The Witcher!
Now, for the record, I'm no bandwagoner. I bought The Witcher 3 for the PS4 a long time ago, when I first got my PS4, 2015-2016ish? And I was looking for RPGs for my new console. I played for a few hours, and died A LOT, and put the game down. But I was interested in the universe.
So I dug up the books. This happened to be around the time we were visiting Stu's parents for Christmas so there was a decent amount of downtime for me to read, so I plowed right through the books, and loved them. I think this was like, 2017-2018 ish? I'm not 100% positive. But this renewed my desire to play the game. I was also now interested in The Witcher 1 and 2.
I did some research. The Witcher 2 was easy enough, I could pick that up for Xbox 360. The Witcher 1 was a little less easy, it seemed to be exclusively a PC game. And the reviews were not encouraging, it seemed the gameplay had some issues. I did buy it on Steam, in a bundle deal with The Witcher 2, but I'm just not much of a PC gamer. I only have a laptop, and while it's totally possible to play games on it, and I've done it before, it's just not how I like to play games, I'm a console gamer. So I decided to find a youtube Let's Play of someone playing the game for the first one, and then play the others myself.
For the record, this is my youtuber of choice, his name is Christopher Odd:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAy0KqpdA2Lp2_Qp0yNk2g
I watched him play the first game and enjoyed it immensely. Someday I might go back and try to play it myself, but we'll see.
Once that was done I fired up my Xbox copy of the Witcher 2. (Yes I know I bought it on Steam, but like I said, I'm a console gamer, if I can use a controller I will.) I scaled down the difficulty a bit cuz I'm a big ol' pansy and I was worried after the difficulty I'd faced in my previous attempt at The Witcher 3. But I had a great deal of fun with it, and I intend to go back to it someday on a higher difficulty.
If you're familiar with the game, you know there's a very large choice you make at one point in the Witcher 2 that DRASTICALLY changes where the game goes. I looked at what choice Christopher Odd made and decided to make the opposite choice so I could watch his playthrough later just to see what all happens. It was a great game, I loved it.
So I then watched Christopher Odd's plays just for complete information. Also found that he'd played again and taken the alternate route so I could watch him play my route and see if anything was different, which was interesting.
I did learn that it seemed the fact I had played on an easier difficulty than Christopher Odd meant that I had missed out on the depth of the gameplay, and even just some fun extra violence. As a result I was unwilling to try to play the Witcher 3 again on an easier difficulty, despite the solid ass kicking I'd gotten last time I'd tried to play the game. Hell, my little brother Corey had even made an attempt to play the game for me just so I could see the plot, but we never finished. So in the end I hoped that my experience with the Witcher 2 meant that I'd have a better grasp on how the game was supposed to work and went ahead and stuck with normal difficulty. And I managed!
Now, that's not to say I didn't die, and frequently. But I had a better idea how a witcher fights and how the mechanics of this game might work. And I finally grasped the mechanics and successfully became a witcher in full. I mastered the alchemy and the signs and the sword. And I proceeded to pour my WHOLE LIFE into the game. I explored every point of interest in the world, reveling in the joy of just exploring the world. I loved spending evenings crawling all around the countryside just to see what was out there. I played every inch of the game I could. And when I was done, I bought the DLC and played every inch of that game that I could. Toussaint rocked my world, I've never seen such a beautiful video game world. I've never actually had a video game stop me in my tracks to watch a sunrise, but this game did. Repeatedly.
I also spent HOURS playing Gwent. God I loved Gwent. It's such a simple card minigame, but I was fascinated by it.
Anyways. I could spend a great deal of time raving about my love of this game. And the way finishing it left a hole in my life I've been struggling to fill ever since. Skyrim was a shallow disappointment. Breath of the Wild worked beautifully but I became so obsessed with it that I dropped 200 hours into it inside a month and cleared it right the fuck out. Next up is Horizon Zero Dawn at my brother's recommendation and we'll see if that game fits in the Witcher shaped hole in my life.
So OBVIOUSLY when the TV show happened, I was IN. I wasn't 100% sure about them casting the guy who played Superman in a bad Superman movie as Geralt, but the moment I saw him in action I was in love. I couldn't help it. He's perfect. And amazing. And BEAUTIFUL. I mean, HOT DAMN.
I watched the show, I loved the show, I've watched the show repeatedly since then and eagerly await more while thinking I might reread the books.
So there. I believe I've adequately described how I'm not JUST a horny fangirl, hot for Henry Cavill. I mean, I definitely am that, but I'm not ONLY that.
I mean.....
Did you SEE that bath scene? You can't really blame me.
For the record though....
I'm not really hurting on either side, video game Geralt can GET IT.
Anyways. That's so not the point of this post.
(Side note: Isn't it a little tragic I felt the need to write all this out just so I don't get gatekeepered by some asshole accusing me of not being a real fan?)
THE POINT OF THIS POST is that The Witcher consumed my life and I found that I now needed a tarot deck in my beloved Witcher universe. However I wasn't right away in the mood for deck making and I hadn't struck quite the right inspiration for the look of the deck. I toyed with using the faction card frames from the standalone Gwent game but could only find a few that were open frames, I'd have had to spend a great deal of time erasing art from the frames so I could put whatever I liked in it, and it didn't look nice. So I sort of back-burnered the idea. I just worked on collecting art on my Witcher Pinterest board in the meantime.
I did decide I needed a physical Gwent deck however. It took a little searching, but I found this site:
https://ninjalooter.de/45269/selber-basteln-gwint-kartenset-gwent-playing-cards-deutsch-english/#comment-295987
Which gave me excellent files for every Gwent card in The Witcher 3. Including the DLC, which has another faction. Based on my previous experience self printing decks it was easy enough to upload the files and print them off. I also found a Gwent playmat design that I could print as well, so I now have a fully functional physical Gwent set. I have yet to play with it, I only have one friend who cares about the Witcher and knows how to play Gwent, but it will happen.
Time passed. I despaired at the filming delays of season two of The Witcher due to Covid. I continued to pin Witcher fanart and tried desperately to find a game I'd love that much.
And then, two nights ago, I found this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/9b6d1l/the_witcher_3_gwent_cards_template/
That, my friends, is a complete template of the Witcher 3 Gwent cards. Not the Gwent standalone game, there's significant differences. (I watched Christopher Odd play a little of the standalone Gwent game and it didn't really interest me, I've been watching a video to get the plot, maybe someday I'll try playing it, but it doesn't super appeal to me because of how different it is from the game in The Witcher 3.)
That template has all the design elements of the cards from the Gwent game from the Witcher 3, the titles, the banners, the card powers and icons. Everything you would need to design your own unique Gwent cards in the style of The Witcher 3 Gwent.
Or. To make a deck of tarot cards that look like Gwent cards.
And there it was. That was it. That was the idea. That was my Witcher tarot deck. I would make my deck like Gwent cards, which was really my idea from the beginning, I just hadn't found a way to execute it that I liked.
That template was a godsend. Every icon was just a layer I could make visible or not in my photo editing software by clicking a checkmark, easy fucking peasy. And I was able to find the Gwent font in a simple google search, to make sure everything looked right.
The point of all this is that tonight I finished the major arcana of my Witcher Tarot, and I want to show it off!
Here we go:
Yes, I am aware there are two Lovers cards. I can't seem to choose between the two. I'll probably print both of them and then put one in my chaos deck I've been building.
For reference:
Close Combat (the sword icon) = Swords or Air
Ranged (The bow icon) = Cups or Water
Siege (The ballista icon) = Pentacles or Earth
Agile (sword and bow icon) = Wands or Fire
So for the major arcana the yellow icons represent the element that major arcana card is associated with. Those icons will also identify their suit, when I get to that.
I'm also using the Skellige faction banner for major arcana, the Northern Realms will be Cups, the Scoia'Tael will be Pentacles, the Monsters will be Wands and the Nilfgaard will be Swords. As for the other icons, the card effect icons, for the major arcana I simply followed my intuition for which icon matched the card I was working on. I will do the same for the suits. although I will probably assign a particular effect to the royalty. I'll go into that when I post the suits. Once I've made the suits.
I'm currently debating between two different card backs:
The first one is the one designed to go with the traditional neutral Witcher 3 Gwent cards, the second is cooler but comes from the standalone Gwent game. I'm not sure which I'll use yet, but I'm mulling it over.
Also, yes, those images are downsized in hopes it won't take too long to load here on my blog. If you want to print your own set, as long as it's for PERSONAL USE ONLY, let me know and I'll share my full size files. Again, PERSONAL USE ONLY. I do not own ANY of this art, it's not mine or any other random person's art to sell. On that note, here's the art credits!
Back A: Official art
Major Arcana
21. Can't find the source, but a watermark says it's by lilac_and_goosberries
I had another small issue. The Gwent weather cards. The template included icons for them, but the icons covered the space where the numbers went, which I will need for every card. But it felt wrong to just exclude them, based on their importance in Gwent and the fact that my tarot deck looks like a Gwent deck. So I had the thought that maybe I could just add the weather cards in as bonus cards, and I loved that idea. My weather cards have slight alterations from the Gwent versions, and I'll tell you how I plan to read them in a tarot reading.
(For credits, these are all official art.)
The world is too cold to move now. You are frozen in place and you risk hurting yourself if you struggle. It may be better to seek shelter and warmth rather than fighting against the weather now.
The sun is shining and all is well, enjoy the pleasant weather while it lasts, you never know when clouds will roll in.
It is time to rally the troops! Draw up your courage and your strength, call in your allies and fortify your defenses, be strong!
Things are not as they seem. You are distracted by something that seems like the real problem, but it's just a distraction. Alternatively, take some time to practice on smaller issues, rather than tackling the big one right away. Practice makes perfect.
You are lost and confused, the path in front of you is obscured and you are blind. If you charge forward you risk becoming more lost.
Life is all about change. Even when it seems like something is ending, it's just continuing the cycle. Life comes from death. New growth always springs from what was left behind, nature moves on.
Clear out. Something is not working for you and it's time to remove it from your life completely. Sometimes you need to clear the clutter that's there to allow new growth. Burn it to the ground to clear your space for new things.
Storms are raging all around you, but you've been here before. You know how to navigate the storms, you'll come through all right.
The rain is pouring, it's slowing you down and making everything difficult. The ground is muddy and everything is damp. But rain also brings life, plants need water for life. Push through, and don't allow yourself to drown in the floods. Rain can't last forever.
Those are just my initial ideas, based on my intuition. I'll write out something better when I have time to sit and think about it.
I'm mostly focusing on video game art, since the TV show isn't done yet, I don't want to dig too deep into the show and have it feel incomplete because of future important TV things. Although you can see I did include TV Calanthe in the Judgement card, but that's just cuz Calanthe is LITERALLY not present in the video games. And if they ever make a Witcher 4 I'm screwed anyways. (The same thing happened with my Final Fantasy deck that doesn't include FF15 and my Zelda deck that doesn't include Breath of the Wild. This is the risk I take.)
I'm also avoiding using the art for characters used in the Witcher 3 Gwent game, although I'm relying heavily on the Gwent art from the standalone game. I gotta say, designing a deck of cards in a universe that includes and EXTENSIVE card game is definitely making my life easier.
I'm loving making these cards and I'm so pleased with how it's gone so far.
Stay tuned for the suits!
