Torch of Wisdom

"And the Faithful looked up, and beheld an angel glorious, a halo wreathed about his head as a flame. And in his hands he held a torch, and in that torch burned the light of the Gods wisdom, truch, knowledge and righteousness." The Akht Eraqa (literally "Torch of Truth", "Torch of Wisdom", "Torch of Wisdom", and so on) is a religious symbol unique to Ketesh, used throughout Kaaranese history as a symbol of the Kaaranese as a people. In modern usage, the symbol has fallen out of usage with San'Shyuum decrees forbidding heretical symbols and glyphs, and is used only by a few remnants of the Cult of Quenyathar and the Bringers of Holy Light as a sign of defiance against Prophet religious oppression.

The symbol draws its imagery from many sources, but the most consistent explanation is that it derived from a passage in the Ketesh Arrival Myth - "And the faithful looked up, and saw an angel bearing a torch, and within it was the light of truth and wisdom." In literal terms, it merely speaks of a moment of epiphany - more loosely, it has been described as an instrument of the Forerunners to guide the "faithful" to Ketesh. As such, its importance throughout history has been hotly debated. The stricter orders and cults have insisted that it be taken literally, and places of worship are often adorned with torches constantly kept lit. Other groups with looser interpretations merely see it as a device to represent a moment of understanding, and it was often used in Voltakran Alchemy as a symbol of knowledge. Many of the old universities, especially in Morheka and Voltakra, used the symbol for building layouts, creating the glyph to be viewable from the air.

After the arrival of the Covenant, and Ketesh's incorporation into the Covenant, local Prophet governors set about dismantling all traces of the past religion on the planet, starting with the Torch symbol. Its use was outlawed, and those caught using it faced imprisonment or execution for herest. The universities were demolished, and reconstructed with then-modern Covenant architecture. Within a generation, the extermination of the old religions was well under way, and practitioners were forced into hiding - either into the mountains, where the terrain and cave systems gave them an advantage, or simply to practice a watered-down version, one able to be hidden rapidly during routine searches. In recent years, as disatisfaction of the Prophets unwarranted war against humanity grew, the symbol saw a resurgence, once again being openly adopted, this time as a Heretic emblem. Resistance groups opposed to the Prophets have adopted it en mass, including several offworld groups. Crackdowns by Prophet forces have been hard and swift, but have failed to stop its popularity.

Quotes

 * "I once stumbled upon a necklace my mother wore when I was a child. She was scared, and quickly hid it out of sight, and I never saw it again. I never realised that, had I told anyone else, she could have been executed."
 * "Looks familiar, don't it?"
 * "I studied pre-Covenant religious symbology at the Voltakran University, and I found only two scrolls that possessed this symbol - and even then, the first was a list of symbols outlawed by the Prophets, and the second was a heretical text by the Seer Thoth Keltam."