I love this card - modern and quirky. The image shows a skeleton in a business suit sitting at his desk talking on a red phone. On his desk is a computer and a blue vase with two wheat sheaves in it. There is a clock on the wall that appears to be running backwards (there is a III in the 9:00 position) and the number at the top is not 12 but XIII - thirteen, the number of Death.
(What time is it when the clock strikes 13? Time to get a new clock!)
As far as it's possible for a skeleton to show emotion, this guy seems to be content... he's sitting relaxed but firmly in his chair, his right hand clenched in determination as he speaks on the hot line phone (I get the idea he's solving problems, not asking for help about them) and there seems to be a hint of a smile around his closed jaw.
Outside his window is a grey cityscape eveloped in darkness and rain, but inside he has the wheat - a symbol of life (and the only one present in the scene).
In my imagination, this Emperor IS Death as the grand bureaucrat (possibly due to reading too many Discworld stories), on top of things and getting things taken care of in the service of Life as represented by the wheat - not in opposition to it but a part of what is necessary to make it possible.
He keeps things happening on schedule, handling both planned obsolescence and emergency responses and as a result life comes to an orderly end so as to provide the mulch and fertile soil for the next cycle.
He's probably not particularly popular, but he fulfills a necessary job and he is fine with not being liked as long as he is respected and he's very aware that he is competent and knowledgeable at what he does. People may rebel against him...but let them get into a fix, and he knows who they call on to correct things. And those rebellions? Just noise - go hard or go easy, but he'll see to it that you go on time just the way you're supposed to.... it's all in his spreadsheets.
Hah!
