Emperor's Tarot

[ThePenitentOne]

Okay, so first of all- I'm stoked that one of the launch episodes of HaB will include the Inquisition and the Emperor's Tarot.

 

Next, a question: Has GW ever released an Emperor's Tarot deck? If so, does anyone have it?

 

Warcom confused the concepts of Arcana and Suits in their description, and I was wondering if the divergence from regular Tarot shows up in the GW deck and Warcom just messed it up, or if GW's conception of the Emperor's Tarot is different than the decks I've seen. Allow me to elaborate:

 

A typical Tarot deck includes cards of both a Major and a Minor Arcana; cards from the Major Arcana hold HUGE symbolic value- each of them is archetypal in nature. This symbolic weight is great enough that cards have names, not numbers, and they are unsuited because they do not need suits to convey meaning.

 

The Minor Arcana are numbered cards (though some decks include "Face Cards" instead of the numbers 11, 12 and 13). As numbers, these cards do not have the symbolic weight of the Major Arcana, and the have suits to add additional layers of meaning.

 

So what's cool is that there are multiple ways to use the cards. You can deal a reading from just the Major Arcana; this gives you a big picture where every card matters profoundly. Or you can deal only from the Minor Arcana; these tend to produce very nuanced readings to help people process the day to day stuff. Or you can deal from both decks, in which case the deal decides how much Big picture and how much Day to Day you get. 

 

Warcom misses the nuance of Arcana/ Suit interaction. According to them: 

 

"As with modern tarot decks, the Emperor’s Tarot is split into four major arcana."

 

So there's the question: if GW made a deck, does it match Warcom's statement, or does it more closely match the description of actual Tarot decks with an Unsuited Major Arcana and a Suited Minor Arcana?

 

If GW hasn't made a deck, are there other sources of info about the Tarot that could clarify this?

 

Disclaimer: Yes, I know how to "Read Tarot Cards," but I am enough of a realist to understand that Tarot Reading is basically just symbol-assisted cold reading with no "supernatural" value (if such a thing can be said to exist at all). Some Tarot readers know, accept and understand this and continue to read for fun or profit, while other buy their own hype so hard they don't even realize they're doing a symbol assisted cold read. It is the latter category that make the best charlatans and hustlers; it is harder to see a lie when the teller of the lie believes it to be true- it even fools the machines.

 

 

[Brother Tyler]

Emperor's Tarot cards were released way back when as cardstock inserts to White Dwarf Magazine. This was back in 2nd edition (or maybe it was early 3rd edition).

[Old-Four-Arms]

Ian Watson's Inquisition War Trilogy has some snippets on the Imperial Tarot  :

 

seventy-eight wafers of liquid crystal..

 

four suits : Mandatio (stability), Discordia (strife), Adeptio (vigorous work) and Creatio  (fertility) + major arcana trumps

 

cards : Emperor, High Priest, Daemon, Harlequin, Inquisitor, Daemon, Hulk, Galaxy (trump), Star (trump), Navigator, Space Marine, Assassin, Chaos Renegade, Eldar

 

Discordia was the suit of strife, though it could also signify authority. Discordia cards comprised enemies of the Imperium, aliens whether hostile or nominally friendly, and warp entities. Here was the terrible figure of a Chaos renegade from the Eye of Terror. Here was an eerily beautiful eldar, an aspect warrior.

 

Adeptio was the suit of vigorous work. Here was a Space Marine. Here was an assassin..

 

Creatio, suit of fertility, embraced such persons as Navigators and astropaths. Here was an engineer..

 

Mandatio, suit of stability, included the Inquisition..

Edited August 24, 2021 by Old-Four-Arms

[Brother Tyler]

I wouldn't be surprised to see GW publish a deck in the future. The artwork showing cards, both in the video and what appear to be an artistic, leads me to think that there might be an effort in this direction. If that happens, I'm betting they'll be much cooler than the cheap ones that were in WD. There has also been further development on the composition of the deck in the Black Library fiction as well as in the RPGs from FFG.

[Noserenda]

Yeah werent the WD cards used in a version of Epic? 

Tbh i would always be disappointed if my tarot deck didnt change pictures dramatically like Draco's did ;) 

[INKS]

There is more information here than it easy to find just googling around. I've seen some individual cards here and there as art pieces from G2 but never anything official. My Wife has TONs of Oracle and Tarot decks so this would be an instant buy from me. 

[ThePenitentOne]

Thanks so much for all the feedback guys.

 

And yeah, if GW released the actual deck, I'd buy it too. But I suspect they'd only release it as a limited BL thing, which would reduce my odds of actually being able to get one.

[StraightSilver]

Wasn't there a John Blanche deck released at store openings? Or am I imagining it?

[Grotsmasha]

With no evidence for this statement, I'm convinced one will be made available. It might be a Warhammer+ Exclusive, it may be a BL Weekend thing, it could be General Release.

[redmapa]

Years ago there was an Emperor's Tarot card deck, you can find the cards with google, but it was only sold on Warhammer World so Im not sure if they still sell it or its gone. 

[Brother Tyler]

There were also some made for the Warhammer World Inq28 event using John Blanche art.

 

I have no idea if these were sold to the general public as a limited run or if they were only available to attendees at that event.

[INKS]

oh wow I need to find those cards

[RWJP]

As a rather cool note, some of that art features on Tarot Cards in one of the episodes of Hammer and Bolter on the new Warhammer TV.