[Dragaera] Political obligations of the Emperor

[Scott]

>How can one be a figurehead holding the Orb?

More to the point, from a general perspective: How beholden is the Emperor
to his House? Zerika is an abberation, in that she IS House Phoenix. Her
administration is atypical. Norathar will have an entirely different
experience, made the more difficult by the fact that she'll have spent her
youth being a ne'erdowell instead of cultivating the social connections that
an Imperial Heir might otherwise have been building.

Does the Emperor answer to her House? Does she appoint members of her own
House to prominent governmental positions? 

I'm reminded now of an impression I had while reading _The Phoenix Guards_
that the Guard was being reformed to a great extent due to the passing of
the Orb to Tortaalik. That was one of the reasons that Khaavren and his
friends saw the Guard as an opportunity to make a name for themselves. 

While an Emperor probably isn't a figurehead, it would seem that politically
an Emperor would owe quite a bit more loyalty to his own House than to the
others and that most of the other Houses would probably accept this as his
due. There would always be jobs like Warlord and Chief Justiciar that would
traditionally go to the House most suited to those jobs anyway, I'd think.