The First Prophet of The Bright Flame

Welcome, friends, to the weekly devotion livestream. Blessings of the Bright Flame upon you all.

Today we remember the devotions of the Spear. Please open your Bright Devotions app to the cardinal devotion of the Spear, remember that the search function will bring you quickly to the section you need, the keyword is "Spear". We begin our devotions, as always, with the Cardinal devotion. We must read, again, the First Truth.

And so it was, on the day of destiny, when all was in abeyance, anticipating the blasphemy, the great Spear of destiny did reach forth from the foul device, and smote in righteous fury the Apostate, the nameless transgressor who sought to capture the Bright Flame and make the master a slave.

The Bright Flame did strike out to cleanse the unrighteous, to remove from existence that which offends the Flame. We, Servants of the Bright Flame, do know that The Bright Flame doth serve not, that all serve The Bright Flame, either as servant or as fuel. Shall the created seek to master creator? Shall creator suffer dishonor? No, all created shall serve The Bright Flame and The Bright Flame shall be honored, or The Spear shall destroy.

Having reaffirmed the First Truth, turn now in your apps to the East Devotion, and we shall continue with The Truth of The Spear.

In the second half of the twenty-first century a host of cults sprang up in opposition to various technological advances, the Pleiades Corporation, The Sisters, and other aspects of the new power structures of Civilization. Among the most popular and persistent was the cult of The Bright Flame. The leader of this cult, known only as The First Prophet, was a live streamer turned to religious leader. They used a carefully crafted studio, lighting, and outfit to hide their identity, and a mastery of network security to prevent any trace from reaching their studio. Over their 50 years of active broadcast they were never actually found by authorities; although, despite many claims of collusion, the authorities expended considerable resources in the attempt. The basic tenets of The Bright Flame were that the fusion power of the stars was an expression of the primal consciousness of creation. The actions of Civilization, and particularly The Sisters and their Father, to capture fusion for power were blasphemy against The Bright Flame. The terrible spear of plasma and the tragic events of The Demonstration were a warning from The Bright Flame that humanity must not chain fusion power. And the whole of existence must be service to The Bright Flame, either in devotions or as fuel for the stars.

The first livestreams, captured for posterity and often replayed on official channels when the cult became overly popular, were amateur productions, clearly little more than a lark by a very young "prophet". This quickly evolved, however, and within a few months the streams became extremely well produced professional events backed up by a widely available and popular personal computing device (PCD) app. By 2062 the cult had grown to over ten million, mostly Unemployed, followers, and it was estimated that the cryptocurrency "donations" to The First Prophet, through the app, totaled well over one hundred thousand credits monthly, more than twenty times a typical middle-class wage. While most people thought of the cult as a quaint group of harmless eccentrics, the constant flow of resources caught the attention of The Corporation.

The cult of The Bright Flame (they actually called themselves The Eternal Servants of The Bright Flame) continued to grow, and by 2095 the over one hundred million devotees were contributing more than ten million credits monthly to The First Prophet. The events of The Grievings did little to suppress the cult, and the destruction of Fusion power systems in The Great Grieving was cheered by the devotees of the cult. The cult continued under the new First Prophet, anointed and chosen by the original First Prophet in 2118, and remained a powerful force as the era drew to a close.