The Witcher Card Deck

[Eruvadhor]

The Witcher Card Deck

If the Witcher story is a deck of cards...well, it's not yet...but you can create it!

We can make this a reality by creating our own. There is an abundance of fan art, and surely a way to legally distribute a community created deck of cards, as a digital file for personal use. Perhaps some may like to contribute new fan art later on for the purpose of making this a reality!

This would be an ideal place to discuss which scenes or characters fit each card best, and come to a consensus. I will update the below post with any suggestions (message me), and if there is a debate, will update it to any new agreement.

The 78 card Tarot deck used by 'magic people' and for games fits the theme of this story well, and allows for both a Tarot game and traditional 52 card deck usage. See link below for examples of what may fit each card. When this is done, we can make a new thread in Fan Art for the purpose of creating the deck (as opposed to debating how it relates to The Witcher).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider-Waite_tarot_deck

:cheers:

---------- Updated at 10:30 PM ----------

The Major Arcana

The Fool – Geralt of Rivia

The Magician – Vilgafortz

The High Priestess – Philippa Eilhart

The Empress – Yennefer of Vengerberg

The Emperor – Emhyr var Emreis

The Hierophant -- Avallac'h

The Lovers –

The Chariot -- Nilfgaardian Empire

Strength – Saskia The Dragon-slayer

The Hermit – Vysogota

Wheel of Fortune

Justice

The Hanged Man

Death --

Temperance – Melitile/Nenneke

The Devil – The King of the Wild Hunt

The Tower – Tor Lara

The Star

The Moon

The Sun

Judgement – Scoia'tael

The World -- Ciri

The Minor Arcana

Swords

Ace -- The Kayran

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Page

Knight – Vernon Roche

Queen – Síle de Tansarville

King – Henselt of Kaedwen

Staves

Ace

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Page -- Jare

Knight -- Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach

Queen

King -- Demavend

Cups

Ace

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Page

Knight -- Sigismund Dijkstra

Queen -- Meve

King – Foltest of Temeria

Pentacles

Ace

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven – Gamblers winning dice poker (7 orens)

Eight

Nine

Ten

Page

Knight -- Julia Abatemarco

Queen -- Francesca Findabair

King

 

[Sibladosi]

Cool idea! They made a normal card deck in the witcher 2 CE, the artwork is pretty cool! But I think they will have their hands full working on the gwent artwork. But maybe in the near future! Btw never Understood tarot very much =(, but allways found the decks really beautiful!

 

[sfinx]

I like this idea, but only thing I can help with is few ideas of names..
Queens: Meve, Francesca
Kings: Demavend, Emhyr
Knights: Cahir, Julia Abatemarco, Dijkstra
Aces: big beasts (Kayran,..) or fighting unit (Dun banner, Free company,..)
Death: that descibed little girl
Hanged man: Emhyr
World: Dana Meadbh

 

[Eruvadhor]

~~ List Edited ~~

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Sibladosi -- Never knew there was an existing deck, so I'll have to check that out! Never understood Tarot much either, other than the symbolism of the more popular decks. To me it's a card game, similar to spades.

sfinx -- Anything helps! Francesca and Meve are good ideas for Queens, Francesca obviously fitting Pentacles rather well. Demavend is a great idea for a King. Is there a particular reason you suggest Emhyr for King or Hanged Man? I thought he'd be the perfect Emperor card. Cahir, Julia, and Dijkstra make great Knights. The monster idea for the Aces is wonderful. Let's go with Kayran for Ace of Spades for now. Fighting units maybe in numbers somewhere? Who is the little girl? Dana Meadbh is fine, but forgive me for inserting The Conjunction of the Spheres there...it just came to me.

What does someone think for pages? Functionaries? Or simply important characters we can't fit elsewhere?

 

[mecha_fish]

Are you looking for artists for this? I'd be interested to do some work in like six months. I suppose it's too early to judge, haha.

I missed out on the Gwent cards (will keep an eye out on ebay for a deck) because of the exclusivity of it -- but it would be totally awesome to have a deck like this, fan made and crafted with love.

EDIT: perhaps Geralt ought to be Death? As he so often places himself in the books --- rather, Death follows him. Ciri also describes herself as Death in the last two books (before the ice skating scene, i think).

The Hermit ought to be Vysogota from the Tower of the Swallow.

I think a good Page could be Jarre, the scribe?

The moon and the sun could be Nightwraiths and Noonwraiths?

 

[Eruvadhor]

~~ List Edited ~~

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Hermit equals Vysogota is brilliant! I completely forgot about him.

Jarre it is.

Geralt could be Death, so I'll move him there for now, unless we find a better place for him.

The wraiths could be worked in, but for now I think we should leave the Moon and Sun blank...there just too important cards for them. Perhaps the moon could be the worlds Ciri visits, since the moon is a symbol of magic and the supernatural (otherworldly).

Any artwork is great, and six months sounds reasonable. I was thinking initially that I or someone else could make a template of the border, with a number and name region. Art could be inserted into it, and properly labelled. If we can not find enough artwork, it will also be worth exploring the legalities of using in game stills for certain scenes/people. They can be photo-shopped for different artistic effects for variety. But this is not now.

This will take time to flesh out well, and when Three comes out, we should see more traffic on here. All in good time.

Thank you everyone so far who is interested or contributed suggestions!

 

[wichat]

Don't you need a Wildcard?

 

[Eruvadhor]

Why yes, wichat, we could use wilds

The picture is perfect.

 

[Niebling]

The Chariot - Nilfgaard Empire
The Hierophant - Avallac'h

 

[Eruvadhor]

~~ List Updated ~~
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Niebling, done and done, good sir! The later especially.

 

[Niebling]

I think Cahir could be the hanged man.

 

[Eruvadhor]

He is a possibility, but the connection is kind of tenuous.

The hanged man is being hung by his foot...a truly horrible way to go. His hands are behind his back, which could imply they are bound. On the contrary, his other leg is casually crossed behind him, and he wears a cool, serene expression. This probably implies he's not being hung to his death, but is instead the real one in control. He could be a trickster, or simply a plotting mastermind. Either way, he's probably best suited to someone duplicitous or tactically, secretly brilliant.

 

[Niebling]

I thought about the sacrifice and guilty aspects of the card.

Edited: Wheel of Fortune could be Ithlinne's Prophecy

 

[theta77]

That’s an interesting idea.

But it’s even more interesting, when Major Arcana are considered as the Fool journey through life. Or – in this case – through the story. Obviously, I can’t spoil the game, but you’ll see that TW3 can be interpreted in this way. Names of the Arcana are not as important, as things they represent. So – avoiding spoilers – in my opinion Geralt is the Fool, looking for Ciri and Ciri is the World. Yennefer is represented by The Empress, the Emperor, well, is the Emperor and so on. Each other Arcanum has it’s character, or a place or a story point.

Even if we are not talking about the game, but about the setting and characters in general, considering Tarot as the Fool journey, or just as a story, may bring more interesting associations.

 

[Eruvadhor]

~~ List Updated ~~
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theta77: We were working on superficial matches...but after you put it this way, I think we should follow your lead. Following the tarot's intended story would make this project so very special. This is unique, since we are not making a story about an unknown 'fool', but one we know and love; when we view a card, it's meaning goes much deeper than a normal tarot, into the story behind each piece of art. I still think we should make it broad spectrum (books+games), but if people who play TW3 (I can't until I have an appropriate GPU) have ideas, this would be great. Your suggestions are inserted. If you do see any errors being made, please let us know! Thank You!

PS: I can probably do some art for the project. Haven't in years, but did try some today, and can do some minor cards for sure.

 

[sfinx]

sfinx -- Anything helps! Francesca and Meve are good ideas for Queens, Francesca obviously fitting Pentacles rather well. Demavend is a great idea for a King. Is there a particular reason you suggest Emhyr for King or Hanged Man? I thought he'd be the perfect Emperor card. Cahir, Julia, and Dijkstra make great Knights. The monster idea for the Aces is wonderful. Let's go with Kayran for Ace of Spades for now. Fighting units maybe in numbers somewhere? Who is the little girl? Dana Meadbh is fine, but forgive me for inserting The Conjunction of the Spheres there...it just came to me.

Sorry for late response and thanks for yours..

I don't like Emhyr, that is the only reason but I don't think it would be acceptable idea. I agree with you, he will fit to emperor perfectly (don't know any meaning of that card, but since he IS emperor..). Maybe you can descibe role of each card and we can find matching character.
Little girl is DEATH - she was described (if I remember correctly) in "Something more". I really like that idea how death can look like.
Dana/Conjunction/Ciri - I would choose Dana. But that is just my opinion, it's your idea.. Conjunction is disaster/opened gate between worlds/magic event; Ciri is great being with awesome powers and abilities, but I wouldn't choose her for "world", but again - just my opinion and I don't know meaning of tarot cards..


// But as theta77 said, everything can be different for my vision, so my last sentence can be wrong, but for now I just don't want to delete it.

 

[Eruvadhor]

Sorry for late response and thanks for yours..

I don't like Emhyr, that is the only reason but I don't think it would be acceptable idea. I agree with you, he will fit to emperor perfectly (don't know any meaning of that card, but since he IS emperor..). Maybe you can descibe role of each card and we can find matching character.
Little girl is DEATH - she was described (if I remember correctly) in "Something more". I really like that idea how death can look like.
Dana/Conjunction/Ciri - I would choose Dana. But that is just my opinion, it's your idea.. Conjunction is disaster/opened gate between worlds/magic event; Ciri is great being with awesome powers and abilities, but I wouldn't choose her for "world", but again - just my opinion and I don't know meaning of tarot cards..


// But as theta77 said, everything can be different for my vision, so my last sentence can be wrong, but for now I just don't want to delete it.

Yes, I think you make many good points. Let's just think over this for a few days before moving forwards. Sound good?

 

[redwood36]

As tempting as it is to frame Geralt as the fool, to me Dandelion feels more like the Fool, While Geralt could be the Hanged Man. After all his line of work is a death sentence. he also enjoys the pleasure of being both jury and executioner at times.

 

[Dassolan]

Theta using classical interpretation of Fool, the rogue element, random hand of unexpected chance, wolf in the shadow that stand between dark and light, the Monkey King, agent of change. Not literal fool like Jaskier.

 

[redwood36]

Geralt seems like none of those things to me. He is defined by his code and bound by destiny. Often he is caught between 2 larger forces and has to make a choice, not because he wants to apply his ideals on the world. I understood we were talking about a classical interpretation. After all, this is a tarot deck. Further, its the classical interpretation that would define the fool as a beggar/vagabond. Its later interpretations that see the fool as a protagonist, traveling the fools journey.