The History of Queen of Hearts through Card Backs

Collected by Jason "Aeston" Rosa

Queen of Hearts has existed since the mid 1990s, first ran by Steve "Duncan" and Amy "Fallon" Johnson, the creators of the event series and Rhiassa itself. 

I became a permanent part of the Queen of Hearts staff around the year 2000 or so and during the years where Steve was in charge and following that during the years where Seth "Da'oud" Flag was the leader of Rhiassa and the EH of the event, I served in various capacities including, eventually, head war marshal for quite a few years.

Much of this was long before I was a Rhiassan. 

My wife (Jen "Areni") and I joined Rhiassa in 2008 and after a couple of years serving as the Warmarke I was promoted to the lordship in 2010. It was at that time that Queen of Hearts was officially passed on to me. So its since that time that I have been in charge of producing the yearly card deck that defines the scoring of the event.

For those of you who don't know, Queen of Hearts is scored using a deck of cards. Generally speaking the face cards, won in war maneuvers, are worth ten points and the numbered cards, won in individual tournaments, are worth five. Winning tournaments earns you a card which you then use to enter the culminating event Sunday afternoon, Queens War. 

The cards, themselves, are important keepsakes for the winners of those tournaments.

The Queen of Hearts scoring guide for 2025, from the Rhiassa website

From almost the very beginning, the card decks distributed at Queen if Hearts have featured custom artwork on the back. These days thats a product that's very easy and affordable to produce, however in the 90s it was certainly a more arduous task for Steve to make happen. Those card backs from the 90s and early 2000s probably exist in a digital format somewhere and it would be great if we could collect them all together someday.

What I can share with you now, however, is every deck back that was used since the event was passed to me in 2010.

These cards tell the history of the event and the history of the Realms to some extent. For most years the card back was a featured scene taken from the previous year's Queen of Hearts, though sometimes we tried to capture iconic moments from year's past. But no matter what the subject was, there are lots of interesting things to be learned or reflected upon through seeing them.

Lets take a look.

 

2010 - Queen of Hearts XVII

This is a scene from Folkestone Challenge, a war maneuver where various obstacles to go over and around were set up on the field. In this case you can see the castle towers were used along with a picnic table to make this particular choke point. 

2011 - Queen of Hearts XVIII

This year the card back featured an important historical event of that year, the coronation of Alexander Cecil. Specifically the moment when Rhiassa presented him with Majesty's Reach as a coronation gift.

2012 - Queen of Hearts XIX

A picture of most of the true supporters of Team Keela (on the far right), also known as Team Dolphin Moon Sparkle Hearts. 

2013 - Queen of Hearts XX

Another photograph of a historically important event to Rhiassa, the marriage of Aeston and Areni that had happened at Feast of the Leviathan in the preceding January.

2014 - Queen of Hearts XXI

At Queen of Hearts XX, the previous year, Rhiassa unveiled a new Queen of Hearts tournament fixture that would remain a part of the event for many years, a 12' wide by 24' long wooden bridge with actual water on the sides shooting from sprinkler hoses and pooled on tarps. The card this year featured that new tradition.

2015 - Queen of Hearts XXII

A photograph of team Iawen engaged in the Field Battle, the heraldry of the team can be partially seen on Vawn's tabard.

2016 - Queen of Hearts XXIII

A victorious moment was featured on this card as it was announced that Kara was the winning Queen from the year before.

2017 - Queen of Hearts XXIV

This year's card featured team Eris marching across the bridge.

2018 - Queen of Hearts XXV

At Queen of Hearts XXIV several major systematic changes were implemented. One of those was the introduction of the four non-com war maneuvers. This card features the teams playing Targetball, a dodgeball-like game that was a tournament for many years.

2019 - Queen of Hearts XXVI

Live Chess has been a staple of Queen of Hearts since the very beginning of the event series. In this photo the queen piece from Team Salt Queen fights toward Team Arryn's side of the board.

2022 - Queen of Hearts XXVII

During the pandemic we missed two summers of eventing, and 2000 and 2021 went by with no Queen of Hearts. We got back to it in 2022 and this picture from Queen of Hearts XXVI was from the Challenge Race, one of the most consistently hilarious of the non-com war maneuvers. For some reason I chose to put the event name and date on this card back then probably forgot to ever do it again.

2023 - Queen of Hearts XXVIII

Clearly we already had featured Targetball on the card back from a couple years prior but Saka looks so poetic moments away from pegging an armless, legless Elwin that I couldn't resist using this image.

2024 - Queen of Hearts XXIX

Probably my favorite Queen of Hearts picture of all time, this is a drone photograph taken by Paul Tilton of the infamous 2 hour long castle battle from the first year we tried the Art of War series of war maneuvers.

I hope you enjoying this stroll through the past looking at the backs of the Queen of Hearts card decks. I'm particularly happy with our picture choice for this year's deck as well. Hopefully we'll see you on the field this year at the event and you'll be able to win a card or two for yourself.