Arcanism
Arcanism, aka The Arcane Tenets of Praxis, is a pluralistic religion, creed, and philosophy that draws esoteric but real connections between the domains of different magical archetypes that are exalted and personified in the form of the common Tarot. While the tarot are useful for comprehending the mechanisms and patterns of the faith, they are by no means all encompassing of the cosmology itself. The eponymous tenets alluded to are coequally, though perhaps confoundingly, accepted as true or valid to those who substantiate them.
The actualization of these domains are capable of producing real results but the means by which they manifest and influence are a mystery to even the wisest philosophers and practitioners of Arcanism. Any such interfacing with the underlying mechanisms behind the Arcana is penultimately difficult and, given this, casual comprehension is similarly demanding.
According to the creed, manifestations of magic are possible by broad manipulations of circumstances both of the senses seen by lenses of beaconspace and by those who design events in relation to patterns for their desired result (scientists, tricksters, “street” magic.) This hallowed ability for those, both inherently magical and not, to harmonize with the bleed in all of its facets is termed Praxis. Praxis is a measure of applying the tenets and one's own innate talents to interface with magic through internalization of the tenets set forth through each Arcana.
Premises
The philosophy of Arcanism incorporates multiple principles into itself without an inherently comprehensive expression of them by its tenets. These are expounded upon here.
To an Arcanist, any being of sufficient cognizance to perform the reflective and cognitive question of doubting its own thought has a soul (a Cartesian soul), and it is those with a soul that are called to journey the ways and byways of the Arcana. Influencing this, The inherent nature of the bleed itself gives credence to the substantial thought that souls are metaphysical minds distinct from the physical reality of the universe which means AI, cognizant Robots, or other relevant entities are considered alive in the traditional sense.
Similarly, there is heavy emphasis on The Garden of Life. The garden is existence as all those with souls each experience it and some Arcana embrace or distance themselves from the garden with varying and contrastive declarations on value. To offer some delineation, The Garden of Life is drastically different between a biological member of beacon space housed within their body, upon a planet or construct, in space, compared to a program that is only able to interface within its own digital dimensions.
From these concepts, the absolute goal of the faith is that the souled achieve the penultimate state of existence through a form of apotheosis termed Rapture. Should one succeed in completing their journey through The Garden by way of the tenets, there is a profound belief that their soul shall elevate towards some state of being that is likely magically or spiritually divine though specificity of such a state is deemed impossible to determine and generally beyond those still within the garden itself.
The Arcana
While it may be easy to presume that all who subscribe to the practice of Praxis venerate the Arcana as deities, this is not explicitly the case. The Creed has a spiritualistic agnosticism by default -- therefore it is perfectly reasonable both that the Arcana are simply patterns or stations in the bleed, or that they are indeed intelligent spirits within the domain of the magical. Anathema is only to reject any of the tenets outright and personal experimentation or interpretation of the name and nature of the Arcana as a whole is common practice.
THE FOOL (0)
TBD
THE MAGICIAN (I)
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THE HIGH PRIESTESS (II)
TBD
THE EMPRESS (III)
TBD
THE EMPEROR (IV)
TBD
THE HIEROPHANT (V)
TBD
THE CONSORTS (VI)
TBD
THE CHARIOT (VII)
TBD
STRENGTH (VIII)
TBD
THE HERMIT (IX)
TBD
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE (X)
TBD
JUSTICE (XI)
TBD
THE HANGED ONE (XII)
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DEATH (XIII)
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TEMPERANCE (XIV)
TBD
THE DEVIL (XV)
TBD
THE TOWER (XVI)
TBD
THE STAR (XVII)
TBD
THE MOON (XVIII)
TBD
THE SUN (XIX)
TBD
JUDGMENT (XX)
TBD
THE WORLD (XXI)
TBD
Sects
The Deck
- Servants of those Beyond
Deep in the web of strings that is the Larkspur Combine, exists a religious sect that doubles as an intelligence agency. The Deck are a group of lenses who attune heavily to Arcanism with zealous fever, valuing their faith even higher than their loyalty to the Larkspurs. This causes much scrutiny to fall upon their operations, but they are too valuable to dissolve.
Officially the Deck is a strange religious order who travels world to world to inspect bleed zones. It is not an unknown entity, though considered strange for those who know not of Arcanism.
Unofficially the missionaries from the Deck are spies who report back any intelligence they get their hands on. While their focus remains on the bleed, particularly bleed zones and emerging lenses, they will not dismiss other information and are known to go off on tangents to track down spicy rumors.
The Suits
The Deck consists of a multitude of smaller suits. Each suit is led by an Ace with nine ordinary agents and three specialists under them. Some of them are listed here:
The Orbs
Specializing in information redistribution, the Orbs are often found close to other assigned suits, where they work as the contact between the agents and the Deck. A specialist of the Orbs is known as the Eye. They tend to have special talents within counterintelligence and are usually too valuable to send out into the field.
The Axes
Wardens and executioners, the Axes is a suit of hardened fighters and stubborn enforcers. Known for their loyalty, they are often sent to apply a push and a shove to keep rebellious tendencies away. A specialist of the Axes is known as the Trophy. They are whispers to the Axes shouts. A Trophy is usually a forcefully recruited enemy who proves useful enough to keep around. They are always escorted by one of the Axes.