Lore - Games (Patreon)

Recreation throughout the Night Market varies but gaming halls are abundant throughout the realm. While the games themselves are varied, there is a tradition of passing on cards that is widely popular. Cards hold an old form of magic in them that has yet to be dispelled and most families have a few decks that they keep as prized possessions, displayed within their homes as talking points during large gatherings.

Decks are passed on from previous generations, collecting essence from players and storing them within the cards themselves. Cards can take on an identity of their own, shifting and changing through time, procuring rules and oftentimes rebelling against players that are not following them. In gambling dens, luck oftentimes is dependent on which deck is being dealt. Cheats and liars are far more prosperous if they manage to find a deck that belongs to a long line of grifters.

The magic that is contained within these cards can be used only if the deck is destroyed. But to destroy a deck of cards is a taboo act. The destruction is seen as a destruction of the family line. Pieces of an individual's soul are siphoned into a deck each time they play.  A long played deck that is destroyed can cause irrevocable harm to the owner.  Due to this, games of cards are often monitored.  They have yet to be outlawed but are on the watch list of the Velvet Guard.

Currently, the only games that have been banned are games including cursed sets of dice.  Dice were found to be a far more immediate and potent version of cards, siphoning off big swaths of life from whoever lost at their rolls.  Within the more elite clubs, a good hand at cards will get you an invitation to a dice room.  Games of dice have been known to obliterate a soul, however, and even when giving someone a proper burial, their clocks to return to the Night Market cease to tick. Due to that, there is a large superstition around dice that deems them to be signs of misfortune to most.

The Den of the Five use dice to also display their hits, letting people know which victim is next on their ever growing list.