16. The Fool

Art: A young man dances at the edge of a cliff, wearing a crown, a khimar and a bellydancer's costume with bells around his ankles. His right arm is upraised, and he holds the edge of his khimar. In his other hand, seemingly absentmindedly, he holds a cobalt blue rose, such that the stem runs along his arm and the head is towards the ground. In the foreground, a butterfly floats and a feather is tossed aimlessly on the breeze. In the background, a tsunami sweeps towards a small island.

Meanings:

Meanings-reversed:

Associations: The Fool is the intermediary between the Sword and the Cup. In traditional readings, The Fool reinforces and is reinforced by The Night (and, by extension, The Hidden Treasure.)

Designer's Notes: Since nobody's going to guess it otherwise, the basic image of The Fool was inspired by a stunning poster of Bulleh Shah I discovered in The Friends of God: Sufi Saints in Islam. All other references are esoteric and for the reader to discern.

8. The Lost

Art: A child is shivering in a misty winter forest. In the picture are four cups, one of them empty; the other three are filled with ashes, dust and salt. In the distance, a volcano is erupting and the sky is illuminated with lightning. In the foreground, a rapier and a diamond lie in the mud, concealed by rocks.

Meaning: Irrecuperable losses. Obsolescence ("the world has moved on.")

Meaning-reversed: Overreaction, making mountains out of molehills. This card may, occasionally, connote the involvement of rakshasa.

The Emerald Setlist

I haven't finished the writeup of the Emerald Set yet; I only have about half of the cards named at all, never mind designed. With that said, I'm posting what is done here as a backup, and to remind myself that this is a work in progress.

In total, the Emerald Set will have 55 cards, because that's how many the Levantine Set has and I'm too damn lazy to consider rewriting a Random Card Generation table myself.

The Emerald Set

The Emerald Set is inspired by Fax Celestis and his generally-inspiring Cartomancer class.

I liked the idea. I liked the mechanics. But I had my own ideas of what exactly a D&D-style Tarot deck would look like, and they didn't correspond very well with the Levantine Set, so I'm posting them here instead.

Sooner or later I'll find hosting for it, but until then this will have to work.