Mage Dynasts

were the ruling class of the Mage Imperium. Though they were human, long-term breeding programs and genetic engineering meant that they tended to show cognitive differences from baseline humans.
== History ==
In the latter years of the Mage Imperium, an increasing share of Mage Princes hailed from hereditary lineages of prior Princes. Many planetary governors and other grandees belonged to dynasties of Mage Princes, but even families without such lofty titles sought to guarantee Mage Prince status for their heirs, not only through graft and direct nepotism (though these were abundant) but also through selective breeding programs, rigorous training from infancy and (rarely) outright genetic engineering or cybernetic enhancement.
Members of these lineages, often generations of selective breeding in the making, were known as Mage Dynasts; though no formal, Imperium-wide study was ever conducted, local evidence suggests that they exhibited significant cognitive differences from the human baseline (greater intelligence and perception, but often reduced social intelligence) which could not merely be explained by superior education and a cloistered upbringing. This intellectual gulf might have widened even further if the brutal civil wars and external invasions that drove the collapse of the Imperium had not eradicated or scattered the overwhelming share of Mage Princes and ended the breeding programs.
Category: Races