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The 22 Arcana

"I know the answers are in the cards, I am sure of it: the way is in the cards."
— Vision of a cartomancer

Twenty-two enchanted tarot cards. The weapons that won the Battle of the Wall of Earth. The reason every Peer's family has a relic, every necromancer wants one, and Duke Den Azhir is willing to start a war to find them.

What They Are

The arcana are the 22 cards of Vanius's tarot deck, infused by Desire himself during his brief waking in c. 832. Each card carries one of Desire's divine elixirs — and each is marked with an illustration of his life, dreams, or personality. There is one card for each of Desire's 22 wounds, and assembling the full deck is, in a real sense, holding a sleeping god in your hands.

The cards are: ordinary playing-card sized, dense vellum or treated parchment, painted in pigments that don't fade. The art shifts subtly when no one is watching. Each card bears one of the classical major arcana — Fool, Magician, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Justice, Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Strength, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgment, World, and one unnumbered ("Vanius's card," whose name the Duke has never publicly used).

Origin

When Sophet Drahas's Acheronian army was about to take the elven ruins of Cadwallon, Desire briefly woke. He mistook the necromancer's spells for an Ophidian intrusion (an old fear) and chose Vanius — the captain of the Dogs of War — as his Incarnation. Desire spread his elixirs into the 22 cards of the tarot deck Vanius happened to be carrying. Each card became a weapon.

Vanius distributed the cards to his 21 lieutenants — one each — keeping two for himself. The 22 free companies of the Dogs of War broke the Acheronian army at the Battle of the Wall of Earth in 832 wielding the cards' powers. Desire, exhausted, returned to sleep.

After the battle, Vanius's lieutenants became the first Peers of Cadwallon. Each carried their card into their fief. The cards were meant to remain there, ready to be reassembled when Vanius returned.

The Vanius Pact

Vanius made a secret deal in the aftermath. He met Sophet Drahas privately, revealed the cards' powers, and gave Drahas one card — the Emperor — in exchange for Drahas's support against Feyd Mantis, Acheron's true power. Sophet accepted. Feyd Mantis discovered the betrayal before Sophet could act on it. As punishment, Feyd Mantis magically chained Sophet Drahas to Cadwallon forever — bound to a throne of Darkness, unable to leave. He has been the city's shadow nemesis ever since. (see Sophet Drahas for full GM detail.)

Vanius, knowing the larger threat remained, appointed a successor to rule Cadwallon and entered the Labyrinth to find Desire's Realm. He has never returned. He is presumed to still be wandering the maze.

The Lost Cards

Over the centuries, Vanius's successors — Duke after Duke — failed in their duty to keep the cards together. Some Peers lost theirs to assassination, theft, or financial collapse. Others sold them, ignorant of their true nature. The cards scattered:

  • Several remain with original Peer families. Which families and which cards is a closely-held secret of each house.
  • At least two are held by Sophet Drahas: the Emperor (Vanius's gift) and the Devil (taken from Aghovar Soma when Drahas killed him and stole the Talisman of Shadows). This is why Isabeau Soma hunts him.
  • Many are spread across Aarklash, traded into foreign collections, lost in war, or hidden in vaults.
  • The Den Azhir Project: Duke Den Azhir, a former free leaguer of the Ruby-Heart league, is determined to restore the tradition. He is quietly funding free-league quests to retrieve the lost cards and entrust them to people "worthy of the honor." This is one of the dominant plot engines of his reign.

What They Can Do

Each card is a weapon of divine elixir. The exact effect varies card to card and is partly tied to the bearer's nature, but observed powers include:

  • Cutting through magical wards designed for the prior age
  • Striking spectral or undead opponents as corporeal weapons
  • Channeling Desire's emanations to dominate, beguile, or weaken targets
  • Opening minor portals to the Garden of Desire or pulling fragments of it forward
  • Subtle effects on dreams and prophecy (especially when used in combination)

A full reassembled deck is theoretically capable of:
- Opening the Labyrinth without getting lost
- Reaching Desire directly
- Acting as a literal binding or unbinding key for Desire's prison

The legends promise "riches and wonders" to whoever reassembles the deck. The truth is more frightening — and is the reason Conscience's loyalists worry.

The Tarot-Mages

Vanius's 22 cards are not the only tarot magic in Cadwallon. The illustrations on his cards — drawn unconsciously by Desire himself — became the template for tarot-mage decks used widely today. These are copies — they don't hold the elixirs — but they re-enact the Conscience/Desire struggle in miniature whenever a tarot-mage casts. (see Mana & Magic for the spellcasting rules.)

The tarot-mages who have advanced furthest in their studies have begun to catch echoes of Desire's dreams directly. Some have unveiled fragments of the gods' secrets and can reproduce, at human scale, the early powers of the Creation.

The Two Factions

The tarot-mages are divided into two warring factions over the discovery of the Labyrinth. One faction wants to seek its corridors and use the knowledge openly. The other wants the knowledge buried — they argue that the labyrinth walls are sealed for a reason. Both factions guard the underground "corridors" leading to the Labyrinth. Both have killed for them.

Notable Custodians

  • Guild of Cartomancers — public-facing tarot-mages, divinatory practice, study of the cards' meanings
  • Sophet Drahas — Emperor and Devil
  • Isabeau Soma — hunts Drahas for the Devil and the Talisman of Shadows; the Soma family card status is closely kept
  • Alizarine — tarot-reader at the Last Dance cabaret in Heaven Heights; her motives remain unclear
  • Duke Den Azhir — actively collects; was lectured by a tarot-mage during his identity-wandering years (he learned in the body of an orc)
  • Dyrsin — the Cynwäll ambassador in the Tower; status unknown

Hooks

A card surfaces at auction

Word reaches the Ruby-Heart that one of the lost arcana is about to be sold at the Beggars Market in Morgue Street by someone who doesn't know what it is. The Duke wants it. So do at least three guilds. So does Sophet Drahas — through proxies. The party has 36 hours.

The tarot-mage civil war

A tarot-mage approached the party with an offer: she can read their futures, free of charge, in exchange for one small favor. Her rival faction wants her dead, and a delivery she made to the catacrypts last week needs to be retrieved before they find it.

The Soma vendetta

Isabeau Soma has new intelligence on where Sophet Drahas keeps the Devil card and the Talisman of Shadows. She needs allies. The job is suicidal, the rewards are unimaginable, and there is no going back to the militia after.

Vanius is still alive

A free leaguer who walked deep into the catacrypts came back with a single card she didn't have when she went in. Painted on the back is a message in handwriting that matches the Ducal archives' samples of Vanius I. He wants her to find six more. He claims to know where they are.