===== Saint Sullivan =====

Alaska Sullivan, later canonized in popular speech as “Saint Sullivan,” is one of the rare documented cases of ascension born not from terror or catastrophe, but from conviction made flesh. Emerging during the industrial height of [[..:..:Nations & Geography:Nations:Cascadia]] in the early years of the [[..:..:History of the World|Age of Nations]], Sullivan was a heavyweight prizefighter whose bouts drew dockworkers, factory hands, politicians, and priests alike. He was not merely a champion of the ring. He became a symbol of endurance for a nation hardened by labor, immigration, and the grinding pressures of a world still reeling from [[..:..:The Meteor]]. In an age when belief reshaped reality, the faith of Cascadia’s working class gathered around him with unusual intensity.

Accounts from the later years of his career describe something shifting. His stamina exceeded medical explanation. Injuries that should have ended his livelihood healed with startling speed. Opponents spoke of blows that felt less like strikes and more like impacts against iron. Newspapers dismissed such claims as hyperbole, yet dockside rumors framed them differently. They said Sullivan carried the will of the nation in his fists. They said when he fought, Cascadia itself refused to falter. Over time, that belief ceased to be metaphor. It became substance.

The transformation was neither theatrical nor overtly divine. Sullivan did not sprout wings nor command miracles. Instead, he endured. Long after his recorded death, stories persisted of a broad-shouldered man appearing in moments of civic crisis: during riots, fires, strikes, and foreign incursions. Witnesses describe a massive figure with battered knuckles and old-fashioned trunks, skin marked by scars that never seem to age, eyes steady and unafraid. He does not preach. He does not demand worship. He stands between violence and the vulnerable, and the violence breaks first.

Modern theologians debate whether Sullivan’s ascension represents a localized manifestation of communal resilience or an early precursor to the more structured angelic phenomena that would later reshape doctrine. What is uncontested is his alignment. Unlike many ascendant entities shaped by hunger or fear, Saint Sullivan is inherently protective. His strength is not conquest but guardianship. In him, the grit and defiance of Cascadia's working man achieved permanence. He does not seek empire. He defends his home.