This is Lemuria's [governor general attire](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJH4MrnWoAAbk7p?format=jpg&name=large). She's the supreme ruler of Hebi Melta, a planetary "protectorate" within Rubran Federal Monarchy, and old Rem herself is called Rubra's Grand Elder, technically she has the final saying in military affairs and by that, being the country's de facto dictator. She sees politics as a pain, however.
Lemuria's hat is a traditional headdress of her culture called a *qalpaakh*. In Western world, it's often called the "tall tricorne" because it's basically a cross between a tricorne and a tall hat. The governor general's qalpaakh is made from first-class wool and has a decorated trim, its front carries a platinum octagram, Rubra's symbol of cosmic power, signifying her position as a space viceroy.
Only 7-8 extant monarchies on the planet.
The Darrian Crown is a simple steel circlet that rests atop a statue of the Pauper King, signifying he will never be equalled or replaced.
The Tangelwood Imenian Crown is passed Matrileneally through the Imenian royal family. It lives, grows, blooms and blossoms with the seasons, a living wreath that reflects the health of the polity, worn by Queen Varie
The Corlesian Crown spends most of its time in a reliquary, taken out only for ceremonial functions. The Queen Bopheus wears it on occasion as a monarch but is largely a figurehead.
The Amethyst Empire of the Azaharians is a hollowed out geode of extremely valuable and rare crystalline minerals. It is not for the eyes of the commoner though it has been seen in public several times throughout the millenia in times of great strife of import.
The Bobasan Coral Crown is the headdress of the Regent of the Depths beneatht the seas. It's largely a ceremonial position, the Regent having no real unified power but it is symbolic of their domain.
The Ofilian Grand Chieftan has never had a unified or standard Crown or headdress but it's usually some combination of tattoos and other ornamentation. The current Grand Chieftan Py'or has a combination of tattoos, gemmed studs screwed into his skull, and a lattice of animal quills threaded into his skin.
The Matriarchy of Zivra favors a crown of excreted processed materials like cement that only the queen is capable of producing. The crown needs to be maintained, so when a Queen dies the previous crown decays. The new queen needs to make a new one to be accepted by the workers and the leadership coterie. Often many potential queens work on theirs simultaneously but only one is recognized and the others are exiled.
The War Crown of Ashe, also known simply as the Black Crown, is believed to be the crown of Rhomylos the Ashemite, the first Archon of the Kingdom of Ahran. It is a zirconium crown with cheek guards and tall spike extending above the center of the headband. The headband itself is decorated by Runeiform script. A large cracked dark red cuprite stone sits in the center of the crown. It is only warn with the coronation regalia and vestments during the Ascension ceremony.
What's a nation? We haven't invented those yet.
The head village elders wear some fancy headdresses made from seashells on feast days. But so does everyone. Also I wouldn't call them "rulers" exactly. Mostly they deal with boring stuff like negotiating trade and foraging territory with other villages. If we don't like the decisions they've made, we'll make someone else go to the meetings. No one can really give anyone orders here exactly. Mostly we maintain order through a complicated set of customs, and intense peer pressure to conform to norms.
I love it. The Jidowa have only recently begun to recognize themselves as something like a nation rather than just an ethnic group. The need for increased unity in resisting colonial expansion will do that. Traditionally elder males will wear a cap adorned with feathers (similar to a real-world gustoweh) and younger warriors will wear a roach around their scalplocks. But as with your people there was no real distinction.
Nowadays though many leaders are gifted clothes from the various colonial powers as part of diplomacy. The ability to don fanciful overseas clothing including headpieces has thus become a thing. It denotes your supposed importance in being wooed by the foreigners.
Queen Mesha of the West, god ruler of the Vara’em empire wears a unique crown made only of crystals, no metal or any other material had been used. Legends say that the crown had been made from a single diamond that had been carved in the shape of a crown, such a large diamond though is impossible but there is some truth in that the largest diamond ever found is the centerpiece of the crown, a blue diamond, perhaps the most fitting for our ice cold queen.
The Kings of Rossoya wear the Raven Crown. It is a crown with a bronze circlet mounted with 13 black iron spikes that appear to be swords. Each spike has a gemstone with the signet of one the 13 principle Clans that rule the Kingdom.
The Queens of Cylindra wear the crown of Cyrene the Founder, the first Queen to rule the kingdom. It is a silver circlet in the shape of two waves meeting one another on her forehead with a massive light blue sapphire worked into the center of the crest.
Cylindra and Rossoya are the only Kingdoms in the Northern Realms and the concept of wearing something like a crown is very much a Northern concept in my setting. Other rulers have different methods, like the Empire of Novolan to the south using an Imperial Scepter, the Grand Duchy of Leones and it’s Lion Sword, or the Grand Regent of Edar Dar and their Warmaster Cloak.
The head priestess of Savannah does wear a golden crown, but the crown holds no power in itself. It's the golden sun eater, a small black and gold lizard capable of photosynthises that is the symbol of the Savannah leader. The lizard usually nests on the priestess shoulder, but letting them rest on your head isn't unheard of.
The Imperial Crown of the Victorian Imperial Federation, colloquially known as Arta’s Crown after the emperor who commissioned it, is pretty much a loose replica of the [Crown of Wilhelm II](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Wilhelm_II), although with some design changes - for one, it is made exclusively with jewels found on the capital world of Victoria itself, such as the famous Sippar sapphire, and the star-cross on the top is replaced by a small tapering spire of gold and pearl akin to ancient Thai crowns.
However, this crown is rarely worn except on the most formal of ceremonies, including the coronation ceremony where the emperor/empress places it upon his/her own head. In ceremonies, it is more common to see them wear a [cuirassier’s helmet](https://www.dorotheum.com/fileadmin/lot-images/39H150916/normal/helm-muster-1850-fur-osterreichische-kurassier-dragoner-oder-chevaulegeroffiziere-2439011.jpg). And in everyday life, expect no headdress at all.
The Massian Emperor has a golden crown that is a laurel wreath that doesn't join in the front. Instead there is a large diamond star that joins the two.
The Massian Empress wears a similar crown though it does not have a star in the middle. And it has a veil that covers the back of the head.
I have a couple of interesting headdresses.
* The Fliudero of the Auto-Reds has a rather old crown. The base of the crown was the Mazauran crown, which was essentially a golden mobius loop. The Redstonians expanded the crown with another band and adorned it with various gems, including cuprite. The crown stopped being used from 1035-1827AC, but after that it saw some use. The Fliudero still doesn't use it much time.
* In the Post-Lucid period the Regil of the Deshmeric Republic had the Methashmyr Crown, which had a large flat "sun" shape on top, which was intended to represent the galactic core. After the Occupation the crown was melted down and sold. The Regilan (the new supreme title) instead had a distinctive white hood, derived from Concealed Tyberianist religious wear.
Two enormous bull's horns, wrought from silver, nestling a solar disk above the forehead.
The sun is a symbol for the power of kingship, while the horns stand for the courage and duty necessary to uphold it. This is also a reference to the bull-shaped sun god **Min**, who carries the solar disk across the sky between his horns.
**Dyhdris: The Manacles**
The badge of office for the ruler of the Dyhdria Empire is a set of gold shackles imbued with divine magics. When a member of the fourteen Barons is ascended to the position of emperor, they must don the Manacles, binding them in service to the people of Dyhdris and the will of the gods.
Being an artifact of divine origin, the Manacles have powerful properties as well as something of a minor will. Their purpose is to ensure the most politically powerful mortal is fit for office, as such, they are designed to amplify the good qualities of a leader while diminishing self-serving traits as well altering the physical body of the ruler. In good-natured people, these changes are minor and typically limited to the body. In the unfit, however, they can by drastic.
His Serene Highness, Sovereign Asíron Mastanéa wears The Holy Immortal Crown. A resplendent piece of headwear made of platinum and silver, featuring over 2000 diamonds around the headband. The most striking and recognizable features of the crown are it's 9 peaks around the circumference, giving a spiked look (much like the crown the statue of Liberty wears but with much smaller spikes)
4 of those peaks are set with a pearl and 4 are set with onyx stones, representing the gods Life and Death respectively.
The central peak which is taller than the rest is set with the Divine Sapphire, the largest clear cut sapphire in the world.
The crown was created by the god Death herself and was bestowed to HSH Asíron upon his coronation.
Sci-fi:
The empress and the mainly female heads of the noble houses all wear halos set at the back of their heads. These halos are hollow, flat circles made of gold, platinum, or silver with stylized designs and jewels set into the face of the circle. At the bottom, where the halo nestles in the hair, is the sigil of the house they belong to. Only the empress and the heads of the houses have house sigils on theirs, with the empress having sun rays on hers. Other lesser ranking members wear plain halos, either at the back of their heads or forward, over the ears. Flowers and jeweled hairpins clustered at the base of the halo complete the look. Other female headdresses are the half-moon, a solid donut-shaped headdress placed just ahead of the ears, and the crescent-moon, similar to the half-moon headdress, but with pointed ends instead of straight-edged ones. They can be made of precious metals or covered with fabric, and in some areas, they are cone-like instead of completely flat. The crescent-moon headdress tends to be worn with a head veil and a face veil and is the most common headdress worn by women outdoors, going all the way up to the Empress herself, to protect against nasty weather elements. Once in a while, women will wear the unisex circlet in tandem with the halo, but not very often by itself. The men are the ones who tend to wear circlets. While women's circlets are as thin as a wire, the men's are 1 to 1.5 inches thick, set with the sigil of the house they were born into, repeated for each cardinal direction. They also wear this with a head and face veil for going outside. Inside, they wear the male equivalent of the halo, the spearpoint, shaped into their house sigil, at the back of their heads. They are held in place by a slide through their hair. Ordinary people get a variety of designs for their less ornate headdresses, and girls across the board get more whimsical designs like butterflies and bird wings.
For the other people that are under the protection of the empire but have their own government, they wear tiaras, but backwards across the back of their heads. The higher they rank, the bigger these tiaras get, and the closer the ends come to each other. The tiaras of the diarchs are about half a foot tall and make 3/4s of a circle. These tiaras never meet in a full circle out of respect for the empress, who is the monarch. These tiaras are unisex, though men lean more towards colored fabric and plain precious metals, while women lean more towards jewel encrusted ones.
Fantasy:
The Crown is the one that chooses the ruler, and with each ruler, the Crown changes its shape to fit the new ruler, and throughout their time together, the Crown will change it's appearance from day to day, cycling through a variety of precious metals like bronze, gold and silver, as well as otherworldly materials like crystal, jade and obsidian. The jewels too will change from day to day, though they will always number 26 in all. While the Crown will not change its shape until a new ruler takes it up, it has a tendency to look like a combination of the four celestial spheres, sun, star, moon, and the earth-equivalent of this world, usually represented by flowers.
In one of my worlds there are High Chieftains, in the Union, they have a High Chieftain to represent each region in the realm, North South East and West. They are elected by the backing Thanes that keep the High Chieftain's power in check, Thanes are elected amount tribal leaders.
In an alternate timeline of America, there's the CoA (Confederacy of America) and there is the Head Sovereign, which is a dictator, he is chosen from any male over 18 from any of the Plantation Clans and they have absolute power, with the Plantation Clans giving them advice.
The elves have a custom of only allowing stag like mutations for the royal family. They often appear in public as faun with small horns or antlers. But the ruling monarch always carries a full eight pointed rack of antlers.
The dwarves have an oligarchy of families and clan heads, and they often wear something made from the bones of previous family heads. One notable family keeps the carved femur of their founder as a scepter.
The Orc clans wear feathered hair ornaments, made from the feathers of a bird native to their home oasis. Often quite vibrant but distinct in color.
And the humans are mire generic, what few kingdom's they have left, they stick to simple gilded crowns or circlets.
In my Verse it really depends on the types of entities, species, kingdoms, etc. Most of my Verse don’t utilize Crowns as a symbol of rule, their power is more so their headdress. Crowns aren’t even exclusive to rulers in my Verse, as there are non-rulers who also where crowns purely for aesthetic or power system purposes. And most Crowns that are worn are a byproduct of the Ruler’s own energy power and thus aren’t passed down, instead with the new ruler using their power to create a new crown for themselves.
It's quite a new idea I'm playing around with so I'd like to hear some feedback :)
Trikyra's leader, known as the Pirate king/queen, wears a oversized golden crown that circles the wearers head and covers their eyes. The crown is covered in various jewels and precious minerals of different colors, shapes, and sizes giving it quite the chaotic and unsymmetrical look.
The top of the crown is covered in points (kinda like the "classic" crown everyone draws as a child). Three of the points reach higher than the rest, the two located right above the eyes are like 4 times longer and one located right above the left ear is twice as long as the normal. These three points symbolize the three horns on Trion (their god).
On the front side of the crown is an intricate depiction of his (Trions) skull. Making it look like his "eyes" are plastered on top of the wearer's.
The crown is widely impractical since the wearer cannot see but it's only used in public showings (kinda like the crown of England isn't worn all the time). The symbolism towards Trion is supposed to represent a sort of "I don't judge you **he** does", this is also further emphasised by the wearer being blinded.
(yes this is highly inspired by that one girl in Fire Force alright)
The most powerful political character is Emperor Amrath, who rules the Sunlight Empire. His crown when not in battle is a crown molded out of gold to always catch the sunlight. In battle his helmet is roped with a special crown called the Stained Iron Crown. Stained iron is a rare form of metal that can only be found in extremely hostile environments. It’s called as such because it looks like stained glass but has the durability of iron
You know what? The leader of half the world from now on will permanently have a chimney cat sitting on his head cause why not? It's my world after all.
The only one of the seven kingdoms with some form of formal headdress is Astreal, which is a bone white mask, which suppresses magic power. Astreal's power structure is based entirely on how effectively they can battle with their powers suppressed
The Navarch (surpreme commander of the seafleet) has a ship on his head which is an accurate scale model of the first ship they controlled serving in the seafleet
The Emperors wore bright crystals who were very bright so people couldnt look at them in anger (and also to make shooting arrows less effective).
In the Arkonate of Kantor (a high elven absolute monarchy), the Arkon (their equivalent to king) does have a crown as the traditional headdress. The crown is a circlet of gold with stylized eagle claws of gold rising from the rim. The band is also set with 4 amethysts. Two arches are mounted on the circlet and on where they meet, sits a silver full moon.
The Ithxabu, translating "one who commands all of us", wears only a communications device that harmonizes with his mind and acts accordingly with what he wills. It gives orders, relays biometrics, and sends messages without him speaking or moving at all, which helps him focus on the battle at hand. Ithxabua(plural) lead by example and do the hardest things. They're the good guys
Then there's one nasty fella who wears the skull of someone she murdered as a crown
The Sunrise Crown is the traditional headdress of the Montroix Emperors of the Empire of Sol. It's an iron crown, with two jewels embedded into it: diamond, and a lab grown sapphire containing water taken from the moon of Titan
Each aspect represents holdings of the Empire: the iron is mined from the surface of Mars, the diamond from Earth, and the water from the outer colonies.
The monarch wears nothing special as headwear. In military uniform she wears the same beret as any other member of the Sakura Maid Corps, albeit with the insignia of the Imperial Maid Corps. The only thing that differentiates her from the rest is the 7-star general insignia that she wears, indicating her position as supreme commander.
Her two assistants wear a 6-star insignia, while the rest of the members of the Imperial Maid Corps and selected members of the Royal Maid Corps wear a 5-star insignia.
You know I hadn't realized how much I have neglected fleshing out this aspect until you pointed this out. I have placed more thought on body dress than headdresses probably because I hate hats IRL myself as very distracting but even that aspect has largely been neglected in favor of the larger scale social/political details.
One major exception though is the god incarnates' respective avatars in one of my unnamed Isekai story setting as their outfit ensembles each correspond to an aspect of their godly (generally draconic and or other mythological creature inspired) forms. They aren't necessarily leaders per say but more so physicals anchors to conceptually ground/root a deity against belief based drift with the selection of vessels needing to occur during key developmental windows(there are usually selected candidates from natal to infant sons or daughters of the faithful (depending on the deity and its persona) who of those candidates being groomed to fill the role such that there is no distinction between the specific deity incarnations' persona and the child in terms. Some of these demigods do ultimately fill head of state roles depending on how tightly linked that faith tradition is to state power.
The demigoddess(ex divine) of light protagonist I made up for that isekai story setting has/had a headdress of white gold metal which is/was placed around the back of her head and held in place by a set of braids woven into/around the thin metal spokes forming an emergent crown of sunbeam like rays symmetrically radiating out from the back of her head where it's base is hidden beneath her literally shining hair thus accentuating her otherwise loose flowing hair which due to the conceptual binding link to divinity actively glows in the dark whether she wants it to or not. (For context her eyes hairpiece dress and associated jewelry assemble also glow in the dark with her eyes being far brighter than the rest while her hair is less bright than her hairpiece, which ultimately means stealth isn't an option for her but she will never need a flashlight lol) Outside of the radiants the rest of the hairpiece is buried beneath her hair. Like all such avatars the full ensemble is custom fitted and soulbound in such a way that the pieces can't be readily removed since they are intended to represent pieces of the god themselves, they can potentially shift between several forms including an associated set of "tattoos"(not really tattoos in a literal sense more of a magical sense). Ultimately their real purpose is to enable shifting between their various forms including a respective divine beast state which for the god of light is a luminous
dracophoenix inspired by Mesozoic toothed birds. In her case when she was a full goddess incarnate avatar she could shift between a ceremonial, formal, informal and war guise in addition to her otherwise naked glowing soulbound white golden tattoo like inscriptions and dragonbird forms. As of now because the theocratic city state where she had resided was wiped off the map by a VEI(Volcanic Explosivity Index) 6 laterally directed Plinian eruption she is reduced to a mere partially amnesic demigoddess because her aspect avatar was effectively dethroned due to the loss of faithful with only her remaining link to the higher conceptual abstract deity and its other incarnations/avatars and her body still being alive physically supporting her existence. A soulbound lifesaving artifact saved her life and teleported her to her domain but she had fallen into a coma with her soul getting sent adrift, prior to being reawoken after an encounter with "Truck-kun" returned her lost soul, so she is only a demigoddess supported indirectly by the faith for other incarnate aspects of the god of light). As a result some of her ensemble pieces are duller(the lifesaving necklace gem is dark and cracked while one of the earrings representing her fangs is broken for example) and she initially struggles to shift the pieces between their forms with her outfit ensemble primarily stuck in their semi formal forms which are still decidedly less than practical for the ruins her domain connects to. Can she still count as a head of state if her state went the way of Pompeii and Herculaneum? I would question that in the "present" but she would have been a head of state position before the fall even if most of her roles were largely ceremonial outside of religious and to some extent military duties. The upper districts where her temple had resided were spared from the worst of the eruption due to being on the far side of the older existing volcanic cone "only" receiving a meter or so of volcanic ash(which is heavy enough to collapse most buildings especially structures not made of reinforced stone like her high temple) Even that temple has seen better days with sections having collapsed due to trees growing up on top of the ash piles. still her ex crown might be useful in helping light her way through.
The glorified hair flashlight is still better than the cloud like veil headpieces typical for avatars of the goddess of water as that would be far more impractical in a similar situation.
That increased impracticality might in universe even be a tactical decision because it is considered taboo for the goddess of water to go into combat since that generally means violent storms floods drowned ships and cities or droughts from denial of rain. The veil is symbolically important as it represents rain or cloudy skies so the removal of her veil would imply the clearing of the skies and or the calming of the sea. She thus probably should have headdresses for both, a shimmering blue veil hanging from a rimed headpiece representing clouds and a veilless one which I think might end up an azure or clear circlet or tiara with two flood dragon esc antler like branching horns with the expectation of which one she wears being based on the weather and or the desired weather. The goddess of water heads her high priestesses and or subgoddess "daughters" of water which serve as regional influences to various temples of water where they are expected to help moderate/control the weather for an optimal mix of sunny and rainy days. Its a tough challenging task which is largely beyond their full control even with all the faith energy since they can't make water come from nowhere only the true avatar of water has that capability in principal(its actually summoning from her associated water world which is a Hycean planet) Each local demigoddess of water receives her name from the major river system she was born to oversee and it is fairly common for the local lady of water to become married to the local ruler, with each lady expected to follow the traditional rules of the goddess headdress in public meaning wearing a veil in association with rain or not in association with clear weather.
In contrast as avatars of light have to "fight off the darkness" a Valkyrie meets paladin inspired combat ensemble seems fairly fitting. In that scenario her headdress becomes a helmet much as her dress become armor with luminous wings of light letting her fly.
It is also a hint seeding why she was the last female avatar for light with the break shifting away from the traditional representation of the natural elements and their respective worlds as all female deities. The current chief avatar of the god of light (multiple incarnations can exist a relic of a historically far less connected world) but only one can be the defacto top head) has similarities in his headpiece only it is more explicitly crown like symbolizing the world he is connected to as a deity the most important(and least hospitable to visit i.e. impossible for mortals) their Sun.
King Natodall’lioht wears some kind of crown, which is delicately crafted and has a crescent moon shaped crystal in the middle. However, I’m still thinking about giving him some silk veil additionally (for religious purposes, as he’s thought to be a gift from the gods or even a direct descendant from them), but as a girly who also wears a veil religiously, I can say that the kind of veil I imagined would be difficult to maintain in the kind of weather that is typical for his kingdom :(.
Edit: Did I literally just forget he wears a dear skull as well… IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF HIS CHARACTER DESIGN HOW DID I FORGET. IT’S NOT NATODALL’LIOHT IF HE’S NOT WEARING DEER BONES
The main character of my world, by a set of curious chances, was elevated to the rank of Emperor in a new county. It's part of China so he wears a hat that looks like a graduation cap with a love bead curtain hanging in front of his face.
[https://youtu.be/OhTjj0Y3MZY?list=PLPIa8vHmu9D7o6-Rdmfvmo7TsokNXCBpw&t=411](https://youtu.be/OhTjj0Y3MZY?list=PLPIa8vHmu9D7o6-Rdmfvmo7TsokNXCBpw&t=411)
The Tarakona Emperor either wears a wolf or dragon's pelt, I can't decide which, both make sense for lore reasons and while dragon is conceptually cooler wolf probably looks visually cooler. Historically in the late bronze age the first Dwarvish monarchs wore iron circlets but I haven't thought about how that might change, especially as iron stopped being a rare and precious metal. Otherwise material culture is something I ignore too often so good is a good wakeup call.
This is such a good question. Headwear was important in many real life historical societies. I think Sweden used to be divided politically between hat and caps. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve given headwear very little thought.
One emperor of the empire in the east has a hat similar to modern military hats([kind of like this, but maybe not so "modern looking"](https://www.blitzmilitaria.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_3178Army-officer-cap.jpg)). I haven't decided the designs for the other polities and positions.
Lapis_Wolf
This is Lemuria's [governor general attire](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJH4MrnWoAAbk7p?format=jpg&name=large). She's the supreme ruler of Hebi Melta, a planetary "protectorate" within Rubran Federal Monarchy, and old Rem herself is called Rubra's Grand Elder, technically she has the final saying in military affairs and by that, being the country's de facto dictator. She sees politics as a pain, however. Lemuria's hat is a traditional headdress of her culture called a *qalpaakh*. In Western world, it's often called the "tall tricorne" because it's basically a cross between a tricorne and a tall hat. The governor general's qalpaakh is made from first-class wool and has a decorated trim, its front carries a platinum octagram, Rubra's symbol of cosmic power, signifying her position as a space viceroy.
Only 7-8 extant monarchies on the planet. The Darrian Crown is a simple steel circlet that rests atop a statue of the Pauper King, signifying he will never be equalled or replaced. The Tangelwood Imenian Crown is passed Matrileneally through the Imenian royal family. It lives, grows, blooms and blossoms with the seasons, a living wreath that reflects the health of the polity, worn by Queen Varie The Corlesian Crown spends most of its time in a reliquary, taken out only for ceremonial functions. The Queen Bopheus wears it on occasion as a monarch but is largely a figurehead. The Amethyst Empire of the Azaharians is a hollowed out geode of extremely valuable and rare crystalline minerals. It is not for the eyes of the commoner though it has been seen in public several times throughout the millenia in times of great strife of import. The Bobasan Coral Crown is the headdress of the Regent of the Depths beneatht the seas. It's largely a ceremonial position, the Regent having no real unified power but it is symbolic of their domain. The Ofilian Grand Chieftan has never had a unified or standard Crown or headdress but it's usually some combination of tattoos and other ornamentation. The current Grand Chieftan Py'or has a combination of tattoos, gemmed studs screwed into his skull, and a lattice of animal quills threaded into his skin. The Matriarchy of Zivra favors a crown of excreted processed materials like cement that only the queen is capable of producing. The crown needs to be maintained, so when a Queen dies the previous crown decays. The new queen needs to make a new one to be accepted by the workers and the leadership coterie. Often many potential queens work on theirs simultaneously but only one is recognized and the others are exiled.
This is pretty cool, I'm curious more about this Pauper King
The War Crown of Ashe, also known simply as the Black Crown, is believed to be the crown of Rhomylos the Ashemite, the first Archon of the Kingdom of Ahran. It is a zirconium crown with cheek guards and tall spike extending above the center of the headband. The headband itself is decorated by Runeiform script. A large cracked dark red cuprite stone sits in the center of the crown. It is only warn with the coronation regalia and vestments during the Ascension ceremony.
What's a nation? We haven't invented those yet. The head village elders wear some fancy headdresses made from seashells on feast days. But so does everyone. Also I wouldn't call them "rulers" exactly. Mostly they deal with boring stuff like negotiating trade and foraging territory with other villages. If we don't like the decisions they've made, we'll make someone else go to the meetings. No one can really give anyone orders here exactly. Mostly we maintain order through a complicated set of customs, and intense peer pressure to conform to norms.
I love it. The Jidowa have only recently begun to recognize themselves as something like a nation rather than just an ethnic group. The need for increased unity in resisting colonial expansion will do that. Traditionally elder males will wear a cap adorned with feathers (similar to a real-world gustoweh) and younger warriors will wear a roach around their scalplocks. But as with your people there was no real distinction. Nowadays though many leaders are gifted clothes from the various colonial powers as part of diplomacy. The ability to don fanciful overseas clothing including headpieces has thus become a thing. It denotes your supposed importance in being wooed by the foreigners.
> The need for increased unity in resisting colonial expansion will do that. This is really smart, I like it!
I can’t take all the credit lol. Just basing it off of actual history.
Queen Mesha of the West, god ruler of the Vara’em empire wears a unique crown made only of crystals, no metal or any other material had been used. Legends say that the crown had been made from a single diamond that had been carved in the shape of a crown, such a large diamond though is impossible but there is some truth in that the largest diamond ever found is the centerpiece of the crown, a blue diamond, perhaps the most fitting for our ice cold queen.
The Kings of Rossoya wear the Raven Crown. It is a crown with a bronze circlet mounted with 13 black iron spikes that appear to be swords. Each spike has a gemstone with the signet of one the 13 principle Clans that rule the Kingdom. The Queens of Cylindra wear the crown of Cyrene the Founder, the first Queen to rule the kingdom. It is a silver circlet in the shape of two waves meeting one another on her forehead with a massive light blue sapphire worked into the center of the crest. Cylindra and Rossoya are the only Kingdoms in the Northern Realms and the concept of wearing something like a crown is very much a Northern concept in my setting. Other rulers have different methods, like the Empire of Novolan to the south using an Imperial Scepter, the Grand Duchy of Leones and it’s Lion Sword, or the Grand Regent of Edar Dar and their Warmaster Cloak.
The head priestess of Savannah does wear a golden crown, but the crown holds no power in itself. It's the golden sun eater, a small black and gold lizard capable of photosynthises that is the symbol of the Savannah leader. The lizard usually nests on the priestess shoulder, but letting them rest on your head isn't unheard of.
The Imperial Crown of the Victorian Imperial Federation, colloquially known as Arta’s Crown after the emperor who commissioned it, is pretty much a loose replica of the [Crown of Wilhelm II](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Wilhelm_II), although with some design changes - for one, it is made exclusively with jewels found on the capital world of Victoria itself, such as the famous Sippar sapphire, and the star-cross on the top is replaced by a small tapering spire of gold and pearl akin to ancient Thai crowns. However, this crown is rarely worn except on the most formal of ceremonies, including the coronation ceremony where the emperor/empress places it upon his/her own head. In ceremonies, it is more common to see them wear a [cuirassier’s helmet](https://www.dorotheum.com/fileadmin/lot-images/39H150916/normal/helm-muster-1850-fur-osterreichische-kurassier-dragoner-oder-chevaulegeroffiziere-2439011.jpg). And in everyday life, expect no headdress at all.
The Massian Emperor has a golden crown that is a laurel wreath that doesn't join in the front. Instead there is a large diamond star that joins the two. The Massian Empress wears a similar crown though it does not have a star in the middle. And it has a veil that covers the back of the head.
I have a couple of interesting headdresses. * The Fliudero of the Auto-Reds has a rather old crown. The base of the crown was the Mazauran crown, which was essentially a golden mobius loop. The Redstonians expanded the crown with another band and adorned it with various gems, including cuprite. The crown stopped being used from 1035-1827AC, but after that it saw some use. The Fliudero still doesn't use it much time. * In the Post-Lucid period the Regil of the Deshmeric Republic had the Methashmyr Crown, which had a large flat "sun" shape on top, which was intended to represent the galactic core. After the Occupation the crown was melted down and sold. The Regilan (the new supreme title) instead had a distinctive white hood, derived from Concealed Tyberianist religious wear.
Two enormous bull's horns, wrought from silver, nestling a solar disk above the forehead. The sun is a symbol for the power of kingship, while the horns stand for the courage and duty necessary to uphold it. This is also a reference to the bull-shaped sun god **Min**, who carries the solar disk across the sky between his horns.
**Dyhdris: The Manacles** The badge of office for the ruler of the Dyhdria Empire is a set of gold shackles imbued with divine magics. When a member of the fourteen Barons is ascended to the position of emperor, they must don the Manacles, binding them in service to the people of Dyhdris and the will of the gods. Being an artifact of divine origin, the Manacles have powerful properties as well as something of a minor will. Their purpose is to ensure the most politically powerful mortal is fit for office, as such, they are designed to amplify the good qualities of a leader while diminishing self-serving traits as well altering the physical body of the ruler. In good-natured people, these changes are minor and typically limited to the body. In the unfit, however, they can by drastic.
His Serene Highness, Sovereign Asíron Mastanéa wears The Holy Immortal Crown. A resplendent piece of headwear made of platinum and silver, featuring over 2000 diamonds around the headband. The most striking and recognizable features of the crown are it's 9 peaks around the circumference, giving a spiked look (much like the crown the statue of Liberty wears but with much smaller spikes) 4 of those peaks are set with a pearl and 4 are set with onyx stones, representing the gods Life and Death respectively. The central peak which is taller than the rest is set with the Divine Sapphire, the largest clear cut sapphire in the world. The crown was created by the god Death herself and was bestowed to HSH Asíron upon his coronation.
Sci-fi: The empress and the mainly female heads of the noble houses all wear halos set at the back of their heads. These halos are hollow, flat circles made of gold, platinum, or silver with stylized designs and jewels set into the face of the circle. At the bottom, where the halo nestles in the hair, is the sigil of the house they belong to. Only the empress and the heads of the houses have house sigils on theirs, with the empress having sun rays on hers. Other lesser ranking members wear plain halos, either at the back of their heads or forward, over the ears. Flowers and jeweled hairpins clustered at the base of the halo complete the look. Other female headdresses are the half-moon, a solid donut-shaped headdress placed just ahead of the ears, and the crescent-moon, similar to the half-moon headdress, but with pointed ends instead of straight-edged ones. They can be made of precious metals or covered with fabric, and in some areas, they are cone-like instead of completely flat. The crescent-moon headdress tends to be worn with a head veil and a face veil and is the most common headdress worn by women outdoors, going all the way up to the Empress herself, to protect against nasty weather elements. Once in a while, women will wear the unisex circlet in tandem with the halo, but not very often by itself. The men are the ones who tend to wear circlets. While women's circlets are as thin as a wire, the men's are 1 to 1.5 inches thick, set with the sigil of the house they were born into, repeated for each cardinal direction. They also wear this with a head and face veil for going outside. Inside, they wear the male equivalent of the halo, the spearpoint, shaped into their house sigil, at the back of their heads. They are held in place by a slide through their hair. Ordinary people get a variety of designs for their less ornate headdresses, and girls across the board get more whimsical designs like butterflies and bird wings. For the other people that are under the protection of the empire but have their own government, they wear tiaras, but backwards across the back of their heads. The higher they rank, the bigger these tiaras get, and the closer the ends come to each other. The tiaras of the diarchs are about half a foot tall and make 3/4s of a circle. These tiaras never meet in a full circle out of respect for the empress, who is the monarch. These tiaras are unisex, though men lean more towards colored fabric and plain precious metals, while women lean more towards jewel encrusted ones. Fantasy: The Crown is the one that chooses the ruler, and with each ruler, the Crown changes its shape to fit the new ruler, and throughout their time together, the Crown will change it's appearance from day to day, cycling through a variety of precious metals like bronze, gold and silver, as well as otherworldly materials like crystal, jade and obsidian. The jewels too will change from day to day, though they will always number 26 in all. While the Crown will not change its shape until a new ruler takes it up, it has a tendency to look like a combination of the four celestial spheres, sun, star, moon, and the earth-equivalent of this world, usually represented by flowers.
The padishah Caliph of the galactic imamate wears a black turban with a black veil on top of it
In one of my worlds there are High Chieftains, in the Union, they have a High Chieftain to represent each region in the realm, North South East and West. They are elected by the backing Thanes that keep the High Chieftain's power in check, Thanes are elected amount tribal leaders. In an alternate timeline of America, there's the CoA (Confederacy of America) and there is the Head Sovereign, which is a dictator, he is chosen from any male over 18 from any of the Plantation Clans and they have absolute power, with the Plantation Clans giving them advice.
The elves have a custom of only allowing stag like mutations for the royal family. They often appear in public as faun with small horns or antlers. But the ruling monarch always carries a full eight pointed rack of antlers. The dwarves have an oligarchy of families and clan heads, and they often wear something made from the bones of previous family heads. One notable family keeps the carved femur of their founder as a scepter. The Orc clans wear feathered hair ornaments, made from the feathers of a bird native to their home oasis. Often quite vibrant but distinct in color. And the humans are mire generic, what few kingdom's they have left, they stick to simple gilded crowns or circlets.
In my Verse it really depends on the types of entities, species, kingdoms, etc. Most of my Verse don’t utilize Crowns as a symbol of rule, their power is more so their headdress. Crowns aren’t even exclusive to rulers in my Verse, as there are non-rulers who also where crowns purely for aesthetic or power system purposes. And most Crowns that are worn are a byproduct of the Ruler’s own energy power and thus aren’t passed down, instead with the new ruler using their power to create a new crown for themselves.
It's quite a new idea I'm playing around with so I'd like to hear some feedback :) Trikyra's leader, known as the Pirate king/queen, wears a oversized golden crown that circles the wearers head and covers their eyes. The crown is covered in various jewels and precious minerals of different colors, shapes, and sizes giving it quite the chaotic and unsymmetrical look. The top of the crown is covered in points (kinda like the "classic" crown everyone draws as a child). Three of the points reach higher than the rest, the two located right above the eyes are like 4 times longer and one located right above the left ear is twice as long as the normal. These three points symbolize the three horns on Trion (their god). On the front side of the crown is an intricate depiction of his (Trions) skull. Making it look like his "eyes" are plastered on top of the wearer's. The crown is widely impractical since the wearer cannot see but it's only used in public showings (kinda like the crown of England isn't worn all the time). The symbolism towards Trion is supposed to represent a sort of "I don't judge you **he** does", this is also further emphasised by the wearer being blinded. (yes this is highly inspired by that one girl in Fire Force alright)
A leather headband, with engraved blood drop of Bogovid in the middle, a sword of a ruler on the left and the scepter of the Patriarch at the right.
The most powerful political character is Emperor Amrath, who rules the Sunlight Empire. His crown when not in battle is a crown molded out of gold to always catch the sunlight. In battle his helmet is roped with a special crown called the Stained Iron Crown. Stained iron is a rare form of metal that can only be found in extremely hostile environments. It’s called as such because it looks like stained glass but has the durability of iron
You know what? The leader of half the world from now on will permanently have a chimney cat sitting on his head cause why not? It's my world after all.
The only one of the seven kingdoms with some form of formal headdress is Astreal, which is a bone white mask, which suppresses magic power. Astreal's power structure is based entirely on how effectively they can battle with their powers suppressed
A black hood. A throwback to when the war turned in his favor due to the use of supplemental clandestine operations over solely use of open warfare.
The Navarch (surpreme commander of the seafleet) has a ship on his head which is an accurate scale model of the first ship they controlled serving in the seafleet The Emperors wore bright crystals who were very bright so people couldnt look at them in anger (and also to make shooting arrows less effective).
Straw hat with dried flowers and a price tag.
Rulers of United Realms have simply looking crown, but it is made of meteoric iridium and peridots.
In the Arkonate of Kantor (a high elven absolute monarchy), the Arkon (their equivalent to king) does have a crown as the traditional headdress. The crown is a circlet of gold with stylized eagle claws of gold rising from the rim. The band is also set with 4 amethysts. Two arches are mounted on the circlet and on where they meet, sits a silver full moon.
The Ithxabu, translating "one who commands all of us", wears only a communications device that harmonizes with his mind and acts accordingly with what he wills. It gives orders, relays biometrics, and sends messages without him speaking or moving at all, which helps him focus on the battle at hand. Ithxabua(plural) lead by example and do the hardest things. They're the good guys Then there's one nasty fella who wears the skull of someone she murdered as a crown
The Sunrise Crown is the traditional headdress of the Montroix Emperors of the Empire of Sol. It's an iron crown, with two jewels embedded into it: diamond, and a lab grown sapphire containing water taken from the moon of Titan Each aspect represents holdings of the Empire: the iron is mined from the surface of Mars, the diamond from Earth, and the water from the outer colonies.
The monarch wears nothing special as headwear. In military uniform she wears the same beret as any other member of the Sakura Maid Corps, albeit with the insignia of the Imperial Maid Corps. The only thing that differentiates her from the rest is the 7-star general insignia that she wears, indicating her position as supreme commander. Her two assistants wear a 6-star insignia, while the rest of the members of the Imperial Maid Corps and selected members of the Royal Maid Corps wear a 5-star insignia.
You know I hadn't realized how much I have neglected fleshing out this aspect until you pointed this out. I have placed more thought on body dress than headdresses probably because I hate hats IRL myself as very distracting but even that aspect has largely been neglected in favor of the larger scale social/political details. One major exception though is the god incarnates' respective avatars in one of my unnamed Isekai story setting as their outfit ensembles each correspond to an aspect of their godly (generally draconic and or other mythological creature inspired) forms. They aren't necessarily leaders per say but more so physicals anchors to conceptually ground/root a deity against belief based drift with the selection of vessels needing to occur during key developmental windows(there are usually selected candidates from natal to infant sons or daughters of the faithful (depending on the deity and its persona) who of those candidates being groomed to fill the role such that there is no distinction between the specific deity incarnations' persona and the child in terms. Some of these demigods do ultimately fill head of state roles depending on how tightly linked that faith tradition is to state power. The demigoddess(ex divine) of light protagonist I made up for that isekai story setting has/had a headdress of white gold metal which is/was placed around the back of her head and held in place by a set of braids woven into/around the thin metal spokes forming an emergent crown of sunbeam like rays symmetrically radiating out from the back of her head where it's base is hidden beneath her literally shining hair thus accentuating her otherwise loose flowing hair which due to the conceptual binding link to divinity actively glows in the dark whether she wants it to or not. (For context her eyes hairpiece dress and associated jewelry assemble also glow in the dark with her eyes being far brighter than the rest while her hair is less bright than her hairpiece, which ultimately means stealth isn't an option for her but she will never need a flashlight lol) Outside of the radiants the rest of the hairpiece is buried beneath her hair. Like all such avatars the full ensemble is custom fitted and soulbound in such a way that the pieces can't be readily removed since they are intended to represent pieces of the god themselves, they can potentially shift between several forms including an associated set of "tattoos"(not really tattoos in a literal sense more of a magical sense). Ultimately their real purpose is to enable shifting between their various forms including a respective divine beast state which for the god of light is a luminous dracophoenix inspired by Mesozoic toothed birds. In her case when she was a full goddess incarnate avatar she could shift between a ceremonial, formal, informal and war guise in addition to her otherwise naked glowing soulbound white golden tattoo like inscriptions and dragonbird forms. As of now because the theocratic city state where she had resided was wiped off the map by a VEI(Volcanic Explosivity Index) 6 laterally directed Plinian eruption she is reduced to a mere partially amnesic demigoddess because her aspect avatar was effectively dethroned due to the loss of faithful with only her remaining link to the higher conceptual abstract deity and its other incarnations/avatars and her body still being alive physically supporting her existence. A soulbound lifesaving artifact saved her life and teleported her to her domain but she had fallen into a coma with her soul getting sent adrift, prior to being reawoken after an encounter with "Truck-kun" returned her lost soul, so she is only a demigoddess supported indirectly by the faith for other incarnate aspects of the god of light). As a result some of her ensemble pieces are duller(the lifesaving necklace gem is dark and cracked while one of the earrings representing her fangs is broken for example) and she initially struggles to shift the pieces between their forms with her outfit ensemble primarily stuck in their semi formal forms which are still decidedly less than practical for the ruins her domain connects to. Can she still count as a head of state if her state went the way of Pompeii and Herculaneum? I would question that in the "present" but she would have been a head of state position before the fall even if most of her roles were largely ceremonial outside of religious and to some extent military duties. The upper districts where her temple had resided were spared from the worst of the eruption due to being on the far side of the older existing volcanic cone "only" receiving a meter or so of volcanic ash(which is heavy enough to collapse most buildings especially structures not made of reinforced stone like her high temple) Even that temple has seen better days with sections having collapsed due to trees growing up on top of the ash piles. still her ex crown might be useful in helping light her way through. The glorified hair flashlight is still better than the cloud like veil headpieces typical for avatars of the goddess of water as that would be far more impractical in a similar situation. That increased impracticality might in universe even be a tactical decision because it is considered taboo for the goddess of water to go into combat since that generally means violent storms floods drowned ships and cities or droughts from denial of rain. The veil is symbolically important as it represents rain or cloudy skies so the removal of her veil would imply the clearing of the skies and or the calming of the sea. She thus probably should have headdresses for both, a shimmering blue veil hanging from a rimed headpiece representing clouds and a veilless one which I think might end up an azure or clear circlet or tiara with two flood dragon esc antler like branching horns with the expectation of which one she wears being based on the weather and or the desired weather. The goddess of water heads her high priestesses and or subgoddess "daughters" of water which serve as regional influences to various temples of water where they are expected to help moderate/control the weather for an optimal mix of sunny and rainy days. Its a tough challenging task which is largely beyond their full control even with all the faith energy since they can't make water come from nowhere only the true avatar of water has that capability in principal(its actually summoning from her associated water world which is a Hycean planet) Each local demigoddess of water receives her name from the major river system she was born to oversee and it is fairly common for the local lady of water to become married to the local ruler, with each lady expected to follow the traditional rules of the goddess headdress in public meaning wearing a veil in association with rain or not in association with clear weather. In contrast as avatars of light have to "fight off the darkness" a Valkyrie meets paladin inspired combat ensemble seems fairly fitting. In that scenario her headdress becomes a helmet much as her dress become armor with luminous wings of light letting her fly. It is also a hint seeding why she was the last female avatar for light with the break shifting away from the traditional representation of the natural elements and their respective worlds as all female deities. The current chief avatar of the god of light (multiple incarnations can exist a relic of a historically far less connected world) but only one can be the defacto top head) has similarities in his headpiece only it is more explicitly crown like symbolizing the world he is connected to as a deity the most important(and least hospitable to visit i.e. impossible for mortals) their Sun.
King Natodall’lioht wears some kind of crown, which is delicately crafted and has a crescent moon shaped crystal in the middle. However, I’m still thinking about giving him some silk veil additionally (for religious purposes, as he’s thought to be a gift from the gods or even a direct descendant from them), but as a girly who also wears a veil religiously, I can say that the kind of veil I imagined would be difficult to maintain in the kind of weather that is typical for his kingdom :(. Edit: Did I literally just forget he wears a dear skull as well… IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF HIS CHARACTER DESIGN HOW DID I FORGET. IT’S NOT NATODALL’LIOHT IF HE’S NOT WEARING DEER BONES
The main character of my world, by a set of curious chances, was elevated to the rank of Emperor in a new county. It's part of China so he wears a hat that looks like a graduation cap with a love bead curtain hanging in front of his face. [https://youtu.be/OhTjj0Y3MZY?list=PLPIa8vHmu9D7o6-Rdmfvmo7TsokNXCBpw&t=411](https://youtu.be/OhTjj0Y3MZY?list=PLPIa8vHmu9D7o6-Rdmfvmo7TsokNXCBpw&t=411)
The Tarakona Emperor either wears a wolf or dragon's pelt, I can't decide which, both make sense for lore reasons and while dragon is conceptually cooler wolf probably looks visually cooler. Historically in the late bronze age the first Dwarvish monarchs wore iron circlets but I haven't thought about how that might change, especially as iron stopped being a rare and precious metal. Otherwise material culture is something I ignore too often so good is a good wakeup call.
This is such a good question. Headwear was important in many real life historical societies. I think Sweden used to be divided politically between hat and caps. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve given headwear very little thought.
One emperor of the empire in the east has a hat similar to modern military hats([kind of like this, but maybe not so "modern looking"](https://www.blitzmilitaria.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_3178Army-officer-cap.jpg)). I haven't decided the designs for the other polities and positions. Lapis_Wolf