Fate And Destiny"O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice.Fate - mounstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy.Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved.so at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everyone weep with me!"-Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi, Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff

Life is a journey, a voyage on the River of Fate, and each of us is afloat on that river, carried on its currents towards our ultimate fate, whether we know it or not. When and how we will die is already laid out before us, but how we live our lives is our choosing. Like a river, we can change the course of our lives before we meet our final destination, but all rivers eventually lead to the sea, and so also all life eventually leads to death. This is fate. Some of us, though, have more in store for us than our fate. Some will have their lives steered for them, towards a future predestined by the gods. This is Destiny. Destiny is a purpose one is given in life, a great duty or task that meets the needs of some greater plan that only Aminus may truly know the nature of. Of course, not all of us a given a great destiny. Some of us our destined for mundane lives, while others will have a life of adventure and glory, or misery and heartache. As mortals we have free will, and the choices we make can change our Destiny, but Fate is a force greater than the free will of common men, and so only a truly great force can overcome it. Every choice we make, every decision, is a chance to steer our course down a different branch of the river. We have no way of knowing which branch will lead us to our destiny, or which may take us to an untimely fate. Only Isati knows our true course. Isati is the goddess who pours out the river of fate and grants destiny. She is an Elder Goddess created by Aminus. She also gives the gift of prophecy, the ability of a mortal to see the River of Fate and predict the future. The other gods often struggle to control those she gives this gift to, hoping to use their power to forsee the destinies of their people and possibly interfere. However, the gods must be careful, for if they attempt to influence destiny they may find they have created disaster. It is said that when a god touches the mortal world, it is like a pebble dropped into the river. It will create ripples, affecting the surface of the water, but it will never move the deep currents. However, if a god were to directly intervene upon ones fate, such as appearing upon the mortal world and taking action there, then it would be like a great land slide dropped into the River of Fate. The course of those mortal's lives may be effected forever. There are many who study the for-tellings of prophets, attempting to divine the greater plan for the future of our world. My old friend Omar is one of those, and I believe he may be close to understanding the predictions for the end of this era.~Morkelon

In the World of Naeja there are three forces that control the lives of mortals. These are Fate, Destiny and Free Will.

Fate and Destiny:

Though everyone has a Fate, Destiny is limited to the few.Some will live simple mundane lives and die a simple and mundane death. Player character's though, are more likely to have a destiny. We will discuss exactly how player characters get a destiny in Character Creation. For now, simply know that is an option to start with a Destiny.

Prophets are those in the world who have the ability to foresee Destiny, and in rare circumstances, Fate. They often put these visions into writing, called Prophecies, and sometimes player characters will be involved in these prophecies.Free Will is the ability to make decisions that can change Destiny, or very rarely even Fate. Everyone has Free Will, and player characters can express this through roleplaying.

Fate

Fate is the unrelenting force that drives every mortal towards their ulimate end.Each individual has a predetermined fate, that is the time, place, and means of his death. It is laid out for them by the Elder Hedaera at the time of their creation. Fate is, for the most part, inevitable. You may be able to change some of the details, but unless there is divine intervention, no mortal can escape the eventual force of fate upon their life. Fate isn't always the end, though. Existence goes on after death, in the afterlife or in reincarnation.

Prophecy and Fate: Fate is very hard to prophecize, perhaps because it is not within the domain of Isati, and even more difficult to avoid. For the most part, one cannot avoid their fate.

Game Mechanics: Fate should not be defined during character creation, unless it is part of a character's Destiny. Fate, therefore, shouldn't be easily prophecized. The closest you come to defining this during character creation is rolling your character's max age, which is, in a way, stating when your character will die if nothing else gets him first.

Destiny

Destiny is the ever changing force that defines one's life, by both the events within it and the effects that life has upon the world. Only a few individuals have a predetermined Destiny, but for those that do, it is a grand event, action, or moment in a his life that other events seem to drive that person towards.

Destiny can be forseen through prophecy or divination. Generally, great prophetic vision is only a glimpse at what could be, based on the events of past and present. Not everyone has a destiny, or at least not one worth investigating.Isati decides who has a destiny, granting it to them as their soul is drawn to life during conception.

Free Will

Destiny can be changed, because everyone has Free Will. Free Will is the power to make your own decisions, no matter what destiny has in store for you. Every choice that is made can steer destiny. Destiny is difficult to avoid, though, because it often seems that those decisions yet to be made are part of that destiny. That is to say, just because you think you are making a decision that will prevent destiny from being fulfilled, doesn't mean that you aren't unwittingly following the course destiny already laid out for you. What more, it seems that destiny finds a means to resolve itself, even if it means stearing other events in its favor. One must exert extremely strong free will to overcome destiny, and often times this means being contrary to one's own self, since, after-all, destiny is what you were created to do.

Destiny can be changed by Free Will, but Fate generally cannot. After all, everything that lives must die.

Woryk is the Elder God of Free Will. He granted free will to the mortal races, giving them the power to overcome their fate and destiny. However, Woryk is no longer acting rationally. He was poisoned, long ago, by Siritheia and has since gone mad.

Fate vs. Destiny

Sometimes Fate and Destiny intertwine. It isn't uncommon for ones fate to be tied to his destiny. For example, one may be destined to die in an incredible way that saves thousands. While this is a great destiny, it is also fate. Other times, though, Destiny seems to override Fate. There have been prophecies of some who will never die, but instead attain some form of divine power, thereby escaping Fate. Strangely, these individuals may also have a Fate, which will come true if their Destiny does not.

The Divinities

There are some forces in the world that are greater than Fate and Destiny, such as the divinties. The gods, as they are often called, have the power to overcome destiny and fate, as they themselves are not governed by it. The act of a god upon the life of a mortal can have an incredibly significant impact upon the future. A god who destroys a mortal before that mortal's destiny is fulfilled may inadvertantly change prophecies that may have benefited the deity. Because of this, Naeja strictly forbids the deities to act upon the mortal world and most deities prefer not to directly involve themselves in the lives of mortals. Instead they choose intermediaries, priests, prophets and other chosen ones.