You could do something like "Brave New World" where the children are raised from "birth" to belong to a certain caste, unless you want to be naturally inate from birth, then just use the parallel universe thing

Well if your story / game is in the future then they could take a DNA sample when they were born and put it in a machine that could find out every single thing about them which would determine what profession is right for them or whatever.

If your story / game is in the mid evil ages they could at bith take a drop of blood as an offering to a god and who would show some sign of what ther profession or whatever would be.

A societal caste always works. I mean, if you''re looking for a device for which the characters of focus rise up and knock down the bonds that hold humanity down, might as well have the added bonus of an overtone, what with insulting society.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

Two ways to do it:
1) At birth a scanning proccess is performed on a person that predicts their future.

2) Everyone has limited powers to see through time and can see what will happen to them0

Hmm... Good ideas, folks. I just need to see how much I can twist them to my own purposes.

And in case you wanted more info on what I''m thinkin'' up-
I want the means of this knowledge to be involuntary, or at the very least something people don''t conciously try to obtain.

I''ve always pictured the setting as being more or less modern, but now that I think about it there''s really nothing that I want to happen that couldn''t apply in fantasy or sci-fi, so it could still be something else. I mean, I don''t have any planned starship fights or dragons to slay or anything.

I''m actually working on the story now! Whoo! Before it was just concept, now I''m at least outlining the important events. Problem is I''m writing too many stories at once, now. Heh...

-Arek the Absolute

I personally think it''s probably better to set your world as the people think they make their own decision and future, as if there is a personal reason behind everything they do without having a really evident "mark" thing that tells them what to do. Until one day, one man begins to ask himself, "when did I decide to be a theft; I don''t remember being poor; I don''t even remember my childhood... etc." As a director (forgot who) said once, the most common thing often creates the greatest suspense. So, here you have this pre-destination conflict going on.

If you have ever seen the movie, Dark City, you will know what I mean.