Signs

The man carried ten staffs on his back, but seven of them fell away from him. The three that remained became my swords. Death came for the Empress and the Tower fell. Molok was invited in, but the Queen of Coins sits atop the World.

Temperance has turned away, as did Justice. The Fool looks to the Stars for hope.

Soon. The time is not yet here.

The sand does not care whether rain, or tears, or blood falls upon it; the sand devours them all the same. Our now-nameless home, bound in chains as we. Thy time will come.

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I saw a dog with orange eyebrows.

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My electrons have been thoroughly reionized

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Hm. Well, tarot cards and imagery do have kind of a history in the Empire, but …

I can’t tell whether this is supposed to be a reading or just a bunch of kind of bleak, semi-poetic prose full of references to the major arcana.

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Remember the last guy who came on the IGS and spouted a lot of very strange, quasi-prophetic stuff? Whatever happened to him? Did any of that actually happen? I hope so.

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No ? Did someone do that ?

Of all the Signs, only the Sixth can set us truly free.

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:no_bicycles:

Truly free means also dead.

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The only bit that seems clear is the “queen of coins” as a reference to Empress Cadiz and her great wealth.

Everything else could mean a bunch of things.

The 7 staffs that fell could mean the seven Minmatar tribes. But it could mean something else. The three staffs that became swords could mean the Amarr, Ni-kunni, and Khanid. Or not.
Death came for the Empress right enough. But what tower ?
Molok being invited could refer to the choices of champions for the Succession. Or it might mean king Khanid himself.

As for the rest, who knows ?

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‘Could mean’? C’mon, Val. The whole thing’s stupidly obvious.

Yes, the 10 are the major ‘bloodlines’ in the Empire prior to the Rebellion. Then the seven tribes rebel (we’ll ignore the fact that the Nefantar and Starkmanir initially remained for one reason or another, since she does), and ‘the three’ remain. Death comes for the Empress, duh, and her ‘tower’, her strong bulwark, her titan blew up. edeity’s in the Trials, but Kittens wins.

Then dire nonsense about the moral failings of the Empire since, and common subjects looking to the skies (as always, and possibly now adding capsuleers to the eternal list of 'things in the heavens we seek guidance from).

From there, more dire nonsense in the form of vaguaries that are broad enough to be applicable in any time and place humanity has ever known.

Clearly, Pythia is being… Pithy. It’s a pity, though. If she’d managed to be Pithi, she might be worth something in Jita.

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The number seven is generally considered to be lucky. There seems to be references to such a thing in almost every culture in New Eden.

Seven is also the times that one must riffle-shuffle a deck of cards to achieve near-true randomness in card position. From there, the diminishing returns make each additional riffle-shuffle near-useless.

Seven is also the number of cards in gin rummy, and one of the ‘stud’ forms of poker.

So, if I understand the symbolism in this, you’re looking to get tanked on gin, find a stud, and get ‘lucky’?

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Truly, Arrendis, you are a bearer of good omens!

If you ask a question and throw a stick into a stream on one side of a bridge and it turns around before it comes out the other side, that means yes. Otherwise it is no.

I asked this stick if cards know anything: ------<

And when it came out under the other side of the bridge, it looked like this! --------<

So. Everything will be all right.

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I was under the impression that for tarot cards, the obvious meaning isn’t always right. The card Death meaning change rather than actual death.

But we’ll you know. This isn’t my field of expertise.

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My lucky number was always square root of 2.

But that’s because i is complex.

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Shouldn’t that be the square root of -1?

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Yes, it’s why proper signs are important, and can be the difference between opening up a new plane or being tossed into the sea.

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She is just irrational.