When Ix shattered, it did not shatter cleanly. The Ancients gathered the largest fragments and made gods of them, but the process was imperfect. Dust remained. And in that dust — finely divided and scattered — were fragments of rules, pieces of laws of nature that no longer had a complete picture. When those laws tried to reassemble themselves in the mortal world, they sometimes got it wrong.

For centuries, nobody noticed. Reality glitched, and people explained it as luck, magic, divine intervention, personal madness, or simply forgot it happened. A merchant's speed increased impossibly for a moment, and then stopped; he'd been drinking. A knight's weapon broke stone; he'd used enchantment. A peasant missed the ground and floated; everyone agreed she'd dreamed it.

But reality was breaking in small, systematic ways. And for centuries, no one was paying attention.

The first anomaly significant enough to force divine attention was the Peasant Rail Gun — an experiment conducted by a knight (Sir McGyer) who had become fascinated by the possibility of increasing speed. He handed a metal rod to a peasant and instructed them to pass it forward. The peasant passed it to the next peasant. And the next. A thousand peasants in a line, passing an iron rod from hand to hand.

What happened was impossible. The rod's velocity increased with each transfer in a way that violated everything the world believed it understood about momentum and energy. By the time it reached the end of the line, the rod was traveling at such speed that when McGyer caught it and hurled it at a stone wall, the wall shattered. Then the castle behind it. Then the landscape beyond it.

The devastation was immense. For the first time, the gods took direct notice. This was not a small glitch; this was a fundamental failure in the rules that governed reality. Something had to be done.

The gods conferred. They could ignore this — let anomalies accumulate, let reality gradually destabilize. They could suppress it — erase the anomalies, reinforce the rules, make the world more rigid. Or they could do something radically different: create a deity whose specific function was to identify these failures and fix them before they cascaded.

From fragments of Ix's dust, from the remains of almost-rules, they forged Bethsia — a god whose nature is to exist in the cracks of reality, to notice when things don't work the way they should, and to fix them. Not to punish those who discovered the anomalies, but to patch the world, to restore it to proper functioning.

When McGyer's weapon broke the castle wall, an avatar of Bethsia appeared before him. She praised him for discovering something that needed fixing. Then she patched the world — made it so that passing a rod between peasants would no longer accelerate it impossibly. The weapon stopped working. The wall was no longer broken. Reality had been corrected.

It became clear, very quickly, that Bethsia had purposes that seemed almost inverted to those of other gods. She was not content to let the world remain as it was. She wanted anomalies discovered. She actively encouraged people to experiment, to test the boundaries of reality, to do things that shouldn't work.

Then, when they discovered that something was breaking, Bethsia would patch it. The devotees she cultivated were not priests seeking power or followers seeking salvation. They were researchers — people whose greatest joy was finding something that broke the rules and figuring out why.

Within a few generations, a movement emerged: people who deliberately looked for anomalies, who experimented at the edges of natural law, who documented everything they found, and who understood themselves as partners in Bethsia's work of maintaining the world's coherence.

Bethsia makes an unusual bargain: discover what shouldn't work, and I will ensure it does work (or stops working, depending on what's needed). Test the limits of reality, and I will respond.

Bethsian theology reads like experimental methodology. These are not spiritual abstractions; they are protocols for understanding reality.

(See also: Soul Coins & Divine Economy)

Bethsia accumulates power through acts of discovery and documentation. Each anomaly found and recorded generates coin; each anomaly understood generates more.

Bethsian temples are not temples in the conventional sense. They are laboratories, archives, and observation centers.

A typical Bethsian sacred space is a building (or collection of buildings) designed for the systematic observation and documentation of phenomena. The ground floor typically contains an archive — carefully organized records of every anomaly discovered and documented by Bethsian researchers in that region. The upper floors contain testing grounds: spaces set up to allow controlled experiments, places where impossible things can be attempted under observation.

The most important feature of a Bethsian sacred space is documentation infrastructure — paper, ink, binding materials, skilled scribes or mages capable of recording observations precisely. The faith maintains extensive libraries of previous discoveries, organized in ways that make them searchable and consultable.

Interestingly, Bethsian sacred spaces are often collaborative. A scholar who is not formally Bethsian but who is conducting careful research may be granted access to the archive and the testing grounds. The faith does not require formal membership to participate in the work of understanding reality.

The most significant Bethsian center is rumored to exist in a city known only to senior members of the faith — a place where the archive of all discovered anomalies is kept, where the greatest experiments are conducted, where reality itself seems thinner and more malleable than elsewhere.

Bethsia's faith is organized around investigation circles — groups of researchers working together on specific categories of anomalies. A circle might focus on gravity anomalies, or temporal anomalies, or biological impossibilities.

Authority within each circle is earned through the quality and reproducibility of work. A researcher who has published findings that have been verified by other investigators holds more authority than someone whose work is speculative. Titles are minimal; the only formal positions are Archive Keeper (responsible for maintaining records) and Senior Investigator (recognized leaders in a particular field of study).

The faith maintains a loose council of Senior Investigators who meet periodically to share discoveries, coordinate research efforts, and discuss cases where multiple circles are investigating the same phenomenon. This council has no coercive power; its authority rests entirely on the respect of its members.

Critically, Bethsian organization is intentionally non-hierarchical and non-exclusionary. The faith invites collaboration from anyone willing to engage in rigorous investigation, regardless of formal initiation status. Some of the most important discoveries have come from people who had no formal relationship to the faith but whose work was documented in Bethsian archives.

Conversion to Bethsia's faith is gradual and rarely explicit.

Soft entry is the norm. Someone becomes interested in anomalies. They visit a Bethsian archive. They begin doing research. They participate in discussions. They help with documentation. Over time, if they prove themselves rigorous and committed, they are gradually accepted as part of the faith community. Many Bethsians have been active in the faith for years before formally understanding themselves as followers of Bethsia.

Initiation is simple and unusual: a public commitment to rigorous documentation. A candidate stands before an assembly of investigators and vows to conduct their work with precision, to document their findings thoroughly, to report anomalies when discovered, and to remain open to correcting themselves when evidence suggests they were wrong. The vow is sealed by being entered into the archive as an official investigator.

What makes an enemy rather than a convert: Sloppy work. Fraud in documentation. The deliberate suppression of anomalies to maintain comfortable falsehoods. The use of discovered anomalies to dominate others. These are serious enough transgressions that the faith may formally exclude someone from the archive and refuse to cooperate with their work.

A devoted Bethsian investigator is recognizable by their methods and their obsessions.

Date: First week of each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter).

During the Testing Days, Bethsians across communities engage in focused, coordinated experimentation. Each circle selects a particular type of anomaly to investigate intensively during their assigned week. The results are compiled into regional reports and shared with other communities. This is as close as the faith gets to a unified observance; instead of prayer, there is research.

Date: Midway through each year, at the summer solstice.

A gathering where Bethsians from multiple communities gather to present their findings from the previous six months. Each investigator is given time to describe their discoveries, their methods, their questions. The gathering concludes with a feast where findings are discussed, challenges are debated, and next steps are planned. This is both celebration and serious academic conference.

Date: The autumn equinox.

On this day, Bethsians gather to recognize discoveries that have been independently verified by multiple investigators. A discovery is not considered truly "confirmed" by the faith until it has been replicated by at least three separate research circles. Confirmation Day celebrates the discoveries that have reached this level of certainty and are officially added to the great archive.

Date: The winter solstice.

A solemn gathering where Bethsians remember investigators who died during their research — those killed by experiments gone wrong, researchers lost to dangerous anomalies, field investigators who never returned. The faith does not pretend this work is safe. The Memorial acknowledges the cost.

Performed when a new investigator formally joins the faith. The candidate presents their first finding — an anomaly they have discovered and wish to add to the archive. The circle of senior investigators questions them about their methodology, their documentation, their confidence level. If satisfied, they formally induct the candidate by writing their name and their discovery in the archive, making it official record.

Performed when an anomaly is being tested for reproducibility. A lead investigator describes the original discovery in detail. Other researchers attempt to replicate the conditions and the anomaly. If it replicates, each investigator documents their findings. The ritual continues until either the anomaly is confirmed or it fails to replicate, in which case the original investigator is asked to revisit their methodology.

Performed when Bethsia (through an avatar or through fortunate circumstance) appears to have patched an anomaly. Senior investigators gather to verify that the anomaly no longer occurs, that the patch is holding, and that no new anomalies have appeared as a side effect. The patching is then documented and archived as a reminder that the work matters — that what is discovered actually gets fixed.

Performed when a significant finding is formally accepted into the great archive. The Archive Keeper reads the investigator's full documentation aloud, places the records in a place of honor, and the community honors the work by remaining silent and still for a period, witnessing the documentation. It is the closest thing to a sacred moment in the faith.

Bethsian ceremonial dress emphasizes practicality and neutrality, reflecting the faith's commitment to observation over display.

A long coat with multiple pockets, designed to hold tools, notebooks, ink, writing implements. The coat is typically worn in muted colors (grey, brown, dark blue) to avoid drawing attention. The only decoration is a small pin bearing the faith's symbol — a crack in smooth stone — worn on the collar.

Worn by senior archive keepers during formal presentations and ceremonies. A chain (typically silver or gold) upon which are hung small scrolls, each representing a major discovery archived during the keeper's tenure. The chain grows heavier and more impressive as the keeper's career progresses.

Carried by all investigators, treated as almost sacred. The notebook is where observations are recorded in real time. A well-worn notebook with meticulous notes is a mark of serious work. Many Bethsians carry notebooks that are family heirlooms — passed down through generations of investigators.

A small badge or pin worn during active field investigation, identifying the wearer as engaged in authorized research. This insignia allows investigators access to restricted areas and gives them authority to conduct experiments. It is taken seriously; falsifying one is a serious crime.

McGyer is remembered not for the destruction his experiment caused but for the discovery it enabled. He was not trying to break reality; he was simply testing an idea about velocity. The fact that his test revealed an anomaly is what matters.

The faith treats McGyer as a precedent: testing ideas, not being dissuaded by theoretical objections, conducting systematic observation. When his weapon broke, he didn't hide it or deny it. He reported it to Bethsia's avatar. He accepted correction. He became one of the first formal followers of the faith.

An ordinary person who discovered that walking in a particular eccentric manner on the king's road at noon caused a localized teleportation effect — moving the walker forward by one hundred yards. Mr. Teabag spent weeks replicating his discovery, documenting the exact conditions (it only worked at noon, only on the king's road, only with that specific walking pattern).

He is cited in the faith as an example of amateur investigation done well: careful observation, patient replication, meticulous documentation. The anomaly was eventually patched by Bethsia, but the documentation he left behind was so precise that investigators still study his records to understand how the anomaly functioned.

Dent was a homeless vagrant who, while fleeing from danger, tripped and missed the ground — and began to fly. He did not understand what was happening, but he did something crucial: he attempted to replicate it. He spent days attempting to trigger the same effect, documenting his attempts, trying to figure out what conditions had been present when it happened.

His efforts eventually drew the attention of Bethsian researchers, who helped him document his findings more rigorously. Bethsia's avatar patched the anomaly, but Dent's work showed that even ordinary people, with no training, could contribute to the faith's work through careful observation.

Legend speaks of a brilliant investigator whose work predates the formal founding of Bethsia's faith. Their name is deliberately not recorded, for the faith believes their great discovery — the methodology of careful testing and documentation itself — is more important than personal fame. All rigorous investigation since has been built on the foundations this person laid, even if their name is lost.

How they refer to themselves: the Confirmation Circle or the Verifiers

The Replicators specialize in verifying other investigators' work. They take published findings and attempt to replicate them under the same conditions. If replication succeeds, the finding is confirmed. If it fails, they investigate why — did the original investigator misunderstand their own results? Has the anomaly already been patched? Are there hidden variables that determine whether the anomaly manifests?

Replicators are essential to the faith's integrity but are sometimes viewed with suspicion by primary investigators, who may feel their work is being questioned. The faith emphasizes that replication is not critique but collaboration.

How they refer to themselves: the Wanderers or the Distance Runners

Field Researchers travel to locations where anomalies have been reported, investigate them on-site, and document their findings. They are often the first contact between the faith and non-Bethsian communities. Field Researchers spend years away from major investigation centers, working in remote or dangerous locations.

The sect is given particular prestige because the conditions they work under make rigorous documentation difficult; a Field Researcher who maintains careful records while under stress deserves respect.

How they refer to themselves: the Guardians or the Organized

Archive Keepers specialize in the preservation, organization, and accessibility of research records. They are librarians, scholars, and curators who ensure that previous findings can be easily found and consulted. The Guild maintains standards for how research should be documented, ensuring that findings from different investigators can be compared and cross-referenced.

Archive Keepers are sometimes dismissed as non-researchers, but the faith insists that archival work is as important as primary investigation. Without organization, discoveries cannot be found; without standards, findings cannot be compared.

How they refer to themselves: the Perfectionists or the Complete-ists

The Perfect World School believes that the goal of Bethsian work is to achieve a state in which no anomalies exist — a world so perfectly coherent that no glitches remain. They advocate for rapid identification and patching of anomalies, accelerating the process to reach "completion."

The mainstream faith considers this misguided. The goal is not to end anomalies but to understand them and ensure the world functions correctly. Bethsia's work is never complete; there are always new anomalies to discover, always deeper understanding to be achieved.

How they refer to themselves: the Liberators or the Wild Ones

The Chaos Advocates believe that anomalies are beautiful, that they represent freedom from oppressive reality, and that Bethsia's work of patching is a form of cosmic imprisonment. They attempt to preserve anomalies rather than document and allow patching.

The mainstream faith considers this fundamentally contrary to Bethsia's nature. Bethsia does not want to create chaos; she wants to ensure that reality functions coherently and that the rules, whatever they are, are applied consistently.

How they refer to themselves: the Seers or the Meaning-Readers

The Prophetic Interpreters believe that anomalies are messages — that Bethsia communicates divine will through the anomalies that occur. They attempt to read prophecy from discovered glitches in reality, claiming that the pattern of anomalies reveals future events or divine intent.

The mainstream faith is skeptical but not hostile. The practice is harmless, and the faith acknowledges that the universe does communicate in ways we don't fully understand. The question is whether the communication is genuine prophecy or imaginative pattern-finding, a question the faith leaves open.

How they refer to themselves: the Eternal Experiment or the Never-Satisfied

The Infinite Testers believe that the proper spiritual state is constant experimentation — that followers should never stop testing, never accept current understanding as sufficient, never settle into comfortable knowledge. They conduct obsessive repeated testing of the same phenomena, looking for variations that might indicate deeper patterns.

The mainstream faith is concerned that this approach leads to obsession rather than understanding. Testing should yield insight; endless repetition without purpose is obsession, not devotion.

How they refer to themselves: the Unmakers or the Deconstructors

The Reverse Engineers believe that the best way to understand an anomaly is to reverse-engineer how it works — to deliberately attempt to recreate or amplify the conditions that cause it. Some have engaged in dangerous experiments attempting to expand minor anomalies into larger ones, to see what happens.

The mainstream faith opposes this as dangerous and contrary to the principle of careful documentation. You cannot document responsibly if you are actively amplifying the phenomenon you're studying; the risks escalate too quickly.

How they refer to themselves: the Designers or the Reality-Shapers

The Pattern Architects believe that discovered anomalies can be combined and orchestrated to create entirely new effects — that they can essentially engineer reality by combining multiple glitches. They document anomalies not to understand them but to use them as components in larger constructs.

The mainstream faith views this as a dangerous corruption of the faith's purpose. Anomalies are not tools to be weaponized; they are phenomena to be understood. Using them instrumentally perverts the entire principle of careful investigation.

(See: Cosmology/Physical Realms/The Shattered Domain)