>Zaanzorbarus - deadly bard with very good overall game
>knowledge. No real weakness here except maybe not enough
>playtime

Maybe our times just didn't match up, but the Zaan was noticeably less present during Sivyh's last years. I assumed it's because he wanted to maximize the percent of his lifespan he'd get to spend as Emperor.

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

I feel like I dropped the ball by making Farror High Priest instead of Xanthrailles' healer. But Xanth went on vacation with the family and Farror had both seniority and play time, so I went with Farror. Xanth then deleted in protest.

>think a case could have been made for promoting Phawa up to
>War Master rather than reinstating the Zaan

Maybe. Prior to the vote I had promised Zaan that he would not be punished if he followed my instructions, since he wasn't part of the original conspiracy. I could have reneged on that promise (I'm Emperor; I can do what I want) but it didn't feel right.

>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.

My algorithm was basically this:

1. Every time I logged on, I went to the palace to check the status of whoever was online.
2. If only one person is eligible to be promoted and is 2+ levels below Elite then promote him, otherwise:
3. If he's just below Elite and his sect has no leader then promote him anyway.
4. If more than one person is eligible to be promoted then favor Oaths over Citizens. This was selfish; I wanted more lowbies able to retrieve. If none of the eligible characters was an Oath then promote the guy with the highest rank/donations.

There were MANY times that folks simply weren't eligible to be promoted, lacking either ranks or donations. Had they been eligible I would have promoted them, no questions asked. Lots of times these guys were probably intentionally level sitting, but sometimes they had the ranks but not the donations. That's called shooting yourself in the foot.