The Yellow Queen (or “the Queen in Yellow”) is a sovereign of Antiterra with her own court, independent of Byzantium and of any known throne, reachable by teleportation scroll. She introduced herself as «la dama de cartas» (“the lady of cards”).
| Type | Sovereign |
| Spanish entry | Reina Amarilla |
Description
Her eyes are “cat-yellow and violet,” the pupils turning wildly in the white — “they are mad.”
Court and authority
The teleportation Scroll can take one directly to “the court of the Queen in Yellow.” An oasis is associated with reaching it; vassals report their faults to her; one can demand to be brought before her. Her orders are obeyed without discussion and she can order executions. Yet “the queen in yellow is waiting” for her King. “The attack on the yellow queen” made her a target for rescue or defense. She accepts a marriage she calls chains — “but I accept them” — and shares knowledge through a ten-minute mind link.
Suspicion
The companions never settled whether she “was part of all this too”; whether to approach her court shaped the company’s movements.
Queens by color
Antiterra has queens designated by color, each a distinct power:
- The Green Queen, leader of Byzantium’s green faction; a large, severe woman with a staff, riding dragon-blooded horses, in direct contact with the empresses. Her true name is garbled.
- The Black Queen, “a dark queen,” hostile and seeking revenge: “be careful, she is very angry.” A mourning “lady” who demanded the Black Book is linked to her.
- The Arterial Queen, known only by name.
- The Yellow Queen.
A second stratum, queens of known thrones under supernatural law: Theodora, an authority at the Byzantine court who walks the gardens and has an entrance “where no one could hear the conversation”; Elizabeth “the lich queen,” undead ruler of the British Empire for about a hundred years; Draga Machine, murdered in Belgrade by French agents, German agents or the Circle of Serbia (unresolved); and a depressed Queen of Byzantium, probably for her consort’s absence, canonized after seeking immortality.
Open questions
- The eye quotation is in the masculine (“he has that in cat-yellow”); its attribution to the Queen rests on context.
- What “the lady of cards” is, and whether the title is hers.
- Whether she and the canonized Queen of Byzantium are one.
- Who attacked her, and when; whether she was involved; her size, dress, and what the yellow refers to.
- Whether the strata form one system ordered by any rule.
- A damaged reference, “to a __ in yellow,” has lost its epithet.