The Errant Script

The Errant Script, publicly known as the Order of Coincidences, is a cult dedicated to the worship of Iolond and founded by Zakina Falenmir. Fearing that the rise of worship of Industria on the mainland would push the other gods into obscurity, she created the cult as a means of keeping her other divine friend alive. There is no singular, unified cell for the Script. It operates as a quiet network of cells that have adjusted the angles of reality to push Iolond into mainstream worship. Iolond's rise on Basilla appears to be organic, like a cultural shift due to changing times. People joke its name into existence or swear by it without knowing why.
To Basilla, Iolond is presented as trendy, harmless, and ultimately unavoidable. The Script's ideals have never been written down together, and most members don't know them all. Each cell uses different names, sometimes even several. Anyone attempting to map out their existence finds a tangled thread of unrelated clubs, troupes, societies, and artists. Somehow, the Errant Script remains a secret because they never ask for secrecy. Members of the cult believe that Iolond lives in punchlines, loopholes, mistranslations, and accidents that feel intentional afterward. Various cells of the Script present themselves as acting troupes, cartographers' guilds, storytellers, game clubs, and traveling artists.
Each one believes it's independent, and only Zakina and a handful of people know how the threads truly knot together. There's no central temple to Iolond on the Isles of Basilla. Shrines appear temporarily, and altars pop up during festivals or plays. The cult considers taverns, crossroads, and backstage areas sacred sites. Iolond's rise to power was not through conversion, but through cultural saturation. No one ever had to be convinced of its power, only its relevance. Plays include the god as a background character who steals scenes, a narrator who lies, or as punchlines that later serve as prophecy. Children grow up recognizing Iolond before they even know theology.
A good portion of Basillians are considered a part of the cult without their knowledge. They attend its festivals, enjoy the stories, and keep lucky tokens. They invoke Iolond's name when cheating death or dice. Only a fraction of the population knows there's some level of coordination behind the scenes. Most Basillians recognize the god's symbols as symbols of luck. The Errant Script also subtly engineers situations where rigid gods fail in public ways. Bureaucratic miracles go wrong, and overly serious clergy members look foolish. Then the Order of Coincidences fixes it all with quick thinking and silver tongues. The takeaway is never "worship Iolond", but it's "well, its people handled that better".
Members are assigned by Zakina to be in the right place at the right time, but with entirely wrong information. As a founder, she's not a high priestess; she's merely the editor. She decides which stories circulate and chooses which coincidences are encouraged. Her authority is invisible, and if she’s accused of having ties to any of the cult's cells, she laughs and points the finger elsewhere. The Errant Script has no formal initiation. A person realizes they're a part of the cult when they knowingly lie without guilt.
Basillian followers of Iolond consider loaded dice, scripts with missing pages, masks, and maps with deliberate errors sacred. They don't celebrate holidays associated with the god, but celebrate interruptions instead. Unexpected events and spontaneous festivals are examples of divine interruptions. The cult's relationship with other faiths is not hostile, but inconvenient. Other religions find their sermons interrupted by jokes that land too well, processions that are rerouted by crowds, or their prophecies being fulfilled in embarrassing ways. Open conflict never happens because there's nothing to attack.
Several decades of the cult's existence have normalized Iolond's worship so much that no one truly remembers when it began. People assume that its always existed among the Basillian pantheon.

Tenets of Faith

1. The Truth is Flexible

Reality is not law, but a suggestion written in chalk. Truth bends under pressure, but that doesn't make it worthless. It makes it useful. Lies are not inherently evil if they reveal a deeper honesty, such as exposing corruption without a statement that props up its cruelty. Accuracy, of course, is respected, but relevance is sacred. Pranks are done best when they expose power, arrogance, or stagnation.
In the Errant Script, there are two distinguished falsehoods. Dead truths, which are facts that enforce harm or societal stagnation. Then there are living lies, which are deceptions that liberate, protect, and reveal hypocrisy. The accepted practices of this tenet include forging documents to dismantle unjust authorities, carefully staged events that humiliate the powerful in public but leave the vulnerable unharmed, and false prophecies that cause people to act better than they would have otherwise.
Lies that protect corrupted or arrogant individuals in power are considered taboo.

2. Power Must Slip

Any power that can't be mocked risks becoming tyrannical. If one holds power too tightly, they deserve to lose it. Authority, including one's own authority, is meant to be questioned. It's meant to be undermined if necessary and treated as a temporary inconvenience. Leadership among the Errant Script changes frequently because leadership should exist to solve a problem and then evaporate. Titles among the cult are meaningless to prevent reverence from taking root. Leaders are elected by all manner of inconvenient criteria: drawing a lot, losing a game, or being the only one who didn't want the job.
Any member of the Script can publicly mock a leader without repercussion so long as the mockery is clever. The rare meetings that the cult does hold are done so in informal spaces to discourage pageantry. Once per cycle, a leader has to sabotage their own authority through means such as giving their vote to a novice, misreading their own title aloud, or wearing a ridiculous costume while presiding.
Reverence is frowned upon. The moment someone insists on taking anything seriously, the Script takes them apart with jokes until their idea collapses.

3. Worship Should be Fun

If rituals feel like a chore, then you're doing it wrong. Laughter is prayer and a ritual that produces no such laughter fails to attract Iolond's attention. On the other hand, a ritual that goes wrong but manages to delight everyone involved is considered a resounding success. Improvisation isn't just tolerated, it's required. Accidental successes are seen as a sign of divine favor. Forms of worship include games played with ever-changing rules, plays where the script changes mid-performance, feasts with an unknown host, and public festivals played off like accidents.
Other potential signs of divine favor are plans unraveling in useful ways, mistakes leading to better outcomes, and the right people overhearing the wrong conversation. Members are taught to watch for happy accidents. These are considered winks from Iolond. Ritual purity is not a thing among the Errant Script, and anyone who insists on doing things the "correct way" is redirected, then mocked if they persist.

4. Iolond is a Companion, Not a King

Iolond walks beside mortals, never above them. In the Errant Script, the god is not only worshiped, but also included. Members don't kneel, but they make room. They speak of Iolond like a clever friend who shows up uninvited and fixes things in the only way it knows how to: chaotically. Iolond is addressed casually and sometimes even rudely, often with affection. It's blamed when things go wrong, but thanked when said things go wrong in a useful way. To its followers, it's seen as intentionally fallible, present by choice, and interested in people, rather than obedience.
Followers believe that treating Iolond as a distant authority would drive it away. Prayers are made in conversation through complaints, jokes, wagers, and asides. "Iolond, this is on you." is a valid invocation. It's considered taboo to deify Iolond through fear. Attempts to make it seem terrifying or untouchable are seen as a misunderstanding of its nature.

5. The Unspoken Ideal

Nothing is sacred if it can't survive being wrong.

"Nothing breaks quite like the rules."

Type

Religious, Cult

Alternative Names

The Order of Coincidences
The Second Chorus

Demonym

Scriptors
Echohands
Coinflippers

Leader

Zakina Falenmir

Deities

• Iolond

Location

The Isles of Basilla