Malazan Empire: A theory - Malazan Empire

Hi all, i am new to the board, but i´ll start off with a theory that came to me after re-reading the series.

One of the themes of the books is certainly ascending in various forms and ways. We even have a group of people ascending now (the Bridgeburners).

What about the whole of the Malazan Empire ascending as a climax to the series? Not in the sense that every imperial subject becomes an ascendent, but rather that the "idea" of the empire is somehow given form as a house in the deck of dragons. We have an imperial warren after all, and some positions in the imperial structure could be closely linked to a priesthood. A good example would be the First Sword of the Empire and a cults MOrtal Sword.

Thoughts? Am I just out of my mind? Or does somebody else see this?