House of the Unexpected
The House of the Unexpected, known colloquially as the "Gods of Irony" despite their more varying influences, is a pantheon of six gods and goddesses with deific portfolios centering around unfortunate or unexpected events. The members of the pantheon include Veldrin Vance (God of Coincidence, patron of scientists and tricksters), Selevati (Goddess of Dramatic Irony, matron of actors, spies, and impartial observers), Aquardion (Goddess of Situational Irony, matron of lawgivers and lawbreakers), Zevtwill (God of Verbal Irony, patron of philosophers and comedians), Cosmeon (Goddess of Cosmic Irony, matron of explorers and navigators), and Lyvianne (Goddess of Misfortune, matron of gamblers and merchants).
The Church of the Unexpected - it's followers known as Unexpectors - is the religion which has sprung up around this pantheon. The Unexpector faith is primarily a Voxelian cultural touchstone, though it is more accessible to converts from other cultures than most other religions currently in practice around the Manifold.
Mythology & Lore
The Gods of Irony were beings who sprang forth spontaneously from the fabric of reality in response to human desire and cognition. Nevertheless, in the time before the Age of Evolution, when the human peoples lived in a land where horizons curved away in every direction, the sons and daughters of man failed to make the appropriate obeisances to the Gods of Irony which their own souls had called forth. The indolent hands of the sons and daughters of man made rods for one anothers' backs, vainly attempting to wrest the power of life and death away from the gods. Weakened, the gods sought to wring the vital essences of faith from their mortal sire-servants by bringing a punishment for them - in equal parts for humankind's faithlessness and it's disappointing lack of care for it's fellow sentients. And so, it came to pass that, starving for the sustenance of faith and enraged by the violent hubris of humanity, the gods sealed away the sons and daughters of man in the Many-Fold Skies, where they could have no other comfort but through the gods themselves.
Tenets of Faith
It is understood by Unexpector religious scholars that these deities are not the authors of the circumstances associated with their purported portfolios, but rather restrain these various forces of chaos from befalling those who beseech them with offerings, displays of accordance with pious values, and prayers. The gods are merciful, guarding their flock against evils, but, despite their best efforts, are not so all-knowing that they are aware of all such dangers unless reminded. For example, making an offering to the Gods of Irony (as the four deities with various ironies as part of their portfolios are known) does not call down ironic circumstances on the enemies of the supplicant, but it does remind the gods to specifically guard the supplicant against ironic circumstances that might interfere with the supplicant's daily life.
Conversely, a displeased deity might knowingly neglect to protect a particularly heinous sinner from misfortune. In fact, it is widely believed that some ancient tribe of malefactors was considered so sinful that they were condemned to misfortune severe enough that even the laws of Euclidean geometry could not save them. It was incredibly implausible that any normal group of people would stumble into a pocket universe as distorted and imprisoning as the Manifold Sky, and yet their descendants still live there to this day.
Type
Religious, Pantheon
Alternative Names
The Gods of Irony, The Unfortunate Gods, The Misfortunes
Permeated Organizations
Deities
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
Comments