Millions of candles filled the hive.

Stacy had expected mourning.

Instead, she found a feast.

Families ate beneath statues of saints. Children carried candles. Merchants sold ribbons and sweet wafers. Veterans laughed beside pilgrims. Some people cried.

Some did both.

Above them, an immense golden image of Sanguinius moved through the procession.

Stacy:

“This is nothing like the soldiers.”

Caelwyn:

“Isn’t it?”

A bell sounded.

The crowd stopped.

Millions of people raised their candles.

Then the hymn began.

One voice.

Ten.

Thousands.

Soon Stacy could feel it through the stone beneath her feet.

People breathed together.

Moved together.

Answered together.

Stacy:

“They’re synchronising.”

Caelwyn:

“And remembering.”

She looked towards Sanguinius.

“They never knew him.”

“No.”

“Their parents never knew him.”

“No.”

“Then what are they remembering?”

Nearby, an old man knelt beside a shrine.

A little girl helped him.

He whispered something to her and handed her his candle.

Caelwyn:

“She may not remember Sanguinius.”

Pause.

“She remembers him remembering Sanguinius.”

Stacy watched the child carry both flames.

“So memory can be inherited.”

“Perhaps.”

Around them there was laughter.

Food.

Music.

Incense.

Grief.

Children chasing one another between adults who had come to honour the dead.

Stacy:

“Isn’t that disrespectful?”

“To whom?”

“The dead.”

Caelwyn looked at her.

“Do the dead require misery?”

Pause.

The procession entered the cathedral square.

A priest appeared.

Martyrdom.

Sacrifice.

Duty.

The Emperor.

Sanguinius.

Humanity.

A hundred thousand people knelt at once.

Stacy’s expression changed.

“That is power.”

“Yes.”

“The Ecclesiarchy chooses the story.”

“Yes.”

“The symbols.”

“Yes.”

“What the sacrifice means.”

“Yes.”

“Who is holy.”

“Yes.”

Stacy:

“Then this isn’t just a feast.”

“No.”

“It’s religion.”

“Yes.”

“Politics.”

“Yes.”

“History.”

“Yes.”

“Social order.”

“Yes.”

She looked around.

“So where does genuine grief end and manipulation begin?”

Caelwyn:

“Can you point to the exact moment?”

She said nothing.

Caelwyn:

“The politics do not make the grandfather’s grief unreal.”

“No.”

“And his grief does not make the politics harmless.”

Stacy looked at him.

“Both can be true.”

“Yes.”

“That is inconvenient.”

“Usually.”

Then the entire square began to sing.

The sound struck her physically.

Thousands upon thousands of voices became one.

Stacy knew part of the refrain now.

Without quite deciding to—

she joined them.

Only for a line.

Her own voice vanished.

But the song became larger.

When she stopped, she stared at the crowd.

“I couldn’t hear myself.”

Caelwyn waited.

Stacy:

“But I could hear us.”

Pause.

“That felt good.”

“Yes.”

“Very good.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“That could be dangerous.”

Caelwyn:

“Yes.”

Because the sacred feast can give something the individual cannot create alone.

Memory larger than one lifetime.

Belonging larger than one family.

A story in which the dead remain among the living.

But the same moment can carry faith.

Hope.

Obedience.

Power.

And nobody inside the hymn can neatly separate one from another.

Eventually the bells sounded again.

The feast ended.

Families collected their children.

Workers returned to their districts.

Soldiers adjusted their uniforms.

The great collective flame broke apart into thousands of little lights carried home.

Stacy watched them leave.

“The ‘we’ becomes ‘I’ again.”

Caelwyn:

“It has to.”

“Why?”

“Because perhaps the point of the sacred feast isn’t to live inside the flame forever.”

He watched the candles disappear into the hive.

“Perhaps it’s to carry some of its warmth back into ordinary life.”

What does the sacred feast give us that we cannot create alone — and how do we know whether we are carrying its fire home or surrendering ourselves to the flame?

Game: Warhammer 40,000
System: Wrath & Glory / Imperium Maledictum
Campaign: Mythveil Chronicles
Theme: The Bacchanalia — We Remember Together

PLAY EPIC. FEEL THE STORY.

Campaigns and games:
https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

Research, philosophy and the living worlds of Mythveil Chronicles:
https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames