Inevitable Cataclysm
Value: 4
Visions • Swans • Blades • Water
Meanings: Bad luck, endings, inevitability, breaking a relationship
While we fear the cataclysm, it is inevitable. We cannot prevent it. The end comes for all things eventually, and we cannot stop it. The earth quakes, the seas advance, the sky falls. Fire engulfs everything. We can try to survive it, but that’s likely the best we can hope for. An optimist might try to say that a cataclysm can be cleansing, and change things for the better. But the Inevitable Cataclysm really isn’t about that. It’s about endings.
Divination: It’s difficult to see this card turn as a positive one. Typically, even if it suggests that something unwanted comes to an end, it is usually a violent and costly one. This card might just be seen as ill fortune, but it could also be the end of a relationship, the end of an ongoing success, or that a significant possession (like a house) might be in danger of destruction.
Game Narrative: A significant relationship comes to an end. A disaster strikes. A structure collapses.
Joy: An NPC foe faces bad luck, utter failure, or even death. The relationship between two NPC foes ends.
Despair: The PC’s spell ends unexpectedly. Whatever the PC is doing ends in failure. An NPC important to the PC dies. An NPC ends a relationship with the PC.
Towers topple. Creatures die. Everything has an ending.