Richemulot
- The Gnawing Plague, or simply "the Gnaws," is a deadly, recurring ailment that afflicts Richemulot.
- Richemulot's royal family died of the plague. Mademoiselle Jacqueline Renier, the nation's most prestigious aristocrat, rules as temporary warden.
- When the plague swells to epidemic proportions, the state police, the Casques Silencieux, enacts martial law and quarantines whole cities.
- Richemulot's cities contain an inexplicably large number of buildings, an amount greater than their highest populations would have ever warranted.
- Rat swarms prowl city streets like packs of dogs.