More Emperor musing. The Emperor is a divine being with a real existence etc. But itsalso possible that when an Emperor dies and a new Emperor must be assembled from parts by the Egi, that one of the parts to hand that might be used is a human being with suitable Emperorness. This human being may well have been someone important before, and further more it may well be possible for devilishly clever heroquesters to ensure that they are among the most suitable.
To the cynics it might well looks as if one particularly successful heroquester has become the Emperor. Sure, at some mythic level its a good deal more complicated, that human being having been somehow incorporated into the true singular divine consciousness of the Emperor.
The Red Emperor is the Red Emperor in every important respect (well, presuming he has all his proxies reabsorbed and so on). That doesn't in the least counteract that his physical body may have been someone else previously, someone else who deliberately set out to become the incarnation of the immortal Red Emperor.
MOB has a good point that there is a tendency in recent official pronouncements to believe the propoganda of various Gloranthan powers, such as the official Lunar Empire position. I think its fine for the official stuff to put forward that view - but cynical interpretations will persist, and will be for all practical purposes just as true.
Peter
>If Dozkalos merely became the vessel for the Emperor what
>prevents anybody else from becoming a new vessel for the
>Emperor?
Exactly. It seems very likely that the ritual for the recreation of the Emperor is based on the ritual for the creation of the Emperor.
>Although they might think that by agreeing to
>the ritual that they become the Emperor, the Emperor really
>takes over their likeness and subsumes their insignificant
>personality.
Or they are incorporated into his personality. Certainly, the Red Emperor is a consciousness not merely a position.
A true rebel would not want to become Red Emperor. Even if they somehow became the incarnation of the Red Emperor (which would probably be impossible), it would be disastrous. But a Lunar noble who was willing to become the vessel into which Moonsons consciousness is poured is a different situation.
Martin
>I am in favour of it being a pharoah like possession of a body, with that
>persons soul moving on, while the Emperor remains singular. If this is the
>way it turns out, then this should appease everyone methinks and reconcile
>the two views.
Yes, thats similar to how I see it and that would be the best resolution. Like Trotsky, I think it likely that the former occupants consciousness/soul is incorporated into the Emperor. Quite possibly this was not how it used to be - the return of Takenegi may have been managed by some other means, such as retrieval of the body from Hell, but somehow Sheng prevented this. Or the return of Takenegi could actually be a magic like the identical proxies.
> He is an individual. The goddess created him but _used_ the
>powers of others as part of the process. This isn't the same think as the
>Emperor being created by the Egi.
Yes, the Emperor is made by the Egi, not from the Egi. The Egi must reassemble the Emperor (or at least what we might refer to as a fully operational Emperor, with all the various powers) from parts, but they don't necessarily get to choose which parts.
Cheers David ------------------------------
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