Quendalon/Tarot
Exalted Tarot
The cards known as the Tarot originated as a teaching tool for young Exalts. The Sidereals altered the composition of the deck after the Usurpation and put it to use among the Dragon-Blooded. After the Contagion and the rise of the Immaculate Philosophy as the state religion, the Tarot fell into deep disrepute in the Realm, but it remains quite popular in the Threshold, the Scavenger Lands, and even among the soldiers of the Imperial Legions and at the private parties of the Dynasts. The cards now find use in gambling and fortune telling, but the original function of the deck can still be seen in the cards.
The standard Tarot deck contains a hundred cards. Seventy-five of these are of the five suits of the Lesser Arcana, while the other twenty-five cards belong to the Greater Arcana. Gambling cards show only simple, stylized pictures, much like modern playing cards, and leave out the Greater Arcana entirely, while fortune telling decks use the full card set and exhibit all of the intricate symbolic detail of a modern Tarot deck.
The Lesser Arcana appear in five suits: Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. Each suit consists of fifteen cards. Ten of them are ordinary numbered cards, with denominations running from Pole (the equivalent of the Ace) to Ten. The remaining five are the court cards, listed here in ascending order: Patrician, Soldier, Immaculate, Dynast and Dragon. Gambling decks in the Threshold often use different suits and court cards. For instance, the popular Nexus deck uses the suits of Winds, Hearthstones, Firewands, Pearls and Flowers.
There are twenty-five cards of the Greater Arcana, which build up an elaborate symbology beyond the scope of this brief study. The cards are as follows: Blessed Isle, Spirit, Moon, Ghost, Maidens, Anathema, Yu-Shan, Threshold, Sun, Empress, Wyld, Elemental, Deathlord, Astrologer, God-Blood, Shadowland, Malfeas, Beast-Man, Demesne, God, Sorcerer, Fair Folk, Yozi, Nexus, Creation. The Greater Arcana vary somewhat between decks, though the most common changes involve a differing card order or the renaming of certain cards; for instance, the Yu-Shan and Malfeas Cards may be named Heaven and Hell, while the Deathlord card may be replaced with the Hungry Ghost.
If there are Elemental, God, Demon and Ghost cards, isn't a Spirit card redundant?\\ _Ikselam
You're right. I'm still a bit stuck in the Werewolf spirit model, where the Incarna are sufficiently distinct from the little Gafflings and Jagglings that you can call one set 'spirits' and the other set 'gods.' I suppose I'll swap out either the 'Spirit' or 'God' card for, hmm, a Behemoth card? Can't forget those Behemoths... - Quendalon
All of this taroty goodness is making my head explode. But in a good way. Let me know if you do anything more with this. --Dissolvegirl
Try using "Least God" as a distinction too. Behemoth sounds neat too. --Paradim
