 There are also a number of stories within stories that present the background of the imagined world, primarily folktales told by Jorian of former kings of his home city-state of Kortoli.The most prominent of these are the culture addict King Forimar the Esthete, the foolish King Filoman the Well-Meaning, and the crafty hero King Fusinian the Fox, each of whom is the subject of a number of tales; three other kings receive one story each.Other internal tales consist of capsule autobiographies related by a number of the characters, notably Jorian himself, the serpent princess Yargali, the sorceress Goania, and the ghost baron Lorc.