Note that the rankings of the cards vary between games. The components of each deck, and the motifs associated with them, often represent the hierarchy within the card-themed organization in question. The suit of spades in particular is associated with death, while the suit of hearts has the usual associations of Heart Symbol when it's not an Alice Allusion. If the four suits are used in a work, more often than not they'll be to differentiate factions or characters. When it comes to color-coding, hearts and diamonds are red while spades and clubs are black. The suits also allude to Esoteric Motifs. Respectively, the suits traditionally represent the peasantry, merchant class, clergy, and nobility. It consists of four suits - clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠) and 13 cards of each suit, plus two jokers. The standard international deck (also known as the French deck ), is the most widely-used in fiction as it is in card games. If they show up, they're to evoke an air of luck, gambling, and trickery. Playing cards have a wide and varied use in fiction.