Looking into Tarot, and then D&D's version of Tarokka, I like both, but there are either cards/messages etc in one that I wish were in the other. I also like that Tarokka is character heavy, and uses character archetypes, but I wish there were more generic, or less character specific ones.   Here's the lore so far:   As'Meus was upset Nal'Yea didn't want him and he handled the rejection poorly. In order to try to forcer her to choose him over Ethesis, he started to put 'curses' on her to punish her for being away from him. The idea was the curses wouldn't be active all the time, but would start to activate under specific circumstances. The only was for her to get relief from the active curses was either to somehow reverse the situation to remove what triggered it, or to go to him. She was unaware of the curses at first. This he hopes would 'teach' her she was stronger with him... that she needed him. When she did find out what he did, she was afraid to tell others about the curses because of how they would react. She knew that war was in their future, and she was trying to delay it, hoping a peaceful solution could be found.   One of the curses was 'Social Isolation'. When triggered, it causes her to loose all language. She cannot speak, read, write, or understand any language. Those around her found creative ways to get around this and communicate with her until the curse went dormant again. Ethesis was the one who started the project, but it was Rhym'ae'el who really took to it. Artistic and one for puzzles, he started to communicate through images. The images all had a variety of meanings, but it was the context to other images that help solidify the meaning. This was eventually distilled down to a deck of cards with pictures on them. The name of each card was written in Auroran, along with a 'suit' or the grander concept the card belonged to and its number within the suit.   This was the origin of divining cards. Since then a variety of decks with different cards have been developed in the realms, but the original deck still remains and is used as the divining method for Nal'Yea, Crysantha, and associated churches. It was never supposed to be a way of determining the future, more a way of communicating when language was not possible, but when a practitioner asks about the future, the associated god often manipulates the deck to tell them the likely answer.   It is believed Nal'Yea can see the possible futures, and that even when gods like Crysantha use the cards, it is she who answers them