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--- chosen:magic:span [2022/09/23 18:09] – shyriath
+++ chosen:magic:span [2024/01/18 14:13] (current) – shyriath
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 //For some of the thoughts behind this topic, please see [[tirades:2019-07-18|the Avishraa Tirades]]//.
-**Span magic** is by far the rarest of the eight [[chosen:magic:|types of magic]] to be found among the [[chosen:|Chosen]], and consists of the ability to manipulate space and time. Users of Span magic are referred to in the [[avishraa:community:Citadel:]] as //oracles//.
+**Span magic** is by far the rarest of the eight [[chosen:magic:|types of magic]] to be found among the [[chosen:|Chosen]], and consists of the ability to manipulate space and time. Users of Span magic are referred to in the [[geopolitical:Citadel:]] as //oracles//.
 ===== Mechanism =====
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 Whether as a statistical artifact of their extreme rarity or something inherent to their nature, there has never been a case in which an oracle is known to have an additional type of [[chosen:magic:]]; every oracle has been //solely// an oracle.
-Span magic is, aside from its rarity, mysterious even by the standards of the Chosen; while all other magic types are seated within indentifiable parts of the body, Span is not. <spoiler|The reason is unknown.></spoiler>
+Span magic is, aside from its rarity, mysterious even by the standards of the Chosen; while all other magic types are seated within indentifiable parts of the body, Span is not.
+<hidden The reason is unknown.>The involvement of the [[extrinsic:|Extrinsics]] [[extrinsic:Order]] and [[extrinsic:Chaos]] with the creation of the Chosen was deliberate, but minimalistic and brief. It was an unfortunate - in their opinion - side-effect of the process that certain Chosen, of either alignment, had perceptive faculties extending into the [[universe:Outside]]. Though these faculties in most circumstances remain focused on the Oracle's own universe, they give the possessor something of an Extrinsic's-eye, multidimensional view of mortal reality, though heavily restricted by the limitations of the mortal brain and its physical existence in that reality.</hidden>
 ===== Specific abilities =====
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 Postcognition, the ability to see into the past, is less instinctive but, once discovered, in some ways easier to master. Because the past has already happened, it is (normally) fixed; the tapestry of events is already woven, and one simply has to follow the threads. Oracles cannot read minds, but can gain considerable insight about a person and their motivations from the patterns of their past behavior, especially since nothing a subject did is hidden from them. While in theory there is no limit to how far back an oracle can look, like precognition, postcognition requires the least effort to use when one has an 'anchor'; viewing the past of a living person is easier than viewing that of a dead one, or a civilization or a particular era.
-This poses practical limits on how far back or in how much detail an oracle can see before wearing out, and as a result few oracles have gone beyond the reach of history, not attempting to verify the myths and legends they were raised to believe about the origins of the world. As for the rest, there is so //much// past, much of it so different than the world with which the oracles are familiar, that many of them never quite grasp the truths of earlier periods, and are often upset - or upset others - when they do. ([[Takma:]] [[species:clade:takmin|evolutionary history]], in particular - both the bare fact of its existence and its content - is often disturbing to those who realize that it happened.) Nonetheless, must historical information that would be otherwise lost is known and recorded in the Citadel, particularly due to the postcognitive efforts of the oracle [[person:Ecruss]].
+This poses practical limits on how far back or in how much detail an oracle can see before wearing out, and as a result few oracles have gone beyond the reach of history, not attempting to verify the myths and legends they were raised to believe about the origins of the world. As for the rest, there is so //much// past, much of it so different than the world with which the oracles are familiar, that many of them never quite grasp the truths of earlier periods, and are often upset - or upset others - when they do. ([[Takma:]] [[species:clade:takmin|evolutionary history]], in particular - both the bare fact of its existence and its content - is often disturbing to those who realize that it happened.) Nonetheless, much historical information that would be otherwise lost is known and recorded in the Citadel, particularly due to the postcognitive efforts of the oracle [[person:Ecruss]].
+=== Known limitations and conditions ===
+In cases where an oracle has a strong emotional rapport with another sentient being, the latter can share the Oracle's pre- and postcognitive visions; this requires them to be physically touching. As the focus of the oracle's sight is not always entirely under conscious control, the non-oracle member of the pair may see things that the oracle did not mean to show them; should the oracle wish to maintain privacy over certain topics that she cannot avoid focusing on, efforts to do so may over time destroy the rapport that makes the sharing possible at all.
 Anomalies in time can be caused when one oracle looking forward comes in contact with another oracle looking back. Because, under certain circumstances, each is visible to the other, they are capable of communicating, allowing the future oracle to attempt to change the past by influencing their counterpart there, or for the past oracle to find their future being required to contain the events surrounding their future counterpart.
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 There have been a grand total of six oracles to appear in the entire history of the Citadel (though there have been more in the world as a whole); while each of them have been considered individually important, their rarity and individuality makes it difficult to assign any kind of socioeconomic generalizations. The nature of their powers, and the fact that the first of the six oracles was the one who led the Chosen to found the Citadel in the first place, has given subsequent oracles there an aura of spiritual authority and hidden knowledge, but not all of them have accepted the mantle, and indeed some of them have been reluctant to advise anyone of anything.
-The sixth and current example, Dlyss, has used her precognition to attain wealth and political influence in the Citadel, acting as a consultant for the [[avishraa:community:citadel:council|Citadel Council]] and for others from many walks of life. Her firm belief in a particular divinely-appointed destiny for the Chosen has led her to very much embrace the role of a prophet and dogmatist, and she has allowed and quietly encouraged a [[culture:organization:hzataalar|movement]] to form around her.
+The sixth and current example, Dlyss, has used her precognition to attain wealth and political influence in the Citadel, acting as a consultant for the [[geopolitical:citadel:council|Citadel Council]] and for others from many walks of life. Her firm belief in a particular divinely-appointed destiny for the Chosen has led her to very much embrace the role of a prophet and dogmatist, and she has allowed and quietly encouraged a [[organization:hzataalar|movement]] to form around her.