The Synodiporia Psychic Network

So out of curiosity, and given that communication in general is a big issue here, I asked my Familiar why Questing Country's communication rules are what they are. According to Sagittarius, telling Champions things directly decreases their sense of their own power to find out and increases their knowledge, which could tip them too far towards becoming Oracles. Familiars can only be understood by their own Oracles because speaking plainly where anyone can hear risks leaving Questing Country full of people who understand its problems but don't have the necessary leverage to solve them, presumably because they're all Oracles now.

They've apparently tried explaining this to Dreamers at the outset before despite the slight risk of them Knowing Too Much, but it mostly didn't work, because being essentially told "you'll understand it when you're older" was just too difficult for new Dreamers to accept. So now they don't bother.

Doppelgangers, incidentally, aren't a voluntary thing - they're an unanticipated side effect, like Adversaries themselves. Spirit Companions do their best to try to relate to their Adversaries and put a brake on any damage they might do, but that's an adaptation - they're not creating the situation.

Speaking of Adversaries and Pillars, they were both as unexpected and misunderstood as Harbingers, albeit in different ways - for one thing, Pillars were never treated like villains. The Spirit Companions don't know why they started happening, and it took them quite a while to accept that they were a normal part of a Dreamer's psychological evolution under certain circumstances. They still don't really get it, but they've learned to live with it and trust their Dreamers even when they Pillar or rebel. Which, incidentally, indicates that a Pillar's Spirit Companion does actually still exist, although Sagittarius clammed up real fast when I asked her more about that.

Backstage did change when Adversaries and Pillars came into being, by the way, but Sagittarius doubts there are any Spirit Companions who have any continuity of memory of the details, since there are very few Dreamers who actually remain Dreamers long past maturity and it's been well over a thousand years since Adversaries first showed up.

Speaking of Backstage, she said everything that happens there has second- and third- order effects. It's the place where signficance comes from, and people typically aren't allowed back there because even Oracles only see and comprehend within their Aspects, which means they can't be sure of avoiding serious unforeseen disruptions. And since Champions have Power but not Understanding, what they do there could be potentially catastrophic. Adversaries are also a worry, for similar reasons. Pillars are the only exception, because they're not inclined to initiate changes. Oracles they also don't worry about too much despite our limited viewpoints being an issue, because most Oracles don't have the power to back any changes they want to make up.