Concept Seed: The True King of Texas.

The True King of Texas

How to become The True King of Texas: Currently?  Why, pull the Great Blade from the Dragon’s head, of course.  Previous conditions for True Kingship were equally dangerously bizarre, but this is what you have to do right now.

Powers of The True King of Texas: The usual: increased charisma; instinctual deference from all true children of the Great State of Texas; war-luck and wisdom in battle; a mild ability to heal the sick and ease pain via the laying on of hands.  Also, a True King of Texas has nothing to fear from any bovine; he can run through a cattle stampede and not take any harm. (Note: a woman who pulls the blade will become the True Queen of Texas, with identical powers, and possibly even more deference).

Drawbacks of being The True King of Texas: Boundless self-confidence, and an insufficient appreciation for your lack of immortality.

Sacred Kingship is like rain on a tent; it’s always going to find some way to sneak itself in, somehow, and then make a puddle at the bottom.  And then you typically won’t discover the puddle until it’s causing the maximum amount of inconvenience, and good luck with fixing any incidental damage then.  Really, this is one of the better metaphors.

Anyway: the Great State of Texas is a place where the esoteric potential of royalty is always short-circuiting itself before it can get to full power — which effectively means that the local manifestations of Sacred Kingship tend to be a bit weird.  As this particular case demonstrates: the idea of manifesting one’s destiny (to quote the sage) by pulling a large knife out of a living alligator’s head (who will absolutely contest the removal of the blade) is absurd.  This can be agreed upon by all. But it’s not particularly weirder than the idea of becoming King of All Britain by pulling a sword out of a stone, and the mystical iconography in play here is a remarkably good fit for the Great State of Texas’s natural, ah, uniqueness.

Obviously, there’s not an actual Texian royal dynasty or anything.  The True Kings don’t usually run the Great State of Texas, formally; they mostly act on a local or county level, and don’t get involved on statewide affairs unless the Great State of Texas itself is in danger (scholarship is unclear whether the relative lack of invasions of the state during the American Civil War were due to a hidden True King or not). True Kings also tend not to last too long.  On the bright side there, they typically die very well — admittedly, that would be on the bright side for the locals, not necessarily for the True King himself — and in a suitably heroic and swift fashion. Some don’t consider that to be such a bad trade-off.

In a campaign, The True King of Texas is probably better suited as being someone the party follows for a time, rather than be someone that somebody in the party becomes.  The effect can’t be turned off and it alters the original personality of The True King; many players dislike having that happen to their characters.  But helping somebody else die well, especially if it also helps the party accomplish a goal?  Yeah, that’s usually an easier sell at the table.