Welcome back Misserians,
Last week, I shared the Oracle Dice instead of the Guidebook cover + book layout. I've been working on this a bit, I'm actually more excited to sh...
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Publishing Goblin
10 days ago
Misery Monday XV | The Dice!
Welcome back my Misery Folk!
While today was going to be a guidebook cover reveal, we are delaying that to next week to swap spots with the dice... because the dice symbols ...
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Publishing Goblin
17 days ago
Misery Monday XIV | The Reading Cloth, The Deck's Back and Flip Through!
Welcome back Misery Travelers,
(If you didn't back this project, and the flip through in this update has you regretting it? Pre-order now!)
We have the deck complete now,...
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Publishing Goblin
about 1 month ago
Misery Monday XIII | The Bloody Finale & The Final Vote
(If you want the mess of my life update, watch the video. Otherwise, stick to the text for things about the project haha)
Welcome back to the end of our deck. The final...
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Publishing Goblin
about 1 month ago
Misery Monday XII | Blood Cleanses, Blood Heals
Welcome back my compatriots in Misery,
Today, we begin our final suit. We enter The House of Blood.
Acceptance + Hope.
• ⬛ The House
• The House of Blood simply is...
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Publishing Goblin
about 1 month ago
Misery Monday XI | The Rusted God
Hello my fellow travelers on the path,
Today is the end of Rust!! Then we'll head on our final path through the House of Blood. This deck is about to be complete. So s...
Last week, I shared the Oracle Dice instead of the Guidebook cover + book layout. I've been working on this a bit, I'm actually more excited to share the box which I've also been working on at the moment, but here we are and I should be sharing the guidebook. Very well!
Enoch helped put together a gorgeous texture to use on the guidebook covers, then we folded The Victim and The Penitent over them, I darkened a little, added our elements, and just like that, we have the back and front covers! Since these will be in the box, I'm not putting a barcode or anything on them, so it gets to be fairly clean which is lovely.
The book layout isn't quite ready, I'm still debating a few elements colors, etc. And please note the lines you see in the background gradient won't print like that, I don't know why it keeps showing lines haha. But the gist of font faces, colors, sizes are in line with my goals for the book. Enoch is putting together a design element to put in the corners that will hold a plaque in some wire for the page numbers, and a cross bar that can signify the end of a section, especially for spots where the text doesn't fill the full page.
Next week I should be sharing the card disk and the art prints, but I'm not sure if we'll have the specs for the disk even by then-- manufacturer is really dragging their feet on the templates for that and the box. So I might show the box ideas or the journal early-- hard to say!
While today was going to be a guidebook cover reveal, we are delaying that to next week to swap spots with the dice... because the dice symbols are complete and we have 3d renders, courtesy of Enoch!
And there they are with the dice from the Hot Housewives Tarot's deluxe edition as well! If you love those but don't have them yet, don't worry, you'll be able to get them in the Oracle Dice project launching May 1st! Enoch Duncan did a ton of work on our behalf to make these dice possible to be seen, it was not a simple process it turns out! I even tried my hand at some 3-d rendering and adjusted the composition from the first image to the second one, and it was confusing and took my computer 12 minutes to turn the positioned models into an image haha. So let's take a look at the dice symbols and a little of what they mean! First though, we owe a huge thanks to Amy Smith who designed the dice symbols off my prompts. Some I had ideas of how they should look, others I gave the idea and asked Amy to realize it. (And yeah, Maroon will be too dark, we will adjust!)
The Black Lantern Dice Set for the Misery Tarot
These will be a set of 5 black dice that are glow in the dark resin.
With Grey ink, we have the Weapons Die.
Meat hook - A meat hook is cruelty, and it means to harm you and not let go. Hanger-ons of pain.
Nails - Pinpoint pain. This will be swift and targeted.
Blade - Sharp cuts, this is danger and shock, something so small with such harmful potential.
Tenderizer - All the subtlety of a tenderizer, this will hurt you, spread you thin, but it isn't trying to kill. Weakened you'll be all the easier to use.
Syringe - A poison-- this can be addiction, but it can also be a malicious and dastardly venom.
Icon - Using faith, belief as a weapon. This can be religious, but it can also be the faith you have in another, betraying someone's trust.
With Maroon ink, we have the Grief die.
Shock/denial - As it sounds, something that shows you are in the pain stage, unaware of what this will do. It's bigger than you.
Upward Turn/Hope - Hope is a wing, and blood in our deck is about that hope. With this wing you will rise.
Rebuilding - The hammer and nail, constructing something new. You will come out of this remade.
Guilt - When we flog ourselves, we give in to our own damnation. This benefits no one.
Sorrow - A crushing sadness and depression, this is the time when you do nothing because you feel you can do nothing.
Bargaining - Trading your heart away, we will bargain repeatedly until nothing can occur.
With Beige ink, we have the Creatures die. (there are two Tempters here on accident- our bad!)
The Trashman - This is a being who will bear your burdens, carry your weight.
Tempter - The doll, painted on makeup, eye shadow, lips. When you claim you were tricked into something, tempted. Rarely is it their fault, but ours for giving in easily to our desires or wants.
The Demagogue - The featureless face shouting its sermon from the pulpit. People who tell us what we should be, do, how to act, live.
Betrayer - Someone you trusted who hurts you, tricks you, fools you. a two faced creature, one human, one monstrous in shadow.
Hunter - Someone who hunts you, hurts you, targets you. Probably a stranger or a known enemy. Wolf head, snarling.
The Weaver - A delicate spider web between them. A sign of someone fooling you, leading you astray, manipulating you.
With Yellow ink, we have the Fears die.
Irrational - Snakes and spiders-- our irrational fears of things that override our minds even when we know better.
Anxiety - Teeth falling to the ground, general fear of what could happen.
Ourselves - Wild open eyes looking nervously as the crooked dagger in our own hands, afraid of what we might do with it. How do we live with our own capabilities?
Abandonment - The fear that we are left behind, alone.
The Other - To be watched, hunted, needed. Other people are hell and all that.
Endings - How things come to a close, who are we without facets in our lives?
With Orange ink, we have the Pillars die.
Friends - Two people side by side, holding hands, or hugging. People can find reasons to keep going when they have supportive friends, family, lovers.
Will - A person's head with a third eye on their forehead perhaps, or a face with a fist beside it-- showing someone's willpower to live for themselves, their own reasons, simply because, stubbornness.
Goals - Hope and goals, the idea that you live to see tomorrow. A person reaching up for a star, something unattainable but desirable.
Routine - Some find support in their life routine, work, hobby, games, etc. It is a pillar to keep them moving.
Faith - As much as faith can traumatize, for so many it gives meaning to life. A figure on their knees praying. Can be faith in things or ideals as well.
Dependents - Some people live for those that depend on them, children, pets, friends. The needs of others give some reason to press forward through difficulty.
See you next week for our regularly scheduled reveals, starting with the guidebook! And if the dice got you fired up, be prepared for the May launch of the ORACLE DICE!
We have the deck complete now, are you prepared for this? But first, let's take a look at the Tarot Cloth. Got to keep you on your toes, here.
The Tarot Cloth
The Cloth is an 18x18 reminder of the paths you traverse. The winding stairs down, the blades, the wired woods, the flesh, the rot, the nails, the rusted shell of life, and out to blood. You might also use the cloth itself as a reading spread, placing a card from any tarot deck in each section to understand the journey ahead, or how the path will unfold. It will be a nice soft fabric too, so it will be enough to wrap your deck in for general carry of the deck, if you so desire!
The Misery Tarot Card Back
And our card back does much the same, inviting us across the 7 suits toward our entrance. The deck back is our first step to using it, after all, so we are at the top of the spiral stairs that the Victim traverses down to the Museum. I really like how Wire is the frame and manages to be a doorway, a portal, at the bottom of the card. This is not a deck to be used with reverses, so it also helps establish which side is down.
And that means we now have the Flip Through!!
I also have 5 more decks in hand that I'd love to send to some people who want to share it on socials or through videos and give their thoughts on the deck! If you are a tarot channel, or know one you would love to see talk about the Misery Tarot, now is the time to let me know about them! (You can also email me at [email protected]!)
(If you want the mess of my life update, watch the video. Otherwise, stick to the text for things about the project haha)
Welcome back to the end of our deck. The final cards of the House of Blood, and thus, the full deck now being visible on the campaign page. But let's take it one step at a time, by looking at our final five cards.
The Final Blood
5 The Excess In our suit of Blood, we have The Endurance. It can be hard to overcome the journey we've been on here. To push the blood back into our bodies and force our hope to stay. Sometimes, we must understand that even parts of us are poisoned by the route we've taken. We must learn to lance the poison from our bodies, and free ourselves of trying to save the rotten parts we haven't had the heart to throw away.
6 The Ecstasy In our suit of Blood, we have The Feeling. The ecstasy of this hope is looking in the mirror and smiling. Even as we cry. It's feeling in our bodies again. Remembering who we are, how to feel, and knowing that even in hardship and difficulty, we can be happy again.
7 The Finale In our suit of Blood, we have The Living. To finally walk out of this house, this greenlit house of night, is to return to the world. Streetlights, cars, friends, the outside world awaits. We are now human again. The blood is in our veins, no longer in a bottle, in a creature, or something to steal or earn. We live it.
Denizen In our suit of Blood, we have The Blood Letter. This is charlatans offering miracle cures and fixes. There are unique paths for each of us, and while we can learn from one another's journeys, do not take anyone serious who says that they know the one way forward. You have your own path. Do not be cheated this close to the end.
Ruler In our suit of Blood, we have The Shadow. What we have learned from, grown from, healed from, is not gone. The ruler of Blood is the shadow of us that waits back in the green lit house of night. It is not dead. It is learned from, grown from, and departed. But do not ever mistake yourself for becoming something or someone new. We grow, change, but we do not lose what went wrong, nor do we lose the lessons from its learning. Respect the dark.
The Final Cards VOTE!
Enoch and I are actually at an impasse, and could use help! Please vote in the comments for the version of the Living and the version of the Shadow you most prefer! My idea was for it to be the Living person leaving the house, but The Shadow staying there, waiting there. In the original attempt, which is Enoch's preference, we have them both in the same doorway of the house. In the second version, my preference, we have The Living framed in the door heading outside, leaving into the world, with the Shadow in the living room doorway, waiting inside.
The Full Deck!
Our houses are all now realized. And that means... The deck is complete. Well, there is still the upcoming deck back, but still. It is complete. Go back to the campaign page, scroll down through the full thing, top to bottom, and appreciate what it has become for us. Truly an amazing thing. We did it.
Praise Enoch for all this hard work. Quietly we have also fixed a few errors here and there, cleaned up some odd spaced titles, and are moving towards a few test print decks. You won't see those represented on the house graphics, but they will come together in the end.
Now that you've seen it all, how do we feel about the deck? Its 100 cards? Its meanings? Any favorite cards from it all? Any praise we want to heap on Enoch?? I know I have plenty in mind haha.
We will see you next week with the deck's card back and reading cloth!
Today, we begin our final suit. We enter The House of Blood. Acceptance + Hope.
⬛ The House
The House of Blood simply is. This simple home is a return to life. A shadow self of our home, but home none the less. No longer is this the abstract horror in the woods, in the palace of flesh, or in a horrid concretescape. No, this is the horror of being alive, and gathering the courage to continue. We are now in the Home of Acceptance. This is our home, our life, through the rage and screaming and crying, this is our shelter. Now we begin the journey to accept it.
0 The Folly
In the House of Blood, our 0 is The Vessel. It is our mistake to keep our hope locked away in a bottle, not to be seen or known or shared. We will rot away without its blessing. We must let it out, soak in it, and grow it in our arms, our bodies. Do not fear it dying beyond the vessel, we will nurture it in ourselves, where it cannot die.
1 The Portal
In the House of Blood, our 1 is The Blessing. In our home and reality once more, we make the bold plunge to be healed and alive and wanting, even in our cold kitchen, even in lonely moments at night, alone. We are still on the path of misery, but now we are alive and choosing to place our hope and joy in our hearts, pouring the blood on our bodies, truly drenching ourselves in the ability to breathe once more. This portal is a choice to let ourselves be happy again, even if it feels just a little out of reach still. Now, we have said we can.
2 The Nemesis
In the House of Blood, our 2 is The Vigilant. This fear, this trauma, does not go away. Even in normal moments, in the middle of the day, our pain, our PTSD, our traumas, it can come back and hit us at once. In that moment, you will feel like you have slid all the way back to the early houses. It is a shock. It is a horror. But you are not in those places. Center. Calm. Remind yourself that you are in this body, in this home. You are alive. This will lessen with time.
3 The Wound
In the House of Blood, our 3 is The Flow. Sometimes we worry that we are solely putting on a false face, a fake smile, a mask, as we pretend at being happy again. We worry about failure. And failure is possible, this is true. But do not mistake your trying for cowardice, forget the mask you wear, for it is not a lie. It is an honest attempt. This is not truly bleeding now, it is merely butterflies in your stomach. The mask you put on for now to show happiness is brave, because it is practice.
4 The Harmonic
In the House of Blood, our 4 is The Shared Red. The foundation of Hope is the sharing of life. Tell others where you have been, what you have felt. Share your pain, your hopes. Now is not just the time to bring people back in, it's the time to share what makes us human. Let them help you bear the burdens you have carried, then let them help you continue on. A great weight on your shoulders will lessen with each person you share it with.
The art is still scary, but do not be afraid. The whole deck has been a journey where you are guided, gently, on the path. The Path of Misery itself, in rewalking, seeing, understanding, is not dangerous. It is understanding. It is patient. And it is important we carry it from the start to the finish, for the hope we find here in the House of Blood is healing.
I will see you next week, for the final cards of the deck.
