Oracle Yelen

*"I do not serve kings."*

> - Oracle Yelen to King Imidya
>
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The prophetess **Yelen** was the third Oracle of Iden in the Esshian religions, also known as the **Oracle of Truth** or the **Headless Oracle**.

## Characteristics

Most oracles in this era met their ends after delivering "bad news" to dissatisfied querents. As the demands of kings became more petty, the oracles began to lie about their visions to flatter their querents for survival.

Yelen told auguries to all who asked, king or peasant, and lived modestly in her sanctuary with only her meager possessions and the company of her attendants. She harbored no prejudice or harsh truth in her visions and was beloved for her rigid fairness, so much that she never feared the threats of her enemies thanks to the formidable size of her following.

Yelen was the first oracle to declare herself the humble Servant to Truth, sworn to the revelation of truth, good and bad, without {sugar coating}. She delivered prophecies of all natures, mundane, hopeful, and even unpleasant or dreadful. Around her neck she wore a collar as a symbol of her subservience and loyalty to Truth in her duty as its messenger, not a cherub to wax mortal vanities.

## History

All the oracles after Irrah and before Yelen took after the Second Oracle's command for the oracles to serve the welfare of Men, not personal self-interest.

>> age of martyrs

— answered the queries of vainglorious and greedy kings. They fought with each other for an edge against the other. They were enamored by tales of the lost [Gomorrah] and lives in fear of God's wrath.

• She told auguries with harsh truth, and did not withhold bad news.

Eloviden the Cursed City was always being conquered and lost. One day, an ambitious king named Imidya took Yelen under his patronage to advise his military campaigns, having heard of her oracular powers in determining crop seasons and personal fortunes, but her prophecies were either misunderstood or ignored by the king, who was frustrated by her very often bad news. When finally King Imidya defeated his enemies, he grew jealous of Yelen's greater popularity amongst his people and his own constantly bad fortunes, which he took as veiled insults from a charlatan and political rival with no real powers.

"I do not serve kings. I serve Truth. I am a loyal servant of God."

### Lying to an Oracle / Yelen's Wrath

>> Divine Insight

x Jesus and the Money-Lenders

• Represents long-term auguries. While her visions may not readily be apparent, over time they reveal themselves in tastefully ironic ways.

- (?) she set feminism back in the Stone Age

## Martyrdom

The King asked, "Oracle, O Oracle, I beg your counsel and wisdom. See beyond what I cannot, see beyond fear where hope resides. Give me truth, give me peace. Will we defeat these sorcerers from the North, with fire in their beards and beasts at their reign?"

"No. And we shall be devoured by the sea, the earth hammered by the step of creatures that run on four legs and fire arrows from bows like men. We shall perish, in this cursed city, to sate the depravity that soiled it so long ago. You and I, and everyone in this city, shall die."

Angered by her prophecy of centaurs from the sea and his own foretold destruction, the king ordered her executed and had her severed head presented to him in his court. Upon unveiling the head, Yelen's eyes were said to open and her mouth opened to speak, and from death the Oracle uttered a final, chilling prophecy of events yet to come.

Her prediction of the Arquisans came true, the horse-riding orcs arriving by boat on the Varanian Horn and laying waste to the Henescene and then the Sochamadi.

## In art

The third oracle is depicted in two forms in Esshian art. Iconography of Yelen and Yelenine motifs feature heavily in Cremalian and Ushanran courts of justice.

### The Blood-Necked Prophetess

Yelen's throat was slit and she miraculously survived. In art her neck is painted blood red. In her hands, she is holding the moon (Sinister Eye) in her hands as a scrying orb.

### The Headless Oracle

Yelen is holding her severed head in her hands, eyes white in premonition.

## In culture

### "Lying to the face of Yelen"

Her image is meant to inspire total, unbiased openness. Legal prosecutors often interrogate prisoners with an icon of Yelen presiding, pressuring suspects with spiritual guilt. It is bad luck to lie in the face of a prophet, Yelen especially, whose wrath was well known.

### Symbol of resistance

Yelen was a symbol of revolution in Modeon during the Modeon Revolution. Her declaration, "I do not serve kings," would be the battle-cry of the rebel forces seeking to depose the monarchy.

## Trivia

* {"Sugar coating"} - a human error. It is misinterpretation.