The Oracle

File:SotA Oracle Swamp concept.jpg

Stephen Daniele's Concept Art for the Oracle

The Oracle seems to serve the purpose once reserved by the Gypsy and Hawkwind the Seer, setting you upon the path to Virtue in Shroud of the Avatar. Its exact role is not yet know.

From the travel journals of Maeread, historian and seeker of truth...

"The journeys of our group through the lands of Grunvald were difficult, to be sure – the undead have been rising more frequently of late and there are rumors of a great army of skeletal walkers rising to the north. Yet, the ruins hold such promise! We have found so many scattered among the plains; the local villagers take them quite for granted, having lived among them for generations. So much history, so much already lost."

"We have gained something of a reputation among the people here; being generous with coin for guidance to well-maintained places of the ancients has helped with this, I suspect. When we were contacted by a fisherman well versed with the swampy islands off the coast, this generosity paid for itself more than we could have hoped."

"I cannot describe the grandeur of these ruins. This was far too well preserved to be a city of the ancients; none of those remnants survived the Cataclysm without the fiery scarring that signified that disaster. Here the bricks and stones were hewn of rougher material, marking a people that had little time for decoration. Thus... her head. It has to be, we agree. The similarities with the iconography of the affirmation chambers, the very finely detailed machinery so atypical of the era... Gregory was the first to put it in words aloud, but we all agreed. This was the earliest depiction any of us have ever seen of the Oracle."

"There are so many theories about the Oracle, especially for those of us who question. Of course, it is impossible to deny the impact of the Celestis Compact, and the affirmation chambers, and the Eyes. Few could deny the Oracle exists, with all the evidence of our eyes and the testimonial of those who have heard the Voice. And those who do – well, there are always those who deny even in the face of proof."

"Yet there is always the mysteries, the prophecies, the shrouding. The Oracle demands doubt – it insists on it, sometimes explicitly. No one knows what... it? she? he? The voice is always different, and always what the listener expects. Is it a machine, an intelligent device that somehow survived the Cataclysm? Is it a creature borne of magic, like so many of the wars? Is it something more, something we fear to express?"

"Yet, here is evidence, before our eyes. The Oracle does exist, and our ancestors saw her, so long ago, and made this great statue in her image. This is the evidence so many have sought. Here, rotting in a long-forgotten swamp outside a humble fishing village, is what could change our world..."