Prior to the Perripin Accord, the eleven states of Perripur were, variously, rival and allying sovereign kingdoms, all thinking quite well of themselves. The peaceful centuries following the Accord failed to erode any single state's multiformity. The states no longer battle each other outright, but they find ways to push. From the mock sea-battles of the Naumachia to the gambling houses of the coastal cities where Rochi is played, the Perripin take their games very seriously.

In many ways, the Perripin people are a model of enlightened and harmonious pluralism. They consider themselves culturally superior to their Arunkin neighbors to the north, even while the Arunkel monarchy has held vast stretches of rich lands from the cold northern seas to the borderlands of Perripur for longer than Perripur has been united.

Perhaps the most intriguing difference between the two countries is how they engage with mages. Perripur welcomes mages with open arms, hiring them for their wisdom as much as for any magery.

In Arunkel, however, these black-robed powers and their abilities are outlawed.

Which brings us to the Rochi deck and its six suits: Commons, Valor, World, Realm, and...

...Mages.

The Perripin find Arunkel laws bewildering and amusing. To outlaw magic, a Perripin would say, you might as well outlaw the weather.

The full deck itself is called the Roche deck. The full name of the game is _Keuthen Rochi_, meaning "hidden labor" or "hidden pleasure." Most simply call it "Rochi" and get on with the business of this fast and often expensive game. But how one names a thing matters.

In Perripur, Rochi is played with the complete fifty-four card Roche deck.

Not in Arunkel. As it is told, the Arunkel deck was made legal one day in a grove of red-branched amardide trees. There the monarch burned the Rochi Mages suit to ash, waving some herbs to clear the air of magic and its attendant ills.

Word travelled quickly. Perripin States along the Arunkel border, never slow to a business opportunity, quickly fashioned and exported north a fifty-card "Red" deck that lacked the four cards of the Mages suit. For this special deck, they charged Arunkin traders twice as much. The traders paid.

In Arunkel, they play with Red Deck. But they play.

As popular as Rochi is, it is no wonder that each Perripin state claims to be its mother. Perripin scholars tend to agree that Rochi was likely born in southern Perripur. Atudaka, perhaps. Venta. Even Timurung. (The Timuros use dried fruit as Rochi suit markers, but woe to the player who eats one, who may then be required to eat the coins in play as well. No one knows what to expect from the Timuros. When they claim they invented The Lunatic card, believe them.)

Other Perripin historians assert that the deck must have been born in the northern states. Taluk, or Shentaret, or Mundar.

To whom shall we give credit for the beautiful deck of cards with which Rochi is played and divinations are made? The festivities of the Market Day card, the joy of The Birth, the enticement of The Venture?

Ask ten Perripin scholars and you'll get twenty answers. Perhaps the Roche deck was born everywhere, the lessons and histories illuminated on each storycard arising from all the states that make up Perripur.

That, in fact, every state is its mother.

The one thing that all Perripin agree on is this: Arunkel had nothing to do with the Roche deck's creation or the fast paced game of Rochi.

Which, given the Arunkins' generally gloomy disposition, is probably for the best.