Theatre of the Gods

## Summary

The Theatre of Gods is an Artesian form of Divination and Entertainment, through using cards representative of the Artesian Pantheon, and arranging them in patterns in order to analyze and find meaning from them. While the art of making an entertaining or even insightful reading is difficult and time consuming, relegated mostly to bards and priests, the activity is widespread in it’s appeal across Artesia, with many waking early to hear the reading from their favorite priests, in order to plan their day accordingly- while others gather in the taverns around the crackling fire to hear the storyteller craft the next chapter of the ongoing narrative that is the Artesian Pantheon.

## Theatre of the Gods

To the Artesians, life is a never-ending story, tales written moment to moment awaiting their time to be shared with those who would listen, and learn. The lives of the Gods and the Pantheon as a whole are no exception, either. The Gods are not contained and described simply in moments passed, transcribed in literature and verse; the lives of the Gods is as ever-present and ever changing as the peoples of Artesia.

The Pantheon of Gods, being comprised of many individuals of various personalities, ideologies, and relations, always has events and interactions playing out between it's members; the Gods do not live in isolation after all. The stories of the Gods cross in various ways every day that passes: They chat, they bicker, they party, they fight, they make deals, they love, they hate; and all of it effects the world about them, especially the mortal peoples of Artesia.

In order to keep track of the going-ons of the Pantheon of Gods, and catalogue the great story they tell collectively in their interactions, the faithful have devised a method to observe the world of the Gods. In doing this, many can predict the possible going-ons of the day, and how the actions the Gods take will affect one's own happenings. Through depictions of the Gods themselves, and observing their positions in relation to eachother, one may infer the interactions of the Gods.

Through artistic depictions of the Gods on small objects such as cards, by organizing them together into a stack and arranging the pieces into a random arrangement, by drawing five cards and laying them out, one shall find what Gods will take a notable action for the day, what they're doing, and to whom. The cards usually tend to be laid out in a pentagon pattern, made of five cards, placed from the top position, with each position thereafter filled in clockwise positions.

A card's reading can change based on various factors, such as position, neighbors, and orientation; an inverted card tends to have unfavorable happenings to its closest neighbors, with beneficial outcomes to the others. The opposite is also true for the upright position, with beneficial interactions for a card's neighbor, and unfavorable to neutral interactions for the other positions.

While few are skilled in creating and reading these constructed stories of the Pantheon of Gods, "What's today's reading?" still tends to be a common question, early in the day. Some use the readings as a true guide for their day, others simply follow them for the entertainment the ever evolving story of the Pantheon brings each morning. Most others tend to ignore them completely.

## How to craft a Deck

Crafting one’s deck, if one wishes to make one, is not a task that should be taken lightly; how one crafts their deck is how they choose to see the Gods represented and displayed- which is why if one wishes to practice the art themselves, it is often advised one paint the cards themselves; though it is not unacceptable to inherit a deck from another- though if one wishes to practice the art, and use it for more than personal readings, it is considered in bad form to purchase cards made by someone else.
Due to the numerous Gods and the very nature of the Artesian pantheon, the actual contents and composition of one’s deck is completely up to it’s maker, save for a few general rules that must always be followed. Decks are at minimum at least ten cards- this is considered the absolute minimum to get any sort of reading at all- though optimally, one should have fifteen to twenty cards. Twenty-five is also common- and those that acknowledge the more obscure members of the pantheon include more lesser deities in their decks, bringing the card count closer to twenty-five, or even thirty in some cases; though that practice is usually kept to those who’s patron God tends to be of the minor variety, or those trying to revive a God that has fallen out of popularity.

The only rule for what Gods one should include in their deck is that one MUST include the five Major Gods- without them, it cannot rightly be called an accurate reading of the politics and ongoings of the Pantheon, could it? I mean, who in their right mind would leave out the most influential Gods of the whole Pantheon? But save for this one rule, a guideline for a simple ten card deck would be to include the five Major Gods, three Common or widespread Gods, and two of the more Minor or obscure Gods; of course, this is entirely up to the deck builder, and what Gods they favor. Save for this, how one customizes their deck is personal preference.