The Sepia Stains tarot deck was created by artist Bethalynne Bajema as a companion to her graphic novel the Black Ibis. Within the Black Ibis story there are two tarot decks that are used to play a chess-like card game. During the course of the story this game became outlawed and the tarot decks were created to mask the true nature of the game being played. The major arcana of the Sepia Stains deck features various performers and characters from the story and lacks some of the traditional symbolism of a standard tarot. Below is the complete deck artwork.
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The Major Arcana
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![](http://sepiastainstarot.com/deck/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/13hangedman.jpg" "Sepia Stains: The Hanged Man") |
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The Wands Suit
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The Coins Suit
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The Cups Suit
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The Swords Suit
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A variety of wonderful people offered their likeness to several of the cards. Below are the models featured within the deck. Many thanks to them! And since these are all artists and creative types themselves I do recommend taking a moment to get to know them, if you don’t already.
- The Emperor Card: Myke Amend
- The Strength Card: Melora Creagor
- The Death Card: Acid Pop Tart’s Voodoo Baby character
- The Devil Card: Dr Mangor, original photo by Von Swank
- The Tower Card: Eliza Gauger
- The World Card:
*The front of the card features the airship from Myke Amend’s Desert Shadows painting.
