Item from Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Cards that map the ascendant pantheon — reading the Deck is divination through direct contact with gods, and gods do not appreciate being looked at.
The Deck of Dragons is the Malazan world's tarot, except that each card is a direct line to an ascendant power and reading the deck is functionally the same as telephoning a god and asking what they're planning. The cards organize the pantheon into Houses — Shadow, Death, Light, Life, Dark, Chains — with each House containing roles: King, Queen, Knight, Herald, Soldier, Magi, and others. Reading the Deck is dangerous because the reader opens themselves to the attention of every power represented in the spread. A talented reader like Fiddler doesn't just interpret the cards — they become a conduit through which the ascendants can perceive each other and the mortal world. Convergences often follow Deck readings because the act of reading creates connections between powers that were previously unaware of each other's positions. The Deck doesn't predict the future; it reveals the present arrangement of cosmic power, which is information that gods would kill to control.
A deck of painted cards, each depicting an aspect of the ascendant pantheon — High House Shadow, High House Death, High House Chains, the Unaligned. The art shifts and changes: faces in the paintings move, environments depicted on the cards weather and age, and new cards appear in the deck when new ascendants rise. The cards feel warm when active and ice-cold when the reading touches something that doesn't want to be seen.
Also known as: Deck of Dragons, the Deck, the Dragon Deck