Reader

The Reader, sometimes referred to as the Tarot Reader by fans, is an entity in Blaseball that up until Season 19 had been delivering the seasonal Tarot Readings at Earlsiesta. They first appeared in Season 12, and were first identified as "the Reader" in Season 17.

History of Appearances

Season 12

Reader first appeared in Season 12 Earlsiesta to give the first Seasonal Reading.

I The Magician
XII The Hanged Man
XIIII Temperance

• OVER UNDER UNDER OVER
  • I

    ✨

    The Magician
    XII

    🌞

    The Hanged Man
    XIIII

    🔥

    Temperance

This Reading was entitled OVER UNDER UNDER OVER. Reader gave no commentary on this Reading, but delivered the Over Under modification to Curry Aliciakeyes (at the time on the Magic) and the Under Over modification to Kennedy Rodgers (at the time on the Firefighters.)

Season 13

II The High Priestess
XV The Devil
XX Judgment

• GOING UNDER GETTING OVER
  • II

    🏝️

    The High Priestess
    XV

    🐅

    The Devil
    XX

    💋

    Judgment
• FRIDAYS GOING UNDER
  • +  Sinking ShipThis Team plays 1% worse for every Player above 14 Players on their roster, and 1% better for every Player below 14 on their roster.
• LOVERS GETTING OVER
  • +  Base DealingThis Team's lineup will advance in reverse order.

This reading was entitled GOING UNDER GETTING OVER, and came with no other commentary. The Fridays and Lovers received modifications Sinking Ship and Base Dealing respectively, and the Lovers' Lineup was "optimized".

Season 14

XI Strength
Fool
III The Empress

• WYATT MASON, OVER
  • XI

    🏋️‍

    Strength
     

    ⚾

    Fool
    III

    🌹

    The Empress
• WYATT QUITTER, OVER
  • +  ReceiverThis Player is a Receiver.
    Receivers deliver messages from The Microphone via their pregame ritual attribute.
• MOSES MASON, OVER
  • +  Receiver

This reading was entitled WYATT MASON, OVER, and made Wyatt Quitter and Moses Mason, both survivors of the Wyatt Masoning, into Receivers. The Fool card was meant to represent the Baltimore Crabs, winners of the previous season, but Fans noticed it seemed to display the emojis of fellow Breach Teams the Atlantis Georgias and Core Mechanics in the Personal Readings, as well as the joystick emoji of the Real Game Band.

Reader's purple text appeared once more in Season 14--after Latesiesta, during which the construction of Psychoacoustics caused the Second Wyatt Masoning, the words OVER AND OUT appeared in the Feed.

Season 15

immateria materia
V The Hierophant
XIII
III The Empress

• FROM THE BRIDGE, DOWNSTREAM
  • V

    🗣️

    The Hierophant
    XIII

    🍬

     
    III

    🌹

    The Empress
• BREATH MINTS, MIDDLE
  • +  MiddlingThis Team or Player will Overperform in the Midseason.
• FLOWERS, AFTER
  • +  AfterpartyThis Team will occasionally receive permanent stats boost in their games (outside of Party Time), but only while they're losing.

Reader's Season 15 reading, entitled "FROM THE BRIDGE, DOWNSTREAM" granted the Kansas City Breath Mints and the Boston Flowers the mods Middling and Afterparty respectively. It was also the first reading to come with text that wasn't one of the tarot cards being drawn, and the first reading where the champion of the previous season was drawn first, rather then in the middle. The Blaseball Beat said this reading "granted Teams with glimpses of the near future", and referred to "the reader of the purple prose".

Season 16

materia immateria
XVI The Tower
I The Magician
V The Hierophant

• FROM THE BRIDGE, UPSTREAM
  • XVI

    👐

    The Tower
    I

    ✨

    The Magician
    V

    🗣️

    The Hierophant
• Collins Melon, UPSTREAM
  • -  AlternateThis Player is an Alternate...
    Player is replaced with an alternate reality version, stats are randomized.
• James Mora, UPSTREAM
  • -  SuperyummyThis Player seriously loves peanuts.
    Superyummy players Overperform when playing in Peanut weather or in a ballpark with a Peanut Mister, and Underperform otherwise.

Season 16's Reading came with the accompanying text "FROM THE BRIDGE, UPSTREAM", and placed the Canada Moist Talkers card at the end of the three, rather then at the beginning or middle. This reading removed mods from players on the two teams placed "upstream" of the Talkers, in a reverse of the "downstream" from last season. In another reversal, the Reader said "materia immateria" before they drew the cards, when they said "immateria materia" the previous season.

Season 17

immateria immateria
XVI The Tower
V The Hierophant
IIII The Emperor

"The Reader interjects
Projects upon the text
Fishes from neighboring streams."
"Flailing against the Current."
"At the Delta
Tributaries converge
The Historian collects the sea."

materia materia

• OVER THE BRIDGE, UNDER THE BRIDGE
  • XVI

    👐

    The Tower
    V

    🗣️

    The Hierophant
    IIII

    🥩

    The Emperor
• Baby Doyle, IMMATERIA IMMATERIA
  • - Bat
• Baby Doyle, IMMATERIA IMMATERIA
  • + Uncertain Necklace of Entanglement
  • +  EntangledWhenever this Player would return from Elsewhere, their Alternate will return instead.
  • +  UncertainWhen this Player returns from Elsewhere, they'll be adjusted by -15% to +20%.
  • Overall 15.7 -> 15.7 + 0.1
• Orville Manco, MATERIA MATERIA
  • - Bat
• Orville Manco, MATERIA MATERIA
  • + Force Field of Observation
  • +  ForceThis Player is Forced into position. They cannot leave their current Location.
  • +  ObservedThis Player is being Observed carefully...
    If this player plays a game in Coffee weather they have a chance to become Redacted.
  • Overall 11.2 -> 11.2 + 0.6

Season 17's reading was interrupted by Lōotcrates, who officially dubbed the Reader "the Reader", and also made some vague accusatory-sounding statements about them. The Reader then proceeded to complete their Reading and grant items to players on the Dallas Steaks and the Breckenridge Jazz Hands. Despite the Steaks being the victors of the previous season, they were not placed in the middle of the spread this season.

Season 18

XIIII Temperance
VII The Chariot
VIII Justice
out from under
take the over

Okay thank you.
Special Announcement
The Seasonal Reading is hereby Suspended Indefinitely
It was so fun while it lasted.
Always a fun surprise.
Moving on
It's Our pleasure to announce
The ILB Gift Shop is open for business!
Give the people what they want!

lighten up

• OUT FROM UNDER TAKE THE OVER
  • XIIII

    🔥

    Temperance
    VII

    🌮

    The Chariot
    VIII

    🎸

    Justice
• TRUST ME, Justice Spoon
  • +  NegativeThis Player is a Negative.
    Negative players have negative eDensity.
• TRUST ME, Lotus Mango
  • +  Negative

This Reading began with Reader making a bold statement of out from under / take the over . They were then interrupted by Boss, who announced that the Readings would henceforth be canceled and seemingly ended the Earlsiesta events there. However, Reader reappeared on the website after a few minutes to say lighten up , and then completed the Reading by turning both Justice Spoon and Lotus Mango Negative, with the accompanying messages OUT FROM UNDER / TAKE THE OVER and TRUST ME.

Season 18 Election

Following the Reading, Reader created a Decree of their own, entitled Trust Fall, with the description "turn the tables. winning will be losing. trust me.", and added four blessings, Cape of Containment, Bon Voyage, Graphene, and Open Floor Plan. Additionally, the Alternate Trust Will turned the Reader's purple several times for various users over the time leading up to the Election. Once the Election results came in, it was discovered that Trust Fall had passed with the following description text;

STARS FALL
ASCENDING
BELOW ZERO
LEAPS OF FAITH
TURNING TABLES

This added Turntables to all the Stadiums. Turntables was then made into Non-Physical Law as a result of Ratification also passing.

The Blessing Bon Voyage did as it said on the ballot and made it so the team who won that Blessing (the Charleston Shoe Thieves) had their players Party when a Roamin' or Super Roamin' player left the team. The Cape of Containment turned out to make it so that if an Unstable player on the team with the Cape was incinerated, the instability would not chain to their opponent. This Blessing was granted to the Breckenridge Jazz Hands. Graphene and Open Floor Plan, which blessed the Atlantis Georgias and the Canada Moist Talkers respectively, both reduced the eDensity of the Stadiums belonging to those teams. Players that received Alternate Trust were Alternated, but also received the Negative modification, flipping their Soulscream upside down.

Season 19

As Season 19 began, Fans quickly discovered that the effect of Turntables was that Wins earned during the Regular Season became Unwins, placing the teams who had not-lost the most games at the bottom of the standings. Unwins also reduced eDensity, keeping teams safely out of Consumer range for the majority of the season.

At Season 19 Earlsiesta, the Coin appeared, seemingly instead of the Seasonal Reading. She expressed disappointment in the Turntables-affected season, and announced her plans to Repeal Turntables. At the time, the only Decree available for voting on was in the Coin's text color, and simply read "Repeal Turntables."

This season isn't pretty
Ratings are tanking.
But there's hope
The Seasonal Readings are cancelled
We've all had enough chaos.
We will Repeal this Corruption
Exit polls are showing a landslide
The Ratings will rebound.
We guarantee it.
It's a slam dunk.
Play Ball!

However, the Reader then made a surprise appearance.

under achieve
overwhelm

The Coin reappeared to once again reprimand the Reader and issue an ultimatum to the Fans to Repeal Turntables.

That's enough.
Repeal Turn Tables.
Play Ball.

After she vanished again, Fans saw that a Reading had been done despite the Coin's restating that the Reading was canceled. The only descriptive text for this reading was "TURN OVER", and every single card was pulled (including the Fool 4 times), in groups of 3. One player on each team received a modifier, either Uncertain, Undertaker, or Seeker depending on the card's position in the Reading.

Additionally, a second Decree had been added to the ballot, in the Reader's purple. This Decree was called Under Achiever , and was described as unwin the underbracket. crown the underchampions. The Reader also added 4 Blessings, Moderation, Underhanded, Subtractor, and Go Big? Go Home. All four of these Blessings had effects related to Runs and Unruns, which interact with new weather Polarity and also with eDensity. Under Achiever passed, with the description text

THE MIRROR DOUBLES
DIVIDES
ADVANCING LOSSES
SPINNING VICTORY
END OVER END

It's effect appears to be that there will be both an Overbracket, for the top finishing teams, and an Underbracket, for the bottom finishing teams. Further Tidings revealed that the Coin had made a Deal of some kind, resulting in a Sun(Sun) (or Sun Squared) that would Square all Wins and Unwins, likely effectively canceling out the Reader's first decree.

Seasons 20-22

Reader made a very brief appearance in Season 20, saying go long at the very end of Earlsiesta announcements. This was followed by the unveiling of the Depth Chart, a way to easily visualize the eDensity and position in the Immateria of teams, and which is labeled in the Reader's characteristic purple.

Since then, Reader has not spoken or made edits to the election, although the teams that achieved negative eDensity found themselves circled in a purple glow on the Depth Chart.