The Scrupulist's Almanac, Vol. I
The Scrupulist's Almanac, Vol. I
The Scrupulist’s Almanac, Vol. I is a 128-page, 4.25″ × 5.5″ zine and catalog of everyone’s favorite gambling commodity, spice, presented by SpiceCorp and the Unseen Hand. Comprising three essays, encyclopedic entries of SpiceCorp’s first season of scruples, plenty of appendices and a foreword by none other than Dr. Professor, it’s both a handy mostly-factual field guide to spices and a beautiful collector’s object.
The Book
The book includes descriptions of the fifty scruples introduced in the first season of spices, such as:
Cinnamon
Collection: Aromatic
UHC #:
SC-1160Binomial: Cinnamomum verum
Origin: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Malabar Coast of India & Burma
Related:
SC-1043Virtue: Beauty
There are few spices so historically valued and hoarded as cinnamon. In ancient times it was given as a gift to gods and kings, and it makes appearances in holy texts alongside myrrh and aloe. Sources of cinnamon were often closely guarded as a trade secret, so as to protect a monopoly, and its mystique was often used as a tactic to increase prices. One such salesman’s tale tells of a so-called ‘Cinnamon Bird’, a large Arabian bird that ventured to an otherwise unreachable land of cinnamon groves, collecting the sticks to build its nests. Intrepid merchants would then trick the birds in order to steal the spice for their wares.
Ants hate cinnamon.
Essays include The Red Captain by Dharla Day, A Recipe for Helios by Binary, and For Spices We Sail by Beryl Y. Zantium, along with a foreword by Dr. Professor, which tells the story of a certain band of explorers meeting a certain travelling scrupulist.
The appendices additionally refer to varieties from seasons two and three, to be covered more fully in future volumes.
The Scruples
You will receive a random scruple from among the 100 varieties currently in circulation over three seasons.
- The first season premiered in October 2015, and comprises 30 aromatic, 10 resonant and 10 anamalous varieties.
- The second season premiered in April 2017, and comprises 10 aromatic, 10 infusional and 5 resonant varieties.
- The third season premiered in December 2018, and comprises 10 aromatic, 5 resonant, 5 floral and 5 faunal varieties.
The Purse
These small velvety purses are emblazoned with the SpiceCorp motto, Simul In Aromate, and are the perfect size to discreetly carry a few scruples to your gambling parlor of choice. Each comes pre-filled with about twenty grains.