#Sefirotic

[maeviuslynn]

Diagram of different Trees of Life from "The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the Origins of Jewish Monotheism and Greek Philosophy" by Simo Parpola in Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

[eliotbaum]

The Kickstarter for Forever Hold Your Peace, a 72-page zine featuring five brand-new adventures for The Hidden Isle is now live until Feb 27th '25! With cover art by the amazing @gvalesdraws and interior art by the incredible @rudebeetle, Erin Vest, Zhengyi Wang and Newt. Art directed by @vivtanner and yours truly!

[vivtanner]

The despotic fleet, one of the main adversaries of the Dioscorian agents 🔥 The Hidden Isle

[solradguy]

No one ever talks about how Sol's sword turns into this thing when he installs. Or how it has a Tree of Life on it

I need someone to ask Daisuke Ishiwatari about his library and how he got inspired to put some of the wildest theology and metaphysics deepcuts you can imagine in the equally wildest places in Guilty Gear, and why like... No one has really brought them up (AFAIK) in the 25 whatever years GG's been around for

[akuryuuka]

Sephiroth after 3 yrs worth of therapy w @chrysopoeia07

[comparativetarot]

Ten of Swords. Art by Viv Tanner and Eli Baum, from Sefirot.

[rpgsandbox]

The Hidden Isle is a pen and paper RPG that uses Tarot cards instead of dice, set in the 16th century on the secretive island of Dioscoria. It focuses on roleplaying and collaborative storytelling.

This is a game about swashbuckling adventures across Europe and the Middle East, stealing forbidden texts from oppressive regimes, protecting an island of outcasts using ancient magic, and toppling empires with just the right speech at just the right time.

If you are familiar with Tarot then The Hidden Isle will resonate with you all the more, but no experience with Tarot is necessary. To help you feel like a mystical oracle and stay inspired, we’ll provide you with tables and guides to help you quickly understand each card draw.

Narrative heavy, rules light. While the game does have rules, their purpose is to enrich and drive your narratives. The game is designed as a collaborative storytelling experience.

Play and character growth intertwined. Each character has a burden—an emotional weight they carry—and an ideal to live up to. Become your truest self, or succumb to your worst impulses.

A vibrant 16th-century world. Dioscoria is described in loving detail, as are major cities of the time such as London, Istanbul and Venice. No historical knowledge is needed.

A wide array of characters. Play as an Illusionist, Scoundrel, Occultist, Prowler, Champion or Hunter. More characters are planned for stretch goals.

GM can plan or improvise. Scenarios can be planned ahead of time by the Seer, or improvised at the start of a session for GMs short on time.

Tarot cards instead of dice. They’re used for everything from scenario inspiration, to character backstories, to divination, to skill checks. No Tarot experience is required. Any deck can be used, but we recommend the Sefirot deck.

Dioscoria: a hidden isle of sages, adventurers, and ancient wisdom. Within the walls of this secret city are gathered the misunderstood, the persecuted, those unjustly punished for the way they live. Here they can flourish, and return to the world to wage their secret war against injustice and ignorance when they are ready.

1562: It is a dangerous and disrupted time. Europe has embraced the innovations of gunpowder, and is using it to tear itself apart along religious lines. The Ottoman Empire is poised to break either Vienna to its west or the Safavid Empire to its east. European colonisers are spreading along the coastlines of the world like a hungry parasite. The Inquisition accuses, tortures and executes its victims across the Catholic world.

It is also a world of alchemy and sorcery. English magicians pry the mysteries of the stars. Ottoman scholars unravel the hidden design of the creator. Dioscorian mystics have mastered techniques to peer beyond the veil of time, and steer the world towards sanity.

Into this maelstrom step the agents of Dioscoria. Dioscoria's actors, magicians, assassins and paladins stand ready to defend the helpless and preserve wisdom. As these agents tackle scheme after scheme, and topple tyrants, cults and demonic forces, will they live up to their ideal selves, or embrace the darker parts of their own humanity?

Character generation: Characters’ backstories—their childhoods, their adult life, their emotional burdens and their ideals—are generated by consulting the Tarot for inspiration.

Burdens and ideals: Every character has a burden and an ideal. These are habits that threaten to engulf you, or values you are striving to live up to. Use them during play to make challenges easier, or become the person you want to be.

Skill checks: The Agent and the Seer each draw a hand of cards, based on the Agent’s skill and the challenge’s difficulty. Each plays a single card; the highest wins. The suit’s skill (swords, wands, cups or pentacles) acts as a trump suit.

Fortune cards: To avert failure, Agents may spend a fortune card to turn a failure into a success. Agents can jump in and help each other when all seems lost.

Solo mode: A favored Stretch Goal has been reached. Now you can play as an Agent in solitaire mode. The Cabinet of Extremis has chosen you to carry out their will on more dangerous missions than regular Agents undertake. You can also find the preliminary rules among the playtest materials.

Visions: Each Agent is blessed before each mission, and can receive glimpses of the past, present or future. Visions can be used to gain useful information, peer into a character’s fate, or add tension and stakes to a scene.

Harm: Harm can be physical or spiritual. Agents are usually harmed because of a failed challenge. Harm can severely impede an Agent, and lead to permanent trauma if untreated.

Abilities: Each character class has unique abilities. Occultists can curse with the evil eye. Performers can imitate their target perfectly. Hunters can spread panic by dispatching their enemies from the shadows. Just make sure your ability isn’t causing you more harm than you can tolerate!

Contacts: Your friends and allies in Dioscoria can help you grow. These personal connections help you train, prepare and reflect on yourself, and can teach you abilities you would otherwise never have access to.

Territories: Dioscoria, and other cities, change over time: in response to player actions, or inspired by Tarot draws. This can create a unique geopolitical landscape: a world that branches off from our own history.

Scenario divination: For GMs who don’t want to prep ahead of time, scenarios can be generated on the fly by drawing Tarot cards and consulting the “Vision guide”. If you chain these scenarios together, you can generate entire campaigns with nothing more than a Tarot deck and a little imagination.

The Hidden Isle is inspired by Forged in the Dark, and its core is formed from that system’s style and dynamics. However, this is not just a reskin with Tarot cards: The Hidden Isle is an original and coherent game with its own feel and rhythm.

Play The Hidden Isle now!

If you’re curious how the rules come together, and how it feels to play, why not try The Hidden Isle yourself? To get started, just download the playtest materials:

Download Playtest Kit

We also have two pre-made scenarios for you that can be played immediately:

The Rialto Scrolls: Rescue a scholar from the Jewish Ghetto before her life's work falls into covetous hands.

The Face of the Enemy: Foil a spy sent to Dioscoria to bring the island under control.

And if you don't have a group at the ready, try the game with the preliminary solo mode!

The Hidden Isle – an A4-size, gold-foiled, hardcover book of roughly 230 pages – contains the complete game rules, sections describing Dioscoria and the world of the sixteenth century, and all character classes and supplementary tables.

230+ pages of beautiful, elegantly laid out material. Bound in hardcover, clad in gold foil.

Complete game rules, including character creation, NPC generation and scenario generation using Tarot cards.

Five classes, each with eight unique abilities!

A flexible magic system featuring seven schools of magic and seven magical sources.

33 specialized items for your Agents to draw on during each mission.

24 historically inspired magical creatures.

A full, dedicated chapter on Dioscoria: its culture, origins, and a tour of the city.

A practical "Advice for Seers" chapter, giving you extra tools to help you run a game of The Hidden Isle.

A detailed section on the world of the sixteenth century,containing extensive lore on five major cities of the time, from various parts of the known world.

Tarot tables and references to help you understand any card, giving you multiple prompts for any situation to aid inspiration.

Additional materials for printing at home such as character sheets, reference sheets, Tarot tables are available via digital download.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Sat, October 28 2023 3:55 PM BST

Website: [Causa Creations] [Sefirot Games] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[innorin]

Argalia 💙

I just started using Snuffles and am still just learning how to use it, but it seems to me that my collages are working fine against all expectations 🥰

I also made some more collages with Snuffles, but I'll show them a little later ~

[akkivee]

IDK how deep into BB and NGE lore you are, but I'm going insane after rewatching EoE. Like everyone knows about Ore ga Ichiro. But no one is talking about how Air in the G string, which is sampled for New Star, was used in EoE during the pinnacle of Asuka's growth as a character (and for a bad ass fight!) Now I'm going insane trying to figure out what is Jiro's connection. I'm trying to look at just the songs themselves, but even then that's tricky....

i’ve never gone off the deep end for nge lol so i don’t think i can contribute too much tbh!!!! but i think that’s a fantastic catch in recognising that saburo and asuka both utilise air in the g string, like whenever i think of nge and bb, it’s usually the

gendo🟰rei parallels in doing the most shady shit for his wife

rei🟰ramuda parallels as clones created for a purpose they cannot escape from and their growth into self identity

shinji🟰ichiro parallels for even tho shinji’s personality is completely different from ichiro’s lol, they have the same issue of not really moving until pointed in the direction they need to go, and some other stuff i think might constitute as a deep dive analysis on both their characters i don’t think i’m very qualified to give lol (eg a reliance on the comfort of familiarity/unwillingness to trust others etc)

which i believe is the usual analysis lol. i def can’t help you out music wise (it’s been forever never mind not being musically trained lmao) but thematically???? why couldn’t it be jiro🟰asuka as well??? like i think saburo🟰asuka is more obvious since they’re both prideful and condescending lol and it’s loss that makes the both of them stop and reevaluate, but jiro goes thru similar character growth for the same reason, bc bb lost. jiro was also blindly prideful of the mission he ‘took’ from ichiro, what sensenfukoku is all about lol, like in the same way asuka went to war bc they were attacked and that’s all the reason she needed to fight, jiro also hated samatoki bc that’s how ichiro felt and therefore he should as well

since jiro and saburo are often depicted as two sides of the same coin and asuka has enough depth in her character that i think can be shared between the both of them lol

(tho on the point of jiro🟰rei, jiro used to refer to himself as ichiro’s ‘clone’. rei self-destructing and freeing herself from gendo on her own terms could also, if you squint lol, parallel with jiro sacrificing himself for saburo in the first drb since in that moment he wasn’t ichiro’s clone trying to defeat samatoki, but saburo’s big bro trying to protect him but it’s still a goal that aligns with ichiro blah blah blah lol)

[moroniccats]

Jews of tumblr, we must show solidarity by reminding each other to do the ספירה!

[kawaiifacesong]

So, I love Z-one. I love his little chuckle. I love his design. I love his deck.

But can someone explain where the hell his Timelords come from?

I really don't get it. He's this last survivor of the Meklord apocalypse and I guess he somehow built a machine that created these Timelord cards by harnessing the Sefirot?

And he's the chosen saint of what? God? Like the Kabbalistic God sent him back in time to destroy the city?

So random.

[eliotbaum]

Shop stays open only until tomorrow, Nov 15th at 12pm CEST! Highlighting some of our gold foil Sefirot prints ✨ (don’t forget you can also bundle them and save some €€€ 🔥🔥 )

[vivtanner]

Discoria - The Hidden Isle 🌊

[midoucloud]

Lidiagumi as Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

Photo by Midoucloud Photography (me)

[thegreatyin]

to put my feelings on hod more bluntly: i feel like her writing so far is trying to provoke sympathy but it's like. direct in a way that doesn't click with me. i don't say "oh poor wet meow meow", i say "the writers are being a little too blatant, what is even the point here". i wouldn't go far enough to say she's insufferable but without knowing the full context of her lore and what the game is trying to do with her she just currently comes across in my mind as a cardboard cutout of a crying emoji

[mediena]