THE ROYAL ARCHIVES

Every card in Kongedraeber — its rules, its lore, and how to play it. Start here, or jump straight to a card below.

• The Knight
  Face Card — Jack

  The Knight is Kongedraeber's opening face card — every match begins with your first Knights and Sovereigns going onto the Throne and into the Court, and a Knight that survives a single turn is the only path to a Lady.

• The Lady
  Face Card — Queen (Upthrown Knight)

  The Lady isn't dealt — she's made. Play a Queen onto a Knight that's survived one full turn and it rises into an Upthrown Lady, the single strongest engine card in Kongedraeber for pulling ahead on cards.

• The Sovereign
  Face Card — King

  The Sovereign is the Knight's elder counterpart — a face card built the same way, placed the same way, but the only one capable of receiving the Chancellor and forming an Ace-King.

• The Chancellor
  Ace

  The Chancellor is Kongedraeber's searcher and record-keeper — an Ace played from hand can dig through your own Royal Archives for exactly the card you need, or crown a waiting Sovereign outright.

• The Ace-King
  Compound Card — Ace on King

  The Ace-King is what happens when the Chancellor and the Sovereign are on the same side — a single combined card that hits harder in a Siege and forces open your opponent's Court in the same motion.

• The Royal Bounty Hunter
  Joker — Full Wildcard

  The Royal Bounty Hunter is the one card in Kongedraeber that answers to no suit and no rank — a full wildcard in every Siege, and the reason going first in The Joust is worth fighting for.

• The Scout
  Number Card — Four

  The Scout is a plain 4 with an outsized job — play one from hand and it runs ahead into your own Royal Archives to bring back the exact number card your Siege hand is missing.

• The Flower Card
  The Crimson Judgment — Sudden Death

  The Flower Card never appears in an ordinary hand. It only exists at all once a match has reached its absolute last moment — The Crimson Judgment — and even then, only one player ever holds it.

• The Cursed Seal
  Forbidden Rank

  Every player carries one. Right after Setup ends, each of you draws a single permanent face-down card, and its rank becomes something you'll be working around for the rest of the match.

• The Number Cards
  2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  The eight plain number ranks that make up the bulk of every deck — no titles, no named abilities of their own, and yet the entire poker-hand engine that decides every Siege is built on them.

New to the game? Read the full How To Play guide, or browse the Royal Glossary for every named mechanic. Prefer stories? Visit The Chronicle for guides and lore.