I have 50. Is that the maximum? All of my esteemed elders are deceased at this time. I have about 15 others that are masters in 3 categories and should be esteemed elders but they are still indicating as masters in each category and...no totem!

yes.

well if this post had the word spoiler in it i could tell you something . but since it isn't i could tell you to look around the forum or try the search feature. borgs answer might not be the only one

p.s. try looking in the VV2 threads

You can get 51 if you had a event

Not if all 50 elders are dead already....