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Guild of Cartomancers

"I know the answers are in the cards. The way is in the cards."
— Vision of an anonymous cartomancer, recorded by the Bards of Destiny

The city's official body of tarot-mages and divination practitioners. Sets the calendar, reads fortunes for those who can pay, and quietly tracks the scattered cards of Vanius's deck. Less openly powerful than the Goldsmiths or Usurers but possibly more informed than any guild in the city.

What They Do

  • Tarot divination — formal readings for clients ranging from anxious merchants to noble houses. Standard rates published; private rates negotiable.
  • The Free Calendar — the guild maintains the official 22-month calendar of Cadwallon, named for Vanius and the 21 lieutenants. The astronomers' version is more complex. Most Cadwës use the public 21-month form with 19-day months. (see Calendar for full detail)
  • Astronomical observation — the guild observes the ~15 constellations and the three suns (Lahn, Ley, Lyth) plus Yllia the moon. The four navigation stars (Nerea, Sylhea, Elion, Olhim) are theirs to publish for the Ferrymen.
  • Tarot-mage training — formal apprenticeship and ranking. Most working tarot-mages in Cadwallon hold some kind of guild membership, however contested.
  • Card location services — quiet, expensive. They claim no formal interest in Vanius's scattered arcana, but every cartomancer who asks the right questions is being watched.

Headquarters

  • The Observatory in The Automaton fief. White stone, Cartomancer-built. Northern shore borders the "Mangrove Temple" where Quithayran elves meditate.
  • Branch offices in Heaven Heights (Soma) and the [[Free District]] (Drakaër).
  • Private consultation rooms across the city; readings are not always public events.

Allies in the Rag'narok

The PHB names the guild's Rag'narok-era allies: Cynwäll elves, goblins of No-Dan-Kar, Griffins of Akkylannie, dwarves of Tir-Nâ-Bor, and Lions of Alahan. A defensive, knowledge-trading alliance more than a martial one — they sell forecasts and prophetic readings to all five powers and have been quietly accurate enough to keep the contracts renewing.

The Hidden Conflict

The tarot-mage civil war

The guild has a buried schism that even most members don't know about: two factions of advanced tarot-mages disagree on the [[Labyrinth]]. One faction wants to map the corridors and use the knowledge openly. The other wants the corridors sealed and the knowledge buried. Both guard the underground paths leading to the maze. Both have killed for them. (see The 22 Arcana and The Tarot-Mages)

The Vortiris theory

When the Coiling Emissaries first appeared in 999, the guild publicly rejected the Voyagers' theory that they came from a Realm hidden by Hollowdeep. Privately, the senior cartomancers are not so sure. Their own readings keep pointing to Vortiris — the dragon of Darkness — as the source. They cannot say this aloud without admitting the rest of what they know.

Notable Members

  • Alizarine — tarot-reader at the Last Dance cabaret in Heaven Heights; reads from a deck of disputed provenance. May or may not be guild-sanctioned.
  • The current Grand Cartomancer — name kept ceremonial, role rotates every three years by sealed vote
  • Several anonymous senior magicians who only meet at the Observatory at night

Relations

  • The Duke — quietly aligned. Den Azhir was lectured by a tarot-mage during his identity-wandering years and respects the discipline. The guild's card-location intelligence flows through indirect channels to the ducal collection effort.
  • Sophet Drahas — feared and avoided. Drahas holds at least two of Vanius's original arcana. The guild does not approach him.
  • Voyagers — collegial rivals. They read the same currents through different methods.
  • Guild of Goldsmiths — wary. Goldsmith money pressures more than one cartomancer's vote at internal council.

A reading goes wrong

A high-paying client requests a reading and the cards keep refusing to lie still. The cartomancer flees the guild house with a single card pressed against her chest. She wants to find PCs she trusts — fast — before the senior magicians find her first.

The card with no number

A patron offers the party a tarot reading at half price if they will deliver a sealed envelope to the Observatory's night gate. The envelope contains a card. The card has no number, no symbol — only Vanius's handwriting on the back. Someone in the guild is collecting Vanius's correspondence from the [[Labyrinth]].