I am looking for a word to describe someone who has your fate in their hands. It might be an archetypal name of some sort, as well as a freshly coined word. It would be perfect to have a tinge of irony in it, although it is not necessary.
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"Puppeteer" or "Godfather"– Manuel --Moe-- GCommented Jan 22, 2015 at 18:25
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2Commander, Judge, Police officer, guide, captor, matchmaker... what's your context?– JimCommented Jan 22, 2015 at 18:43
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-1: More context would be certainly helpful. Are you writing an essay or report? Is this just merely out of curiosity? If so, what sparked the question?– Jimi OkeCommented Jan 22, 2015 at 22:27
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Lord and Master? Have we made oaths of fealty? Perhaps Archon, that's an old enough term to survive some ironic abuse: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon– Wayfaring StrangerCommented Jan 22, 2015 at 22:50
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Zeus..– user98955Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 23:59
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9 Answers
One possibility is master. Among the several definitions, Collins lists
a person who has complete control of a situation
This obviously has heavy historical connotations, especially in cultures that have allowed slavery.
A somewhat more archaic term is overlord
One in a position of supremacy or domination over others. American Heritage
string-puller: A person who is in control of events or other people’s actions.
answered Jan 22, 2015 at 19:49
maybe puppet master or svengali will work for you.
"Liege" or "liege lord", it is a term that means your feudal lord, the one to whom you have sworn fealty an to whom you owe allegiance.
Maybe "to be the one who calls the shots", even if it doesn't really mean that he specifically controls you as a person, but in a broader sense that he has the whole situation under control, that he is the one in charge
Organ grinder - and you're the monkey.
In The Wanderer, metod (sometimes spelled metud) looms ominously in this sense. Clark-Hall gives 'fate; Creator, God, Christ'.
It's probably no longer a word. Nor new coinage. But still.
Not one word, but handy idioms:
I am at your mercy. You've got me by the balls. You call the shots.
answered Jan 25, 2015 at 0:20
possibly Caiaphas -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/whokilledjesus_1.shtml
in the rigged trial section of the article you find the following snippets:-
Caiaphas took on the usually incompatible roles of chief judge and prosecuting lawyer.
which suggests he has your fate in his hands.
the irony is that:-
The trial went wrong for Caiaphas. He needed to prove that Jesus had threatened to destroy the Temple, which would have been both treason and an offence against God. But the witnesses couldn't agree on what Jesus had said. So that charge failed.
but maybe you should also consider
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Caiaphas/en-en/#Caiaphas_in_literature_and_arts
in the section political implications
Caiaphas' legal position was to establish that Jesus was guilty not only of blasphemy but of an act of sedition and prompted Roman execution.
In the Arts section:-
To Dante he is synonymous with hypocrisy.
but there is also:-
He is portrayed pulling Pontius Pilate's strings by trying to influence him into passing the death sentence against Jeshua in The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
