Elegiac

The Elegiac Empress reigns for a year following the death of her Unmade Prince, during which time four new princes are quickened. 

The Rite of Return is held at the end of the year, during which the four are led to the grotto of the Water Singer. 

The survivor becomes the new Prince.

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One of my favorite lines by Iain M Banks was the first line of Consider Phlebas, supposedly the beginning to a character's favorite story: 

The Jinmoti of Bozlen Two kill the hereditary ritual assassins of the new Yearking's immediate family by drowning them in the tears of the Continental Empathaur in its Sadness Season.

Loved that suggestion of untold worlds, and sprawling strange stories, and this is my attempt to recreate the same feeling.