So, to judge from the mirror in Mrs. Plenty’s Carnival and other text from Heart’s Desire, the ‘game’ of the Marvelous is some sort of card game. You wager your soul and win your heart’s desire. Or something along those lines.
But I’ve been wondering, haven’t playing cards only really been in existence for, comparatively, very recently? If I recall correctly, cards for the explicit purposes of playing card games dates back to the 16th or 17th century, though consulting a certain encyclopedia informs me that the earliest founding of playing cards comes from China, in the 9th century. This allows for barely two cities to have had card games, and moreover, seems odd in that I believe it’s implied in the latest chapters of Heart’s Desire that the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem, at least, has been playing the Marvelous for much longer than that. Too, the Marvelous itself, or elements of it, I am certain, has been in existence in some form since the sale of the First City.
So, does anyone else think that playing cards has not always been the game of choice for the Marvelous?