Divination

“Knowledge is power, until knowledge is granted to the wrong person.” -Unnamed Scholar, barred from the White Archive, 198 CA

Divination is the school of magick devoted to perception, foresight, and the unraveling of hidden truth. Where Conjurers move through space and Evokers through force, Diviners move through possibility. They listen to The Arcane's echoes, interpret omens, scry unseen realms, and glimpse the shapes of what might come to pass. They do not command lightning or call beasts from the ether, they know. And knowledge, in Everwealth, is one of the few magicks more dangerous than fire. To be a Diviner is to reach into time with both hands and hope you do not pull back something too heavy to carry. The practice is viewed with awe and mistrust alike. Those who read the future can shape it, and those who see secrets can erase them. In many cities, seers are sought out like healers, but never invited to dinner. Diviners are respected, but rarely loved.
The Listening Veil:
Divination is a passive magick, but never a weak one. Unlike schools that impose change upon the world, Divination observes. Practitioners tune themselves to the subtle fluctuations of the Arcane’s breath, threads of resonance that stretch across moments, minds, and memory. These threads are not visible, but to a Diviner, they feel as real as a spider’s silk across the cheek. Learning to trace them is part science, part instinct, and part madness. Divination does not grant answers. It offers questions with sharper teeth. The Arcane does not lie, but it rarely speaks plainly. Symbols in dreams, birds that flock unnaturally, or the flicker of a candle’s flame before an assassination, these are the lexicons of seers. And like any language, they are easily misread. A skilled Diviner must not only know what to look for, but what to ignore. There is no explosive backlash in Divination, no firestorm or shattered ribcage. But it carries its own form of Magebane. Known as Chrono-Dissonance, this condition manifests in those who delve too far into alternate futures. Victims report fractured memory, living the same hour twice, or hearing voices narrate their actions before they take them. In final stages, the caster’s mind splits across timelines, alive in all of them, and none.
Applications and Manifestations:

• Scrying – The act of using reflective surfaces (mirrors, water, crystal) to observe people, places, or events. Simple in theory, but vulnerable to emotion, false resonance, and defensive abjurations.
• Augury & Omen Reading – The use of signs, bird patterns, tea leaves, fire flickers, to make minor predictions. Often practiced in rural areas or by itinerant hedge-mages. Folk Divination, but sometimes uncannily accurate.
• Foresight – The most feared and revered application. A glance into the future, often at great cost. High-risk, mentally taxing, and known to accelerate Chrono-Dissonance.
• Eye-Walking – Severing the senses from the body to explore distant realms or memories. Requires a spiritual tether. If the tether breaks, the caster may never return.
• Arcane Tracing – Used to identify past spellwork on objects or people. Coalition inquisitors rely on this to detect unlawful magic or tampering.

Field Method – The Hollow Bell:
A low-level Divination ritual often employed by field agents or traveling loreseekers. It involves tying a series of silver threads around the body and submerging one’s hands in blessed water while reciting a harmonic chant. If nearby magic has occurred recently, the threads tighten. The Hollow Bell detects only residual spells, not intent, but it is widely used by hedge-witches and midwives to identify cursed items or “spoiled births” before they manifest further.
Historical Legacy:
Divination’s roots stretch back to pre-Schism oral traditions, when elder shamans read cloud shapes and bone cracks to guide their tribes. The Scholar’s Guild formally recognized Divination as a school during the Third Age, but always did so with reservation. Early prophecies often incited more panic than peace. The most infamous Diviner in Everwealth’s history, Magister Nezzara, foresaw the collapse of four noble houses during the Ration War. She whispered her visions into sealed scrolls, hidden across cities. One by one, the events unfolded. She was eventually executed for refusing to share her final prophecy, one rumored to involve the royal line itself. Despite its wartime use, Divination has rarely been popular among soldiers. While it can anticipate ambushes or reveal traitors, commanders fear the morale effects of a seer announcing which units will die by morning. Today, it is more likely to be found in the courts of kings, behind the veils of cults, or in the cracked mirror of a roadside mystic’s wagon.
Controversy and Restrictions:
The Arcane Coalition has long feared the destabilizing effect of prophecy. The school of Divination is heavily monitored, with strict bans on Soul-Scrying, the act of peering into a person’s moral essence or fate. This practice, once used to preempt crimes, was outlawed after too many “future murderers” were punished for what they hadn’t yet done. The Coalition maintains a vault known as the White Archive, where banned prophecies, suspected false-seer records, and incomplete futures are sealed under dream-lock. Only Lorekeepers with trifold clearance may access its contents, and even then, must sign a silence clause under threat of memory erasure. In public, Diviners must be licensed to practice within city walls. In Starhold and Merchant’s Meet, merchant councils have outright banned the presence of professional Diviners at trade halls, citing “market volatility” and emotional manipulation.
Cultural Presence:
Diviners walk a paradox. They are consulted at births, funerals, coronations, and executions, then asked to leave immediately after. In some villages, they are revered as Truth-Walkers, seen as closer to the gods than mortal men. In others, they are called Whisper-Thieves, believed to lure people toward doom by naming their fate aloud. Religious orders approach Divination cautiously. The All-Faith permits sanctioned seers to interpret dreams or sacred signs, but views most future-knowledge as a divine prerogative, not mortal privilege. The Scholar’s Guild, by contrast, employs Diviners extensively, though never without oversight. Among criminals, Diviners are sought for planning heists, finding buried bodies, or identifying cursed loot. Most crime bosses pay dearly for a good Seer, but rarely keep them close. No one trusts a companion who might know your death day.
Signature Effect – The Fractured Mirror Effect:
One of the most dangerous outcomes of advanced Divination, the Fractured Mirror Effect occurs when a caster sees too many possible futures at once. It is not a curse, but a condition, the Arcane tether splits, and the caster’s perception is permanently altered. Symptoms include:

• Seeing multiple versions of people simultaneously.
• Speaking in future-tense reflexively.
• Remembering things that never happened, or hasn't happened yet.
• Pausing in conversation to listen to something “about to be said”.

Some claim that victims of the Fractured Mirror Effect choose which future to follow. Others say they never return from the Arcane’s crossroads, and what remains is simply the version that wandered back.