On Tue, 5 Aug 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: > On Tue, 5 Aug 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > #Please see elsewhere in this thread for my assertion that > #4.9k years is not in fact longer than Dragaeran lifetimes. > > Yeah, saw it after posting. I'll take that as a thumbs-horizontal. > #Presumably the next House would have something to say about the > #non-transfer. > Why? You're assuming that "one reign, one Emperor" is the rule. Why > should it be? Well, it seems simplest, and as I briefly argued above the multireign rule would lead to tension. And otherwise many reigns might make it to 4.9k. And at the end of _FHYA_ we see Aliera claim the Orb - but if the emperor's death doesn't necessarily mean anything, this action seems a bit odd, or at least might well be discussed later. And we likely would have known who the designated Phoenix Heir at the time was, as in this scenario it would actually matter.