Purposefully weak motivations

[Devouring Wolf]

In my story I have a race of people referred to as prophets who know everything that ever has, is, and will happen. However, because they know everything that will happen, they will frequently give false/misleading prophecies in order to create desired outcomes which has lead to many people believing they're frauds. My MC, however, is a something of a religious fanatic who believes the prophets are divine and has devoted his life to serving them so when a prophetess orders him to find an amulet that could help her save her people (who are dying) and tells him where to start looking that's what he does.

But here's the thing, as a prophet she already knows where the amulet is and rather than sending him directly to it, she gives him a clue as to where to start looking. She could've told him where it is, but she didn't. Its never actually explained why beyond the MC vaguely saying that its to keep intact future events. I was wondering if this would bother anyone.

I have characters in the story call out how weak this motivation is, but I did it this way on purpose to highlight both the nature of the prophets and my MC's unquestioning devotion to them.

 

[Heliotrope]

Hmmmmm... I'm not sure it's weak. I had to think about it a minute. I'm not sure of your story, but I might paint it as something like:

Prophetess is part of a mistrusted group that has earned a bad rap. In fact, the prophets are so mistrusted they are now blamed for every terrible thing that happens, and there are regular witch hunts to destroy her kind. Prophet has become synonymous with evil and they are publicly tortured and hung when they are caught (a la Braveheart).

This prophetess has managed to keep her identity secret, and her powers mostly hidden. In fact, she has done such a good job that she now has a high ranking professor in the university (akin to someone like Hypatia) is married to another highly ranked officer, and has three delightful and talented children who will will be successful in everything they do. Her life is perfect...

Except, her people are dying and she wants to help save them. She knows where the amulet is.... But if her identity is revealed then she will be executed and her children tortured and killed as well. So instead of going after it herself she finds a willing adventurer loyal to the cause and gives him abstract clues so as to hide her identity, thus saving her self and her children.

That's how I might frame it....

 

[Heliotrope]

Also, when I'm planning I typically like to brain storm at least 10 ways to "make it worse"
- a renowned prophet hunter has joined the university alumni and suspects her already
- her daughter is showing signs of having the skill, and she needs to teach her how to use it, so she can't go amulet hunting.
- she is safe housing a family of prophets in her cellar and no one can know
- she is on the verge of finding a cure for the plague and saving millions of lives, so she has to selfishly keep herself safe.

You get the idea....

 

[Penpilot]

Other than finding a strong motivation for keeping secrets, IMHO, all you have to do is to make sure you're clearly showing the reader your MC's faith in the prophets, and make sure their belief makes sense to them. Not necessarily logical sense, but spiritual sense.

I mean as long as the reader believes your MC is a reliable narrator, and you don't give any reason to think they're idiots, things will be fine. It couldn't hurt to have a few small prophecies proved to be right or at least appear to be right.

You could have the doubters explain the prophecies away as coincidence while your MC knows them to be true.

 

[Drakevarg]

Well, there's a pretty common saying that observing something inevitably alters the behavior of what you're observing. So even if these prophets know all possible futures, there might need to be a need to be deliberately vague because being specific would alter the behavior of those being given the prophecy. For example: prophetess knows exactly where the artifact is, but knows that if the MC goes straight there then events will transpire leading to their failure. If she directs the MC only broadly, then the MC's natural responses will lead to a chain of events that lead to success (like, for example, meeting someone needed to complete the quest). And simply telling the MC directly that they need that person might just complicate things (like specifically searching for them is harder than having a chance meeting at a diner, or the person might not be as cooperative to an MC directed by prophesy as they might be to a candid conversation).

Alternatively you could take the Dr. Manhattan/Kurt Vonnegut route of tautological determinism. The prophetess gives the directions she gives because those are the directions she saw herself giving. She literally can't say anything else because the future was already written that way. Personally I hate that worldview, but it's an option.

 

[ThinkerX]

Keeping track of all possible futures would be a literal mind blower. As in prophet reduced to a catatonic state.

That said, as to motivations, the old saying applies:

'The journey is more important than the destination.'

Or, prophet sends MC on quest not so much because the amulet is needed, but because the quest itself will transform the MC.

 

[Devouring Wolf]

Alternatively you could take the Dr. Manhattan/Kurt Vonnegut route of tautological determinism. The prophetess gives the directions she gives because those are the directions she saw herself giving. She literally can't say anything else because the future was already written that way. Personally I hate that worldview, but it's an option.

This is actually how prophecy is set up in my story. Prophets can see everything that has, is, and will happen but they cannot see what might have been because there are no other futures. Although I don't see it as being a limitation of free will. Its more like in the matrix where "you've already made the choice. You're here to understand why you've made it" and because I saw my future self make that choice isn't a great reason. Although if no one else has a problem with it, I could just leave it like that.

 

[Drakevarg]

My issue with that approach is that it only really works if your future vision is really coy about what it shows. Sort of like how prophesies have an annoying tendency to be just vague enough to be misinterpreted by someone trying to deliberately avert it.

The biggest example of why I find that setup so aggravating is from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. These aliens can see the future, and know for a fact that the universe will eventually end when one of them accidentally pushes the wrong button. Which makes no sense when they know, way ahead of time, that doing so is a terrible idea. But they will do it anyway when the time comes because that's just how it happens. The main character in the story even immediately asks the aliens why they don't just not press the button. But that's not an option because that's just how events are scripted to play out, despite them knowing how it happens and all events leading up to it in perfect clarity.

There is literally no way for tautological determinism to work without anyone capable of futuresight becoming a braindead moron.

 

[Mythopoet]

If it's clear to the reader that the prophetess knows everything past, present and future then it would definitely bother me. However, my question is, is it necessary for the reader to know?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Your problem as I see it is that your prophets are effectively robots. They know the future, they know every action that will bring it about, and even though some of those actions might be shitty, they can't change them. They have no free will. Better in my view to have them seeing only one perfect future and having to do all those shitty things, in the sure and certain knowledge they will lead to that future if done perfectly.

You might want to look up Andromeda and the pink girl for an understanding of how this sort of future prediction works. Sorting through lots of different possible futures to find the perfect one.

You might alternatively look at the X-files season 3 or 4, for an epp where fortune tellers were being murdered by a psycho. And his constant refrains were first that they obviously weren't very good at their jobs if they didn't know what he was going to do to them. And second that he had no idea why he was doing the terrible things he was doing. The answer provided by the only genuine psychic they found just before he was murdered was "because you're an arsehole!" And that actually makes sense.

Maybe your prophets act the way they do because it's their nature.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[FifthView]

In my story I have a race of people referred to as prophets who know everything that ever has, is, and will happen. However, because they know everything that will happen, they will frequently give false/misleading prophecies in order to create desired outcomes which has lead to many people believing they're frauds.

This is actually how prophecy is set up in my story. Prophets can see everything that has, is, and will happen but they cannot see what might have been because there are no other futures. Although I don't see it as being a limitation of free will. Its more like in the matrix where "you've already made the choice. You're here to understand why you've made it" and because I saw my future self make that choice isn't a great reason. Although if no one else has a problem with it, I could just leave it like that.

These two things in combination confuse me a little.

If the future is predetermined, "because there are no other futures," then why do they feel free enough to "give false/misleading prophecies in order to create desired outcomes."

To say that some outcomes are desired is to imply that there are other outcomes besides those; i.e., the prophets are able to make a choice concerning what will be.

I wasn't sure which weak motivation you were referencing, the prophetess' or the MC's. The prophetess is motivated to save her people, so this seems like a strong motivation; whereas, the MC's choice to blindly follow the prophetess, despite the indirect path she gives and/or general negative ideas about the prophets in the larger culture, seems a little weak. Religious fanaticism can be quite strong, but blind devotion is a lot harder to sell to third parties (the readers.)

If you meant to reference the MC's motivations, you could always give a better background to the character, make the reasons for his fanaticism....reasonable. Use those reasons to make him a sympathetic character. You could also give him reasons related to the quest itself, so rather than using "Because: fanatic. Because: she said to do it," finding that amulet and helping her to save her people has more importance to him.

If her choosing not to lead the MC directly to the amulet is what you are referencing, then I think others have already given some good ideas about how to make her choice more sensible. But again, I wonder about the "only one future" vs the "desired future" contradiction already mentioned.