Divinomancy

Divinomancy is the art of petitioning a God for their direct intervention, warping reality and ensuring the God's interests are protected. This allows the Divinomancer to bring practically unbound energies to bear, but requires significant personal investment. Each miracle performed drains a small portion of the Divinomancer's life away to contains their God's powers, making usage of Divinomancy rare. Only powerful Divinomancers can summon their divine powers at will, and even so in very limited, trained bursts.

Learning Divinomancy

Divinomancy has little to do with formal training or learning, but rather earning the favor of one's God. Unfortunately, the Gods can be fickle in whom they grant power, and there are few clear paths to becoming a divinomancer. Even among the clergy, having spent one's life dedicated to the worship and spread of a God's religion, most members have little access to power. Higher ranking members tend to have their God's ear, but tend to be unconcerned with the world's problems and content to govern their religious sects.   One of the few likely paths towards divinomancy is to catch a God's attention through a great feat in line with the God's tenets. Once an individual has caught such a God's favor, they tend to retain it, being pushed towards greatness through the God's continued assistance. Theologians speculate that Gods pick individuals based on their chances to safely channel their power, as there have been many recorded instances of individuals wasting away after channeling a God's power. Thankfully for the world, this makes powerful divinomancers rare, and most individuals will live their lives without seeing a single act of the divine, only hearing of them through stories and the clergy's teachings.

Societal Implications

Through their immense powers and their God's favor, divinomancers can often shift the tides of history decisively, though this power can quickly become an exercise in mutually assured destruction. Battlefields and cities have been left as desolate wastelands strewn with savaged corpses as a result of opposing divinomancers losing control of their powers, leading to more conservative contemporary approaches. The relative independence of divinomancers is a point of great concern for nation-states, though conflicts between cults, sects, and differing Gods appear to keep most divinomancers too occupied to meddle in national politics.   Nevertheless, great swathes of history have been carved out by divinomancers and their Gods, calling upon divine powers to cure plagues or slaughter armies. These occasions tend to be singular, passed down through generations as tales of heroism and divine intervention, unimpinged by the constraints of reality. However, the drain on a divinomancer's life is ever-present, and each understands that they are burning away a portion of themselves each time they call upon their God's power, leading to such powers being used sparingly. Combined with the rarity of divinomancers, it is rare, though not unheard of, to witness modern miracles, as they are kept as a method of last resort.  

Manifestation

To call upon a God's power, a divinomancer will almost invariably chant a short, loud prayer to their God over a religious symbol. Over long periods of time, divinomancers can lead long chants from choirs to call their God's attention more decisively, though it is never guaranteed. If the God's attention is drawn, it invariably initially manifests as either a lengthening of the divinomancer's shadow, drawing back as if cast from a spotlight, or a bright glow emanating from one's eyes, depending on the God.   Past this point, the manifestation of a God's power is unpredictable, capricious, and depending on the God, often callous. If the God approves of the request, the solution may be straightforward and subtle, such as allowing a stubborn man to see reason and compromise, or obvious and severe, such as casting that man into brutal death and allowing his second to continue the negotiations. Otherwise, the effects on supplicants who do not hold their God's favor is often bloody.