Oracle is one of the sub-types of the Wizened seeming. They are changelings who, like many imps and goblins, can, in a limited way, see the future. Theirs is the blessing of Panomancy.
Overview[]
Arcadia is a place where the power of Fate is almost intangible. The oaths, pledges and Contracts that empower changelings are said to be examples of this force: a changeling can transform herself into fire because her fate is intertwined with that of fire itself. Oracles are even more entwined with the force of Fate, and have become able to perceive its threads in the world around them. However, these often-conflicting threads are difficult to make any sense of without some measure of focus. Thus, an Oracle turns to old or new methods of divination. In the patterns formed by bones or dice or splayed guts, they can see the pattern more clearly. An Oracle often becomes a vital player in her freehold, using her Panomancy talent to warn of potential threats — or to further influence local political intrigues. An Oracle’s mien has usually undergone alteration to the eyes. Some appear blind, with milky cataracts obscuring iris and pupil while not actually obscuring the Wizened’s sight. Some have had their eyes replaced with pearls or glittering gemstones. A few Wizened wear blindfolds of Hedgespun, which permit them to see the physical world but block out many of the distracting and misleading visions they would otherwise receive.
Durance[]
Somewhat unlike the other Wizened kiths, an Oracle didn’t fill a necessary role in a True Fae household. Most of the True Fae possessed such greater mastery over the power of Fate that they didn’t need a changeling to tell them what was about to happen. Rather, an Oracle was often nothing more than an experimental subject who gained the ability to see the threads of fate as a side effect of his transfigurations. Some Oracles learned their Panomancy in Faerie, rather than as a coping mechanism picked up when they returned to Earth. It might have been stolen from books left moldering in an old castle, learned watching their crone of a Keeper fuss over her divinatory playthings or scrabbled together from fragments of lore passed on by other changelings.
Folklore[]
Many otherworldly beings are attributed with the ability to foretell the future. In some cases, this ability sets them apart, such as the Norns of Nordic myth. In others, it’s just another way in which the faerie is assumed to have greater wisdom or power than humans. The curse for Briar Rose to prick her hand on a needle and die may have been a curse, and it may have simply been a foretelling. It’s a common motif for a person to receive a prophecy from an otherworldly advisor, attempt to avoid the outcome and wind up enabling his dark fate to catch up to him.
Frailties[]
Compulsion for honesty, cannot foretell the future on a Sunday, repelled by goat’s blood, cannot gamble, bane of burning paper, cannot harm a bird.
References[]
- CTL: Changeling: The Lost Rulebook, p. 122
- CTL: Winter Masques, p. 94
