I would like to start by saying this is my first time posting, if this sort of questions has already been discussed please feel free to link other threads as a response. I'm wondering if anyone has thematic (story / in-game) explanations for a few different things that I will list below. It may very well be that there is no perfect or completely justifiable answer to my question, but I'd like to see whats out there.
1) Discard pile - Plain and simple it`s damage, but then why do non-recharged spells and unwanted / discarded cards go there?
2) Discarding / burying weapons for additional dice - Am I breaking the weapon over the monsters head? or jamming it so far into them that I can't get it back?
3) Display vs. Reveal - When a card is being displayed "it is not part of that character's hand, deck, or discard pile, but it still belongs to that character." Reveal, however, seems very simple to me. Revealing shows possession, like when using weapons. How does the display function work differently than reveal? Thematically they are the exact same thing.
4) Oloch's power to increase other characters checks by displaying cards - This questions is two-fold. a) I don't really understand why he loses access to the displayed cards until his reset. b) I don't see how this make sense thematically either since according to the rules these cards still belong to him.
There are lots of other things that don't quiet make sense thematically either, but I can defiantly see why the creators did what they did so I will not post them. My intent is not to pick apart the game, but to increase the depth of my understanding for the game.
1) Your discard pile is in conjunction to your deck. Your deck is sort of your energy/health/mana. The more you use up powers/skills/resources.. you spend a part of you that may or may not be replenished.
A fighter casting a spell from a scroll vs a mage who knows the spell by heart.
2) When you discard a weapon as you use them, think of it as chucking it towards your target. or putting in additional force that you it digs through your target's skin and you couldn't pull it back out.
3) Most displayed cards trigger a lasting effect rather than one single check. Thematically, think of it as placing a healing ward at a location. You don't simply use up the ward once. It has a lasting effect, you can go back to it and out of its range.
4) I treat Oloch's power like he's putting Banner's of Command or some sort that empowers allies like a wardrum. It pumps up morale and such.
TL;DR Use your imagination. I never really thought about these things because it felt normal to me. It took me a second to think of thematic reasons why they make sense, I'm sure you can too.
Actually your deck can be seen thematically as your remaining hp, not your discard. With the twist that the larger the hand size (e. g. wizards vs fighters), the faster you'll lose hp (because you'll have to draw more when resetting hand after you take damage).
Your deck+hand+display+discard can be seen as your max hp.
Reveal is thematically for a tool you can use again and again (e. g. many time in a round in a RPG) - typically your sword. Display is for items that you could only use once per round - like using the magic special ability of your sword (e. g. release a spell in it). And if you do so, you cannot use it to fight during the round when you do that - hence the display.
Don't feel bad, took me 20 scenarios or so to discover all the subtle ideas of this game. And now I just try to keep up with all the new ideas from Mike, revamped by Vic, squeezed by Tanis, tried by her majesty the CEO and then robotized by Haw, Orbis and consorts to be reFAQed by all of the above.
You can also think of the different things you do with a card as how long till you get it back. So, thematically, reveal is anything retained, recharge is something you'll get back maybe the next day, and discard is something you might or might not get back to hand before going back to town. Weapons need sharpening, spells need to be rememorized, allies re-persuaded, etc. This all takes time and you can think of healing as giving you extra energy to do some of them.