History Main / NonEntityGeneral

*** Most narrators actually do identify themselves and explain why they know what they do. The Mongol narrator mentions he was chosen to record his people's journey from the moment they decided to leave Mongolia. In Joan d'Arc's story, it is one of the first soldiers to join her. In Saladin's, it's a crusader soldier who was taken prisoner yet allowed a lot of freedom.

** ''[=StarCraft=] II'' takes the ''VideoGame/WarCraft III'' route: the player is never referred to and instead simply controls Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, or Artanis through the storylines, although sometimes the player is still adressed directly (Such as when manually targeting your own buildings with a big laser drill).

* Despite it being an RPG, in ''{{VideoGame/OFF}}'' you are referred to with [[HelloInsertNameHere your name]], your pronouns (game asks you if you are male, female or non-binary at the beginning) and "the puppeteer" to reflect your status as the one who controls the Batter. However, some of the characters adress you. In the endgame, the Judge even calls you "the one who lies beyond the eye of the cat".

** Unlike ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'', which adds snippets of backstory to the players' roles, the retconned identities of the ''Warcraft'' ones are the subject of fan speculation.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'''s canon is very confusing in this aspect:

** The mini-campaign ''Enslavers'' has you play as a commander from Alpha Squadron. Officially, Blizzard has stated that [[CuttingOffTheBranches the canon path]] is the Commander breaking away from the Dominion and helping the Protoss. However, there is no word on the Commander's fate or identity. ''VideoGame/StarCraftMassRecall'' has the Commander in this be the same commander from Episode I (forced into Mengsk's service), but that's a fan made game and not officially canon.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ExecutiveAssault'' - the commander is an in-game character who not only serves to construct buildings and units, as well as control individual units on the battlefield, but also serves as the primary objective for a match - the object of the game is to kill the opponent's lead executive.

** Inverted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' (which was released as just ''Fire Emblem'' in the US). You did in fact have a character represented, a novice tactician who commanded the units and was actually spoken to often. However, your sprite was just a person in a robe, with no physical features visible, and you never said anything. You could set your gender, which slightly altered some text (primarily with [[ChivalrousPervert Sain]] and [[DoesNotLikeMen Florina]]) but didn't change the sprite, which was of indeterminate gender. Second playthroughs even give the option of getting rid of this entirely.
** Completely inverted again in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', where the player character is not only the Shepherds' tactician and strategist, but a controllable combatant who can be killed (though this results in a Game Over), interact with EVERY other character in the army, and is [[spoiler: integral to the plot of the game. They even have an evil counterpart]].

* The miniatures wargame ''Dux Bellorum'' invokes this trope -- the highest-level troop choice models the king/jarl/theign/warlord's companions, but not explicitly the king/jarl/theign/warlord himself. The only nod towards the leader having an effect on game play is that if the companions unit is destroyed, the player can no longer distribute leadership points to units in the army.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Citadels}}'', the player can choose to play as one of 9 characters (assassin, thief, magician, king, bishop, merchant, architect and warlord) to aid the building of their city. However, these characters don't necessarily represent the player themselves, as the cards are shuffled every round, and the players may have a different role every single turn.

[[folder:Video Games]]

-->''"I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice."'' – '''[=CEO=] Nwabudike Morgan''', ''[=MorganLink 3DVision=] Interview''

* The playable cities in ''Videogame/Frostpunk'' are run by Captains, featureless [[CommandAndControlEconomy absolute rulers]] whose faces never show up in any images in-game, never suffer ill effects from hunger or sickness or cold, and don't actually count towards the population tally.

* The playable cities in ''Videogame/Frostpunk are run by Captains, featureless [[CommandAndControlEconomy absolute rulers]] whose faces never show up in any images in-game, never suffer ill effects from hunger or sickness or cold, and don't actually count towards the population tally.

* While the original ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' was rather... ambiguous as to whether the player character existed or not (just who ''was'' Gabriel talking to in the first mission?), in the ''Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'' expansions, when selecting an army to play as in the campaign, the player is pretty much told that they are the leader-hero of the faction they control. This is done even more explicitly in ''Dawn of War II'', with the opening {{cutscene}} referring literally talking to the player and telling them that they are the nameable Force Commander in the game.

* In ''Seven Kingdoms 2: The Frythan Wars'' (And possibly the first one) the player does not get any real story. However, the [[AnyoneYouKnow name entered when creating the profile]] is used as the name of the player's King (All High for non-human factions) unit in game, giving the impression that the player is actually there leading the kingdom. However, getting killed just puts one of your generals in charge.

* {{VideoGame/Humankind}} plays with this. In diplomacy, score screens, and such, you interact with ahuman avatar representing the other civilization. However, this avatar represents nothing in game, it is clearly a guiding spirit/[[BreakingTheFourthWall enemy player]] type of deal that controls its civilization over time. You also chose such an avatar at the start of the game.

* ''VideoGame/KanColle'' has the player character assuming the role of an unseen Admiral who commands every move made by their fleet of shipgirls, right down to micromanaging all of the equipment assigned to them. However, there is actually quite a bit of interaction between the shipgirls and their Admiral, to the point where they can potentially become close enough to get married, and some of the dialogue suggests that the Admiral is a male.

* In ''VideoGame/AzurLane'', you are the unseen Commander of the eponymous organization, putting you in charge of a whole bunch of shipgirls. That said, it is made clear that the Commander exists as a distinct individual in-universe; they can interact with and even marry the shipgirls, have actual dialogue (both internal and external) in the story chapters and side-quests they appear in, and have even managed to attract the direct attention of the antagonists.

* Both ''VideoGame/KanColle'' and its competitor, ''VideoGame/AzurLane'', feature player characters called Admiral and Commander respectively, who play this straight in that they are faceless, unseen entities who command every move made by the ship girls in multiple fleets and micromanage all of the equipment assigned to them. However, there is quite a bit of interaction between the ship girls and Commander/Admiral, who will eventually form relationships with and potentially marry any one of the featured girls and some of the dialogue suggests that Admiral/Commander is a male.
* ''VideoGame/KanColle''[='=]s successor games follow this format with ''VideoGame/ToukenRanbu''[='=]s ''saniwa'', ''VideoGame/BungoToAlchemist''[='=]s alchemist librarian and ''VideoGame/NamuAmidaButsuUtena'''s ''dōmori''.