Tarot: Land of Arcana (WIP)

[Gray Wolf]

I just read that the Tarot card "The World" has Revelation undertones. It has biblical images on the 4 corners:

The four figures in the corners of the card are also referenced in the Book of Revelation, 4:7, where the throne of God is described: "And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."

So, maybe it needs to be one of the 10 cards? Not sure.

Close but not there yet!

 

[Gray Wolf]

Genesis 1:3

And God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light.

I'm almost finished with all the buildings for this stuff. Actually, most of my time is spent removing buildings
that I decided was "too much". So I'm stripping it down. If it's not necessary for the game, it goes in the bin.

 

[Blue Monkey]

You might want to read Charles Williams' The Greater Trumps - a novel by one of the Inklings, although less well known than Tolkien or Lewis.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Just a quick note to myself. I may want to make 1 or 2 of these resources and make them necessary for Battlefield Medicine.

I read this:

The following natural substances were used by medieval surgeons as anesthetics:
Mandrake roots
Opium
Gall of boar
Hemlock

 

[Gray Wolf]

You might want to read Charles Williams' The Greater Trumps - a novel by one of the Inklings, although less well known than Tolkien or Lewis.

Thanks, from what I just read online, each of the Tarot cards are covered within the book's plot, so that sounds interesting.

I just wanted to say also... that man there are so many books I want to read and I never have the time! I spend half of my life on civ3. That's one reason why I'm making this mod. I feel like if I can finally make a mod, then I can be fulfilled and finally spend time doing other things in life...

 

[Gray Wolf]

Another note to everyone. I'm not into the Occult, I just find Tarot cards fascinating.
And I suppose I believe in card readings to some degree. I think that some people
have the ability to tap into something that others cannot.

It's sort of like having the ability to write music. Paul McCartney said that he woke up one morning
and immediately started humming the melody for Yesterday. How was this so easy for him?
I play guitar and I could spend a whole week trying to write a new song, and I would never finish one.
If I did, it would sound terrible. So I think some people have abilities that others do not and that
it may or may not be entirely related to our own desires or energy level.

 

[Plotinus]

I don't know very much about apocalyptic stuff. But I do know that if you want some suitably lurid and arcane material for it, you need to have a look at Joachim of Fiore. He's a completely insane theologian from the twelfth century who had rather a lot to say about the book of Revelation and who was very influential.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Thanks Plotinus, I figured it out. Also, I'll read up about Joachim of Fiore.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Ok, after a lot more research, I have come up with these 10 steps for the Apocalypse:

The World
The White Horse
The Red Horse
The Black Horse
The Pale Horse
The Saints
The Great Tribulation
The Trumpets
Death
Judgment

Anyway, I think these are good enough for the game. I just want the basics.

So now I have to modify the Space Parts screen...

 

[Gray Wolf]

I just realized that you do not have to use 10 space parts. So I'm going to change it to 7.
The Apocalypse is all about Seven Seals being broken.

The 7 Seals:

The Devil -- First Seal (White Horse)
War -- Second Seal (Red Horse)
Famine -- Third Seal (Black Horse)
Death -- Fourth Seal (The Pale Horse) - Death to 1/4 of the world's inhabitants.
Saints - The Fifth Seal - Saints seated before the Alter of God
Tribulation - The Sixth Seal - Long Period of Destruction - the Great Tribulation
Judgment - The Seventh Seal - Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets. Judgment begins.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Ok, I'm looking at everything this morning.

I've decided that I need to remove more of the non-Tarot wonders. They serve no real purpose. And they dilute the power of Tarot Wonders.

So these are gone now: The Caravan, The Locket, The Chamber, The Chalice, The Raven, Aesop's Fables

Edit: The Chamber, the Raven, and the Chalice are back in.

 

[Samez]

Interesting concepts! Keep on with your work

 

[Blue Monkey]

I've decided that I need to remove more of the non-Tarot wonders. ... The Chalice,

You might want to look at TAM (The Ancient Mediterranean mod/scenario). There are civ-specific wonders. So, for example, you could have a Chalice wonder that only the Cups can build. IIRC they are set up as small wonders but each requires a zero-era tech only available to that civ. Each civ has a wonder more or less equally powerful, but with a different variety of effects. Maybe connect that somehow to the Ace of each suit?

 

[Gray Wolf]

You might want to look at TAM (The Ancient Mediterranean mod/scenario). There are civ-specific wonders. So, for example, you could have a Chalice wonder that only the Cups can build. IIRC they are set up as small wonders but each requires a zero-era tech only available to that civ. Each civ has a wonder more or less equally powerful, but with a different variety of effects. Maybe connect that somehow to the Ace of each suit?

All good ideas. I like the idea of using the Chalice for the Cups. And I can figure which wonder to give to the other civs. And the civ-specific wonders can trigger the Ace unit like you said.

Anyway, I've made civ-specific wonders before where they required a zero-era tech at the beginning. Not hard to do, especially with just 4 civs. So that sounds like a plan...

Thanks again.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Currently working on the Armageddon .pcx files. (i.e. spaceship files).
I should be finished with that stuff by tomorrow night, hopefully.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Interesting concepts! Keep on with your work

Thanks, I'll keep on truckin'.

 

[Erebras]

Interesting ideas, but I'm unsure I understand the overall concept. A fantasy mod with magical elements into the pre-industrial era, I got that part. Is the land or realm of Arcana something like a faerieland with all kinds of mythical inhabitants, or more like a mundane human realm where magic works?

My brainstorming or stream-of-consciousness ideas are these (hope some are helpful):

1. Can the four suits correspond with the four classic elements (Earth, Wind, and Fire and ... I dunno, Village People, maybe... or was it Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and ....dang it!)?
2. Does anyone recall the Trumps used by Zelazny's Amber series? Could that be inspiration for the tarot card aspects of the scenario?
3. Since each card has specific meanings (yes, generalized, but specific enough), perhaps it would be appropriate for the unit based on the given suit and value to likewise have a specific appearance or set of abilities (abundance might finish improvements or transformation might upgrade to several types of units depending on resource availability).
4. I don't see the tie-in for the Book of Revelation and the Tarot deck (with the exception of certain imagery). Doesn't mean it's not a good idea; I merely fail to see the connection.
5. I recommend eight suits instead of four: bear with me. Four players seems less than ideal, and eight is a standard multiplayer limit. More importantly, though, is that four players represent the inverted or reversed aspect of each suit and value. Remember that each card has two meanings, depending on whether it is upright or upside-down.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll say more on this.
(Also, feel free to borrow freely from my MagePunk scenario (work in progress) which is a fantasy scenario going to the World War One era. I think I have icons and tech advances you might find interesting or appropriate.)

 

[Gray Wolf]

I just realized that you do not have to use 10 space parts. So I'm going to change it to 7. The Apocalypse is all about Seven Seals being broken.

The 7 Seals:

The Devil -- First Seal (White Horse)
War -- Second Seal (Red Horse)
Famine -- Third Seal (Black Horse)
Death -- Fourth Seal (The Pale Horse) - Death to 1/4 of the world's inhabitants.
Saints - The Fifth Seal - Saints seated before the Alter of God
Tribulation - The Sixth Seal - Long Period of Destruction - the Great Tribulation
Judgment - The Seventh Seal - Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets. Judgment begins.

For some stupid reason, you have to use exactly 10 space parts in order to see the spaceship screen. I tried and tried to get the screen to show up with 7 parts but the F10 button will not do anything unless you have 10 parts.

So I had to put my thinking cap on again. And I came up with these 10 parts for the Apocalypse (space race).

False Prophet - In the final days, there will be many false prophets.
The Book of Seals - The Book that has 7 Seals that sets forth the events of the Apocalypse.
The Lamb - The Lamb of God is the only thing worthy enough to open the Book of Seals.
The Devil -- First Seal (White Horse)
War -- Second Seal (Red Horse)
Famine -- Third Seal (Black Horse)
Death -- Fourth Seal (The Pale Horse) - Death to 1/4 of the world's inhabitants.
Saints - The Fifth Seal - Saints seated before the Alter of God
Tribulation - The Sixth Seal - Long Period of Destruction - the Great Tribulation
Judgment - The Seventh Seal - Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets. Judgment begins.

So after putting these 10 parts in the game, the F10 button works now.

And it's taking me longer than I thought to customize the space pcx files. So hopefully by the end of the week,
this part will all be done.

 

[Gray Wolf]

I think I want to give each Suit a Bard unit. They are perfectly Medieval.

I'll have to look for a Bard unit later and see if any of them strum a guitar and show notes coming out of the guitar or something. Instead of swinging a sword, they kill by playing notes...

If we don't have a unit like that, I'll try to make one or put in a request for one...

 

[Gray Wolf]

Interesting ideas, but I'm unsure I understand the overall concept. A fantasy mod with magical elements into the pre-industrial era, I got that part. Is the land or realm of Arcana something like a faerieland with all kinds of mythical inhabitants, or more like a mundane human realm where magic works?

'Arcana' basically means 'secrets' so the Land of Arcana is the Land of Secrets. And the Tarot cards are meant to reveal secrets. You can tap into secrets via religion, occult, and magic. So Arcana is like a human land where occult-like magic works.

I like Dungeons and Dragons so I want to have some elements of a D&D game (as long as they are consistent with Tarot). For example, I'd like to have a human Bard unit. But I don't want Elves or Dwarves. Just humans and possibly a few wolves.

The Magician card will trigger some magic type units.

1. Can the four suits correspond with the four classic elements (Earth, Wind, and Fire and ... I dunno, Village People, maybe... or was it Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and ....dang it!)?

I just researched this and found out that there are basically 4 elements that philosopher's discussed in ancient times: Earth, Wind (Air), Fire, and Water. And in many fantasy games you've got the Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, and Water Elemental and things like that. I think that would be a good idea for its own mod. Instead of the 4 Tarot Suits, you could just have the 4 elements battling it out. And the Water Element would be sea-faring. The Air would have better jet fighters. Fire, better artillery. Earth, better tanks? Something like that.

Anyway, I think the 4 Tarot suits need to stand out as Tarot and not something else. The suits may have 1-2 units that have elemental qualities though.

LOL. There's already been lots of Blood, Sweat, and Tears so far in this mod ... and I'm not even 1/3 of the way finished yet.

Earth, Wind and Fire was a band but I can't remember what hits they had.

2. Does anyone recall the Trumps used by Zelazny's Amber series? Could that be inspiration for the tarot card aspects of the scenario?

I haven't read the books but just went to Wikipedia. The article says that Zelazny alludes to Shakespeare a lot...so I like those kind of books.

As for the Tarot mod, I think that anything related to Medieval Times and the Renaissance would fit well. It's just a matter of figuring out what to put in the game and what to leave/take out. So I definitely want to consider medieval fictional character type units, for example, like Hamlet, King Arthur, Nasreddin, Aesop, Don Quixote, others.

So if people have ideas for those that would be good...but I don't want too many of them in the game.
The main units need to be the standard units, then the suit units, then other milieu type units.

3. Since each card has specific meanings (yes, generalized, but specific enough), perhaps it would be appropriate for the unit based on the given suit and value to likewise have a specific appearance or set of abilities (abundance might finish improvements or transformation might upgrade to several types of units depending on resource availability).

This is definitely the goal. I've tried to do this for the Major Arcana cards. They are all Wonders or Small Wonders. Anyway, I tried to make each of them do something that makes sense. For example, the Justice card replaces the Police Station and the Courthouse.

I was going to describe a bunch of others. But it would take too long right now. I'll show all of the Wonders here soon though, along with their specs. I may need help from people in determining what 2-3 of those cards should do. But I've already set most of them and I'm pretty happy with them so far.

Anyway, I want to do the same thing for the Minor Arcana cards (the suit cards) which will be units. I'd like the 3 of Cups to do what a 3 of Cups is supposed to do. But they are more meant for card reading than "action cards". So I'll probably just have each Minor card modeled after a standard unit (Archer, Warrior, Pikeman, etc.)

This is definitely an area where I want/need input from others.