The Flame
The Game itself, carried by one person to another who is ready.
The Flame is word six of The Twelve Words, and it is deliberately not a metaphor for enthusiasm. What is handed over is the whole playable thing: the invitation, the rules on The Playcard, the Story that makes sense of them, and the way of playing that comes with them. When someone says they received the Flame, they mean a person sat with them and gave them enough to begin.
It is load-bearing because it names the unit of transmission. The body has no headquarters, no membership roll at a center, and no broadcast. What it has is a chain of hands, each link recorded on The Circle Sheet as carried by, so that the whole Game can trace how the fire travelled from one table to ten thousand without any register in the middle. A Flame counted on The Circle's Scorecard is one person carried, whether or not a Cell has formed yet; when their Cell forms, the name goes in the totals and onto line 7 of The Season Sheet.
How it is held. Receive it from your Carrier — the one who brought it to you, which never changes. Keep it by playing: a Flame that is held and never used goes out, which is what a season with no Turn and no Quest actually is. Pass it within a week to the two or three you know are ready, and let their Cell be their own. Give the whole of it, not a summary: the books are freely copyable, the card is a hand copy if that is what you have, and the Game is a free gift. Nobody is carried who has not chosen to walk, and no one is turned away.
Also called: flame · flames Stands on: The Great Game of LIØNSBERG · The Invitation · The Golden Seed Opens onto: Pass The Flame · Carrier · The Playcard · Form a Cell · Home Cell · Fibonacci Spread In play: door · table · beyond Sources: The Twelve Words, word 6 (current best understanding) · the Player+ Modules lexicon, the Flame · Pass The Flame (the book) · The DNA of Heaven, Part VI (Fable synthesis, second draft) · lionsberg.wiki: The Flame, Pass The Flame Open: The root page The Flame was named in the corpus sweep but not opened in this pass; the wording here is taken from the Little Book and the modules. · Nothing says whether a Flame can be received from a book alone, with no person — the texts assume a person.