Synod

The Synod for Imperial Orthodoxy, known before the Proclamation of Imperium as the Transecumenical Council, is the highest religious body in the Techumic Imperium outside of the Empress herself. In the pre-Imperial era, the Council served as a center for dialogue between the different recognized religious organizations of the Techume. After the enthronement of the Empress, she dissolved both the Keeperate and the Transecumenical Council, and created instead the religious organization which became the Imperial Cult, and the Council was reformed as the modern Synod.

The purpose of the Synod as an organ of the Imperial government is to ensure that the different Hieratic Rites (religious organizations recognized as legitimate by the Empress) are able to rightly align their pre-Imperial religions with the orthodoxy of the cult of the Empress. The heads of these Rites are granted a seat on the Synod, and are allowed to send nuncios in their place. In addition, the Empress-appointed High Keepers for each of the Domins sit on the council as well.

At the inception of the Synod, the Empress guaranteed representation for the following major Hieratic Rites from the pre-Imperial era: the Catholic Rite and the Pope, the Orthodox Rite and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Sunni Rite and the Sharif of Mecca, the Bon Rite and the Dalai Lama, the Shi'a Rite and the Ayatollah, the Jewish Rite and the Kohen Gadol, and the Zoroastrian Rite and Mobadan Mobad. In addition, several smaller rites as well as non-human rites were allowed.