The Church of the Ascendant Signal is the largest religious organization in GLMZ, claiming 2.3 million registered congregants across all tiers — though the bulk of its membership sits in Tiers 2 and 3, the aspirational middle, the people who have enough to want more and not enough to get it without faith. Founded in 2141 by Reverend-Architect Maren Okafor-Singh, a former TESSERA neural interface designer who experienced what she described as 'first contact with the divine frequency' during a BCI calibration accident, the Church teaches that human neural augmentation is not merely technological progress but the fulfillment of a divine plan — that God designed the human brain as a receiver, and BCIs are the antenna humanity was always meant to build.

The Church's theology is sophisticated enough to attract educated adherents and simple enough to fill stadiums. At its core: the universe broadcasts a signal — the Ascendant Signal — that contains the complete pattern of divine consciousness. Human brains, in their unaugmented state, can perceive only fragments of this signal, which manifest as intuition, dreams, religious experience. BCI augmentation amplifies the brain's capacity to receive the Signal. The more augmented you become, the closer you get to God. This doctrine conveniently aligns with consumer behavior the corponations already encourage, which is why Arcturus, TESSERA, and Ringo all maintain quiet but substantial financial relationships with the Church.

The Church operates seventeen mega-worship facilities across GLMZ, the largest being the Cathedral of First Reception in the Laceworks, a 40,000-seat amphitheater where services combine traditional worship elements with synchronized BCI-mediated shared consciousness experiences that congregants describe as 'touching the face of God together.' The Church runs schools, clinics, employment programs, and augmentation financing that makes BCI installation accessible to lower-tier citizens — always branded Church models with Church firmware. Critics call it a corporate front. Congregants call it salvation. The truth, as usual, is more complicated and less comfortable than either position.