First, I was really surprised by this card! In the text given to us in the Alpha, the Heart Relentless sounded like one of the nicer, less forbidding Hours:
The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand. [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves]
‘Protects, continues, and preserves,’ this description makes you envision a rather mellow and caring deity, doesn’t it? All the more so when it’s the principle associated with your health. Well, those expectations couldn’t be more wrong! The Heart is actually some sort of demonic drum, who’s chthonic rhythms trap the mortal world in a living nightmare of endless storms and a never ending dance. See those poor souls cavorting around him, buffeted by wind, soaked by rain, menaced by lightening, compelled to a lifetime of constant movement for reasons they cannot possibly comprehend - that’s you. That’s your life.
Second, this has got to be the most Jazz Age tarot card yet. It’s both primordial and very Roaring 20s at the same time.
Third, the Heart Relentless is a God-from-Flesh. I wonder if that’s the same thing as a God-from-Blood or if there’s a small but very significant difference between the two.
. edited by Anne Auclair on 8/23/2017
It seems I was wrong to assume there’d be no Fool in this Tarot deck - the Moth is the Fool, i.e. the wildcard. I thought the Fool might be the protagonist, as is the case in traditional tarot.
It’s interesting that it is the Society of Midnight that is dedicated to the Moth, not the WIldwood Club:
The Society of Midnight An occult society dedicated to the Hour at night’s heart, on which the world turns.
The Wildwood Club An occult society dedicated to chaos, and the unexpected Hours.
Perhaps this is because the Moth is more a seeking deity than a chaotic one. As De Horis says: “The Glory is a question, and the Moth always answers Yes." Moths love light and they will head towards it, even if it kills them. I suppose that in this way the Moth does bare a resemblance to those protagonists who self-destructively seek the mysteries and thus occupies a place symbolically akin to tarot’s Fool.
. edited by Anne Auclair on 8/25/2017
The lore dump has been relentless lately. And it feels a bit like a Mothman prophecy in its scope, documenting a psuedo-history of literary adventurers. For the briefest of moments I thought he was talking about actual occultists and their actual travels through merry olde England, seeking locked up tomes to transcribe on the sly. Shakes a fist Well played, sir. Well played.
Maybe one way to escape the Desk of Doom claustrophobic vibe could be to do brief cut-scenes of [skippable] NPC exchanges.
Like those anime games which have 2D characters fading in as an overlay to a static location background, conversing via text or voice-acting, then fading out again. It could be your player-character sending cultists out on a library raid or something. Then we return to the desk, with timers resuming, having paused during the scene.
Maybe this would be more distracting than helpful, in terms of juggling multiple countdowns. But the artwork and music has such great ambience it seems a shame to ‘waste’ it on icon sized cards.
How is that too many? My personal library has around several hundred books :P
I’m pretty sure he means actual in-game occult books for the player character to acquire. The seven occult books in the alpha aren’t that large. The Geminial has the most text and that amounts to a mere 95 words.
The exact time hasn’t been announced. Alexis might not know yet, as he’s still finalizing the page. I’ll repost any announcement here. edited by Anne Auclair on 8/30/2017
its live now personally ill probably give 20 pounds since I cant really afford more than that.
and he’s got 7000 pounds in the first day seems pretty good to me not really experienced with kick-starter so I don’t know if that’s a good turn out for the day of launch.
it’s very good, given the end-goal is 30k. the only thing left to gamble on is whether it’ll be funded in first 24 hours or in 48 hours, and my money’s on the former. We’re defininitely gonna be cultists y’all!
