The Deck of Calamities

Before the first Age, it was said that Makius, God of Trickery and practical jokes, had created a game to play with the rest of the gods. It involved a deck of cards that would bestow misfortune on the loser of the game. During a game with Balthier, the God of War, it is said that Makius had stacked the deck in favor of himself. Balthier grew outraged by this deception, and struck the game table with his mighty warhammer. In his rage, Balthier called righteous fire down upon the scattered deck, and burned them, banishing them to the mortal realm. Balthier then cursed Makius, to forever be searching the mortal realm for his precious cards. But the cards had been imbued with Makius' penchant for trickery and deceit. Although Makius had been cursed to forever wander the mortal realm looking for his deck of cards, the cards did not want to be found. The cards would ride the pockets of travelers and merchants, roaming from city to city, across the continents. The misfortune they brewed in their wake brought devastation to many once great empires.
When Makius would get too close to the deck, Balthier's curse would bring cataclysm and ruin to the area. Rockslides, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and more devastation would befall the land to keep Makius from reclaiming his fools game. One autumn, Makius managed to locate the deck, and dressed as a vagrant, stole them from a traveling merchants caravan. Balthier decided that his curse would stand, and so he unleashed a cataclysm of his own. Opening a conflux of magic, he engulfed the area in a great magical storm that wiped the area of all life, and altered the landscape to be unrecognizable.
The cards were said to be destroyed in that cataclysm. But just as they were filled with the trickery of Makius, they left behind their own devilish influence. Traveling on the aether of magic, their whispers filled the head of one Sorcerer. Zenithrax, of the Skymetal Mountains. This aging human sorcerer was plagued by the whispers of the Deck of Calamities. No matter what protections he erected, the belligerent madness of the God of Trickery filled his mind. He was driven to transcribe these thoughts into his own cards to stop the whispers. And Zenithrax the Mad, would create the Deck of Many Things.