The Sovereign
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.
RULES
A Sovereign is placed onto your Throne or into your Court during Setup, or any time later when drawn — identical placement rules to the Knight.
Sovereign+Sovereign mirrors Knight+Knight: sacrifice a plain Sovereign from hand together with the plain Sovereign on your Throne (both to the Dungeon), then promote a Court face card up onto the empty Throne, and draw 4. Requires a face card already present in Court.
Playing an Ace (the Chancellor) onto a plain Sovereign occupying your Throne forms an Ace-King — one per player at a time — which triggers Family Reunion and boosts your Siege hand rank one full tier while the combination holds.
As with any face card, a Sovereign falls to the Dungeon if its Throne loses or ties a Siege, and can be Assassinated while sitting in Court.
LORE OF THE COURT
A Sovereign does not ask to be believed in. By the time one takes the Throne, belief is no longer the point — only the crown, and what it costs to keep it on.
Older Knights speak of the Sovereign the way soldiers speak of weather that has already passed through once and is due to return: not with fear exactly, but with the specific respect reserved for things that have already proven what they can do.
An Ace does not kneel to many. For a Sovereign, it makes an exception — and asks something in return. What passes between them in that moment, the Court has never fully explained, only recorded what happens after.
STRATEGY
When to play it
Route your Sovereigns to the Throne specifically when you're holding or expect to draw an Ace — the Ace-King combination is one of the strongest tempo plays in the game, and it can only ever form from a Sovereign that's already sitting there. A Sovereign left in Court is still valuable as Sovereign+Sovereign fuel.
Counters
Pressure a Throne Sovereign before its controller can pair it with an Ace — once Ace-King forms, you're facing both a hand-rank boost and a Family Reunion that costs you Court cards. A Sovereign sitting exposed in Court remains a normal Assassination target.
Synergies
The Chancellor (Ace) is the Sovereign's entire reason for being on the Throne rather than in the Dungeon — see The Ace-King for what the combination actually does.