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Author Topic: Alternative methods for divination  (Read 832 times)

Azerty

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Alternative methods for divination
« on: August 15, 2019, 07:58:10 pm »

On July 25, Toady posted the following about divination:

Quote
Having escaped from all these tangents, I dutifully went to work on shrine maps. They are now distributed throughout sites based on their historical prevalence, with the dominant religions claiming e.g. large plots, while the minor religions might just have a single altar on a single curbside. Being full of tangents this week, that of course meant adding dice, for divination. With face sets (images, words, numerals or dots) and sides according to their shape (platonic or 'long die' prisms), and certain divination practices working with combinations of dice, and the ability to roll either one die or all the dice you are holding (which matters if the divination practice requires two dice, say.) And, um, the divinations doing things sometimes. I went to a shrine, rolled a tin icosahedral die and it was a bad roll and I was cursed to be a snowy owl for a week. So I flew up to a nearby rooftop and pondered tangents. But I will relax and finish my maps now. Working on worldgen villain plot details for months made an unwind like this overdue, I think. At least when I finally do get to tavern games and gambling, dice will be ready.

Will dices, or astragyromancy, be the sole way to have divination or is the algorithm able to be used for other methods?

For exemple, in His Dark Materials, there's several methods to speak to Dust such as the alethiometer, the I Ching or the Cave (a software program).

Such methods could be:
  • Theriomancy, or augury, involving the behaviour of animals such as birds or insects, ideally those linked to the god one wants to interrogate
  • Bibliomancy, using whether a book devoted to predictions ala Nostradamus or a profane book whose a random passage is taken and analysed by specific means, such as in the Sortes Vergilianae
  • Scrying involves looking through an item, such as for the classical crystal balls, a mirror or water
  • Cleromancy involves the use of randomness, such as in the dices from the DevDiary or by the I Ching
  • Somatomancy involve the observation of human or animal form, such as haruspicy (the examinaton of the entrails of a creature) or oracle bones

In addition, some universes could allow for astrology, a subject well treated in the thread
Astrology (Blatantly Stolen from Neonivek); in addition, prophecies and omens were evoked in previous DevDiaries.
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scourge728

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Re: Alternative methods for divination
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2019, 08:32:09 pm »

I'm pretty sure other means are planned

PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Alternative methods for divination
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2019, 08:46:43 pm »

As DG said in another thread, the whole divination thing is likely just an experiment to see how a certain form of magic will function in the game, so it won't necessarily be super fleshed-out until much later.
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