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Joker's Cards

[edit] First deck

The first Joker's Card, Carnival of Carnage, is a representation of the ghettos and the violence that occurs within them.[5][6] It takes the form of a traveling carnival which releases the same brutality on those who have ignored the inner cities' cries for help.[6] The Card issues a warning against the upper-class and government's negligence toward the lower classes.[5][6]
The Ringmaster, the second Joker's Card, is the overseer of the Carnival of Carnage.[7] He leads "the phantoms of the dead" that take the form of the Carnival. The creatures fiercely tear doomed souls from their living bodies and drag them down into Hell.[7] The Ringmaster himself is created through one's own sins, and is one of several who will judge whether a soul is worthy to enter heaven or doomed to eternal hell.[7][2]
The third Joker's Card, the Riddle Box, is another entity used to determine fate.[8][2][5] Upon death, a soul enters a dark chamber containing a jack-in-the-box on an old wooden table. The front of the box has a "painted question mark faded with time," representing the mystery of your own afterlife.[8][2] As the handle is turned, a melodic tune begins to play, and when the music stops, the choice is made. The pure see a vision of God, warming their souls as they enter eternal peace.[8] The wicked see an immense fog seeping from the box, "stripping their sanity, as they witness an image of hell, spawned and formed from their own evil; a hideous reflection of their demented souls."[8] The floor falls from underneath them, casting the doomed into the bottomless pit of Hell.[8] The fate determined by the Riddle Box can be found by looking deep within yourself, and can be changed with righteous actions.[8][5]
The Great Milenko, the fourth Joker's Card, is an Illusionist and a Necromancer, though acting on dead minds rather than dead spirits.[9][5] His purpose is to try and trick individuals into greed and other such sins.[9] He takes out the worst in an individual and creates powerful illusions in an attempt to cause them to become hedonistic and greedy.[9] The Great Milenko is present within every person, and an honorable individual must fight his magic in order to make it to heaven.[9]
The fifth Joker's Card, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, focuses on the 19 circles of hell, and the morality of man as he is torn between righteousness and evil.[10] Jack "the sinister" and Jake "the just" emerge from the smoke of a candle.[11] The Jeckel Brothers juggle pulsating blood-covered balls representing the mortal life of the dead.[11] For every sin committed, another ball is added.[11] Jack throws Jake curves in an attempt to see a ball drop, and if a soul witnesses Jake drop one of the balls, he will be damned to hell. Souls who see Jake successfully complete the act ascend to heaven.[11]
The face of the sixth Joker's Card is "The Wraith"—or simply, Death. The card featured two "exhibits", Shangri-La and Hell's Pit, which were each given its own album.[12] The Wraith: Shangri-La revealed that the hidden message of Insane Clown Posse's music was always to follow God and make it to Heaven.[12] Hell's Pit toured where those who do not atone for their sins nor follow the ways of Shangri-La are sent, illustrating the horrors of hell itself.[13]