The Emperor's Tarot [lore]

The Tarot deck

The full Emperor's Tarot is a deck of 78 cards, used by his loyal followers to divine his will and aid in making important decisions. The cards themselves are elaborate works of art, each is a thin wafer of liquid crystal, lovingly hand-crafted by specialist scribe-artists of the Administratum. Each scribe labours his entire lifetime lavishly illuminating a single precious card. When laid out in their entirety the cards form a picture of the entire lmperium, its heroes and its foes. There is a card for each: the Warrior, the Space Marine, the Inquisitor, the Preacher, the Assassin, the Chaplain, the Astropath and the Judge, to name but a few. The most potent card is that of the Emperor himself. Conversely there are such horrors as the Daemon, the Traitor, the Warlock, the Mutant, the Heretic, the Hulk and the wild card of the pack, a card which is notoriously difficult to interpret, the Harlequin.

The picture on each card is never constant. The cards are psychically attuned to the strengthening and weakening of influences within the warp, but although the image shifts, perhaps due to the reader's state of mind at the time, the basic meaning remains the same. Interpreting the mutable images is part of the art of understanding the cards.

No reading of the Tarot is ever undertaken lightly. A reading is a sacred ritual with strict codes of conduct that must be followed. The placing of the cards is highly significant, a circle of five arrayed about two central cards is the most basic reading. If more cards are used then further into the future can be seen, however, the information gleaned will become more vague and harder to interpret correctly. Cards mean different things depending on their position upon the table, their orientation and their relationship to other cards. The ramifications of a large reading can be thousand-fold and every reader might reach a different conclusion. For especially important events or dangerous threats to the lmperium, the High Lords of Terra themselves will look to the cards.The senate will convene to debate the card's meaning and each High Lord is advised by his own council of psykers and seers. The ensuing debates can last for weeks.

In the darkened chamber, its ancient walls shrouded by old tapestries, the wizened old seer sat behind a large stone table, awaiting his audience. Glow-candles illuminated the yellow smoke of incense burners. The cloying vapours of sacred herbs lay heavily across the chamber as his patrons arrived, a silent procession of five men, all dressed in the long ornate robes of the Ministorum. Pontifex-Urba Judah spoke first.

"The cards are prepared, anointed with oils, thrice blessed before the image of Him on Earth, as you required. Make your reading." He passed a deck of cards, wrapped in silken cloth, to the old man who carefully shuffled them. Each card was a beautifully worked wafer-thin sliver of crystal. The Pontifex and his aides took their seals around the stone table.

First the seer took the card of the High Priest. The image was one of a robed figure carrying a hammer and a book, the picture's face changed to that of the Pontifex himself. The seer placed it face up. "Your talisman I presume." It was common practice for high-ranking members of the Ecclesiarchy to take this card as their signifier, the talisman card for whom the reading was to be made.

The seer's laboured breathing became rhythmic as he attuned his senses, then with careful precision the old man laid seven cards face down on the table. Two inside a circle of five. The reading proper had begun.

In a trance he addressed the onlookers. "We stand alone facing the universe and seek the path of wisdom. Each card has its cosmic meaning, for humanity, for this world and for each individual present." The old seer began the reading with a prayer.

"I invoke thee, beloved Emperor. Infuse these cards that I might attain true insight of things hidden, to thy greater glory and the salvation of humanity." He turned the cards, one by one, studying the changing face of each one as he did. Finally he spoke.

"Your true self, the Heretic, but inverted." The Pontifex drew in a sharp breath and shuffled uneasily in his seat at the implications. The others looked unsettled too. "Do not judge the cards until all is revealed", warned the old seer. He turned the next card.

"Your perceived self, the Kraken. Two cards of the Discordia Arcana lying together…" the seer pronounced wanly. Discordia — the Arcana of threats and enemies, around the table suspicions were further aroused and nervous glances exchanged. The Pontlfex had recently preached against the dangers of idolatry in the light of the worshipping of four-armed gods by Thalla's native tribesmen. Yet still the Emperor was trying to warn those present. Beneath the table, the seer secretly eased off the safety-catch on his laspistol…

The Emperor's Wisdom

The merits of the Emperor's Tarot are the subject of fierce theological debate within the lmperium. Many of the Emperor's most dedicated servants rely upon the Tarot's prescient powers to guide their actions. They believe the Tarot is a direct channel to the Emperor's Will, that it is the Emperor himself who, through the medium of the Tarot, warns his loyal servants of threats to Mankind. Many wars have been fought on information interpreted from the Tarot, many disasters have been averted. For most this is enough evidence of the Divine nature of the Tarot, that despite being immobilised within the Golden Throne on Earth, the Emperor maintains his omniscient vigilance over his subjects, scrying the tides of fate and relating his wishes through the turn of the cards.

For some the Tarot is superstitious nonsense, a diversion from the real business of ruling the lmperium. For others it is the reader himself, not the Emperor who controls the cards. Factions of the Ecclesiarchy believe the Tarot's readings to be influenced by the Chaos Gods and that they serve as a channel for secret teachings to be handed down. Many shun their use altogether, others regard them as a dangerous heresy.

Despite these arguments the Tarot remains a popular tool among many of the lmperium's most powerful men. Planetary Governors, Imperial Guard Colonels, Inquisitors (especially those of the secretive daemon hunting Ordo Malleus), Space Marine Commanders, Prefectus of the Administratum, Chancellors and Provost Marshals all regularly look to the Tarot cards' prophetic powers for guidance.