The Oracle

HQ : Patfall

Found on : System Wide

 

 

Rising starkly against Patfall’s jagged, frozen horizon is the Voice, the sprawling temple complex of the Oracle. The structure is an austere blend of ancient design motifs and practical engineering meant to withstand the planetoid’s brutal cold and volatile seasons.  Its foundations are scavenged from old orbital wreckage, the bygone relics of some forgotten battle during the first decades of colonisation.

 

At the heart of the temple is the Astrarium, a massive domed chamber filled with holographic starfields and real-time telemetry from The Threads.

Consultation with the Oracle is an arcane, ritualized process. After asking their question, pilgrims must first present an Offering of Obscurity—something of deeply personal, often secret, significance. This offering is placed into the Well of Disclosures, a fracture carved deep into the bowels of Patfall, said to have no bottom.  No rumour has ever circulated of disclosure of such objects, suggesting the offering is truly lost forever.

Once accepted, the seeker undergoes the Nights of Quiet, a vigil in sensory deprivation chambers beneath the complex.  There is no limit to the length of this immersion; the length of a person's trial is correlated to the prestige of the priest who will interpret his omen.

Finally, they are granted an audience with a Threadcaller, who interpret the meanings that the criss-cross of comets offers, and offer an answer to the question.  It is always cryptic, which of course provides critics of these "superstitions" with plenty of ammunition and material for mockery.

At the end of every Thread Cycle, that is, the Patfall year, the High Seen Oracle speaks publicly.  He or she provides a long series of spontaneous predictions.  Detractors claim that the High Seen is corrupt, and utters predictions that are convenient to whatever organisations or individuals currently have him or her under the thumb.

It has to be said that most High Oracles, who must abdicate after five cycles, quickly find positions of considerable influence and power in the solar system, which only increases suspicion.

 

The reputation of the priesthood is however built on a series of oracles - be they spontaneous or answers to seekers' questions - that seem to demonstrate its ability to predict major events in the solar system