Well, today we have a bit of a theme centered around another card from the Maldene Tarot, specifically the Trib of Naib.

This card is the third in the suit of Naib (or Orbs for you Earthers); a card that represents ‘distinction’ in its main meaning, ‘physical suffering’ for its left-corner, and ‘Dominion’ for its right corner. Who, then, do we have that might represent each of these shades of meaning?  Well, to start, who better to represent ‘Distinction’ that a character that is ever-calm, unperturbed, the sort of man that if you were to ask him, “Who’s side are you on?” his answer would be along the lines of, “Why yes, of course.”  That man is Mauklo.

A sileen (sort of like Chinese and Japanese mixed together) wizard that gives a new meaning to ‘inscrutable”, time (and successive books) will show that he becomes the one person that can truly annoy Miro.  When the story starts off it looks like he is a servant of the god Set, but is he really?  Not even Set’s high priest is entirely sure one way or another.

And as long as he’s been mentioned already, that brings us to the one best representative of the meaning of “Dominion”.  that villain of villains, Miro (pronounced as ‘My-Roh’).

The whole core of my little 13-book saga revolves around 1) Miro wants something, 2) no one really knows what that is, 3) Miro is all-powerful but what then is holding him back.   Equally mysterious are his origins (for those fans of backstories, you’ll just have to wait a long while, but trust me there is one and you’ll see it eventually).  All anyone knows is that he’s known to have existed for as long as known history, and by the way even the gods seem in dread of him.  He obviously desires to rule everything, but again, why in all the thousands of rels (1 rel = 3.6 Earth years) that he’s known to have existed has he not obtained his goal?

Hmm, maybe I should paire Miro with the High Arcana card of “The World”.

But back to our original card and that third corner, which means ‘Physical Suffering’.  If ever there is a person that represents that shade of meaning (amongst several other cards that come to mind), it would be the crazy wizard, Po-Adar.

This image shown is an approximation, in that (as you will soon see in the first book), old Po gains himself a unique ability to match his madness: that of shape-shifting, mostly subconscious.  He is a very powerful wizard who once was part of the group that adventured around with he who would some rise be King.  He is also the holder of many a key life-changing (or rather, plot-changing) secret.  His only desire seems to become a thorn in everyone’s side.  Good, bad, Po’s the guy that just loves to stir the pot… with a propeller.

Well, that’s it for now.  Lemme know what you think of these little reveals.