Azathoth Tarot

what fantastic work!

This is an amazing deck. I am on tarot buying restriction until after January 1, but I will definately forward the information to the person who CAN still buy decks in my house, LOL.

If there are any left after January 1, and I don't get one by then I will definately be purchasing.

My decks came today. I love the big cards. I love that it's a readable deck right out of the box even without having a Lovecraftian background. (Cause I don't. I have no idea who/what most of the beings depicted in the cards are.) Even though the imagery pays a very big debt to the Rider Waite, it looks like a lot of thought was put into what went into the cards.

Two things I'm not as happy about. It's probably my aging eyes, but unless the cards are in direct light, the lettering of the card names and Dominions(?) looks fuzzy. And the only thing I don't like about the deck is the card back. I think the red emblem is cool, but it's drowned out by the URL repeated over the card back. It doesn't look so bad on the website, but in person I think it's rather annoying. The deck title in a repeating pattern might have been one thing, but a repeated URL seems like overkill.

I'll definitely be getting the companion book when it comes out next year though!

Overall a great job!

rwcarter said:

...It's probably my aging eyes, but unless the cards are in direct light, the lettering of the card names and Dominions(?) looks fuzzy...

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I thought so too at first, but it's actually kind of a neat idea considering that some people trim the cards of other decks to eliminate the titles. In this deck, the titles can be more easily ignored, if you prefer that, and instead treated as a graphic adornment.

I know nothing about Lovecraft, either, and share your response to the drawings in a similar way. If familiarity with Lovecraft's universe is advantageous in interpreting the cards, it might be worth checking out some of that literature just as with any other dimension of the cards.

This site can be hard on the wallet. I just received my Azathoth deck as well - the shipping was super-fast - and after an initial inspection I concur with a_gnostic and others that this is a beautiful and weird (in the old-school sense) deck. I love the obsessive, gorgeously detailed art, and the decision to make it look like a RW deck from some alternate reality filled with Dagon-worshippers is inspired. Nice card stock, good size, durable and cool-looking hard box (well, 'cool' save for the inescapable presence of that modern 'mark of the beast,' a bar code). I guess the similarities to the RW might also render a book superfluous, but I'll ask anyway - might one be on the way, Nemo's Locker?

rwcarter's complaint is also mine - I really don't like the backs. The repeated URL motif is unattractive and breaks the potent glamour the deck otherwise exudes. The sigil is nice, though. Apart from the backs (a relatively minor cavil, I suppose) this is a terrific deck (in both senses of 'terrific').

Enoch Soames said:

...I guess the similarities to the RW might also render a book superfluous, but I'll ask anyway - might one be on the way, Nemo's Locker?...

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From nemoslocker.com:

a_gnostic said:

I thought so too at first, but it's actually kind of a neat idea considering that some people trim the cards of other decks to eliminate the titles. In this deck, the titles can be more easily ignored, if you prefer that, and instead treated as a graphic adornment.

I know nothing about Lovecraft, either, and share your response to the drawings in a similar way. If familiarity with Lovecraft's universe is advantageous in interpreting the cards, it might be worth checking out some of that literature just as with any other dimension of the cards.

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I was trying to assign Lovecraft stories to my Dark Grimoire deck and found it worked better when I didn't. This one seems to have a totally different feel than that one but will see what I think when I get the deck. I am thinking it is a good time to re-read Lovecraft anyway...

rwcarter said:

And the only thing I don't like about the deck is the card back. I think the red emblem is cool, but it's drowned out by the URL repeated over the card back. It doesn't look so bad on the website, but in person I think it's rather annoying. The deck title in a repeating pattern might have been one thing, but a repeated URL seems like overkill.

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Ah, as a Lovecraft fan and dedicated Arkham Horror player, this deck seems PERFECT for me, but the backs may keep me from ordering it. This was the same issue I had with Charissa Drengsen's Steampunk Tarot. Why put promotional material here? It seems tacky and highly detracting from the otherwise gorgeous aesthetic.

Nemo's Locker said:

...For some of the trumps I incorporated symbolism from some very old 16th – 17th century cards, as seemed appropriate, as well as some Neolithic art on one card in particular (I’ll let you guess which one)...

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This isn't a trump, but the two figures on Five of Pentacles seem Neolithic to me.

People in the Paleolithic period were often buried in a fetal position in a round grave, and from what I've seen of Neolithic figurines, they are mostly featureless. The two figures on the card aren't necessarily dead in a literal sense: this could be read figuratively as a regression to a time when social strata and other structures had not yet formed among humanity. It could also refer to there always being "a way out" of difficult situations, either by opening one's eyes and going for it or closing them and seeking the guidance of one's inner guide.

If the figures are dead, "Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult where people preserved skulls of the dead, which were plastered with mud to make facial features. The rest of the corpse may have been left outside the settlement to decay until only the bones were left, then the bones were buried inside the settlement underneath the floor or between houses." (Wikipedia)

I'm not very good at this sort of thing, but that's what I could piece together. I'm interested in someone else taking a stab at this once you have the deck.

SixDegrees said:

Ah, as a Lovecraft fan and dedicated Arkham Horror player, this deck seems PERFECT for me, but the backs may keep me from ordering it. This was the same issue I had with Charissa Drengsen's Steampunk Tarot. Why put promotional material here? It seems tacky and highly detracting from the otherwise gorgeous aesthetic.

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If I'm not mistaken, it is a self-published deck, so I wouldn't begrudge some self-promotion. The way the lettering on the back is arranged makes it look more like a texture than text, and the pentagram shown in a layer behind the lettering speaks to "reading between the lines" in order to understand the full meaning of the deck.

I wouldn't say it looks at all tacky, and it's certainly less distracting than a copyright notice slapped on the front of every card.