I just got done reading the Exodus road, and the interactions with Paul Moon got me thinking about Elementals in the clan command structure, in that they can just trial any, non blood named warrior giving commands and win hands down. With an augmented (mechanical right arm) Trent still got his butt handed to him, and all he could counter back with was a broken tooth. (With the counter point being, If I recall correctly, Aiden beat two elementals in a bar fight while on the run after failing his first trial, but that may have been more just got away rather won the fight).
A bloodname is the only defense against that, as you don't have to accept the trial from a lesser, until the elementals start getting blood names.
And that lead me thinking to the elemental blood names, with two questions. What in the world does a Elemental grand melee look like, and with the way their suits pump them full of stuff to keep them going until death, is the kill rate close to 100%? I assume in a normal mech warrior grand melee, the survival rate is rather high (as even normal combat seems to be), with auto eject, and normal disabling blows that take out the machine but not the warrior, etc. How large do the Elemental Sibkos have to be for them to produce enough Elementals to keep the ranks up every time a blood name opens up? Also how high does their trial of position success rate have to be to keep the numbers up? From the Jade Phoenix trilogy I assume trial success rates are rather low for normal mech warriors.
Just my random thoughts.