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The Sisters of the Oracular Order, also known as the Oracular Sisters or the Blind Sisters, are an antagonistic faction in the Dishonored franchise, first appearing in the mission The Stolen Archive of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
Overview[]
Role[]
In contrast to the Warfare Overseers, who are solely made up from men, the Oracular Order consists entirely of women. Led by the High Oracle, the sisters rarely leave their chapels and the location of the High Oracle is a closely guarded secret. It is suspected that she perpetually travels from one chapel to the next. The sisters have chapels in at least Gristol and Serkonos.
The sisters are able to use trance to see visions of the future. As such, the prophecies of the Oracular Order are pivotal for the leadership of the Order of the Everyman and the Oracular Sisters are revered by the other factions of the Abbey. When the Sisters issue a proclamation or send a missive advising some course of action, the High Overseer endorses it with absolue confidence. Despite rarely leaving their chapels, the Sisters are trained to fight with maces and are skilled enough to terminate in "a single open eye".
Although some of the Oracular Sisters actually have prophetic visions, most of the sisters merely study history and politics and, when approaching a subject, engage in cloistered debate for days - passing off their results as prophecies. Individual members also meditate and use various hallucinogen drugs to enhance their visions.
Although they are informally known as the "Blind Sisters", the Oracular Sisters are not really blind. The term "Blind Sisters" actually means that the Oracular sisters are "blind to the diversions of the world", meaning their vision is clearer than that of the non-initiated. Nonetheless, the Sisters wear read blindfolds as if to strengthen the prejudice.
Cloistered Gathering[]
The Cloistered Gathering is a meeting in which the Oracles make their prophecies. Only Oracular Sisters are allowed to be present during such a gathering. The Gathering takes place in a room in which thirty or more sisters sit in a circle. No topic will be heard until every Sister has time to research. Several outcomes are discussed and some Sisters are tasked with advancing less popular or unlikely scenarios. Every Sister has to give her opinion on the matter - no sister is allowed to remain silent. After each Sister has given her opinion on how the discussed event will unfolg, the Sisters come to an opinion of the most likely scenario which is then written down and handed to the High Oracle for approval.
History[]
Past[]
The Oracular Order was founded by Gwen Horncroft, the Order's first High Oracle, who was later lost to insanity. Another High Oracle was Dahlia Somonos, who was the first Serkonan to be introduced to the Order and founded the Serkonan Chapel of the Order in her homeland. She was killed by followers of the Outsider. The ashes of both Horncroft and Somonos are kept in urns at the Office of the High Overseer in Dunwall.
Shortly before the events of Dishonored 2, Breanna Ashworth, a member of Delilah Copperspoon's witch coven, realizes the importance of the Oracular prophecies for the Abbey of the Everyman. Realizing that the Abbey would never accept Delilah as the new Empress, Breanna tries to find a way to manipulate the Oracular Sisters in favor of Delilah. As she finds it difficult to create effigies of the Oracular Sisters due to the sister keeping to themselves and rarely venturing outside, Breanna instead dug up several corpses of Oracular Sisters from an Abbey graveyards. With these corpses, Delilah managed to create effigies and built a device called the Oraculum, which allowed Breanna to listen in to the prophecies of the Oracular Sisters undetected. Although she only heard faint voices at first, Breanna - with assistance of Grand Inventor Kirin Jindosh - managed to refinde the device so that she could actually interrupt Oracular Sisters in conversation and ultimately make them say whatever she wishes them to say. After managing to hold one of the Sisters in a trance-like state for an hour, Brwanna realized that she was not able to manipulate the prophecies of the Oracular Order.
Using the device, Breanna managed to divide the Oracular Order over the question of the legitimacy of the newly-crowned Empress Delilah by influencing their visions.
Dishonored 2[]
The Corpse of an Oracular Sister in the Oraculum.
However, before the Abbey of the Everyman and the Oracular Sisters are fully under Breanna's control, the usurped Empress Emily Kaldwin infiltrates the Royal Conservatory in Karnaca where she finds the Oraculum. By manipulating the lenses of the Oraculum, Emily creates a magical backlash that robs Breanna and all of her witches of her magical powers the next time they activate the Oraculum. If Emily activates the Oraculum before manipulating the lenses, she can actually listen in to several prophecies of the Oracular Sisters:
- "No, no, sister, that's not what he intends to do. He will carry them to the harvest market, as he swore he would. But the harvest... the harvest will fail. I see it now, all is withered with blight. Now the rot is upon all the fields east of Potterstead, and to the south... to the south the fields are burning. We must warn them. Burn the fields. Make a black line across the map to stop the blight..."
- "What is the black glass knife, sisters? Something crafted by apostate hands? I see stains under the fingernails. Long, fine fingernails. Not blood, no. Not wine, either. It is the ink from a squid... a squid caught in the cold, cold waters above the world, the western corner of Tyvia, by sailors from Wei-Ghon. Caught on a long line of red silk, drawn up from the dark waters below. No! Not useful... not useful at all. But I see the long, lovely hands again, stained by the ink, raising the knife above a box made of colored paper. I cannot see what is contained within, but the King of Morley is there, in the room with the others, while the Queen sleeps in their bed..."
- "They are at the gates of Dunwall Tower, and they are dying. Delilah and her coven are not alone, but they are with the clockwork men. High Overseer Khulan orders the ancient music played, but it does no good... the clockworks are not things of heresy, sisters. The music has no effect. The Overseers are falling. The High Overseer is dragged away. He fights while there is strength in his body, even while the tears from his eyes... his eyes grow dull as the blood runs from his body. He waits to surprise the one who returns to Dunwall Tower. Only one of the Overseers still breathes, and he had a mission, given by one of us, by one of the sisters, but he will fail, and he will never know the answer."
By eliminating the threat of the Oraculum, Emily saves the Oracular Sisters from the witches' influence and gives them back their independence. After the chaos in the Empire has calmed and Emily has retaken her throne, Sister Rosewyn, an Oracular Sister, decides that the Royal Conservatory must be cleansed from the black magic wrought by the witches.
Death of the Outsider[]
After requesting the assistance of the Warfare Overseers led by Roving Vice Overseer Cardoza, the Oracular Sisters storm the Conservatory where they and the Overseers capture the former witches who have remained at the Conservatory. While the Overseers torture and interrogate the witches, the Oracular Sisters start searching for heretical papers, books and artefacts - destroying everything they find. The Sisters also secure the Oraculum and two of them can be heard discussing its powers. The two are worried and discuss how they can protect their order from attacks like that in the future.
The Oracular Sisters in prayer
Meanwhile, Sister Rosewyn has found a silvergraph archive that was sent to Breanna Ashworth by one of the Eyeless. After finding out that it contains the location of a place where it is possible to enter the Void, Rosewyn is shocked, as this silvergraph could shake the very foundation of the Order of the Everyman and undo everything the Order has achieved throughout the ages. At loss for ideas on how to act, Rosewyn calls several Oracular Sisters to the terrace where they partake in a trance in hope of finding a vision to guide them. Eventually, she comes to the conclusion that the silvergraph must be destroyed and hands it to Overseer Cardoza to burn it. However, before it can be destroyed the silvergraph is stolen by Billie Lurk.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In Dishonored 2, listening to the prophecies of the Oraculum three times grants the player the achievement Oracular Echoes.
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 Villains
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The Knife of Dunwall / The Brigmore Witches Dishonored 2 Dishonored: Death of the Outsider | ||