Glantrian Tarots Written by Emanuele Betti Glantrian Tarots SUMMARY INTRODUCTION..................................................................2 Why not just tarots?...............................................................2 Tarots of Belcadiz..................................................................2 The Forbidden Wedding........................................................ 2 OVERVIEW OF THE TAROTS..............................................3 Fortune Telling.......................................................................3 Playing Card Games..............................................................3 Description of the Arcanes.....................................................3 FORTUNE TELLING............................................................19 Three Milestones...................................................................19 Four Houses..........................................................................20 Arch of Life.............................................................................21 Fortune Star...........................................................................22 Other Methods.......................................................................23 The image on the cover of this handbook has been Follow ing Up..........................................................................23 taken from internet. The image is owned by its drawer. If the Adapting predictions..............................................................23 use of that image violates any form of copyright, the author of this book is available to change it anytime. CARD GAMES...................................................................24 Tow er of Stars........................................................................24 Harvest Season.....................................................................26 Dungeons & Dragons and the connected trademarks are a property of Wizards of the Coast. In this book, they are Treasure Hunt........................................................................27 used only for a decorative reason. This book is not and is Tarot Song.............................................................................28 never to be considered an official supplement for the game. Build the Bridge......................................................................28 Reproduction rights are property of the author, Emanuele True Love...............................................................................29 Betti. Arcana Spire..........................................................................31 AROTS AND AGIC The rules in this handbook are based on D&D rules as T M ..........................................................33 described in the original handbooks in Basic, Expert, Divine Influence.....................................................................33 Companion, Master and Immortal sets, in the official Magical Tarots.......................................................................33 Gazzetteer expansions, in some non-official books Tarot Spells............................................................................34 published in Italy by Master : fantasy publishing company and on the work of Marco Dalmonte, with a special mention on his Codex Immortalis. To play with this book iyou must have the original Basic, Expert, Companion and Master set rules for Dungeons & Dragons. 1 INTRODUCTION In the real w orld, tarots have been gypsies in the w orld, use the Glatrian important. During the long years of their around for thousands of years. Their version of the tarots, because they exodus in the caves first, and on the creation dates back to ancient egypt, have a Glantrian background. This land later on, the tarots guided and and since their origins, they have been helped the Glantrian Tarots to become influenced the decisions of the used both to predict the future and to the most w idely spread version of these clanmasters, until they managed to play cards. It is then quite surprising cards around. make their w ay back to the Valley of the that in most of the role-games the tarots The second reason is in the magical Three Rivers. Here, during the fourty- are often disregarded as something nature of the tarots. Clerics may have years w ar, their use spread among the minor and relegated to the folklore of their divinatory arts supported by the flaem and the thyatians, and later on it the gypsies. This approach is most Immortals, but magic-users w on't. became very poular among most of the probably due to the complexity of the That's w hy they need other w ays to other populations that moved to the art of tarot-reading and interpretation, approach to fortune-telling. In Glantri, lands of Glantri. and also the fact that some tarots w ould w here the only religion are the Shrines be bizarre in a fantasy w orld. The use of Rad, it makes more sense that the THE FORBIDDEN WEDDING of the same tarots w e have w ould be people put their faith in fortune-telling. Fernando Moreno, a young elf of bizarre as w ell, due to the magical Moreover, to develop these tarots I Belcadiz w ho had become the Lord of nature of fantasy w orlds, and the presumed that the elven clan of Skullhorn Pass, w as very fond of the presence of monsters and creatures Belcadiz w as the original inventor, Tarots. He studied them for years and that don't exist in the real w orld. therefore it is just normal that they w as a good fortune-teller. For these reasons, I decided to developed to their modern version in When he decided to marry the develop some tarots, based on my Glantri. Ethengarian w oman that he loved, he limited kow ledge of the real ones, and saw in the tarots a long lineage of on the races and cultures of Mystara. In TAROTS OF BELCADIZ descendants for the tw o of them, and a this book, there is the description, card The invention of the tarots is happy and long life together, but also by card, of the meaning of the cards for supposed to come from the Belcadiz some shadow s on their happiness. The fortune-telling, but also of some card family of the Flamingo clan, back in the Council w as openly against the games that can be played using these era of ancient Evergrun. A legend says marriage, because they feared that the special tarots. that it w as a fortune-teller of this family w oman w as a spy of Ethengar. This book is mainly aimed tow ards that alerted the follow ers of the path of Therefore, w hen Fernando kept his DMs w ho w ant to add tarot-reading in the Forest w hen the rebel elves resolution to marry her, he lost his title their games. How ever, if you are a attacked the Tree that Ordana gave to and he and his w ife w ere forced to player and you w ant your character to the elves. It w as also thanks to the leave Glantri. be a cartomancer, nothing prevents fortune-tellers of Belcadiz, w ho used They moved south, reaching the you, if the DM allow s, from reading this their tarots, that the Flamingo, lands of Traldara, w here they met some book and use it in the games. Genalleth and Kumara clan w ere able Traldaran gypsies w ho accepted them to follow Ilsundal. Finally, it w as a in their group. Fernando and his w ife WHY NOT JUST TAROTS? fortune-teller of the Belcadiz family w ho took the uses and the haits of the The first question you may raise is: saw in the future prosperity and pow er gypsies, and taught them their magic w hy don't you just call them tarots, and if they kept pursuing the search of and the art of tarot-reading. Due to the instead you call them Glantrian tarots? Ilsundal, thus breaking their ties w ith many useful things that the gypsies There are mainly tw o reasons for this the Flamingo clan. learned from him, w hen Fernando died choice. The first one is that, similarly to Initially, the tarots w ere only used for prematurely fighting a monster, the the real w orld, the countries in the w orld fortune-telling, but w hen the elves gypsies decided to take his name and of Mystara may have different versions settled in the forests in the Valley of the became the Moreni, w hich w as of the tarots, based on their cultures. Three Rivers, their use dropped, and subsequently deformed in Mornei, For example, in Ylaruam the cards of the elves started developing games w hich is the name w ith w hich they are "Princess" and "Prince" w ould be w ith them. know n now . "Princess" and "Sultan". "Magic" w ould During the time of their imprisonment The Mornei took the art of fortune- be substituted by "Faith", and "Grace" among the frost giants, the elves ket telling through the Glantrian tarots by "Redemption". In my idea of the using the tarots to relieve their spirits, around the w orld, and it's just thanks to w orld of Mystara, the Mornei gypsies, playing games, but the use for fortune- them that now these cards are spread w hich are one of the greatest groups of telling became more and more around many nations. 2 OVERVIEW OF THE TAROTS Glantrian Tarots are not the usual FORTUNE TELLING PLAYING CARD GAMES cards that w e are used to, nor the usual Fortune telling is something that the Sometimes in the game, you may Arcanes. Real w orld tarots are based DMs usually don't know how to handle w ant to break from the usual storytelling on 4 suits (goblets, coins, sw ords, in the game, therefore it is commonly and fighting by adding some different clubs) w hich are strictly connected to left out of the adventures. If the DM situations. Card games may be put the four elements (w ater, air, fire and doesn't follow up to the