Anyway, Ghost lore time!!!
While I know the lore, and I follow the videos and know the general story, I'm not that obsessed with it all to the point that I could provide links and full documentation, BUT....
So far, the basically accepted theory is that Cardinal Copia, now Papa Emeritus IV, is the son of Sister Imperator (the woman from the videos, that hooked up with Papa Nihil, sax guy).
However, I remember reading who knows where (Reddit?) that Forge said that Copia was "not what he seemed", and let's remember that his name literally means "copy" in italian... he's a copy of something or someone?
And then we have the lyrics in the final song of the album:
He appeared to ascend
So we all stood there in awe
Now we have to pretend
We didn't see what we saw
With the curtain unveiled
To the sound of applause
That the king that we hailed
Was the wizard of OzCould it be that the Cardinal, now Papa IV, is an imposter, just like the Wizard of Oz was? that in the end it will turn out he's not the son of Sister Imperator and he was a fraud? let's remember that, as silly and campy the lore is, Tobias put some thought into it - think of Miasma live, the whole tour we saw Papa Nihil almost pass out at the end before the final sax note and we all thought it was a cool gag, but actually at the very last date Papa Nihil died on that sax solo, thus allowing Copia to "ascend the throne". His death was foreshadowed the whole time, the whole tour, and if someone on Reddit would have guessed it, I would have deemed him an overly obsessed fan putting forward a wacky theory.
Also, the theme of the album is the rise and fall of empires, so definitively Papa IV will be gone at the end of the album cycle - but how will it happen, he will fall from grace (from the pinnacle to the pit?
) or he will be actually exposed as a fraud, a cheater and an imposter?