THE WORLD

Option A

The Empire

In The Empire, a secret kingdom sealed off from the rest of the world by layers and veils of magic, Oracles are how they protect their people, predict the best times to plant, the most fruitful marriages, most profitable trade, etc. There's a veritable stable of them constantly weaving looms that contribute to the greater tapestry depicting the Empire's past, present, and future.

Oracles are handled as precious commodities and bred like prize stallions- they're constantly deep in the meditative haze that has them seeing so they can be of the most service to the Empire. They aren't seen by the public and are cared for as though they were royalty but it doesn't much matter- while constantly looking forward they're hardly aware of the present, more or less detached from reality and handled more like possessions than people.

You have to have memories and preferences to be a person and if they can't keep their own memories since they're always looking ahead? They aren't really people so much as part of a larger machine bred, born, and raised to be the best Oracles the Empire could require. They're robed, masked, and not touched by anyone but the handlers that guide them to and from the looms, the baths, and where they sleep. Bloodlines are selected and matched for more powerful children that are raised in the same manner as their parents, constantly fed potions and drugged meals to keep them in their meditative haze, and not permitted to bind their fates to anyone so they can give The Empire the best visions of the future possible.

In this environment it's impossible to imagine that any one of The Oracles would choose to leave but- this one saw something, an event, a war, a tragedy, something, someone that prompted him to attempt to escape. Because he needs to see whatever it is that will happen through, to help- and in his own way, to protect The Empire from whatever the fallout could be. Stealing away in the dead of night The Oracle took what little he had and borrowed a path from a potential future where he managed to escape and find his way out of the Kingdom, off to the world unknown to find...something.

Someone.

Option B

The Village Tucked away on an island near Greece (or a fantasy equivalent that is Grecian in tone) The Oracle was raised by his family in a pleasant fishing village. His mother looked forward for the local people and wove or spoke Prophecy for them at dedicated feasts, festivals, and holy days and in return, they provided for her and her family. She taught her son the trade of weaving and seeing, preparing him for the day he would step up and take over as Pythia for the village when:

A) Tragedy - word of oracles spread and someone came, killed people and kidnapped the boy

B) Comedy - While on a fishing boat to learn that trade, or at least better understand it to be useful to the fishermen of the village, a storm kicked up and sent them spiraling into the unknown. It was only meant to be a three-hour tour, etc.

C) Coming of Age - determined to find his own path The Oracle booked a flight/ship to another part of the world to build his own future and fortune. It may or may not go well. Who knows?

D) Musical - The Oracle finds his way to LA and lands himself an Agent that helps him work with various artists to help them find a record label that will give them fame and fortune, or recommends they head home if nothing but sad angst and bad times wait for them in the industry.

Option C

The Wildcard Due to the nature of this character he can fit in pretty much any shade of reality (fantasy, sci-fi, etc) where supernatural, magical, or prescient abilities can b a thing. Hit me up and we can work something out!

THE ORACLE

A large part of who he is depends upon whether or not he is present and anchored in his personal timeline. Otherwise, he's easily confused, uncertain if he's five or fifteen or fifty, unable to settle and be certain of what he's done or what he is meant to do. Regardless of his being anchored The Oracle (someone give him a nickname or something please) is consistently curious, courteous, honest, and desires to be of use. To be helpful, to be comforting, to offer guidance or a few kind words if that is all that is needed, he'll volunteer his services and skills if he thinks it will make someone's life better.

Sometimes he happens upon people he can help, sometimes he's deliberately looking for someone, but for the most part, he tends to drift unless otherwise anchored to a person or a place. He wants to learn about the world he lives in and experience things wholly in the moment- which is difficult given his predisposition to slide forward, backward, or sideways if he isn't very careful. People and their lives fascinate him deeply, the only time he ever really experiences the day to day mundanity or the great rises and falls in emotion is when looking ahead or behind for someone- and to him? Every thread on the tapestry of fate is important. He abhors violence and does his best to avoid it if possible.

Part of being what he is grants The Oracle the following abilities:

The Sight: The ability to see Past (in clear detail as it's already happened), Present (Like a real-time stream of somewhere else provided he has a connection to the person, object, or place he is viewing), or a Potential Future (infinite variations on a theme make this difficult to pin down but he can pluck out a most likely scenario) of an individual, item, or location at the sacrifice of his awareness of the current timeline. Most accurate readings come through meditative weaving. When using The Sight the oracle can't see/do anything other than weave what they're seeing or describe it. While seeing the Oracle's eyes shift from brown to gold in various stages- the deeper in the trance he is? The more gold flares in his irises. A full-on meditative trance has his eyes film over with gold entirely, effectively blinding him to the present, and his voice takes a resonant, prophetic quality.

Visions can be from a third-person perspective (as though a camera crew were dramatically framing every emotional moment or a documentary crew set up a camera and wandered off) or first-person though these tend to be more disorienting, come with some empathic resonance with whoever's POV he's taking and can, occasionally, have him pick up potential illnesses/injury incurred during the vision. Due to the risks involve he very rarely performs this kind of seeing.

Because of The Sight, The Oracle has a habit of sliding around on his personal timeline that entwines with other individuals- skipping ahead to where they are known and trusted or on occasion forgetting that they've met, experiencing conversations they may have but not yet have had just yet before they hit that point in their association or repeating once they've had already if he's forgotten when he is. The only way he knows of to dampen this and pin himself to the present (aside from binding his fate to another person) is by drinking, but he's not fond of the process or how much it takes to get him detached from the tapestry of fate. Live music can, on occasion, drown out the resonance of the threads of fate and help him settle at the moment but finding the right bard or musician or band is a bit of a crapshoot.

Binding Fate: Partly to make his own life a little bit easier and partly to make his sight clearer, The Oracle can bind his thread in the tapestry of fate to another individual, or group of individuals, to bind him to their personal reality or timeline. It makes them an Anchor. A fixed point in his personal reality and timeline and makes it harder for him to slip forward, backward, or sideways and be more present. It grants his Anchors echos of his sight that is stronger or weaker depending on their relationship- a dear friend might get fairly accurate intuition or odd feelings of explicit deja-vu when entering somewhere they've never been, be able to find things without thinking, or vaguely prophetic dreams- a relatively new acquaintance might get odd flashes of sense memory that aren't theirs or find themselves hearing bits of conversation that haven't happened yet.

He can also if pressed, bind his timeline to a place (a building, a room, etc) which narrows down possibilities and variations, but not as effectively as binding it to another person. Without anchors he experiences every possible variation and shade of time at once- slipping sideways through when from then to now to soon and it is very confusing for him, he's sorry, you've met already, right? Right. It leads to him remembering things wrongly or correctly to the left of reality, knowing people before he's met them or later or sooner, seeing a person's past, present, or shade of the future but having no idea what his own tends to be.

Shared Sight: He can share what visions he's having by making physical contact with who it is that wants to ride along for whatever it is that he's seeing, though aftereffects often include migraines and nausea if they're in it for too long. This is easier done with people he knows well, or one of his Anchors in the timeline. Strangers can hop along for a ride down the tapestry of fate but it takes an extended ritual and The Oracle must be deep within a hazy meditative trance to accomplish it without driving the guest passenger mad.

Skill Borrowing: Using The Sight to dip to a timeline where he has learned a thing (skill, language, technique) to already know the thing and apply that skill to his current timeline. It's a quick and dirty fix, the skill vanishes after a few hours and requires at least an hour's worth of meditative viewing to learn the skill- runs the risk of him forgetting when he is or which version of his own timeline he's actively living. Though simply because he knows whatever the skill is that he picks up does not mean he's able to perform to the best of his ability as though he actually trained in the thing- his body hasn't changed, only his muscle memory. He won't be any stronger for having borrowed the skill of a weightlifter, but he probably won't throw out his back attempting to do a deadlift. If he keeps using or practicing the skills, however, they're more liable to stick.