For moon mages in DR, is there any lore or any sect practice that includes divination types like theriomancy, ornithomancy, pyromancy, haruspicy?
Or is divination strictly limited to bones, cards, prisms, etc?
ELWYNN
CRYPTODYNAMIC
Re: Different types of divination
09/09/2020 06:29 PM CDT
There's at least a few forms that can be inferred from some of the moon mage titles (sometimes sect specific ones). Some of them (like Cartomancer) are just the fancier terms for the sect preferred tools (card based divination in that case). But even leaving out the ones like that, there's still a fair number:
Astragalomancer: divination via dice
Austromancer: divination via wind/cloud formations
Bibliomancer: divination via randomly picking passages in books
Chaomancer: divination via "aerial visions"
Chiromancer (or Palm Reader, really): palm reading
Cryptomancer: divination via "secret signs, words, etc." Not really sure on this one, which I suppose is the point.
Genethlialogist: divination via your date of birth
Horoscopist: divination via the position of the stars at your time of birth
Logarithmancer: divination via logarithm tables
Moromancer: This is apparently... divination via watching people do stupid things.
Photomancer: divination via patterns of light, but this may overlap with Crystallomancer for the Crystal Hand prisms
Stoichomancer: A variation of Bibliomancy
Umbromancer: divination via shadows
I don't know if there's any specific in game supporting lore around it, but my guess would be that the method of divination doesn't actually matter that much, as long as it's sufficiently complex and flexible enough to cover a large variety of results, because it's really the connection to the Plane of Probability that's being used, and the seer is more using the tool as a focus. Since a tool has to be bonded to a particular person and will only work for them, and the tools don't actually work in the hands of anybody but a moon mage.
- Miskton
Astragalomancer: divination via dice
Austromancer: divination via wind/cloud formations
Bibliomancer: divination via randomly picking passages in books
Chaomancer: divination via "aerial visions"
Chiromancer (or Palm Reader, really): palm reading
Cryptomancer: divination via "secret signs, words, etc." Not really sure on this one, which I suppose is the point.
Genethlialogist: divination via your date of birth
Horoscopist: divination via the position of the stars at your time of birth
Logarithmancer: divination via logarithm tables
Moromancer: This is apparently... divination via watching people do stupid things.
Photomancer: divination via patterns of light, but this may overlap with Crystallomancer for the Crystal Hand prisms
Stoichomancer: A variation of Bibliomancy
Umbromancer: divination via shadows
I don't know if there's any specific in game supporting lore around it, but my guess would be that the method of divination doesn't actually matter that much, as long as it's sufficiently complex and flexible enough to cover a large variety of results, because it's really the connection to the Plane of Probability that's being used, and the seer is more using the tool as a focus. Since a tool has to be bonded to a particular person and will only work for them, and the tools don't actually work in the hands of anybody but a moon mage.
- Miskton
MOTHRA
Re: Different types of divination
09/09/2020 08:25 PM CDT
>For moon mages in DR, is there any lore or any sect practice that includes divination types like theriomancy, ornithomancy, pyromancy, haruspicy?
>There's at least a few forms that can be inferred from some of the moon mage titles (sometimes sect specific ones).
To add to this; the passage below tells us that there were 15 proto Moon Mage sects invited to sign the Lunar Accord beyond our modern "7" and their prophetic traditions ran the gamut but they were all considered to be similar to the Compact. Who knows the number of different traditions that weren't deemed worthy of invitation? Then you take into account random hedge wizards and you potentially have many forgotten? practices of prophetic divination. Are any of these traditions or practices still in existence in the world or have many/all vanished? The book says they've all been lost but I would expect no less from Heritage Monographs and the Moon Mage guild's PR machine. I find it more likely that in forgotten backwaters there are still practitioners of these arts, especially among those arts who were not deemed to be enough by Jares Braun.
"...Jares came up with the idea of gathering other groups of magic similar to the Compact and joining together. Using the last bit of influence as an Imperial advisor he had left, Jares ordered pigeons sent out to every corner of the Empire as he summoned various sects of mages to Throne City. Among the five who later signed the Lunar Accord along with the Celestial Compact, Jares invited others: artists who foresaw through the perfection of their paintings, music, and sculptures; lunatics who received visions by taking themselves far past the thresholds of pain; mages who had forsaken religion and the gods and covered their bodies in tattoos of lunar patterns and identified themselves by the arrangements. Fifteen sects were invited aside from the signatories, and only the barest of information about them remains. These groups have long since vanished from Elanthia, their magic, knowledge, and techniques forever lost..."
From:
https://elanthipedia.play.net/Profiles_in_Magic,_Volume_1_(book)
>There's at least a few forms that can be inferred from some of the moon mage titles (sometimes sect specific ones).
To add to this; the passage below tells us that there were 15 proto Moon Mage sects invited to sign the Lunar Accord beyond our modern "7" and their prophetic traditions ran the gamut but they were all considered to be similar to the Compact. Who knows the number of different traditions that weren't deemed worthy of invitation? Then you take into account random hedge wizards and you potentially have many forgotten? practices of prophetic divination. Are any of these traditions or practices still in existence in the world or have many/all vanished? The book says they've all been lost but I would expect no less from Heritage Monographs and the Moon Mage guild's PR machine. I find it more likely that in forgotten backwaters there are still practitioners of these arts, especially among those arts who were not deemed to be enough by Jares Braun.
"...Jares came up with the idea of gathering other groups of magic similar to the Compact and joining together. Using the last bit of influence as an Imperial advisor he had left, Jares ordered pigeons sent out to every corner of the Empire as he summoned various sects of mages to Throne City. Among the five who later signed the Lunar Accord along with the Celestial Compact, Jares invited others: artists who foresaw through the perfection of their paintings, music, and sculptures; lunatics who received visions by taking themselves far past the thresholds of pain; mages who had forsaken religion and the gods and covered their bodies in tattoos of lunar patterns and identified themselves by the arrangements. Fifteen sects were invited aside from the signatories, and only the barest of information about them remains. These groups have long since vanished from Elanthia, their magic, knowledge, and techniques forever lost..."
From:
https://elanthipedia.play.net/Profiles_in_Magic,_Volume_1_(book)
ELWYNN
JINGO
Re: Different types of divination
09/30/2020 12:11 PM CDT
>Moromancer: This is apparently... divination via watching people do stupid things.
TIL I'm a Moromancer IRL
