The Archon Deck is a deck of cards often used for divination, sometimes even games though that is considered in poor taste and even dangerous if the game is using an aspected deck.
Most Archon decks that are in the hands of the uninitiated are pale imitations of an fully invested, aspected deck. You often find them in the hands of hedge witches and grifters. Your average diviner just uses the archon deck as a prop.
Aspected decks however, are an entirely different creation. The investiture of an aspected deck is an involved process, requiring rare materials as well as the aid of practitioners of Divine, Arcane and Nature magic to work together on a ritual.
In rare cases an un-aspected deck becomes aspected through some intervention from beyond the mortal sphere, this is as incredibly rare as it is incredibly dangerous.
An Aspected decks cards are considered to be attached to the entities represented.
The Four Courts of the Archon Deck
The Archon Court
13 cards based on the ephemeral beings known as the Archons, entities barely known by the average person and hardly more understood by the learned. In an aspected deck the number of these cards never change and the beings on them are the only static parts of the deck. The user may not know the entities names or purpose but they can nearly always divine what they represent.
Current
Archons
The Court of Thrones
This collection of cards is separated into Kings, Queens, Counts and Viscounts and they usually reflect powerful personages in the world and they do not necessarily have to be actual rankings they represent. Unaspected Decks often include local kings, leaders, magistrates or folk heroes and villains. Aspected Decks will include those as well as any of those that are also power players in the world and it can be varied...either reflecting where the user was born, where the user is or in some cases reflect those players on a far wider scale.
The Court of Divine
This court is used to represent the gods of the world, though rarely ALL of them. They generally reflect the gods most common to the area where the deck was created and in an aspected deck they may change to reflect the needs of the users reading
The Court of Root and Rot
This Court represents the terrestrial underpinnings of the world, spirits and elder beings who help form the bedrock of existence across the spheres. This part of the deck changes constantly in an Aspected deck. In an unaspected deck it often reflects local folklore.
Comments