Okay, so, the coup. From what I can tell, Lohoq and Cotzibue never did figure out exactly what went down. Maybe I never did either; if Enlilth stops by he can clear up anything I get wrong. Here's my perspective:

Cotzibue and some non-sect leader were the first to approach me about there being a vote. I didn't believe Cotzibue at first (since I regarded him as completely untrustworthy) and thought he was trying to frame Lohoq (whom I trusted). This is ironic since Lohoq was actually the chief conspirator. Apparently Daevryn was on his ass to make a move, hence the ill-advised coup.

Initially I either didn't know you needed three sect leaders to launch a coup, or I thought you (Zaan) were in on it with Cotzibue and Farror. Lohoq was the only one I was pretty sure was innocent. I knew that my only shot was to get a hung vote and hope Enlilth preferred me to the rest of you. I assumed Farror and Cotzibue were a voting bloc, so I tried to convince you and Lohoq to vote for each other in order to thwart Cotzibue. My logic was that Cotzibue was an immortal undead and I was an elderly mortal, so Cotzibue as Emperor was worse for your personal designs than me staying on the Throne (since I would die soon). I also emphasized the fact that, if I retained the throne, I would anath Cotzibue and eliminate her as competition for after I was gone.

Even though I realized at some point that either you or Lohoq had to have been in on it (I suspected you, not Lohoq), I played dumb and treated whomever I was talking as the one loyal party. When talking to Zaan it was that dirty Lohoq who was conspiring with Cotzibue and Farror. When talking to Lohoq it was Zaan that was the dirty one. Etc. Simultaneously I approached both Cotzibue and Farror and informed them of my suspicion that Lohoq/Zaan were a voting bloc, and that they needed to vote for each other in order to block Zaan from taking the Throne. I professed my belief that Cotzibue and Farror were innocent and had just gotten caught up in Lohoq's nefarious designs. I promised they would not be punished if we managed to stop Lohoq/Zaan's designs, and pointed out that Lohoq/Zaan would probably anath them if either of them got the Throne.

Miraculously, everybody did exactly what I wanted them to do. Cotz/Farror voted for each other and Lohoq/Zaan voted for each other. Enlilth cast the tie-breaking vote and chose me. He then told me Zaan was the only guy who wasn't a conspirator, so I set about restoring him to his former position. Everybody getting anath'd was actually an accident- I had wanted the loyal party to stay where he was, but there was some miscommunication. Also I didn't know for sure who the loyal party was until after the vote.

>came to inter sect politics. I really like the dynamic of
>higher ranking imperials being able to bully lower ranking
>ones to some extent.

Eh. I'm fine with some bullying, but when it turns into, "I'm higher ranked than you and I like that shiny piece of gear. Give it to me or I demote you," that's just lame.

>though I personally would have liked to see a little more
>emphasis on doing things like beating Tiamat then raid,
>defend, reraid, rinse, repeat all the time.

PvE doesn't really excite me. You could probably tell from how reluctant I was to spend ~4 hours on that hell trip. Other than the pimp gear, I had no interest in killing Tiamat just to say I'd killed Tiamat. The raiding thing was just because, when you weren't around, I usually lacked the firepower to raid anyone. So when I had a bard or healer online I felt like I needed to make up for lost time.