The “Succession Wars” haven’t been about the First Lordship in a long time. The 1SW was. By the 2SW, no one really thought they were going to reestablish the Star League. It was much more about getting a leg up on your opponent, achieving local/regional supremacy, but reforming the League was a distant dream at best, and already considered impossible at worst. The House Lords all still claimed the title, but there wasn’t even a pretense of reestablishing the League during the 3SW. The FedCom pact was seen as a thrust in the direction of reestablishing the League, but I’m inclined to take Hanse at his word that the 4SW itself was actually about vengeance for Operation Doppelganger. Like ‘39, the 4th War wasn’t really a Sphere-wise war; Kurita and Marik were barely involved. The Clan Invasion and Jihad were Succession Wars in all but name. The post-Blackout violence has the scale of a Succession War, but only some of the factions actually want to rule, instead of just trying to survive.