Scientific concept / term · short entry
Rump Factor
Also: RF
The score of military merit by which the Hassimir Council has ranked the Rumps since 500 CP, and which decides who undergoes their 999-year training.
The Rump Factor (RF) is a score that dictates a Rump's position in society. It is awarded (and defrocked) by the Hassimir Council.
The Rump Factor was introduced with the Council in 500 CP, and it changed what a Rump's standing rested on. While the IGRSE governed, wealth had been the measure; under the Council it became military merit. Chæmbo, The Barbarian, alone among the Rumps, has never been given one.
The training
The Rumps are a military people, and they give their young an education of extraordinary length. A Rump's life runs to many thousands of years, and nearly a thousand of them may be spent at school.
Before the Council, training followed the old way. Under the IGRSE, officers were schooled for long ages but to no fixed term, and much of a soldier's learning was done in war; some enlisted young and learned entirely in the field. General Torumund Borgin was trained the old way, and earned his stripes at Chickenheim; Lieutenant Gorginmeijer Borgleaus came up faster still, a Petty Officer sent straight into battle.
Since 500 CP the Council has scored every Rump at birth. Those with a Rump Factor of 5 or more are taken from their mothers at once and given into the keeping of the military for 999 years, a thousand less one, to be trained in Rumpish warfare, history, and Monkey Mechanics, before they graduate as "First Soldier". The first class raised under the new way graduated around 1500 CP. By The Fall of Neith in 1777 AD (1898 CP), Council-trained soldiers filled the Rumpish ranks, though the commanders who led them, Borgin and Borgleaus among them, had still come up the old way.
The Hassimir Council is the governing body which awards (and defrocks) Rumpish peoples of their Rump Factor (RF). The Hassimir council only once awarded a RF to a non-Rumpish person (NRP), this was Professor Zanzibar, who was given an honorary RF by Lieutenant Gorginmeijer Borgleaus. He was even given an honorary Rump Factor of 0.5 (of course this held no real legal binding). Zanzibar's score was only ever honorary, and no other non-feline has held even that. A true Rump Factor has gone to one non-Rump alone: among the Non-Rumpish Felines, who by definition have none, the single exception is Mersenne Prime, an Earth Cat, with a score of 0.6.
General Torumund Borgin's vessel, the RF-9, was aptly named after his top tier Rump Factor. RF-9 is the highest Rump Factor; Borgin was assigned it when the Hassimir Council was established in 500 CP. NRFs are distinguished as not having Rump Factors, or “No Rump Factor”. The Hassimir council has been known to demand verbatim recitations of certain sections of the Taxonomy of Cheeks during RF promotion interviews.