"Like A Cancer Spreading Through The Spirit..."

I know, I know... two Settlers of Catan-esque cards in one deck? First of all, it's a fun game -- why do you hate fun? Second, while Breaking the Tower is somewhat inspired by Settlers, it's an altogether unique challenge. It's an animated strategy game in which you design a plan to break down the tower looming over the rest of the island, as it unleashes monsters on your hapless villagers all the while. It's a slow, engrossing game that involves lots of watching tiny people as they struggle to follow the course that you've laid out. (Here's a link to the game itself.)

This may seem a lot more frivolous than my last post on the Tower card, but at heart they are the same. The spire itself is the natural product of an unnatural falsehood or illusion that has been allowed to grow unchecked within us. It might have seemed fairly benign when it was just a foundation, relatively non-threatening (and perhaps even rather impressive) when it was just a few stories high. As it continues to evolve, however, never wavering from its fundamental purpose, it becomes a dominating presence that becomes harder to ignore, like a cancer spreading through the spirit. And just as many cancer treatments tend to be as harsh on the host as they are on the invader, becoming disemburdened of the Tower's intoxicating unrealities can require more painful sacrifice than some people are willing to endure.

Most Tower cards show the act of destruction as coming from above, as if God or some cosmic force were smiting the fortress. Which is fair, because nature tends to have its own way of letting us know when a system has become unsustainable. I like it when decks suggest this can be an elective process, however -- such as in the Thoth deck, which shows the inner eye of awareness opening and laying waste to the dangerously inadequate false world that has metastasized within.

Breaking the Tower presents an interesting combination of these ideas. To the tiny villagers in the game, our influence must appear as a great divine intervention; as players, we are responsible for engineering the destruction ourselves as best we can. When it comes to the Tarot, how the Tower is destroyed -- and how one copes with the fallout when it finally breaks -- is decided by your current level of awareness, your ability to accept profound unforeseen changes, and your hunger for a new, unimpeded view of the horizon. [Via]

Previously on Arcanalogue...