#016 - Oracle

[Jacob Maccabee]

ORACLE

Name: Oracle
Aliases: Oracle of Legion, Legion Spawn, Divinators, Gibbering Nonsense

Sphere: Tarpit Enclaves
Tier: Regular

Picture:

Spoiler:

If there is one thing Legion enjoys, it's knowledge. Whether this knowledge be of historical basis or of the future is of little consequence. Knowledge is knowledge, and as such it is power. Among his many legions of demons that serve under his command, the Oracles are among the most common...and among the most pestering. Each of them is a piece of Legion himself, though unlike his other forms that look to his endless libraries, attend to his torture victims, or spy upon the world outside of his domain, these little creeps look to the future. They are the souls of lost divinators, astrologists, fortune tellers; those who attempted to gaze into the endless weaves of fate only to have it suck them dry.

Like Legion, these creatures work best as a whole. Individually, an Oracle is a gibbering nightmare; a creature of random design, be it serpentine, avian, or slime. Most of them commonly share Legion's demonic colors of black and white, with at least one working eye, a mouth permanently set into a grin, and long, clawed talons for hands that grip upon a sphere they use to gaze into the endless web that is fate. Oracles on their own cannot speak; at least, cannot speak anything intelligent or understandable. So caught up in the strings of fate are they that they often are unable to register what is going on with the world around them. This can make them vulnerable, though on rare occasion one alone can speak something intelligent enough to be taken as credible proof that an event will occur within the next hour that will affect the being it chooses to speak to, be it demon or otherwise.

Of course, as I said, like Legion the Oracles work best as part of a whole. One Oracle is doomed in a fight. Five together make a worthy adversary. An entire army is practically unstoppable. Basic rudimentary intelligence becomes genius level intellect the closer together an Oracle is with another Oracle or demon of Legion. Their sentences become much more understandable, and they can predict whole events that will occur over the course of a several day period. In battle, when combined with an elite demon under Legion's control, a whole group of Oracles can help warn said elite demon through their collective consciousness of something terrible about to occur that will cause it harm, helping it to avoid its demise.

Of course, Oracles are cowards. They aren't good combatants despite their abilities. So, when an attack does occur, they are much more likely to scatter than combine their forces and turn the attack against the oppressor, and as soon as they are alone they become the gibbering, unintelligent beings they truly are; easy prey.

Abilities: Oracles can see in the future. This ability itself is a very unpredictable one, and an individual Oracle can, at best, only predict something true to happen about once every century or so, and it usually involves something happening in the next hour. This ability increases while they are together in groups, and as such most Oracles tend to group together in packs of three to five for this exact reason. One Oracle is a dumb beast on its own, but five have the shared intelligence of a mortal like Einstein or greater.

This same factor of working together also benefits their attacks and abilities. An individual Oracle may resort to attacking with its claws or throwing rocks, globs of tar, or whatever debris it comes across. When in a group or beside an elite, it begins attacking with ranged firepower, using telekinesis to lift debris and hurl it at foes. Again, this may not seem like much, but the range of this attack visibly increases per Oracle in the area, and its speed increases as well, turning a pebble-sized rock into a potential armor piercing sniper bullet.

Miscellaneous Notes:

- Oracles are cowardly. A good rocket to the face scares most of them away even despite their increased intelligence when together.
- An Oracle's favorite war cry - "I am the Eggman! You are the Eggman! I am the Walrus! Goobajoobajoob!"
- Legion still has no idea what possessed him to make demons like this, though he doesn't argue with the results
- The primary inspiration for Oracles are Tzeentch's Pink Horrors from Games Workshop's Warhammer
- Artwork used above by Lord Netsua on Deviantart