The Codex of the Coil

Holy Places

Sacred Objects

Relic

The Shedfall Scale

The great golden scale of the First Sanctum, the only confirmed Shedfall Scale in existence. The size of a door, warm to the touch, and the source of the First Word. It cannot be moved. People have tried. It hummed at them disapprovingly.

Record

The Ledger

The book of every wrong ever done to the faithful, kept since the Nest. Now in its twelfth volume, held by Khaedara. Names are never erased, only forgiven with a small drawn coil. The thirteenth volume is a Sign of the Unwrapping, so Khaedara writes very, very small.

Symbol

The Unblinking Eye

The sigil of the Cult: a serpent coiled three times around a slit-pupiled eye. Worn on the chest at great rites and found carved on the walls of the Nest. It represents Xal'Reth watching from below. It is not looking at you specifically. It is looking at everyone. You are not special. Glory to Xal'Reth.

Teaching Object

The Egg of Patience

A smooth stone egg passed among the faithful at the Vigil of the Long Wait. Whoever holds it may not speak. It is very heavy, by design. It has never hatched, also by design.

Regalia

The Fangs of Office

Two curved daggers carried by the Supreme Coil at the Night of the Scale. They are purely ceremonial and have never been used, which the Order of the Fang finds frustrating.

Text

The Dream Pages

The original sheets on which Xalrathiel wrote the scriptures each morning, stained with tea and covered in her handwriting, which is said to be beautiful and almost completely illegible.

Heresies and Rivals

The Cult is tolerant of most beliefs. It is not tolerant of the following.

The Featherist Heresy

The claim that Xal'Reth has wings. It originated with a single faithful who misread a smudged verse in the Dream Pages and has been spreading quietly ever since. The Inner Scale has ruled definitively: Xal'Reth does not have wings. He has never had wings. He would not want wings. Wings are for creatures who are in a hurry. Featherists are banished to the Void on sight, and asked, kindly, to read more carefully.

The Ouroboran Heresy

The claim that Xal'Reth is coiled around the world because he is eating his own tail. This heresy greatly upset Xalrathiel, who issued the shortest decree in the Cult's history in response: "He is not. He would never." The matter is considered closed.

The Lukewarm

Not heretics but backsliders: faithful who stop answering the Chant, skip the rites, and drift slowly back toward Warm-Bloodedness. The Cult does not punish the Lukewarm. It simply sends the Keepers of the Egg to sit near them, warmly, every day, until they return. This is almost always effective.

The Mammalian Hegemony

The Cult's name for the world at large: the vast, warm-blooded, fur-bearing majority who run the cities and the economy and do not know what is beneath their feet. The Cult does not oppose the Hegemony. It merely regards it with gentle pity and the occasional accusation.

The Rival Serpents

Azeroth is full of other things with scales: dragons, nagas, wind serpents, and any number of lesser snakes. The Cult regards all of them as distant cousins of Xal'Reth, a bit showy, and best greeted with a polite double blink. Dragons in particular are considered "winged, and therefore suspect."

Signs and Gestures

The silent language of the faithful, developed during the Hidden Centuries and still in use today, mostly via emote.

• The Double Blink (slow, with eye contact): "I am of the Coil." The universal greeting of the faithful.
• The Sidelong Hiss (a quiet hiss while looking away): approval, agreement, or "the soup is good."
• The Three Taps: one for each Turn. On a shoulder: "you have been chosen." On a table: "this meeting may begin." On a mailbox: unclear, but it happens a lot.
• The Basking Pause: standing in the sun slightly too long. An invitation to bask together, in silence.
• The Slow Nod: one nod, taking about three seconds. Used to acknowledge an accusation. It does not mean you agree. It means you have been accused.
• The Tongue Flick (/emote flicks their tongue): curiosity, suspicion, or tasting the air for loiterers.
• The Turned Back: turning away from someone for one full minute. Used only at a Banishment. Using it at any other time is a terrible faux pas.

Glossary of the Coil

Basking

Standing in a warm place, still and silent, as a form of devotion. Also a rite.

Coil, the

Xal'Reth himself; also the Cult as a whole; also the faithful's word for anything that holds things together, including friendship and guild banks.

Egg

Anyone who has not yet taken the Oath. Newcomers, visitors, and alts are all eggs.

First Skin, the

The skin Xal'Reth shed at the First Shedding. "Send it after the First Skin" means to let something go for good.

Glory to Xal'Reth

The Chant in its shortest form. Greeting, blessing, farewell, and appropriate response to nearly anything.

Hatchling

A newly initiated faithful. Hatchlings are watched lovingly and constantly.

Inner Scale

The highest ranks of the Cult: the Supreme Coil, the High Priestess, the First Accuser, and the officers.

Ledger, the

The great record of every wrong ever done to the faithful.

Lukewarm

A faithful who has drifted. Not a crime, but a concern.

Patient Ones

The faithful of the Hidden Centuries who kept the faith alone. The Cult's saints.

Shedding

Letting go of anything old: habits, grudges, gear. Also the great event every ten thousand years when Xal'Reth sheds his skin.

Turns, the Three

The three coils of Xal'Reth around the world, and the three stages of devotion: Conduct, Memory, Stillness.

Unblinking, the

The ever-open eye of Xal'Reth, which watches from below. Also a title of Xal'Reth.

Unwrapping, the

The prophesied final event, when Xal'Reth uncoils from the world. Interpretations vary. Snacks are hoped for.

Void, the

The cold dark beneath the Coil, where shed things go and the banished are sent. Not a hell. More of a basement.

Warm-Blooded

Anyone outside the Cult. A diagnosis, not an insult.