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[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nobility_6633.jpg]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Skeletons in the cabinet.]]

It's the true SkeletonGovernment. That is, a government staffed by actual [[TheUndead undead:]] [[SoulJar liches]], {{vampire}}s, undead spirits and the like. The main variations are whether the subjects are also all or mostly undead, and whether the nation as a whole is good-aligned, evil-aligned, or neutral

Malevolent examples are frequently used as TheHorde (although living subjects might [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman be more sympathetic]]). If you come across a city or fortress named Necropolis (Greek for "city of the dead") in a fantasy setting, chances are you're dealing with this trope. [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Stay away from these places]].

If they have a military structure, the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks mooks are probably undead too]].

A SorcerousOverlord who is also a {{Lich}} would be an example, as is a [[TheMagocracy Magocracy]] of [[{{Necromancer}} undead wizards]]. Societies led by {{Vampire Monarch}}s also qualify.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD'': Count Magnus Lee effectively rules a {{Kingdom}}. Technically he doesn't rule it any more - people just fear him too much to actively fight against him, but he can't really go and order them around like he used to, either.
** In the original worldwide vampire nation the vampire population density was relatively high, but humans remained a major group of second class citizens, who could be treated anywhere from decent subjects to mere cattle depending on their local vampire lord's personality.
* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'''s New Humankind empire. The living 'Terrans' are second-class citizens, but the most of the ruling vampire nobles try to treat them decently.
* The titular extraterritorial concession in ''Manga/DanceInTheVampireBund'' is more or less a miniature vampire nation sitting in Tokyo Bay. [[spoiler: As of Volume 8, there are even people in Tokyo seeking to get bitten in the hopes of moving there]].
* ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'' has Ortus, a city for the deceased with over a million undead inhabitants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* ''Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres'' is a French comic by Eric Liberge featuring purgatory as a city populated with skeletons, which is the appearance of dead people un-living there, surrounded by a lunar desert and ruled by a strange Kafkaïan bureaucracy.
* The Necropolis Litharge from Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Comicbook/TheSandman'': a great metropolis where the only job that anyone seems to have is the ritual disposal of dead bodies. Their entire society is funeral-based, and it's almost all they do. Its crypts are haunted by important and scary voices.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'':
** In the dimension of Deadworld, life itself was outlawed by a group of undead lawmen known as the Dark Judges, who remained as its custodians after completing their global genocide.
** During the "Necropolis" arc, Mega City One is conquered by the Dark Judges and the Sisters of Death and turned into a slaughterhouse. Judge Death is installed as Chief Judge, the Sisters [[TheNightThatNeverEnds use their powers to blot out the sun]], and the regular Judges are brainwashed to assist their new masters in exterminating the whole population. Before Judge Dredd and his allies manage to take back the city, 60 million people have died.
** After Necropolis a constitutional crisis occurred when a zombified Chief Judge Silver returned to reclaim his post from the incumbent [=McGruder=]. Judge Dredd ruled that the post was legally still occupied by a dead man, but then deposed and formally executed Silver for criminal neglect of duty during the invasion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Card Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' examples:
** The Alara block has the plane of Grixis, a hellscape ruled by demons and lich lords.
** Over in the city-plane of Ravnica, there's both the Orzhov Syndicate (a CorruptChurch ruled by a council of ghosts) and the Golgari Swarm (which ended up with an undead shaman as its leader). The Golgari take care of Ravnica's farms, too -- they provide a very notable part of the food for the whole plane. While they have their bad apples (Savra is very ambitious, and the Sisters of Stone Death can be pretty callous when ticked off), they are for the most part extremely decent and friendly people, even welcoming the Elves of deep Shadow who were kicked out of Selesnya simply because of their connection to black magic without question. Hell, the Golgari were one of the two guilds (the other being the Wojek offshoot of the Boros) who actually watched out for the people during the Decamillenial crisis, whereas all other guilds (as well as the Boros legion proper) were too busy with their power struggle nonsense.
** The Innistrad setting has towns ruled (read terrorized) by vampire nobility (though innistradi vampires aren't undead per se, but alive and aging at a glacial pace). On the other hand, there are also benevolent ghosts protecting some places.
** In the ''Conspiracy'' core set, Fiora is ruled by the ghost king Brago, and the ''custodi'' are a semi-theocratical church oriented towards spirits.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* The Horned King of Disney's ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'' is an undead lich ruling from a dark fortress. His human minions are quite alive, but the King desires to rule over a world of mindless undead warriors because he wants to be [[AGodAmI worshipped as a god]] by his subjects. Made quite clear when he triumphantly declares that "our" time has come as he raises the skeletal army.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The 2010 movie ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' postulates a near future society much like our own but governed by vampires, after most of the population turn into vampires. The remaining humans who have refused to be turned are farmed/hunted down for their blood.
* In the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' movies, ruling vampire aristocracies are seen who control the rest of vampirekind. The first ''Film/{{Blade}}'' had the society divided by House, while ''Film/BladeII'' shows vampire lords residing in Europe. They also have human servants, so-called "[[VampireVannabe Familiars]]" who are more or less property of their vampire master/second-class citizens of their society.
* In ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'', the Confederate States are in fact run behind the scenes by a vampiric bureaucracy led by the first vampire, Adam, and the slavery system is there to provide them with a regular food source.
* The autocratic empire of the Necromongers in ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' is governed by the "Holy Half-Dead" Lord Marshal Zhylaw. He's no longer merely a man after he visited the underverse, and can control souls. The rest of the Necros (except for the psychic Quasi-Dead) are actually living humans, just part of a crusading death cult.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In Literature/TwoSerpentsRise, Dresediel Lex is ruled by Kopil, a lich. There's also a mention of lands in the North ruled by "Dread Koschei".
* Angmar from Creator/JRRTolkien's world is ruled by its Witch-King (a wraith, which is basically undead). He had a few lesser ghosts under his command (as well as the other Nazgûl, presumably) but his forces were mostly Hillmen and Orcs.
** The history of Angmar isn't detailed in the core material (at least, it isn't detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', ''Literature/{{Unfinished Tales|of Numenor and Middleearth}}'' or ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'') so the precise nature of its government and populace is unknown. It was a human kingdom, though. They had annexed and allied with two of the three kingdoms of Arnor (Rhudaur and Cardolan) and apparently turned ''their'' dead as well. Angmar and its armies were annihilated some time before the events of the ''[=LotR=]'', when the Witch-King commanded parts of Sauron's army but would have held no kingdom of his own.
** The city of [[EldritchLocation Minas Morgul]] was a fiefdom of Mordor and former part of Gondor ruled by the Nazgûl directly, so that counts as a straight Type III.
* High Cromlech from ''Literature/TheScar'' by ChinaMieville. Most of the population and all the administration are {{Revenant Zombie}}s. This has interesting impacts on the culture, such as the city's language having dialects suitable for use by individuals whose [[MouthStitchedShut mouths have been sewn shut]] and whose voiceboxes have decayed. A significant population of living humans is found there to do the jobs that aren't so suitable for the non-living (though these are not detailed) but when the opportunity arises the upwardly mobile members of the living middle class shuffle off their mortal coils to improve their social circle and prospects.
** Also notable in that there is an undead ([[OurVampiresAreDifferent or rather, ab-dead]]) underclass of the city's impoverished and hopelessly addicted blood-drinkers, who are treated with [[YourVampiresSuck scorn and pity]] by both the living and truly undead residents, in stark contrast to vampires' ordinarily high rank in such settings. It's a bit of an embarrassment for any vampir ([[PhantasySpelling spelling intentional]]) trying to set themselves up as the 'aristocracy of the night' anywhere else in the world.
** The social mobility in High Cromlech suggests that it is probably one of the most reasonably-ruled and egalitarian city states in Bas-Lag, which fits Melville's usual DeconstructorFleet style.
* The Zombie Master in the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels wasn't evil. He was quite a good ruler, in fact -- he was just a zombie.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', Uberwald is identified as not so much a nation as a geographic argument. It's said in the past Uberwald was mostly united in the 'Unholy Empire' (one of whose emperors had a man's hat nailed to his head as a joke) and described by Vimes as apparently the whole show being run by vampires and werewolves with everyone else being lunch. It broke up when the non-undead dwarfs became too powerful.
** Also in ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'', Djelibeibi ''very briefly'' became one: a living ruler (Pteppic), but with several thousand years' worth of mummified relations advising him on what to do.
** Mr. Slant , as a zombie, is Ankh-Morpork's oldest lawyer, with some vampires employed as lawyers in his firm. As you can imagine, junior clerks have some difficulty being promoted when the dead men's shoes are filled and unlikely to leave anytime soon.
* England in Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' series toggles back and forth from malevolent to somewhat decent. The subjects include both vampires and "the warm". The former can be good, but the ones who wind up in authority tend to be somewhat self-serving.
* The vampires in ''TheDresdenFiles'' novels:
** The Red Court vampires (big bat-like monsters that can disguise themselves as humans), despite how pleasant they can seem on the outside, have exploited chaos in some parts of Latin America to set themselves up as strongmen with a steady supply of food. They mostly get those followers through MindControl saliva.
** The White Court vampires (psychic vampires, who do the incubus/succubus thing) officially rule as the most human (relatively speaking) of the vampires, they manipulate and mingle into human society just fine and graze at the edges, encouraging the attitudes and emotions they feed off of instead of keeping docile herds for themselves. Many think they should have the right to feed when they want and how much they want, without interference.
** The Black Court vampires (the rotting-corpse, vaguely Dracula and Nosferatu types) are too few to have a coherent society, thanks to Bram Stoker's cleverly disguised monster-hunting guide; they have a habit of wiping the minds of their living subjects and remolding them into blank, easily-commanded, and violent mooks nicknamed "Renfields."
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novels ''Literature/RedPlanet'' and ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' it's implied that Mars is ruled by the AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence "Old Ones" ruling over the still-corporeal regular Martians.
* A variant of this (crossing over into {{Magocracy}} territory) is shown in Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's story [[http://eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/61/the-empire-of-the-necromancers "The Empire of the Necromancers"]]. The titular necromancers (all two of them) are in fact alive, but manage to set themselves up as rulers of an entire undead ''nation'' by the simple expediency of finding a long-dead desert kingdom and using their arts to reanimate everybody whose bones or mummy they can find. The necromancers are arguably evil, but lazy; their subjects, on the other hand, are more hapless victims 'living' again in a hazy, dreamlike state than anything else.
* Parodied by the batshit-insane Helmacrons from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' who are led completely by the dead. Not the ''un''dead, the ''dead''. They believe that the most important thing for a leader is that they make no mistakes, so as a result every Helmacron in a position of authority is ritually executed as soon as they're elevated to their position.
* The Vampire world from the ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' series. Those inhabiting the nightside of the planet are either vampires, or partially-vampirised slaves. Those inhabiting the dayside are just slaves (and occasionally rebels). At the end of the final book [[spoiler:This model is successfully exported to [[DownerEnding Earth]].]]
* In Michael Shea's story "The Pearls of the Vampire Queen" Queen Vulvula rules over a human nation and rejuvenates herself yearly in a ceremony called The God-Making Of The Year King, where she devours her human husband. Apart from that, she is depicted as an effective and benevolent ruler.
* Kairn Necros in ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' is initially an inversion, with a living ruling class of {{necromancer}}s presiding over a largely-undead populace. Following one of the necromancers dying and [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong]], the undead TurnedAgainstTheirMasters under her command, with the end result being a straight example of the first type, with [[OurLichesAreDifferent lazar]] ruling over the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent ordinary dead]], with all of them [[spoiler: except one lazar]] hostile to the living.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]", a planet was ruled over by evil vampires, and the rulers had been dining on the mortal population for so long that it was down to a single small village.
** The Cybermen are often treated functionally as a technofantasy version of this.
** Xanxia in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" is the secretly undead [[TheManBehindTheMan secret ruler]] of a nation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Cartoons]]
* In ''ComicStrip/{{If}}'', Steve Bell drew Tory politicians of the Thatcher/Major era, such as Norman Tebbit, as animated skeletons or barely-human zombies; Michael Howard was a daylight-shunning vampire, and Michael Heseltine had something of the werewolf about him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' settings have many examples:
** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' provides a few variations:
*** The half-dragon lich Erandis d'Vol, better known as simply Lady Vol, sees herself as the inheritor of the whole world. Only the Blood of Vol and the Karrnathi loyalist group "The Order of the Emerald Claw" truly believe her (and even then only in the upper ranks. Most adherents to the Blood of Vol aren't aware of what exactly the 'of Vol' refers to, and the lower ranks of the Emerald Claw tend to think they're fighting for ''Karrnath's'' dominance over the continent).
*** The Deathless of Aerenal rule the island-nation of the Elves, serving as a sort of gestalt deity-figure. Not truly Undead, but rather a good-aligned version which uses positive rather than negative energy.
*** [[spoiler: King Kaius I of Karrnath is a vampire, turned through a deal with Vol which fell through. He replaced his IdenticalGrandson, the real Kaius III. Almost nobody but a few trusted high-ups know this, as undead, while revered in Karrnath, don't get property rights under international law, and he would have to forfeit his crown. While he is by alignment LawfulEvil, he's the one amongst the inheritors of Galifar who has been pressing for peace. Another nation's leader, Aurala, despite NeutralGood alignment, is a warmonger.]]
** The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has a few too:
*** [[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Skullport Skullport]] is policed by the eponymous Skulls, an undead HiveMind of ancient mages bound to the magic field that protects the underground city.
*** Thay is now ruled by Szass Tam, a lich with thousands of undead followers.
** The ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign setting oozes with this. Many Darklords (domain rulers) are undead creatures, such as:
*** Strahd (vampire) in Barovia.
*** Lord Soth (death knight) in ''Sithicus''.
*** Vecna (lich) [formerly] in ''Cavitius''
*** Kas (vampire) in ''Tovag''. For 4E, Kas got rebooted as a vampire. He rules a kingdom in the Shadowfell and a dominion in the Astral Sea.
*** Azalin (lich) in ''Darkon''. Azalin doesn't really give a damn about his subjects but would rather not be distracted from his escape-attempts by rebellions and pogroms and other nonsense.
*** Anhktepot (Greater Mummy) in Har'Akir.
*** Tristan [=ApBlanc=] (Ghost/Vampyre) in ''Forlorn'': Undead-by-night ruler (long story), living but curse-transformed goblyn subjects.
*** Death. No one can live in his domain (literally), and he's batshit insane.
** [[http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20080416a Mavet Rav]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has several examples of this trope:
** The Tomb Kings are nice for undead, since they mostly stay put in their pyramids. Several city states have large living populations ruled by mummies (part of their motivation is a desire to bring life back to the desert, after all).
** The Vampire Counts often masquerade as normal kingdoms, out to take over the Empire. The funny thing is, the Vampire Counts include a bloodline called the 'Necrarchs', making it a Necrocratic Necrarchy.
*** The irony there is that, of all Warhammer's Vampire bloodlines, the Necrarchs are by far the least likely to desire temporal power, authority or status. They're a family of reclusive, usually insane, scholars and wizards whose grand plans generally involve killing all the world's mortals rather than enslaving them. The lordly, aristocratic Von Carsteins, however, embody this trope perfectly. In their homeland of Sylvania they rule openly, as feudal lords over the terrified inbred peasantry. Technically, since the Vampire Wars five centuries ago, Sylvania is now a part of the Imperial province of Stirland, but the count of Stirland's officials have long since learned never to go there asking for taxes and the like, so it is still effectively ruled by its vampiric masters. A similar arrangement applies to the Bretonnian city of Mousillon.
** It's strongly hinted that the Immortal Emperor of Cathay (''Warhammer's'' China) is either a powerful but benevolent Vampire or Liche. There's so little detail given about the place that it could just as easily be an actual dragon.
** In the Warhammer ''Enemy Within'' campaign introduces [[spoiler: a city that is ruled by necromancy. Actually, the rulers are alive as well. But subjects who die are converted into undead to serve the living. The people quickly adapt, especially since the city is close to [[HellOnEarth the chaos wastes]] and the undead army vastly increases its ability to defend itself.]]
** Nagash, the great necromancer, is literally trying to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone in the world]] and make them his undead puppets. Since he has taken up the mantle of "God of Undeath", he has 9 Mortarchs to reign as Kings under him (with two members from the aforementioned Von Carstein bloodline and at least one Tomb King Liche Priest). So far he has also successfully subjugated the Tomb King nation of Khemri and the Vampire Count's Sylvania.
* The Necrons from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are a futuristic version of the trope. They're an updated version of the Tomb Kings from ''Warhammer Fantasy'', an entire race of the spirits of long-dead aliens encased in metal skeletons by the C'Tan. They inhabit the dead Tomb Worlds in the galaxy, and have a carefully structured imperial hierarchy, with Necron soldiers at the bottom, (Over)Lords in the middle, and the Phaerons at the top. The C'tan were shattered into pieces for tricking the Necrons into becoming their slaves.
* ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'' miniatures has the Necropolis Sect. The rulers are all Vampires, and the ruled are either Necromancers, Dark Elves on their way to becoming vamps, or lesser Undead and golems of various sorts.
* ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' has the plane of the dead. They still have slavery and some rulers have actually been dead long enough to remember when it was in fashion.
* ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'', a SpiritualSequel to ''Wraith'', has brought in the Dominions of the Underworld -- strange kingdoms that lie beyond the Rivers, each one ruled by [[ThresholdGuardians the Kerberoi]] and with specific rules on the interaction between their ghostly serfs and the Sin-Eaters.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the fact that it's possible to ''walk'' to and from the Underworld means that death is no bar to kingship. The necropolis of Sijan, City of Ten Thousand Tombs, is ruled by its ghosts, who are relatively benign. The [[OmnicidalManiac Deathlord]] known as [[VillainWithGoodPublicity the Silver Prince]] runs a flourishing kingdom by reanimating corpses to serve as slave labor -- but it's a cover for his long-term evil plans.
** Thorns became this when the Mask of Winters invaded and pulled it into the Underworld. Now zombies and ghosts roam the streets and the living are second-class citizens.
** The Resurrectionists in Autochthonia want to make Claslat into one of these...for the greater good, of course. They just have no understanding whatsoever about the nature of undeath.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' recently put out the supplement ''Banestorm - Abydos'', which features a necromantic citystate in their default Fantasy setting of Yrth.
* ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'': Cryx. While the supreme ruler, Toruk, is a dragon and so is technically alive ([[EldritchAbomination for certain values of "alive," anyway]]), the hierarchy is dotted with titles like "Lich Lord", "Necrotech", "Iron Lich" and so on. While they do have living models and even living warcasters, the first mental image most people in and out of universe have when "Cryx" is stated involves a tide of cyborg skeletons backed up by undead mages and war engines forged from iron and bone.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''[='=]s Golarion campaign setting features two:
** The kingdom of Geb, run by a once human wizard king [[{{Egopolis}} also named Geb]], it was at war with the also wizard-run neighboring kingdom of Nex. When Geb, an expert of necromancy, sent a deadly fog through Nex to kill the populace, king Nex [[NeverFoundTheBody vanished]]. Geb brooded for years over this ambiguous victory, and eventually took his own life. But even death could not grant him peace, and he arose as a ghost whose UnfinishedBusiness is knowing whether or not the mighty Nex is alive or [[HesJustHiding just hiding]]. Now Geb (the nation) has various forms of undead making up most of the nobility, skeletons and zombies tending the fields, and even a slain demigoddess raised as a lich to serve as queen. It's a pretty miserable place; the upper crust are all unliving monstrosities, who never age or die and are evil to the core, the peasants must live with the knowledge that they are are worth as much dead as alive if they step out of line (literally; official policy is that when you die you are reanimated as a mindless slave), with an underclass bred solely to be food, and a depressed ghost on the throne, still unable to accept whether or not he truly won a battle centuries ago. Strangely enough, through much effort it has acquired reasonably good trade relations with its neighbors - even Nex.
** Nemret Noktoria is the [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier city of ghouls]] located in the Darklands, a few thousand feet below the earth. Almost all of its citizens are ghouls, although this doesn't count the living humanoids kept as cattle to feed their endless hunger. It's a theocracy ruled by Kortash Khain, high priest of the demon lord Kabriri, Him Who Gnaws, Lord of Ghouls. Their main import is slaves from the few nations willing to trade with them for breeding and eating. While Geb could at least be said to have moderated the harm done by its monstrous inhabitants through the Dead Laws, all civilization has done for the ghouls is make them more efficient monsters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Scourge from ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III]]'' is straight-up evil, while the Forsaken from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are not really nice, but negotiable with.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', the leader of [[spoiler:the church of Yevon]] is an Unsent, a ghost whose soul was never put to rest by a summoner. His idea of leadership is to kill people on a regular basis in order to keep the peace. He is well aware that this is a stopgap solution at best, but refuses to try anything else because [[PerfectSolutionFallacy it might not work]]. He's also entirely resistant to the idea that his people might be better off with a ''living'' leader instead, insisting that the consistency and stability of his leadership is preferable to any kind of freedom, truth, change, or justice.
* The Undead in the ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series.
** The very enjoyable undead campaign in ''Heroes of Might and Magic IV'' is a prominent example. The Protagonist of the story is [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy Gauldoth Halfdead]], a very philosophical and - as the name suggests - [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Halfdead]] necromancer that rules his kingdom (consisting of both living civilians and an undead military and workforce) more ethically than most of the supposedly 'good' factions. He's apparently popular among the people too.
** Plain ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'', as well. Deyja and the Jademean Necromancers' Guild have both living and undead subjects, and can be reasoned and negotiated with, and aren't completely untrustworthy.
*** Deyja plays with it. It gives this impression during the events covered in [[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Shadow of Death and The Restoration of Eratha]], but when you get to visit it in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'', however, the current king is a living human male (who later [[spoiler: gets replaced with a living elven male]]), and there is no sign of discontent from the king's status as being perfectly alive. If anything, Deyja is a {{Magocracy}}, just one with a strong indirect cultural tendency in favour of the ruler being undead (the monarch is supposed to be a powerful necromancer, and most powerful modern necromancers aspire to lichdom).
* Taken to an extreme in ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}}''. The Undead Hordes are composed entirely of the undead, from bog-standard zombies and ghosts to exotic Liches, Werewolves, and Vampires. Their leadership is a cadre of undead priests who worship and are the direct subordinates of their ''undead deity,'' the "fleshless goddess," Mortis. Her StartOfDarkness is heartbreaking, and establishes her horrifying appearance, her overall goal, and burning hatred for the dwarves of the Mountain Clans.
* The Dead Nations in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' are an alliance of skeletons, zombies, and ghouls all ruled by the Silent King. [[spoiler: It turns out that the Silent King is just the regular kind of dead.]]
* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Emperor Sun Hai]] is actually a ghost.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'':
** The Count of Skingrad [[spoiler:is a vampire]], yet remains one of the most reasonable counts in the game, [[spoiler:though vampirism in The Elder Scrolls is a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent (sometimes) curable disease]].]]
** [[{{Necromancer}} Mannimarco, The King of Worms]] plays this straight, not only he is the first [[OurLichesAreDifferent Lich]] of Tamriel, he is the leader of a whole clan of necromancers himself, thus already established his ''literal'' Necrocracy.
* Kain's empire in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' (specifically shown in ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver]]'').
* The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' mod ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven II'' has two module civs that are this trope: The Legion of D'Tesh and the Scions of Patria.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' expansion ''Shadow Magic'' has a Dark Elf leading the Undead, at one point.
* The Empire of Magnagora in ''VideoGame/{{Lusternia}}''. There are a lot of [[OurLichesAreDifferent liches]] in the upper echelons of society (and as a [[EvilSorcerer Nihilist Priest]], it's practically ''expected'' of you), but there are ordinary mortals among the aristocracy and the serfs. Still, they're all [[LawfulEvil decidedly malevolent]] (except for the poor slaves).
* In ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'', the Kingdom of the Dead, ruled by The Lord of Bones and his (equally bony and [[BuffySpeak ghosty]]) Chancellor. Death is tasked to bring the Lord of Bones' assistants back to the Lord's court, two of which have been [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere skipping out on their job]] because of TheCorruption, and the third of which is so [[BeleagueredBureaucrat overloaded with work judging the dead]] that he hasn't appeared in the Lord's court.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', undead King Igos Du Ikana still rules over his dead kingdom from his palace long after it was destroyed. His subjects now consist only of skeletal warriors and mummies. The Ikana military is still intact and led by Captain Keeta, a giant skeleton. His soldiers generally want to take leave of the oath they swore him so they can pass on.
* Vornstaag in ''DawnoftheDragons'' has lived with a peaceful mixture of living and dead citizens for a long time, many living nobles choosing to become vampires because they don't want to die (though this act is considered distasteful), and many peasants getting paid in advance to sell their bodies as materials for reanimation after the natural deaths.
* The [[IncrediblyLamePun Gittish]] [[TheEmpire Empire]] in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' is a straight Type 1.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'': Richard, the undead warlock of the group, is mayor of a small town up the coast, [[spoiler: inhabited entirely by the living dead.]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''':
** Xykon is a lich, his subjects are mostly a mix of [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs undead, goblinoids, and undead goblinoids]].
** [[spoiler: Malack]] reveals an intent to turn the Empire of Blood into a vast empire governed by a vampire aristocracy, wherein thousands will be sacrificed every day as a divine offering/[[ToServeMan as a food source]] for the ruling class.
** Later on, Hel reveals that she plans to vote to destroy the world, ostensibly to protect the gods from the [[EldritchAbomination Snarl]] by recaging it in the mortal world, but she actually hopes to harvest the souls of all of the dwarves who would be dishonorably killed to make herself the new queen of the Northern Pantheon. In effect, this new world would be almost entirely ruled by her undead subjects.
* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California Colma, California]] is home to a society of approximately one million zombies ruled by Emperor Norton I. Most of them are pretty decent people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Baron Dark's empire of titular ''WesternAnimation/SkeletonWarriors'' in the short-lived animated series. Half the planet's population was instantly rendered undead at the beginning of the story, forcing the human heroes to go into hiding and form a [[LaResistance resistance movement]]. Since the skeleton armies are functionally immortal, and they don't need to eat or sleep, ''and'' Baron Dark can change captured humans into new undead recruits, the war's presented as a surprisingly bleak and one-sided affair for a Saturday morning cartoon. [[spoiler:The good guys still win in the end, though.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', the Land of the Black Sand is populated only by zombies, although its ruler, EvilSorcerer Mozenrath, is likely not undead. (Although he has a [[RedRightHand Dead Right Hand]], so he's not exactly a normal human being either.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* A thoughtful exploration of the concept comes from [[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/3501239/ 4Chan]] (no, really)
* In his HBO special "Red, White & Screwed", LewisBlack proposes that America elect a dead person to the presidency (his suggestion: UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan) in order to MindScrew terrorists.
* The Death gang from WebOriginal/FalloutIsDragons is a mix of all four types, though mostly type 4. Their leader, named Death, is a lich, and most of their members are living necromancers who use zombies in their raids; however, while they are raiders they don't seem to attack without need and Death has actually become something of a mentor figure to Xencarn, one of the player characters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Creator/ChristopherHitchens has referred to North Korea as a Necrocracy, Thanatocracy or Mausolocracy because, while Kim Jong-il (and now Kim Jong-un) are the head of the army and head of the communist party, the "Eternal President" (legally the head of state) is Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994. Likewise, Kim Jong-il remains the nominal head of the military and party after his death. So far as anyone knows, it's a purely metaphorical example.
* A number of democratic countries have systems where if candidates die during election campaigns, their names remain on the ballot and their parties can select a new person to fill their positions if they win. The most celebrated recent example was Mel Carnahan, who was killed in a plane crash three weeks before being elected US Senator for Missouri in 2000. His wife was appointed to fill his seat.
[[/folder]]

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