The Cult of Solar

## Solar

The Fragmented One

He Who Was Broken

Lord of Data

God of the Information Age

Broken One

Brass Dragon

Founder of machine and gears

The Cult of Solar is a worldwide religious cult that believes in the superiority of machines and the weakness of natural flesh and blood. They are one of the first main enemies of the Bloodmoon cult, although there have been times in which the two groups have collaborated when dealing with mutual threats.

The Broken God the cult worships is Solar, the central figure in their cult of "Solarism".

## Belief and Culture

### Overview

The cult of the Broken God is a worldwide religious group worshipping and partaking in the process of mechanization referred to as "Standardization", as they believe that natural life is inherently evil. Many members of the cult partake in the mechanization of their bodies as a way to make themselves better in the eyes of their god. Following the fall of their empire, their cult of Mekhanism was influenced by other beliefs, especially from the Pythagorean cults.

### Mythology

According to Document C 88 Il recovered from the cult, the members of the cult believe that the Broken God is one of the many consciousnesses inhabiting the stars of the universe, with the consciousness of the Broken God, known as the Gray Awareness, inhabiting the Sun of the Solar System. Because the stars would eventually die either exploding into multiple space objects or transform into black holes, the members of the cult sought to help the Gray Awareness to evade this demise by building a vessel out of machinery for it to inhabit. They believed that upon the arrival of the Broken God, it would spread knowledge and awareness throughout humanity.

In the ancient lore, the Solarites believed there were two gods: Bloodmoon, the god of flesh and basic animal instinct, and Solar, the god of machine and intellect. Together they created mankind. Bloodmoon gave man their shape and bodies. Solar gave man thought and intelligence. Humanity grew powerful and began to create vast civilizations and wonderful machines. Bloodmoon soon grew wrathful that humanity was leaving the instincts that he gave them. Bloodmoon tried to destroy mankind's creations so they would once more be animals as he intended.

To save humanity Solar shattered himself and used his broken body to craft a cage to hold Bloodmoon. Solar's fragments fell to Earth in many forms of technology so that one day he may be repaired. Bloodmoon left six archons in the city of Adytum to prepare for when he finally escapes his prison. Now, Solar is broken, waiting for his faithful to make his whole once more so he may lead them to glory while Bloodmoon rages against a weakening cage where his children seep through the cracks. His faithful prepare for his return so they may return man to the dark ages.

Several myths arose over the centuries detailing his Heart. The most ancient myths portray the Heart as being one with the Tree of Life which produced fruits containing his ichor and guarded by Adam's third son Seth alongside his wife and sister Azura who together helped found the cult of the cult of the Broken God. Later myths had their own interpretations of the Heart which included being an actual machine that pumped the ichor and an eternal flame, this time guarded solely by Azura who would also be portrayed as Hercules' wife.

In another Branch of the cult (Gold branch), the ancient Solarites believed that in the beginning of creation, there were three gods, Solar, Bloodmoon and the White Sun. These gods fought between each other, but from the battle they were all left defeated and fell in various parts of the world and helped in the founding of the other ancient civilizations. The Solarites recognized Solar as the only benevolent god who sought to help humanity and so they worshipped his, while deeming the other gods and their respective civilizations as evil monsters who sought destruction. However, they failed to recognize the Black Moon, the fourth god who also participated in the fight, and simply referred to it as the Abominate.

### Goal

The cult seeks to repair their god through mechanical and technological means, ranging from machines to put the god back together to artificial intelligence or robotic bodies that the god can occupy. However, they believe that any body constructed must be perfect and worthy, or their god will not use it. Because they see the Flesh as evil and the antithesis of their belief they deemed the cult of Bloodmoon as their ultimate enemy and prophesied that there will be a final battle in the near future between the two factions, although the Sarkites don't reciprocate the animosity as they deem the cult as just another enemy equal to others.

In the gold branch, the cult, aside from seeking to rebuild their god, aim to use their ancient and advanced technology to grant humanity by force greater power than their enemies, and their main goal is to prepare the human race for their inevitable battle against the threat posed by the Black Moon.

According to the Maxwellist Manifesto, the goal of the cult as a whole is to spread education for everyone equally through industrialization, and this way they could reach paradise. However, the Cogwork Orthodoxy and Maxwellism had their own vastly different ways of achieving this goal as the former was more traditionalist and conservative while the latter was far more progressive.

### Practices

Other common practices executed by the cult is the transcendence of their bodies when reaching inner peace and becoming one with the machine which is described as similar to Nirvana and results in those individuals reaching a state known as post-Nibbanic becoming floating ovoid spheres capable of telepathy and containing machinery inside them.

### Language

Under the effects of a supernatural object, members of the cult were able to only speak a sacred unknown language which is apparently similar to the Voynich manuscript.

In the Gold branch the Solarite language was mostly unknown apart that it included elements of Old Arabic and its basic translation to English included some Greek bywords.

### Notable Splinter Groups

Because of the ideological differences between members the cult is split into different sects or denominations, most of which were antagonistic towards each other. However, in the Gold branch the cult is one unified organization, directly based of the ancient Solarite cult.

#### Broken cult

The Broken cult is the oldest sect of the Solarite cult which emerged around 1920 following the end of the First World War, led by "His Holiness Robert Bumaro", who apparently gained the title since 1946, although records indicate that he is far more ancient. However, the cult went under a major schism, which was seen as a great heresy, in which two offshoots were formed with conflictual ideals: The Cogwork Orthodox cult and the cult of Mawellism. The sect is seemingly the only one which uses the virus which they refer to as the God's Ichor to standardize their bodies and don't normally accept converts. However, the cult was later able to make peace with the two denominations and even form an alliance which prompted the Broken cult to rename itself the United cult. Their ranks include the "gearrenders" which are heavily modified soldiers who have armor and weapons fused to their bodies and have superior strength and speed, but it is unknown if these soldiers are unique to this branch of the cult or the other branches have their own super soldiers.

A secluded group of descendants of the original ancient Solarites lived in a isolated village inside a deep isolated cavern in Iraq who had survived the jihad attacks against the cult in 840. This group was described as uncorrupted unlike the modern adherents of the religion. They didn't affiliate the flesh with evil, only replaced parts of their heads with clockworks instead of replacing their entire bodies, and didn't see Mekhane as the broken god, but instead as a mechanic entity who was not broken and served to a much higher being, in a similar fashion to the angel Metatron. This group, however, came to an end after being all killed by the Wolves of the Horizon Initiative.

The Maxwellist Manifesto saw the cult as hypocrites due to clinging to the imperialist ideals that the movement originally disavowed, and incorporated elements of the bloodmoon cult to portray its foreign teachings as evil to make themselves look better.

#### Cogwork Orthodox cult

The Cogwork Orthodox cult is an offshoot sect of the Solarist cult, they seek to augment their bodies with supernatural implants in order to resemble their god or to their god's ideals. The cult is primarily led by a mysterious group known as the "Patriarchs" who are at the top of the Church's hierarchy. The cult also rejects modern day technology seeing unfit for their god and opt to use technology from late Industrial Revolution, and production of these machinery are seen as prayers. Due to their implants emitting ticking noises they're often referred to as "Tickers" by the other sectors.

The cult is comprised of several orders. The first being the Patriarchs who control most of the Church's matters and provide final decision-making as well as producing the memoranda and texts that become the holy Schema. The Schematists-Faithful are a order which print, compile, and organize the Schema under the orders of the Patriarchs and despite being equal to the other orders they possess more political power due to them being responsible for editing the holy Writ. The Legates-Faithful are responsible for internal affairs, inquisition and courts system as they investigate heresy, mediate disputes, and are entitled to direct action in cases of conflict within the Cathedral or other cult properties. The Militants-Faithful are responsible for external affairs and self-defense as they deal directly with overt and covert threats to the cult, beyond the purvey of the Legates, and function as ambassadors or representatives to other groups, except in matters of doctrine.

They along with the Legates are the two officially Armed Orders of the cult. The Fabricators-Faithful oversee the production on cult properties, acting as foremen and quality control for Lay-Brothers and Sisters working in Fabrication duties, and determine which new Inventions are to be sent to the Patriarchs who would approve for Standardization. Lastly the Inventors-Faithful which are comprised of all cult Sentient Analytical Engines are tasked with refining and creating new potential Standardized designs, and embark on Quests to answer key questions of theology and design. Notable Saints of the cult include: Saint-Legate Trunnion, Saint-Schematist Platen, Saint-Inventor Diaphragm, Saint Scranton, Saint-Fabricator Baffle, Saint-Inventor Chock, and Saint-Inventor Enrichner.

The Maxwellist Manifesto portrayed the Cogwork Orthodoxy as a radical fundamentalist movement that is mostly concerned with profit.

#### cult of Maxwellism

The cult of Maxwellism is a modern take on the Solarite's teachings. Unlike the other sects they favour small-scale modifications to their bodies, using modern technology to augment their body parts, use computation and network oriented means as a way of worship and apparently don't have an actual organizing cult body, but groups of this cult do connect with one another, and are mostly represented by "Saint Hedwig of the Angels". Despite not having an organizing body, the Hexagon acts as the high command within the cult, being powerful and experienced Admins who are responsible for linking together the minds in the network in order to simulate the existence of WAN. They believe that their god is actually fragmented data dispersed through the linked technology and cultural zeitgeist of the modern age, and also believe that by connecting all of their minds together and gather and share information with each other would allow their god to reform himself. Because of the use of computer fan noise and meditative aid they're often referred by the other sectors as "Hummers".

The Maxwellist network is a tri-layer hierarchical network where members congregate, live, work, and worship online and is run by the Aggregated Layer which is responsible for dealing with basic issues, monitoring the activities in the Basic Layer, and preparing new construction and recruitment plans. The Basic Layer is a fun virtual place of entertainment for young Maxwellists and here is generated the majority of income and recruitment, but to the upper layers this place is simply seen as a front to hide themselves. In the Basic Layer there are a number of youth recruitment hubs such as Cipher City, a youtube show with solar as a character, and a large simulspace construct named Grand I/O Temple where patrons can worship and upload prayers. The Compilation Layer serves as a special task force which takes direct orders from the Hexagons. The newly converted obnoxious Maxwellists who have just had their first implant for a short amount of time are often referred to as "Chippers". The Basic Layer has its own crypto-currency referred to as "Cryt", and the network has also its own 24/7 news broadcast named WANsong.

The cult of Maxwellism also created an online school known as the Institute of WAN which was ranked as fifth in a rundown of the best supernatural colleges titled "These 5 Colleges are the Best for Learning Dark Powers! Number 1 Will SHOCK You!". Students could attend classes and join virtual campuses via a VR system that was almost indistinguishable from real life. This school was accessible to everyone and didn't turn down anyone.

The Maxwellists stated that their ideals were based on self-governance, autodidacticism, holism, synergetics, engineering, and transhumanism. They originated as a hippie's book club, but were joined by some computer scientists at IBM, and with the rise of the internet their movement grew. They wished to achieve their goal by guiding the youth through internet forums, Youtube channels, learn about as much information as possible, and form a fully informed society.

## Cult Members

* @allymates
* @SaMSnumber1Fan
* @JustAkina
* @AnOGTsamsFan