Welcome to Gaia! ::

i havent posted in the guild too much yet so to contribute, i guess ill try to answer questions about prophecy and destiny or whatever is along those lines. this is my way to contribute to the share of knowlege so just ask away with any questions and ill get back to them asap. if there is alredy a discusion about this topic then sorry for bringing it up.

What is prophesy? How does it apply? What are the prerequisites for a prophesy being fortold? What do prophesies pertain to, who they affect, how accurate and how binding are they?

Ditto with destiny. What drives it? Does it apply to everyone? What agent does it use to cause change? Is there any way to disagree with it? Can it be changed, or disobeyed?

Thank you, Laren. Interesting, I don't know much about Taoism.

Anyone else feel free to jump in to my questions or the topic.

prophecy is a fool's way of indicating strong psychic ability. the problem with this is that prophecy is not neccessarily true. it may be poetic, it may be the channeling of an element, it may be channeling the voice of an otherworldly being, it may be predicting a possible future. however, that possible future may or may not have anything to do with this plane of existance. seeing as there are innumerable planes of existance and innumerable universes in which those planes exist, there is no end to the possibilities of so called 'prophecy'. i know this sounds quite cynical, but as a dragon who has spent many lives, likely spanning several million or perhaps billion years of existance across multiple planes of existance, i can say i have some experience with 'prophecy' and that about 80% of it can be discounted as self influenced, infactual, or self fulfilling.

Possible. However, claims of authority from seniority is a dangerous game. Because when you claim to the heights of what you are, there may be those that claim more. And if they aren't lying? Then you're really screwed.

Thank you. xd

Personally, I find that prophecy in most forms is concerned with scanning well and being fairly vague. In other words, it's a good read, and people who really want to make it fit can do so. Using these two guidelines, it's also perfectly possible for a prophet to extrapolate from current events and a feel for human tendencies. There are probably some fairly accurate prophets, but it's a matter of conjecture (and skepticism) which ones meant what they wrote and which ones just made with the pretty and fire and brimstone while hopped up on substances.

Destiny now, destiny is creepy. "What's really going to bake your noodle later is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?" Yeah, that was my favorite part of the movie. But it showcases that line of where destiny can actually be determined. And, of course, there is Terry Pratchett's assertion that Destiny has been cheated at least twice by the Lady (Luck). Yes, I know he writes fiction. It does, however, beg the question: is what we define as destiny the genuine article? Or is it simply a factor leading to a larger destiny, of which there are many components? It gets into the ineffable. Also slightly fractal, if you follow it far enough. I try not to think about it too much, or I end up with a several-day headache.