Death
Outlining the fourteenth major arcana card.
Keith Hiscox
5/15/20261 min read
Card Meaning
Death is a card whose usual tarot correspondences aren’t obvious to the inexperienced. Generally the card is read as representing change, rather than actually representing physical death. The card is all about natural endings, new beginnings and a change in circumstances. However, as with the Strength card, it is sometimes necessary in play to read this card as progressing the character toward physical death, rather than merely as a change of state, and experienced Tarot readers will need to factor this change into their readings.
It is important to note that this redirection of the traditional card meaning still doesn’t make this card a “Sudden Death” card. Such a reading would seriously unbalance the narrative players are trying to enjoy.
When drawn as part of a Yes/No query, the Death card generally means Yes if the question is about endings or change occurring and no if it is about maintaining the status quo.
Setting Specific Design
The artwork of this card represents the purgatory of Ixtador, through which it is believed that souls travel after death. Souls must journey through 10 gates before being allowed to enter heaven and this card shows a representation of death that might be typically found within religious art in the Kingdom of Sabria.
The muted colour palate selected here links to the cards for Judgement and also to the alternate dead versions of the Fool and Magician.
Mechanical Impact
During Character Generation: Death links to widows, orphans, gravediggers, temple vergers, and people changing careers.
When Played in Combat: Any Damage Dealt as a result of a Meld containing this card ignores all Weighting reductions. This means that Damage containing Death will cause more damage to armoured characters and is therefore more likely to seriously wound you.
When Played out of Combat: The player discards their Hand and replaces it by selecting and Fetching the same number of cards from their Exhaustion Pile. If this is the first action of a session there may not be much choice available. The cards discarded from the initial hand are present in the exhaustion pile, so can be reselected.
