The Inca was selected by a council of advisers of the royal lineage. There was no clear line of succession; the most competent
of the legitimate sons of the Inca's principal wife (coya) was usually selected. The Inca had one real wife, but he maintained a
menage of royal concubines; Huayna Capac is estimated to have had in the male line alone 500 descendants living at the time of
the Spanish conquest. These formed the Inca' s own royal ayllu. It was from them that he chose his important administrators.
The empire was one of the world's few real theocracies, for the Inca was not only ruler but also, in the eyes of his people, a
demigod and the head of the state religion. The Inca Empire was a totalitarian state, and the Incas were absolute rulers whose
power was checked only by the influence of custom and the fear of revolt.