This is an in-setting written work. It is written from a particular perspective and may or may not be factually accurate.
The Emperor Lives!
Excerpt from a written work by a dissident priest of the Eternal SuzerainThe Emperor has died, the Imperial Priests say. In this they are mistaken. The Emperor has yet to reincarnate, they claim. In this they are incorrect once more. The Emperor is much greater than a form of flesh, greater even than their divine draconic soul. The Emperor has reincarnated into their apotheosis, for now the Emperor is the Empire, and the Empire lives.The dedication of the Inheritors cannot be doubted, yet they do not understand the true nature of the Suzerain. Even the most wise of the priest-class cannot see. Too caught in a net of their own misunderstanding, they can only consider the Emperor as they were. Yet it was never the plan of the Suzerain to be with us in the flesh forever. Can any of us claim to possess greater foresight than the Suzerain? Can any truly believe their death was unplanned?
In their millennia-long benevolence, the Suzerain prepared for the exact moment in which we find ourselves. Truly their ability to see the path of their faithful was unmatched. They built the farms of Langkha that feed us. They introduced us to the world beyond our shores, and the world beyond our shores to us. They wrote the laws that bind us together. They gave us ambitions and purpose. The Emperor is a god, but our veneration was never their aim. No, their design was never any more or less than our future.
Hundreds of years have passed since the Emperor entertained an audience, since the Imperial Priests tended to their scales and recorded their words on the scrolls without end. But what of the Empire? It endures. It endures not in the governance of the Inheritors in New Era, but in every part of the Suzerain's design that continues unabated. We are still fed. The legal code of the Empire still holds. Even with our petty disputes, we still understand we must continue the systems that brought us prosperity. The Emperor did not die, they merely no longer required a physical body to aid us. The Emperor is the Empire, and the Empire lives.