2017-09-28 3:11:37 ¶ ●

## How do I apply?

Applications open October 1st! We will be posting a link to the Google form once they open

2017-09-28 3:36:03 ¶ ●

## are there any plans for the minor arcana?

It depends on the reception this project receives, but not yet! If we receive an overwhelming number of applicants we might expand, but honestly it would probably be an entirely separate process from this project

2017-09-28 6:18:24 ¶ ●

## Who is running the project?

There was a team of about a dozen people who deliberated over the card assignments, but the project is being organized by @arosoup and @snilm!

2017-09-28 7:44:07 ¶ ●

## Is there any reason there's not more variety of ladies? Nepeta and Feferi especially, but also other Beforus trolls.

Since this project only focuses on the major arcana, we decided to keep it to the most important characters and especially the characters that had significant impact on the plot.

We put a lot of deliberation into these decisions, and the first thing we did was make a list of Essential Ladies that had to be included, and unfortunately Nepeta and Feferi didn’t make the cut-neither did any beforus trolls besides aranea. (which isn’t to say we don’t like those characters, but they are objectively less important)

While i’m sure there could be an argument that say… the handmaid would also work as death, it makes more sense to have that be a character with more screentime and bearing on the plot

IF this project expands to the minor arcana we would definitely include more secondary characters

2017-09-28 20:46:13 ¶ ●

## How many people are you going to be picking.

We’re going to pick 22 artists, one for each of the major arcana

2017-09-29 1:38:02 ¶ ●

## Would you actually explain the lovers and justice card choices. Those were the only ones that didn't get a description, I'm curious because I don't know why.

Whoops, sorry about that—the card assignments page is basically just a copy-paste from our shared google doc with all the back-and-forth arguments omitted, so some of it is out of context. It’ll be replaced by a more polished version before applications open up.

## THE LOVERS (ROSEMARY)

In the Rider-Waite and derivative decks, the titular Lovers are the Biblical Adam and Eve, before their expulsion from Paradise. Analogically, Rose and Kanaya are the Adam and Eve of Earth C: Kanaya is responsible for hatching the new mother grub, ensuring the propagation of her species, with Rose as her partner who works with her and the other jade-blooded trolls to ensure the safe birth of each new brood. Next to Adam is a burning tree, representing the flames of physical passion—the way Kanaya’s skin uncontrollably lights up when she gets flustered around Rose; and next to Eve is the serpent, the Devil in disguise, making the lovers imperfect and weighing them down with earthly temptations—such as Rose’s alcoholism, which is exacerbated by her anxieties about her relationship with Kanaya and which plagues her all through the Game Over timeline. (In the Rider-Waite deck, the Devil card also depicts Adam and Eve, in chains and doomed by the sins of the flesh—the Devil is represented in the ladystuck deck by the Condesce, who was responsible for Rose and Kanaya’s deaths in Game Over.)

When drawn, the Lovers represents a close interpersonal relationship—usually a romantic one. It also represents duality or a union: Rose and Kanaya are the ultimate icon of the union of Earth and Alternian cultures that Earth C manifests, and their first kiss as well as their wedding took place on 10/25 (the sum of 4/13 and 6/12). It also represents choices—coming of age, finding oneself, and a conflict with heavy consequences. Rose and Kanaya’s relationship, while ultimately healing and enriching both of their lives, coincides with a lot of radical and uncomfortable changes for each of them (their first face-to-face meeting follows both of them undergoing a metamorphosis of death-and-rebirth: Rose’s god tiering and Kanaya’s vampirism; Rose’s alcoholism as mentioned previously; the depressive stagnation of the three-year meteor journey; Rose and Kanaya each encountering a mother-figure as a peer: Roxy for Rose and Porrim for Kanaya. And so on). Usually, the Lovers indicates that someone will have to make a difficult decision, or a major change, but that the rewards for doing so will be well worth the upheaval.

When drawn inverted, the Lovers indicates a relationship with some sort of disharmony or conflict, usually of communication. Of course, Rose and Kanaya’s relationship is not perfect, and is fraught with shortcomings and miscommunications due to either party’s hesitance. Rose starts drinking because she’s so wrecked with anxiety over her relationship, Kanaya is unwilling or unable to talk to Rose about that addiction because she’s too afraid to rock the boat (even though they both know Rose has a problem). Rose nearly forgets their first date, Kanaya wasn’t even aware their meeting was a date—and Rose dies without ever having told Kanaya she loves her. The inverted Lovers indicates that the honeymoon phase of a relationship has passed (the mutual flirting of their first face-to-face meeting at the green sun) and been eclipsed by the hard work that is ultimately necessary to sustain a relationship—work that neither of them was able to put forth in the Game Over timeline.

## JUSTICE (TEREZI & VRISKA)

This card is ruled by Libra and traditionally depicts a female figure holding both a sword and a scale. Her scales are balanced, indicating sound logic and reasoning—and her sword is upright, indicating that she is ready and able to punish the wicked. (Lady Justice is also usually depicted blindfolded.) This card, no matter how it is drawn, indicates that somebody’s gotten—or will get—what’s coming to them. It is the card of karma and inevitable outcomes.

Upright, Justice indicates impartiality, and that justice will be served. When Terezi slays Vriska, she sees herself as Lady Justice: Vriska has sown disorder and carnage in the Sgrub group as well as on the meteor, and if allowed to continue her actions will result in the death of Terezi herself. Terezi loves Vriska, but when she stabs her, she’s acting not with her heart, but with her mind (or her Mind): at the end of the day, Vriska must die so that the remaining trolls (and the potential for the entire species) can survive. Vriska’s life has been marked by bloodshed everywhere she goes, and her death—reinforced by the decision of her God Tier clock—is her ultimate comeuppance. And her death does, indeed, bring law and order to the meteor, at least for a little while.

When inverted, Justice indicates that the querent—or someone close to them—is cheating. Someone is lying or dodging accountability, and when karma eventually gets them they may not understand what they did wrong. It tells you to accept the consequences of your actions, and to make a change before it is too late (like how post-retcon Vriska ends her tendency to solve her problems by murdering them). Justice inverted may also indicate a flaw in a black-and-white moral mindset, and a need to open your mind: Terezi saw her conflict with Vriska as having only two options (let her live, and doom herself and Karkat; or to kill her and spare her own life), but she eventually finds a third option through the retcon (impeding Vriska and changing her mind while letting her live).

2017-09-29 4:46:23 ¶ ●

## Here's a suggestion that's pretty simple: switch Aradia and Snowman, for the reasons already admitted in Death & Hanged Man's descriptions wrt them. Hanged Man being willful is important imo. Love the project & your description for The Lovers and Justice makes me die in a good way

Our second choice for the Hanged Man was actually Rose’s mom (and this was one of the decisions that took the longest—Hanged Man deliberations lasted a few days longer than any of the other cards). Both Snowman and beta Roxy are characters who are forced into stagnant, domestic roles at the will of a man (Snowman by Lord English, and Mom by Grandpa), waiting around and performing a supporting role until their eventual, inevitable death, slain at the altar of a greater purpose. In this sense, both characters reflect the “waiting period/inactivity/martyrdom” meaning of the Hanged Man. Although Mom’s decision to take a supporting role was more willful than Snowman’s—Mom at least seemed to love Rose and tried to connect to her, however unsuccessfully—neither of them really had much of a choice in the matter. Eventually we settled on Snowman because we thought she was important enough to justify a place in the major arcana, and because Roxy already had two cards. (Additionally, the Hanged Man and the World are seen in some decks as counterparts/inversions of each other—their legs are in the same pose, but the World is upright while the Hanged Man is upside down—and we liked the contrast between Snowman and Echidna: one party an agent of the death of a universe, the other of its birth.)

We talked it over a little bit, and while we can definitely see Aradia as the Hanged Man—particularly her army of robo-clones—Snowman as Death doesn’t really fit. Death, as a card, has a literal meaning—the end of a life—but it also represents rebirth, renewal, and immortality. For Aradia, death is a lifelong fascination, a constant which always leads her to a renewed and reborn self, ultimately guiding her to becoming one of the only two Sgrub players to achieve God Tier. Death is not a negative card, or a sign of ill tidings; depending on the context it is one of the most fortuitous cards to draw in a reading. Aradia, who is very much alive, and who intends to stay that way; Aradia, who sees death as an old friend and an agent of change rather than a grim shadow, is a great fit for this reading. Although Snowman undergoes changes in Homestuck—first the Black Queen, deposed and exiled, and then bound by Lord English to the Alternian universe frog—these changes aren’t at the fore of her narrative, the same way they are Aradia’s. (Snowman is also a character who rejects transformation and change, in a very literal sense: she refuses to wear the trolls’ prototyped ring, which is what allows Jack to depose her in the first place.)

2017-09-30 19:10:45 ¶ ●

## Is there gonna be a discord group or smth like that for when all the artists are picked? :0

Yes there will be! We’ll be informing the artists via email and we’ll send out a link to the server then.

2017-09-30 19:15:38 ¶ ●

## what timezone will the application form be released in????

We’ll release the application around noon CST tomorrow

I don’t think we have made this clear up until this point, so I’m sorry if there was any confusion- but this is going to be juried. We’ll be picking artists based on who we think will be able to best represent a particular card- it’s not first come first served.