"Extremely efficiently and correctly, thanks for asking."
> There was a documented search for Godunya, is this normal procedure?
One hesitates to say what's 'normal', given just how infrequently this actually happens. I reckon the the 'nominal' procedure assumes that the emperor about to pass Onward is around to effect a more 'orderly' transition (superficially, that is -- naturally, Yanoor _meant_ it to happen exactly like that -- erm, yes.), so it may be as simple as him appointing a successor, or he may order that the provinces he scoured for the chap with the highest score on his Potential Emperor Material exam. Though if he does nothing quite so overt, the Exarchs doubtless remain confident that he has some Cosmic Plan which will end up with the right man on the throne, one way or another. While it would presumably not be wise to suggest this too loudly, perhaps there needn't simply be only one candidate at any given moment. It's an 'office', rather than a 'person', as Sandy might have said, though doubtless at least the conventional wisdom is that past and future emperors stretch across time like an intricate chain, a flawless route of steppingstones picked across the rapids of history, when a single mis-step would have meant disaster for the cosmos.
Or to look at it this way, it's possible that the Emperor decides to pack it in precisely _when_ there's another 'qualified candidate'. That's in line with the m.o. of Darudan 'boddhisattvas', since they're only on the lozenge while that's the best means of serving their people. If they can pass on, they can ferry another batch of citizen to the SLH, which sounds like a Giant Leap Forward to me, provided that their successor is really up to speed, and will do as good a job on the home front.
If any of the above is Official, btw, no-one told me. So file it under 'entertaining speculation' or 'a load of old wank', as seems most appropriate.
> How was he recognised?
In theory it's looking for 'the man for the job', rather than a particular individual, but doubtless this gets blurry. i.e., no rational test can determine who, cosmically speaking, is best suited to do whatever will need to be done centuries hence, so I imagine that Mystic Portents are the order of the day, beyond the 'obvious' qualifications. (Given again, that by the time the next one rolls around, what is 'obvious' may have changed entirely.)
> Apologies to most Expert Exarch for impertinence!
Don't I get to be an Archexpertarch, or something more studdly like that? *pout*
Cheers,
Alex.
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