The Order of the Spinning Coin
[WORK IN PROGRESS]
You will find chapters of the Order of the Spinning Coin in almost every corner of Thera Pægana, no matter how remote.
This order sits in a curious position, societally speaking. Much like their Lady, they do not govern any particular section of life or espouse any specific ideals, and yet they seem to be involved, more or less directly, in the affairs of most major settlements across Thera. Members of this order will very commonly take at least a couple of seats in local councils or parliaments. In smaller settlements, the advisor to the mayor or the chief will often be an Order member. Even when not directly influencing the governance of a place, the chapterhouse of the Order in any particular place will typically serve a multifaceted bureaucratic, mediatory, and judicial purpose.
History
The Order is almost certainly the oldest formal religious group on Thera, tribal, primal, and extraplanar faiths notwithstanding. In its fledgling days almost 2,500 years ago (743LA), it was actually established as the formal organisation for the worship of all of the Ladies, with the name of the group referring to the Overgoddess Lady Luck because of her position as leader over all of the Ladies.The Crest
The crest of the Order is gold-bordered, signifying and paying respect to the symbolic importance of this material to Lady Luck. The checked background pattern is emerald green, for the traditional garb of Lady Luck, and fiery red, for her idiosyncratic hair. These three colours together formally represent Lady Luck, and it is in a shimmering flurry of these three hues that the Lady tends to represent herself in people's visions. The images in the four quadrants of the crest show the Lady's coin. It is typically dichotomous and contradictory, representing the polarity between 'good' and 'bad' luck. Some also believe that the dark half of the Lady's coin represents the Lord Fate, and is a reference to how these two deities are believed to be inextricably entwined. The coin is displayed as if in a sequence of time in which the coin is flipping.Symbolism
The notion of the flipped coin is broadly considered to be the most potent and prominent symbol of Lady Luck. This image, and the physical action of flipping a coin, are therefore regarded as powerful and deeply reverent. No church to Lady Luck would be complete without at least a small wishing pond located in a private alcove somewhere at the back of the church. Pilgrims and other devotees would solemnly approach the pond, coin in hand. They would say their prayers to Lady Luck, kiss the coin, and flip it into the water. It is believed that the greater the value of the coin, the greater the tribute to the Lady. Gold coins, of course, represent the greatest spiritual value, and most devout commoners could only dream of having the kind of wealth to justify flipping a month of meals away in a blink. Of course, this direct, barefaced causal link between wealth and religious favour has caused outrage and ecumenical debate for as long as history has been recorded. It has also facilitated wealthy but unscrupulous individuals to think that they can religiously and morally insure themselves against their planned bad behaviour by making a sizeable enough donation to their local flipping pool. Fortunately - although not so for these individuals - Lady Luck does not operate like this, and these individuals tend to find that uncommonly bad luck tends to follow their attempts to buy indemnity.
Type
Religious, Holy Order
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