The Past
Rather far away from our own “Sol System,” there was a solar system called Arcana. Within this system were five planets, all of which were inhabited: Major Arcana, Swords, Wands, Cups and Pentacles.
On the largest planet lived the High King and Queen, who ruled over all Arcana, as well as a team of female soldiers. These girls were known as the Arcana Soldiers, hailing from any of the five planets. They protected the King and Queen, and the kingdom’s way of life. Each of them had an honoured position within the court, mostly helping out the citizens of Major Arcana and their neighbouring planets.
None of the Arcana Soldiers were organized as actual soldiers, since their primary purpose was more of a supportive one, focusing on the people. They dressed in robes and dresses, went to parties (well, some of them), and carried out their daily duties. They were very widely known throughout all five planets, however, and were often sought for guidance. People also paid homage to them or their spheres of influence, bringing gifts or performing rituals.
There were also four male soldiers, called Knights, who hailed specifically from the other four planets of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles (their titles were related to the planets from which they came). They were as exalted as the Arcana Soldiers, but served a different purpose. They protected the relics, powerful objects that granted power. Some of them provided the comfortable living conditions on the otherwise uninhabitable planets. Some of the relics were occasionally used by the Soldiers to aid them in their tasks (Lover, for example, used various Cups relics in helping people with their romantic/marital/etc. problems). Others were strictly forbidden, for the ill effects on the user or uncontrollable bad things that happened. (more on relics later)
Finally, there were the Pages. They were basically Knights-in-training (you see, the Arcana Soldiers had to pass down their position within their bloodline, while the Knights took on an apprentice of sorts), so they hung around them a lot. They learned all the secrets about the relics and such, and so really weren’t seen as different from Knights, save for their level of expertise and titles.
Things went rather peacefully for a long time in Arcana. The daughters of the High King and Queen, the Princesses, were also Arcana Soldiers. They represented Fool and Death, so they performed double duties: doing all the things their spheres of influence entailed, and also putting on a good public face as the High Royalty of the kingdom. They threw parties and socials, did charity work, all that rich-people stuff. Naturally, all of this happy peace stuff didn’t last long. But it did take a lot of cunning for the nasty things to happen.
It started out rather innocently; the Princesses were becoming young women, starting to be interested in boys and such. Of course, the males that had the most contact with any of the Arcana Soldiers (apart from family members, that is) were the Knights. So it was only natural for the girls to develop interests in these boys. There was one boy in particular that struck both of the princess’ fancies. The Knight of Pentacles.
He was a very good looking and respected man. He always did his job and did it well, receiving much recognition from the High King and Queen. No one ever suspected that he would want more than just recognition and prestige, because he was never really suspicious. He got along with the other Knights, attended all of the social functions; to the public, he was a regular upper-class man. However, he wasn’t quite what he seemed.
The Knight of Pentacles was really a greedy man, and maybe a little heartless, too. He wanted to grab up all of the relics that the Knights protected so fiercely so he could control all of the power in Arcana. Not to be the most powerful man in the galaxy, exactly, but to sell all of the benefits of the relics. He wanted more money, more stuff, just more of everything. He knew that just running in and grabbing things was not the way to go about it, so he decided to be a manipulative jerk. He went the ‘divide and conquer’ route.
With the help of the Pages, who were all on his side, he began to get really cozy with a couple of girls; namely, the Princesses. The Knight of Pentacles charmed his way into the two girls’ hearts, showering them with loving words, expensive gifts, the works. He gained credibility with the Pages, who dutifully reported to both girls that his love was true. Sure enough, the sisters fell for him, not realizing that they were being deceived.
Eventually, the princesses figured it out when they couldn’t contain their excitement about their “secret lovers” any longer, but they misdirected their anger. Instead of focusing on the Knight of Pentacles, they turned against each other, exactly as the Knight had hoped. Their anger at each other became more and more unreasonable, and turned to near-hatred. Their hatred became so strong that after a while, they had forgotten their original argument. That’s about the moment that it all turned to war.
People began taking sides, and all of them were making up their own reasons to dislike a particular side. Somehow, fighting over the relics began, and the war raged on. The Knight of Pentacles had his Pages feeding false information all over the place, as well as continuing to convince the girls that he loved only one of them, and that the other no longer mattered.
In the end, the war overtook them all, and the Arcana kingdom was destroyed. No one is quite sure why or how (perhaps someone got their hands on a particularly potent relic), but it was all gone in a flash. There was too much opposition, too much out of balance. Fool and Death, representing the Beginning and the End, and several powerful opposing relics essentially caused galaxy explode-y.
And somehow, the Soldiers, Knights, Pages, Kings and Queens were all reborn here on Earth, the relics scattered around in a city where there was a high concentration of Arcane power…
Notes on the Past
Though I removed the "Sailormoon"-ish aspect as best I could from this game, I decided to keep the fact that the two teams are all female, because they were all in supportive priestess-type roles. The Pages and Knights are male, because I'm a horrible person and like to keep gender roles.
They all had real names apart from their titles, and I would prefer them to be old-style or made up entirely rather than modern, because it's x-number of years ago and in a different solar system entirely. At least, that's my reasoning. If anyone has a good way of contesting this, by all means bring it up! Their titles are obviously from the cards they each represent, and have a similar connotation to titles such as "duchess" and "viscountess", meaning that they were probably of noble birth. Since I'm a bad person, the idea behind this is that only rich/noble people can be as awesome as the Arcana soldiers. Family names work however you want them to -- Major Arcana is bound to have different cultures and naming systems, as well as the other four planets, so don't worry about what your style is.
Obviously, the Knights and Pages have rather free reign with the design of their own planet, and the Priestesses have free reign with major areas on the main planet that pertain to them. So, Hierophant wants a library and/or university? Go right ahead. My only hope is that in the end, it all makes sense. If we really want to twink it up, I can draw up a flat map of Major Arcana and we can just have a field day making up different countries and regions and all that. Let me know what you think of this idea.
Knights and Pages are allowed to be any kind of noble you wish on their respective planets. For example, Knight of Pentacles was the prince, son of the King of Pentacles (who is now a raven with a penchant for shiny things). The Arcana priestesses also are allowed to be some kind of royalty if you wish, though obviously lesser than Fool and Death, or even a relative of one of the Knights or Pages. So, they all can hail from any of the planets, but all must be some kind of nobility, even if it is the bottom rung.
Relics were kept by the Knights, so obviously, there was an open communication with them and the Arcana Priestesses. Everyone was a part of this network because they had to be -- the Knights had to keep track of the relics, the Priestesses had to use them. Priestesses, depending on their spheres of power, were, in some cases, only able to use one kind of relic, while others were fairly balanced through all of them (examples: Devil is best with Cups and Pentacles, Lovers is only very good with Cups, etc). Communication was not done with mobile phones, however, but with by meeting together at certain times throughout the year, generally on Major Arcana. These meetings were often also the opening ceremony for a grand ball, just for fun. Everyone was invited!
Priestesses had as much power as the relative position you give them. If you see your character at the level of a viscountess, then that's where she stands in Arcane society. Most of them, however, were rather uninvolved in political matters, and only served the people on a personal level. Someone like Justice would have probably served on the senate or something, but it's rather impractical for Magician to be there. Of course, they had an affect on society, but they didn't have meetings about how to run the kingdom, except for Death and Fool who were learning from their parents and the senate-type thing.
Make up festivals!
Being an Arcana Priestess, by the way, was a full time job. They did have time for balls, parties, and pursuing their own interests, but they were essentially on call 24/7. I'm thinking, there may have been certain holidays throughout the Arcane year where they went on pilgrimages or just had time off, because it's pretty exhausting work. What it was that they did, exactly, is entirely up to you. Just know that it was to help people in some capacity. Whether they resented this or adored it is up to you as well, as not everyone could possibly love being in the service of others all the time, especially being noble and all. Not all of the nobles are Priestesses.
On that note, Priestesses, Knights and Pages are chosen by the previous holder of the position before they are born. Some choose to keep it in the family, others choose the family that seems most likely to produce a worthy heir, and others are much more superficial and just think so and so's mother or father is hot. They are taken at about five years old until they are twelve, when they are considered 'of age' to begin their duties. From twelve until sixteen, it is a supervised thing, more of an apprenticeship. A Priestess, Knight or Page chooses her/himself when she/he will pass on the 'knowledge'. How this is done is up to you. I figure it's some kind of long, drawn out process of 'finding the force within' you or something like that.
The kingdom in general was at about the level of Ancient Rome technologically, if only because I'm obsessed with it. I make no excuses! Baha! So, they had running water and aquaducts and crazy people-eating animals that don't exist here on Earth, but no microwaves or Model T Fords. I don't want to be too restrictive with this apart from a GENERAL level, because I want you all to have fun with this. Make up architecture and animals and religions or cults and all that! Go wild! Keep in mind that the Arcana priestesses, Knights and Pages were all worshipped, but not on a religious level. The relics, on the other hand, were a mystery, and so naturally, religions may have seeked to explain their purpose and source of power.
Since the Priestesses are most needed on the largest planet, they spend most of their time there. However, when there is a summons for them to go elsewhere, they are expected to oblige. They can hail from wherever and have their permanent home wherever, but they at least have a snazzy little apartment on Major Arcana. Pages and Knights tend to stick to their respective planets, and also tend to hail from there, but they also spend a lot of time on Major Arcana because of the whole protecting the relics thing. The shrines containing the relics are separate from each other, but are all contained in the as of yet unnamed Main City.