> This is how things worked out in the final act of "Life of Moonson". Each
> team was told to sacrifice one of its members to Chaos, Destruction and the
> Howling Void, in order to bring back the Emperor. The directors' preferred
> solution (which nobody was briefed about, of course) was for this team
> member to be the claimant himself, which would put him in pole position to
> win the game.
I meant 'sacrificing' in the broadest sense: jumping onto ritual knives or into howling voids may or may not be involved... ("It is not for myself that I grab the reigns of power roughly, but for The Empire...") I'm guessing that indeed, one fellah does indeed provide the first cut at the physique and physiognomy of the new mask, and perhaps a decent slice of personality too, but I prefer to allow plenty of room for 'row back' in this 'candidate vs. just another Egi' business, both because one might imagine that's the correct enlightened compromise, and also because it suits my own debauched tastes to keep this pretty 'ambiguous': I'm sure few people, in anyway, in the Empire know how this work, certainly not the 'candidates' themselves if you ask me, it could vary considerably from Mask to Mask, and even if this weren't the case, I certainly wouldn't want those eternal irritants the _players_ (*disdainful sniff*) knowing that each Mask is precisely 85.7143% mortal candidate (or 0.3%, or any other actual number).
> > I can't think why he'd _want_ to 'become himself', _without_ completing
> > becoming Emperor, but it would at least appear not to be completely
> > impossible.
>
> (1) It's not necessarily what he wants. What if he *can* become himself but
> *can't* become Emperor?
>
> (2) There may be precedents, under Sheng: [...]
> Likewise, did Magnificus complete the Ten Tests before or after the battle
> of Kitor? [...]
Good points. It's slippery to separate the two entirely, since it's something of a case of 'one man, one job', and the fact that both the man and the job get (partially and subtly) redefined every so often.
Cheers,
Alex.
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