[Congrats, Elliot, you get to hear Lutha choke on a bit of an actually amused laugh on the thin line of obstinance of that answer. He doesn't bother prodding further with that, though - spirits know he wouldn't want someone doing the same to him.]

Eh, I don't know. Even one that prioritizes merit has a whole damn flood of issues. Depends who's defining that merit, and how. It's not like our nobles are all based on blood. Pretty sure the monarchy would be fine with slaughtering anyone that couldn't fight back, if it wouldn't devastate the food supplies.

Either way, you're going to have the chances of someone with way too much free reign picking the system apart to lean on fear or power or other shit like that. I mean, hell, Celestia's apparently merit based in some ways, and look how they fucking turned out.