While ancestor worship was more or less universal through the Age of Nomads and the Age of Settlers, it is in the Empire these rites survived to the present day. Not all imperials are born into the clan of some history and fame that has its own family shrine, but many do, and then it is their age-honored duty to tend the ground where the stone or cast iron urn holds ancestors ashes. The state encourage these visits and most employers and landlords grant at least a short leave for such case. In a (reasonably) wealthy family a special room in a town house or an apartment can be dedicated to the memory of ancestors, serving as a temporary shrine as well as museum and personal meditation retreat.

During the Unification Wars a special degree was signed by the Emperor that forbade building new shrines as they became a case of showing off the clan wealth and importance and sometimes a new castle was erected and claimed to be merely a family shrine to their ancestors. Following centuries saw radical changes in culture, but this tradition never fell into the total disuse. Now, after the Armistice, cities through their councils began petitioning the Imperial Court for new shrines, dedicated to local fallen heroes and these who most notably served their kin and state "according to the Old Ways". Many of these wishes were quietly granted.