So having had 3 Emperors (2 relatively recently), I can say without hesitation that you did a pretty damn good job of running the Empire re: promotions. Let's look at the Council you had at your strongest point:

Zaanzorbarus - deadly bard with very good overall game knowledge. No real weakness here except maybe not enough playtime (but hey, we're all getting older and have less time, right?)

Farror - highly skilled healer who, in his prime, could raid cabals solo with his Shawtabby army

Lohoq - arguably better at assassinating than you yourself were, amazing how many of your enemies were scattered rather than forming resistance just because they were avoiding getting stalked

Cotzibue - scary mummy with big zombie armies that would dominate for hours at a time

Under that council you had a very formidable group of Elites and lessers. There were times you had 9-10 hero-level imperials on. That's hardcore. That's Hunsobo/Waserax/Ktaar level stuff going on there.

Then they tried a coup. And strangely enough, instead of using the anathemetization as a "Awesome free sect seats!" springboard, most of those lower guys just stopped showing. I think a case could have been made for promoting Phawa up to War Master rather than reinstating the Zaan, but I can't really fault the way you went with it. Largely you had an Empire full of Elites and sub-elites who just never showed. Every time I saw someone do something even questionably promotion-worthy, if you were on, it seemed like they got promoted. That's about all a guy can do.

So nice work, good char overall. I'm glad you finally got to be Emperor after having a char (Waserax) who totally deserved it but didn't get it.