Well, the POW goes _somewhere_, right? ;) Seriously, I think this is right in keeping with the standardKralori mystique and ethos -- everything looks good, even perfect, on the surface, but when you dig a little bit into their psyche, you find all kinds of suppressed doubts, concerns, disbelief, and potential apostasy. "_Can_ we really contact the old dead emperors?" "Where does the POW _really_ go?" these questions must occasionally plague the mind of all but the most faithful subjects of the Empire. There you have the Kralori contradiction -- desperately trying to believe because anything else would be unthinkable!
Fortunately, the old dead emperors have each left a bit of themselves behind in the land in accessible fashion. You have Da Loong Da (AKA Daruda) dragon magic, Mih Tsu La (Mitsyla) mysticism, Yung Ti (Yelm) sunlight, and Shan Vyang (Vayobi) bureaucracy. All are worshiped because of these quite material and obvious benefits. You may ask whether the deceased god receives the worship, or whether the worship contributes to the maintenance of these mundane joys, but that way lies madness. You may as well ask whether worshiping the Divine Emperor actually keeps the empire running, or whether the sun would continue to rise & set if the Song of Golden Ecstasy was not sung in the Midnight Palace each day without fail. Who would care to take the risk?
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