Tarot began in northern Italy in the 1400s as a card game. European playing cards appeared by the 1360s, based on the Egyptian Mamluk deck, with suits of batons, coins, cups and swords. Around 1440, Milan, Ferrara, Florence and Bologna added extra trump cards with allegorical pictures, called trionfi, which became the word trumps in English. These decks were called carte da trionfi, or triumph cards. The oldest surviving tarot cards are the Visconti-Sforza decks painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of Milan. Occult fortune-telling use appeared only in the late 18th century.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.