The Sarbalar Grand Oracle

The Sarbalar Oracle is the leader of the many tribes of the Sarbalar people.
The Sarbalar people are not one single species or faith, instead they are a conglomeration that respect one another as important to working toward their common goal of survival and freedom from the K'thonum influenced tribes that surround them.  The Oracle is special because his Divine powers do not come from a single god or pantheon, instead they are derived from a deeper sense of the flow of the divine. The Oracle is the head of an order of oracles that serve as divine consultants for all the Sarbalar communities.  They are selected in a rather mysterious event, not because it isn't observed but rather because it is done completely silently.  Oracles from many parts will gather from the far and hidden places of the Sarbalar nation, gathering in an unspoken location where they join around a fire in silent meditation.  They claim that they are guided by the divine flows.  After much meditation, finally, one will rise, and sit in the empty cushion, with the remaining silently nodding their ascent and then leaving again just as silently.  The selection is always unanimous, and the Oracle will then serve until his health keeps him from doing so, or upon his death.  A secluded grove is again found by some kind of divine consensus and cushions are laid out, then once again a new Oracle is selected.
The Oracle's duties include decisions revolving around which communities should be abandoned or deciding where new ones should be formed.  As the Sarbalar are in a permanent conflict with the tribes around them, his ability to feel the ebb and flow of the divine and predict the safest (though not fully certain) courses of action for the Sarbalar Nation is critical to their survival. The Oracle is not however a general or military leader.  He confines his predictions, not to the conflicts themselves, but to the general well being of those that consult him, and to the communities that depend on him for predictions of safety.

"I have never seen anything like it. I had been apprenticed for a mere two weeks to my teacher. He had just started teaching me to sit and breathe before he started to make preparations for the trip. The next day word reached us that the Grand Oracle had passed. The trip took us a week. I didn't think that I was ready to be there at all so I took a cushion in the very back of the circle and tried to get comfortable and control my breathing. Then, like some kind of amazing thought in the back of my head I touched what I learned was the divine for the first time. I glanced up and one of the more venerable oracles sitting across the circle from me winked. He knew somehow! Hours passed, and when one of the more experienced oracles rose, and took the Grand Oracle cushion I knew it was right. I nodded and knew without being told that I should just leave silently in the truth of it."
~ Oracle Vanu

Type

Religious, Special