So, in my story, the main character's family has a certain type of magic that can only be used by them. Mainly, the head of the family. I decided to base this off of the Major Arcana in tarot card readings, where each card is basically a spirit that can either be summoned, or the magic user can just use their powers. Thing is though, I don't really know what each spirit can do. I figured out two out of the 22 spirits (If need be, I can cut down the number of spirits there are, but as a general, I need at least 12), but I need help with the rest. If you guys have any suggestions, I'd be so thankful.
Update: Some additional info, in case anybody wants it. The main users of this ability are Emperors, so I'm trying to give the spirits' abilities that will either aid in protecting the king/kingdom or aid the monarch's position.
[Updated 6/10] Current List:
The Emperor – Has the power to command people in a certain range
The Moon – Has the power to create illusions
The Fool – More symbolic than anything. Gives the ruler a fresh start at the beginning of their reign, and unlocks unlimited potential (how that is expressed depends)
The Chariot – Gives bursts of speed/flight abilities
Strength – Boosts physical abilities
Justice – Able to see the best course of action (moral or not remains to be seen)
The Hanged Man – Able to calculate odds of death
The Star – Gives light prophecies that offer vague guidance
The Sun – Pyromancer abilities (AKA being a firebender)
The Hermit – Increased focused. In battle, an assailant's movements seem to slow, allowing for some of their movements to be telegraphed ahead of time.
The Lovers – Increased Charisma
Judgment – (Can only be used via summoning) Objectively judges a person's actions and lets them be punished or rewarded accordingly. Only used in very special cases.
The Tower– Can create barriers
The Devil – Ability to summon chains to detain individuals/objects
Death – Polymorph
Needed:
The Magician | The High Priestess | The Empress | The Hierophant Wheel of Fortune Temperance | The Devil | The Tower The World
I'm gonna take a crack at giving some suggestions, hope it's good help my dude.
Not entirely sure about the power level each of these should be, but I'll try to not make any of them too weak or too overpowered.
I think it'd be neat if each had an upright ability and a reversed ability, but here we go.
The Fool: Illusion magic might be a better fit for The Fool due to the foolish and naive nature of The Fool.
The Magician: A powerful, standard energy based attack with varying strengths and sizes.
The High Priestess: Maybe some kind of telepathic power?
The Empress: I'm tempted to say a charm-type power but that'd probably be too similar to The Emperor, so probably the ability to summon some kind of apparition or creature to come to their aid.
The Hierophant: This is a little specific but the ability to summon solid illusions of a single object, for the whole "Conformity" part.
The Lovers: The ability to merge one object to another, like being able to trap someone in their armour or something like that.
The Chariot: The Emperor's ability actually fits for Chariot too, but I think that calming someone down or making them violent/confused is a good alternative.
Strength: Straight up physical strength bonus makes sense, although if you wanna go the less obvious path I suggest something like telekinesis, since Strength also includes control.
The Hermit: Create a barrier or thick armour, to reflect on the seclusion of The Hermit.
Wheel of Fortune: 1000% I think this should straight up be like some kind of wild magic that just does whatever it wants.
Justice: Zone of Truth? Although zone of truth doesn't force someone to speak, it can make it pretty evident that someone is lying.
The Hanged Man: A kind of kamikaze ability? Maybe creates some kind of destructive force that originates from the user, thus damaging them too.
Death: Polymorph, because Death usually means transformation or change. But I think necromancy also works.
Temperance: Clairvoyance?
The Devil: I imagine chains coming out from some kind of surface, being controllable, but being very useful for detaining others.
The Tower: Control and create a small or large scale natural disaster.
The Star: Creates an aura which heals those inside.
The Moon: My alternate suggestion for The Moon would be to make people fall asleep, or an even stronger version, to make them turn to stone.
The Sun: I'm thinking something to do with fire, there's a lot of neat fire based spells out there that you could look at for inspiration.
Judgement: I think it'd be cool if this was a kind of Ex Machina type ability, where it actually objectively judges someone's actions and punishes or rewards them accordingly.
The World: Teleportation or flight.
Hope some of my suggestions help you come up with better ideas lmao, good luck.
@CondescendedWow Thank you for your suggestions! I really like your ideas for Judgement, Death, and the Devil. I'll be sure to add them to the updated list
OK, here's the thing. I've seen something similar to this, in relation to the tarot cards. It's a book called Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, and in it every 1000 years, a disaster hits the world and triggers the births of people that represent each of the main tarot cards. They each have powers related to their positions in the deck. They are part of a game, and they have to survive the game until all of the rest of the cards have been killed. In the books, the Empress can grow plants, the Emporer has power over the earth, Death can kill with a touch, the Sun could control fire, the High Priestess could control water, etc… I would take a look at this book; I don't suggest you copy it, but the author has some incredibly creative ideas about the way the deck is arranged.
