Quislings seen in Literature.
- In Robert Silverberg's The Alien Years, a nerdy hacker breaks into the conquering aliens' computer system, but instead of trying to use it against them, he offers them his help in return for power and a harem.
- Any voluntary Controller from Animorphs, but Hedrick Chapman deserves a special mention. You know, being the one who paraded Loren before the Yeerks and said, "Hey, lookit this! I gotta planet of six billion just waitin' for ya!" and all. Elfangor, Loren and the Yeerk he was trying to help, Sub-visser Thirty-two, all leave him to be sucked into a black hole. However, the Ellimist saved him and wiped his memory. When the Yeerks finally make it to Earth, he and his wife are infested, but only cooperate to keep their daughter, Melissa, free and uninfested. He becomes a Middle-Management Mook and the Animorphs' go-to guy when they need someone to threaten or torture. Ahh, karma.
- There's also Taylor, a former Alpha Bitch who lost her looks and her popularity in a fire. Desperate to regain the life she had, Taylor agrees to become a voluntary Controller in exchange for the Yeerks using their advanced technology to make her a Cyborg and restore her beauty. Unfortunately for Taylor, the Yeerk chosen to infest her is not exactly a pillar of mental stability...
- David could be considered a subversion, as he threatens to betray the team to the Yeerks on a few occasions but never actually does it. It's heavily implied he's bluffing and hates the Yeerks as much as the Animorphs do.
- And from VISSER there's Rich Huntley, the first voluntary Human-Controller. Edriss kills him for his trouble.
- One book reveals there are Andalites helping the Yeerks as well. It was a plot that was supposed to be elaborated on later, but was ultimately forgotten about.
- The Chronicles of Prydain: Lord Pryderi, who has always been a loyal ally of Prince Gwydion, shows up for the council of war and declare that the only sane option is to join the enemy. Which he does. He gets Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves when, on Arawn's orders, he attempts to invade Caer Dallben and the place itself destroys him.
- In Taylor Caldwell's early-1950's novel, The Devil's Advocate, the senior administrator of the Eastern Seaboard in a Communist-ruled America was secretly the head of La Résistance. He makes a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the book, allowing himself to be assassinated so as to provide the scapegoat and poster boy for the downfallen dictatorship for Americans after the Second Revolution.
- Age of Fire: The third book, Dragon Outcast, has SiMevolant, who upon becoming Tyr, opens the Lavadome to the Wrymmaster's forces, selling his people out to slavery in exchange for a cushy position as their Puppet King. Unsurprisingly, this triggers a rebellion that results in his own death.
- Eurico the Presbyter: Several Visigothic nobles such as Sisebuto, Ebas and Count Julian assist the Umayyads invade Visigothic Spain into conquering Hispania for pure self-interests or personal grudges and not because they believe in Islam, which is why their allies hold them in contempt as "infidels".
- Fengshen Yanyi: while the series has plenty of Shang Generals who decide to become Defector from Decadence and are portrayed in a good light, two of King Zhou's ministers, Fei Lian and E Lai, are depicted as sycophantic towards him, but as soon as they notice that he's wounded, all generals are dead and the palace is surrounded, they immediately plot to run away with the Imperial Seal and offer it to King Wu to keep their old titles and riches. King Wu is wise enough to see through their deception and has them executed for high treason.
- The Footprint of Mussolini:
- Ryu Ota, leader of the People's Republic of Ezo who spent his entire rule discriminating against the Japanese on Hokkaido despite being Japanese himself, labeling the Ainu "Lumpenproletariat" that needed to be reared to power. During the fall of Ezo to Japan when Communism collapses in Asia, he would be found hiding in a forest by Japanese soldiers and beheaded for his betrayal.
- Dimitrios Ioannidis, the leader of Greece's Italian collaborationist government, is especially considered a detestable bootlicker even by Italy, with Balbo once describing him as "A man made of meat that a dog wouldn't eat". He's forced to resign by Italy on Duce Ciano's orders in 1976 as part of a desperate attempt to salvage the deteriorating situation in Greece.
- For Your Safety has a character actually named Anna Quiyang Quisling. Before the Groupmind rebellion she was a Swedish writer of Robo Sexual erotica, who was offered the chance to write pro-Groupmind propaganda. In exchange she was given a morph companion to act out her fantasies with, and keep the billions of humans who want her dead from killing her.
- Free Flight by Douglas Termen is set in a post-WW3 Soviet-occupied North America, but the antagonist is not the Soviets but McKennon, a senior American officer of the Peace Division.
- The Ganymede Takeover, a 1967 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson, has several such characters (as the alien invaders know this is the only effective way they can rule Earth), racist landowner Gus Swenesgard being the best example, though at one point even a Resistance hero is offered the job (and is tempted for a moment). Subverted in that when the aliens are finally defeated, the resistance set up Swenesgard to be their puppet ruler until democracy is restored. That is, if they ever intend to restore democracy...
- At the end of Guns of the Dawn, when the war is over, Mr Northway, formerly Mayor-Governor of Chalcaster for the king of Lascanne, continues in that role despite the change in leadership. His motivations are reasonably good — someone has to be in charge, and continuity of government will avert dangerous instability. It doesn't do wonders for his public image, but then, people didn't think much of him anyway.
- Andrew in Harald, though his motives are never made clear.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Voldemort installs a few of these to re-enforce his reign:
- Severus Snape appears to be this, controlling Hogwarts on the behalf of the Death Eaters. Subverted when he was revealed to be a reverse mole.
- Pius Thicknesse controls the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and after Rufus Scrimgeour's death, the entire Ministry of Magic. In the books, this is the result of Mind Control but in the movies, it is implied to be voluntary.
- Dolores Umbridge does not have any official ties with Voldemort, but she gleefully uses her post to enforce his Fantastic Racism by running a Kangaroo Court to give Muggle-borns a choice between surrendering their wands and a Fate Worse than Death. (Word of God claims this earned her a life sentence in Azkaban after Voldemort's defeat.) In one Bad Future in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, she is reinstated as Hogwarts headmistress and openly supports Voldemort.
- The Inquisitorial Squad, a number of Slytherin students who gleefully aided Umbridge in her oppression of the school and who were given some measure of authority (e.g. the power to give or deduct points) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
- Magnificent Bastard Melisande Shahrizai (and later Isidore D'Aiglemort) of Kushiel's Legacy, who plots with a hostile foreign power to take over her homeland long before the actual invasion even takes place.
- In Rick Cook's Limbo System, Aubrey is convinced of the greatness of colonists and helps them in their initial attack.
- The Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs in The Looking-Glass Wars were loyal to Redd as soon as she took over. When Alyss resumes power, they switch loyalties again, and unfortunately weren't punished. This is rectified in the sequel, Seeing Redd. Jack of Diamonds is seen to have been imprisoned for treason. He does manage to escape and tries to join up with Queen Redd. This time, he quickly outlives his usefulness.
- In Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night the American protagonist is asked to become The Quisling for the Nazis by an American agent to pass information to America. The book is about what being a collaborator does to his soul (and life), even though he knows he is doing it for a good cause.
- Shift the Ape, from the final book in the Narnia series, fits the above description perfectly.
- Senator Viqi Shesh from the New Jedi Order willing works with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, though it would be a stretch to say she was loyal to them her first loyalty was always to herself—she merely wanted to ensure her survival and position by teaming up with what looked like the winning side). This came back to bite her in the end, as the Vong, horrible as they were, actually had a rather strict code of conduct and found an obviously self-serving traitor repellant. Shesh found herself constantly scrambling to keep herself indispensable to the Warmaster lest she be unceremoniously killed off.
- And when she ultimately finds herself stuck between the Vong (who don't really need her anymore) and the New Republic (who she betrayed), she Takes a Third Option by giving herself a Disney Villain Death.
- Most of the Peace Brigade members, they collaborate with the Yuuzhan Vong by handing over high ranking officials, and Jedi. But to the Vong, the term peace is synonymous for submission, as they already plan on enslaving the Peace Brigade when they win the war.
- The same series has Prime Minister Molierre Cundertol of the planet Bakura betray his own people to the Ssi-Ruuk, a reptilian race that had already attempted an invasion of his world once before earlier in the Star Wars timeline (the novel Truce at Bakura). In exchange, the Ssi-Ruuk transferred his life into a new human-like droid body so he could live forever. They plan to use the population of Bakura as slaves to breed so that they can have a supply of humans whose life can be sucked out of their bodies and into Ssi-Ruuk war machines. Cundertol even tries to justify it to his people by saying that they can become far more powerful as machines, especially if they are running Ssi-Ruuk cities. Of course, no one buys this argument. In the end, it's revealed that the Ssi-Ruuk have themselves been infiltrated by the Yuuzhan Vong and are unknowingly being manipulated by their undercover agent. This agent reveals himself to Cundertol and kills him for his failure.
- Some of the cooperating zeks in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, like the cooks, like to screw over their fellow prisoners for their own gain.
- In the Resistance Trilogy by Clive Egleton, set in a Soviet-occupied Britain, the only named antagonists encountered by the hero are British, not Soviets.
- Harry Turtledove's Ruled Britannia is loaded with 'em.
- In The Shelter one starts to wonder why they even keep Ricky around when he constantly betrays and tries to murder his family over and over again.
- A few positive examples in A Song of Ice and Fire; when Daenerys starts conquering/liberating cities founded on slavery, she unsurprisingly gets quite a few people (whether ex-slaves or freemen with a conscience,) who fully support her regime, with a few particularly useful ones joining her council. Equally unsurprisingly, these people are viewed as quislings by the deposed masters, and many acts of murder and sabotage are carried out by the latter, who consider themselves La Résistance.
- One of them, Skahaz mo Kandaq a.k.a. the Shavepate (the head of Daenerys' Secret Police), however, is hinted to be far more complex than that. Depending on which theory you buy, he may be preparing to designate himself Dany's successor or become a full-blown Starscream.
- Roose Bolton, who betrayed the Northern kingdom to the Lannisters and personally murdered his king Robb Stark, is a definitely negative example. Walder Frey did the same with the Riverlands at The Red Wedding, but failed: Littlefinger was appointed their Lord Paramount instead of him. However, his second son Emmon is made Lord of Riverrun and many of his descendants get marriages with Lannisters for this. Unfortunately, this has backfired with the Boltons and the Freys, as they are despised throughout the North and the Riverlands and Walder's descendants are getting murdered by the angry relatives of those they killed.
- A more positive example during Aegon's conquest. When Aegon began conquering the Riverlands, many of the River Lords joined him. After Black Harren Hoare and House Hoare were wiped out, Lord Edmyn Tully was made Lord Paramount of the Trident. However, Harren the Black was a cruel tyrant who had beggared the Riverlands and worked thousands to death building Harrenhal, and his grandfather Harwyn Handhand Hoare had invaded the Riverlands.
- When Aegon wiped out House Gardener, the rulers of the Reach, their castle of Highgarden was surrendered to him by its stewards, the Tyrells, and Aegon made them rulers of the Reach for this.
- In a much, much more ominous example, a sample chapter from The Winds of Winter heavily implies that Euron Greyjoy has sold out the entire continent to the Others.
- In The Temple of the Muses, the fourth volume of John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series, the protagonist, Decius, warns one of his contemporaries at the Roman Embassy in Alexandria of a possible plot against Rome being fomented by someone in Ptolemy Auletes's court. The elder Roman brushes this off, advising Decius that whenever such a plot forms, inevitably one of the conspirators realizes how much better he can do for himself by betraying the plot to Rome and setting himself up to reap the rewards. In Real Life, encouraging such traitors was a cornerstone of Rome's foreign policy, and it (usually) worked astonishingly well. Writing with the benefit of hindsight, Decius remembers Caesar and later Antony employing this policy to great effect in Judea, with Antipater and his son Herod.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Lord of the Rings:
- Saruman secretly works for Sauron, though he intends to replace him.
- Lotho Sackville-Baggins, in Saruman's Shire. With the completion of the Scouring, it's revealed that Wormtongue murdered him on Saruman's orders.
- Wormtongue seemingly intended to become this. Gandalf accuses him (rightfully most likely, given Gandalf's track record) that Saruman promised him to be appointed a puppet king after the defeat of Rohan, and to be able to forcibly marry Eowin, whom he desired (which would also give him a shade of legitimacy). We don't know if Saruman would keep his promise, though, and it all turns moot anyway when Rohirrim defeat Saruman's forces instead.
- The Fall of Gondolin has Maeglin, the Evil Nephew of Turgon, King of Gondolin, who is in love with Turgon's daughter Idril. When he is captured by Morgoth, under threat of torture he reveals the location of Gondolin and is told he will be rewarded with rule of the city and Idril. Despite the threat, Maeglin still doesn't warn the city of Morgoth's attack and during the battle he tries to kill his cousin's son Earendil. However Earendil's father Tuor kills Maeglin.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- The Tomorrow Series has Major Harvey. When he first appears, in The Dead of the Night, he seems to be the heroic leader of the La Résistance group Harvery's Heroes, only to be later revealed to be an enemy officer who let his group get massacred. In The Third Day, The Frost he is put in charge of Stratton Prison, and killed by Robyn Taking You with Me during the group's escape.
- In E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth novels, Quisling is a term often used to refer to Humans under Kurian rule.
- An actual psychological disorder in the Zombie Apocalypse novel World War Z (written by Max Brooks, son of Mel); "quislings" are humans who have nervous breakdowns and begin behaving like zombies. Unfortunately for them, the genuine article can tell the difference...
- They also may have aided in tons of confusion and urban legends about zombies amongst the survivors.
