The Measure of a Zir
Other species are born and simply are. The Zir are born, and then measured. Before adolescence, every hatchling stands before the Relic — the unbroken legacy instrument left behind by the first Scientists — and receives a single number: a percentage of completion. The higher the number, the higher the rank. The higher the rank, the more of Sabi-Thra answers to you. It is, by Imperial reckoning, the most honest culture in the realm. Every other people pretends equality. The Zir simply publish the results.
This register does not concern itself with figures below the Throne's threshold of interest. Those are kept elsewhere, by a different office. See §V.
The Throne
Generations of measurement have produced one verified peak. The current ruler holds the highest completion ever recorded by the Relic, and has not been shy about it.
Reigning · Verified by the Relic
The Evil Empressor Elyk the Draconian
97% completion — the highest ever achieved
"We are not born equal. We are born unequal, and only the Throne is honest about it."
The Empressor Elyk the Draconian, rendered at full Imperial regalia — teal scales catching Relic-light, the 97% seal visible somewhere on the frame. The Throne does not sit for casual portraiture; commission accordingly.
The Works
The Scientists left one laboratory standing in all of Adventura, and the Throne has never let it go cold. Here, generation by generation, the Empire tries to better its own number — breeding upward, refining the bloodline, producing the gobblies and lesser monsters that serve where a Zir need not. The Throne does not record what this costs in the language other realms would use. It keeps its own ledger.
The Throne does not call this a failure rate. It calls it a filter.
The Ledger of Sabi-Thra
An empire is only as real as what it can list. Sabi-Thra's other peoples, as the Throne records them:
Standard Issue · Zir Specimen, Unranked
- Size Rating
- 7
- Land Speed
- 7 sq.
- Vision
- Sonic
- Natural Weapon
- Tail, with Reach
- Base Encumbrance
- 70 kg
- Maturity
- Adult at 7 years
- Median Lifespan
- ~70 years
- Maximum Recorded
- 100 years
- 1st Trait Logged
- Minor Regeneration
Standard clinical intake image: sleek teal-scaled humanoid, spine barbs, a slender tail as long as they are tall — front and profile, per Ministry filing standard. This specimen has not been ranked; the frame should reflect that.
Disposition of Incomplete Specimens
Not every hatchling accepts its number. The Relic does not lie, but it also does not enforce. Those ranked lowest are, by long tradition, given the Throne's full contempt and very little else — no rank, no laboratory posting, no seat at any table that matters. Most endure it quietly, as is proper.
The Throne's own records show a consistent minority who do not endure it. They are logged, on the rare occasion anyone bothers to log them at all, under a single status:
At LargeIf you've read this far wondering whether you're one of the figures in that last line — you already know the answer. The Throne calls you incomplete and has filed you accordingly. It has no idea what that number is worth outside its own ledger.
Find out for yourself.
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