Sabium

Sabium was the ruler of Helmand, a city-state in Bilbeis IV's Margrush River Valley, in the 12th century FSY. Her late husband had been Helmand's last powerful male ruler. At his death, his son by a co-wife became King, with Sabium as regent. The boy was sickly, and died after only a few years of rule. With no obvious heir to the late king, Sabium was chosen to be Helmand's monarch in her own right, an unprecedented accomplishment for a woman. Due to the unfamiliarity of the notion of a reigning queen, Sabium used the title of King, and wore a false mustache to cement her right to the title. However, her face was dignified in a way that this looked appropriate on her, rather than ridiculous. (Helmandi women often grew whiskers naturally on their cheeks and chin, so a false beard was not needed.)

Sabium was an enlightened despot, who believed that technology and arts would increase her subjects' happiness. To this end, she gave great monetary rewards to inventors and creators of literary work. Such an attitude was uncommon in Bronze Age societies, something noted by two strange foreign men in the Helmandi crowd. These were David Ware and Julian Crouzet, human agents of the Federacy's Survey Service. Ware and Crouzet noticed something else about the admirable monarch, and later confirmed it with other crew members of their concealed starship: the Queen was infected with a cancerous tumor of the belly.