Palace of Hopes
Locations
Inhabitants
- Elizabeth is the Queen of Games, a harlequin in black and blue with a crown for a jester's hat (or vice-versa). With a sweep of her fingers, she can create new games, define their rules, reward heroic victors and punish debtors and cheats.
- Rochambeau is the Queen's Vizier, a dour aging man in dark suit who administers that which needs administration and arranges that which needs arranging.
- Lady Isabel is an elfin femme fatale who rates among the Palace's most successful regulars.
- Tanto the clown is a disreputable ruffian and cheat, always ready with a cunning plan to make his fortune... or dispose of a real troublemaker.
- The calculating Rostinu is adept at games of strategy and mathematics, the winnings from which she uses to further ornament her robotic body.
- Joe is always present behind the bar to salve sorrows and encourage the despairing to try their luck once more.
- Androgynous, spiderlike Tictac is rarely seen, and more rarely understood, but sometimes visits at just the right moment to dispense a hint, an idea, or even the plan for a whole new game.