The Klingon procedure for selecting the leader of the High Council, including the Sonchi ceremony confirming the old leader's death, overseen by Jean-Luc Picard as Arbiter in 2367.
The Rite of Succession decides who will lead the Klingon High Council. An Arbiter of Succession administers it. It opens with the Sonchi, in which the challengers jab the dead leader's body with painstiks to confirm that he is truly dead, and ends in combat between the two strongest claimants.
It is seen in Reunion. The dying chancellor K'mpec, slowly poisoned, names Picard as Arbiter because he trusts no Klingon to be impartial, and asks him to find out which claimant, Duras or Gowron, was the poisoner. After a bomb goes off at the Sonchi, Picard buys time by reviving the ja'chuq, an obsolete stage in which each challenger recites his deeds.
The contest ends when Duras murders K'Ehleyr and Worf kills him under the right of vengeance, leaving Gowron unopposed. The dispute resumes in Redemption.