Doomed
The magics involved in seeing the future are those that are shrouded in mystery. Due to the ever shifting nature of time, predictions of more than a few seconds into the future are frequently inaccurate.
Despite this, glimpses further into the future are possible. With enough talent, a diviner can see far enough into the future that they may glimpse grand events, or lifechanging moments. However, they may also encounter a point that is decided on by fate.
What does this mean? Say that a diviner looks a year into the future and sees a city fall to some terrible evil. Unlike in the case of brief glimpses into the future, there is no immediate way to identify what might stop this, and so the diviner realises that they cannot stop this from coming to pass. And they truly cannot, for now that they have seen this future all efforts are bound to fail.
A similar effect can take place for living beings. A person that has been seen dying in the future by a diviner is as good as dead, for their end is now decided upon by fate. These people may do their best to survive, and a diviner may rejoice when their original vision of their death does not come to pass. But there will be another, and another, and none can escape their chosen death forever. These people are called Doomed, because there is no way for them to escape their fate.
Technically one can become Doomed in other ways - a vision of a marriage will also always come true, for example - but the majority of reported cases are of deaths, and so the label of Doomed has persisted.
Despite this, glimpses further into the future are possible. With enough talent, a diviner can see far enough into the future that they may glimpse grand events, or lifechanging moments. However, they may also encounter a point that is decided on by fate.
What does this mean? Say that a diviner looks a year into the future and sees a city fall to some terrible evil. Unlike in the case of brief glimpses into the future, there is no immediate way to identify what might stop this, and so the diviner realises that they cannot stop this from coming to pass. And they truly cannot, for now that they have seen this future all efforts are bound to fail.
A similar effect can take place for living beings. A person that has been seen dying in the future by a diviner is as good as dead, for their end is now decided upon by fate. These people may do their best to survive, and a diviner may rejoice when their original vision of their death does not come to pass. But there will be another, and another, and none can escape their chosen death forever. These people are called Doomed, because there is no way for them to escape their fate.
Technically one can become Doomed in other ways - a vision of a marriage will also always come true, for example - but the majority of reported cases are of deaths, and so the label of Doomed has persisted.
Treatment
The worst part about being Doomed is that, in truth, there is no real cure. There has never been a case where one has been known to be Doomed and ended up living more than half a year.
Prevention
There is some debate as to whether it is indeed possible to prevent one from becoming Doomed, with the answer leaning on various theories of the future, fate, and precognition.
One school of thought posits that the future is always in flux, and that it is only by looking into the future and seeing the death of another that this fate becomes guaranteed. In other words, by seeing this potential future the diviner unwittingly chose it. Therefore, the best prevention for Doom is to avoid searching too far into the future.
The other camp in the debate is that fate is always linear and predetermined, and that all actions that one will take are already decided, including looking into the future and all subsequent actions. By this logic, it doesn't matter if someone looks into the future or not, because the Doomed in question would die either way - all that precognition does is confirm the diagnosis. By this school of thought, there is no way to prevent Doom, and yet there is no way to know that one is Doomed unless one looks.
One school of thought posits that the future is always in flux, and that it is only by looking into the future and seeing the death of another that this fate becomes guaranteed. In other words, by seeing this potential future the diviner unwittingly chose it. Therefore, the best prevention for Doom is to avoid searching too far into the future.
The other camp in the debate is that fate is always linear and predetermined, and that all actions that one will take are already decided, including looking into the future and all subsequent actions. By this logic, it doesn't matter if someone looks into the future or not, because the Doomed in question would die either way - all that precognition does is confirm the diagnosis. By this school of thought, there is no way to prevent Doom, and yet there is no way to know that one is Doomed unless one looks.
History
The first case of a person becoming Doomed was in the year of 1066. A seer by the name of Zem looked too far into the future and saw the death of his friend, Tara, as she fell from the top of a tower.
Zem made a simple decision, which Tara agreed to, that she would simply not climb the tower in question. They visited the island with the tower, completed the work they were set to do there, and left. However, Zem began to have dreams, unasked for dreams, of Tara drowning during the return voyage.
The duo took precautions both magical and mundane, and the voyage passed. Then Zem had more dreams. Every time he saved Tara from her fate, he would see some new iteration of her death, and one eventually came true.
This was only the first case of Doomed, and it wasn't until years later when Zem's writings on the subject were compared to other cases that the condition such as it were became known. But now diviners try not to look too far into the future, for fear that they may Doom those they care about.
Zem made a simple decision, which Tara agreed to, that she would simply not climb the tower in question. They visited the island with the tower, completed the work they were set to do there, and left. However, Zem began to have dreams, unasked for dreams, of Tara drowning during the return voyage.
The duo took precautions both magical and mundane, and the voyage passed. Then Zem had more dreams. Every time he saved Tara from her fate, he would see some new iteration of her death, and one eventually came true.
This was only the first case of Doomed, and it wasn't until years later when Zem's writings on the subject were compared to other cases that the condition such as it were became known. But now diviners try not to look too far into the future, for fear that they may Doom those they care about.
Origin
Natural
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Extremely Rare
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