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Description
Doing a little exploration into the idea of how the tallest work in irken society not only physically but as figureheads. I kind of figure them to be a little like the rich Victorians in that they symbolize their status by essentially showing how little physical work they have to do. All they eat is snacks, some generations of tallest used to remove the thumbs (thereby symbolizing how they make orders and don't do the heavy lifting) etc. Monarch never wants to eat another processed food puff again, lol.

Monarch's a later generation of Tallest and part of a larger council rather than a lone ruler, so she's undergone less invasive physical procedures, but she's still seen physical changes made to her body as a result of years of being a tallest- the tallest garment restricting her abdomen much in a way a tightly laced corset would, squishing down her ribcage and forcing her organs to elongate and distort (Wearing a corset in and of itself was not bad enough to cause damage- but wearing one for ten years straight? Yeah, that's gonna change a few things.)

Monarch has gotten synthetic reinforcing put into her spine to help compensate for the increased burden it carries due to overall weakening of her abdominal muscles, among other fun things. I think tallest may also (in the fashion of warhammer 40k space marines) have a few additional organs for certain features such as being able to go certain amounts of time without breathing, surviving on different calorie sets, etc. Being a tallest is a permanent state of alteration in irken society, and nobody but the highest ranked medical specialists and the most powerful control brains truly know the extent of their physical alterations. The information is classified and highly illegal to possess outside of the small circle of the tallest council.

Generally the control brain algorithms control to a degree where tallest come from and how many may be allowed to exist in a colony at once- these days its very rare for someone to reach tallest status by chance, outside of the careful influence of Irk. Monarch is one of those very few who seemed to come out of nowhere from a backwater system the control brains couldn't warn anyone about. As a result, during her empire days she was very much a dark horse, and had a lot less of the usual training and education particular to inner-empire tallest. Even within such a highly synthetic society you'll get deviations. Tallest both are created by but contribute highly to the actions/algorythms of the irken control brain complexes and determine the direction irken society takes as a whole. Their PAKs have the highest level of clearance in the systems, though there are still lockdowns and firewalls put in place by previous tallest that have resulted in no one tallest having absolute power. A not quite perfect machine- because any biological involvement will always result in imperfection, even in a society made entirely of from-birth cyborgs.

Anyway that's some of my thoughts on it.
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Description
Doing a little exploration into the idea of how the tallest work in irken society not only physically but as figureheads. I kind of figure them to be a little like the rich Victorians in that they symbolize their status by essentially showing how little physical work they have to do. All they eat is snacks, some generations of tallest used to remove the thumbs (thereby symbolizing how they make orders and don't do the heavy lifting) etc. Monarch never wants to eat another processed food puff again, lol.

Monarch's a later generation of Tallest and part of a larger council rather than a lone ruler, so she's undergone less invasive physical procedures, but she's still seen physical changes made to her body as a result of years of being a tallest- the tallest garment restricting her abdomen much in a way a tightly laced corset would, squishing down her ribcage and forcing her organs to elongate and distort (Wearing a corset in and of itself was not bad enough to cause damage- but wearing one for ten years straight? Yeah, that's gonna change a few things.)

Monarch has gotten synthetic reinforcing put into her spine to help compensate for the increased burden it carries due to overall weakening of her abdominal muscles, among other fun things. I think tallest may also (in the fashion of warhammer 40k space marines) have a few additional organs for certain features such as being able to go certain amounts of time without breathing, surviving on different calorie sets, etc. Being a tallest is a permanent state of alteration in irken society, and nobody but the highest ranked medical specialists and the most powerful control brains truly know the extent of their physical alterations. The information is classified and highly illegal to possess outside of the small circle of the tallest council.

Generally the control brain algorithms control to a degree where tallest come from and how many may be allowed to exist in a colony at once- these days its very rare for someone to reach tallest status by chance, outside of the careful influence of Irk. Monarch is one of those very few who seemed to come out of nowhere from a backwater system the control brains couldn't warn anyone about. As a result, during her empire days she was very much a dark horse, and had a lot less of the usual training and education particular to inner-empire tallest. Even within such a highly synthetic society you'll get deviations. Tallest both are created by but contribute highly to the actions/algorythms of the irken control brain complexes and determine the direction irken society takes as a whole. Their PAKs have the highest level of clearance in the systems, though there are still lockdowns and firewalls put in place by previous tallest that have resulted in no one tallest having absolute power. A not quite perfect machine- because any biological involvement will always result in imperfection, even in a society made entirely of from-birth cyborgs.

Anyway that's some of my thoughts on it.
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