The Blessing of the Emperor

It is said that, in the time prior to the Kean exodus at the end of the Second Empire, Kaprianan, the last Kean Emperor, ordered the abandonment of the Celestial City. Gathering everything they valued most aboard their Stellar Sphere, they set out on a tour of the three Galaxies, pausing on their journey to pronounce an imperial blessing over seven sacred sites.
  The location of those sites have long been lost, but the legend claims that at each of them, Kaprinan carved caverns and raised a temple, imbuing the constructions with his spiritual essence. The promise was that those who called upon them in these places would be granted an audience and - if worthy - would receive their blessing.
  To sustain those of his followers who were left to serve the temples, they established fertile fields and created herds of sacred goats. Each goat would bear the mark Imperial, have horns of ivory and gold, and hooves of resounding steel. The Prophets were commanded to drive the herd from the fields to the temple every day so that the sound of their hooves on the stone causeways would ring out in praise of the Emperor for all eternity.
  After the time of the Exodus, the temples remained, attending to their sacred duties. The goats were tended with care, and their milk served to enlighten the prophets and the pilgrims that visited to seek audience with the departed Kaprinan.
  As the herds increased, they produced more milk than the servitors could consume in a day, and they started to conserve it, using it to create a divinatory cheese which could be offered to visitors and pilgrims to assist them in obtaining the Emperor's blessing.
  The cheese was matured deep in the caverns beneath the temples. There the sweet and shining milk took on a more golden hue, becoming veined with an iridescence that sparkled, lines of glorious green or blue weaving their way through the dense but crumbly creation. Each wheel of cheese was two arm-spans wide and one deep, and they could be left to develop their unique flavour and texture for decades. Same say, even centuries
  The legends do not describe the taste of this rare and precious feast - but those who consumed it were said to be overcome by the experience, being granted visions and sometimes developing unusual skills. Not all survived the test - some went mad, some harmed themselves, and some fell into a sleep so deep they never woke again. Those last few were considered to be blessed indeed - the Prophets declaring that their soul, in seeking audience, had been inducted into the Imperial Court, leaving their body as an empty vessel, cleansed by the Emperor's light.
  The empty and the mad were cared for. Some of those blessed would choose to stay at the temple, serving alongside the Prophets and able to fend off an unbearable desire by consuming the fresh milk of the Kaprian goats.. Others would return to service to the Stellar Empire - warned that they would not be allowed to return - and find themselves forever craving the forgotten taste of the Emperor's blessing.
  There is no tale of anyone surviving a second slice of the cheese.
  For a while, tradition was for the Emperors of the third Empire to visit one of the temples shortly after ascending to the throne, seeking the blessing of their eternal predecessor. They would be presented with a slice of the sacred cheese and refuse it, deeming themselves unworthy of approaching the Celestial Emperor until they proved themselves through dedication to the throne. This tradition fell out of favour after one would be ruler did not refuse, demanding a taste of the heavenly cheese as his right as Emperor. His empty shell - living and not living, cared for in a hidden temple far from the throne Imperial - is said to have been the trigger for the slow dissolution of the third Empire. After him, the succession was unclear, and conflicting contenders and false claimants began to compete for the possession of the Throne.
  After the Fall, the locations of all seven temples were lost and they - along with their Kaprian goats, the milk of life and the cheese that brought the Blessings of the Emperor - vanished into legend and myth . Prophets and preachers of the Celestial Emperor often claim knowledge of a lost temple, but - if anyone has ever discovered a Nuan melody that would lead to Kaprianan's legacy, they have never revealed it. And if they have found one and used it, they have never returned to confirm the truth - or otherwise - behind the tale.
  The Blessing of the Emperor.
  One taste, it is said, will transport you to heaven.
  And - if you survive - you will never be the same again.