State Funeral for President Stella Solstice Blanc
At 6am cannons were fired from castles, forts and ships across the United States of Izaakia, one shot for each of the 61 victims of the Second Slaughter House Massacre. The eerily quiet streets of Izaakston were lined with black banners embossed with silver sharks, and the route of the funeral possession busy with the pitter patter of international news crews setting up for the day.
At 8am a 2 hour documentary was broadcast across the USI and the world, showing the highlights and lives of the 61 victims of the Ryccian Assault, ending in a half hour tribute to President Blanc at 9.30am to 10am.
From 11am to midday Izaakian dignitaries, politicians and leaders from across the region including the Peony of Huawan, Valentinos Antonides of Thalapadis, and President Elliott of Qaweritoyu amongst countless others began to filter into the Pantheon of Gods in Izaakston.
The Pantheon of Gods is a very sizeable round building, in a neoclassical style with 140 Montacian columns holding up a domed roof adorned with frescos of the gods. But on this day, even this vast building seemed too small for the magnitude of this occasion.
In the centre of the Pantheon was a circle of 60 coffins, the other victims of the Slaughter House Massacre, with their coffins draped in the Black Izaakian flag of mourning. These 60 coffins surrounded a round raised platform with a large fire, a lectern, a pedestal and an alter.
The seating arrangement was arranged from the centre, where family members of the deceased sat, then senior Izaakian dignitaries and politicians. Further out foreign heads of state and representatives were arranged by the seniority of their tenure. And finally in an outer ring was sat more minor members of the Izaakian establishment.
A half mile across the city, in the Houses of Parliament President Blancs body had been prepared. At exactly midday cannons fired from the palace at the sea front, and the Black Guard entered the chamber where she had been lying in wait. She was laid on an antique carved oak stretcher that to date had only been used for the funerals of Izaakian Emperors and Empresses since the 11th century.
She was carried by the Black Guard from the parliament building to a gun carriage in parliament square. The carriage was pulled by 2 experimental robot horses, and a procession began along the streets of Izaakston.
The procession was led by the First Imperial Izaakian Dragoons, followed by the highland band, famous for their drums and bagpipes, then the gun cart carrying the President and finally the Black Guard. As the procession moved along Parliament Street, many of the mourners were moved by the site of President Blancs body exposed to the elements, dressed in white with gold adornments. Two gun shot wounds were visible from where the blood had soaked into the clothes.
At Imperial Park the procession stopped in totem avenue, as the 4 Keya’Iluti tribes paid tribute to president Blanc, and dressed her stretcher with white edelweiss flowers. Surrounding her body in a halo of green and white. The procession then proceeded to the pantheon.
At the steps of the pantheon, the procession stopped, and at exactly 12.30 silence fell, and moments later the CosmosLaunch Inter-Stella Class rocket flew over on its ascent to space, followed shortly by a flyover by the IAF display team. At 12.35, the stretcher carrying President Blanc was lifted by the First Imperial Marine Guard, and to the beat of a single drum, was carried into the Pantheon, through the mourners and onto the alter at the centre.
A moments silence was observed before Admiral FitzHerbert the interim Izaakian head of state began his speech. In his speech he paid tribute to many of the fallen patriots, but in particular to President Blanc, of which he said that he “admired her courage, her directness and how she always embraced change for the better, without comprise” he later called her “Izaakias and indeed Pacifica’s bravest and most impactful leader, she stabilised a country in crisis, strengthened its institutions and built a legacy around our welfare and safety. We are now perhaps the safest and most secure we have been in over a decade, all because this brilliant woman never gave in, neither bullets nor bombs could dull her keen sense of justice and dedication, no threat would cause her question her course of action, and no adversity could dull her lust for life and her optimism, she is a inspiration to us all, the whinging example of public service, and this shall be her legacy”
He finished with an old Izaakian imperial poem, called the Road to Montacia Bay. A touching poem about the relentless toil and struggle to regain the homeland of Montaica.
As he stood down, the former Empress Astrid Iceborn took the stage in her role as head of the montaican polytheism religion and paid tribute to President Blancs service to the USI, and the many reforms she made to improve the lives of Izaakians and the developing world. She also said that her foreign policy showed compassion for the oppressed, and the wisdom of the goddess Intelligencia. She ended on the note that President Blanc and the 60 martyrs will be dining with the gods, and President Blanc will be at the head of the table with the Queen of all gods the goddess Montacia, and is probably asking “who elected you queen?”
The whole temple burst out in a chuckle.
Empress Astrid and Admiral FitzHerbert then approached the fire, and placed a letter into it, in what is an ancient Montacian tradition to send tribute to the dead to ease their passage to the afterlife. The audience was then encouraged to do the same, all filing passed 60 coffins in a circle and then the exposed tragically young body of President Blanc, many shedding tears, and placed their letters of tribute into the flames.
When all the mourners were seated again, the coffins were removed by the priests and priestesses of the temple. The other 60 bodies were to be released to their families, however the last body to be removed was that of President Blanc, where many said their last good byes. Her body was removed and flown to Montacia, where her body will be interred in the Sacred Valley of Kings, an honour never previously afforded to someone outside the Iceborn family.