So it's all over and done now! My biggest and most plot-like plot in ZFRP. I think the closest thing in scope before it would be either the FITE WEEK plots or I guess Edythplot if you get technical, but even then they are hardly anything compared to this leviathan.
And all because I thought it would be neat to do a plot based on Tarot cards.
In this here blogpost I'm going to ramble on about the plot, the characters, and the cut content to give you all an insider look to what went into the making of this big old thing. I will obviously forget stuff because I always do, but I'll try to put everything that I can remember about the plot here for your reading pleasure!
First, the plot itself.
DECKPLOT
Deckplot itself was an idea hatched from a renewed interest in the cards of the tarot deck. A long while back I created a similar organization based around colors and I've always found it interesting to theme a group around something pre-established or recognizable. That group around colors may appear in RP some day, but probably not in the same way it was envisioned and it will not mirror the Deck in any way. It's more Cu Sith than Deck.
Anyway, as the Deck started to form in my mind, I started to make the characters! Finding images and trying to think of what I wanted from each card. As I did so, I tried to keep very important things in mind, such as the highs and lows of the Society arc. The Society had a lot of characters and we really only got to know a few while at the same time being told to sympathize with all of them. While each member of the Deck would go on to have backstories and such, pacing became an important consideration and, I think even more importantly, you AREN'T supposed to feel bad for all of them. Save like, Horizon and Cord, the Society was supposed to be mostly sympathetic. The Deck is a mixed bag, and its not thrown at your face all at once. Events don't have Deck members along for the ride, the events were about that Deck member. The minor arcana were not quite as important, but the Major Arcana were given the spotlight individually to help make sure each member has character even if you are just going to kill them immediately.
Another important consideration I made was trying to make things accessible but still have depth. Overall, the theming helped immensely. Even if you walked in to an event with no foreknowledge of old events, you knew you were fighting a Tarot card and they had to die. Almost every event was made with the drop-in participant in mind, giving people who didn't follow the greater plot thread something to do. But still, The Deck overall had depth, and if you wanted to find it, you could if you looked. I tried to make sure the theming wasn't pointless either, making sure each card in the Deck had a purpose even though I was borrowing a concept. The backstory I gave about the Deck's origins meant the cards were created for reasons after all, I tried to make things believable. Tarot cards are copies of an original organization here, and each member of an organization has a role!
I also tried to avoid some of what I consider classic failings of some plot events. One being that the ending is a foregone conclusion and you are just doing busywork before someone preordained to end it steps in. I wanted to value the participation of the people who came along, with events sometimes shifting based on a single character's words. Andromalus almost turned himself over without a fight! Attica was almost a full cackling bitch! And I've already said in chat before that Shimmer was not meant to be saved, and the cards in the protagonist Deck members were planned to stay there! Events changed in reaction to characters and it was never "We go to fight the Tower and so-and-so character is guaranteed a climactic kill". I always felt that robbed everyone else of contributing to the event, even if it did seem "thematic".
Another thing I tried to avoid is the villain going "Ha ha ha! You acted exactly as I wanted to and furthered my plan!" While there were times the Kobbers made mistakes, like their handling of Andromalus and Victoria, the Deck was always pushed back by Kobber involvement. The Deck was aware of the threat of the Kobbers, and save a few members, they knew they had to act around them. Very few had delusions of being BETTER than the Kobbers, or stronger, save ones like Suncrusher who though they were better than everyone. Ixael's himself was extremely stressed by how far back the Kobbers kept setting him.
I also made sure no event was pointless! Filler events are drags, especially to read for people who had no involvement in them. Events pushed things forward, every time a Deck member died the Deck was set back and the plot was closer to ending. We never fought a villain who got away, and if someone did get away, there were other losses so that the event itself wasn't a pointless venture.
Moving on from bad stuff I tried to avoid, good things I tried to do was give a lot of variety to the events. Quite a few did boil down to just battles, but events like The Forgotten, Lovers, the Hermit, Justice's riddles, I tried to do different things with them so it's not all the same thing repeated.
Overall, I wanted Deckplot to be a proper farewell to the world of Porphyrion. No regrets about leaving the fantasy setting. We fought dragons, religious cults, and half-breeds, we saw the relationship between off-worlders and natives explored, the whole plot was about magic itself! Since we were leaving the setting the next year, we got to enjoy a lot of it at least through Deckplot.
I don't know how much more I can say about "I had a cool idea and made stuff about it," so let's move on to taking a look at each Deck Member/event. I'm just gonna give the basic rundown on each, their creation, scrapped ideas, the works. I'll try to keep this from becoming absurdly long.
DR. SATAN
The Devil
The only member of the major arcana to be from third party media. Mostly because he wasn't originally planned with the Deck in mind! The Deck idea came after the FITE WEEK 2 ideas, and for a while I was actually trying to find someone else to be the Devil. Although no character ever emerged before Dr. Satan filled the role, I did find a picture I almost used for The Devil:
I didn't come up with the ideas for each card's event until every member was set in stone, so this guy here never got a story. Dr. Satan was the choice as the Deck grew out of concept phases, and he served the valuable role of being the kick in the pants needed to make the Deck become visible. Aggressive recruiting tactics necessitated by member death! Dr. Satan wasn't just squeaked in thoughtlessly though, I made sure he would work before I put him in. He "died" in his fite with Hubert, but that was his host body Steve Wachowski, and it wasn't until Dr. Satan died as actual Satan that he was discarded. One thing I considered but quickly abandoned was having his minion Krongarr be a retroactive Deck member, but unlike Satan, Krongarr's corpse was accounted for and clearly not magisploded. Satan had fallen back into the hell chasm and was out of sight when he burst into his card.
Unfortunately, dying before Deckplot kicked off means there is little to say about Dr. Satan here in reference to it. Dr. Satan was my plan for the FITE WEEK endboss first and foremost, although I did like the idea of an obvious villain in the bar. I imagine he was just put up with for Fite's sake though, so any interesting action regarding Satan LITERALLY being in the bar was spared by actions informed by the meta. The only cut content I can think of for FITE WEEK 2 in reference to the Doc was that he almost had an army of nazi zombies as well, to complete the references to the Haunted World of El Superbeasto.
We didn't fite them because Satan fite was already going to be big enough without an army to wade through. Sadly, the event is too far back in memory for me to dredge up anything else. Besides, we're here for Deckplot, so let's move on to the REAL start of things, excluding that end of the year plot tease: Andromalus.
ANDROMALUS
Magician
Name Origin: Bree caught on quickly to the obvious meaning of the name basically being Bad Man, Andro=Man, Malus=Malice, but it is also a name close to one of the demons of the Ars Goetia, which is where I draw my demon mythos from. Count Andromalius. Andromalius is one of the many demons holding a serpent for some reason! I had hoped a transparent name would help with drumming up suspicion, but Andromalus's true nature was revealed much slower than intended!
The wizard who cursed Edyth... a man who we were never supposed to meet! In Edyth's plot I wanted to emphasize that not every villain could be fought, no doubt something Sine would lose her mind over, and both the sorcerer who cursed Edyth and the assassin who killed her mother would be people we never knew, a reality of being important in a violent world. But! I changed that, at least with the wizard.
Andromalus was the first member of the Deck whose nature was revealed, although it was still a mystery then. His first mention was as Kalisha's new beau, which was done so I could get Sanura into existence as the next of the Infusion line. Why? Because I almost killed off Kalisha! Grimsley was initially planned to succeed in his goal, although there was also the Gallows that almost killed her. I decided against it because orphaning Sanura would be heartless! Instead, Sanura is left with a deadbeat dead dad.
Andromalus was my attempt at doing something we don't really do, the villain being chummy first and a villain later. Unlike Dr. Satan who was obviously evil, Andromalus was not so outwardly bad, and despite his vendetta against Solomand and Sagas, he wanted to be a good man. Razaan later pulled a similar thing although he was also obviously evil. Andromalus did have hints of his second nature, the demon summoning being the most obvious, and I kind of wish he had been uncovered without so directly making it obvious. It was quite a chore to make sure Edyth, Everett, and Andromalus were never together in the bar since they'd all out each other.
Andromalus was also a nice way to push from Edythplot over to Deckplot, which was something Looney Land did as well. We got the King of Solomand freed, we had a true climactic battle with Furfur, and Andromalus wasn't entirely a bad guy! One thing I tried to emphasize was the importance of interaction. As people talked to him, he almost turned himself in, he almost had the fight right there at the gallows, and ultimately he was convinced to wipe the land clean of two kingdoms and then die, taking the Deck card down with him. During the climactic fight in Solomand, there was originally another demon that was going to be present, especially since kidnapping Edyth was also a variable dependent on interaction. Edyth would have been surprised to see the demon Marchosias, the demon who inhabited her brother's heart and who was killed by her brother, ultimately leading to his own death as well due to the heart pyramid business.
That's Marchosias. If the battle hadn't also included Foras and Andromalus, we might have fought him, but he was scrapped because Edyth was already in enough trouble without being tortured by seeing the demon who killed her brother.
My real regret about Andromalus was the slow burn. I felt I was dragging my feet or not being blatant enough, although at least we got an amusing fight with Prince Ipos out of it. Duck-lion demons are fantastic. Andromalus was later revealed to be treasonous within the Deck, hoping to keep his magical power, but it was a plan that never materialized, partly because the kick in the pants of Dr. Satan's death meant everything was in overdrive. However, his talks with people meant he wanted to stop the Deck at least, hence his sacrifice and bringing the Kobber's attention to an enemy who might not have been noticed otherwise: The Gallows.
THE GALLOWS
Hanged Man
Name Origin: As a human, the Hanged Man was named Richard, which was a play on Dick being short for Richard, because the original Hanged Man was indeed a dick.
When looking at the Hanged Man, the only real parts that were changed about it were numbers. The health system I used for the tree was difficult to pin down and it ended up dying quicker than expected. Which is where the other numbers came in, because there were six people who could have died that day! See, The Hanged Man, before being a tree, was a notorious criminal who had reached the end of his rope. He was set to be hanged by the then much younger Wenceslas the XVIth, and Ixael offered Richard a way to live "forever" and to stab at the mayor who would serve as his executioner even in death. Richard was hanged, but the card of the Hanged Man allowed his mind to pass into the tree that served as the gallows. Later, when kicked into life by Andromalus being hanged, the gallows lashed out at people who both Richard and Andromalus despised or wanted dead. Richard had his grudge against the old mayor, and Andromalus had a grudge against his executioner
Wenceslas the Younger, residents of Solomand Barnabas and Edyth, and people with ties to the Deck in Everett and Kalisha.
Although this isn't quite what Richard looked like in life, this is the closest I found. Imagine no snake on the eyepatch, rural clothes, and unkempt hair on this guy though, and he's a dead on look-alike. The Hanged Man is not much of a character worth investigating though, and his crimes are not worth mentioning. I had hoped the Gallows would last long enough to take down Barnabas though, because I wanted the procession of Wenceslas (Older)->Barnabas->Wenceslas (Younger) ->Edyth->Kalisha-> Everett to at least get past the first to fall. the order was very much chosen with room for error (the first three) and then based on who had a story left, with Edyth's basically wrapped up, Kalisha having a few more things to do, and Everett planned for future Deck events, but I would have killed them all if we got that far :V Got to be flexible!
The Gallows did meet its end though, its card having no one to pass to. Even though Robin got the final shot, it was Andromalus's curse cast as he died that ensured the Hanged Man would have no one to pass too. Andromalus was dead, so the card had nowhere to go when the curse actually killed the tree.
We will skip Looney Land for now, touching on them when we get to Suit Wrap-Ups, which means our next event is...
LA PANCES
The High Priestes
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Name Origin: La Pances is a traditional name for the High Priestess in reference to Tarot, but it also means stomach or gullet, hence La Pances's power to suck people into her dark void of a gullet!
La Pances became more sympathetic than intended, to the point she wasn't killed when I thought she would be. Unlike some other cases of that (looking at you Shimmer), I elected to remove La Pances from the equation because I don't feel her story had anywhere to go that wouldn't be sad. The truth of the Church of Unity would come out, her message undermined, and she'd fight a battle to gain respect for her religion she could no longer win. La Pances's story was my way of deconstructing the rampant gods across Porphyrion. Who do you worship when there are thousand gods? Especially when those gods are so selective. After seeing her goddess die, La Pances made a religion to emphasize people, but she had to use her Deck powers to give it the necessary kickstart,
and soon she was forced to use her church in the Deck's recruitment plans.
One thing I had planned that didn't work out was how the bar would learn of the Church of Unity. I thought they'd go in the front door, after which a devout ogre would ask them to wear the masks and robes out of respect for the worshipers even if they didn't believe in the message. I wanted to humanize the cult a bit, but Charlie and Lyssia went for the sneaky approach so instead we got none of that.
I did quite like the idea behind the race known as Daughter of Kerris. People with faces for mouth who could suck you into a world of unending darkness. Could have been terrifying on a meaner character :P
The High Priestess event was what was meant to make the Deck theming obvious. A High Priestess, a Hierophant, and outright portrayal of the Suit of Swords would make the then somewhat ambiguous association with Tarot obvious.
Most of the High Priestess was done as planned, but the Hierophant...
HIEROPHANT
The Spider Priest
Name Origin: The Spider Priest was never given a human name, mostly to emphasize his monstrosity and otherness. He has a name in his own language, but we aren't supposed to sympathize with this character!
Fun Fact: The Hierophant almost entered the Big Bar Brawl! Or at least, I wanted to enter him, because I loved his design SO much. A spider pope! What's not to love? Of course, it made no sense and I would hate to pull a character out of nowhere for some big meaningful event like the Brawl. That's what the Mystery Fiter's for :V
So, after toying with that idea and dropping it, the spider priest was relegated to creating the Suit of Swords. The priest was actually once a proud member of a large race of spider people, but some humans burned down his home forest, and not without good reason. The spider people were murderous monsters, and the Spider Priest kept that even as he joined the Deck. He hated humans, and he wanted his revenge, so using the powers of the Hierophant he sought to rebuild his race so he could go back and kill the humans who killed his people.
He didn't get too far there, although he had a decent sized spider army! I still immensely regret Aria could not attend, it might have had a character we haven't really seen have some sort of character moment.
The Hierophant was that necessary anchor to make the Church of Unity unsympathetic. The message was nice, but between coercion, cult-like trappings, and the Ascension going on in the back room, the church had to fall. I imagine if La Pances's void face was shown that would have helped too, but spider priest with spider army seemed like enough!
More on spider hybrids when we reach the Suits. For now, say bye bye to the spider pope.
JUSTICE
Saint Aaron
Name Origin: Originally named Saint Aran as a joke at Samus's expense, I switched it back to Aaron to maintain the meaning and avoid a pointless joke. Named to match the Catholic Saint Aaron, a hermit saint who saw many visitors, and tied to Aaron, Moses's brother, a holy figure who almost undermined Moses much like Justice almost always undermines Judgment.
We met Saint Aaron well after his life had gone by, the spirit of the saint trapped to haunt his own tomb and the entrance to the Wheel's cavern. I did not have a decent picture of Aaron at the time, and I'm still not happy with the one I found because it looks like Saint Patrick.
But this is basically how Saint Aaron looked in life if you remove the iconography. A priest of a small village, the saint was appalled when a ruthless gang cleared out the entire town and moved on to do so elsewhere, avoiding the eyes of God and never brought to justice... until a god-like being gave Aaron the ability to dish out Justice himself. Justice can weigh the hearts of men and find who is worthy, a job meant to help Judgment pick cards who will not undermine him, but Justice itself can see Judgment's heart and often betrays Judgment. So, Aaron was sealed in a tomb to ensure he could both stay alive as the card of Justice and not try to stop Ixael's plans. 1000 riddles were his shackles, and if people came to answer the riddles with pride or arrogance in their heart, they'd find their answers would dry up before they could open the tomb. Justice's powers were no longer his to control.
The riddles were an interesting way to add something to RP we don't do often: solve riddles! Riddles with easy answers that don't require obtuse thinking. Many plot riddles, even in major fiction, only make sense because the characters are written by people who know the answers. These riddles not only were constructed to be solved easily, but they had a theme to them so you could glean the answers even if you only got two. Elements and the Wheel, which ended up applying to the dragons we found, and even before that we knew we were going to the Wheel. I wrote the riddles myself! I almost gave them a test run on my facebook but I never got around to it, so it was good they were all solvable without me giving it away!
The first non-protagonist truly sympathetic Deck Member I feel, La Pances not really seeming to fall into the fold because she did basically start a cult.
THE WHEEL
Aironimie
Name Origin: A corruption of Aeronomy, the name for the study of the upper atmosphere and a name tying into the dragon's wind powers.
The Wheel was similar to the Hierophant in that they were the more primal, monstrous members of the Deck. The Wheel itself is an important tool, used to pull Actaeus by a long magical thread to the planets that are ready to feed the World, and the dragon given the card was appointed to be its protector. The four dragons who guarded the wheel also found their origins in the rampant gods of the world, for the four dragons were supposed to command the elements, but so many other gods lay claim to the same thing that they found no dominion. The dragons agreed to join the Deck in the hopes when the world was drained of its magic, they could defeat the depowered gods and finally achieve the respect they desired.
Many Deck members didn't realize death was the destiny for most members of the Deck.
I can't say there was anything specific about Aironimie that didn't make it in, but I do feel his accomplice dragons were kinda killed off too quickly.
THE HERMIT
Herman
Name Origin: The Hermit had been in hermitage so long and cut off from the world for so long that he had forgotten his own name. Being cute, he picked a name close to Hermit that would be harder to forget.
An alien who wanted to test the limits of artificial life, the Hermit sought solitude on Porphyrion and found it when the card make him a hermitage to reside in. Trying to create an artificial ecosystem for his swamp, who soon craved freedom as the Deck took his creations and turned them into foot soldiers. Even his anti-Deck weapons of the Protogator and the bomb were turned into tools of the Deck!
The Hermit would serve as the all important info-dump to get the meaningful information about the Deck out besides what Guiren would tell us. Guiren would tell us the Deck's motives while Hermit would tell us the Deck members. His plot was supposed to be something different, more akin to the Wheeler plots where it was about moving through a place with hazards rather than real combat, but even the Wheeler plots ended with a boss. Protogator was almost scrapped for the sake of variety, but you do usually need some form of big enemy. I feel bad I said non-combatants could come along since it was supposed to be more about a forest of obstacles rather than the combat oriented affair it became. The robots where supposed to die much faster, and the frog robots did nothing!
Still, in the end the Hermit achieved his purpose and got his card yanked out by Odelia. I toyed with the idea of the card being redistributed, but it seemed like an extra layer of complexity and left it in Odelia's care instead to go down with her. If we talk more with Shimmer, we might learn more about the Hermit since he would talk her ear off. Maybe he regrets his part in what happened to Shimmer? At least Shimmer didn't blame him.
THE FORGOTTEN
The Moon
Name Origin: A group of astronauts forgotten on a dead moonbase, that name should be obvious enough. Gerald Hansen's name only really appeared in RP because Chao asked, but he was tied to very same Hansen who founded the company that was taken over by the four old men to dig in the nail of how ruthless the corporate world could be.
Let me tell ya, I got nervous whenever the moon came up in RP. In fact, when Deck plot itself was in my mind, I got nervous whenever a boss from House of the Dead was used in the BBBP. Luckily, the origin of the Deck allows other people to use it as their theme, although they are doing it to copy the Deck whereas the Deck came before Tarot ever existed.
Anyway, The Moon being untouched was incredibly important because of the concept of the Forgotten. You would think there would be more people trying to make permanent connections with Porphyrion for profit's sake, so I came up with the ultimate reason why they don't.
The Forgotten was an idea that swam around in my head a lot, and it was very vivid, especially the part where the last escape pod took off as desperate people were falling out to their doom on the moon. I don't know if I wrote it as well as I had wished, but I don't think I left anything out.
My regret with this plot is it was basically a tour plot. Things were going to happen and everyone else was there to witness it. I hope it was interesting enough to excuse that, and it had the important reveal that Everett was in the Deck!
Gerald's story was told well enough that I won't go over it here, although the four old men were developed further beyond being too old to worry about to try and finally curb Sine's insane vengeance craze. I do wish I had remembered to have Everett look at the moon more, although Full Moons are rare in real life too. The Moon was the ultimate test of Everett's resolve as well, and we've already seen the strongman haunted by what he did there still. All in all, it was very much a character moment and a story telling outing. I feel like combat would have undermined it, but I still wish I had given folks more to do there.
ODELIA
The Chariot
Name Origin: Odelia means Praise God, a name tied to her veneration for Ixael.
Moving from the sympathetic to the easily hated, we reach Odelia! But the Chariot wasn't always meant for Odelia, say hello to the original Chariot!
Mr. Scales and Sarah! Mr. Scales was the Chariot himself, using the child as a decoy to keep the heat off him. Just as despicable as Odelia, Mr. Scales would have used the child as his shield, and she hardly had the voice to speak up against it. It would have been a test of the Kobbers to see how far they'd go to stop the Deck and if they'd catch on that something was up. I wouldn't force anyone to kill the kid, but hey, if people tried...
Mr. Scales would have been the true chariot and in the Deck doing what Odelia did basically, but with less motive. Odelia herself was a baroness of a kingdom that hinged on its dragons. The Queen herself kept the powerful dragons like the Libra Dragon and Taurus Dragons by her side as the Baroness was forced to oversee the breeding of low dragons like her own chariot dragons. Odelia hated her position in the world, so when a god-like being dropped in offering her more, she did not object at all. Turning the dragons against the queen, Odelia took over the kingdom and converted the more powerful dragons to serve under her.
Odelia had the valuable power of reshuffling, which we only ever saw on the Hermit although Guiren, Jokerton, and Everett could have been victims. Had Odelia lasted a bit longer, she would have killed herself with that thrusting of the Hermit card in to join the Chariot, an explosion akin to the Hermit's forest expanding outward. She was killed before that could happen!
Odelia herself was made so despicable to counteract the growing number of Deck Members who were good guys gone bad and such. The Deck did have some legitimately bad members! And this power-hungry dragon tamer was one of them!
GUIREN
Temperance
Name Origin: Guiren's name means "valuing benevolence", a name in line with his answering of the questions of anyone who asked him in order to better the world.
One wise panda, Guiren's name appeared early in the year when Ricard poked around for answers on Ixael. Had he gone deeper, Ricard would have probably lead us to Guiren instead of Jokerton and Everett.
Guiren was originally planned to have a one on one with Santos where he tried to pull characterization from the Ghost so we could better know the character with secret depths, but since Del showed zero interest in the plot, I never even attempted this. Santos would have been asked to kill Guiren after the conversation, a job later filled by Samus.
Guiren was a somewhat regular panda was a curious mind, and the offer of the knowledge he sought was too great to pass up. Of course, when he could see the whole universe, it proved too much for him to live with. He wrote the stories he wanted the world to know and prepared to face his end, partly to stop the Deck, and partly to find silence.
Guiren being a panda was a choice made mostly to avoid the stereotypical wise old guy. I wanted him to be something exotic and unusual, and I must admit WoW's Pandaren inspired this choice in a way. As mentioned on the day of the plot, Guiren could not have been saved unless they wanted Jokerton or Everett to be chased instead. I was glad Guiren was able to help some other plots along like Razaanplot and Metroidplot before being discarded.
GRIMSLEY
Death
Name Origin: Oh, I dunno, maybe him being a little grim reaper and having Grim in his name is related in some way? Either way, it was a name he took on after death, and becoming Death, to better fit the role. Just like Herman, any name from before was lost.
Grimsley was fun to write :3 Mostly because of his emoticon gimmick and just being a delightful kid! Although his story of an orphan put on the street to die was sad, he was a cheery character who loved death! He was tasked with killing Kalisha, the Infusion, to give the planet enough magical energy to feed Actaeus. Incidentally, it was because of Grimsley that Ixael could revive dead villains to become Kings, the little grim reaper able to take souls over from the other side and Ixael able to give them new bodies made of dark magic and the cards. Without Grimsley, he could no longer bring back old villains!
As mentioned earlier, Grimsley was actually going to straight up kill Kalisha, or, alternatively, Kalisha was going to use her magic to kill Grimsley and get torn apart by the Gods for misusing her magic. Instead, we got a fight in the swamp with the little skeleton and his pets. I was a bit surprised Grimsley earned some instant hate for his talking style, and also surprised he wasn't attacked immediately! If he had been, he would have pulled what was his trump card earlier, turning into the giant intimidating skeleton... only to pop back into small form to continue talking!
The chibi skeleton was interesting way to do the tired concept of a somber figure of death. We've seen so many straight portrayals of death in RP, I thought for the card of Death we'd do something different!
DELILAH
The Lovers
Name Origin: Jacob and Delilah are both biblical names. Delilah's name comes from how the biblical Delilah used love to weaken a man, and how Delilah was to use love to weaken the Kobbers. Jacob's name was chosen because of the story where Jacob marries Leah, a woman who was not what he expected. Delilah was definitely not what Jacob expected!
Once, two beings like scarecrows met and fell in love. Jacob was smitten with Delilah and her with him, but as their relationship began, Jacob became overwhelmed by the possessive and domineering Delilah. Her true colors began to show as she suspected Jacob of leaving her, and Jacob could not bring himself to leave her because he still believed the girl he fell in love with was still in there. This came to a point where Delilah took the card of the Lovers to make sure her love would never leave her, and before Jacob could object, his soul was bound to Delilah's, and her personality pushed into his mind and kept him complacent until the ties were severed.
A tragic love story, the Lovers could not truly bind souls like they were meant to and induce harmony. Instead, they created the Dark Void to replace the hermitage a safe place for the Deck to meet.The Lovers plot was the only plot I really needed certain people for, and I am so glad I got them! I chose three couples I knew could survive the pressure, and the event helped strengthen the relationships and shine some light on two pairs who were fading out (Dirksephine and Leodyth). It also had the unintended consequence of making Ricard/Siren into more than just chatzy talk!
These couples were picked specifically because I knew they could take the pressure and I wanted them to look awesome for it! Couples like Dakota/Hansel were considered, but their insecurities could have made things actually go terribly wrong! And for Cauren/Sine, well, I don't want to even get near that mess! So, The Lovers kept their original targets, gained a relationship that barely existed, and had Mikey tag along! The Lovers was a combat event of a different color, but there is something I must say...
Writing their voices was EXHAUSTING. The constant separation between sentences of the borders made it tedious to write them. It was a cute idea, but not fun in practice!
SUNCRUSHER
The Sun
Name Origin: Named after a name I used in Star Wars Battlefront as a play off of Starkiller/Skywalker, Suncrusher very much lived up to his name as well!
Originally planned as a protagonist! Suncrusher existed before most Deck members, maybe even Dr. Satan, as an idea of a super evil galaxy destroying guy who would drop in the bar Erebus style to see how our group would handle such a character after 2013 quickly became a cast of very agreeable characters. Suncrusher himself would be fresh off the heels of some sun crushing when his giant space snake, then named Promothea and much larger than the ZFS and able to sustain a whole city on its frill, crashed down and needed time to recover. Suncrusher would have been nearly indestructible, but any damage he did take would be permanent. He wouldn't die on missions, but if he lost his arm, it was likely he'd never get it back.
Instead, Suncrusher was turned into a villain, one of the most if not the most powerful Deck member. If he had been given the power of Strength, he would be a villain so incredibly powerful it would be complete bullshit. This guy broke planets apart after all, without the card! Ixael putting The Sun in him was very much a way to make sure he didn't break Porphyrion!
Born on a star, Suncrusher was once just that glowing light body we saw him as near the end. The sunchild was on a star patrolled by the flying serpent Cotopaxi, and he began to make himself strong to try and leave the star and defeat Cotopaxi. Galunggung was a being on the star he trained against, the young sunchild hurling himself at the creature until he finally beat it and brought it along with him as a trophy of his strength. Beating Cotopaxi into submission, he rode the serpent through the stars destroying entire galaxies before he ended up joining the Deck.
Bitter for not receiving the more powerful Strength card, Suncrusher met his end when Utsuho totally kicked his butt.
EMPEROR KARL
The Emperor
Name Origin: A popular name of Austrian kings, Karl's name goes back to the name it was pulled from, Charles, a name that might have come from a word meaning army, representing his massive army building power. It was a bit of a stretch, but Charles was hardly an Emperor name I felt so I pushed it further.
The guy who kicked off Deckplot for real post Looney Land. One of the biggest faces and voices in Deck meetings.
And he almost didn't get his own event. Planned to be lumped together in the finale with the suit of cups and Snowfall, Karl's event was originally scrapped for fear of not having enough time for it. Things worked out though, and we got an epic castle siege, an attack on a kingdom straight out of a fantasy novel!
Although, like, the Looneys were there too, so maybe not QUITE straight out of one.
Once the governor of the Isle of Shuffal (Shuffal, Shuffle, get it? The Deck?), Karl was given the power he craved by Ixael to build his own empire with an endless army he could regenerate at will. However, the army only went as far out as he could see, but moving with such a massive force was still intimidating. Still, he found it much easier to scoop up the weak kingdoms because of this since he could not split his forces to attack multiple places or hold long offensives.
He did manage to take over Looney Land, scoop up Sagas, and claim the island of Myros, the island where Tut-tut, WALL!!, and Meat Boy had their fite the year before. He also had many unnamed claims of course, but that all fell when he was defeated by the siege on Shuffal.
Luckily, we won't need a huge section here talking about how the siege was scrapped, so instead we can enjoy it became more than it almost wasn't! Leonard Looney never did whip out that lunchbox with Razaan's death blast in it though...
THE TOWER
No name origin here or anything
The Tower, usually an actual tower, is Actaeus's way of scouting out worlds for magic it can feed on. When the bounty board was first put up in the Drunken Gryphon, stone giants were mentioned, a reference to Shadow of the Colossus for anyone who wanted to chase them down and have an awesome battle. Later, with no one claiming them, they became the children of the Tower, but they were cleaned up off-screen by Faith as a way to explain her absence. Faith was actually supposed to return at some point this year, but I had a piece of art being made of her by a friend and they STILL haven't followed through.
No more art commissions! Feels like money down a drain...
Anyway, the Tower was always meant to be fought on Actaeus no matter who else ended up there as well. The Tower had to be activated though, it can't give birth to stone babies while in combat mode, and it can't fight while an actual tower. The switch happened in defense of the Kobber offensive, but the Tower WAS supposed to be invincible. Only by uprooting him would he be defeated, since otherwise his body would be tied to Actaeus and thus protected by the same shield of invincibility!
The Tower almost ran on the health system from the Gallows, the Gallows being a test run of the system of sorts. Decided against it because of the invincible nature while connected/not being able to settle on a nice number. Also, it might weaken a final battle to know your are only chipping at a guy the moment you roll a number instead of scoring an important hit.
IXAEL
Judgment
Name Origin: Ven almost hit on it, but its basically Nixael, or Not an Angel. His demonic side and ultimately destructive intentions contrast with the fact he considered his goal noble.
The face of the Deck, the one who decides the cards and does most of the legwork. Ixael could have shown up during other major boss fights, but there was never one on the world destroying level that would have needed his intervention.
A giant demon with 20 swords and a long centipede body, Ixael was a monstrous being. However, being in service to Actaeus for the history of the universe, watching as worlds changed after he left them, he began to believe stealing a planet's magic to be a beneficial thing. But as time wore on, he saw that magic-stealing wasn't sustainable. He created the Infusion as well as a successor in Attica, but it wasn't until the Kobber forces did he realize how pointless his mission was. Each loss made Ixael more and more depressed and frustrated until the final one led to his suicide. Bad end for a bad guy.
Because he was so incredibly important to the Deck, he almost served as a way to drum up heel heat for the Deck. For example: the Kings event was almost held on Dakota, and Ixael would start the battle by ripping out Dakota's "soul", making it so her real self would be trapped in her little avatar and North Dakota would be a giant floating husk! Yay~
Scrapped because Ixael wasn't THAT evil, fighting on Dakota didn't work, and Osaal already victimized Dakota.
VICTORIA/ATTICA
The Empress
Name Origin: Victoria is a queenly name, but beating her would also prove to be the Kobbers' victory over the Deck. Attica's name ties in with Actaeus, with Attica being named after Actaeus and being his legacy in greek history.
A woman with the power to make anyone do what she liked with her words. A power incredibly interesting to face but requiring a dumb write-out near the end. The fact she could tell everyone to just kill themselves would kinda ruin things, but it was a necessary power to keep the Deck under wraps until plot points could be revealed. Besides, at the end, she wasn't even sure if she should be alive.
Still, the final battle with her would always involve someone being turned against the Kobbers, the original plan being Reject being forced to fight them instead of the three redeemed Deck members.
Victoria's lack of a backstory before the reveal was meant to be a hint that she was created like Ixael and the Tower, and her robes had stars to hint at her tie to the World. Since Actaeus itself could hardly fight, Attica was the real final boss, and I still don't think the reveal went as well as it could have. Still, Victoria did what was planned, although if she had been killed on Kings day it sure would have been an anticlimax :V I might have just removed the Attica aspect entirely.
Andromalus himself was meant to teach the listen to not just blindly trust a villain's telling the truth or being genuine. Not to spare someone just because they did evil things and seem sorry. He was the warning of what would happen with Victoria, and it didn't pay off. Arthur only attacked under my order after all.
Wait... AM I VICTORIA D:
Nah, thanks Chao for helping things along.
ACTAEUS
The World
Name Origin: Taken from a list of suggested names for Porphyrion, Actaeus's name's meaning didn't come in to play until his daughter Attica came from it.
My second living planet in RP! This one isn't quite as mobile as Rafflesia, it couldn't move its land around like Dakota either. It was incredibly dependent on the Deck.
A magical being created when the universe was born, Actaeus created the Deck to make feeding easier, but as the universe grew in age, it grew to resist its existence. The Deck grew too big for its own good, and Actaeus was pushed back from a planet who decided to destroy their own magic rather than let the World consume it. Starving, Porphyrion was Actaeus's last hope, and the Kobbers just so happened to be visiting...
Actaeus is the big war machine, the massive bomb, the power that makes the Deck a real threat. It can think, but it thinks like an animal, and it has no true personality. It is focused on living, which it failed to do! Although Bill did the test strike I expected on Actaeus, I originally thought it might be some sort of space armada who tried, almost akin to the kind Ven used to bomb the other side of the planet. I also somewhat expected a wulf character to do the planet exploding overpowered super biz bit like they usually do, but I was actually quite happy that someone else got a shot for once :V
Attica was actually sort of a fail-safe if there were no planet-explody options available. She'd drain the planet so much just by existing that Actaeus would die! Instead, we got the combined blow to the World that ended Deck plot!
Well, those where the Major arcana...
Wait, that's right. There were three pretty important members I haven't addressed yet...
EVERETT LARIMAR
Strength
Name Origin: Everett of Larimar, his last name basically his home town. Larimar is a type of rare blue gem befitting a town that deals in rare, highly valued jewels. Everett's name was taken from Everard, the name used for the character in his art, but it basically means Strong as a Wild Boar. An appropriate name for THE STRONGEST MAN IN ARDEA! Still hasn't had that ego check of a failure yet.
Everett. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!
Ahem... The original plan for Everett, Jokerton, every deck member was permadeath. Although there was a way out for one. Phantomon still has his wish from Arceus, and he could have been persuaded to save one person, in fact, he was standing by in case Victor joined the Deck when Andromalus offered the King of Wands. Instead, new solutions were found, and Everett and Jokerton never did a dramatic self sacrifice right at the end to make sure Actaeus could be destroyed. They would have clasped hands and everything!
Anyway, I won't give the backstory on this guy. I gave it last night in SRS RP. I will say he almost valued life out of cowardice instead of a bad experience in his youth. It would have been his fear of his own death since the card meant no afterlife, but Everett, by the time he touched down in RP, was taken away from that and had his new backstory.
Everett was the ultimate test of the relations between Star People and Natives.The hard hitter in that department, although I found his hatred for magic overemphasized right off the bat when he was all like MAGIC IS FOR THE WEAK! He would still hate magic, I just didn't expect it to be addressed so quickly :P
Fun Fact: The pyrotechnic clown from his circus was a character I considered RPing! He wouldn't talk, but he'd be both serious and funny. Almost like a Jokerton with a sense of humor.
That never came to pass, and the entirety of Everett's circus is kaput.
Everett himself earned a lot of ire for daring to be a bar member who wasn't agreeable. Bringing up the uncomfortable subjects can do that! Still, I wanted a cerebral character who wouldn't march in step just because the Kobbers claimed to be a general force of good. Making the strongman smart was the ironic canvas for such things! Everett has mostly been turned away from his initial views, still not liking magic and still uncomfortable with star people, but if he gets that ambassador job, he may end up even liking them and valuing their contributions to the world!
Everett has been set to have his ego checked by losing a test of strength, but he keeps winning, which makes sense really. He didn't get the ego from being talentless, but he at least realizes he's being full of himself now and is trying to turn it down. He never will be comfortable with killing one's enemies though, some things can't be changed and really shouldn't.
If you go back and read some early posts, you'll see some small hints before the big twist of his involvement in the Deck. He mentions understanding Penko's situation more than he knows, as well as threatening to "take the gloves off" next time he fights the Haruspookies. Overall, he was meant to be the big twist, although he was also a character who caused a huge moral throw down during his time there. I had wanted him to be a bit more likable in case he did have to make the sacrifice, but c'est l'avie!
Sadly, I can't think of much scrapped about this guy. He's had a huge presence in RP this year, so I've got to do most of what I've wanted to with him!
JOKERTON
The Fool
Name Origin: Joke-a-ton, Jokerton was a name my brother and I made up in this thing we do where we corrupt words to make them sound odd. During one such back and forth, jokes became "works of a jokerton", the absurdity of a longer name for a simple thing stuck well enough for a while and informed a Mii name that I carried over to this character.
Jokerton, unlike Everett, went through A LOT more changes. Originally, the emotionless was a facade! Jokerton would be manipulating the emotions of the bargoers into helping him, and he would lure them to the Wheel where he would stab them in the back and laugh maniacally as the truth came to life! He would basically lead them to their death! He also wouldn't have been the King of Looney Land in this case, just a prisoner who was put in prison for his murderous antics.
Instead, I became enamored with the idea of Jokerton the emotionless. True emotionlessness. The sad clowns been done, but Jokerton is the complete removal of emotions. No wants, no pain, and his biology is able to sustain itself because of Looney biology. Even robots often move with purpose. Jokerton hears he is supposed to do stuff and does so. It was an idea that fascinated me but made his dialogue hard to write. Got to avoid those exclamation points and "want" words!
Jokerton instead got his own arc instead of being a backstabber, a Looney without a laugh, a King who can't serve his kingdom. Looneys are incredibly goofy, the royalty a little less so, but they need a great infusion of joy early in life to become wacky. However, to make sure Looneys don't become insane, they are born emotionless. A regular mind would make Looneys become crazy, their bodies defying physics and pushing them to evil levels greater than Leonard or Koo Koo even touched! Koo Koo himself was incredibly angry, which made him a terrible Looney and a despot. If he had ever pushed his advantage by being big, he could have been incredibly dangerous! Don't give anger to Looneys, joy is what they need!
I almost had it where Jokerton would find his emotions when he laughed, a.k.a. where something so funny in RP got real me to laugh out loud! I didn't do that in the end. No offense guys :V
Jokerton will hopefully find his smile by the end of the year. Until then, enjoy his emotionless antics while they last! Doing incredibly goofy things as the straight man to yourself is always a hoot!
SHIMMER
The Star
Name Origin: Shimmer picked the name Shimmer for herself to match her powers, although her real name is Rita. I was flipping back and forth between giving her the name Rita and the name Margaret, names picked because their quaint nature stood in contrast with the bombastic skater girl.
Well.
She was interesting.
Didn't quite plan for THAT.
I thought Shimmer's valley girl attitude would come off as annoying. The original plan for her was to have her skate in the bar and be the last arguing force for the Deck before everything went crazy. She was either going to die during the Kings event or during the final battle, either way fighting for the Deck but in the end being incredibly regretful of all she had done. She would have never been gleefully evil, always serving because of a sense of connection to Ixael, the guy she thought had saved her after she accidentally blew her village to pieces.
There is an aspect of her family life I have yet to reveal and I think I'll keep hidden for now, but obviously it has to do with that missing mother! Why do my female characters have missing moms? I bet even Dakota can't find like, England or whatever her mom would be. But! There are depths to this character left to explore, and she will be returning next year, so we shan't dig too deep.
But, she is really fun to RP, although I still don't get the intense interest with her. Like, she's super fun, but, I mean, what's so special about her? The design? The attitude?
Either way, I think I'm being won over myself, at least to keeping her around for a while. She was kind of comedy relief for the Deck with her weird attitude, and despite being shallow in personality, she's not a shallow character, so it's not like I'm parading around a substanceless skater girl.
Hope you all continue to like her!
Now then, we'll take a brief look at the Minor Arcana before wrapping up:
THE SUIT OF SWORDS
The suit of brute strength. The Warrior's suit.
Primarily consisting of spider-hybrids, the Knight and Jack of Swords were almost Super Spider Hybrids. Low attendance led to them being lumped together with the others as just kind of stronger spider guys, although the knight was planned to be a defensive big ol' brute while the Jack was gonna be kind of a springy, strong spider. Different skills than their kin but still spider people. Probably the only outright change to the suits that stayed changed, not counting the Kings. We will talk of Kings separately!
The Queen of Swords fakeout was just Looneys having fun at ya'll's expense. I probably found too awesome a picture for the fake queen though :V At least Leonard used her as a puppet briefly, but she would have been substanceless. Snowfall (OMIGOD DOG DEATH WHY) really only existed because of the hound in Karl's picture, although I was quite enamored with the idea I came up for as its power. Sword fur!
I did not give Snowfall to Gloria though, in spite of that. The temptation to give Gloria summons is hitting us all quite strongly lately, and I won't rob someone else of victory just to give a villain second life. I already had the Brawl for that :V
Was a bit sad about dog death, but Snowfall and Karl had a history. Karl's only real friend was Snowfall, the hound once a regular pup before the Queen of Swords turned her into that massive wolf. Karl's anchor as he became incredibly powerful was the only friend he kept of his old life, the pet he had when he was nothing. So, even if saved and Karl was dead, we'd still have a sad dog unfortunately.
Earlier today I heard a podcast mention Tim Burton must have a dead dog in his past due to how prominently dead dogs feature in his movies (Frankenweenie, Nightmare, Corpse Bride). I lost both of my dogs this year, so maybe that influenced me? Although, I doubt it, I think only Snowfall came after one of the dog's deaths.
THE SUIT OF COINS
The suit of the material users. Working in spite of one's parts.
Coins members are a bit more plentiful. Coins members never ran out of their energy thanks to the cards, making robots not need to charge and the lava beasts able to generate magma endlessly. The robotic slugs, dragonflies, and frogs were meant more as obstacles and as part of the Hermit's character, although we almost had four frogs when I considered scrapping Protogator.
The magma beasts, Cotopaxi (named for a volcano, originally named Promothea as a play of Promotheus the fire bringer), Cherufe (a chilean mythical creature), and Galunggung (also named after a volcano) all tie their origins to Suncrusher. I already mentioned Galunggung's backstory, the rock beast Suncrusher trained against, Cotopaxi the sun protector turned into a mount through the stars, but Cherufe was a being that impressed Suncrusher. After destroying a solar system, he found Cherufe self-regenerating in its debris, Suncrusher trying to kill him but finding the beast able to keep coming back. Suncrusher brought him aboard to serve as a way of regenerating himself, Cherufe tasked with restoring Suncrusher from everything but complete obliteration.
The battles for Suncrusher's entourage went about how I expected, although originally the battle was considered to be in the vacuum of space as Cotopaxi constricted the ZFS to try and crush it. I also almost asked Goops if Suncrusher could yank TYP-E off his rail as he entered, but didn't, and it allowed TYP-E to join the fight!
For the robots, I already said why they didn't go as expected :V Living longer than they were supposed to or doing nothing! Protogator got a good fight at least!
I briefly considered replacing the dragonflies with mosquitos, but I never found a pic I liked beyond this one:
And I didn't want the robots to be major obstacles. Blood sucking robots might end up being that!
THE SUIT OF WANDS
Users of the magical arts. Dragons dragons dragons!
It wasn't supposed to be a theme, it just kind of happened :V Dragons everywhere! Petrakur the water dragon (named after petrichor, the pleasant smell after a rainstorm), Parheelian the fire dragon (named for parhelion, a phantom sun phenomena), and Shamaul the Earth Dragon (named for Shamal, a wind that blows across the sandy persian gulf) all were on the Wheel and served as its protectors, although I think they died to quickly and I didn't get to do as much with the powers as I could have. The dragons in Odelia's company I got to have more fun with, although the Chariot Dragon's were kinda meh which is why I let two die ignominiously to lessen the numbers for the later event.
In the end, lots of dragons, lot of interesting powers! Except those chariot dragons. They were just dragons. I do wish Libra dragon had used its power of balancing shifts more, and the Taurus Dragons lasted longer than expected, and I think the shadow dragons powers came off badly...
I self doubt a lot!
THE SUIT OF CUPS
Users of Mind Games. They'll make your mind hurt!
Before I decided on each suit having themes, this suit was gonna be filled with the halflings who served Melvin Underbelly! Ultimately, the Looney Guardsmen, Leonard, and Grimsley's pets all connected to the theme I came up with for cups, so those hobbits are still out in the woods serving a fat halfling who won't die.
The Looneys were really fun to write of course, I got to go full absurd! I do think they undermined Karl's army with their presence a bit, but otherwise Karl's army would be impersonal and just about pushing through endless droves. Plus, thanks to Ven, we got an improptu event where villains fight each other for once! And I got to do the best attack ever with the Ride of the Sheep! And it thinned the numbers that needed thinning.
Leonard Looney is probably the lowest card with the most history. Cousin of Jokerton and aspirant to the throne, Leonard had too many people in the way to claim it through birthright. Instead, he found Koo Koo, a Looney whose heart was filled with anger since whenever anyone laughed at him, it was at his size! Koo Koo wanted to be King, and Leonard wanted to be in charge of laughter. As the knight of the King he would get what he wanted from the deal while Koo Koo got the throne and hopefully a chance to expand to be big. If Jokerton had his emotions before the Karl event, the event would have been spurred by his outrage, and Jokerton's showdown with Leonard would have probably been more dramatic since he could be rightly angry at his cousin.
While the Looneys were over the top and silly, Ilium and Tarsus are quite sad. Two dead pets, reanimated to spread death. Ilium, the dog, was a street dog Grimsley knew in life, but death claimed the dog when Grimsley wanted to make him a card and failed. Instead, Grimsley snatched his soul with his scythe and put the card in there, giving the dog new life but also meaning it had to possess its old body to move around, hence why Ilium was actually blue flames rather than the skeleton. Tarsus was a plague cat, wandering from town to town and killing people like Typhoid Mary. It was immune, no one else was. The idea tickled Grimsley and he recruited the cat, but the card removed the plague since it basically killed and reanimated it due to Grimsley's misunderstanding of how Ixael would turn the animals into cards.
THE KINGS
Lockjaw, Ultra Ridley, Disruption and Burnout
Originally, the idea of the Kings would be pulling some of my obscure characters out of the shadows and giving them a time to shine as villains. The scene with Victoria trying to recruit McMasters was always in the plot, even before the Court of Cameos became a thing. However, the original Kings were quite different than the ones we ended up with.
Melvin Underbelly was considered, hence my irritation that Cornwind insisted he was dead. Doc Gerbil was almost added, his dissatisfaction with being ignored almost leading to his betrayal. I also offered Doc Gerbil to Del for Calico to kill. Can't get rid of this doctor! The Hound of Tindalos was considered as well. I'm sure there was a fourth, but my memory fails me, especially since Ultra Ridley was lined up to become a King quite early on. Still, I don't think my Kings would have matched other people's Kings. I might have actually been planning to upgrade Snowfall or someone like that if need be!
Outside of Ridley I don't think I had any specific ideas for other people's Kings. I just liked the idea and rolled with it. Chao and I talked quite a bit about Ridley ending up looking like he did in Other M after the card, as well as the naming convention that showed up for the other Kings. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out! Although I think the salvation of Disruption was kind of pointless since we'll never see Cord again except now that I said something of course we will just to prove me wrong, BUT! It was mostly meant as a last hoorah to villains of old.
CONCLUSION
There we have it. Almost everything I could say about the Deck except the oodles I've forgotten! Overall, I want to thank everyone for playing along. I think this year was my favorite year yet, I was heavily involved in RP and did a huge megaplot and so many other factors totaled up to a pretty kickass year.
I think I did alright with the plot, I could identify many issues but I won't point them out so you won't notice them! :V
But overall, I think it was a fun ride, and I am glad we were able to take it together!
Now go read something else. You've wasted WAY too much time reading me ramble.
