Divinatory Sabacc Brainstorm 5/14

(originally from discord freewriting)

Four suits: Sabers, staves, flasks, and coins. These coincide with normal tarot.

[10:46 AM]

1–11 Commander (12) Mistress (13) Master (14) Ace (15)

[10:47 AM]

Face Cards (two copies): Queen of Air and Darkness (−2) Endurance (−8) Balance (−11) Demise (−13) Moderation (−14) The Evil One (−15) The Star (−17) The Idiot (0)

Some of these correspond to tarot, but not all.

[11:00 AM]

Masters are Kings, Mistresses are Queens, Commanders are Knights, Aces are Aces.

[11:06 AM]

2s-10s are the same

[11:10 AM]

but now we have 1s and 11s, which need to be designed.

[11:11 AM]

We have two variations on the Fool for The Idiot Cards: The Fool and the Follower of Fools.

[11:15 AM]

The Evil One also follows this pattern with an Evil Master and Evil Apprentice.

[11:19 AM]

(it would also be nice to include the Mortis Gods in this deck)

[11:21 AM]

Perhaps the Evil Master is the Son and the Evil Apprentice is a mortal Sith Lord.

[11:22 AM]

Demise is Merging with the Cosmic Force and Mortal Death.

[11:24 AM]

Balance comes in Healthy Equilibrium and also in Numerical Equivilence

[11:25 AM]

Endurance comes in Patience and Peace, and Pushing through pain.

[11:31 AM]

Queen of Air and Darkness comes in The Sister (Queen of Air and Darkness) and the Nightsister (Queen of Darkness and Air) (note that despite the Nightsister's dark trappings, they are not dark side wielders, they are whole force wielders, and much of their practice involves worship of the daughter and seeking retribution for her death at the hands of her brother. They worship a dead goddess.

Greater Balance or Equilibrium is The Father, Lesser Balance is Equivilence and is the Bureaucrat.

[11:55 AM]

The Star is the Life-giving Star, and the Barren Star.

[12:00 PM]

Moderation is the one Major Arcana I have yet to crack. It is related to Temperance.

called Art in the Toth tarot, diluting wine with water.

[12:19 PM]

And so it can be about proper dosage, and health. Not dissimilar from Balance. There is a repeated refrain about "not overdoing it" said by jedi masters.

[12:24 PM]

medicine? Healing? midichlorians?

[12:26 PM]

healing the self, and healing the community, and healing the galaxy, all through proper measured action. microcosm, and macrocosm.

[12:28 PM]

This represents their role as guardian, but never warrior. You can't ignore conflict and you can't engage in conflict, you must maintain the role of guardian.

[12:28 PM]

Temple Guard

[12:30 PM]

so it would be about the moderation of the individual vs the guardian of the temple and of the people.

[12:34 PM]

a temple guard with no saber drawn, but with it at his/her side if needed, standing tall keeping the peace.

[12:34 PM]

A jedi apothecary mixing healing remedies for him or herself only.

[12:37 PM]

include a Zepho or two in the designs.

[12:38 PM]

The back of the cards could be the holocron design or it could be the prime jedi design, the Force equivalent of the yin yang.

Centran Sabacc had alternate cards in the major arcana instead of doubling the others:

[12:58 PM]

The Destroyed Starship The Satellite The Wheel Chance Hazard The Universe Legate

From these, the correspondences would be:

[2:26 PM]

Destroyed Starship = The Tower

[2:26 PM]

The Wheel and chance both seem to be wheel of fortune

[2:27 PM]

the universe is the world

[2:27 PM]

Legate would be Hierophant.

[2:31 PM]

hazard = ?

The Galaxy is large and ancient and so there are many variations of sabacc. This book will primarily cover the Divinatory Sabacc as used in the Church of the Force. Other variations include Correllian Spike Sabacc deck primarily just for games of chance, but sharing the name. And Centran Divinatory Sabacc. The Centran deck has many similarities, but instead of having doubles of the major arcana, there are only one of each and they also have different cards to round out the deck. These cards were also used for divination, but often by more secular groups and not within the jedi order or church of the force. The imagery is typically more secular, and the meanings skew less toward balance and the subtler teachings of the Force.

[2:48 PM]

There is no wrong way to go about cartomancy, and we within the order believe anyone who practices is in communication with the force, therefore centran cards are no less valid than traditional diviniatory sabacc, but the messages received may be broader in scope. Most jedi sabacc cards are focused on transformation from learner to master, from local to community to galactic guardian.

[2:51 PM]

This is the meaning of the dual major arcana cards. one is the pre-transformation archetype and the other is post-transformation of the same archetype. The minor arcana represent the steps in the journey from one to the either. From Follower of Fools to Fool, from false equivilence to true balance.

I can't wait to merge this with the bits I wrote on my NEO.

[9:36 AM]

What should the 1 and 11 for each suit be? Something implying cyclicality probably.

[9:42 AM]

If 10 is completion, 11 would be searching for a new path, and 1 would be finding a new path.