A prophecy features prominently in books 1 and 2 of Starships & Sorcery. The English translation (from the elvish star language of Einumín) goes like this:
“While Olkaipa reigns a thousand years,
“Rook’s wonder shines through swindled spheres.
“What was shall fall to darkest blade,
“Until from two, two rivers flow.
“At the hour of truth all shall know,
“The fount of wonder, evil slayed,
“By two rivers’ tears.”
Narratively, The Magus Gene: Awakening seems to abandon the prophecy it introduces, but The Magus Gene: Dominion leans heavily into it, and ultimately the last line of the prophecy is paid off in the climax.
As an avid reader of fantasy, I’ve read plenty of prophecies! For some reason, the Kelvin of Rud series’ prophecy really stuck in my brain:
“A roundear there shall surely be,
“Born to be strong, raised to be free,
“Fighting dragons in his youth,
“Leading armies, nothing loth,
“Ridding his country of a sore,
“Joining two, then united four,
“Until from seven there be one,
“Only then will his task be done.”
And I absolutely loved how the whole series of books paid it off! It was direct and to the point, and you could easily check off the events in time with their prediction. I was inspired to include something similar, but I wanted to avoid cliché, by today’s standards, and work in some room for interpretation: words with multiple meanings, and story beats that were misdirects. Even the subject of the prophecy, Olkaipa, didn’t understand until the very end!
Ultimately, it all makes sense to the reader, of course, but I enjoyed writing the uncertainty from the characters’ points of view.
And yes, it rhymes (I know, kind of cliché), but it also rhymes in Einumín, the elvish language it was originally written in.
So why does the prophecy trope endure? Personally, I think it’s because prophecies let readers feel both the inevitability of fate and the thrill of surprise when the details unfold differently than expected.