#oracle!ravus

[stephicness]

Hey, I'm sorry you might have been asked and answered this before but, do you think Ravus had the Oracle's abilities as well ?

Oh, don’t apologize at all! C: I never explicitly answered this question before, I don’t think, but I did discuss it over HERE in regards to why the Ring of Lucii spared Ravus. It talks about Ravus being the last of the Oracle line, that sort of thing in it~

But to me? I think he did have some sort of hints of Oracle power in him. I mean, Ravus was enough of a threat, potentially as Oracle, for Ardyn to kill him too, right? He could have just let Ravus wander and let Ravus’s internal injuries kill the high commander. Because let’s be real: Noctis survived that fall on pure fate. Ravus probably survived it by either his MT arm or his oracle abilities healing him enough to move along. The idea of another Oracle wandering around, potentially going to be there to try stopping Ardyn and the prophecy? Ardyn had to stop Ravus because Ravus was going to be a threat. Just like how he killed Lunafreya, Luna was going to try helping him and aid in stopping him. So he killed her and gave Noctis a reason to want Ardyn dead.

Why not do that with Ravus as well? Push Noctis even further by killing a man who didn’t deserve his fate at all, and then punishing Ravus and Noctis by turning Ravus into a monster?

By defiling the very thing that would help protect the world from the Starscourge and eternal night? The Oracle.

And if you think about it too: the Oracle has the ability to heal the affects of the Starscourge and of daemons, right? Throughout the game, we never see Ravus fight with his arm, much less use it for anything except to choke out punk-ass fiances, caress sister hands, and do the angsty emo fist clench. Typically with prosthetics, it can bring alot of physical strain and probably really wears Ravus down. It’s probably why we never really see it leave his side unless he’s gotta use it (mostly to comfort Lunafreya. Natural reactions and feelings, etc).

So after Lunafreya’s death, when he actually had a reason to use his oracle powers (or perhaps when the powers were relinquished to him), we start seeing him use his arm slightly more. To secure a grip on Regis’s sword, to give the sword to Noctis/Ardyn, to block a goddamn necromancer with his metal arm i mean how cool is that that’s crazy cool…! So perhaps he healed himself just enough to allow himself to fight: to combat Ardyn and find a way to get the sword back to Noctis and help him finally stop the Starscourge once and for all.

So yes, I do think that Ravus had the oracle abilities as well. Perhaps it wasn’t too apparent, or perhaps he didn’t need to rely on them, but I have a feeling he did have some sort of essence of the power to him – whether he knew it or not. c:

[grimbunnoir]

I’m surprised I haven’t seen Ravus and Luna swap roles. What if the Fleuret siblings swapped places? And here we are (Luna took years to draw though--)

[stephicness]

The barbecue anon thanks you for your reply. Your thoughts about the subject are very interesting. So, I naturally had an another question... If Ravus is the second Oracle in the story, then, would he possess the power to make covenants too? Even if Luna is still alive? Or maybe have some healing powers, or at least, the potential since he "sided" with Niflheim.

I feel like he would have, but perhaps not quite unlocked yet. I feel like when a person would become the Oracle, they’d basically have to swear into it with the Astrals after going through the training and oaths for it. Kinda like in that concept art of Lunafreya holding the trident or something and going through the oracle ceremony. She was the Oracle before that, but not with all of the fancy duds and things.

Ravus probably before hand did have the powers he could use, just not to the extent that Lunafreya had, I think. Maybe he did though! I mean, he held onto Lunafreya’s hand and despite not having all of the light, he ‘metaphorically’ healed her with the will to keep going for Noctis’s sake. I would say Ravus probably could commune with the gods too, though he never had a reason to. I mean, the gods screwed over his sister with the job of Oracle, so he’d probably want as little to do with the gods and with magic as possible. I’d be pretty pissed about it too, especially after all of the stuff the oracle had to be put through. Didn’t really need to make a covenant pact either, considering that Lunafreya already did so with all the possible astrals (because Bahamut just sort of does his own thing anyways).

Ravus probably does have the powers of an Oracle to an extent, but I feel like even if he did (with the astrals unlocking his potential or not), he would refuse to use his abilities. Kinda like in his Versus universe concept, I imagined him hating his powers, thus he suppressed them. The visions, the healing, everything. Because why help the gods after they basically condemned his sister to a tragic end? It would only bring him more pain, knowing he’d be using the same powers and abilities that were killing his sister so freely, so I feel like he wouldn’t showcase them.

[stephicness]

I'd been meaning to write about an Oracle!Ravus (I have a design of him and a High Commander!Lunafreya), but haven't really had the chance to. Or have had any ideas, either. If at all anything, I need to write out how the two might differ from their main selves (see, an Oracle!Ravus might be nicer than a main!Ravus, and a High Commander!Luna might be a lot more salty)

Yes! I remember seeing your designs for Oracle!Ravus and High Commander!Luna before. c: They were really awesome designs (Link back over HERE), and part of the reason why I pondered on the idea of Oracle!Ravus. That, and there’s a few depictions and ideas for an Oracle!Ravus, but never a legitimate writing for it, I don’t think. I think it’d be really awesome if you, me, or someone in general writes about it. c:

I mean, perhaps I can give you a few ideas if you want to write about it exclusively and stuff? Like, what if Ravus wasn’t exactly the good guy during the scenario? The Oracle helps the king, yes, but Lunafreya, an ex-general of Niflheim (who keeps her arm, because she doesn’t seem as dumb as Ravus was if she were a general), decides that Noctis’s safety was more important and pleads Ravus to help her protect him. But Ravus still doesn’t like the idea that his sister’s going to be wed to Noctis for the sake of bringing peace to Niflheim and Lucis, so he rejects the idea of helping him.

Stuff goes down, Ravus has the ring and, despite his reluctance, goes to help Noctis make his covenants with the gods, but finds out that it’s more strenuous on him than he thought. Insert switched up scene of Luna and Ravus here, but Ravus persists to make the covenant with Leviathan. Perhaps this is where the plot changes though, since Ravus is a tough man who knows Niflheim’s game.

Ravus encounters Ardyn during Noctis’s fight with Leviathan, but Ardyn discovered Lunafreya was aiding Noctis and decided to use her against him. He barters with Ravus: the general for the ring. But Luna refuses to let Ravus sacrifice the fate of Eos for her life. So she ends up sacrificing herself and being killed by Ardyn during the Battle of Altissia, Ravus gives the ring to Noctis, but ultimately loses his arm to Ardyn and is supposedly ‘dead.’

Heck, maybe the scenario changes here (because give that man more screentime!) It’s discovered that Ravus is alive, taken into Niflheim custody. The infuse him with the Magitek arm at this point just before Ardyn allows the daemons to ravage Gralea (because a daemon infused Oracle means that the night has a bit more of a hold just as it would if the Oracle was dead maybe?). Ravus is let free, forced to fight his way to safety before he runs into Noctis. The two fight through, Ravus being the guy to tell Noctis that he needs to keep fighting, what his duty is, perhaps making him promise to not let Lunafreya’s death go to waste. Good measures, for it was just what Ardyn wanted Ravus to do.

That Magitek arm? It starts turning Ravus the more he uses it until finally, when they think they’re safe, Ravus turns into the monster that you see in Chapter 13, showing the others that the Oracle could only do so much to avoid his fate. And thus, the boss fight goes here and the events of the game, but perhaps Ravus even regaining himself after purifying part of his daemon self to get Noctis and the others to the Crystal to complete his duty. The plot probably continue until Ravus and Luna helps Noctis purge the daemons in the Astral realm and they can go into the afterlife.

Or hey! Maybe an alternative scenario of Ravus never really recovering his arm until he removes the Magitek arm and cleanses himself a bit with Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto. He’s there for the ten years Noctis is away, in hiding from Ardyn and apologetic for being unable to fulfill his duty to keep the Starscourge at bay. He acts as a healer, but there’s only so much he could do anymore, which brings him a great deal of grief. Maybe he gets another arm, non-magitek from Cid and Cindy too? One that functions without the aid of daemons?

Pardon my ranting about this – I’m just tossing ideas about. The idea of a Fateswap AU with an Oracle Ravus though would definitely be an interesting scenario, wouldn’t you agree? c:

[stephicness]

That would definitely be interesting if Ravus was an Oracle (it wouldn't be good for Noctis or Insomnia though, but Ardyn would be pretty glad about it probably). AU aside, aren't Oracles always female? Also, there's supposed to be both King and Oracle like Luna's mother and Regis, but if Luna and Noctis had a kid - who woud be an Oracle after Luna? Or if the child was an Oracle, who would be the King? Ravus doesn't have kids, idk if he and Luna have other relatives.

I see alot of Ravus as Oracle headcanons and thoughts, and I can totally get behind the idea of this headcanon! It was mentioned, after all, during the developmental stages of the game that Ravus was the oracle, I think. Or at the very least, he had an ability to see the future and premonitions to the point where he had a visor over his eyes to hide them and prevent his powers from overwhelming him. That’s what I processed from the information. So I don’t think it’d be entirely unheard of for Ravus to have potentially been a candidate for Oracle.

But as you mentioned, oracles are technically female as far as we know. The first Oracle was female, it was suggested that Queen Sylva was oracle too, I believe, and then Lunafreya became oracle. But what if the direct linage of the oracle resulted in a generation of all boys? What happens with that? Does the Oracle have to stay alive until another female is born? I think that’d be really weird if they suddenly went ‘Your sister’s daughter is a girl. Make her oracle instead!’ But that’d be a really weird power struggle between the Fleuret family, even more so than it probably already was. 

Imagine the political drama: The two children of the Oracle at the time, but one was deemed Oracle because of their stronger connection to the gods. But despite their power and capabilities, you come to find out that the Oracle is sterile or infertile. They aren’t able to give birth to any sort of kids, despite being the stronger Oracle. The other sibling knows this, so they do everything they could to make sure that their children in the future becomes the next Oracle and, in a sense, the next ruler of Tenebrae. So what do you know? Jealous sibling finds a way to assassinate the Oracle and get the gods to pick another Fleuret most attuned with the gods. I feel like the person with the strongest affinity to the gods will become oracle afterwards. And since the Fleurets are bred to be the closest to the gods, then it’s almost always gonna be a Fleuret, I imagine.

But I digress. Rambling about the potential political struggle of Fleurets!

Back to the topic of Ravus being an Oracle and the fate of the Oracles, I believe it is possible for an oracle to be a man. Nothing ever really said anything about it, you know? I mean, I feel like the Oracle will most like be female more often than male due to genetics and hereditary traits and stuff (Punnett squares, whoop!), but there’s a possibly chance of an Oracle being a male. Iimagine a cute and really pleasant thought the assumption, way back when, that the oracles have to all be female. But the Oracle, instead, gave birth to a son who was prophecized to be the next oracle. Everyone sort of went all ‘What? Your boy’s the Oracle?’ The awkward moment of the Oracle going to Lucis to converse with the king about what the gods were up to, only to have the king squint suspiciously because nobody’s ever heard of a male oracle.

The oracle just has to shrug as he scratches his cheek. ‘Do you want to hear what the gods have to say or not…?’

Or what if there was, perhaps, a transgender Oracle? Born a male, but suddenly picked as an Oracle, which is surprising, but they felt that they should have been born a female. The gods acknowledged that because they always had to pick a female oracle? Or what if they decided to pick a female, who wanted to become a male? If the gods knew about this too, then people would surely be surprised if and when it happened. Cute thought thought of all sorts of diverse and unique oracles over the two thousand years.

BUT I DIGRESS AGAIN. Let’s go back to the idea of Noctis and Lunafreya living and Ravus doing his thing. I imagine that if Lunafreya and Noctis did have a kid, they’d probably be both. Most of the Fleurets, it seems, perished during Niflheim’s attack. Even then, the family seemed rather small on its own. Unless Ravus has a minion child worthy enough to be picked in place of one of Lunafreya’s children, then I doubt the gods will really pass up the chance to pick the True King and the Oracle’s tiny child, male or female. The Fleuret line is small, so they’re going to pick the most powerful and closest to the gods regardless, so why not pick the king, even if he has his own duties?

Unless they decide to pick someone completely new from the Fleuret line, but that’s a whole different concept, I imagine. But not a possibility that can be overlooked either. Say the gods decide that with the conflicts of Oracle versus king, they decide to pick a new family line that can thrive as Oracle. It would be douchey, but still possible to keep a sense of balance for the world. The Astrals just have to pray that Luna and Noctis have another kid or they have to pick someone else, Fleuret or not.

Rambling Steph is rambling, but I feel like there’s alot you can speculate about the Oracles. c: Whether it’s an AU of Oracle!Ravus, the historic characters who could have been oracle, or the future of the Oracle linage. All sorts of speculations!

Too bad they all died though. Probably won’t be an oracle for a really long time. Oops.