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oh wait, I forgot Six Direction just directly admits this: "Three of your lives, stacked up, since the last time one part of the world tried to destroy the rest of it. It must continue"

on the other hand, they claim to have been a stable empire for multiple thousands of years, so ig they have some way of dealing with that without too much instability and a year of five (or more) emperors every hundred years or so …

okay, so, i've not really thought about this before, but apparently one can become Emperor by being simply acclaimed by … one's soldiers? the people in general? (i don't think the protesters in plaza central seven are meant to be military?)

and sure, the general expectation is that this'll work out, and that one has enough military prestige that one either actually becomes emperor (is there any body deciding if an emperor is 'official'? i don't think one is mentioned?) or is defeated by whoever currently holds power.

… but like, this feels weird? like it feels like the lead-up to a crisis-of-the-3rd-century style empire fragmentation once the yaotleklim realise they can just have themselves be acclaimed emperor and try to take power, and that's an accepted mode to become the legitimate ruler that's not seen as even slightly iffy; Nineteen Adze says it's not even illegal to try. Like does this state just periodically fragment itself when multiple emperors can't defeat each other?

i like how Twelve Azalea's immediate reaction is to assume the dead person takes over entirely. A neat bit to show how past-obsessed his culture is (& also a hint for later, of course)

"whose gracious presence illuminates the room like the edgeshine of a knife"

turns out an adze is a cutting tool, so this isn't just a statement about her, it's also a pun, and i never realised before today

perhaps i should look up more of the less-obvious names? i bet there's more things like this