oracle game notes

Last year John Harper created GHOST/ECHO, a type of bare-bones game scenario and rules that he dubbed an "oracle game". I've been interested in creating my own oracle game ever since, but have just had a few vague words floating around in my brain. It's harder to do than it seems. As John explained in a thread on the Story Games forum, part of the idea behind releasing Ghost/Echo was to see whether other people could use such a minimalist presentation to play their own games, and to see how others would interpret the material. So, as I said I've had some words floating in my brain but not really a strong unifying concept that I'm interested in creating, and I don't want to distort the oracle aspect by trying to pre-define things too much. Of course, I'm just trying to brainstorm, so I shouldn't worry about influencing others. But I think the real problem I'm having is that the elements in my mind feel too grounded already, too rooted in history and legend and mythology to be easily reinterpreted. Ironically, the first two names that I thought of using, Balthazar and Melchizedek, came to mind precisely because we know almost nothing about them. Finding other elements to go along, however, is what's proving difficult.

The first couple Magi names and the Implements are the elements that I've had in mind all this time. The rest are things I'm just tossing down for now, to see how they feel.

Magi
Balthazar
Melchizedek
Teiresias
Semiramis
Medea

Implements
Orb
Wand
Ring

Guardians
Gryphon
Catoblepas
Manticore
Basilisk
Chimera

Regalia
Chalice
Crown
Sceptre

Domains
The Forest of Cedars
The Isles
The Place of a Skull
The Valley of Fire