Cloister of Trials

The Cloister of Trials is a rite that all prospective heirs to the Ivory Throne of the Deýliri Dominion must undertake. The details of the rite are a closely guarded secret, but one fact is without dispute: all those who undertake the challenge of the Cloister of Trials are irrevocably changed, whether they fail or succeed.
As successors to the Throne are selected by force of law through an arduous process rather than heredity or direct appointment, there are, by necessity, periods when the Throne is empty. This state of affairs can last for decades, during which time, authority to govern the Dominion is placed in the Twin Courts. The selection process is gruelling, and candidates for the throne undertake it from a young age.
The Cloister is the last and most difficult hurdle for prospective heirs to the Ivory Throne. It comes at the end of years of thorough education and training, but not even the best education could hope to prepare candidates for what they face within, or so that is the consensus. All who bear witness to the Cloiser are sworn to the utmost of secrecy, a vow enforced with blood magic on pain of death. Even so, a number of challengers to the Cloister have expressed that they feel no inclination to speak about the things that they witnessed within, only indicating that their experiences have driven them to act as forces for progress and the greater good despite failing their trials.
When the Cloister is successfully challenged, the representatives of the Twin Courts who would have accompanied the challenger formally return the authority to govern the empire to its rightful place: the hands of the challenger. Although a coronation is held upon the challenger's return to the Ivory City, it is largely symbolic. The moment when power is transferred happens immediately after a successful challenge to the Cloister, as soon as the Ivory Crown is bequeathed into the possession of the triumphant challenger.