Divination

A Divine Energy Spring created from interacting with a Divine Wisp.

This page acts as a source of information on Divination as it applies to World 42 roleplaying characters. Because lore on Divination is limited, much of what is known is speculated. Please feel free to add missing information. If new lore is to be stated or part of this thread is incorrect, please put an explanation for it in the discussion thread below.

Brief History

After the death of Guthix heralded the beginning of the Sixth Age, wisps of divine residue appeared around the world near rifts that scarred Gielinor's surface. Humans began to experiment with the wisps, finding that they could use "divine memories" siphoned from them to repair the rifts by infinitesimal amounts. They also found that doing so created a resource called "divine energy" that could be weaved into tools, boons, nodes of resources, and a wealth of other uses. As this craft was established, so it was that humans pioneered the art of divination.

Basic Concept

Divine wisps are created out of the combination of divine memories, which are remains of Guthix's life force, and divine energies, which are remains of the Edicts of Guthix. The divine rifts are caused by tears in the Anima Mundi, though diviners are still speculating as to why the tears formed. They claim that it was either caused by the imbalance created by Guthix's death or by the other gods physically wounding the world in the Battle of Lumbridge. The wisps gather around these rifts because of their close tie with the Anima Mundi. Divination is basically the act of harvesting divine memories and energy from wisps and using it to aid in crafts of various levels of difficulty; absorbing and storing these memories and energies inside the diviner's body. Memories can be sent into the rifts to slightly repair them and gain more divine energy in return. Energy can be used for all sorts of things, including portents and divine locations.

Like with most skills, there is a wide range of divine wisp varieties that produce corresponding memories and energy. A site can produce divination resources that are weak and pale; these sorts are often easy to siphon and manipulate even for beginners, but the energy is not powerful enough to weave into anything that is particularly substantial. Conversely, different sites can produce resources that are tenaciously energetic and radiantly bright; the brightest wisps usually correspond with resources that are the most impossibly, and frustratingly difficult to get control of or to weave into anything useful, but once mastered be used to create items of astonishing power, like portents that can restore life itself to a possessor.

Uses

This section examines some of the tools and resources that can be created by a diviner weaving divine energy. The exact limitations of divine energy, within reason, is only set by the player's creativity. However, this section is provided as a basic introduction to how in-game uses for divine energy might be adapted for the context of roleplaying. Note that some of these uses are purely speculative and recognizing them as valid imaginings of the skill is up to each individual player.

• Transmutation - This involves the conversion of a set of materials into a denser or higher quality set of materials. The materials capable of being transmuted include, but may not be limited to, metals, gemstones, wood, summoning charms, and even fish. For example, silver may be transmuted into gold.
• Sign of the Porter - In game, this is used to send materials directly to the player's bank. In roleplay, this can be imagined as sending objects to any desired location. Some players choose to balance this tool by requiring that the sign itself must be made to send objects to a specific place. More powerful signs can send more objects. There may also be a connection between the value of the item or the mass of the item and the strength of the sign required to transport it.
• Portent/Sign of Life - This is used to save a person from the edge of death by healing them enough to keep him or her alive. Note that such items do not heal the dying victims completely and they must still recover from most of their damage the natural way. These items are obscenely difficult to create and require very costly resources - diamond rings - as elements in the weave.
• Portent of Restoration - This is used to heal a physical wound. These vary in power and the ability of each portent to heal scales directly with the power and rarity of the ingredients used to create that portent. These usually require some sort of food or health-giving secondary ingredient to create. These cannot restore their victims from death.
• Portent of Passage - This can be used to aid in traversing obstructed paths. These require no materials besides divine energy. However, they do not clear the way on their own - only enhance the skills of their wielders. A portent used on a locked door with enhance the wielder's pickpocketing ability, or used on a holy barrier will enhance the user's sanctity until the way is traversed. These are perhaps the most flexible portents, as far as possible uses.
  • Sealing Passages - It has been observed in dungeoneering that wisps can be used to seal doorways, and only those with sufficient skill at channeling wisp energy can siphon the wisp away and unlock said passageways.
• Portent of Degradation - This is used to steal life from an enemy, damaging the victim and healing the user. Since this portent requires elder energy to create along with a form of food, only those with access to Freneskae, and proper method to get the energy, can create them.
• Divine Locations - These allow a diviner to store raw materials into a small space where they will multiply within the weave. The diviner can then drop the resource in a different area where the resources can be re-harvested, often at high gains. These locations recreate natural occurrences of resources, and therefore must resemble them or something like them. They usually require a large quantity of raw materials. The location appearance depends on the resource. Locations range from divine trees to divine ore deposits. Live fish can be transported with these. It is unclear whether or not other living things can be safely transported this way or not.
• Divine Traps - These are simple traps that can be used in hunting, though they are far more portable than ordinary traps.
• Divine Objects - In roleplay, divine energy can be directly woven into solid objects or even objects made of solidified divine energy, which can be interpreted to have many different effects depending on the player and the scenario, though it usually relates to things like stability, durability, or quality. Objects completely made of divine energy are fragile, and often have limited effects. Some portray objects enhanced or created this way as having a sparkling quality. These objects can range to a variety of things, though the larger the object, the greater the quantity of energy required. It is advised that diviners handling especially rare or valuable objects, such as a rune sword, not waste the opportunity with weak or easy-to-manipulate energy.
• Animation - The Armadyleans and Bandosians used the anima in divine energy to bring to life impressive war machines; the brutal golems that both sides sent into battle. While the constructs were not truly alive, like other golems, they were still impressive weapons in their own right.
• Other - Divine energy is made out of anima, which is contained in the life force of every being. The possibilities with divine energy are endless, and it is often left to the diviner on how to use this energy; limited only by their imagination and skill to create almost anything (within reason, of course).

It isn't entirely outside the realm of lore to create new types of portents, signs, or other forms of divine objects, though their abilities wouldn't stray too far from what has been listed here.

Accepted Lore

This section includes lore that is either evidenced indisputably within the live game, has been confirmed by a JaGex Mod or developer, or is universally accepted within the public world 42 roleplaying community.

• The act of transmutation with divine energy requires a balance of materials, as demonstrated by the in-game requirements. Three sets of iron ore create one silver ore, three sardines create one trout, and so on. Larger or more valuable materials require more divine energy, greater quantities of input resources, higher levels of skill, and possibly more willpower to transmute. This means that an act such as transmuting adamantite ore into runite ore is extremely difficult and costly (though perhaps profitable in the long run).
• Repairing divine rifts with divine memories is the best way to convert memories into energy and practice controlling divine resources.
• Divine wisps are tangible, and can be "kept" by holding them inside a magical field, as shown in the divination camp. Touching a wisp creates a spring, which is a separation of divine memories and divine energy.
• Divine energy is vaguely described as a tangible substance by the head diviner of Armadyl. It is described as like a "magic matter."
• The act of divining can be performed without sight by using a "sixth sense." This sense is used by more experienced diviners since it allows a deeper connection with divine energy. This is sense capable of replacing sight.
• The Wushanko Isles have their own form of divination which uses balanced positive and negative anima harvested from dead moai. Like divine energy, the anima can be used to transmute matter and power machinery.

Debated Lore

This section contains lore on divination that is up to debate. It may be information that is suggested by evidence in-game but not confirmed, information that is concretely evidenced in-game but dismissed by a large part of the community, or information that is completely speculative but is rational and does not contradict anything in-game. As a result, the contents of this section are subject to change if new, contradictory content is released into the game or announced by JaGex.

• Divine memories are kept within a person's physical being. This idea is based on how the animation appears when depositing them. The effects that this may have are unknown, though this could possibly cause the sixth sense mentioned in the previous section.
  • Whether or not the divine energy is also stored this way is unclear, since the animation shows the energy entering the player's hand.
  • Some players speculate that it is held within the body and can become tangible at will. Others speculate that divine energy manifests as a physical object that can be carried around, possibly as a unique type of matter that is substantial but can compress or expand like a gas as needed.
• Touching a divine wisp creates a divine spring. Some players imagine that the spring is the forms created as a partial separation of divine memories from divine energy, both of which can be "willed" or "siphoned" towards a person and harvested.
• The diviners' sixth senses mentioned in the previous section is interpreted by some as sensing the world around them, allowing the diviner to feel the area around them and witness exactly how energy is moving around in the environment in great detail. This sense may be better than sight; the blindfolded diviners were not confirmed physically blind, meaning that either they prefer this sense over sight or they blindfold themselves while practicing to give more brainpower to the sixth sense. This sense may also be difficult to use for less experienced diviners, as not all diviners wear blindfolds.
• Since divine energy can be converted to a tangible substance, it can be assumed that divine energy can be shaped into solid forms aside from divine objects. That said, this may not be especially practical.
• Portents appear to be solid objects, much like teletabs. Signs on the other hand are different from portents, as in-game they must be equipped to be used. Because of this, it can be assumed that they can be stored in one's being much like a memory can. Both signs and portents must be on the user's person in order to work. Divine locations appear to be stored as a tangible energy ball based on how the animation drops it onto the ground.
• Elder energy is the only energy known that cannot be seen without the measure. There are probably other method into gaining the energy, such as killing Muspah or Nihil, with proper knowledge to kill one.
  • That being said it is unlikely that the "sixth sense" would be able to even help locate, and bring out the wisp.
  • it is extremely difficult gaining these type of resources as it would require knowledge of the World Gate, how to use it and the means to survive the harsh environment of Freneskae.

Common Mistakes

This section addresses misconceptions that players have about divination and diviners.

• Divine energy is rarely used for combat since a massive amount of divine energy would be needed to create a weapon like the Scarecrow or the Divine Focus. To put it into perspective, hundreds of Armadyleans and Bandosians had to collect large loads divine energy across Gielinor  in order to power each of their divine energy weapons, which only had a single shot. While it isn't particularly effective as a weapon, it could still be used to empower a person in combat to a degree. For example, some roleplayers use portents that empower spells for a limited time (about five minutes).
• Divine transmutation is not an easy way to get rune equipment. For instance, say you had 60lbs of Iron that you want to convert to runite. Based on the in-game conversion rate of ore, you would have to transmute it into 20lbs of coal, which you would then have to transmute to 6.67lbs of mithril, then 2.22lbs of adamant, then finally you would get 0.37lbs of runite. Standard medieval swords typically weighed around 3lbs if well-made; to transmute this much runite ore would require almost 500lbs of iron or 160lbs of coal. It would also take an exceedingly skilled weaver to transmute a material as delicate and valuable as adamantite properly. The amount of transmutation necessary would also require a lot of time, willpower, and divine energy to create. It certainly is not an efficient or easy process.
  • Additionally, directly transmuting a piece of iron equipment into anything would warp or shrink it, eventually to the point of being unusable.
  • Though this process is very expensive and energy-consuming, it may still be a viable or worthwhile undertaking for someone who genuinely desires mithril/adamant/rune material and does not have the resources to obtain it normally (which is exceedingly difficult in its own way).
• Divination was a relatively new art, and very few true masters of it besides the Adventurer existed. As of now, it is unknown