Saturday, October 31, 2015

Oracles of the Broken world

In some other settings, Oracles are directly chosen and cursed by the gods to wield their power and be emissaries of their will. This is not the case in Broken World.

When the Breaking occurred, divine vengeance ripped through the world, causing misery and suffering, as curses and disasters befell the mortal inhabitants. Even now, after 2 centuries, aftershocks can be seen with new natural disasters and plagues. But the most insidious and cruel of these, is the birth of Oracles. Sometimes, an oracle is clear from birth, born crippled but with some strangeness about them. Sometimes a healthy child is struck suddenly with the curse, and even more rare, someone in the later stages of their life may fall prey to the curse. Any race may be cursed, but humans tend to be the majority of Oracles, perhaps due to their historical worship.

Oracles are not heralds of divinity, they are reminders of divine retribution. For this reason, they are shunned by almost everyone. The faithful shun them, as they are living embodiments of the failure of the faithful to appease the gods. The Unfaithful shun them, as they have the taint of the divine. The life of an Oracle is usually harsh, miserable, and short. However, some Oracles embrace their power, as they are able to channel divine power without having to give fealty to the gods. There are some rare areas that welcome this, giving them rare exceptions to the often harsh laws restricting divine power.

Mechanically, there is no change to Oracle other than the removal of any mention of alignment.

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