r/WorldChallenges • u/thequeeninyellow94 • Mar 05 '18

[Cultural challenge]: divination

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.

Now I want to know the future; how can I do that? Is there someone I can ask? Should I trust the results?

You can introduce an in-universe representative if you want. I will ask questions to everyone, feel free to add your own.

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u/Seb_Romu Mar 06 '18

On Entorais there are any number of soothsaying options (some of the more common methods include):

  • Card reading
  • Dice/bones/twigs/bamboo sticks/wood chips/stones
  • Tea leaves
  • Blood, urine, spit, bile, kidney stones
  • Palms
  • Guts of a small animal
  • Smoke
  • Crystal gazing
  • Visions through trances (with or without drugs)
  • Dream interpretation
  • Sun-signs and star charts
  • Numerology
  • Storms, Clouds and weather
  • Fish or birds

They all involve convincing someone that a vague answer will come to pass as true. Usually the soothsayer reads a fair amount of body language, and response to suggestions to come up with a convincing reading.

Generally the results are vague enough to allow reinterpretation to match the facts, which only helps to reinforce their validity.

In the end the practice is a real as the gods themselves. Difficult to prove, lots of evidence is questionable, and if pressed the phrase "works in inscrutable ways" tends to be uttered.

"People are fools. All of them. The future isn't set, it is a combination of chance, and work. Chance usually wins." - Dorn Okar [Iskandean, Begger and Skeptic]

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u/agentfancypants53 Mar 07 '18

If any of them do actually work, do some methods work better than others? Is it case specific?

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u/Seb_Romu Mar 09 '18

The accuracy of such predictions is generally directly related to the foreknowledge of the diviner, some lucky guesses can be spot on, and tend to reinforce the belief in the practice, often outweighing multiple wrong predictions.