I am looking for a word

[Tinker]

[Hoosiernorm]

What about Lord or Overlord?

[I am ST]

Elite.

[Sparky]

Entitlement?

[Simple Minded]

[Simple Minded]

[Tinker]

Lord or Overlord still implies some sort of recognized social status.

Elite is good.

Entitlement is good except that it also refers to some sort of recognized status as the power is conferred by 'title'.

Megalomania is specifically a psychopathology.

Basically the character that I am thinking of is a highly skilled biochemist who runs something like a corporation, though it's not a corporation as we understand a corporation because it was not granted a charter by any governing body. So she is sort of like a Lord, except that in our society Lordships are bestowed by a system of peerage that doesn't exist in her world.

So far Elite and Master are the best contributions, but they both refer to the state of the individual. The individual master is elite. But what I am looking for is the sense of personal 'entitlement' for lack of a better word that allows them to think that it is ok for them to manipulate the lives of others.

Basically the character operates like a gardener for human populations, using a vast network that does not derive authority from any sort of hierarchical authority.

[Hans Bulvai]

God

[Mr. Perfect]

I was going to do a lot of work on this because you clarified something I have thought about but I don't think I'll have the time.

I think a word that should be thrown in is "presumption".

I've know plenty of people who have "succeeded" in life because they just assumed that they were worthy/entitled of a certain station, not by any notable differentiable superior characteristic. There may be a phrase that works better, similar to delusions of grandeur.

Like "inherent presumption of superiority/station". Maybe something like that.

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

Delusions of grandeur was just meant as an unrelated example of a phrase. I think I know what you're looking for, the person that just presumes the right to run things, hence the second phrase would be closer to my guess.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

This is the word:

Autocrat


I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet- it's literally self-rule and doesn't have quite the pejorative baggage of other words (though it has been used negatively, people usually go with dictator or despot...so it can be cleansed.)

[Sparky]

Alas, no word comes to mind. Perhaps it's time to think sentence, or foreign lingo? The Germans do a good line in this sort of thing with their compound words - selfentitledcomplacence? masterlyauthoritativeness? autocraticpresumption? unconsciousassumptiveimperiousness?

[Colonel Sun]

[Sparky]

Colonel,
Is there a Japanese word which you think better expresses the definition which Tinker has come up with?

[Mr. Perfect]

[Tinker]

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

[Tinker]

Yeah, I kind of knew going in I'd need to invent. But all the suggestions are very useful for that invention.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

empowered

Imperior

Basilestic (from Baselius)

uniwilled

Sufficient

Galted

Solosatiable

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

...something nuclear...the word should reflect a nuclear/machine/chemistry age

self-fissioned?

WHAT ABOUT:

Argonized?

[Tinker]

I was thinking of going with something quasi-Qabbalistic like Yetzara, which implies Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination or the impulse to power that drives the activity of the world. It also implies Yetzira, which is the world of formation, and a very heavy thematic element in the overall work. So kind of like the 'right to exercise power over form'.

But keep the atomic aspect going, I like where you're going with that.

[I am ST]

[Hapax Legomenon]

Not sure it exists. "Machiavellian" is probably the closest, but is negative. I'll go with "swag," at least in the contemporary American sense, though it isn't grandiose, but personal.