Book of Change

The Book of Change was a book presenting a system of divination using trigrams. It was written by the sage Hsin Fu Chan.

History
Legend told that Hsin Fu Chan discerned the trigrams from patterns in the back of a great lizard as it slept. After this inauspicious start, the trigrams were developed over time into a more sophisticated, less lizard-based method.

Usage
Use of the Book of Change was common to all levels of Shou Lung society. It was also an important aspect of the magic wielded by priests of the Way. It functioned rather like the spell fate known to shukenja, but could be used by anyone, though perhaps less reliably.

By 1357 DR, it was common for one to toss a handful of broken and whole chopsticks into a circle, and choose six from the top, producing a pattern of broken and unbroken lines. The user then consulted the Book of Change, finding two out of six possible trigrams that best matched the pattern. Each of the eleven possible combinations corresponded to a symbol and an explanation or recommendation for the future; those in the middle were more common than those at the extremes.

Backgrounds
The Book of Change is based on the I Ching, called Changes, which presents a similar system of divination using a system of hexagrams.