Luminism
"I was put on a bus with other orphan children," said Janet. "Many of them were crying. Like me, they'd been hoping their parents would wake up again, and had just found out they wouldn't. There were councilors on the bus. They told us God had taken our parents from us because of their sins and the sins of our ancestors. They had paid the price in full and had been granted eternal rest. Although it was understandable that we missed them, we shouldn't cry for them, because eternal rest was a good thing."
"We survivors, however, could not yet rest. We would have to do good works as a penance for the sins of our ancestors. The bus would take us to the place where we would work off our sins. So, we were taken to a farm and put to work. An organic farm. A bit ironic, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," said Dan. Before the Plagues, the government had been cracking down on organic farms, claiming that unsafe farming practices were allowing contaminated food to get to market. The media had been making a big deal about how organic fertilizer was made from body wastes, so it was, like, totally gross.
"Of course, the Plutarchs weren't really concerned about food safety," said Janet. "The peasants could learn to eat shit and like it as far as they were concerned. It was all about control."
"We found out organic farming involved a lot of hard work. A lot of spading and hoeing. Spreading fertilizer and weeding by hand. We were told that the world was running out of the resources needed to make chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel for the farm equipment. Of course the real problem was that WWIII had destroyed much of the world's industrial and transportation infrastructure, so those resources had become much more expensive. The Plutarchs decided that organic farming using what was essentially slave labor would be more profitable, at least until the infrastructure was rebuilt. 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' That's what the priest told us, anyway."
"For the 'study' part of our 'work-study' program, we had to attend church every evening. It was not a Christian church. Instead of a cross, the wall behind the altar sported a bare light bulb. The first time we were led into the church, the priest told us, 'Yeah, it's just a light bulb. But we're not worshiping the light bulb. We're worshiping what the light bulb represents. Luminia, the True God of Light.' He promised that if we listened carefully, he would teach us to see the God of Light as our new masters could."
"I didn't find this out until much later, but Luminism is an offshoot of Gnosticism, heavily influenced by Zoroasterism. The ancestors of the Plutarchs had been practicing it in secret for two thousand years, driven underground by the mainstream Christian churches, which they hated with a passion. The priest told us our ancestors had worshiped false gods for thousands years, but the time had come for the Light to be revealed to all."
"The priest told us that in the beginning, God was One, unified and complete. But because there was no division, there was no order to the universe. Light was blended with darkness, truth with lies, good with evil, beauty with ugliness, love with hate, energy with matter. All was Chaos. God saw that for Order to exist, there must be division in the universe. So God divided Itself into two. Luminia embodied light, truth, goodness, beauty, love, and energy. Nimbus embodied darkness, falsehood, evil, ugliness, hatred, and matter. The opposing forces of the universe were separated and consolidated, and the universe began to take on Shape and Order."
"At first, Luminia and Nimbus loved each other. But Luminia was the embodiment of love, and longed for more beings to love. So She emitted a portion of her being, creating the Light Souls, beings like Herself but finite. The Light Souls knew Luminia and loved her, and She loved them in return."
"Nimbus was not pleased by this. He'd had the love of Luminia all to Himself for a timeless eternity, and He was jealous of the Light Souls. At first, He tried to create his own Souls to love Him. He shaped matter into galaxies, stars, and worlds, and brought forth life on the worlds. But Nimbus was God of Dark, not Light, and the Souls of the life he'd created were Dark, incapable of knowing Him or loving Him. His jealousy grew stronger. Blaming the Light Souls rather than Himself, He trapped them in the universe of matter. The universe of matter was warped by His jealousy, and became a place of suffering and death."
"The Light Souls remembered Luminia and continued to love Her in spite of their suffering. So Nimbus appeared to them in false guises, claiming to be God of Light, and demanded that they love and worship Him. He claimed he would end their suffering if they bowed down to Him, though He really intended no such thing, lying because he was God of Lies. The Light Souls were not fooled. They knew Him to be the God of Dark and Lies, and continued to love and worship Luminia."
"Nimbus then used His false guises to reveal Himself to the Dark Souls. Being Dark, they could not see truth, but the false guises were visible to them. He made the same false promise to the Dark Souls, that He would end their suffering if they bowed down to Him. Incapable of knowing better, they believed his lies, and did bow down to him. He claimed the worshipers of Luminia were responsible for their suffering, and ordered them to persecute the Light Souls. Again knowing no better, they did so."
"So the Light Souls were persecuted for thousands of years. They learned to worship in secret. And Luminia had not forgotten them. She revealed to them a plan by which they could redeem the universe of matter, end their suffering, and pass judgment on the Dark Souls for their sins."
Edit: The God of Light has been "Lumnos" in my head for months. Then, half a day after posting this, a much better name occurred to me.
"We survivors, however, could not yet rest. We would have to do good works as a penance for the sins of our ancestors. The bus would take us to the place where we would work off our sins. So, we were taken to a farm and put to work. An organic farm. A bit ironic, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," said Dan. Before the Plagues, the government had been cracking down on organic farms, claiming that unsafe farming practices were allowing contaminated food to get to market. The media had been making a big deal about how organic fertilizer was made from body wastes, so it was, like, totally gross.
"Of course, the Plutarchs weren't really concerned about food safety," said Janet. "The peasants could learn to eat shit and like it as far as they were concerned. It was all about control."
"We found out organic farming involved a lot of hard work. A lot of spading and hoeing. Spreading fertilizer and weeding by hand. We were told that the world was running out of the resources needed to make chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel for the farm equipment. Of course the real problem was that WWIII had destroyed much of the world's industrial and transportation infrastructure, so those resources had become much more expensive. The Plutarchs decided that organic farming using what was essentially slave labor would be more profitable, at least until the infrastructure was rebuilt. 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' That's what the priest told us, anyway."
"For the 'study' part of our 'work-study' program, we had to attend church every evening. It was not a Christian church. Instead of a cross, the wall behind the altar sported a bare light bulb. The first time we were led into the church, the priest told us, 'Yeah, it's just a light bulb. But we're not worshiping the light bulb. We're worshiping what the light bulb represents. Luminia, the True God of Light.' He promised that if we listened carefully, he would teach us to see the God of Light as our new masters could."
"I didn't find this out until much later, but Luminism is an offshoot of Gnosticism, heavily influenced by Zoroasterism. The ancestors of the Plutarchs had been practicing it in secret for two thousand years, driven underground by the mainstream Christian churches, which they hated with a passion. The priest told us our ancestors had worshiped false gods for thousands years, but the time had come for the Light to be revealed to all."
"The priest told us that in the beginning, God was One, unified and complete. But because there was no division, there was no order to the universe. Light was blended with darkness, truth with lies, good with evil, beauty with ugliness, love with hate, energy with matter. All was Chaos. God saw that for Order to exist, there must be division in the universe. So God divided Itself into two. Luminia embodied light, truth, goodness, beauty, love, and energy. Nimbus embodied darkness, falsehood, evil, ugliness, hatred, and matter. The opposing forces of the universe were separated and consolidated, and the universe began to take on Shape and Order."
"At first, Luminia and Nimbus loved each other. But Luminia was the embodiment of love, and longed for more beings to love. So She emitted a portion of her being, creating the Light Souls, beings like Herself but finite. The Light Souls knew Luminia and loved her, and She loved them in return."
"Nimbus was not pleased by this. He'd had the love of Luminia all to Himself for a timeless eternity, and He was jealous of the Light Souls. At first, He tried to create his own Souls to love Him. He shaped matter into galaxies, stars, and worlds, and brought forth life on the worlds. But Nimbus was God of Dark, not Light, and the Souls of the life he'd created were Dark, incapable of knowing Him or loving Him. His jealousy grew stronger. Blaming the Light Souls rather than Himself, He trapped them in the universe of matter. The universe of matter was warped by His jealousy, and became a place of suffering and death."
"The Light Souls remembered Luminia and continued to love Her in spite of their suffering. So Nimbus appeared to them in false guises, claiming to be God of Light, and demanded that they love and worship Him. He claimed he would end their suffering if they bowed down to Him, though He really intended no such thing, lying because he was God of Lies. The Light Souls were not fooled. They knew Him to be the God of Dark and Lies, and continued to love and worship Luminia."
"Nimbus then used His false guises to reveal Himself to the Dark Souls. Being Dark, they could not see truth, but the false guises were visible to them. He made the same false promise to the Dark Souls, that He would end their suffering if they bowed down to Him. Incapable of knowing better, they believed his lies, and did bow down to him. He claimed the worshipers of Luminia were responsible for their suffering, and ordered them to persecute the Light Souls. Again knowing no better, they did so."
"So the Light Souls were persecuted for thousands of years. They learned to worship in secret. And Luminia had not forgotten them. She revealed to them a plan by which they could redeem the universe of matter, end their suffering, and pass judgment on the Dark Souls for their sins."
Edit: The God of Light has been "Lumnos" in my head for months. Then, half a day after posting this, a much better name occurred to me.