Real Name: Sehv

Identity/Class: Inter-dimensional device/being, magic user

Occupation: Oracle, answerer of questions

Affiliations: Unnamed tribes of amorous amazons that populate the Oracle's dimension, Nightcrawler

Enemies: None known, the Vanisher might have eventually caused her some trouble if he had remained in her dimension for long enough

Known Relatives: None known

Aliases: None known

Base of Operations: A weird cave in the Dimension of Warrior Women marked by a sign reading "ORACLE"

First Appearance: Bizarre Adventures#27/3 (July, 1981) "Show Me the Way to Go Home"

Powers: Sehv has displayed few if any powers of note but appears to have an in-depth knowledge of the functioning of the portal which connects her world to any number of other dimensions.  Presumably, Sehv possesses some or all of the traits traditionally associated with oracles: reading omens, making prophecies, clairvoyance, precognition, and so on.  Sehv also hinted that she can use magic, good-naturedly threatening Nightcrawler that if he gave her any trouble she would put such a curse on him he'd wish he had never been born.  One could guess this might be the comic-pratfall, bad luck type of curse that plagues cartoon characters and the stars of sitcoms.

History: (BTS) Little to nothing is known of Sehv the Oracle before Nightcrawler of the X-Men met her.  Sehv is presumably native to the dimension/world where Nightcrawler met her.  This world has the characteristics of possessing no native male inhabitants, weird noises constantly resounding through the air, and serving as a sort of dimensional junk pile where refuse from other worlds gets dumped out.  The amazons government is "a rotating theocratic monarchy with a high turnover rate in figureheads."

(Bizarre Adventures#27/3 - BTS) - After a recent battle with the now defunct Champions of Los Angeles, the mutant criminal known as Vanisher attempted to escape using his teleportation power only to be caught "halfway" by the mysterious Darkforce powers of the mutant heroine Darkstar.

(Bizarre Adventures#27/3) - The X-Men spend an uneventful afternoon while watching Nightcrawler's favorite Zorro movie on TV.  Vanisher's partial presence/reemergence in Poughkepsie, NY sets off Cerebro's mutant detection alert in an unprecedented way.  Responding to the unfamiliar sounding alert from Cerebro, Nightcrawler and the other X-Men determine the location of "half" a mutant and proceed to investigate.

Arriving at the scene of Vanisher's partial reappearance in Poughkeepsie, NY, the X-Men are uncertain as to what to do.  Curious, Nightcrawler approaches Vanisher, reaching out towards the evil mutant.  Cyclops warns him not to touch Vanisher a moment too late.  The Darkforce energies trapping Vanisher in mid-teleport interact with the X-Man's powers in an unpredicted fashion, causing an explosive "BAMF!" accompanied by a huge burst of the usual smoke and brimstone associated with Nightcrawler's powers to rise above the city. (Or as the caption box puts it, "Take two mutants who are teleporters, add a low-density energy field of unknown origin, and... *BAMF!*")

Nightcrawler and Vanisher are flung through a shimmering nexus of realities and confronted by multiple other-dimensional versions of themselves.  When they finally land, each of them is dumped in a separate part of the Oracle's dimension.  Both Nightcrawler and Vanisher are each approached by a group of amazons shortly after their arrival and asked if they might be interested in a position as a god or a king or something.  The group propositioning Nightcrawler find him attractive, whereas the group finding Vanisher think him a trifle small for a god, but beggars can't be choosers.  Vanisher tries to frighten the amazons with his ability to manipulate the Darkforce energies stuck to him, but he comically fails.

Nightcrawler sits around having a few drinks with the amazons,  they tell him a little about their world (presumably after a little *cough* recreational activity or I just won't have the same respect for Nightcrawler), and upon hearing they have their own oracle Nightcrawler expresses an interest in meeting her.  On approaching the cave marked "ORACLE" Nightcrawler gets cold feet about just barging in as even a temporary god has to have some manners.  The amazons assure him that the oracle loves an audience, and upon seeing the alien looking TV set Nightcrawler understands why.

Nightcrawler explains his troubles (his troubles being trapped in a strange dimension and unable to teleport) to Sehv, and the oracle fills him in on a few things.  Apparently located a few miles from her cave, there is a crater known as the Well at the Center of Time, which exists in every reality.  This well sucks all sorts of junk out of various dimensional warps and dumps said junk into her dimension.  If Nightcrawler hops into the crater he's home free - - with the proviso that he leaves with everything he arrived with and doesn't try to take anything extra back to Earth with him (all the heaps of gold and jewels laying around the amazons' pad I'm guessing).  This, of course, means that Nightcrawler has to find Vanisher and bring him back to Earth, also.  The oracle warns Nightcrawler to watch his back until he's safely home.

Nightcrawler tracks Vanisher down to the other amazon group's cave and tries to get Vanisher to come back to Earth with him.  Vanisher tries to resist, and in a short one-sided swordfight Nightcrawler handily humiliates the evil mutant.  Vanisher hurls a cauldron full of boiling broth at Nightcrawler and then makes a run for it, ignoring the amazons warning that it isn't safe to go out at night.  Nightcrawler tackles Vanisher and puts him in an arm lock, forcing him to go to the crater.  The gathered amazons are rather cavalier about the loss of their new god and encourage both of them to come back sometime if they don't get killed.  As the pair approach the Well at the Center of Time, Vanisher gets the bright idea to use the Darkforce against Nightcrawler, seizing him in a huge dark fist.  Of course, his will power isn't strong enough and he drops the X-Man a moment later.  After a few more Darkforce hijinks, Nightcrawler and Vanisher are sprung upon by The Ooga Beast--a gigantic wall-eyed monster (the source of at least some of the strange noises in this even stranger dimension)--and, taking their only chance, the two of them jump into the crater.

The dimensional warp dumps the two mutants out both where and when they first disappeared (with no or little intervening loss of time) just as they left it except that poor Vanisher is now naked, the darkforce adhering to him all used up on the return trip.  Vanisher quickly teleports away, and Nightcrawler shortly thereafter does the same, glad to have his special power back.

(Nightcrawler I#4) - After a recent series of misadventures due to tampering with the Well at the Center of Time, Kurt ends up back in the Dimension of Warrior Women.  Recognizing Sehv's home (The big "Oracle" sign didn't hurt!), Kurt went to her for help.  Although she had to break away from the television show "Bowling for Dollars," she was more than happy to help him.  She explains that he still has some of the Darkforce energy in him, and he had unconsciously willed himself back to her realm.  After understanding that he's in control of the transportations, it's as easy as three clicks of the heels and a few "There's no place like home"s, and Kurt's back in the X-Mansion.  As he leaves the dimension, Kurt asks if there is any way he could repay her; Sehv asks for a big screen TV.

Comments: Created by Mary Jo Duffy, Bob Layton & Dave Cockrum

    A comedic tale done largely for laughs, this story is a far cry from the recent angst-filled appearances of both Nightcrawler and Vanisher over in the current X-Mags.

    Whether Sehv is a grandmotherly woman that does her knitting and answers questions while being viewed on a pseudo-TV device or whether Sehv IS the pseudo-TV device and chose to appear on the screen as an old woman (as one of an infinite number of images to choose from) is uncertain.  I personally prefer to think Sehv IS the TV.

    One of the most interesting moments in the entire adventure is when Nightcrawler and Vanisher are hurling through the portal and glimpse variant forms of themselves from other dimensions. Among those variant forms seen are: "hobbit" Nightcrawler and Vanisher (identical to the originals except they have overlarge hairy feet and I think they are drawn as smaller in stature (Earth-72781) ), "cartoon animal" or possibly "duckworld" Nightcrawler and Vanisher (Nightcrawler is a heroic super-duck and Vanisher is a rat, appropriately enough), "crystalline insect" Nightcrawler and Vanisher (abstract non-humanoid, articulated forms (Earth-27781) ), and female Nightcrawler and Vanisher (about what you would expect - - shapely chick Nightcrawler, she-Vanisher is still bald and hella-ugly to boot (Earth-81723) ).

    Other dimensions pictured in this issue are seen while Sehv gives her discourse upon the crater known as the Well at the Center of Time: an earth normal looking dimension complete with a business walking down the street, an undersea world with a bubble city and pseudo-human merman and merwomen inhabitants, a space dimension with two starships amid explosions, an dimension with avian humanoids sporting bird-like heads and wings living on a floating island, and a gang of war-like beings with skull-like faces and tentacle-like limbs, carrying rifles and backed up by flying saucers.  Are any of these worlds cameos of dimensions or settings for stories that have appeared elsewhere in the Marvel Universe?  The spaceship looks awfully familiar.  Let me know. - - Greg O.

• Sehv's realm is identified as the Dimension of Warrior Women in the OHotMU Deluxe Edition Appendix to Other Dimensions.  That's obviously not too likely to be its real name, but it's what we've got, so it's what we're going with.  The "Ooga" yelling creature is also named the Ooga Beast in that mini-entry.  Also, I believe  the Dimension of Floating Cities is also identified in said Appendix.  Kitty's Fairy Tale was a classic X-Men tale that introduced in Uncanny X-Men#153.  
• Sehv calls Nightcrawler "Gainsborough" repeatedly. What's up with that?
• According to Joe Littrell, "Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was a British portrait and landscape painter. His most famous painting, "Blue Boy," a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, was painted in 1770."
• Also, to the best of my knowledge, Kurt still owes Sehv that big screen TV. We certainly didn't see her in the much-less-fun second Nightcrawler limited series!--Snood.

Clarifications: the Oracle of the unnamed dimension should not be confused with...

• Oracle, the Icebreaker led by Captain Leonard McKenzie, Namor's dad, @ <golden age>, Fantastic Four Annual#1
• Oracle, of the Imperial Guard, aka Sibyl, @ X-Men I#107
• Oracle, a computer sought by Thanos, @ Secret Defenders#12, 13
• Oracle, of the Enhanced, @ Gun Runner#1 (UK)
• Oracle, of the O-Force, @ X-Statix#1
• Oracle Inc., the company formerly owned and run by Namor the Sub Mariner @ Namor #2
• other characters who were oracles, but just not named "Oracle"

The Ooga Beast, of the Dimension of Warrior Woman, who yells "Ooga" all the time, should be distinguished from:

• The Ort Beast, from (and I proudly refer you to the OHotMU Appendix to Dimensions if you don't believe me)
  the Ort-Beast Dimension, who yells "Ort" all of the time, @ Defenders I#59
• Oorga, the home planet of the Aaakon, @ Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet
• Oort, the Living Comet, @ Avengers West Coast#61

The Well at the Center of Time may or may not be the same as: