How to make a "prophecy" work

It's no secret that a lot of stories out there use an ancient prophecy as a plot device; whether they're describing the coming of a hero or the inevitable arrival of a specific event. But my question is how do you make a prophecy believable?

Allow me to explain; in at least three stories based on Greek Mythology that i watched on TV, a prophecy foretold that the Titans would return to battle the Olympians once again. And in all three stories, it was said that they would only succeed if a mortal hero joined the fight, why?

If the Olympians were able to defeat the Titans themselves in the past, why shouldn't they have been able to do it again? In fact, if anything, their strength should have been greater than it was during their first fight with the Titans; the first time there were only 6 Gods fighting and they still won, by the time of their second battle (the time the 3 stories i mentioned took place), their numbers had more than doubled and the original 6 have had years to develop their powers. Why would they need a human's help?

I repeat, how do you make a prophecy make sense?

Usually by making it very subtle and probably very flexible, so that the prophecy is more unpredictable to the audience and looks like an actual In Mysterious Ways design rather than a writer formula.

As to why, it varies. Prophecies often don't make sense but just are. Why would the Olympians need a human? Because Destiny Says So. That's it, that's how prophecy worlds work. Logic doesn't factor in it.

The only thing that may "logically" alter a prophecy is poetic logic rather than factual logic. Like the olympians might need a human to defeat the Titans not for power reasons, but because existence wants to drive a point home by signifying the downfall of the mighty Titans at the hand of the lowly humans, and existence will throw a wrench into everything to make that point stand.

A great way I've seen to make a prophecy work, is to make the writer of the prophecy an actual character instead of a vague omniscient force.

That means the prophecy isn't inevitable, but what the character WANTS to be inevitable. She has written out what she wants to happen and is now working behind the scenes to ensure everything goes down according to her design

This reminds me of HBO's original series Rome where, because it took place in Rome during Julius Caesar's reign and was supposed to be historically accurate, they had polytheistic prayers, and curses, and casual consulations with soothsayers.

The poll at some discussion forums went: "How do you think prophecies will feature on this show?" The voting options were:

• Always right, just like in real life
• Always wrong, just like in real life
• Right about half the time, like in real life
• Always right but always misinterpreted, like on Buffy The Vampire Slayer

If you're going for the Ancient Greek drama model of prophecy, they're always going to be right. But they're always going to be misinterpreted ("if you go into battle, a great nation will fall" "sweet, that means the enemy's...no, wait, crap, by 'great nation' you meant mine, why did you not say so???") or they're always going to be fulfilled by the very same efforts to change the path, because the future is fixed, they've got Fates in charge of that and everything.

If you want to be more modern about it, you can have a chessmaster ensure prophecies, or let it get all quantum (read: Terry Pratchett's The Carpet People )

Regarding the example of the Olympians and the Titans, why might the Olympians not have decreased in power (think of Tolkein's elves), or the Titans increased more than the Olympians? The cause of this might depend heavily on the setting, of course. Alternatively, a human might go unheeded by the Titans, and so strike a blow that an Olympian might not be able to get into position to make.

I don't agree that a prophecy may never work logically—but the logic may not be immediately apparent, especially as it was presumably made from a perspective aware of events or connections not available to those to whom the prophecy is being given.

Going back to the Lord of the Rings, let's say that there had been a prophecy that a hobbit would bring down the Dark Lord, but not by his own choice.

Having read the book, it may be clear that this is Frodo, who at the Crack of Doom turned away from the cause, but without whose actions the Ring might not have been destroyed. (Alternatively, it might be Gollum, who brought down the Dark Lord by falling into the Crack of Doom while holding the Ring, but had no intention of doing so.) All of this seems to me to fit quite logically.

However, at the start of the book this might make very little sense to the characters: they lack relevant information.

I suppose, then, that this is one way in which a prophecy may work in a story: it may be logical, but the characters only gain the relevant information as they go along, and perhaps the most important pieces rather late in the story.

Thinking of actual "prophecies" in the Real World - e.g. Nostradamus' writings - make 'em so vague they could mean nearly anything.

I can't recall the exact quatrains now but I recall that there were a number that "obviously predict such-and-such" and hadn't happened yet according to one book on Nostradamus yet were an "obvious prediction of that event" (which had already occurred) according to another book - depending on how the book's author interpreted/twisted the "prophecy".

When the same ancient prophecy is "obviously" a prediction of an historical war and "obviously" a prediction of an invasion by aliens at some stage in our future, you've got a lot of room for interpretation - I'm sure that there are people that can interpret the events of 1999 in such a way that Nostradamus's prediction for that year actually did come true (and all would wildly disagree on which events and how they fulfill the prophecy).

So you could have a prophecy that, according to some in your 'verse, "comes true" in the course of the events of the story but is so vague that others who have heard it think it predicts something completely different that hasn't happened yet and possibly a bunch of people who swear black-and-blue that it already came true over a hundred and fifty years ago when Lord Fribnitz defeated Marechal Brotznik at the Battle of Foom.

Why do you ask? Are you writing fiction that features a prophecy?

It really depends on the style of prophecy you want to use: Greek-style (trying to avert the prophecy fulfills it), Biblical-style (not trying to avert the prophecy or actively trying to fulfill it fulfills it), or Nostradamus-style (nobody knows what the prophecy is even about, or even if it is a prophecy in the first place).

edited 2nd May '15 11:23:41 AM by shiro_okami

I might add one more type: The "identification" type, in which the prophecy acts less as an indication of what is to come than as an identifier of someone or something: "The Chosen One will be recognised by her defeat of three foes that she does not see, her walking the path of fire, and her running with the waters", or "The Ominous Event will be marked by birds flying backwards, a great black hole in the sky, and lightning that strikes thrice".

These may be actively searched out—a wizard travelling the lands in search of the Chosen One, for example—or may be recognised only after the fact—as in cases in which the protagonist seems to be the Un Chosen One, but is revealed near the end to have fulfilled the prophecies without having realised it.

An example that comes to mind is the prophecy that marks out the next Chosen One in Bulletproof Monk—more or less taken from the Trope Page: "He will defeat an army of enemies while a flock of cranes circle above"; "He will battle for love in the Palace of Jade"; and "He will free brothers he never knew with the family he never had".

No-one attempts to avert or fulfil these that I recall, but they are fulfilled by the Chosen One—or Chosen Ones—naturally as part of the story.

I've always been fond of the Either/Or Prophecy. "If X happens, Y will happen." If you want to prevent/cause Y, you have to worry about X. This also works very well for anything interactive, like a tabletop RPG.

This is perhaps slightly tangential, but I'm reminded of a neat little prophecy twist of sorts, if I recall it correctly:

With dire events afoot, there was a prophecy that predicted a Chosen One of some sort or another, and that said Chosen One would save the day. However, said Chosen One ended up dying (in the womb, I think), much to the dismay of the protagonists involved.

However, one character realised that the prophecy only said that this Chosen One would save the day—not that they were the only means of doing so. (Either that or the foiling of the prophecy left the future undecided, not fallen to the villains. I forget which; perhaps both.) Thus one of the protagonists (the same that spotted this hope, I think) became an Un Chosen One and saved the day themselves.

edited 2nd May '15 4:34:13 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

Black’s Prophecy Generation System:

Begin with a warning. “If, during an eclipse of the sun, the prince should venture into the cave to retrieve the sword therein, he would awaken the dragon to destroy the kingdom”.

Obscure the identities of the characters involved. The prince becomes “the son” and the dragon becomes “the fire in the dark”.

Obscure the times and locations of the events. The solar eclipse becomes “the time of darkness”, the cave becomes “the cradle”, and the kingdom becomes “the grave”.

The prophecy becomes: “If, during the time of darkness, the son should venture into the cradle to retrieve the treasure, he would awaken the fire in the dark to destroy the grave”.

A slightly competent scholar might deduce that "the son" refers to the prince and that "the cradle" refers to the cave but he might not reach the proper conclusion and might suggest to the king that if his son were to retrieve the treasure from the cave, he would make death cease.

edited 4th May '15 12:18:38 AM by nekomoon14

Misinterpretation works well. Have the characters debate about it. have the translation be dodgy, and so maybe the word means " destroy" or maybe it means " contain" or maybe it means something else. Have the deadline be screwed with, if there is one, because of changes to the calendar. and have characters actively debate, like we would in real life, is this really a prophecy? If it is, do we /want/ it to come true?

For the case that you're asking for, prophesies are what will happen, not what should happen, if that makes sense. They foresee the future as is, it isn't a battle strategy. For example, it's not that the Olympians need a mortal to join the fight in order to win. Logically, they should be able to beat the Titans. However, circumstances will arise to let the Titans get the upper hand, and only a certain mortal will be turn the tides.

Think of it as someone mentally went into the future and wrote about it if that helps.

I am personally using a prophesy in my own WIP. My strategy is to make the prophesy be backstage mostly. I'm also having two different characters be potential prophesy candidates (the prophesy says a Dhampyr will save the world and currently there are two), both with different ways of approaching the prophesy (one is amped up to be a hero whereas the other one just found out about it).

edited 19th Jun '15 9:17:27 PM by washington213

Prophecies like you described in the first post rely on circumstances being unknown.

Yes, given no further information the gods should beat the titans but as the prophecy says a human is needed the conditions of the fight must turn out in such a way that a human will play a pivotal role. Even if the gods try to use a method avoiding humans and the prophecy random chance or others interventions will make a human involved. They could beat the titans alone but they won't.

When using prophecies like this it's best to look backwards chronologically. Think about how the situation plays out and write a prophecy to describe it.