The Oracle
The Oracle | |
|---|---|
| Aj Chilan | |
Head Oracle of the Serpent Gate Temple | |
| Assumed office 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Personal details | |
| Known for | Fouding the Hands of Thunder and leading them thourough the Tikalese Civil War before disbanding them after he established the Serpent Gate Temple of Tikal. First Oracle of the Jade Wellspring School of White Path. |
Aj Chilan, more often known as The Oracle, is the current anonymous leader of the Serpent Gate Temple of Tikal and the founder of the White Path "School of the Jade Wellspring" adopted by the temple. Beforehand, he was the spiritual leader and figurehead of the Hands of Thunder movement which he officially founded in 2015 and led until the end of the Tikalese Civil War in 2019 and its dissolution the same year.
Little is known about the Oracle's past. Is name remain an undisclosed secret, seemingly to even his closest partisans, and no official record or statement has come to give any precision on his past or shed a light on his origins. On the contrary, the Serpent Gate's communication department has officially declared in a press communique that "(The Temple) wish for (The Oracle)'s identity to remain a secret [...] for the Messengers must not become a distraction and people need to continue to care only about what matters: the message".
The Oracle's public appearance is that of as an average-sized man wearing only a grey frieze and a veil. Today, he rarely leave the Serpent Gate Temple from which he hold daily lessons for his Disciples and the Temple's initiates, as well as weekly free lessons open to all Tikaleses. The Oracle's influence on the island's religious landscape: before his apparition (in the 202 census), only 5% of the population affiliated itself with the White Path. After the civil-war, it's estimated that more than half of Tikal can now be considered to be White Pilgrims. His influence is especially visible on Tikal's Chan community.
Unofficial estimates have placed the Oracle as the wealthiest man in Tikal, owning to large investments in real estate in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War through a dense network of screen companies and intermediaries, involving properties seized by the State or by Hands of Thunder militias, as well as the desesperate sells made by Tikalo-Hiberians whom emmigrated from the island to escape the chaos that followed the fall of the Junta. As a result, most of the finances of the Serpent Gate Temple is supposed to come not only from donations, but also from the redistribution and resale of these properties, as well as the renting of office spaces to the enterprises who returned to Tikal after the end of the violences. So far, the Serpent Gate Temple and its Oracle refuses to make any public statement about the status of their finances.