My Four Dragon Queens! (art by Anne Stokes)

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Just felt like sharing the four "dragon queens" of this awesome playing card deck designed by fantasy artist Anne Stokes.



I even came up with my own names for each queen.

♡ ♡

Echidna as the Dragon Queen of Hearts

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Drakaina as the Dragon Queen of Diamonds

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Longmu as the Dragon Queen of Clubs

♤ ♤

Tiamat as the Dragon Queen of Spades

Now for some music fitting of the Four Dragon Queens!

any living female personages who personify each card?

I like the Longmu card the best.

Not living, but this is why I chose each name.

Echidna for Queen of Hearts. A giant serpent woman in Greek Mythology who was the mate of Typhon, a powerful giant who nearly overthrew the gods, and together they gave birth to nearly every frightening monster in Greek Mythology like the hydra, cerberous, sphinx, chimera, phoenix, gorgons, etc. The Queen of Hearts has strong tendancies towards motherhood as well as happy marriage.

Drakaina for Queen of Diamonds is a Greek word meaning "she-dragon". These were a type of a reptilian creatures with feminine features (Echidna was regarded as one).

Longmu for the Queen of Clubs I chose because Longmu was regarded as a Chinese Goddess known as the "Mother of Dragons", and this Queen of Clubs card depicts a Chinese Woman dressed in empress clothing with an Asian dragon by her side.

Finally Tiamat for the Queen of Spades. Tiamat in Mesopomatian mythology was a Creation Goddess much like the Greek Goddess Gaia. She got angry when her children, the gods, overthrew her mate Abzu and so she took the form of a giant serpent-like dragon and tried to desrtroy her children but they fought back and slayed her. When her blood dripped from her body and landed on the barren earth life began to form and the heavens and earth were split in two.

Echidna, Longmu, and Tiamat are literally "dragon mothers" in mythology. The Mothers of Dragons!

https://youtu.be/pd_CKiCDrBQ?si=AznWFpzr6_8VlqwY

I see Echidna, my first thought is Knuckles.

Sonic the Hedgehog reference?

I think that the furry animals that are called "Echidnas" in real life actually got their name from the ferocious half-nymph half-giant serpent monster in Greek Mythology, because like her they're a weird hybrid of mammal and reptile (or something like that).

Yes, and that's interesting.

Echidna



Tiamat




Unfortunately i couldnt find a good video about the mythology surrounding Longmu, which is a real shame because her story is amazing. She was like a Chinese Daenerys Targaeryn, literally!

Except she was a lot nicer than Daenerys and really did use her dragon "children" for good.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmu

I'm starting to see why you like these cards so much. They are really beautiful

Thank you!

These were drawn by a fantasy artist named Anne Stokes and I'm a fan of her artwork.

She has a website where you see her other beautiful works. She draws everything from dragons to unicorns to fairies to mermaids.

https://annestokes.com/

How long have you been into this?

Damn... i just now realized I should have named the Dragon Queen of Diamonds "Midgard" after the Norse Dragon who was the child of Loki and encircles the entire world forming an ouroboros symbol.

Even though this was a male dragon-like monster, I find it to be fitting of the Diamond symbol. Because the other three pips (Heart, Club, and Spade) the Diamond looks exactly the same when you flip it upside down implying a kind of infinity imo.

You mean fortune telling with cards? It's been several years... i was in my mid 20's when I first found a book at a used book store in Florida about cartomancy. Since then it became one of my "special interests" as somebody with autism.

I'm seriously impressed

There also exists a deck of Unicorn-themed playing cards by this same artist that I hope to purchase someday.

https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Stokes-U ... 760&sr=8-3