kradeelav | tellius tarot: all characters

i was inspired by

neotula and recent chatter about making your own tarot deck off of a fandom, and somehow had the energy to make both a major and minor arcana set for tellius! aka all of the playable characters and a handful of major antagonists :D

* the real reason of why this whole stupid thing got started: i was drawing some fanservice loosely based on how bondage heavy eight of swords looked like, last night lol. lmao, even.

* i tried to keep the major arcana to genuinely, plot changing characters (plus laguz kings, so basically RD endgame characters.) vs the minor ones to the minor. weirdly enough it worked really well plus or minus an exception (such as ike and pelleas who kept moving around).also tried to keep every playable character in since it's no fun when your favorite blorbo gets excluded and also there being 73 playable radiant dawn characters and 78 cards felt like a coincidence too good to pass up.

* i also put a good bit of emphasis on 'pairs' whether it was characters together in one cell (Laura & Aran ), or in separate cells, one after another to show who was the more mature of the two. speaking of, my deepest apologies to any gareth mega-fans, he got nixed as i was already having to double up playable minor characters :< (consider him spiritually paired with nasir)

* wow i like placing characters for hilariously ironic reasons which may or may not actually........... be apropos in hindsight lol. sometimes a character being stubbornly, in-denial-y "not" a thing is as significant. i also placed a perhaps bigger than normal emphasis on patterns and characters being linked to each other; i get annoyed when cards feel "random".

* i actually place a big emphasis on the reverse/shadow side, almost to the degree of the original card itself (eg, lekain in the major arcana is a good example, ditto with ashnard being king of swords). part of it was practical; wanted someplace to add the villains, and villains are complex in the sense that it's not all negative in order to be compelling. lekain had the "potential" to be a religious leader with integrity, like all of us have the potential to use our gifts for good or ill.

* to tie all of the above reasoning together, if you're curious about my general thought process of ordering characters, let's take zihark as an example: he's a minor character so he's not going in the major arcana; "swords" is the obvious suit for both slight Nabarl-archetypical-edgelord reasons, very fitting with his themes of struggling with conflict, and being a literal sellsword. He instinctively didn't feel like one of the "younger" sword numbers (tried to reflect age/life experience in terms of the order), but he's not one of the "royal" cards either at the end, or a ten, which I already had reserved for either stefan or volke. Of the middle-bunch of sword cards, eight felt most relevant, and just "right". double checking the Rider–Waite image, and it still felt right, given that a lot of his own issues are of his own making. rinse and repeat 80-ish times.

* there is a tiny part of me that wants to draw these, but i have seen art comrades attempt to do the major arcana and burn out on that alone. (i know tellius tarots exists but i think they're wrong and i can draw them better lol). honestly i just MAY still take a stab at drawing these after the current projects + the femslash doujin. if i can reliably do a card just by two "sittings" of about 3 hours with the fast watercolor style... god knows i've been obsessed with these games for long enough, and it'd make a neat 20th anni gift to the fandom in about two years.

the actual chart (warning, it's big). there's a few typos where my endurance ran out towards the end. if I ever make this into a bigger project I'll clean it up. for now, have at thee.

list of tarot cards	meaning	list of rd characters	why/notes
The Fool (0)	Youthful energy, fresh starts, naïveté, start of a cycle REVERSED: jumping in before looking	mist	breaking cycles of the medalion, fits beautifully with the binary duality of 0/1, and lehran being 1. I like the nod to her being naive in early PoR but very subtly maturing across both games. More important than you think (literally holding the medalion) and yet overshadowed by ike
The Magician (1)	manifestation, capability, mercury, infinite creation REVERSED: Misalignment, confusion, destruction	sephiran/lehran	NO SHIT LOL. First character placed; it fits sublimely well with both his thematic role, class, the ever-present sense of tragedy as well as spirituality.
The High Priestess (2)	intuition, internal wellspring of knowlage, listening REVERSED: Blocked intuition	Sanaki	Sanakis gift that she didn’t waste is being able to listen and make good judgements based of of her intuition, given she’s still a child with very little life experience. In the RW deck she’s also that figurative doorway between the common plebian and divinity. I also like lehran and sanaki being next to each other chronologically
The Empress (3)	Mothering, nurturance, nourishment, luxury, indulgence, venus/earth, fertility REVERSED: Lack of self-care, need to slow down and be present	leanne	empress feels more loving/motherly/fertility, which goes better with her and serenes vs sanaki. I also like the idea of her being next to dheginsea in both being polar opposites, such as character design colors, lifespans (young/old), how they react to trauma (open heart/sternness). In the RW image the forest is in the background, a neat note.
The Emperor (4)	Authority, power, leadership, confidence, determination, aries/first REVERSED: Overbearing, overpowering, headstrong, dictatorial	dheginsea	no shit. Also tickled me that 4 is the unlucky number in chinese numerology, so him having a flavor of “wrongness” as a dragon feels apropos. Did not realize until after that the RW card image throne looks almost like a 1:1 of his actual throne.
The Hierophant (5)	Religion, spirituality, doctrine, teachings, taurus/earth REVERSED: dogma, cult leader, fanaticisim	lekain	Religious dogma, taurus being the best cult leaders. The blood pact also being the literal manifestation of rules-lawyering.
The Lovers (6)	love, partnerships, duality, gemini/air REVERSED: Blind love, giving away of power, loss of self	Greil & Elena	“balance” to greil’s chaos, and how their union gave tellius its hero. More apt to understand the strength of balance. Shadow side being loss of self, cue elena’s last moments …
The Chariot (7)	Strength, perseverance, war, triumph, endurance, emotional stability, celestial influences. REVERSED venegeance, dispute, litigation, defeat.	Ike (pelleas?)	Endurance – of the kind that would break most on this list. In hindsight I also like the symbolisim of this card immediately coming after Greil/Elena’s union. Ike is the engine that fells all the dominos and events.
Strength (8)	Strength, courage, bravery, vulnerability REVERSED: Aggression, forcing, hotheaded	Caineghis	ruled by leo, even, shadow side, was a hothead younger. Historically related to tempremence and justice being the two other virtues, which is neat when they’re all laguz kings that are on the player’s side early on.
The Hermit (9)	Introspection, inner world, solace, insight, wisdom, retreat, virgo/earth REVERSED: Loneliness, lost	Rafiel	Card has connotations to slow healing/recovery over time, goes perfectly with character arc in hatari and his own powers. stillness, being lost emotionally, wisdom. RW image also has connotations of being a “guide”, eg him guiding nailah to tellius, or guiding micaiah emotionally.
Wheel of Fortune (10)	fortune, changing cycles, wheel of life, cosmic dance, Divine timing, fate, destiny KEYWORDS: Changing luck	Pelleas	Literally chanced into his whole shtick. The wheel also being a stand-in for “overabundance” feels apropos with his being cursed by a gift most would kill for. I also like the slight connection to him with micaiah and her being a fortune teller. Runner up, naesala for irony
Justice (11)	Justice, equality, equity, fairness, adroitness, righteousness, REVERSED: Immoral, unjust, unfair	Tibarn	judgement goes better with ashera wheras tibarn is more about the swift justice w/out thinking. Did not even realize I put him next to naesala until after lol
The Hanged Man (12)	Wait, pause, liminal, inaction REVERSED: Skewed perception	naesala	I like the irony of him appearing passive / having lack of control; also “hanged” re: the metaphysical cord around his neck. Judas comes to mind betraying the “twelve” disciples (see numerology), and hanging by suicide. Naesala also being reversed by default but tricksy to nail feels apropos.
Death (13)	Change, transformation, transmutation, end of a cycle, rebirth REVERSED: Resisting change	yune	transformation, change, Her “appearing” as the dark god feels apropos to scorpio/death’s wrongful steryotype as something bad. Love that 13+7 (yune+ike) = ashera (20). also love that yune is literally “birthed” out of asheruna resisting change.
Temperance (14)	Temperance, moderation, patience REVERSED: Forcing	reyson	he even has a fire element. Constant struggle of wanting to yeet people or not. Ends up ruining himself least when he learns the lesson of not forcing himself. (eg, hate)
The Devil (15)	Materialism, obsessions, compulsions, addictions REVERSED: Freedom of negative habits	Oliver (izuka?)	reyson and oliver being next to each other re: his obesession is v funny. I like the idea of “saintly/the sainted” being the reverse of the devil, as what oliver tries to dress up as. Also speaks to his FEH confession line.
The Tower (16)	sudden disruptive revelation, unforseen calamity, upheaval, deception Reversed: Negligence, absence, carelessness, distraction	black knight/zelgius	BK’s obsessive desire to beat greil (which is that calamity for ike) is a dead ringer. BK inspiring ike to battle him/kill him in turn being an actual character growth is interesting. Him wearing two “roles” and zelgius being the arguably deceptive one feels like it works great for a natural reverse, esp. with his connection to sephiran.
The Star (17)	Hope, reset, refresh, regeneration, faith, trust REVERSED: Loss of hope, loss of faith	Micaiah	no shit
The Moon (18)	Intuition, illusions, confusion, secrets, unknown REVERSED: Lies, deceit	Almedha	her power is in what she hides from everyone else, and how her secret entwines two nations in a death spiral. Ruled by id and intuition. Bridges micaiah (daein) and kurthnaga (goldoa) as the celestial elements and the future rulers.
The Sun (19)	Joy, happiness, victory, success, abundance, vitality REVERSED: Resisting joy	Kurthnaga	A prince with great promise, and his abundance helps at critical points. Grattitude, warmth. shadow side speaks to the faults of his father and a dangerous tendency for long lived dragons.
Judgment (20)	Judgment, reflection, legacy, contemplation REVERSED: Overly judgemental	Ashera	no shit. Last “sentient” being being a great metaphor for being the last and greatest to face.
The World (21)	End of a cycle, completion, satisfaction REVERSED: Resisting endings, completion or growth	The medallion	The single non-human card; other than asheruna (completeness), nobody else truly fits the all-encompassing nature. Love that it has to be “woken up” by the world itself, and that the cycle repeats with mist holding it.

Wands in general	Wands: creative projects, inspiration		majority laguz, mages or unafiliated for “magic” whether it be academic elemental magic or wild magic of shifting. Also the “advisor” or strategist role that’s not necissarily compassionate.
Ace of Wands	(new ideas or new projects.) Aces: new beginnings, potential	Mia	youthful energy, energy for finding her rival/dueling, while the actual ‘ideal” of it isn’t quite thought out yet. Potential.
Two of Wands	(pre-project planning & decision-making, seeing the big picture) Twos: duality, bonding	Laura & Aran	Laura working in the orphanage speaks to somebody who thinks ahead for the future. Kids being “the future of daein”. Paired up with extra emphasis on duality.
Three of Wands	(mid-project waiting & teamwork.) Threes: creativity, growth	Boyd	teamwork is a neat nod to learning to work with his brothers and the triangle skill learned with a bow.
Four of Wands	(marking life’s big moments.) Fours: stability, structure, stagnation	Calill	Her (+Largo) adopting amy and settling in Crimea feels like they respect the process of maturity despite their quirks.
Five of Wands	(competition & rivalry.) Fives: conflict, uncertainty	Lyre & Kyza	“competition” is a good way to describe the banter of these two across RD; they don’t feel like their own character quite yet, although they do grow into ones. rivalry also describes lyre’s relationship with lethe.
Six of Wands	(recognition & acclaim.) Sixes: communication, problem solving, equilibrium	Lethe	Lethe being the “grown-into” role model for Lyre right before felt apropos. She’s earned her recognition in PoR and has a convo explicitly with Giffca on such.
Seven of Wands	(defending your boundaries & fighting back.) Sevens: reflection, assessment, evaluation	Ulki	assessment/evaluation speaking to his role as the ears of the king. Very aware of his own boundaries.
Eight of Wands	(quickly arriving options & change.) Eights: movement, power, progress	Janaff	janaff being the second half of the observant pair to ulki; speedy, also assessing and how to react.
Nine of Wands	(honoring your boundaries.) Nines: compromises, compassion, spirituality	Ranulf	More open-hearted to ike+co than most laguz in POR. He also has a neat undertone of a spiritual side
Ten of Wands	(over-burdened (the opposite of completion).) Tens: completion, perfection, end of a cycle	Nasir	spiritual advisor to ike, giving him new perspectives. Laguz dragon magic too. His role being “the worm” speaking to being over-burdened with impossible choices.
Page of Wands	A student or rebel, exciting news, adventure or travel REVERSE: fibbing/exaggeration, Apathy, a slacker, Immaturity	Tormod (Mia?)	Tormod ultimately went here since he works ‘in service of” his big ideas as a messanger especially in RD. pages (and knights to a lesser extent) feels like a service card.
Knight of Wands	motivation, desire, relocation, a journey, charismatic/daring REVERSE: mis-directed energy, Lots of heart, but no follow through	Titania	fealty to greil + also serving as a warm advisor to the mercs. Shadow of her desire also her one-sided affection for greil.
Queen of Wands	adaptive, Intense courage and self-assurance, A master of self-transformation REVERSE: a spark that turns to embers, Dying passion, no real fire	Ena	Wands = laguz magic for ena but also wisdom of “coming up” with ideas for petrine. Adaptive to a fault.
King of Wands	Kings: leaders, authority	Bastian	debated between him and renning but bastion being the ideas-maker and strategist to elincia made more sense here. May be a leader behind the scenes, but a critical part of elincia’s rulership

Cups: love, passion, relationships, emotions			majority crimea for youngest “feelings” “soft” nation (that still deceptively rings true for that strength). Cups = overflowing with bounty, givers, less romantic love and more bounty/fortune and what characters do with that.
Ace of Cups	(new love.) Aces: new beginnings, potential	Meg	Aces being youthful enthusiasm, and her own generosity (if naive) towards others. alternatively, “new love” being what crushes are; a very normal and cute thing to have.
Two of Cups	(a strong partnership) Twos: duality, relationships, bonding	Largo	echo of partnership with Calil, being both twos. Giving of personality and time.
Three of Cups	(celebration, friends) Threes: creativity, birth, growth	Mordecai	gratefulness for friendships, whether human or animal. A giver of his own time and strength as long as it benefits others. Also a mediator between lethe and others as a rule of 3.
Four of Cups	(being stuck interpersonally) Fours: stability, structure, stagnation	Nephenee	opening up to others, not being embarassed socially.
Five of Cups	(focusing on the worst) Fives: conflict, uncertainty	Ilyana	her character arc of learning not to ‘use’ people for various reasons, and not focusing on imagined scarcity.
Six of Cups	(nostalgia & fond memories) Sixes: communication, problem solving, equilibrium	Danved	likes making children smile and flowers and happy/kitschy things. Likes to be the giver/bringer of equlibrium in a more nuanced way.
Seven of Cups	(wishful thinking & temptations) Sevens: reflection, assessment, evaluation	Heather	Willing in a better future with wishful thinking turned reality depending on card position, and whether she helps other people out. Temptation with her as a thief.
Eight of Cups	(moving on to find something better.) Eights: movement, power, progress	Kieran	flighty, not satisfied with what he has (eg, constant training. Great promise as his progress goes. Before Oscar for obvious inmaturity reasons.
Nine of Cups	(self-satisfaction) Nines: compromises, compassion, spirituality	Oscar	confident in himself and his role in the mercenaries. Knows his roles as a protector and nurturer (eg, the main chef) and gives back there.
Ten of Cups	(family contentment) Tens: completion, perfection, end of a cycle	Brom	meg and brom being the number “bookends” to cups also feels apropos, with brom being the mature one who’s learned the gift of family through two wars and why it’s dear to fight for.
Page of Cups	Pages: youthful enthusiasm, a message	Geoffrey	the first of the three to lucia/elincia. Feels ever so slightly less mature than the other two, but a messanger and someone in service of giving to a better world.
Knight of Cups	Knights: extreme, fast, quest, rescue	Lucia	given elica’s “anchored” here, lucia coming to the rescue and being literally fast feels like a no brainer
Queen of Cups	Queens: mature, caring, exerienced	Elincia	no shit
King of Cups	Kings: leaders, authority	Renning	renning moved around a lot (also as the king of wands) but I like him here for passion+generosity, as well a symbolic unity with elincia as far as who rules crimea. (also an uncomfortable sense of him needing to move off the stage for her to rule)

Swords: intellect, conflict			majority daein for the obvious conflict connotations. Second highest number of laguz for the red-blood “strength” metiorarcacy – those two are far more similar than they’d like to admit. Also the most branded since they often feel like they have to “prove” themselves.
Ace of Swords	(new challenges or problems) Aces: new beginnings, potential	Edward	reckless growth? I also like the younger daein kids being the first chunk of swords edging into the older ones
Two of Swords	( a decision is needed.) Twos: duality, relationships, bonding	Sothe	duality (for better or worse) with micaiah and growing despite the conflict. Deliberately deciding to stick with her repeatedly despite his own ideals. RW imagery of meditation/in control speaking to how he strikes from the shadows, not recklessly.
Three of Swords	(heartbreak (the opposite of connection)) Threes: creativity, birth, growth	Jill	Not having heartbreak for a person per se as much as her homeland and having the scales fall from her eyes. Character arcs thru both games re: potential realized
Four of Swords	(rest & recovery.) Fours: stability, structure, stagnation	Haar	rejecting the stagnation of both begnion and ashnard’s daein. The ‘rest’ connotation is very funny to his narcolepsy to a fault.
Five of Swords	(bullies and violence) Fives: conflict, uncertainty	Soren	Speaking directly to how he was treated for his brand until meeting ike. Funnily enough one of the last ones sorted but oddly fits with how conflict-filed he views his own life as.
Six of Swords	(moving on from the past.) Sixes: communication, problem solving, equilibrium	Volug	luv the irony of “communication” with him having to overcome it. Also like the two wolf laguz in the majority daein suit.
Seven of Swords	( trickery & cutting corners.) Sevens: reflection, assessment, evaluation	Muarim	unease btwn role as caretaker and conflict and ever-observant for survival. Feels apropos to be next to zihark too.
Eight of Swords	(feeling trapped (the opposite of movement).) Eights: movement, power, progress	Zihark	A man on a mission, and yet constantly conflicted-bound by incompatible ideals.
Nine of Swords	(anxiety & nightmares.) Nines: compromises, compassion, spirituality	Stefan	Heavy is the fate that hangs over his head. A very unlucky man. his whole life feels like compromises he was forced into. Making the best of the hand he was dealt with (founding a nation) but very resentful of such.
Ten of Swords	( hitting rock bottom (the opposite of success).) Tens: completion, perfection, end of a cycle	Volke	Not rock bottom in mentality, but I like the RW image of death. He’s all clean kills, knows who he is and enables said violent cycles with no malice.
Page of Swords	Pages: youthful enthusiasm, a message	Skrimir	no shit. Skrimir feels oddly daeinish for how much he loves confict, I wonder how he’d feel about ashnard if those two could chat pre-medalion.
Knight of Swords	Knights: extreme, fast, quest, rescue	petrine	“extreme”. I could see bertram/bryce/the four riders here to a lesser degree.
Queen of Swords	Queens: mature, caring, exerienced	Nailah (petrine?)	not afraid of conflict, breathes in it, but a refined feminine influence. Would have put petrine here but there was no better place for nailah. Fitting that she fights in “technically” mostly daein aligned chapters anyway
King of Swords	Kings: leaders, authority	ashnard	he didn’t fit cleanly in the major arcana and imo is only a chess piece to those more important characters. His authority on the battlefield is clearly respected regardless of his warped views. Strangely laguz-ish.

Coins / Pentacles: money, security, tradition, material concerns			majority begnion for the ‘old’ tradition or kilvas for money/”desire” of security. More neutral mercenary characters too. Common thread of being financially or emotionally miserly.
Ace of Pentacles	(new job or new investments) Aces: new beginnings, potential	Makalov	Constant “restarts” of new jobs, new promise, but with limited success otherwise.
Two of Pentacles	(balancing resources) Twos: duality, relationships, bonding	Marcia	feels like an eternal struggle for her to balance her and makalov’s resources. Also emotional resources re: joining the pegasus knights. (also felt right to place her next makalov who was one of the first placed here)
Three of Pentacles	(Aapprenticeship & collaboration) Threes: creativity, birth, growth	Rolf	being somewhat close to shinon feels aprops. Apprenticeship to the master.
Four of Pentacles	(Seeking security) Fours: stability, structure, stagnation	Gatrie	I get the feeling that a lot of his skirt-chasing is projecting for seeing emotional security. Bracketed by the other two feels apropos.
Five of Pentacles	(physical and financial loss) Fives: conflict, uncertainty	shinon	lot of tension in his character arc, as well as emotional security, trying to find his “place”, bitterness with ike.
Six of Pentacles	(generosity) Sixes: communication, problem solving, equilibrium	Nealuchi	I like the irony of a “stingy raven” being emotionally generous, especially with protecting leanne and watching over the new generation.
Seven of Pentacles	(impatience & lethargy) Sevens: reflection, assessment, evaluation	Leonardo	The cooler mind to more passionate souls; occasionally lapses into hesitation/moodiness. Insecurity is always hanging over his head, though with luck winning out. Feels like a seven.
Eight of Pentacles	(the work that goes into mastery of your craft) Eights: movement, power, progress	Astrid	she puts in ‘the work’ to securing her own physical well being rather than relying on the trap of being wedded to lekain. It’s hard, but she’s rewarded with writing her own mastery/fate, under her own resources. Paragon personal skill can talk to this.
Nine of Pentacles	(individual abundance & luxury) Nines: compromises, compassion, spirituality	Vika	Complicated relationship to luxury given she was a slave to those -in- luxury. Now has the emotional luxury of friends. Nine feels like her number.
Ten of Pentacles	(legacy & inheritance) Tens: completion, perfection, end of a cycle	Nolan	rebuilt his personal after he lost it all in the mad kings war, and used to be a street rat. Choosing a better legacy.
Page of Pentacles	Pages: youthful enthusiasm, a message	Fiona	new generation of daein, shouldering the ‘traditional’ burden of the old, and a perfect book-end to tauroneo.
Knight of Pentacles	Methodical and efficient action, Hard work REVERSE: A stubborn and inflexible person	Tanith	Efficient, practical, and a proponent to hard work in service of a very noble goal (protecting sanaki) inflexibility being a fault she readily admits to.
Queen of Pentacles	A nurturing, loving person. Homesteading skills, A generous benefactor REVERSE: Financial dependence, Imbalance of family and work	Sigrun	Generous with duty, love and skills to sanaki. That said I get the feeling sometimes she lets her worry over sanaki take over the rest of her life. Paired with tanith as the slightly more mature version.
King of Pentacles	Kings: leaders, authority	Tauroneo	Knows better than any other character what the weight of a legacy means. His 'king killer’ line lives rent free in my mind, especially since he (can) sort of kill two daein kings.