Banished Serpent
Value: 3
Mysteries • Rats • Mirrors • Stone
Meanings: Balance, exile, punishment
Vislae know exile. But for them, and their time in Shadow, the exile was self-imposed. The Banished Serpent was cast out, sent back from whence it came. Banishment rids us of a problem, but it does not bring it to a permanent end. It is rarely a true solution. Rather, it is most often a punishment. We banish those who have threatened us or wronged us because exile is what they fear. The fact that it ends the threat, at least temporarily, is just an added benefit. As a punishment, then, it is an act of balance. An appropriate and measured response to an unwanted act.
Divination: The Banished Serpent can be a blessing or a curse depending on who is getting exiled or punished. The card turn may suggest that the person in question faces this fate, but it might also be someone else involved in the matter at hand. Sometimes, though, it can simply be a balancing of the metaphorical scales. It can mean that someone gets what’s coming to them, whether that be good or bad. It is a “settling of accounts,” so to speak.
Game Narrative: Someone is cast out. A demon or spirit is banished (or must be banished to end its threat). Harmony is upset and can only be restored through an act that balances the situation once again, which might very well involve casting away a criminal or troublemaker. A wrongdoer is punished for a crime.
Joy: An NPC foe is punished for some act they committed. An unloved NPC is sent away. The PC escapes a bad situation.
Despair: The PC is cast out of a place they wish to be. The PC is punished for a crime (real or otherwise).
Cast out, the serpent retreats back to its lair to contemplate its next scheme.