I've deliberately skipped the 3 episodes so I can read them all at once.
It makes me think how would our personality form if we would be able to live 300-500 years and experience all technological and sociological changes. Would there be any sociological changes or those are measured by our lifespan...
The idea of high-quality monarchs.
I don't know what was the situation in your country, but in my nation(s) only the first generation was worth something. After that, the decay was exponentional.
Human royals generally became too inbred too fast. But the thing about Ceph royalty is that their genome is extremely stable and "clean", which makes them royalty. Not birth but genetics.
But the implications of living this long are truly interesting. What does it do to a mind?