On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 09:20:10AM -0700, Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> wrote: > > I strongly suspect that the Orb will go to whichever person of > > the correct house manages a coup, unless the Emperor personally > > resigns in an orderly transition. > > Of course, if you have the support of your House, your chances of > > a successful coup are much higher, thus the whole Heir business. > I don't understand how anyone can actually launch a successful coup > against an Emperor able to use the Orb, which I believe gives one the > ability to fry anyone linked to it. See Adron's hissy-cow. > Perhaps the link is the result of a > simple spell, leaving a psychic marker that the Orb recognizes. This > would explain how backwater Tecklas are linked - and possibly how Heirs > are recognized. I expect the basic link works like this -- someone performs a spell on new citizens at some point. It may even have some kind of "this is the designated Heir of House x" marker included. But I don't think that's how the Orb would actually choose. Otherwise, *we would see successful coups*. Instead, like the mandate of heaven, the Orb chooses based on whoever succeeds in taking the throne -- so long as they have a member of the right house. In an orderly transition, of course, this will coincide perfectly with the chosen Heir of the house. Only in unusual situations would things be otherwise. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp