> The 'problem' case is if you want to keep the Lunar Empire much as it
> is, but 'can't agree', as it were, on who the 'real' Red Emperor is.
IMO: The "real" Red Emperor is the only being who can pass *all* of the tests that prove him to be who he is.
Rival claimants may pass some or none of the tests, but they *cannot* pass all of them.
So you don't know who the "real" Red Emperor is until he has passed *all* of the tests. If you're following someone and he passes one test (say, the one administered by the Army, or the Household, or the Senate), that's well and good, but he's still got some way to go.
WARNINGS: the tests could be rigged (horrors!). Rivals could generate their own "proxies" to pass tests that they themselves would fail. Rebel claimants (regional secessionist traitors, as opposed to rival Lunar claimants) aren't even *trying* to pass all of the tests, and therefore have a head start.
The "Mandate of the Moon" is conferred on people who are suitable to become the Emperor's Body. (It may be parallel to the Body or the Corpse of Yelm, in the "Six Parts of Yelm" myth. But there are other, non-DH parallels too).
It usually descends when Moonson dies: selected high-ups feel "a disturbance in the Force" and become aware of their potential destiny.
Claimants without a Mandate may be unable to pass any of the tests; they are certainly unable to pass the Lunar tests which determine whether a claimant is suitable to be recognised as Moonson.
WARNINGS: Some people know they have the Mandate while Moonson is alive and well; some people can "force" a Mandate upon themselves, through ritual or confidence or evil sorcery. Some people don't believe in Mandates and just "pretend" to have them ("The Goddess came to me in a dream and told me I was her Son."). And some people are mad as hatters.
Rival claimants who "drop out" (assassinated, defeated in battle, overcome in a test) may be "reabsorbed" into the eventual victor; they may lose their Mandate and become broken has-beens; they may be slain out of hand.
If the guy you thought was Moonson is killed or reabsorbed, or fails a test, you could say:
The claimant who "becomes" Moonson contributes his mortal, mundane elements to the "mix". The Egi reconstitute the Red Emperor's being, using this mortal clay as an important construction material.
The new Red Emperor's Mask will resemble the successful claimant (though not identical to him); its personality and interests will be shaped by the claimant's (though of course the Emperor will still retain knowledge and experience from his prior life).
The new Mask is likely to reward people who assisted in his Manifestation, and punish those who opposed it. This may involve (e.g.) rewarding collaborators who assassinated the preceding Mask, or punishing people who -- though utterly loyal to the Empire -- mistakenly followed a False Proxy in the interregnum.
WARNING: Moonson has nothing to learn from Machiavelli: he may just as well choose to *punish* the people who would dare raise their hand against the Son of the Moon, and reward his loyal but misguided servants.
One certainty is that the new Mask will be severely disposed towards Rebels and those who back them. It's all very well to support a (potential) Moonson in the interregnal period; it's a very different matter when rebels "cast off the shackles of Lunar rule" and try to bring back a Sun Emperor, or Sable Stud, or Big Bird of Rinliddi, instead.
Sometimes, the succession may be "fixed". I would postulate that when a Moonson is assassinated, the assassins have likely arranged to have "their" candidate ready to sweep all before him through the tests. This may have happened when Ignifer was slain by Harrek and quickly replaced by Argenteus (who showed conspicuous clemency to his supposed murderers); it may have been tried and gone wrong when Venerabilis executed the assassins of Voracius.
REMEMBER: the Lunar Empire is devoted to Veils, Masks, Illusions, Mirrors, Changes, Insanity, and Balance. It is *not* a Solar Empire of straight-forward, upright, honest truths. This should be reflected in the nature of the interregnal succession struggles. They should be confusing and chaotic, not orderly and proceeding towards a pre-ordained and self-evident conclusion. (Solars in the Lunar Empire are, of course, greatly upset by this).
It is *normally* certain (these days) that the end result of this interregnal activity is a new Mask of Moonson. If many years went by without a Mask becoming manifest, then the secessionist centrifugal tendencies represented by non-Lunar Rebel claimants might well manifest, as I believe they are intended to in the Hero Wars period. However, I think that the "normal" case is for an obvious Lunar candidate to quickly come forward and be recognised as the new Mask of Moonson. Rivals are damned posthumously by Imperial propagandists. ("The opponents of Celestinus were wild rebels conspiring to resurrect Gbaji").
The Proxy Wars were an aberration, not the norm. But we are working within a political landscape shaped by those traumatic events in the recent past: utterly loyal Lunars unable to discern which of the many contenders was the true Red Emperor. In some ways, this was the "worst case" scenario for the Empire -- or at least, the worst case until the next time around.
Of course, the next time around will be even worse, because the scheming plotters manipulating events *next* time have the experience of the Proxy Wars to draw upon. They've seen just how confusing things can get when there are many plausible rival claimants, and they're prepared to use that knowledge, enhance that confusion, etc. to suit their own agendas. Maybe that's a part of the reason the Red Emperor "disappears" for ten whole years -- the rival Lunar camps have become just too damn' good at identifying his manifestations and then squishing them before any of them can inherit their full powers.
Please remember: even when fully manifest and recognised, Moonson has been defeated quite straightforwardly, by e.g. Jannisor, Sheng, or Harrek. Opponents of such power are likely to become *more* common in the Hero Wars period than hitherto. And their rivals' propagandists' quills stand ready to write off premature failures as False Proxies (and likely Gbaji-worshipping dupes of the Dark Lord, to boot).
FINALLY: "Life of Moonson" does *not* accurately depict a normal Imperial succession crisis. It's a freeform game, dammit! Greg helped write "The Broken Council", but if you tore strips off his Gbaji Wars material because that game presented the creation of Nysalor as a perversely complex trading-card game, he would be justifiably amused (or annoyed, depending on his whim).
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Nick
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