Tarot: Land of Arcana (WIP)

This is reserved for my Occult/Gothic mod called Tarot: Land of Arcana based on Rider-Waite Tarot cards.

It features 4 civilizations: Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands. The 4 Suits

The Four Eras: Innocence, Despair, Reflection, and Triumph

Map
I'm currently using a Eurasia map that includes part of North Africa. It is 114 x 104.

Estimated Release Date
December, 2014. See Project Status for details.

I'll add updates and screenshots as I progress. Meanwhile, any comments are welcome while I'm designing this.

Major Arcana
The Major Arcana cards are all in the game as Techs. See Techs for each era.

The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Stars, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World.

Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana cards for each suit (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King) will all be special units.

Minor Arcana Card Meanings

Magnum Opus/Spaceship Screen
Instead of launching a spaceship to win the game, you will need to cast a Magnum Opus spell.

Leader Names: Leader List

Wonders, Small Wonders, and Improvements: Current Buildings and Wonders List

Government: Government Types

Resources: Resource List

Standard Units
Each civilization will have standard units from Ancient times through the Napoleonic Wars time period.

Special Units for each Suit:
Pentacles
Cups
Swords
Wands

Additional Units for each Suit: Extra Standard Units

Character Units: Character Unit List

Terrain:
In general, I am using Balthasar's South Asian Terrain files. But I changed some of the files. Here's more information about the terrain files with some screen shots.

Music:
If anyone has any suggestions for music, let me know.

Interface:

Time Period
The Four Eras: Innocence, Despair, Reflection, Triumph

Standard Units
Each civilization will have standard units from Ancient times up to the Great War.

Magic
There shall be magic.

Religion
You acquire religious knowledge fairly quickly and can build any kind of temples that you want.

Winning the Game
Victory Points, Conquest, Magnum Opus (i.e. Space Race)

Status of Project:

Age of Innocence Tech Screen: 75%
Age of Despair Tech Screen: 75%
Age of Reflection Tech Screen: 75%
Age of Triumph Tech Screen: 75%

Civilization Names: 100%
Civilization Leaderhead files: 75%
Civilization Flic files: 100%
Civilization City Names: 25%
Civilization Government Types: 100%

Standard Units: 50%

Suit Specific Units: 5%

Character Units: 10%

Improvements, Wonders, and Small Wonders: 75%

Magnum Opus / Spaceship screen: 90%.

Resource files: 75%

Map: 100%. I've got a nice Euro-Asian-North African map now. 104 x 100.

Civilopedia: 25%.
I just have the stubs in there and only a few entries.

Terrain: 80%

Very interesting topic for the mod!

It looks interested. Looking forward to seeing more

Looks fun!

But why would Cups be Militaristic and Scientific? That's the slushy lovey suit.

Plotinus said:

Looks fun!

But why would Cups be Militaristic and Scientific? That's the slushy lovey suit.

Click to expand...

Thanks Plotinus. I haven't worked out all the details yet. I've been reading about the different cards and their meanings.

Feel free to suggest anything. I love reading your Ask a Theologian thread. You are definitely an expert on many subjects that I'd love to tap into for this game...

I've been looking at all the wonders (Major Arcana cards) that I've created and thinking out loud "Ok, what am I going to do with these?"

It's like a puzzle so it is fun. And sometimes good ideas just come to me (thank goodness) and seem to fit the game perfectly. I wonder if these ideas are from divine intervention?

Just a quick note to everyone. Feel free to talk about anything you think would make this mod good.
Or if you just want to talk about Tarot cards in general, that would be good fun also. Hopefully, people
will put some big paragraphs here. I like to read.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on possible units and their specs, let me know.

Currently, I am working on resources. I created a new horse and other resources. I removed oil and added a Well of Fortitude. It's a scarce strategic resource that gives civilizations courage to produce better/stronger units to crusade with.

Glad you like the thread and I'm happy to help with any questions you have, though this very definitely isn't really my area!

I would guess that anything Renaissance-themed would suit this mod well, as the tarot itself dates from that period and the Rider-Waite deck is obviously meant to evoke it. And from antiquity, things like the Hermetic Corpus or the development of Theurgy would fit in nicely to that kind of theme.

It may seem strange, but Wands might be an interesting spot for the bamboo-wielding panda. There are several Asian polearm units, so maybe a flavor/themed unit approach for each of your civs?

Gray Wolf said:

I've also added some other Occult-like wonders to the game:

Click to expand...

There is a whole category of occult-related tech icons in my steampunk/victorian set. Many of those (and other) images are also stored on my computer as larger originals.

Blue Monkey said:

It may seem strange, but Wands might be an interesting spot for the bamboo-wielding panda. There are several Asian polearm units, so maybe a flavor/themed unit approach for each of your civs?

Click to expand...

I was planning:
Cups - Mediterranean
Pentacles - European
Swords - Asian
Wands - Middle Eastern

But any of those could be flavored differently. And Wands does seem sort of Asian (imagining Bruce Lee with Numchucks and Karate, etc). So pole-armed units would work well for Wands and a Kung Fu Panda might be cool too.

Blue Monkey said:

There is a whole category of occult-related tech icons in my steampunk/victorian set. Many of those (and other) images are also stored on my computer as larger originals.

Click to expand...

I'm downloading Steampunk now. I've always wanted to see it. I'll look at its techs. I didn't know it had any occult-type techs...

I'm designing the Tarot tech trees on paper still. I'm hoping to simplify the trees and at the same time add some occult/magic techs.

Your new avatar is great by the way. Looks like you a little bit.

Blue Monkey said:

There is a whole category of occult-related tech icons in my steampunk/victorian set. Many of those (and other) images are also stored on my computer as larger originals.

Click to expand...

Those Steampunk techs are really good. I can tell that you put a lot of thought into those.
I love "Steambotics" and "Perpetual Motion".

Anyway, some of those are Tarot-possible techs, modified a little:

Occultism - (Magic I, Magic II, and Magic III)
Etheric Physics - (not sure, may be too Steampunk)
Psychic Research - (Metaphysics I, Metaphysics II)
Organic Chemistry - (Alchemy) (And I just read about the Emerald Tablet - perfect for Tarot)

So thank you. Those are good possibilities.

Plotinus said:

And from antiquity, things like the Hermetic Corpus or the development of Theurgy would fit in nicely to that kind of theme.

Click to expand...

Plotinus, thank you for this. I looked up those in the Wikipedia and found out that I have always been a follower of Hermeticism to some extent, which states:

The tradition claims descent from a prisca theologia, a doctrine which affirms that a single, true theology exists which is present in all religions and was given by God to man in antiquity.

Click to expand...

So that will probably become a tech somewhere... but I'm not sure where to insert it though.

Theurgy is great. It should fit in well in the Renaissance era of my mod (the last era).

Wikipedia says:

Plotinus urged contemplations for those who wished to perform theurgy, the goal of which was to reunite with The Divine (called henosis).

Click to expand...

Is this one reason why you chose the user name Plotinus? Fits you perfectly as a Theologian.

Anyway, Hermeticism and Theurgy (or Henosis) are perfect for the Tarot mod.

Blue Monkey said:

There is a whole category of occult-related tech icons in my steampunk/victorian set. Many of those (and other) images are also stored on my computer as larger originals.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I can create my own tech images for the Tarot. They don't take long to make at all.
What takes long is the tech tree. That's always a pain to change. That's why I'm going to
spend some extra time designing the 4 eras of the tree on paper first... and hopefully get
everything right the first time.

After thinking about it, I don't think I want to use a Panda. It doesn't seem to fit.
I do think that Wands should be Asian though.

Gray Wolf said:

Is this one reason why you chose the user name Plotinus? Fits you perfectly as a Theologian.

Click to expand...

No, it was just the first thing that came to mind!

The Apocalypse:

The Trumpet
The First Seal
The Devil
The Second Seal
War
Famine
Pestilence
Death
The Seventh Seal
Judgment

There are so many theories about the Apocalypse and how events are supposed to unfold, that I think I could put any 10 as long as I have the Devil, War, Death, and Judgment in there somewhere.

Plotinus, do any of those 10 strike you as being extremely out of order? As long as I am not way off base, then I'll use this order for the 10 space parts (Apocalypse). I'm going to do some more research on this myself for a while but I value your opinion on this.

I came up with these from Wikipedia: Book with Seven Seals and the four horseman of the Apocalypse.

I came up with Trumpets myself though because I sort of like the idea of making the whole series of events start with the blowing of trumpets... and it seems like I heard that in a sermon once.