I usually play as the Romans, so in almost every game I've played, I strive to create Stonehenge for a) cultural benefit and b) for a great prophet. I like the Great Prophet for the sake of establishing a religion. I know that Buddhism & Hinduism will be out of reach, and somebody always seems to beat me in getting Monotheism so Judaism is pretty much out too. So for me it is Christianity, as I can line up the research along with about the time frame of getting my great prophet. Except for the last couple of games I have played, the great prophet has always been Moses.

Now, in a PBEM game I'm playing, I do my usual stuff, and the great prophet I get is Tipu Sultan. Now, according to this List of historical figures in Civilization IV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_figures_in_Civilization_IV), Moses should be the first prophet, and then they should arrive in the order they are on the list. So I could see if somebody else got a Great Prophet before me that I might get Mahariva or even Zoroaster, but Tipu Sultan is almost at the end of the list. Has anybody else experienced this phenomenon?

Prophets and other Great People emerged in the order listed in early versions of Civ4, but with patching they are picked at random.

Please ignore.

Prophets and other Great People emerged in the order listed in early versions of Civ4, but with patching they are picked at random.

Oh, o.k. thanks. That is somewhat disappointing though, I must admit. :(

Mexico made an SDK mod that lets you pick them in order. Check the Mod Components section.