[2023] Divination Card Stories - Divine Beauty

Continuing with our series of Divination Card Stories from supporters, we wanted to share LostArtz's story about their Divination Card, "Divine Beauty". Check it out!



Hello everyone, I'm LostArtz.

I started playing Path of Exile way back in 2014 during the Ambush league. I'd recently bought a GTX 750 TI to be able to actually play Skyrim and it came with a few game 'vouchers' one of which happened to be for Path of Exile. Between that and seeing a high-school friend on Steam playing, I decided to give the game a go which turned into a 8 year long addiction. Thanks Chris.

Throughout those 8 years I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with GGG to design a number of unique items; Cospri's Will, Cospri's Malice, The Iron Fortress (formerly Iron Heart), and also 2 Divination Cards; Anarchy's Price and now Divine Beauty. Suffice to say I find the idea of being able to leave a permanent mark on the game an extremely awesome concept even if my wallet doesn't.

Anyway, for a while I'd been sitting on my 2nd and final Divination Card design unsure of what I wanted to submit. I'd had a few card ideas in mind over the years such as; 10 Mirrors, Tempering/Tailoring Orbs, and Tainted Currency, however I wasn't particularly fond of any of them.

I eventually submitted a card for 10 Mirrors called 'Inconceivable' which was meant to be a reference to the character Vizzini from The Princess Bride, but for reasons I don't remember it was automatically instantly rejected. Submitting a card for 10 Mirrors was an idea I'd had since the very introduction of Divination Cards and I told myself if no-one else ever submitted one I would. I suppose in a sense I did submit that card, it just never made it into the game. Seriously though, how has no one submitted (and finished) a card for 10 Mirrors yet? Somebody get on it!

I also submitted a card for 10 Tainted Currency called 'Black Market Goods' featuring It That Fled in the artwork despite having nothing to do with Tainted Currency. Genius, I know, however this was during 3.18 when Scourge hadn't yet been reworked into the new version of Beyond so my submission was once again rejected and left in limbo. GGG rejects Divination Cards if the reward isn't obtainable in the current version of the game.

When patch 3.19 came around this left me with a Divination Card submission which I decided to use on Divine Orbs. If your assumption is that this was in response to the Exalt and Divine Orb swap, you'd be correct. Regardless of that, the inspiration for this card's design came naturally and was submitted within mere hours of its conception.

The design was now centered around my favorite K-pop singer, who I had intended to reference in the cards flavour text but was instead changed to "a maiden most fair" to avoid any potential legal issues on GGG's part which is completely understandable. I've been listening to K-pop since 2009 and I'd intended for the cards flavour text to be a hidden in plain sight reference for the Korean player base, alas it wasn't meant to be. As for the Divination Card's name I'd set my mind on either 'Beauty Divine' or 'Divine Beauty', ultimately choosing 'Divine Beauty' which is both a reference to both what the card rewards, and her appearance.

The flavour text itself is also rather straightforward too.

"In a land far away lived a maiden most fair.
Her smile melted the coldest of hearts,
Her song made men and beast cry,
Her beauty unparalleled; Divine."

The first line is simultaneously about the actual distance between where we both live, however it's also something of a classical fairy-tale beginning to which the rest follows.

The second line is about her infectious smile and ability to make her fellow group-members laugh.

The third line is about her truly outstanding voice and how a number of her songs can make me cry without fail.

The fourth line is a reference to what the card rewards and her looks.

As for the artwork - I saw some speculation about it so I'd like to clear a few things up. To those of you who noted that the artwork is 'Disney-Princess'-esque, that was exactly my intention. The maiden in the artwork is meant to be singing to the beasts of the forest and the god-rays were meant to play into the angelic/divine theme of the card.

Some people noted that the dress she's wearing may be a reference to the Queen of the Forest unique, this was not my intention - it is also not a perfect 1:1 representation, although the artist who created the artwork may have intended for it to be the case. I don't mind either way.

There was also some speculation as to whether or not this card was a reference to Snow White and the Seven dwarfs given the number of Divine Orbs rewarded and the amount of cards needed to finish a set.

Here's what I'll say to that; originally I'd intended for this card to reward 5 Divines upon completion, however I was asked if I'd be willing to change the amount of Divine Orbs rewarded to a different amount as someone else wanted to create a card for 5 Divines. Divination Cards and their reward are done on a first come, first serve basis - so I could have said no, but I didn't mind changing the number to 7 which is often considered to be something of a Divine/Holy number anyway.

As for the number of cards required to finish a set, GGG decides that number. You can probably request a specific number such as 22 for 'Imperial Legacy' or 27 for 'Rebirth', but I didn't request a specific amount.

Each Card being worth 58.33333333333% of a Divine is unfortunate, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it and neither should you.

All this is to say, I didn't intend for the card to include any Snow White or Queen of the Forest references, but I certainly don't mind people making these connections given that I intended for the artwork to be 'Disney-Princess'-esque.

Hopefully you all like the card and its design, and to GGG: thank you for allowing me, and everyone else the chance to leave an impact on the game through unique items and Divination Cards.

P.S. Chris, where is my Mirror drop? Chris please.