The Church of Divine Illumination

The Church of Divine Illumination was a cult centered around the powers of the red light.

Beliefs
The beliefs of the cult derive from christianity. The followers compared the lack of moral viewpoint, objective attitude and restricted sense of self awareness present in an individual shined by the red light with that of the psychological state of the first two humans in the bible, prior to eating the forbidden fruit. The followers believe that the Red Star was sent by God as a way for humanity to repent for its sin, by restoring them to what God had meant for them to be.

History
The cult was founded by John Delven, a man who survived a shipwreck, but found himself at the bottom of the sea soon after. The man was drifted towards the ruins of a ship that had sunk during the Red War. The man found a piece of red light in the ruins, which shined him. John managed to hold on to the red light before being washed ashore.

John believed that his survival was a miracle of God’s work, so, along with a dozen people that he had shined, decided to start a cult. His first temple was built in New York in 2589. His faith attracted multiple people, who allowed themselves to be shined.

As soon as word reached the RLSA, they sent out a Blockader to destroy the temple. The ship burned down the entire temple, as well as three nearby buildings. The fire killed fifty three people, five of whom were not even part of the cult, though John was unharmed. News of the RLSA attack spread across the world and caused a huge controversy surrounding the red light. People began to question society’s hatred towards the red light. While the Left protested against the RLSA and claimed that the shined were human beings and deserved human rights, the Right protested against the church, basing their viewpoint on the events of the Red War. The world began to feel disgust towards the RLSA and began to question their role and existence. Most of the world leaders agreed to partially cut the finances given to RLSA. The American government even seized some of the lands around RLSA-Earth, which had belonged to the RLSA for hundreds of years. The cut in finances was one of the reasons why the RLSA began the construction of RLSA-Venus. All these events only gave the cult more popularity and attention. More and more people joined the cult. John began the build other temples elsewhere in the world. The RLSA then decided to send a colourblind spy to infiltrate the cult. By doing so, the RLSA uncovered a major terrorist plot that consisted of hijacking a plane and having someone parachute over a highly populated city with a shining piece of red light in their hand. The RLSA and the American government agreed to work together to try to prevent the terrorist act. After many failed initiatives from the RLSA’s part, the cultists managed to hijack a plane like they intended to. The RLSA sent out a squadron of fighters and shot down the plane, killing everyone onboard. The American government had the people believe that the cultists crashed the plane themselves as an act of terror.