The Color Factions are the party system of the court and the Hippodrome of Uchronic Constantinople, under Empress Theodora. Echoing the old Hippodrome factions, here the colors hold real magic and demonic alliances. Green and Blue are the strongest.
| Type | Faction system |
| Spanish entry | Facciones de Colores |
Emissaries
Each faction sends emissaries to the diplomatic meetings that dispute the Empire’s fate. Five were recorded at the reception in the oasis of the Yellow Lady:
- Green, the most dangerous: a demon-linked elf with a serpent staff and ghostly sword, who, when scrutinized by Swan, ordered Swan to lower the gaze. A ghostly ancestor, the “Lady of Cards”, aids her as ectoplasm. Possible links to the Saracens, Carcasón and Charlemagne’s heritage.
- Blue: masked, speaking through a voice in her hand; a major conjurer of planar allies; aggressive, negotiating only under threat.
- White: the “governess”, whose compulsion and confusion sow madness; she tried to subdue the minds of those who faced her.
- Red: an indignant, ill-defined figure in a palanquin; drank a strength potion.
- Yellow: the Lady of the Oasis, who slashed the Green.
History
The Green, Blue, White and Red proved impostors replacing the real emissaries, conjured or manipulated creatures, possibly serving the warlocks of the Valley of Death. They later reappeared there as “princes”, the Four War Generals hunted by the companions. Swan felled the Blue with one blow; Eurodico, faction unspecified, was executed by Claude Nauge as the fourth and last. In the same arc the tower’s forces freed the Osfiotauro.
The emissaries were spore-contaminated in the tower mercenaries’ camp, and part of these events took place in a spore-induced mindscape; what was real and what hallucinated is left open.