Klingon Promotion / Video Games

• The usual way to victory in Armello is to kill the king and become the ruler of the land, as long as you don't die in the process. Alternatively, you can avoid this trope by being the most prestigious hero and winning by default when the king eventually dies.
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey features a mercenary ranking system. You go up the ladder by murdering the people that were higher up than you.
• Command & Conquer:
  • In Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn game, Seth takes a dangerous initiative that Kane had explicitly forbidden: Attacking the United States. After shooting him mid-sentence, Kane congratulates you for your promotion.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert would probably have you believe you should be looking behind your back when you're "promoted."
    • The way the game was originally designed, during the moment where Gradenko or later Zhukov gets killed, instead they would be fighting to the death. A pistol conveniently lands in front of you. And then, you got to choose who to shoot — Stalin or Gradenko. This opens many worms since Gradenko was an Alliance defector.
    • In the Soviet ending, just as Stalin celebrates victory in Buckingham Palace, the tea he drinks turns out to be poisoned by none other than Nadia, with his science advisor Kane (yes, Kane) as an accomplice. After a brief struggle, Stalin's last words call Nadia a bitch. Nadia responds by shooting Stalin multiple times. Long story short, you get told you are being promoted to premier. Nadia subtly insults you by explaining that the Brotherhood of Nod will require you to keep things in Russia running while they call the shots and make their preparations, which should take until the 90's when Russia will become expendable. Cue Kane shooting Nadia in the back. Kane considers shooting you as well, but decides that you're worthy of the title Comrade Chairman as long as he is the future.
• This is one of the quickest ways to get rid of Mr. Alden, your bothersome superior at Glover & Glover in Cultist Simulator. Send a cultist with the right aspects to kill him to claim his position.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Morrowind:
    • Several Guilds and Factions in the game require this in order to become the new faction leader. Notably, this includes the Imperial Legion, the Fighters Guild, Great House Redoran, and the Mages Guild. The Mages Guild is actually optional, but taking the non-Klingon option leaves you co-leader with an incompetent buffoon and also means you won't be able to loot his powerful items — you can still get your hands on them without killing him, but only after the main quest is done.. The Bloodmoon expansion adds the East Empire Company — although like the Fighters, it's less a formal duel and more the old leader attacking you either because you've screwed up his plans or because you've become a threat, and your actual formal promotion to his old post is through other channels.
    • The Morag Tong inverts it. When a new Grandmaster comes along, he is supposed to honorably execute the old one. However, in this case, the old Grandmaster is perfectly fine with stepping down and retiring if you'll permit it.
    • Great House Telvanni, a Dunmer political faction made up of ancient, powerful, and typically amoral wizards forming a Magocracy, practices this as an official means of advancement. While you don't have to be fully "evil" to join, the House firmly believes in Might Makes Right, so those willing to commit a little murder naturally thrive there. From their official rules:
      "If you steal from another Telvanni, but still live, then clearly you deserve whatever you stole. Murdering your opponents by magic or treachery is the traditional way of settling disputes. If you win, then clearly your argument has more merit. You may be expelled as in any other Great House, but most Telvanni will not care or even know about it."
  • Skyrim:
    • Ulfric claims to be the High King of Skyrim because he slew King Torygg in "a legal duel." The Empire, however, does not consider his claim valid and named Torygg's widow Elisif to the provincial throne instead.
    • Several of the Nords who oppose Ulfric do so, not because he killed the previous king, but because the duel wasn't actually a "legal duel" in the first place. Instead of an honorable fight to the death, Ulfric used the power of the Thu'um to win.
    • All the major factions have you become the leader of certain factions when the existing leader dies, although you only kill the previous leader in The Thieves Guild questline and the Dark Brotherhood, in which the leader is already dying and asks you to finish it.
    • Orc strongholds have this as their way of deciding new chieftains. Their god, the Daedric Prince Malacath, sees this as a good thing; in order to protect themselves, the orcs have to prove that their leader is strong enough to protect them all. Chief Yamarz of Largashbur is implied to be the source of the stronghold's curse as he uses his cunning to weasel his way out of problems instead of facing them head-on, leading to the local giants to attack the stronghold. He tries to kill the Dragonborn after they fight their way to Volendrung, Malacath's hammer, proving he was never worthy to be chieftain in Malacath's eyes. Gularzob is chosen to be the new chieftain after his rightful death, but he doesn't know why.
• Escape From St. Mary's: The chemistry department has their own tradition of underlings slaying the head to take control.
• In Fallout: New Vegas, Benny gained his position as leader of the Chairmen by challenging the old gang leader to a knife fight and winning back when they were tribals.
  • You can help Benny's second in command get a similar promotion. Similarly, you can replace the heads of the Omertas with Cachino, who promises to make an effort to "run a tight ship".
  • The Independent path essentially means doing this to Mr. House.
  • Caesar's elite Praetorian bodyguards operate this way. To become a member of the guard, an applicant chooses whoever they think is the weakest current guard and challenge him to a duel. If the applicant wins, they take over the ex-guard's place. This keeps the guards on their toes.
• In Fallout 4, the DLC story in Nuka World introduces The Pack, a raider gang who lives off of "Survival of the Fittest". Mason isn't in power because he's the best leader, he's in power because nobody has been able to oppose him since he became the leader, and there's only one way to become the Pack Alpha...
• Played with interestingly in Final Fantasy X, of all games, where the revelation of the Klingon Promotion is a major part of the development of the Church of Yevon. The first time we see Seymour, he has just taken over his late father Jyscal's position of Maester (roughly equivalent to some sort of sub-Pope) in the Church of Yevon. At that time in the game this can seem a bit odd since at that point Yevon is apparently a Saintly Church dedicated to stopping fiends and Sin, while having the son take his father's place smacks of nepotism. Because Seymour is established as having already been a high-level church official, however, a player can gloss over this without suspecting the true corruption at the heart of Yevon. Several hours later in the game, it is revealed that Seymour killed his father discreetly in order to get said position, cementing his status as a viable villain and adding to a strong impression that the Church of Yevon is actually a Corrupt Church. (It was Operation Mi'ihen that started said impression.) Some time yet later in the game (it varies, depending on how much Level Grinding the player had to do to defeat Evrae), it is revealed that not only did Seymour kill his father for his position, but that all but one of his peers, (including the Pope-equivalent and de facto ruler of the world), were aware of his actions and condoned them as a way for Seymour to become a Maester, thus proving that it really is Klingon Promotion at its finest.
• The backstory of Fire Emblem Fates states that the Mad God Anankos took over the Kingdom of Valla by killing its true sovereign and his once Only Friend, its unnamed King, who was also Azura's father.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Mad King Ashnard became king by killing not only his father but everyone else in line for the throne. And, as Radiant Dawn reveals, quite a few innocents as well, given he did it via Blood Pact. Ashnard is The Social Darwinist, so this method is fitting.
• In the first Galaxy Angel trilogy, the Valfask seem to have this as a perfectly valid tactic to move up in the ranks. Nefuria in Moonlit Lovers was all but stated to be planning to do away with her superiors using the O-Gaub, and in Eternal Lovers, Wein was more than willing to give his enemies data on Rowil, so they could defeat him and then he would take over command of his remaining forces.
• At the end of the first God of War game, Kratos kills Ares and becomes the new Greek God of War. Problem is, he's not exactly a worthy successor...
  • God of War (PS4) reveals that Kratos ascended to godhood again (against his will, interestingly) by killing all the Greek gods and then killing the final remaining god — himself. Once again, one of the worst successors possible.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Killing drug lord Ricardo Diaz has the main character inherit his mansion and his gang in a very Scarface-like fashion.
• This is pretty much how Kormir became a god in Guild Wars: Nightfall, and for that matter what happened after Grenth defeated the previous god of death, Dhuum. It's implied Grenth wasn't the first, too.
• Halo:
  • The Jiralhanae (Brutes) have this as their only method of ascension to the status of Chieftain (who wield symbolic and very powerful hammers). However, it must be by way of a strict Duel to the Death, mano a mano. Heck, the chieftain in Halo: Contact Harvest, Maccabeus (who's a Reasonable Authority Figure by Brute standards), recalls that when he challenged his own father for the right to lead, his father was happy when Maccabeus knifed him in the neck, as it was considered the best way for an old Brute warrior to go. For bonus points, the Brute who challenges and kills Maccabeus for leadership is none other than Tartarus, The Dragon in Halo 2.
  • Though military promotions for the Elites are based solely on how many enemies they've killed, political promotions work similarly to the Brute system, as shown in Halo: The Cole Protocol, where a newly-ascended kaidon (feudal lord) easily kills three assassins sent against him. He then appears before his keep's elders and proceeds to execute the elder who sent the assassins, which is their version of a vote of no-confidence. Why? Because the elder didn't challenge him openly. The only reason he didn't slaughter the elder's entire family but had them exiled instead, was because the elder fought back at the last second, showing he had some honor left. Fittingly enough, the kaidon we've been talking about just happens be Thel 'Vadam, better known as the Arbiter introduced in Halo 2.
• The Henry Stickmin Series has the Toppat Clan, which is implied to have more than one scenario like this.
  • It's implied that Cloudface and Randy Radman died through these. Cloudface "lost his position" because no one could understand him through the beard, and Randy Radman ran the Toppats through the Party Era, which ended because they went bankrupt. While not confirmed they were overthrown by force, it wouldn't be outlandish to think this happened.
  • A confirmed scenario is Terrence Suave, the previous Toppat Leader. Due to making pointless raids for the thrill of it and his overall reckless nature, Terrence was overthrown by Reginald Copperbottom, and is remembered as one of the worst leaders the Toppat Clan ever had.
• I Wanna Be the Guy: Wanna be the Guy, kid? Here's a gun and a cape, so go take out the Guy. Just watch out for those spikes, and that apple that falls upward, and those eggplants, and the spike pit that stands up and starts chasing you through the level.
• When you infiltrate the Lotus Assassins' fortress in Jade Empire, your supervisor, Master Gang, expects you to help him replace his superior Master Shin by this means. Another of Gang's acolytes points out that "if one vacancy would raise us all, two vacancies would raise us even farther." This sequence also highlights the flaw in this system, as Grand Inquisitor Jia and the Master Executioner complain about how the infighting between Shin and Gang is getting in the way of actually getting the golem army running on schedule. It's also limited by the requirement that the "replaced" Master has to have been failing in their duties, or at least has to look incompetent when the superiors see what's going on.
• In Jagged Alliance 2, an example done by good guys, out of the five Santos brothers, Manny, the youngest one is a failure and does not own his own bar, instead he is working in someone else's bar. However, it just happen that his employer is a wanted international terrorist, so you can kill him for cash. Once you have done so, Manny will become the new bartender.
• Killer7: Minor characters Shinya Akiba and Hiroyasu Kurahashi rose in prominence through this. When nuclear missiles threaten to destroy Japan, they order the new leader of the U.N. Party, Kenjiro Matsuoka, to kill himself while revealing this truth. After continually mocking Matsuoka, they are promptly shot by him, only for Kun Lan to appear and revive the two as sentient Heaven Smile/zombie hybrids, while also giving Matsuoka the confidence he needs to be a great leader.
• In Kult: Heretic Kingdoms:
  • A civil war in the criminal underworld of Kyallisar started when someone tried this.
    Sharok: I've fallen out with my old master — a slight difference of opinion.
    Alita: What did you disagree on?
    Sharok: Gozen thinks he should remain thief master of Kyallisar — I think it should be me.
  • Gozen himself encourages this kind of promotion with his own bodyguard, having a standing policy that anyone who can kill the current bodyguard gets the job. Sharok comes up with the idea of using this to assassinate Gozen — challenge and defeat the bodyguard openly, then kill Gozen himself once there's no protector. Gozen isn't actually dumb enough to have overlooked that, however.
• League of Legends
  • This method of career advancement is not uncommon in Noxus, but none exemplify it better than Darius. He was just a common soldier until his captain ordered a retreat during a crucial battle against their sworn enemies, Demacia. Darius responded to this by lopping off his captain's head and leading the remaining army to victory. He then proceeded to enforce this upon Noxus by killing a large number of nobles he considered too weak to have the right to their positions.
  • Gangplank murdered his own father on his eighteenth birthday, seizing their pirate ship for his own. His father had never been more proud of him.
• LunarLux: The position of Lunex General was previously held by Thea Grey, but Saros took the position after trapping her in the Phantom Realm. In the finale, Bella kills Saros's Murk form and takes over as the new Lunex General.
• In MadWorld, you ascend the ranks of the gladiator game by killing those above you. Unlike No More Heroes, you don't need to be directly below their rank to gain it. Which is just as well, since you start out ranked 256th. Thankfully, killing the very first boss cuts that nearly in half, putting you at rank 198. Unfortunately, subsequent bosses ranks are much closer to each other, so you don't climb the ladder nearly so quickly after that.
• In Makai Kingdom, Klingon Promotion also seems to be the standard method of Overlord succession in the Nippon Ichiverse. Even humans who kill a strong enough Demon Overlord (or enough) will become one. And if a Demon Overlord were to kill enough other Demon Overlords; they would become something... else.
• As the Proud Warrior Race of the setting, it's unsurprising that krogans in Mass Effect practice this. In Mass Effect 2 you can talk to the krogan scientist in the Clan Urdnot camp to find out that he got his position by stabbing the former head scientist to death. It's never made clear if Wrex became head of the clan via this method, but given that he tells you he killed his father it seems likely.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake (Big Boss) inherits the title of 'Boss' by killing The Boss.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: This game deals with classic stereotypical orcs. Of COURSE you're going to see this on a regular weekly basis. Can work for or against you — in order to benefit from this trope, you need to look for opportunities to defeat enemy warchiefs whose lieutenants are under your command, while defending warchiefs whose aspiring lieutenants are not under your command. Having lieutenants under your control is vital to this process.
• In Minecraft, it's implied this is how it works in the ranks of the Illagers. If you kill one of the banner-carrying captains during a raid, other Illagers will rush over to grab the banner.
• In Mitsumete Knight R: Daibouken Hen, a second playthrough of the game reveals this is part of the Backstory of no less than The Hero, Christopher MacLeod: in order to infiltrate Orcadia Empire, so he can strike at the right moment to achieve his Revenge and destroy it, he climbed to the prestigious rank of Captain of the Imperial Guard's Knights part through his own abilities, part through underhand tactics such as assassinating or permanently crippling higher-ranked people and potential replacement for them.
• This is basically the entire premise of No More Heroes. Wanna be the #1 assassin in America? Then just go kill the current #1, as well as any other assassins ranked ahead of you.
• Plain Sight is a game about Suicidal Ninja Robots IN SPACE murdering each other for energy. The fastest way of getting said energy? Go for the big, glowy ninja robot and kill him, gaining all of his energy!
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: One of the NPCs seen in the sushi restaurant called the JOKER to have him murder his former boss, thus making him the new CEO of the company. He does not get to enjoy his new salary for long as like all other people who called the JOKER, he turns into a JOKER himself and gets kidnapped by the Taiwanese mafia shortly afterwards.
• Rave Heart: Count Vorakia Estuuban is the ruler of Niredia, having obtained the position by killing his predecessor Ragnar Quasag. Due to Niredia being a social darwinist dystopia, power struggles like this are unfortunately common.
• Shovel Knight: This is the reason Baz challenges you to a fight; he thinks that if he kills you then he will become a knight himself. The Plague of Shadows DLC reveals that he thinks everything works this way; for example, killing a scientist (Plague Knight) will make him a scientist instead.
• Prior to Soulcalibur V, Yoshimitsu the Second defeated and killed the original Yoshimitsu to take the latter's title and become the new leader of the Manji Clan. This was a necessary evil; the Yoshimitsu blade that is used as proof of leadership for the Manji ninja only recognizes one Yoshimitsu at a time and, being a cursed weapon that is used for good, can only be quelled and not harm its user if the former Yoshimitsu is slain and has their name taken by the newly-christened successor. Also, the original Yoshimitsu was both past his prime and fatally wounded by Cervantes between games, so he needed to test his intended inheritor to see if they were worthy of accepting the mantle.
• StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void: Between the Tal'darim, a fanatical protoss faction, it's possible for one to climb the hierarchy by challenging and defeating a higher-ranking individual. These duels, known as Rak'shir, involve the two protoss trying to push each other into a Lava Pit, in a combat that may take hours, and are watched by thousands of Tal'darim as source of entertainment. In an interesting twist, the followers of the two duelists are allowed to psychically support their leader, so it doesn't just come down to a contest of raw strength, but also a contest of who can get more Protoss to follow them.
  • This also comes with a bit of Loophole Abuse in that you don't have to actually fight the Rak'shir duel yourself to rank up — so long as someone above you dies, you rise in rank, even if you weren't the one throwing down the gauntlet. Alarak exploited this in the fluff to jump to First Ascendant (the position directly under the Tal'darim leader, the Highlord) by setting up a Rak'shir duel between the previous First Ascendant and the Highlord where everyone above him in rank got killed.
• Star Trek Online:
  • With the Legacy of Romulus expansion's revamp of the Klingon campaign, you challenge your ship's captain to a duel after he tries to turn over a newly captured prisoner to The Federation. Notably, this is right after you were Klingon Promoted from second officer to first officer after the first officer challenged the captain on the same grounds and lost (you later find out that she didn't even get to properly fight. The captain stabbed her in the back while they were preparing for the duel). The Klingon high command considers this highly irregular (only the first officer is allowed to challenge the captain and your promotion wasn't official yet) and requires you to win a ground duel later as a formality.
  • In the Federation tutorial:
    • The original tutorial had the Starfleet Player Character advance to acting captain of their starting Miranda-class because everyone aboard senior to them got killed by the Borg. Overlaps with You Are in Command Now.
    • Season 8 and the revamp of the Federation tutorial stage kinda-sorta does this for the Federation player: the captain of your ship is kidnapped by boarding Klingons and he tells the player to lock onto his commbadge and blow the cloaking Bird of Prey sky high. As you're pretty much the next highest-ranking officer (as part of a group of recently-graduated cadets), you're now the captain. To play this even further, play the tutorial as a Federation-allied Klingon.
  • The entire story of Chancellor J'mpok is this. In the backstory, J'mpok is furious at Martok's more peaceful attitude and confronts him behind closed doors. It isn't known what happened, but when they were done, Martok was dead and J'mpok was now Chancellor. When Martok is later revealed alive, he confirms there was a fight and what J'mpok did was fair and legal from their terms and he had no desire to become Chancellor again. When J'mpok went off the deep end, J'ula of House Mo'kai confronted him after going through a Heel–Face Turn and killed him, though like Worf, she passed leadership over to L'Rell II.
• Star Trek: Klingon Academy deals with the potential consequences of this: The Klingon Empire circa the sixth movie was having a decline in quality commanders because people who were skilled in dueling but not in running a starship kept ending up in senior positions through this trope, so General Chang created a command school to train junior officers in shiphandling.
• Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic:
  • Darth Malak tried to pull this off in the backstory by killing his master Darth Revan. It doesn't work as well as he had planned. He mentions when you meet him that his power base is weaker than it would otherwise be because he didn't do it right. The intention is to dispose of your master in a duel or through some clever plan to demonstrate that you're better suited to lead, while Malak just waited until Revan was distracted with something important he had nothing to with arranging and blasted him. A method which if followed consistently, would result in Sith Lords being unable to ever do anything because their apprentice would betray them the moment they looked away.
  • The Dark Side ending has you show Malak how a Sith Promotion is done properly. With a side of revenge for kicking you out to begin with.
  • The sequel reveals that Revan defeated the Mandalorians by exploiting this. Any Mandalorian could become the new Mandalore by dueling the current one and claiming his helmet, and if he was defeated in another fashion leadership went to whoever could claim the helmet and keep it. Revan found out about this and killed Mandalore in a duel at the height of the final battle. This didn't make him Mandalore, but it did remove their ability to rise again under a new leader because he stole the helmet and hid it.
• In Stray Gods, Persephone killed Hades and usurped his throne, though it didn't last long before the other Idols dethroned her as punishment for the murder.
• Happens early on in Symphony of War. After the Chancellor kills the Empress and pins the crime on the protagonist, he eventually takes control of the Empire.
• Parodied in the Touhou Project game Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, when Marisa asks Sakuya if she can become chief maid by killing her. The answer is no.
• Warcraft:
  • While this is not standard in orc society, Orgrim Doomhammer becomes warchief of The Horde by killing Blackhand, after finding out that not only is Blackhand just a puppet of the Shadow Council, but that Blackhand was involved in the death of Orgrim's best friend Durotan (Thrall's father). In fact, Blackhand's own sons carried out the assassination of Durotan and his mate.
  • World of Warcraft eventually introduced the Mak'gora, a ritual duel practiced by orc and ogre clans. Traditionally to the death or submission, it was often used to determine leadership for a group.
  • Also from World of Warcraft, the Twilight's Hammer Cult thinks the player is doing this to rise to a high position in the cult on the fast track in one questline in Mount Hyjal. What the player is actually doing is trying to get into a position where they can rescue a certain high-value prisoner who is due to be sacrificed in one of the cult's rituals soon.
• WildStar: Then Emperor Azrion assimilated the Draken into the Dominion by killing High Clanlord Zhur in one-on-one combat. It's also implied to be the traditional means of promotion within said alien species.
• In The World Ends with You, the only way to become the Composer is to kill the current Composer.
• Xenoblade Chronicles:
  • At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country, it's revealed that Amalthus didn't become Praetor through noble means, slipping a poison into Praetor Rhadallis' wine and causing him to collapse over dead.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Q reveals during Alexandria's Ascension Quest that Alexandria had poisoned the old Commander of Colony Iota and usurped the position from him, because she recognized that his leadership methods were causing Colony Iota to be on the verge of total collapse.

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