Ministry of Ceremonies

The Ministry of Ceremonies of the Bacterian Empire is concerned with ceremonial matters and diplomacy in the Court of Bacterium, and to oversee the maintenance of Imperial tombs and mausoleums. Its chief officer is the Chief Minister of Ceremonies.

Duties

The ambit of the Ministry's activities encompasses, for example:

• maintenance of the roster of names of officials
• oversight of the succession and marriage of officials
• oversight of formalities relating to deaths, funerals and the granting of posthumous rank
• management of the memorial activities which honor the anniversaries of the demise of a former Emperor
• monitoring and recording of the names of all the former Emperors, so that none of those names shall be used by any of the succeeding Emperors nor by any subject
• adjudication of disputes about the order of precedence of the various families
• registration of names of temples and shrines
• reception and entertainment of foreigners and managing to their presentation to the Emperor

This ministry is also responsible for rules for noble families.

Death & Succession Rituals

The Ministry is responsible for the oversight of the succession and marriage of officials of the Bacterian Empire, as well as oversight of the formalities relating to deaths, funerals, and memorial activities which honor the anniversaries of the demise of a former Emperor.

The chief officer of the Ministry is the Chief Minister of Ceremonies, who is tasked with finding the successor in the event an Emperor dies. Cloning has been used extensively by the Empire for ages. It is not uncommon for an old Emperor to continue ruling the Empire even after his death, by simply transferring to another, younger body, produced in a Gestation Vat from genetic material acquired from an Imperial Mausoleum. The rites involved in this process are also the responsibility of the Ministry.

Although the imperial succession is generally hereditary, it is only hereditary if there was a suitable candidate acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy, so there is no principle of automatic inheritance.

Ascension

The cloning tradition was broken by Gracilibacillus XI, who, after centuries of rule, wished to die a warrior's death and "ascend beyond the plane of mortals". Since Gracilibacillus had no direct heir, the Bacterian Empire was left in turmoil, leaderless during a conquest on multiple fronts. The Ministry of Ceremonies was tasked with finding a successor from an Imperial bloodline.