337d
And once you have that wealth you NEED a monopoly on violence to maintain it, which requires more wealth, and so on.
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net · 12 pts · 337d
IIRC everything you had was considered to be used by permission of the king. Like, he ostensibly owned everything and was just letting you use it.
m4xie@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 337d
There have been various degrees of absolutely and constitutional monarchies throughout history. One famous example is the limits imposed by the Magna Carta, which only benefited nobles.
There has often been a distinction between royal property and the personal property of the royal family or members of the royal family.
For instance, many of the palaces of the British royal family are national property and Parliament has a say in their use and must provide a budget for their upkeep. The total family privately owns a significant percentage of the rented agricultural land in England, and vast amounts of residential rentals in London.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 337d
Armies are expensive, and war is REALLY expensive.
psud@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 335d
Under feudalism the king owned everything. He would delegate some rights to lesser nobles so they would hold and manage lands in his stead, but the king owned everything and everyone
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 335d
While that’s true, kings often went into massive debt to fund a war. Like Edward III borrowed significant sums from Italian banks to fund his wars.
psud@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 335d
I don't think Edward III was feudal.
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub · 4 pts · 337d
The wealth was needed to pay soldiers. You needed soldiers to make sure people did what the king wanted, such as people paying taxes to get wealth. The whole thing with taxes and needing gold as money was basically invented for supporting militia, according to some.
weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 337d
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-d29z8G6U28 And here this exact post is, animated with the original voice acting!
finitebanjo@piefed.world · 1 pts · 336d
weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 336d
True, and he does link the source.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 337d
Here there be
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social · -10 pts · 337d
I must have missed the part where the dragon funded infrastructure, hired knights to keep his populace safe, propped up the food stores and economy in times of famine, and negotiated with neighboring kingdoms when needed. Oh and funding research. Forgot how often dragons did that.
And for those asking about benevolent kings:
Aragorn
T'Challa/Black Panther
Mufasa
King Arthur
King Leonidas
King Tirian
Some real life good kings(and a queen)
Emperor Augustus(look up the slave who broke a crystal glass)
Empress Wu Zerian
Cyrus the Great
solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 337d
A yes, the benevolent ruler, almost as common as the benevolent slave owner.
Or, returned a small amount of the value extracted in order to facilitate further extraction
Keep his interests safe
To further state interests
At public expense for private gain
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social · -1 pts · 336d
Still more common than the benevolent dragon though.
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 336d
Never would have thought to find a shill for royalty in the year 2025
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social · -2 pts · 336d
In regards to King v. Dragon.
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 336d
They both suck
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 336d
Lol you cannot be for real
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social · 1 pts · 336d
What? It's a fictional kingdom based on Hamlet. You're not going to split hairs over it being fiction when the second half of the equation is a dragon are you?.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 4 pts · 337d
Show me this king that personally leads the road building crew
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social · 2 pts · 336d
Well, I said funded so....
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 5 pts · 336d
Show me this king that creates value.
BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 337d
show me a dragon that doesnt burn down villages
Leonixster@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 336d
Show us a fucking dragon
BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 336d
can it be fucking a car?
Leonixster@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 336d
Preferably, yes
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 0 pts · 336d