Omina Maned

The Omina Maned are an accumulation of the reports and texts of Maned, who has been the longest-serving Imperial Augur to this date. As Augur Maned's responsibility had been to regularly warn the Emperor of Omens the sky presented to them. In recent years, an effort has been made by scholars of the Academy in Lorsen to collect and analyze Maned's work, and to compile it into a collection of sixty volumes.
For his work, the Emperor at the time had placed a whole retinue of his scholars at Maned's disposal. The goal had been to aid Maned in reading the skies seamlessly and to help in transcribing his findings into a digestable format. On one hand, the Omina consists of the objective records of astronomical events, and on the other hand of interpretations and reports of Maned's predictions at the Emperor's discretion. It seems his reports were distributed to the Emperor and notable members of the court on a regular basis to base different aspects of ruling and decisions on. The reports detail notable astronomical happenings, formulate omens as well as feature recommendations for courses of action with these omens in mind. All of this suggests that during his time Maned had been an influential individual in the Emperor's household. As of the present, it is unknown in which capacity that might have influenced the execution of his office and the value of his directions to the Emperor. What is known, is that Maned had occupied lavish living quarters close to the Imperial palace, and that no expenses had been spared to equip his obervatory and study.
The collection of the Omina encompasses texts on the cycle of the moon, solar and other weather phenomena, as well as the movements of other celestial bodies. Many folk superstitions find their origins in the Omina Maned. Closer studies of the texts have revealed that even predecessors of Maned had started relating notable historical events to astronomical circumstances. However, the practice had only started to garner attention from the crown when two of the three sons of Emperor Hilram had died on the same full moon, notably the Wolf's Moon, no more than one year apart. These investigations have shown that early divinations did mainly consider the phases of the moon and on which day they appeared, making the omens related to the lunar cycle likely the oldest in existence.
Nevertheless, the first ten volumes of the now assembled Omina Maned detail the mathematical schemes and formulas used to predict the cycles and shifts of celestial bodies. These are then followed by ten volumes of everything one needs to know about lunar divination, its phases, relation to the sun and stars including eclipses, and how to interpret its halo and crowns. Volumes twenty to thirty depict the same for solar divinations with its brightness, colour, other markings, and position in relation to clouds as important factors. For solar omens, the length of the days, times of sunrise and sunset and seasons have been given particular importance. Then, volumes thirty to forty work with the stars and planets, their aligment and constellations, and provide star charts for divination. The next ten volumes work with weather prediction and the meaning of weather phenomena such as storms. These volumes also explain how seasons need to be taken into account. Lastly, volumes fifty to sixty depict how catastrophes like earthquakes or volcano erruptions can be predicted.
While in modern Helvara the Omina Maned is clearly viewed through more enlightened eyes, many of its omens have found their ways into the distributed household and agricultural calendars nevertheless, as they often provide well-working guidelines for certain events of the life of a commoner especially in regards to agricultural activities. And sometimes it is just what the heart needs to celebrate a good omen. Only the heirs of the Emperor are annoyed that they are not permitted to leave the palace on the Wolf's Moon.

Type

Report, Scientific