I say you’ve asked enough questions that it would require ten books to answer them. I’m not going to write ten books, I’m sure you will be relieved to know.
One aspect of being a ruler is that you have legitimacy. That is, the ruled believe your rule is a legitimate one. They accept it and perhaps even support it.
There are many ways of achieving legitimacy. In Democratic countries, if people believe you are elected in a fair election, they will mostly consider you to be the legitimate ruler. Of course, if they think you cheated, such as running on a fake birth certificate, they might not think you are a legitimate ruler.
You can gain legitimacy through violence, as well. If you are strong and fight off all contenders, many people will see you as a legitimate ruler. Or they would have in the past. In countries where there is democracy, violence is unlikely to gain you legitimacy, but it can in other places.
It is both the position of the ruler that holds the power, and the person holding that position, so long as the person is legitimately in the position, and only during the time the person is legitimately in that position. As soon as the term of the person is over, they lose all the power that accrued to them because of the position they held.
So that is the introductory paragraph on legitimacy. I shall leave it to others to introduce you to other concepts involved in this discussion.