DEV>Reign of Sin: Queen of Clubs (Pride)

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For my illustrated playing card deck, Reign of Sin (www.reignofsin.com).

This piece was painted in traditional media - a mix of pencil, ink, watercolor, and white charcoal on Arches watercolor paper. For more info on my ink painting process, check out my process videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/c/WylieBeckert .

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"In my vision, I walked the market streets of a populous city. As the noon bells rang, a host of heralds took their places atop the minarets bordering the square, and as if in one voice, raised a great cry that boomed and echoed off the stone buildings such that no one within a dozen miles of the city could have failed to hear it. 

I had heard such heralds in other cities for song or prayer, but as I listened, I realized that this particular faction cried out in celebration the glory of Nephemet The Renowned. For many long minutes, we were regaled with the hundred ways in which the city had prospered under the rule of the queen; if the criers were to be believed, each fish that leapt in a net, each child born healthy, and each stalk of wheat that pierced the soil to stand in the sun did so at the queen's behest. 

The racket was such that all attempts at barter or conversation had to be abandoned; as the day was hot, we waited out the recitation under the shade of a market stall where a vendor was laying out her scanty wares. As the bells rang a second time and the din subsided at last, the woman spat on the ground. 'Thrice a day for the past five years have I heard such praise, but I have yet to behold these wondrous works of Nephemet the Overblown with my own eyes.' Feeling the gaze of a liveried guard fall upon her, she added, 'Though the harvest under her rule has indeed been a fine one!' 

As the bustle of the market resumed, my companion and I moved on. 'I have known many who believe they can tell the story of their own deeds,' he said. 'It is a wonder to me that they never seem to hear the true authors of their histories whispering at their backs.' "

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