Inficio Aquilus (magic items; ancient Tarot deck)

INFICIO AQUILIUS

Classification: Magic items

Creator: Order of the Frater Inficio

User/Possessors: Order of the Frater Inficio;
formerly Orleans Cooper, Gambit, Lili Penrose, Morgan Penrose;
briefly held by Alphonse, "Fast" Jack Jessup

First Appearance: (Referenced) Gambit IV#1 (November, 2004)
(Seen, identified) Gambit IV#3 (December, 2004)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The cards of the Inficio Aquilus are apparently indestructible, though their magic may be able to be dulled by holy water or other magical assaults. The cards composition is unrevealed, but they failed to take a kinetic charge from Gambit, and Alphonse stated that was because they were made of organic material.

The deck contains 82 cards, 26 in the major arcana, four more than contemporary decks. The four extra cards were vastly powerful. One card in particular, Incognizable, explodes the eyes of those viewing it.

The cards' power is mostly stated, and not seen. Morgan Penrose stated that, even among minor occult dabblers, few could survive a reading from the Inficio Aquilus. Even a simple viewing of anything beyond the minor arcana could allegedly lead to blindness, cardiac arrhythmia, or worse.
Orleans Cooper intended to use the Inficio Aquilus to conquer Hell, while Lili Penrose wanted its power for her own purposes. After having held the cards, Orleans stated that he could them pass them to other demons, and the cards' power would enslave them to his will

In order to access the power of the Inficio Aquilus, one apparently had to soak the cards in the blood of a freshly removed human heart, though that may just have been a way for Orleans to pass their power to his demon master.

History:
(Gambit IV#3 (fb)) <Over 700 years ago> - The Inficio Aquilus was crafted by the Order of Frater Inficio monks in Northern Italy who were charged with tending the mentally afflicted, people with "poisoned" minds, such as the mad, people who spoke in tongues, people who were plagued with visions, who claimed to communicate with the divine or the damned. The brotherhood spent five decades trying to understand some of the most powerful, resonating imagery within the most primal recesses of human consciousness. Five more decades were spent trying to re-create those images, the intention being to harness their power. Sometime toward the completion of it all, proximity to all that derangement and darkness had a profoundly corrupting effect, as the monks fought savagely.
The end result was the Inficio Aquilus, one of the original Tarot decks (possibly THE original) and certainly the most powerful. The deck contained 82 cards, 26 in the major arcana, four more than contemporary decks. The four extra cards were deemed too dangerous to be seen and were thus excised from subsequent decks, and their history largely erased: removing seemed to be the only way to ensure human safety and sanity.

(Gambit IV#2 (fb) - BTS / Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - The Inficio Aquilus was acquired by minor occult Morgan Penrose, who kept it safely locked away at his Chez Penrose estate, never using them.

(Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Morgan's niece, Lili Penrose, allied with Orleans Cooper (a demon posing as a mutant, and the head of New Orleans organized crime) to obtain the Inficio Aquilus. They agreed to manipulate the mutant Gambit and his rival thief "Fast" Jack Jessup to get the cards for them. Both Penrose and Orleans planned to betray each other.

(Gambit IV#1 - BTS) - Lili hired Gambit to obtain an unspecified deck of cards.

(Gambit IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - Lili gave Gambit the address from which she wanted him to steal the cards.

(Gambit IV#2 - BTS) - Gambit met with Madame Camille & Genevieve D'aubigne to learn the security system of the cards and found that it was owned by Lili's uncle, Morgan Penrose. Further, Gambit's friend, Dan Downs revealed that the cards were a tarot deck with supernatural powers of apocalyptic proportions.

(Gambit IV#3) - While Morgan Penrose prepared a viewing of the minor arcana of the Inficio Aquilus for a number of New Orleans based occultists (including Brother Voodoo), Gambit sneaked into the building and stole them. Gambit was then ambushed by Jack Jessup, who blasted him unconscious and stole the cards.

(Gambit IV#4) - Orleans Cooper -- while meeting with Lili -- ignored Jessup's calls requesting a meeting to sell him the cards, figuring that given a few hours, Jessup would take care of Gambit, or vice-versa.
Gambit soon stole the cards from Jessup, but Orleans agent/assassin Alphonse and his allies then confronted Gambit, beat him senseless, and took the cards.

(Gambit IV#5) - Alphonse delivered the Inficio Aquilus to Orleans Cooper who made preparations for his midnight ceremony.

(Gambit IV#5 / Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Duping Alphonse into believing the entire team of X-Men were in town, Gambit terrified him into stealing the Inficio Aquilus from Orleans, replacing it with the "Spongebill Squareshorts" special edition of Uno cards, and then leaving town.

(Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Orleans revealed to his demon associates his intent to not offer up the Inficio Aquilus to his master, but instead to use the card's power to rule Hell, growing in size as he spoke. He handed the cards to the three demons, telling them that the cards power enslaved their will to his and that they would lead armies in his name to raze Earth into a fiery Hell. The demons took the cards and immediately recognized the swap. Dumbfounded, Orleans stood helplessly as the red-skinned demon ("Malonch") reached forward and seared his face. They left him behind, still banished to Earth, but now with his New Orleans career in shambles as well.
Believing Jessup had swapped the cards (as he was the last thief who had access to them), Orleans sought him out and took his vengeance, presumably slaying him and possibly devouring him as well.

(Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Suspecting Lili might be allied with Orleans, and knowing the Inficio Aquilus cards were indestructible and that one of the cards was powerful and primal enough to blind anyone who looked at it, Gambit had Wolverine look at the cards until he found that particular card (Wolverine would heal himself from the injury). The card thus identified (Incognizable), Gambit glued (?) it, face out, to his chest as a safeguard.

(Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Lili slew Morgan Penrose and planned to devour his heart as part of the ritual to gain the power of the Inficio Aquilus.

(Gambit IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - Gambit brought the Inficio Aquilus cards to Chez Penrose to learn the truth about Lili, and she ambushed him with a bolt of magical energy and then mystically bound him in the air above a pentagram.

(Gambit IV#6) - Intending to sacrifice Gambit to obtain the cards' power, Lili stabbed him in the chest with her sacrificial dagger, which bent in half upon hitting the Incognizable card. Ignoring Gambit telling her she was making a big mistake, Lili assumed Gambit's chest was protected by kevlar, and she tore open his shirt, only to have her eyes explode and her face fry as she looked upon the Incognizable. His mystic bonds dissolving, Gambit poured a mixture of hydrochloric acid and holy water on the cards to dull their power, intending to take them to the Xavier Institute where he hoped the combined power of the X-Men could destroy them.

Comments: Created by John Layman, Georges Jeanty, and Don Hillsman II.

    Translations?
    With help from Graham Weaver. Frater is Latin for brother, and I was thinking Inficio might mean infernal, but Graham says "sick" or "infected," so that one's straightforward enough: Order of the Sick Brother(s) as a literal translation, or maybe the Brotherhood of the Sick, or something like that.
    But Aquilus seems to be a derivation of the Latin word for eagle, which doesn't make any sense. Graham thought perhaps it was a play on sick bird, or "ill eagle" (illegal).
    William Wilson says Inficio is the first singular person for the verb Inficio/inficiare, translating to "to invalidate" ---> "I invalidate"
    And Markus Raymond says Aquila (a-declination, no –us in this one) the eagle is derived from aquilus (an adjective) which means dark colored or swarth.
    Inficio can also mean tinge, discolor, poison, dye, taint (most commonly used), stain, imbue. Its first person, so it means I tinge, I discolor, I whatever…which sounds so wrong, so forget it.
    Word-to-word it could mean “Tainted Swarth”.

    "Incognizable" seems to actually be a current, valid English word. Its meaning is more akin to "unsuitable to be known" than to anything related to names. That, of course, seems to fit just right with the properties that card shows in the Gambit series; it is very much non-suitable to be known by the senses...
    --Luis Dantas
    I wonder if there is any connection to the Unnameable...

Per David Sexton, the art of using cards for clairvoyance and precognition is known as cartomancy.

Per Zen Harawada, "don't recall seeing any one Vodu god specifically designated as one of luck. Voodoo practitioners each have their patron gods (much like Catholics have patron saints, since Voodoo is an amalgamation of Catholocism and the traditional Yoruba belief system). So, in theory, any of the Vodu could be called on to bring luck and good fortune to a worshipper."

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Inficio Aquilus should be distinguished from other tarot cards.

Order of the Frater Inficio

<Over 700 years ago> - The Inficio Aquilus was crafted by the Order of Frater Inficio monks in Northern Italy who were charged with tending the mentally afflicted, people with "poisoned" minds, such as the mad, people who spoke in tongues, people who were plagued with visions, who claimed to communicate with the divine or the damned. The brotherhood spent five decades trying to understand some of the most powerful, resonating imagery within the most primal recesses of human consciousness. Five more decades were spent trying to re-create those images, the intention being to harness their power. Sometime toward the completion of it all, proximity to all that derangement and darkness had a profoundly corrupting effect, as the monks fought savagely.

The end result was the Inficio Aquilus, one of the original Tarot decks (possibly THE original) and certainly the most powerful. The deck contained 82 cards, 26 in the major arcana, four more than contemporary decks. The four extra cards were deemed too dangerous to be seen and were thus excised from subsequent decks, and their history largely erased: removing seemed to be the only way to ensure human safety and sanity.

It is unclear whether any members of the Frater Inficio survived the creations of the Inficio Aquilus with their minds intact.

--Gambit IV#3

images: (without ads)
Gambit IV#3, p5 (Inferno and other cards)
        p6, panel 1, 2, 5 (Frater Inficio)
        p7, panel 2 (Inficio Aquilus in case)
    #4, p12, panel 2-3 (cards in the air)
    #6, p19, panel 5 (Incognizable)

Appearances:
Gambit IV#1-2 (November, 2004) - by John Layman (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Don Hillsman II (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor).
Gambit IV#3 (December, 2004) - by John Layman (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Don Hillsman II (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor).
Gambit IV#4 (January, 2005) - by John Layman (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Don Hillsman II (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor).
Gambit IV#5 (February, 2005) - by John Layman (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Don Hillsman II w/ Dexter Vines (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor).
Gambit IV#6 (March, 2005) - by John Layman (writer), Roger Robinson (penciler), James Pascoe w/ Don Hillsman II (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor).

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Last Updated: 10/25/07

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