Creating a Stormlight Archive Deck of Cards

[Titan Arum]

Over in the [Firefight Tour] Philly, 1/27 topic, Oudeis brought up a game of Szeth vs. Szeth using the Szeth cutouts and a roll of the dice as a way to pass time until the signing starts. traceria then suggested that a deck of cards and a game of War should decide the outcome, which ultimately led traceria to ask the following question once Oudeis said a deck shouldn't have Kings since, you know, Szeth has killed so many: 

 

 

 

 

What rank/characters would be on a Stormlight Archive themed deck of cards?     Obviously, the kings would need to come out.  Would the Aces be the Knights Radiant, for example?

 

With that, I submitted my first cut at a deck of Stormlight Archive cards using either SA reputation names or character names that are similar to the corresponding reputation level:

 

2: Cremling/nothing is lower than a Cremling

3: Darkeyes/Cenn

4: Bridgemen/Skar

5: Ardent/Kabsal

6: Parshendi/Rlain

7: Lighteyes/Amaram 

8: Honor Spren/Syl

9: Radiant Squire/Lopen

10: Voidbringer/Eshonai

J: Bridgeleader/Kaladin

Q: Surgebinder/Jasnah

K: Knight Radiant/Bondsmith/Dalinar

A: Herald/Jezrien

Joker: Wit

 

Obviously these can be replaced with better options, as this was just a quick stab. I also thought that the Kings shouldn't be excluded since Szeth hasn't killed them all yet. Maybe the King should actually be Taravangian? I like the idea of it being a Knight Radiant, maybe even a Bondsmith, with Dalinar at the head. 

 

Anyways, have at it everyone! Let's see what great ideas you all can come up with.

[Kipper]

Awesome idea!

My only suggestion for now is to switch 5 and 6.

[Dunkum]

My gut says aces should be radiants (plus szeth) and kings should be...well kings. Actually, are there 4 named kings?  I'm only coming up with 2, 3 if you count Gavilar, but that is juts off the top of my head.  If that doesn't work then the A=Heralds, K=Radiants (K for Knights, maybe) could work

 

My main problem wiht your list, or at least the one that strikes me first: while it might work for WoK, once you factor in events from WoR, it doesn't make sense for Kaladin to rank so low.

 

also, switch 3 and 4, maybe?  bridgemen were slaves, darkeyes outrank them.

 

This definitely looks like a fun idea, and if not for the fact that I should have been asleep an hour ago, I'd try to come up with a more solid counter proposal for some of those things.

[skaa]

I was thinking about this earlier, and I personally like the idea of a Stormlight tarot deck with both Minor and Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana can be used as regular playing cards. In my hypothetical Stormlight deck, each suit of the Minor Arcana would correspond to two Essences, like so:

Cups/Hearts: Blood and Talus (a stone goblet filled with blood)
Coins/Diamonds: Lucentia and Zephyr (spheres Invested during highstorms)
Staves/Clubs: Spark and Vapor (a lit torch with smoke coming out of the fire)
Swords/Spades: Tallow and Foil (a sword being oiled)

(You'll find out why I didn't include Sinew and Pulp later.)

For each suit, the King and Queen would be the Heralds for that suit's Essences (notice how I deliberately chose Essence-pairs with a male and a female Herald), holding their Honorblades. Instead of the typical Page and Knight cards, I will borrow from the Thoth deck and use Princess and Prince cards instead. The Princess card will show a female Knight of the female Herald's Order, while the Prince card will show a male Knight of the male Herald's Order.

Here's what the Minor Arcana cards will look like (spoilered for length):
 

 

CUPS
Ace: A stone goblet filled with blood.
2: A topaz and a garnet, both pear-cut and pointing down (vaguely resembling a cup).
3: Two pear topazes, and a pear garnet between them.
4: Two pear topazes and two pear garnets.
5: Four pear topazes arranged in a square with a pear garnet at the center.
6: Three pear topazes and three pear garnets.
7: Four pear garnets arranged in a square, with three pear topazes at the center.
8: Four pear topazes and four pear garnets.
9: Six pear garnets arranged three on each side, and three pear topazes between them.
10: Five pear topazes and five pear garnets.
Princess: A female Lightweaver, with garnet eyes, dressed in artistic garb and holding a goblet, a Cryptic by her side.
Prince: A male Stoneward in Shardplate, glowing amber yellow and holding a Shardblade.
Queen: Shalash
King: Talenelat

COINS
Ace: A stormcloud raining upon a glass sphere containing a radiant, fiery diamond.
2-10: Same as Cups, except with round-cut sapphires and diamonds
Princess: An elegantly-dressed female Edgedancer, with diamond eyes, riding gracefully on her spren, whose vine-like tendrils are holding various spheres.
Prince: A male Windrunner in Shardplate, glowing blue and holding a Shardblade.
Queen: Vedeledev
King: Jezerezeh

STAVES
Ace: A long wooden torch (or perhaps a metallic torch-like fabrial), smoke coming out of its fire.
2-10: Same as Cups, except with baguette-cut rubies and smokestones
Princess: A female Releaser, with eyes of ruby, hand outstretched towards a smoking, smoldering stick, with her spren at her side.
Prince: A male Skybreaker in Shardplate, with a dark aura and holding a Shardblade.
Queen: Chanaranach
King: Nalan

SWORDS
Ace: A sword pointed downwards at an angle, oil dripping from it.
2-10: Same as cups, except with marquise-cut zircons and amethysts.
Princess: A female Elsecaller, with zircon eyes, facing her adult-sized spren who is holding a dark oily sword.
Prince: A male Willshaper in Shardplate, glowing purple and holding a Shardblade.
Queen: Battah
King: Kelek

As for the Major Arcana, here's what I have so far (spoilered for length):
 

 

0. The Fool: A dark-haired King's Wit laughing while an angry highprince looks on.
 

1. The Magician: White-haired Lunu'anaki exhibiting a bright aura, holding a vial on one hand, colored dust pouring from the other, and feet submerged in an emerald pool.

 

2. High Priestess: Pailiah holding a book, with her Honorblade by her side

 

3. The Empress: Cultivation sitting on a tree trunk, plants growing in the background

 

4: The Emperor: Honor sitting on a throne surrounded by the ten Honorblades 
 

5. Hierophant: Ishi holding his Honorblade, with Knights Radiant kneeling before him
 

6. The Lovers: Honor and Cultivation, holding each other in an embrace, a throng of emotionspren and naturespren surrounding them

 

7. The Chariot: An Honorblade-wielding Stone Shaman upon a chariot being pulled by a Ryshadium.

 

8. Justice: A black sword, smoke rising from its blade

 

9. The Hermit: A Bondsmith with heliodor eyes, dressed as an ardent, with the Stormfather in the background
 

10. Fortune: Emerald-eyed Truthwatchers in a trance, with the Nightwatcher in the background

 

11. Strength: A lighteyes in full Shardplate, holding back the claws of a chasmfiend

 

12. The Hanged Man: A Marabethian convict hanging upside down, with eyes of red and blue.

 

13. Death: A dying man, his mouth open as if speaking; with Moelach in the background

 

14. Temperance: An old king, the right half of his face smiling evilly while the left half frowns, his right hand holding a cup and pouring red liquid to another cup held by his left hand

 

15. The Devil: Voidbringers, with Odium in the background

 

16. The Tower: The tower of Urithiru, a thunderclound overhead

 

17. The Star: Reya's Tear shining in the night sky
 

18. The Moon: Salas, Nomon, and Mishim, with Nomon appearing much larger than the others
 

19. The Sun: The Shadesmar sun, with a trail of clouds below it
 

20. Judgement: A man being tortured in Damnation

 

21. The World: The map of Roshar

 

If you notice, I've placed the Heralds of Pulp and Sinew in the Major Arcana. This is because I believe Sinew has preeminence over the other Essences, and because the Knights associated with Pulp (Sinew's partner Essence), the Truthwatchers, are known for their precognitive abilities, which fits the typical use of Major Arcana cards in fortune-telling.


Edit: I just realized how blasphemous a Heraldic tarot deck would be for Vorinism.

Edit: So, apparently tarot decks don't have Jack cards. Instead they have Princess and Prince cards (or Page and Knight; but I prefer Princess/Prince because relegating a character to Page might insult fans). I've edited the post accordingly.

Edit: Finally finished everything! I'm still open for suggested changes, though.

Edit: Replaced the description for the Tower from the Shattered Plains location called the Tower to the tower of Urithiru. Also changed the Hanged Man from Axies to an anonymous bait for the Yu-Nerig. Because these feel more fitting in my opinion.

Edited April 25, 2017 by skaa

[Pestis the Spider]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Although I think that we could use 4 different KR, 4 different Heralds, etc. at least for cards J, Q, K, A. I believe we have enough of them. It would be also nice if characters on cards of the same colour were somehow connected, so we can get the "main character and his followers" thing. 

 

Also I'd like to have some card with Syl and other spren. Even actually the minor spren. Mayve J, Q, K, A could be characters, and 2-10 the various spren types, like windspren, whateverspren, etc. 

 

EDIT:

 

2-10: Various spren types, although I'd like to include windspren and

gloomspren.

J: Lopen/Adolin/Gaz?/???

Q: ???/Navani/???/???

K: Kaladin/Dalinar/Shalan/Szeth

A: Sylphrena/Stormfather/Pattern/Nightblood

Joker: Wit, obviously

 

Any ideas for the missing ones?

Edited January 14, 2015 by Pestis the Spider

[Titan Arum]

also, switch 3 and 4, maybe?  bridgemen were slaves, darkeyes outrank them.

I think it would be a bad idea to make the Bridgemen 3, because Bride Four would be insulted if they were 3. Also, I initially used reputational rankings to dictate position: Bridgeman is higher rated (10-15) than Darkeyes (2-4).

 

Also I'd like to have some card with Syl and other spren. Even actually the minor spren. Mayve J, Q, K, A could be characters, and 2-10 the various spren types, like windspren, whateverspren, etc. 

Your idea of including spren made me think a little bit more about the cards and their positioning. Now, instead of just one set of 2-A, I've decided that it could be a good idea to get rid of the classical suites: goodbye Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts and Spades. Welcome to the new suites of Spren, Rosharian Fauna, Radiants/Proto-Radiants/Squires, and People from Secret Societies. Here's my new list:

 

Spren                    Fauna                Radiants/Proto-Radiants/Squire        Secret Society People

2: Rainspren          2: Cremling        2: Squire/Rock                                       2: Teft

3: Flamespren       3: Songling         3: Squire/Lopen                                     3: Luesh

4: Rotspren           4: Sarpenthyn     4: Helaran...                                          4: Kabsal

5: Starspren          5: Chull               5: Dustbringer/...?                                 5: Moash

6: Bindspren          6: Axehound       6: Stoneward/Talatin                            6: Adrotagia

7: Windspren         7: Skyeel            7: Willshaper/...Eshonai?                      7: Demoux

8: Gloryspren        8: Ryshadium     8: Truthwatcher/Renarin                       8: Galladon

9: Voidspren          9: Whitespine     9: Skybreaker/Szeth                             9: Restares

10: Cryptic            10: Larkin           10: Edgedancer/Lift                              10: Amaram

J: Honorspren       J: Yu-nerig         J: Lightweaver/Shallan                          J: Mraize

Q: Cusicesh          Q: Tai-na            Q: Eslecaller/Jasnah                             Q: Iyatil

K: Nightwatcher    K: Santhid           K: Windrunner/Kaladin                          K: Taravangian

A: Stormfather      A: Chasmfiend    A: Bondsmith/Dalinar                            A: Hoid

 

 

Thoughts?

 

(Edited because pasting the information from Word in a table format doesn't keep the formatting once you hit "Post")

Edited January 14, 2015 by Titan Arum

[Bort]

2-10: Various spren types, although I'd like to include windspren and

gloomspren.

J: Lopen/Adolin/Gaz?/???

Q: ???/Navani/???/???

K: Kaladin/Dalinar/Shalan/Szeth

A: Sylphrena/Stormfather/Pattern/Nightblood

Joker: Wit, obviously

 

I'd use these:

 

2-10: Spren/Animals/Plants/Listener Forms.

J: Lopen/Adolin/Gaz/Rlain

Q: Navani/Shallan/Jasnah/Eshonai

K: Kaladin/Dalinar/Renarin/Szeth

A: Sylphrena/Stormfather/Pattern/Nightblood

Joker: Wit, of course

 

I'm not sure which of the J/Q/K/A would belong with each suit though.

 

Edit: Although, a few changes I've made make the suits start to come together.

 

The Listener Forms suit would have Rlain, Eshonai, Szeth, and Nightblood.

The Spren suit would have Lopen, Navani, Dalinar, and Stormfather.

The Animals suit would have Adolin (the Whitespine uncaged), Jasnah, Kaladin, and Syl.

The Plants suit would have Gaz, Shallan, Renarin, and Pattern.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Bort

[Dunkum]

Well, one thing to consider is that the non-face cards don't really need to be anything.  in most decks of cards I have seen (including tarot), they are just a collection of symbols, and the face cards are the ones with actual images on them; at most, I would say let the symbols be generic images, rather than specific people.  I do like the idea of switching out suits, I was thinking along those lines this afternoon at work.

 

I really like the idea of spren as a suit, most of the low cards could have just images of a bunch of spren (e.g. a 2 migth have a couple of painspren, a three might have a triad of flamespren, a ten migth be a flock of windspren, etc, with the correct number of spren on each of the cards).  For the face cards, I would say use the named spren we have seen, maybe patter - jack, syl - queen, nightwatcher - king, stormfather - ace.

 

For other suits, the parshendi forms would probably be a good one, assuming we've seen enough forms to make it happen, with the named parshendi characters being the face cards (eshonai as the ace).  Maybe a suit of just Alethi with Elhokar at king, I guess, and Dalinar at ace, and different callings at different number cards depending on how vorinism regards them.  I had a fourth suit, but it escapes me right now.

[Curiosity]

I personally think that an Allomancy deck would have a better chance at making a really good deck, since 4 is a more important number there.

 

(Granted, we will probably have to make a Feruchemy and Hemalurgy deck as well, and wait until there are enough Mistings and Ferrings of each metal to fill out the suits.) 

[Xaladin]

How about a Suit of the Dead?

 

2 Tien

3 Dunny

4 Lamaril

5 Kabsal

6 Tyn

7 Lin (Davar)

8 Ym*

9 Helaran

10 Sadeas

J Hanavanar

Q Shshshsh

K Gavilar

A Tanavast

 

And since there can be two Jokers (and obviously Wit is one of them), I think Axies could also be a Joker.

* I know there is speculation on whether Ym is really dead. Cenn is another option, though Cenn would be the 2 of the Dead.

 

Edit: I switched the postions of King Hanavanar and Sadeas

Edited January 17, 2015 by Xaladin

[Argent]

I have been consistently and not at all subtly dropping hints in Albino Dragon's general direction. Maybe one day...

[Young Bard]

I personally think that an Allomancy deck would have a better chance at making a really good deck, since 4 is a more important number there.

 

(Granted, we will probably have to make a Feruchemy and Hemalurgy deck as well, and wait until there are enough Mistings and Ferrings of each metal to fill out the suits.) 

 

But... there are 16 metals (excluding god metals) and 13 cards in a suit. Which three magic types are you going to insult? Plus, if you make a Mistborn the King or Ace, then that brings you down to 12.

 

If however, you were to switch to a non-standard deck, would that work? (I am talking about both Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive here, by the way.) Perhaps with a base 10 system for the Stormlight Archive, and 8 / 16 for Mistborn?

[Argent]

I think a standard deck could work for Stormlight, but with a bit of fiddling. What I am thinking is a deck where ace through ten of each suit are people who share the suit's theme (more on that in a moment), while the face cards feature... other things. Concepts. Objects. Ideas. Whatever.

 

This plays off the number ten, but otherwise feels weird to me - if anything the pip cards should be the "other things" and the face cards should be people. Some suits that come to mind are Radiants, Diagrams (not my best work), Spren (Syl as Queen of Spren and Wyndle as Jack are rock-solid in my mind), and Bridgecrews.

 

Albino Dragon did something like this with their Name of the Wind deck, and probably most other decks - they illustrated the pip cards with something small, but unique for each number (e.g. a scroll, a candle, a stack of books, a key, etc). 

[Dunkum]

I can definitely get behind the People as Face cards and other things as Pips, though I would consider aces as face cards for this purpose. It is easy to imagine something like that for Spren, where the pip cards are just generic spren types (rotspren, flamespren etc) and the faces are the more charismatic ones, syl, wyndle, pattern, stormfather at Ace. Radiants, Alethi nobility, and Parshendi probably work for other suits, more or less.

[Frosted Flakes]

I was thinking about this earlier, and I personally like the idea of a Stormlight tarot deck with both Minor and Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana can be used as regular playing cards. In my hypothetical Stormlight deck, each suit of the Minor Arcana would correspond to two Essences, like so:

Cups/Hearts: Blood and Talus (imagine a stone goblet filled with blood)

Coins/Diamonds: Lucentia and Zephyr (spheres Invested during storms)

Staves/Clubs: Spark and Vapor (a magical staff emitting sparks and vapors)

Swords/Spades: Tallow and Foil (a sword being oiled)

(You'll find out why I didn't include Sinew and Pulp later.)

For each suit, the King and Queen would be the Heralds for that suit's Essences (notice how I deliberately chose Essence-pairs with a male and a female Herald). The Princess card will show a female Knight of the female Herald's Order, while the Prince card will show a male Knight of the male Herald's Order.

Here's what the Minor Arcana cards will look like (spoilered for length):

CUPS

Ace: A stone goblet containing red liquid.

2: A topaz and a garnet, both pear-cut and pointing down (vaguely resembling a cup).

3: Two pear topazes, and a pear garnet between them.

4: Two pear topazes and two pear garnets.

5: Four pear topazes arranged in a square with a pear garnet at the center.

6: Three pear topazes and three pear garnets.

7: Four pear garnets arranged in a square, with three pear topazes at the center.

8: Four pear topazes and four pear garnets.

9: Six pear garnets arranged three on each side, and three pear topazes between them.

10: Five pear topazes and five pear garnets.

Princess: A female Lightweaver, dressed in artistic garb and holding a goblet, with a Cryptic by her side.

Prince: A male Stoneward in glowing Shardplate and holding a Shardblade.

Queen: Shalash

King: Talenelat

COINS

Ace: A stormcloud raining upon a glass sphere containing a radiant, fiery diamond.

2-10: Same as Cups, except with round-cut sapphires and diamonds

Princess: An elegantly-dressed female Edgedancer riding gracefully on her spren, whose vine-like arms are holding various spheres.

Prince: A male Windrunner in glowing Shardplate and holding a Shardblade.

Queen: Vedeledev

King: Jezerezeh

STAVES

Ace: A long wooden torch (or perhaps a metallic torch-like fabrial), smoke coming out of its fire.

2-10: Same as Cups, except with baguette-cut rubies and smokestones

Princess: A female Releaser, hand outstretched towards a smoking, smoldering stick, with her spren at her side.

Prince: A male Skybreaker in glowing Shardplate and holding a Shardblade.

Queen: Chanaranach

King: Nalan

SWORDS

Ace: A sword pointed downwards at an angle, oil dripping from it.

2-10: Same as cups, except with marquise-cut zircons and amethysts.

Princess: A female Elsecaller facing her adult-sized spren who is holding a dark oily sword.

Prince: A male Willshaper in glowing Shardplate and holding a Shardblade.

As for the Major Arcana, I'm still trying to match each card with fitting Stormlight characters. Here's what I have so far:

Wit as the Fool

Palah as High Priestess

Ishar as Hierophant

Honor and Cultivation as the Lovers

The Nightwatcher as Fortune

Odium as the Devil

Moelach as Death

The three Rosharian moons as the Moon

The Shadesmar sun (with the trail of clouds) as the Sun

Roshar as the World

If you notice, I've placed the Heralds of Pulp and Sinew in the Major Arcana. This is because I believe Sinew has preeminence over the other Essences, and because the Knights associated with Pulp (Sinew's partner Essence), the Truthwatchers, are known for their precognitive abilities, which fits the typical use of Major Arcana cards in fortune-telling.

The list of Major Arcana cards is still incomplete. I'll update this as I think of suitable matches for the other cards. You guys, of course, could offer suggestions.

Edit: I just realized how blasphemous a Heraldic tarot deck would be for Vorinism.

Edit: So, apparently tarot decks don't have Jack cards. Instead they have Princess and Prince cards (or Page and Knight; but I prefer Princess/Prince because relegating a character to Page might insult fans). I've edited the post accordingly.

Shut up and take my money.

[skaa]

Shut up and take my money.

LOL, I let it go when nobody seemed interested. Perhaps I'll try completing the Major Arcana tonight.

 

Edit: Aaand, I'm done. I'm honestly not too fond of the Chariot idea I used (a Stone Shaman with a Ryshadium), but my other ideas sucked even more. Any suggestions?

Edited February 15, 2015 by skaa

[Atkion]

i love it! this is so cool! my only suggestion would be to make szeth the surgebinder instead of jasnah, since he is so beast at that sort of thing

[Frosted Flakes]

@skaa, I love it. Now brb while I go reread the Chronicles of Amber.

[Alfa]

I had a very different idea regarding the suits of Ace and 2-10. On roshar 10 is everything. So it even makes sense to change the theme in a Suit from Ace to 10 through the 10 essences. As for the suits' general themes I suggest Herald, Knight Radiant, Spren and Gem, with Jezrien/Windrunner/Honorspren/Saphire coresponding 1/Ace, Nale/Skybreaker/Highspren/Smokestone corresponding 2, etc.

This leads to a problem regarding the "higher" cards like King, Queen etc., one for which I do not see any imminent resolution... Does anybody have an idea regarding this?

Edited April 25, 2017 by Alfa