[ Hm... the origin of the game though. That'll be more fun to talk about. ]
the base system of the game was born back in Kemet, or "ancient Egypt" for you. mortals have two types of life energy within them: the ka and the ba. with enough strong emotion or will, the ka can evolve to become its own spirit; with deeply strong emotions, particularly hatred, this spirit can ascend to godhood itself, all while staying beholden to its mortal originator. if twisted by darkness, this new god risks becoming a demon instead; but a strong will can keep the god true to a more noble form. (truthfully the line between god and demon is how polite you feel like being, but I digress.)
even without ascending to full godhood however, ka can become very powerful. a mortal can expend their ba to summon their ka to the physical plane. some priests discovered they could also summon other people's ka, if they first separated that ka from its host and bound it to a tablet of stone. summoning your own ka opens you up to death should that ka take too much damage - every blow to it translates in some way to your own self, after all. summoning stolen, bound ka however, negated this risk to themselves.
the card game was eventually inspired by this method of pitting stolen ka against each other, using cards to represent the stone slabs; also using cards to represent casting spells and springing traps. I suppose the old magic carried over by way of sympathetic contagion? eventually. the card game was originally quite mundane, but any game could be empowered by playing it with the Shadows as arbiters. the cards simply got very popular with the people who ended up wielding the Items which best invoked the Shadows.
<GODKING> 2/2
the base system of the game was born back in Kemet, or "ancient Egypt" for you. mortals have two types of life energy within them: the ka and the ba. with enough strong emotion or will, the ka can evolve to become its own spirit; with deeply strong emotions, particularly hatred, this spirit can ascend to godhood itself, all while staying beholden to its mortal originator. if twisted by darkness, this new god risks becoming a demon instead; but a strong will can keep the god true to a more noble form. (truthfully the line between god and demon is how polite you feel like being, but I digress.)
even without ascending to full godhood however, ka can become very powerful. a mortal can expend their ba to summon their ka to the physical plane. some priests discovered they could also summon other people's ka, if they first separated that ka from its host and bound it to a tablet of stone. summoning your own ka opens you up to death should that ka take too much damage - every blow to it translates in some way to your own self, after all. summoning stolen, bound ka however, negated this risk to themselves.
the card game was eventually inspired by this method of pitting stolen ka against each other, using cards to represent the stone slabs; also using cards to represent casting spells and springing traps. I suppose the old magic carried over by way of sympathetic contagion? eventually. the card game was originally quite mundane, but any game could be empowered by playing it with the Shadows as arbiters. the cards simply got very popular with the people who ended up wielding the Items which best invoked the Shadows.