This chapter is an explanation of the hierarchical system.
The Kingdom of Malvara stood as a monument to the pursuit of knowledge, where scientific advancement and intellectual prowess formed the backbone of its society. Yet, this was no simple meritocracy. While talent and contributions to science were valued, the gates to education and intellectual progress were tightly controlled by the noble families who had dominated Malvara's landscape for centuries.
The aristocracy in Malvara did not inherit their status purely through birth alone; their forebears had made significant contributions to science, innovation, and technological advancements. These families, like the Valendors, were revered for their legacy of brilliance, and this reverence helped to perpetuate their dominance. However, what truly set them apart was their ability to control access to the highest forms of knowledge. They ensured that only those with the right connections, the right name, or the right patron could rise within the intellectual elite.
For these families, education was a carefully guarded privilege, one that could not be freely earned by anyone with raw talent. Though scientific merit was respected within the elite circles, it was not enough on its own. To gain access to the universities, laboratories, and research institutions, one needed more than just a sharp mind; they needed sponsorship, patronage, and the right lineage. Only then could they prove their worth through their scientific contributions.
This system created a strange hybrid—one where merit could elevate individuals within the intellectual hierarchy, but access to the hierarchy itself was tightly controlled by an inherited aristocracy. The elite families held the keys to the gates of education, and only those born into or favored by these families could even hope to compete in the arena of ideas.
Technology, the lifeblood of Malvara's prosperity, was both a symbol of this intellectual culture and its greatest tool for maintaining control. Advanced machines powered everything from agriculture to industry, but their inner workings were mysteries to the common people. These innovations were the result of centuries of scientific progress, made by generations of Malvara's intellectual class. Families like the Valendors had pioneered breakthroughs in botany, medicine, and engineering, building their influence on the back of these advancements.
But while anyone within the elite might rise to prominence through their contributions, the general population had little to no chance of ascending through the ranks. Education was almost impossible to attain for those not born into the upper class, and even the brightest minds from the lower classes found themselves shut out of the halls of learning. The elites made sure that access to scientific institutions remained within their control, carefully regulating who could enter and what knowledge was shared.
Yet, within the upper echelons, competition was fierce. Malvara's scientific aristocracy prized discovery and innovation, and those who demonstrated exceptional intelligence or groundbreaking work could rise in status—if they already had a foot in the door. Families like the Valendors might sponsor promising young scholars, allowing them access to the most advanced technologies and research, but always on their terms. While an outsider could theoretically rise, they would need to prove themselves not just through merit, but through loyalty to the system that had lifted them.
Zephyra, once a part of this world, had witnessed it all firsthand. Her family had been among the intellectual aristocracy, respected for their contributions to engineering. Her parents had been visionaries, but they made the fatal mistake of challenging the system's exclusivity. They believed that knowledge should be shared more freely, that education should not be restricted by birth or connections. For this, they were stripped of their status and cast into servitude, their legacy erased by those who feared their ideas could upend the carefully curated system.
Now, Zephyra was a ghost in the world she had once belonged to. Her brilliant mind, honed by years of study before her family's fall, was wasted on menial tasks in the Faylindra House. She scrubbed floors while those around her shaped the kingdom's future with the very tools that had once been hers. Her memories of her parents' work, of their passion for invention and progress, were bittersweet. They had taught her to question, to think beyond what was already known. But in Malvara, such thinking was dangerous—unless you were born into the right family.
The Faylindra House, home to one of Malvara's leading scholars, was filled with the latest technological advancements—automated machines that performed labor, devices that calculated complex equations with ease, and laboratories filled with projects too advanced for Zephyra to comprehend from her vantage point. Lord Faylindra was a figure of great renown, not just because of his own work, but because of his family's generations-long contribution to Malvara's scientific prestige. Yet, he also benefited from a system that ensured his success was built upon access that others could only dream of.
Though knowledge was held up as the kingdom's highest value, it was also the kingdom's greatest weapon of control. Only the elite could afford to engage in the pursuit of science on a meaningful level, and the technological marvels that ran Malvara were tightly guarded secrets. For the common people, machines were a distant wonder—objects of mystery that performed their duties without explanation. For those like Zephyra, who knew what it was like to understand, to create, the exclusion was even more painful.
As she scrubbed the floors, Zephyra often found herself sketching designs on whatever surface she could—walls, scraps of cloth, even her own skin. Her mind buzzed with ideas, innovations that might never see the light of day. The intellectual world she had once been a part of now treated her like an outsider, but she still longed to belong, to contribute, to reclaim her place in the kingdom's scientific legacy.
The system that had cast her out was built on a contradiction: while Malvara celebrated the achievements of its greatest minds, it feared the democratization of knowledge. The intellectual elite could rise through merit, but only if they first had access to the tools of success. And that access was always tightly controlled by the noble families who had built their legacies on both discovery and exclusion.
As Zephyra passed by one of the laboratories, she overheard voices discussing a new project. Her heart quickened. Somewhere in the house, Thessara Valendor was working on a project that could change the future of Malvara. But for Zephyra, no matter how great her ideas, the door to that future was closed.