Introduction
Oration is a skill originally nurtured by the Aíludé. Orators speak their will into existence, forming a temporary contract with another being to do their bidding. The propensity to have the skill of oration is low on Alcrést, as it is a trait passed in Aíludé blood. Most who have the ability to Orate will never know.
Those lucky to have been born with the skill and receive training will be able to command many of the fauna on the continent. This would prove deadly on the battlefield if an enemy orator has a dangerous familiar. Thankfully, it is incredibly rare, and orators tend to keep lower profiles.
Mechanisms of Oration
At the beginning of anyone’s lives, they are given names. This act is the basis of a familiar and familial contract, marking an individual as the familiar of their parents. Oration works in much the same way. Orators speak their covenant to a prospective familiar and finish the contract by giving the familiar a name. The covenant is unique to each orator and is kept secret. The whole process is called a contract.
An orator forms contracts and issues orders to their familiars through a procedure called an utterance. An orator is able to modulate the pitch frequencies in their voice to include specific wavelengths understandable to a specific creature, as a separate message within their covenants or commands. To the untrained, it sounds like a discordant note, or like two voices coming out of one mouth at the same time. Each creature reacts differently, and an orator must know how to issue utterances to the creature before they can successfully make it a familiar.
The specifics of utterances stem from an inherited trait passed down in Aíludé blood that causes one to be born with an eccentricity in one’s vocal cords. So, all orators share some Aíludé ancestry.
Limitations of Oration
Contracts are temporary, and an Orator can only handle one at a time. Contracts can only be made with lesser beings, and they must accept the terms of the covenant to become a familiar. This can be dangerous if you try to form a contract with Alcrest’s more violent and powerful species.
Orators often release their familiars prior to entering a town or city, due to the temporary nature of contracts. Contract length varies, depending on the creature’s temperament and the strength and power of the creature in comparison to the orator. Upon making the contract, an orator will have a sense for the amount of time allotted to the contract. After the contract ends, the orator can attempt to form another with the creature, at its discretion.
On Witches
Throughout history, some Witches have been known to be orators. As oration is passed down in the blood, some witches are born unable to orate, despite knowing how to do it, or being capable of it in a previous life.
Amongst the rumors swirling about witches, is one where it is said that Witches are capable of forming contracts with people. In fact, one such rumor led Queen Hakura, the Fifth Witch of the Ringed Eclipse to be executed nearly 300 years ago. It was said that she charmed and enthralled a king and was blamed for the poor choices made that doomed the nation of Manarína to conquest by its enemies. She earned the pejorative title “the Witch of Silence”, after she was violently silenced by angry mobs. The following incarnations have not been seen nor heard of since, choosing to live their lives in obscurity. However, most scholars appropriately attribute the king’s own actions, a particularly terrible famine, and years of decline as the true reasons for the nation’s downfall.
The Witches remain silent on whether this is a possibility or not.