Playing cards
Cleyran Traditional Decks
The older, traditional decks in use among Cleyrans, especially outside of Cleyr, from which the Tableau Nouveau was derived. Unlike many other cultures, conservative Cleyrans typically do not gamble and do not approve of gambling due to the extreme poverty in which Cleyrans have historically lived and due to associations with several criminal behaviours. Nonetheless, having games to play for amusement that can be easily carried with them is invaluable and this lead to the development of playing card games. Card sets are often lovingly illustrated and can be very esoteric with very large sets. Games played with these can border on puzzle games or even strategic board games and some rulesets and card sets almost encourage a sort of rudimentary trading card game as these decks are not completely standardized and often allow substitutions of different cards which behave differently in the context of what is otherwise the same game. Some games indeed seem to resemble puzzle games or perhaps strategy board games played with cards in place of tokens. However there are a few deck types which are more or less standard and used which fall into three general categories:
- Courtly Decks: Decks based around different ranks and factions of nobility and military, most popular in Cleyr and especially Bernicia. These generally have no number cards whatsoever. These are thought to have been invented in Cleyr relatively early in its history, but have been in use for over a century. This type of deck is thought to be the major contributor to the three non-numeric ranks in the Tableau Nouveau, as well as one of the major factors in deciding the heart as a suit since the heart symbol is one associated with Bernician nobility and frequently showing up in heraldry of prominent families, most notably the Deschamps. This kind of deck has recently come under great scrutiny by the government of Cleyr who do not like the promotion of the idea of a King of Bernicia. Nonetheless, attempts to censor or ban these decks have proven futile and the existence of a King of Hearts in the Tableau Nouveau which has already spread well beyond Cleyr make the point somewhat moot.
- Number and Seasons Decks: Decks of 80 or 100 cards divided into four suits based on season, represented chiefly by a plant indicative of the season. ( Clovers for spring, Wheat for Summer, Maple leaves for Fall, and either none or a fallen log for the winter. ) There are cards one to twenty for each suit and in some decks an additional five cards representing a seasonal scene or event. This type of deck had the largest influence on the development of the Tableau Nouveau and the colour of the four seasonal plants is one of the factors that influence the colours of the suits in that deck. These decks are generally the most traditional of all, with usage spanning hundreds of years before the establishment of the Kingdom of Cleyr. Variations of these are typically in number of cards, with 12 being the second most common number of cards per suit after 20 and a few more recent decks being patterned after the Tableau Nouveau in having 10. In general Number and Season decks evoke a sort of nostalgia or rustic feeling amongst Cleyrans and for Cleyrans who still live as vagabonds outside of Cleyr, they are an artistic expression of a hope and longing for peaceful prosperity and an idyllic life that the Kingdom of Cleyr represents to them.
- Army Decks: Very complex decks with cards depicting and representing different ranks and numbers of soldiers with art often commemorating some particular hero or noteworthy battle. This archetype of deck is one of the most in flux and predates the establishment of the Kingdom of Cleyr by at least a few hundred years, but became immensely more popular after its founding. Outside of Cleyr, decks with cards based around professions are also used in a very similar manner and can be categorized in the same category as Army Decks and some games mix the tradesmen cards, military themed cards, and cards from Courtly Decks into a long-form role-playing game, especially in their use outside of Cleyr in which the cards are used in addition with other mediums in order to help teach Cleyran children about Cleyran history, religion, and mythology. However, the most popular use of Army Decks is in strategy games, which include war simulation games used to teach tactics and strategy to players and in some sense live out vicarious revenge fantasies against groups of people who have historically persecuted Cleyrans as vermin.
Tableau Nouveau
A simplifed deck of 52 or 54 cards invented relatively recently by Cleyran nobles, consisting of four suits: spears ( spades ), clovers ( clubs ), hearts, and gems ( diamonds ) with 13 cards a piece and an optional two joker cards: the jester and the mage. The cards go from ace to ten, with three additional ranks of Knight ( abbreviated C for Chevalier, equivalent to the Jack ), Queen ( abbreviated D for Dame, French for Lady ), and King ( abbreviated R for Roi. ) It was designed to be quickly printed on paper or parchment using stamps in a single colour, but sets also exist using two colours ( red and black, the cheapest ink colours ) or four ( black for spears, red for hearts, yellow for gems, and green for clovers. Sometimes blue ink is used for gems when it is more available. )
The deck immediately became popular among Lugalin diplomats and university students who approved of the simplicity of games that could be played with the deck compared to the existing card games and decks popular in Nes. After negotiations, a set of card stamps and a frame for cutting the paper to size were purchased and quickly replicated and refined at the University of Nes which already had a long tradition of card making for magical purposes. From there it quickly spread outward to all social strata for reason of the mass production and simplicity of the card designs and games and is even slowly being adopted by some Sygol gamblers as an alternative to the similar Morifuda. It has become the Common playing card set in Kalom and one of the most influential elements of Cleyran culture.
Some interesting notes: Three of the four suits in Cleyran Tableau Nouveau decks routinely feature the Marquess of Montclair ( Louis Legrande as the King of Spears, the Marquess of Bernicia ( Henry Deschamps ) as the King of Hearts, and the Marquess of Deira () as the King of Clovers, with the King of Gems varying depending on the deck maker and often being portrayed by the King of Lugal since the alliance between Cleyr and Lugal was solidified. The pandering to the King of Lugal and flattering his wealth is another factor in why the deck became popular with the Lugalin. Presenting the Marquess of Deira as a king helped to smooth out the political tensions over portraying the Marquess of Bernicia as a king by suggesting a triumvirate in which the King of Cleyr is the first among the nobility controlling the major provinces of Cleyr. Northern Cleyran decks also have a tendency to pander to the regionally important Marquess of Valois by presenting him as the King of Gems. Due to local production of blue pigment and ink, as well as Cleyran expressions relating to winter often including the word "blue", these are the decks most likely to use blue ink for the gems suit. In western Cleyr and especially in some places near the Lugalin border, the dwarven king Ushrir is presented as the King of Gems instead due to the role of his kingdom in mineral trade with Cleyr and as a means of distancing the locals from the King of Lugal in the areas disputed between Lugal and Cleyr.
This set is based on real life standard playing cards, to have a 1:1 analogue for gameplay's sake.
Tally
Tally is a popular game in Western Kalom and other coasts on the Inner Sea. It is thought to be adapted from the skills used in harbour work and shipping.
The Tally deck is the deck used in it.
Resources 1 5 10 100
It is based around resource management.
Tarocchi
Tarocchi are playing card games similar to the card games using tarot cards in real life ( which are collectively known as tarocchini. ) They use decks also called tarocchi or tarot and these decks and their uses as playing cards and divination tools are similar in function but not in form to real life tarot decks. These decks are much more complex than their real world counterpart, consisting only of around sixty trump cards representing different social positions, natural features, or abstract concepts with no numbered cards whatsoever. The exact rules are very complex being developed over many centuries, which has lead to them largely being supplanted by simpler card decks and games.
Due to their ritualistic use in divinations rituals and their longstanding history, they are still printed despite the decline of using them for their primary purpose as playing cards. These divination rituals are not arcane magic, however, and attempting to use them as such results in nothing happening. Rather any "divination" done with them is usually through means of charlatainry, cold reading, persuasion, and mild hypnosis, sometimes augmented with actual enchantment magic to create a self-fulfilling prophecy desired by the reader. In some rare cases fate, coincidence, or supernatural interventions through actual magic can cause a genuine prediction to come from a tarocchi reading. It is also not uncommon for demons to manipulate people by use of
Wizards tend to either love or hate tarocchi decks, but mostly regard them as the magical equivalent of pseudoscience. The ones that love them praise their high artistic quality and representation of a wide margin of concepts and archetypes, as well as society's various classes and roles. They may even enjoy the traditional games played with them, but the draw is usually in their high compatibility with very archetype-based and systematic ways of thinking. The ones that hate them hate them because of how widely people believe in their efficacy and act irrationally and dangerously supersition based on "predictions" while often completely dismissing legitimate divination magic and the insisted advice of wizards. They also tend to be the wizards that find archetypes to too easily be stereotypes and find systematic ways of thinking are often applied to reality in a stifling and inaccurate way and see the tarocchi decks as both encouraging and being symptomatic of this sort of mindset and prescriptive approach to knowledge.
Completely outside the realm of use as a game or as a "magical" implement these decks can also be useful as a means of helping someone to introspect on their situation by having them give free responses to different sequences of cards, constructing a narrative based on it that can help draw out their current fears, anxieties, and desires that they'd be unable to face otherwise. This may be done when someone is a particularly superstitious and anxious person and would be otherwise very avoidant of even mentally acknolwedging these internal issues.
These are not to be confused with the various forms of binding spells to cards as it is actually very difficult to maintain the traditional patterns and symbolism alongside the necessary arcane geometries and glyphs, although it has been done on more than one occassion as a doctoral thesis at the University of Nes.
It is not necessary to too accurately simulate these decks, but it'd be better to use either regular playing cards or a true tarot deck with the minor arcana included than to just use the major arcana or trumps of a tarot deck. It will also need to be approached on a case-by-case basis as using actual tarot is likely to miss the point of their use and be too heavily wound up in real world preconceptions about tarot. Generally speaking, it is ill advised to introduce tarot to a deck without discussing it with your players first as they may exhibit the attitudes and behaviours that in-game characters due for all sorts of personal reasons. They should especially not be shown to be a reliable means of acquiring information for the players. If you want to have a deck that actually 'does' have use in predicting the future, that is not what this deck is for and should likely be a magical artifact of at least Uncommon rarity. This deck is for roleplaying purposes and worldbuilding, not for extracting information from the DM.
Hanafuda
Hanafuda 花札
Morifuda
Morifuda 森札
一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 : 1-10
酋長 - Chieftan 書士 - Scribe/Calligrapher ( 行政書士 Administrative Scribe ) 博徒 - Gambler 野心
Njaetti
Njaetti are a type of playing card used by Elti mariners. They are relatively uncommon in Kalom due to the corrosive effects of sea water on paper and parchment.