It's Secret Jackalope season again! And boy is this a doozy: evil scientist 42 asked for Major Arcana names for an alternative science fantasy or cosmic horror or sword&planet vibe Tarot deck. Just the names/titles for the 22 cards. Of course, if you are a true jackalopist, you do a full art series with pages and pages of divination instructions!
Easy. I've got that in a day, prob'ly.
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| 00 The Blind Ones Those who refuse to see will outlive the others. Reversed: Hope for death. You won't make it any farther. |
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| 01 The Idiot Proud, foolish, and playing with forces you cannot understand. Reversed: You have been misunderstood. Now is the time to strike. |
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| 02 The Beautiful Woman Pale, dark-haired. In one hand the cup, life, and in the other the flensing knife, suffering. Reversed: Death and freedom. Your schemes have, thank G_d, come to an end. |
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| 03 The Conqueror Worm Red and squirming. Inevitable, and in its own way futile. Reversed: The end of death has come. Beware. |
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| 04 The Hungry Spider Wise, self-sacrificing, the protector of man's work. Reversed: You are the enemy. Fear order and justice. |
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| 05 The Hungry Moth Cunning, devious, enemy of man's work. Reversed: What you've done is no help. |
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| 06 The Cult Source of knowledge, favors owed. Reversed: You've been found out. Think quickly. |
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| 07 The Black Lake A hiding place. More dangerous than it seems. Reversed: Safety! Safety in the dark. |
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| 08 The Sacrifice Joyful in his death. It's better than the alternative. Reversed: It is imperative that you survive. |
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| 09 The Prophet & Priest Do you know what needs to be done? Reversed: Bare your neck to the knife. |
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| 10 Mandala Downturn and upturn. Reversed: Upturn and downturn. |
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| 11 Hope Flickering candle-flame, a delicious lure for the bleak forces. Reversed: An opportunity to exploit the naive. |
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| 12 The Dream Lurid and strange, but neither inhospitable nor unfriendly. Reversed: Your life is a lie. Escape is possible, but will not make you happy. |
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| 13 Death As natural as life. Cycles, circles, rhythms. Reversed: That is not dead which can eternal lie. |
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| 14 The Imposter Death is preferable to meeting Him on the road. Reversed: Reexamine your face in the mirror. |
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| 15 The Old One More real than man's schemes. Reversed: Someone is coming to help. Throw yourself to their mercy. |
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| 16 The Gap There is nothing between the two extremes. Reversed: There is nothing between the two extremes. |
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| 17 The False Star You are being watched. Reversed: I am going to drink your sweet, warm life straight from the source. I've been so long in the dark. |
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| 18 The Betrayed Moon Their decisions have already been made. Reversed: If you move fast, you can kill your friends before they kill you. |
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| 19 The Punishing Sun It's only fair. Reversed: You're as dead as I am. |
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| 20 The Tide It comes in, it goes out. Do not be too attached to your "self", or to the "truth". Reversed: Degeneration. |
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| 21 The Scar You will not recover. You have seen too much. Reversed: Struggle for life. Better to enter the kingdom of Heaven with one eye... |
Once and for all proving that MSPaint *is* an art medium.
ReplyDeleteThere's a certain, hm, "digital-rustic" charm to crude mspaint trace jobs. Reminds me of the look of old Macintosh adventure games, like The Fool's Errand. Thank you for your comment.
DeleteNot MSPaint, I fear, but here's something similar: https://worldbuildingandwoolgathering.blogspot.com/2020/03/postcard-games-improvised-playing-cards.html
ReplyDeleteOoh, that's very interesting. I've used most of these fake arcana before (the Imposter in particular, who's usually identical to the Death card in name and art except for a giveaway spot-the-difference, but I thought that would be a little confusing), but if I had to come up with a new set I might consult my unsorted pictures folder. Perhaps the process can be generalized into a tarot-generating minigame? Thank you for your comment.
DeleteHmm. Well, numbers are easy - say 1d6 suits, 1d4 face cards, 1d30 Major Arcana.
DeleteAs for the selection of images....that's different. Not everyone has a bunch of postcards to hand, and I suspect telling people to just get a bunch of images online results in choice paralysis. So perhaps you have one or two Curators, who gather enough images, and then people name them. Of course, they have to be the right kind of images, so that the armoured man on a horse can be 'The Knight', 'The Warlord', 'The Spectre', &c.
Any order you want to put them in can be by a roll of the dice. Perhaps the comically sinister colour inversion tools can be used to furnish Reversed meanings (so the dark, heavily-lined Spectre on an intimidating steed looks ethereal and glowing white)?
Yeah this is good, good stuff. Nails the cosmic horror theme.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
DeleteGreat stuff.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
DeleteThis is sick. Unreversible and mirrored cards are my jam.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME, thank you so much! All hail the Jackalope!
ReplyDelete