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I just realized that I can't think of a single normal non-human ruler (historical or current) of one of the "human" nations of the Inner Sea region (i.e. those that are not explicitly non-human like Kyonin and the Five Kings Mountains). Can anyone else think of one?
Yes, I know that the lich Whispering Tyrant ruled a wide area of central Avistan, and that a lawful good (no, neutral!) gold dragon rules Hermea. I'm talking about a otherwise normally human nation like Cheliax or Taldor being ruled by a non-human. Has it ever happened in canon?
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Mengkare in Hermea ?
In the River Kingdoms, the actual ruler is an half-orc (even if technically, he was first a human) and Riverton is ruled by an elf.
Moreover, Shenmen is ruled by a jorogumo, Tianjing by an aasimar, Xa Hoi by a dragon, Zi Ha by a samsaran and in Minkai, I heard that the Jade Regent is not human.
Geb is run by a ghost, Usaro's kings are all killed and magically resurrected as demon apes.
Some members of the Umbral Court in Nidal are clearly not-human, although not super obvious what they are, or were.
Given the ruby circlet they have all worn since then, despite the long line of human Pharoahs, Osirion may actually be run by fire elementals since Khemet the Forthbringer.
Magnimar is complicated. The Lord Mayor is human, but he technically answers to the Council of Ushers, whose executive moderator is an elf. (I know this isn't specifically what you're asking, but it seems a relevant data point.)
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All good points, although I guess what I was thinking about was otherwise human nations that have or had non-human rulers for a period of time. It seems not to happen very often, if ever. Shows that at least in the Inner Sea region, humans are generally ruled by humans, elves are rules by elves, etc.
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All good points, although I guess what I was thinking about was otherwise human nations that have or had non-human rulers for a period of time. It seems not to happen very often, if ever. Shows that at least in the Inner Sea region, humans are generally ruled by humans, elves are rules by elves, etc.
Say rather that humans in the Inner Sea tend to be the ruling race even of highly mixed countries, and that it is only heavily non-human countries that tend to be ruled by non-humans. In-universe, this is the legacy of Azlant. Out of universe, it is the product of an authorial decision to feature a human-supremacist world.
Geb is run by a ghost, Usaro's kings are all killed and magically resurrected as demon apes.
Some members of the Umbral Court in Nidal are clearly not-human, although not super obvious what they are, or were.
Given the ruby circlet they have all worn since then, despite the long line of human Pharoahs, Osirion may actually be run by fire elementals since Khemet the Forthbringer.
Well, our GM changed a bunch of things, with a major change of adding an evil artifact. It was linked to the reigning king, and when the party killed the king, it activated and started trying to zap a character into a new king.
Method was on the dead king's initiative, it made attacks at each character in range, in turn. Fort save. I was in range, as as a ninja, my save wasn't the greatest. Somehow I made it. Another round of trying to destroy the thing, and it lashed out again. While I was not the nearest, and thus had others save before me, I was the one to finally succumb to the effect.
The effect forced me into a reincarnate spell like effect, with the result of my becoming demon ape. [Sort-of. Did I mention the GM tweaked stuff?] It also shifted my alignment, and then tried to control me like Dominate Monster. Only one problem for it. I had an item with the effective Protection from Evil's mental protection. So it could not control me. With my change, I also gained the ability to easily attack the artifact, and since I was linked, my damage was not resisted. It was soon destroyed, and I am now size large.
With my new size, I learned the joy of the Kusarigama, size large. I now threatened adjacent to 25' out. [Long arms adding 5', and 2X 10' for the weapon itself.] And I had Invisible Blade [Greater Invisibility]. I did not have combat reflexes, but did not seem to get much many AoOs. :-(
Still, fun times.
/cevah
Yeah, I guess given that Azlant was magically ruled by Veiled Masters/Aboleths and destroyed it when they got uppity it would be a conservative assumption that at least one nation is a catspaw.
Also, it's hard to say Cheliax isn't at least deeply in sway of devils. The state religion is diabolism, specifically of Asmodeus, so if he deigned to weigh in on anything there's little doubt they'd do it. And more directly Gorthoklek is on hand to literally reign in Abrogail II and has been there since her grandmother's time.
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I guess I'd say "humanocentric" rather than "human-supremacist".
Say rather that humans in the Inner Sea tend to be the ruling race even of highly mixed countries, and that it is only heavily non-human countries that tend to be ruled by non-humans. In-universe, this is the legacy of Azlant. Out of universe, it is the product of an authorial decision to feature a human-supremacist world.
Six of one.