The Sacrifice of the Sacred Kings of America. I am pretty sure there is a legendary or literary precedent for this, but that doesn't take away from it at all. It almost sounds like a ritual, and I really like this idea a lot, sirpudding.
As for Norton, he always was more of a spiritual leader than a political one for, well, obvious reasons. He had vision and the charisma to inspire people around him. The way you wrote this, it is almost as though he communes or has some communication with some Secret or Ascended Masters, as most lodges, cults, or … well, religions tend to begin. I can definitely appreciate this as I am a fan of Norton I myself.
I do think you need to expand on the Sacrifice of the Sacred Kings, and show how it changed over time. Now I am wondering if there is a way to incorporate early laws or rules as literary allusions to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn somehow, and perhaps over time make them into technical abbreviations or terms that only the O5 Council might be aware in their jargonized form: perhaps as secret protocols.
Your idea also reminds me of something Clemens wrote. In Chapter Nine of his Two Views of the Mississippi, he relates how learning how to pilot a steamboat and navigate the river eventually robbed him of his wonder towards the Mississippi: something that became an extended metaphor for writing and viewing the world. The empirical takes away the magic and the awe, leaving only the danger to attempt to navigate. If that isn't a metaphor for your SPC-001 Proposal and what happened to this founding and the Foundation, I don't know what is.
"No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it
had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the
safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What
does the lovely flush in a beautyʹs cheek mean to a doctor but a ʺbreakʺ that ripples
above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown think with what are to
him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or
doesnʹt he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome
condition all to himself? And doesnʹt he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most
or lost most by learning his trade?"
