The Rising Flame

Rebellion has been a constant issue for the Imperial Authorities in the Prosperitas Sector. Hostilities between the native populations of Prosperitas planets and Imperial colonists often serve as the catalyst for more widespread dissent, though he colonial Imperial population is not immune to resistance to Imperial rule either. Massive class divides between lowborn citizens and the Imperial nobility, and the harsh authority of Imperial governance creates friction with the wider population. Often this leads to expressions of discontent, rather than armed conflict – such individuals are ruthlessly profiled and identified by the Adeptus Arbites and the Holy Ordos and sanctioned for the crime of dissent. However, the smart ones, the ones not identified at an early stage, prove a much bigger problem.

The reason the Imperium in the Prosperitas Sector acts to cut out the infection of sedition early is that the above frictions make most worlds of the Sector a powderkeg of potential violence. The Ruwwad and Annwfyn ethnic groups have a long history of resistance against outside invaders, and the resources of many worlds are stretched thin by the Prosperitas Crusade and their tithe duties. Most rebellions are localised conflicts – Mawson’s Wake, for example, has almost entirely collapsed due to insurgent conflict, but for the most part these conflicts do not spread to wider worlds.

The Rising Flame

The Rising Flame as a movement has been around in some form or another for longer than the Imperium has ruled the Prosperitas Sector. Initially formed by Prosperan locals who resisted the tyrannical rule of the Archenemy’s “Regent”, insurgents from this group initially worked alongside the expeditionary forces of the Imperium during the early Prosperitas Crusade. In the process they came to realize that the Imperium posed its own threat to their freedom, and concluded that in many ways it was just as bad as the Regency; thus they turned on the Imperium and began to fight back.

The movement has had many leaders over the years, and every time the Imperium believes it has broken its back, new leaders come to the fore. Unlike many internal threats to the Imperium, the Rising Flame is not tainted by the touch of Chaos and is in itself quite vigilant against the threat posed by the Dark Gods, having resisted their followers for years. However, as it has struggled and failed to hold back Imperial expansion time and time again, the Flame has grown more militant. In its early years it had leaders that wished to achieve peace with the Imperium; after nearly six hundred years of conflict, more hardline, fanatical voices became ever-more common, and the methods of the movement have become far more dubious.

Some might argue the Rising Flame have forgotten their original goals and simply turned into a terrorist group that vents its frustrations with the Imperium by planning bombings and other attacks that maximise the suffering of already oppressed Imperial populations. But the Rising Flame truly believes that only through violent resistance can freedom from the Imperium be achieved; there can be no peace with a power that knows only war.

The strength of the Rising Flame varies from faction to faction and cell to cell. Stolen Imperial equipment and ships supplement those provided by human and xenos mercenaries purchased with stolen coin and resources. Notably, the aid of the Shavasti - an alien race with a long-standing grudge against the Imperium owing to its destruction of their homeworld, whose psychic capabilities have helped the Rising Flame train a cadre of psychic warriors outside of the tight controls the Imperium places on psykers.

Internal Culture

The Rising Flame do not display Imperial xenophobia and have in the past welcomed minor Xenos from the populations resisting Imperial expansion into the Rimward Marches into their rank. Because of their history of fighting against Archenemy oppressors in the past they are much less lenient towards mutants and humans, but they tolerate them more than the Imperium does.

The majority of them represent native Prosperans, but a rising number of dissatisfied Imperial citizens have begun to join them as they are one of the more visible resistance movements in the sector.

As such they do not really display a homogenous culture, but rather aspects of many different worlds which have been subjugated by the Imperium. The one thing that unites them more closely than any Imperial population is the mutual threat of Imperial oppression.