no rabbits were harmed

i knew almost right off the bat the motifs i wanted to use for my card-- Tumultus is a Thoth deck, but i saw parallels between Thoth’s and Rider-Waite-Smith’s versions of the Two. The RWS Two of Wands traditionally shows a figure on a castle parapet, holding a globe but looking out at a vast untamed wilderness. in the theme of each suit’s two depicting duality or choice, it depicts a choice between a Known world, conquered and safe but predictable, or an Unknown world, with the promise of risk and reward. Thoth’s minor arcana doesn’t follow the same patterns, but i saw in its concept of Dominion-- dominance over hardship, refinement of skills, making something one’s own-- an answer to that choice, a wholehearted embrace of the Known. November Ajax turns his back on the ocean and whatever monsters are still lurking under it, and instead focuses his attention on those he rules over, fitting right in the palm of his hand. (even if she’s certainly not psyched about it.)

the big thing that was gonna make this card work was the colors, so i was already stressing about that early on. (and being unfamiliar with the constraints of CMYK, there was a lot of tragedy and frustration with the blues that you’re spared from watching in the process gif. it’s from my layer info from the finished piece, so it looks smoother than it all actually was.) the key: November Ajax’s bright blues and silvers, haloed in red-gold, while around him are desaturated browns and beiges. a larger-than-life science fiction sentinel, contrasted by a world that’s borne the brunt of a very unkind reality. i wanted to evoke the original movie’s big bold use of primaries in the space of Uprising’s (let’s be honest) less adventurous palette, and draw out the duality in the Pacific Rim universe’s themes in the space of the Two. there are questions to be asked in Uprising about the PPDC’s actions as a police force, if jaegers like Ajax should be deployed against citizens, if what everything our nominal heroes are doing is the right thing, even if it’s in the service of bettering the world. Dominion can be kind, or cruel-- or both, at once. these aren’t always a contradiction.

other fun facts:

the file name is robonarc_large.

a few accent colors are cribbed directly from the Hye-designed card border, to better tie the border and illustration together. cheating? good design praxis? it saved me some palette time!

the two horizontal sunbeams are shaped like the Aries symbol, the astrological sign the Two of Wands is associated with! the card also traditionally has strong Mars and fire associations.

there is a pizzeria poster in the foreground ruins. pizza boxes were a minor joke in the discord early in the project after Hye shared a story about having to package things in them for the first pacarcana kickstarter back in the day, so i wisecracked that i’d sneak some pizza signage into my card for the memes. and then i laid in wait. for two months. until i could remind them that i never forgot about that exchange.

it took all my self-discipline to not put the noid on that poster.

with the visuals and themes going on, there ought to be-- like with any good tarot card-- more than one valid way to interpret it in a larger reading. maybe you the reader are the card’s central figure, the refiner and protector of your own Dominion. it might need some TLC, or it might be trying to slip through your fingers. or, standing above and separate from it, you may feel fundamentally disconnected from your surroundings...... or maybe it’s another force’s Dominion that towers above you, for better or for worse.