BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD Like what you see? Become the Master of your own Universe!

Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild

The blind seer

This dwarven trope is used to explain why those born blind at birth that have a birthmark, and as such a spark, are always sent to be seers. While there are a few tales that specifically focus on blind seers, they are typically background characters. What is far more common however, is tales involving false prophesies given by seers that are not blind, followed by the characters who believed the prophecy being shows to be fools for following the false prophecy.

Summary

It is quite a simple trope really. Those that cannot see are given/develop an ability to see ahead, and as such can help the main characters of many a story. The justification for non-blind dwarves not being able to is simply that they are far too distracted by the present, or that they have not been given the gift by the gods. The specifics change from telling to telling and from community to community.

Historical Basis

Dwarves who are born with most things that would give them very diminished sight tend to just be blind, due to the quite delicate nature of their eyes, so more born blind dwarves are totally blind. They are also slighly more likely to inherit a spark, and that spark does tend to point toward divination. It is however not a total thing, an there are a couple seeing dwarves with the gift of sight, it is simply surpressed.

Cultural Reception

All blind dwarves with a spark are sent to train as seers, and no dwarven community of seers will accept a seeing dwarf, with any amount of sight. Those without a spark are still sent to the community, but as servants. This leads to a certain kind of segregation and otherness, that while giving blind dwarves a certain amount of power and status, ensures that they will never truly integrate into wider dwarven communities, a quite challenging predicament for them. It does at least give them more of a community and structure than most born blind humanoids get.

Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!