What to Name the Unnumbered?

[Kneeling]

Hello folks!

 

I'm planning to create a deck or few in future, and am going over the titles that have been used for the various cards.

I made this rough diagram the other day, more or less to express my frustration in trying to choose the title for Number Zero, mushing together a bunch of titles and descriptions and related concepts and where they overlap. It seems that there is no word which actually expresses the foundational concept of the character. What to put in place of the question mark? Or perhaps it would be appropriate enough to use "?" as its title, or to have him unnamed as he is unnumbered.

[gregory]

Why name any of them ?

[stephanelli]

1 hour ago, Kneeling said:

Hello folks!

 

I'm planning to create a deck or few in future, and am going over the titles that have been used for the various cards.

I made this rough diagram the other day, more or less to express my frustration in trying to choose the title for Number Zero, mushing together a bunch of titles and descriptions and related concepts and where they overlap. It seems that there is no word which actually expresses the foundational concept of the character. What to put in place of the question mark? Or perhaps it would be appropriate enough to use "?" as its title, or to have him unnamed as he is unnumbered.

Mmm, interesting diagram.  You could give him a totally different name that suits the deck you're creating that goes  with the foundational meaning that you're conveying in the card?

I wonder how people would refer to the card if you just left it as "?"  They might call it the Fool for an easy way to refer to it...

I think you might need to tell us more about the deck and its theme for us to help you with name suggestions...

[gregory]

As most of the other names are not ones we'd recognise, I seriously don't see that it matters !

[Kneeling]

47 minutes ago, gregory said:

Why name any of them ?

You mean focus on the imagery, and just refer to them by number? That would be interesting to do, though I'll be making mine after historical styles.

 

I'll probably make at least one as a version of the Tarot de Marseille, and perhaps another deck with more "information" on it.

 

45 minutes ago, stephanelli said:

I think you might need to tell us more about the deck and its theme

 

The names I have so far are pretty common; however, I haven't decided what language to have them in: French, Italian, Latin, or possibly Greek, perhaps Coptic. The more "informational" deck may be in Hebrew.

 

Magician

Priestess/Prophetess (probably one deck will have "Priestess", another "Prophetess")

Empress

Emperor

High Priest

Lover

Chariot

Justice

Hermit

Wheel of Fortune

Strength

Hanged Man

Death

Temperance

Typhon/Monster/Father of Monsters/something else (still deciding about this name)

Lightning

Star

Moon

Sun

Judgement

World

 

Wands, Coins, Cups, Swords; Page, Knight, Queen, King

 

I'm also still deciding whether the pip cards will have scenes.

 

[Raggydoll]

If you’re making decks after historical patterns, then do look at different printers and their standard formats before you get started. Historical decks tend to have odd formats and you’ll want to take that into consideration. Sometimes it’s tricky to get  proportional borders while at the same time taking printer specs (bleed lines etc) into consideration.
 

Even if you plan on handwriting the titles, they can be edited in later. As long as you get the format right, most other things can be fixed and tweaked as you go. 

[Kneeling]

I've decided on "The Wanderer": it seems most central, allowing the associated ideas to flow from it: the sense of having nothing, of playing, of being insane or silly (wandering mind), of wilderness, of travelling - which is depicted in his carrying a bindle (I probably should have put "Traveller" in my diagram); and "Wanderer" is even able to capture an essence of both fire and ether, with which the unnumbered card is associated through the letter Shin.