Succession and the Imperial Throne
The imperial crown of the Elven Empire is a hereditary title, but it is not a straight forward hereditary title.
The emperor or empress's siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are all eligible to be the heir. The practice is that the emperor or empress makes a secret list of all their potential heirs and they rank their personal desired order of succession.
This list is made and secret and secured by the Elven Empire's Keepers who keep the list secure until the current emperor or empress dies or the emperor or empress decides to revise the list.
This of course means that there is lots of brownnosing causing most of the royal family to really lick the empress' boots.
There is an element of sexism involved. A substantial majority of the Elven Empire's chosen successors are the same sex as the last ruler. This has lead to long dynasties of emperors and empresses. The last four rulers have all been empresses. Before that there were three successive emperors.
In the last two millennia almost all of the chosen heirs were trained as wizards, usually very powerful wizards. This has become so prevalent a member of the royal family that does not study wizardry is effectively stating to everyone around them "I am uninterested in the crown." A strategy employed by princes and princesses who don't want the responsibility or who simply want to avoid being murdered by their siblings.
Fratricide and general kin slaying in the royal family are a recurring issue, and a lot of members of the royal family that seem to be in the current ruler's good graces suffer mysterious deaths.
Even if the offender can somehow wiggle out of punishment for kin slaying, anyone even mildly suspected of murdering a family member can be assured to be on the bottom of the succession list.
Therefore fratricide and cousin slaying, best be carried out subtly.
History
Before the Elven Empire claimed they were an Empire, they were known as the Kingdom of Lunatus. Lunatus had very simple succession. The king or queen's first born child was the legitimate heir, regardless of sex.
It became complicated when the king suspected his son was consorting with Void demons but he could not definitively prove it. He tried and failed to legally disown his son then died under mysterious circumstances. The young king was proven as an Infernalist after being crowned emperor in which case he and his advisors were put down in a brief but very bloody coup. His younger sister was then crowned queen.
The succession laws were rewritten after this. The king or queen would write their chosen successor among their children (and their second, third, and fourth choice etc) on a secret document entrusted to the local Keepers to keep safe and secret until the sitting king/queen dies. When the king/queen became the emperor/empress they kept the succession laws on the books.
This led to two things. Lots of brownnosing and posturing among the imperial family (which the Elven Empire did not have a problem with) and lots of fratricide within the imperial family. The fratricide quickly reached epidemic proportions.
Once when, out of seven children of the empress all died mysterious deaths, and the survivor was widely suspected o being responsible but there was no definitive like. The prince basically took the attitude. "What are you going to do about it, I'm the only heir left," only to find out upon his mother's death that his cousin was named the official heir.
Since then, while naming a son or daughter successor is still the norm it became more and more common for nieces and nephews and grandchildren to be named heir. This has the net effect of reducing kinslaying, or at least pushing it deeper into the shadows.
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