I get the impression that the one infallible way to figure out who the real red emperor is when the old one gets offed is just to look at which of the claimants has no life history. If moonson "coalesces" again after he is killed then he'll be the new boy on the scene. All the rival proxies and claimants (if they are powerful enough) will have a well known history and supporters. I don't really see much potential for mistaking the real moonson there.
Of course this does raise the possibility that the various factions could be grooming various unknowns in secrecy (cue the PCs!) for this occasion. I just don't think this is as much fun as a mad rush and struggle to determine which of the claimants (new and established) has the "Mandate of the Moon" (to use a Life of Moonsonism that appears to be in disrepute), or that many of them could have it and only one emerge victorious but with none of them preordained.
> And the idea that succession wars are fought between the One Real Lunar
> Candidate and a bunch of reactionary regional "traitors" (backing the
> Paradisal Aviator of Rinliddi, the Shah of Carmania, the Emperor of Dara
> Happa, or whoever else, against the Big Red Cheese) is obviously less fun
> than the alternative. How anyone can prefer it, defeats me.
Me too! I want the possibility that the mantle of the next emperor could fall on anyone (even a humble belt-buckle salesman from Rinliddi - Ooops, that's been done before hasn't it... :).
See Ya,
Yak
- --
Dave Pearton
pearton_at_u.washington.edu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
And dines on the following day.
The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------
Powered by hypermail