History Main / OracularUrchin

* Runaway orphan Layla Miller in ''ComicBook/XFactor2006''. "[[CatchPhrase I'm Layla Miller, I know stuff.]]" But not because she has any oracular power, but because [[spoiler:the future version of her uploaded her memories into her.]]

* Chikage from ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess'' is a little old to be an "urchins" but certainly mysterious and oracular.

* Yashiro Hoshimiya fills this role in ''LightNovel/GroundControlToPsychoelectricGirl''. At first she appears to be an obnoxious girl obsessed with space like the titular character Erio Touwa, and she constantly berates Makoto Niwa for having caused her to stop believing in alien activity. Then at the end of episode 13, after telling Makoto to move slightly, a meteor lands right in the spot where he was standing just moments earlier, causing him to wonder if she really was [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane an alien or not.]]

* In ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'', the little girl in Kissing Town. Later revealed to be the spirit of Literature/SnowWhite.

* In ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae'' and subsequent [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian]] works, Myth/{{Merlin}} first appears as a boy, prophesying the ascension of first Uther Pendragon and then his son Arthur. Coincidentally, he's [[HalfHumanHybrid only half human]].

* In the novel ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', the songs of children singing in the street are prophetic. There however is at least one time where someone merely ''claims'' that they exist, and one incident where a treacherous retainer interprets some children's prediction his way.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Straight Silver'', Gaunt and Beltayr meet with a strange woman in the [[TheLostWoods woods]], who says she is Elinor Zaker, a retired Battle Sister, and gives Gaunt intimations of the future -- vague, because she explicitly tells him that she can not tell him too much. Gaunt sees her scars and concludes that she suffered brain damage. She also lends him a car, which vanishes after they have gotten where they are going. As do its keys. And they can't find her chapel afterwards. And her name proves to be that of a [[SuperSoldier bionically-augmented warrior]] who fought in a Crusade in the region for its founder and died in battle ''6000 years ago''.
* ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' has the Archive. She's usually not particularly cryptic, but she knows ''everything that's ever been written down'' (at least since the position was created possibly around 580-570 BCE starting with Pythia). Omniscience of anything recorded isn't the whole of her powers--while the Archive is usually an an adult, the current one's circumstances result in something a step (possibly a very small step) down from a prepubescent goddess.
* Male example: Devil-Boy Jack in ''Literature/TheHauntingOfAlaizabelCray'' by Chris Wooding. When he first appears he's described as a ten year old beggar whose eyes are sewn shut. For the rest of the book, he predicts the future, knows things nobody else does (usually because there's no way they can) and remains as unnervingly deadpan as ever during the end mission, even though he knows that several people in his party will die (he also knows who it will be, when and how). We never find out where he came from, why he was blinded in such a gruesome way, or indeed, anything about his background or personal life. He's very creepy, but a valuable asset to the protagonists.
* Elva in ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' fulfills this trope pretty well. She's just your standard little girl with disturbing eyes, an odd silver mark on her forehead (from a dragon no less), and the ability to sense the pain and how to deal with it of everyone around her for an unspecified distance. It doesn't help that [[spoiler: until almost halfway through Brisingr,]] she can't ignore everyone else's pain and it hurts worse if she tries to not help them.
* Tess Hauser from ''Literature/BlindLake'', a young girl who was TouchedByVorlons.
* Anathema Device from ''Literature/GoodOmens'', thanks to being direct descendant of the only 100% accurate prophetess in human history and a studious scholar of her prophecies. She is also a minor psychic herself.

* Spoofed by Hitomi in ''Anime/PuniPuniPoemi'', who actually has accurate (but ultimately, not very useful) precognitive powers.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': [[{{Seer}} Sapphire's]] predictions and speech can get very cryptic and abrupt when she's upset, as she has a hard time focusing on the present without [[EternalLove Ruby's]] influence and thus only looks into the future, sometimes even detrimentally.

* ''Anime/MaiHime'''s Nagi Homura. He's barely older than even the youngest of the [=HiME=], and yet he knows far more about the Orphans than any of them do. While he prefers to sit on the sidelines in the anime, mangaverse Nagi takes it a step further, actively opposing the [=HiME=] and positioning himself as a [[TheDragon secondhand villain]].

* Madison in ''Series/HarpersIsland''

* Sybill from ''VideoGame/{{Alundra}}''
** It could be argued that she is a WaifProphet instead, due to her being a child, and having something that is ''like'' a mental illness, after a fashion.

** Nephilim is [[spoiler:in touch with U-DO, a being from another dimension]], and can see many things which the protagonists do not

* This role is filled by Pharos in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', [[spoiler:an early embodiment of Ryoji, the Appriser who will summon Nyx to end all life on Earth. He appears before the main character because the Appriser was sealed into his body ten years ago.]]

* From ''VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe'':
** Sophia from ''Sword Of Seals'', who was chosen as a priestess because of her prophetic visions.
** Ninian from ''Blazing Sword'' was this in the past. [[spoiler: More exactly, she was this as the Shrine Dragon.]] Her little brother Nils fits in a little more after he takes over Hannah's work.

%%[[folder:Web Comics]]

Usually female, small and fey in [[CreepyChild a disturbing way]], the Oracular Urchin knows more about the future -- or the present -- than she really should. Sometimes her mysterious comments are clear, but usually they just confuse matters until everything's over, and maybe not even then. When things come to a head, the Oracular Urchin may be the one who explains Everything (either explicitly or [[CrypticConversation by implication]]) to the hero -- and, to the audience.

See also FaintingSeer and MysteriousWaif.

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/XFactor https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/laylam.png]]]]

* Layla Miller in ''ComicBook/XFactor''. "I'm Layla Miller, I know stuff."

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
** [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight Jade]] and [[ISeeDeadPeople Aradia]].
** [[CuteMonsterGirl Calli]][[OurAngelsAreDifferent ope]] appears to be this, providing information to Roxy, [[TimeyWimeyBall though for the most part trying to make sure she does not know more than she should at the proper time. ]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Sapphire from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' can be like this when she's [[TranquilFury upset]]. Her predictions can get cryptic and abrupt, since she has a hard time focusing on the present without [[EternalLove Ruby's]] gusto.
[[/folder]]

Usually female, small and fey in [[CreepyChild a disturbing way]], the Oracular Urchin knows more about the future -- or the present -- than she really should. Sometimes her mysterious comments are clear, but usually they just confuse matters until everything's over, and maybe not even then. When things come to a head, the Oracular Urchin may be the one who explains Everything (either explicitly or [[CrypticConversation by implication)]] to the hero -- and, to the audience.

** Kettle is an [[UndeadChild undead girl]] who lives in the Azath cemetery in Letheras and [[CreepyChild nonchalantly kills people]] she thinks are bad between providing everyone who will listen with matter-of-fact revelations of things "the dead told her", which generally relate to current events she should have no means of knowing about. Part of her uncanny insights come from her being connected to the Azath Tower and serving it by feeding it the corpses of those she kills. [[HeroicAlbino Silchas Ruin]] claims that Kettle has two souls inside of her, one of which is [[AbusivePrecursors Forkrul Assail]], though he never specifies if the other is native to her once-mortal body or another one stuffed in there after she died. Kettle vaguely remembers being both a mortal child and a Nameless One child of [[EarthMother the Eres]] who was wrapped up in prophecies. When the Azath Tower dies, Kettle starts coming back to life, but she never stops with her mysterious revelations. At the end of ''Literature/ReapersGale'', [[spoiler:Silchas Ruin kills her, and a new Azath House sprouts from her body]].

* Maria Ushiromiya from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' is an unerringly CheerfulChild, with a [[ChildrenAreInnocent childlike]], yet strangely accurate belief in the Golden Witch, Beatrice. As things get worse, she turns into a CreepyChild. [[spoiler:She is actually friends with Beatrice, whose true identity is Sayo Yasuda, a servant who is also the true identity of Shannon and Kanon. Sayo had actually told Maria about [[AmbiguousGender his/her]] plan to "open the door to the Golden Land", but Maria is too naive to realize that this is a DeadlyEuphemism for blowing up the island and everyone on it.]]

* Maia in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred''.

* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Straight Silver'', Gaunt and Beltayr meet with a strange woman in the [[TheLostWoods woods]], who says she is Elinor Zaker, a retired Battle Sister, and gives Gaunt intimations of the future -- vague, because she explicitly tells him that she can not tell him too much. Gaunt sees her scars and concludes that she suffered brain damage. She also lends him a car, which vanishes after they have gotten where they are going. As do its keys. And they can't find her chapel afterwards. And her name proves to be that of a [[SuperSoldier bionically-augmented warrior]] who fought in a Crusade in the region for it's founder and died in battle ''6000 years ago''.
* ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' has the Archive. She's usually not particularly cryptic, but she knows ''everything that's ever been written down'' (at least since the position was created possibly around 580-570 BCE starting with Pythia). Omniscience of anything recorded isn't the whole of her powers - while the Archive is usually an an adult, the current one's circumstances result in something a step (possibly a very small step) down from a prepubescent goddess.