I was wondering the other night about how the mechanics of the Emperor work in regards to Donations. I have been as high as Elite Blade long way in the past and I understand if you stop donating you will lose ranks in the Sect. I have a few questions.

1 Does the Emperor have to continue donating himself or lose his
throne?

2 Does the Emperor have access to the treasury to use the money as
he sees fit?

If he can use the funds

3 Could he or she therefore use the money in the treasury to bribe
prospecting powerful characters to join the empire, eg flame of
the scarab give 3000 gold to join empire and have spare Dread
Lord spot

4 Emperor uses his new found wealth to go to the Inn. Starts
gambling, gets addicted (much role play potential) and bankrupts
the Empire, no more centurions are able to be called etc.

just wondering

The answer to 3 and 4 is no.

1. The Emperor does not have to maintain a minimum to keep from getting demoted, but still has to maintain minimum for things like promotions, centurions and what not.

2. There is an Emperor's fund I never figured out the specifics on, but it offsets the cost of some promotions and things like that. At times I would notice promoting someone did not cost as much as normal.