Editing Monarchy (section)

=== Monarchy in Fantasy ===
Monarchy is the norm in Fantasy. So much so that people have argued that a lot of Fantasy can come off as Monarchist Propaganda. for instance there are a lot of fantasy stories in which the resolution of a kingdom's issues is the return of the ''True King'' and the toppling of a Usurper. The truth is probably closer to the fact that most fantasy writers have no idea about medieval republics like Italian states, German free cities or Novgorod. Still, some fantasy series were indeed written by monarchists (like [[Tolkien]] or [[C. S. Lewis]]). There is also the fact that the old legends and stories that fantasy draws upon often has a rather blunt monarchist bent: see the whole Arthurian mythos for this at its most overt. But also the fact that if you live in a situation where you live in a monarchy and monarchy is the default form of government monarchism tends to worm its way in.

Monarchies in fantasy tend to be extremely barebones, the sovereign seemingly usually running an entire country by themselves with nobles being basically anyone who hangs about their court sipping wine. The monarch seems to handle everything going on in the country, from settling minor peasant squabbles to directing the building of roads and bridges. If an adventuring party enters a country they'll usually try to get in direct line with the king, despite the fact they'll most likely deal with the [[Local Lord]] first before even seeing a whiff of the sovereign. Largely this is because there is only so much time you can put into a story and unless the story has court affairs front and center even an imaginative writer has to economize.