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INTRODUCTION

• INTIMATIONS OF THE IMPERIUM •

“These illustrious strangers came down into the world of things that come to be, in order to make trial of it.”

HERMES, De Castigatione Animae

There are many forms of reality. You inhabit but one part of a much vaster cosmos, and are perhaps ignorant of the Imperium. We urge you to acquaint yourself with its co-existence beside your own world, for it is but a step away.

The history of the Imperium is a long one, reflecting our beloved Queen-Empress’s long reign. But its roots lie much further back, in ancient times, before the arrival of steam and the enlightenment of anbaric power. Then, the Gods of the Machine walked among us, and we spoke directly to them—and they to us.

The technology of that era was the art of sympathetic magic, practiced from these earliest times, as we see from the Corpus Hermeticum, that great body of august knowledge that was disseminated in both our worlds many centuries ago. Long ago, it was widely believed that the influences of the protean stars were poured out upon the earth, and were capable of being canalized by the practitioners of ancient knowledge, to be contained within talismans, objects of worship, and through the devising of rituals. From the sacred arts of Egypt, to the sympathetic magic of the great philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Athanasius Kircher, or the making of the Prague Golem by the mysterious Rabbi Loew, you may see how this belief ensouled ordinary objects with divine influences in your own world.

Visions of the Artificers

Drawing upon this craft, the artificers of the Imperium’s Four Leagues created vehicles to roam the earth through the four elements. In their works the Gods of the Machine live yet, and are embodied within the ever-living influences of the tarot that you hold in your hands. Often, what was thought to be an illusion turns out to be reality, especially when the workings of the imagination are respected. The visions of those ancient artificers and natural philosophers paved the way to the science of life, and forged enduring presences that these seventy-eight tarot cards reveal.

When things are made by hand with intention and craft, they have a more pleasing aspect about them than things that are mass-produced from the bowels of a factory—even those powered by the might of steam itself. Where the industrial meets artistry and the deep hermetic spirit of inquiry, there we may perceive the flash of the spark that is purely genius. Within the Imperium, this genius is constantly at work, embodying all the possibilities of creation.

In your world, there are many myths about the creation of beings and the devising of engines, from Prometheus, who brought fire from heaven, stolen from the gods, to the story of Pygmalion, who created a woman from a statue, or Daedalus, who made wings of flight for himself and his son, Icarus, and used quicksilver (surely a precursor of anbaric energy) to give a voice to his statues; he also made the mighty fighting man Talos out of metal. In all of these we see the desire to embody what only the Gods are seen to know.

This theme of the theft of wisdom is one that has continually followed the human race in its search for the secrets of technology within our Imperium. The spirit of wisdom has whispered into the ears of inventors, artists, scientists, and explorers of the natural world, secrets that have revealed—like the fog of breath on a winter’s day—the lines, intersections, and patterning of life. When these connections were made, the sum of human knowledge started to become god-like in stature.

Within the Imperium, that discovery is still ongoing, but has lost none of the deep secrets of the artificer’s knowledge, nor the humility of craft, nor the personal hazard after exploration, nor, indeed, the bright excellence that enterprise for the commonwealth always brings. Respect for initiative and honor for those who dedicate themselves to the discovery of life’s secrets is celebrated within our world, for herein the Gods of the Machine engage humanity’s drive in the oldest search of all—for self-knowledge.

The Path of Discovery

Here, then, in this latest creation of our brightest holders of wisdom, is set forth the great mystery of making, and the exploration of the highest values and ideals of the human race. Within, you shall find the ways opening before you, as you follow the course of The Adventury, under the guidance of the Gods of the Machine themselves (so elegantly pictured by the artificer 124C) and with the aid of the Four Leagues and their honored Legates.

The shape of the Imperium is outlined in Part One, followed by The Adventury in Part Two, wherein the pathways of your exploratory adventures are set forth. In Part Three, blueprints and templates are provided for your journey, and in Part Four you will find orientation for life-navigation and advice on how to read the cards. Publications and websites that will extend your knowledge further are given at the back of the book.

The world around us is reflected in small, the microcosmic echoing the macrocosmic, as has been the case since time began. When you opened the box in which these shining images are kept—barely restrained from leaping forth of their own volition—you may have caught the aroma of engine oil, or the flicker of amber light from the anbaric protomix. These are the essential elements of the Imperium, and, to all those brave explorers who venture upon the path of discovery, we offer these words from the Divine Sator written in the years of awe 247–299^*:

Those who seek are blessed by the Gods of the Machine, and by the Divine Artificers; those who turn away their eyes and close their ears, learn nothing and remain without movement. They are like broken escapements in the divine world of the Horologer. But to those who find the jewels of light that lie within the great work, they shall be blessed and progress to the very heights of the Imperium.

THE WARDS OF INFINITE WISDOM

The following Manifesto (see overleaf ), also known as the “Compact of the Leagues,” was issued by the Guild of Artificers, drawn from all four of the Leagues of the Imperium. All aeronauts, engineers, aquanauts, and navigators in this world, together with the artists and scientists, philosophers and diviners, hold this as their central tenet. The Steampunk Tarot has been formulated to follow the philosophy of the machine outlined here. We invite you to take it to heart.

* Anbaric Wisdom Era is the year count of the Imperium, the equivalent—we are informed—of 62 CE elsewhere.