Alpha and Omega Playing Cards (Early Church)
RM280.00
Alpha and Omega Playing Cards are 3 decks of fully custom, hand-drawn, poker-size playing cards beautifully depicting some of the most significant periods of Church history in useful game pieces. Each deck in the series covers a different time: the Early Church, the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakening.
Each deck in the Alpha & Omega series faithfully captures a different period in Church history. You will meet heroes and villains of the early church, Protestant Reformation and Great Awakening as you play your way through these beautiful decks.
Each design in the Alpha & Omega series has been hand-illustrated from the ground up in authentic wood-cut style to faithfully represent significant people during these important periods of Church history.
- Printed by UNITED STATES PLAYING CARD COMPANY on PREMIUM BEE STOCK
- Faces and Back designs - LUXURIOUS GOLD METALLIC INKS
- Size - STANDARD POKER SIZE
- Artwork - 100% CUSTOM COURT CARDS, ACES, JOKERS AND BACKS
- Tuck Cases - PREMIUM SOFT TOUCH PAPER WITH INTRICATE FOIL & EMBOSSING
While not immediately obvious, the cards are embedded with subtle details which embellish the story behind them:
For example, Martin Luther (Reformation deck) is depicted on one side of the card nailing his era-defining 95 Thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, while on the other side he is confined to Wartburg Castle to escape the Catholic Church; a scene complete with the ink stain from his encounter with the devil.
Another example: Felicity and Perpetua (Early Church deck) were two 3rd Century women who were captured and martyred together in the Roman military games. They are depicted holding hands while their executioners draw near behind them.
Early Church Playing Cards
The Early Church period was an age of theological titans, doing philosophical and religious battle against the seemingly-endless heresies that sought to add or subtract from the scriptures. Covering the period after the apostolic age, these people shaped Christianity up until the modern day.
The face cards of the Early Church deck are comprised entirely of significant individuals:
- The ACES are the venerated doctors of the church - the most historically significant figures who shapes the course of the church for centuries (in some cases, millennia): Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome and Gregory the Great.
- The KINGS, QUEENS and JACKS are a mix of significant leaders, thinkers, writers and martyrs who's thoughts, words and blood drove orthodox Christianity forward.
- The JOKERS are Diocletian - a pagan Roman emperor whose harsh persecution of Christians drove them to the breaking point, and Constantine the Great - another Roman emperor succeeding Diocletian whose conversion to Christianity (however real) and subsequent victory at Milvian Bridge legitimised the religion which spread through Rome
- Luxurious packaging featuring a Bible crossed by a sword and a shepherds staff, signifying the original leaders of the church.
- Ornate hand-drawn back design with a central Chi Rho symbol (or charismon); one of the earliest forms of Christograms. The design is bounded by an Ichthys; a popular motif of the early Christian church.
- Intricately detailed face cards in wood-cut style, printed on professional grade playing card stock with shiny metallic gold accents.
- Beautiful number cards consistent with the deck theme.
