The Great are one of the Three Powers—the other two being the God Emperor and the Wise. All who are of at least blood-rank one are of the Great. This status not only confers political power, but also allows a House to partake of the division of the flesh tithe. The Great constitute one fifth of all the Chosen
Ichor is the fiery substance that runs as blood in the veins of the Gods. The Chosen believe that through the ritual of an Apotheosis, the blood of a God Emperor is transmuted into ichor, the purity of which They pass on to their offspring. The Chosen minutely calculate and tabulate how much ichor burns in their blood because this is the basis on which they determine status
Power among the Chosen is divided among the Three Powers: the God Emperor (and the House of the Masks) the Great and the Wise. The balance between the Powers is maintained through a system of checks and balances called the Great Balance
The House of the Masks is the House of the Chosen that transcends all the rest because it is from within it that a Candidate is elected to become God Emperor. As a consequence, the members of the House of the Masks have the purest blood of all the Chosen. It is the House of the Masks that constitutes the Imperial Power, one of the Three Powers. The Great Balance forbids that anyone of the …
The Imperial Power, one of the Three Powers, is that exerted by a God Emperor, though it is his House, the House of the Masks, to which, in a more general sense, that power belongs
Information relevant to the 6th chapter of The Chosen
