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<blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 896559" data-attributes="member: 5834">I am creating a story about the rise of a king. I have been brainstorming reasons why people would follow a king.It has always seemed strange to me that people would follow a king or any great leader with no tangible benefit. They follow for personal reasons often uncomprehensible to outsiders.Some of the reasons I came up with were the following:1. Love and Hope: The people love the leader and the leader brings hope to the people that follow him. I would think that people followed Jesus, MLK, and Gahndi for this reason.2. Charisma and Credibility: Some people might follow a leader who is charismatic and credible. Say a war leader who himself has proven his merits in battle and has the charisma to make them believe in causes like conquering.3. Fear and Power: People might fear to stand against the leader. The leader holds absolute power in society and has certain loyal groups who control the military might of the society backing him.I would love to hear some opinions on why a group of people might follow a leader for no real tangible benefit. Any writers on this board ever have trouble coming up with a reason why people would follow a leader into a war if they had the choice to do otherwise? Any readers of fantasy literature ever ask themselves why people followed certain leaders in the books they read? What kind of answers came to mind for why people follow leaders if they do not have to?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celtavian, post: 896559, member: 5834"] I am creating a story about the rise of a king. I have been brainstorming reasons why people would follow a king. It has always seemed strange to me that people would follow a king or any great leader with no tangible benefit. They follow for personal reasons often uncomprehensible to outsiders. Some of the reasons I came up with were the following: 1. Love and Hope: The people love the leader and the leader brings hope to the people that follow him. I would think that people followed Jesus, MLK, and Gahndi for this reason. 2. Charisma and Credibility: Some people might follow a leader who is charismatic and credible. Say a war leader who himself has proven his merits in battle and has the charisma to make them believe in causes like conquering. 3. Fear and Power: People might fear to stand against the leader. The leader holds absolute power in society and has certain loyal groups who control the military might of the society backing him. I would love to hear some opinions on why a group of people might follow a leader for no real tangible benefit. Any writers on this board ever have trouble coming up with a reason why people would follow a leader into a war if they had the choice to do otherwise? Any readers of fantasy literature ever ask themselves why people followed certain leaders in the books they read? What kind of answers came to mind for why people follow leaders if they do not have to? [/QUOTE]

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