| Dogon Divination (• • Time, •Entropy) Dead Magic 27 |
| Dogon and Yoruba priests use a ceremonial
tray in conjunction with 16 kola nuts in order to divine the future. The
priest holds the tray in his lap while he quickly passes the nuts from
hand to hand. As he passes the nuts back and forth, some fall out and make
marks on the tray's flour-dusted surface. Once he is finished, the priest
reads the pattern left in the dust and uses it to contrive a sacred poem.
That poem offers insight into the future or into the actions that a
subject should take. System: Like the more traditional forms of Time Sight, this rote allows the caster to glimpse indirectly into the future. The mage does not actually see what will happen; rather, he gets an idea of what patterns are emerging and how actions now can help to avert a bad fate later. Though the ritual always gives some result, the successes on the Effect give an idea of how accurate and clear the advice is. With only one or two successes, the mage may get a poem that seems cryptic or only peripherally related to events at hand, while with more successes, the reading inspires a poem that eerily parallels current events or shows an obvious and clear threat looming in the future. Interested Storytellers might want to actually look up some Yoruba poetry to find a passage appropriate to their chronicles. If the Storyteller feels a little overworked by having to fit a mystic African poem into his chronicle, she can simply advise the players as to a specific course of action — if the characters follow through, then the Effect's successes can be used to enhance a later use of an Ability, in the usual fashion of Magic Enhancing Abilities (see Mage Revised, p. 155). Such successes are not cumulative; one divination must be fulfilled before another can give insight into the future. |