Video Game / Sultan's Game

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Sultan's Game is a deckbuilding video game developed by Double Cross. It was released on Steam on March 30th, 2025, and on mobile on July 24th, 2026.

You live in the world of the Arabian Nights, brutal and decadent, and you are a functionary in the court of the worst tyrant on earth. All your Sultan cares about is slaking his insane boredom, and he will descend to any depths of slaughter and rapine to do so. His latest whim is the Sultan's Game, a set of twenty eight enchanted cards. Every week he draws a card, and depending on its type- Carnality, Extravagance, Conquest, or Bloodshed- he performs a new deed to shock his subjects. One day, this terrifying cycle threatens to begin again, and a rebellious minister draws the Sultan's attention.

That poor schmuck is you.

As punishment, the Sultan makes you the next player of the Sultan's Game. Now you must scramble every week to fulfil its demands, facing immediate execution if you do not. And the sultanate is filled with even more dangers than that- slanderous rivals, rebel intrigues, and dark gods seeking sacrifice. There are many ways for the minister's story to end, and most of them aren't happy...

This game contains the following tropes:

• Alliance Meter: There are five individual tracks that represent your overall reputation. Getting high levels in each will unlock more events - and drawbacks.
  • Renown is how much the PC is known for good deeds like heroism or donating to charity.
  • Infamy which comes from things like being murder-happy or acts of intimidation.
  • Influence - how much sway they have over the Sultan and his court - usually earned by flattery and politics,
  • Notoriety for acts of trickery and supporting the lower classes and criminals.
  • Insight is the reputation for their knowledge of the supernatural.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Plenty. The Sultan is the most visible extreme example, but we also have plenty of nobles who are corrupt, cruel and petty too.
• As Long as There Is Evil: At the end of the Immaculate Deity ending, after slaying the god, it is noted that though he is now destroyed, humanity continues to have faith and obsess with purification and destruction, and tens of thousands of years from now, he may very well descend again.
• Asshole Victim: A boon of the Sultan's game is that the protagonist is able to to legally get away with murdering people or other illegal activities. With good timing, you can take advantage of this to give a few people what they deserve.
• Beauty Is Bad: Nayla, in spades, who is attractive and scantily dressed and also murderously petty and vindictive.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Characters can support you or become your followers if shown kindness.
  • Lumera is a beggar girl, and if the protagonist offers her a book to read, she returns the book after she is finished with it, and if she is fed and clothed, she becomes an extremely loyal follower. If you follow her personal storyline, and help her uncover ancient secrets and spell work, it’s possible for her to literally Ascend into the Stars, leaving her mortal form entirely. Even begging her to stay grants her the Noble tag, and can allow her to marry a foreign prince and escape the game.
  • Gullis is a "disobedient" slave of Nayla. If the protagonist allows him to kill her, he willingly joins the protagonist's household as a follower. His personal storyline involves Arzu’s servants teaching him how to live in the city, and more easily blend in to stay alive. When Arzu is picked to host a Great Hunt later in this storyline, bringing Gullis with you prevents you from being killed by a tiger. What’s more, you two working together allows for a clean kill, and harvesting a ‘Perfect Tiger Pelt’ Item that you can give the Sultan, removing Slander and keeping your head on your shoulders.
  • Qais is an imprisoned noble. If the protagonist helps free him and later helps with his investigation, he joins as a loyal follower.
  • Fadia, a slave of the Sultan, can be traded to the protagonist for a day to break a Carnality card. However, as the card is already broken before the two have sex, if the protagonist does not take advantage of her and is instead kind and considerate, she offers valuale information and offers to help the protagonist from inside the palace, even if it may lead to her death.
  • With no expectation of rewards, the protagonist can nurse Riel back to health when she is in need and later helps her gang. If the protagonist later starts a Rebellion, she immediately joins him, with her own gangs being offered as troops.
• Big Bad: The Sultan, who forces the protagonist into a deadly game for his own amusement.
• Big Fun: Hassan's art prominently shows his potbelly, and he's one of the most cheerful characters in the game. In one of his events, if he's asked to confess to the priests he loudly sings a rhyme about his minor misdeeds which the priest he's confessing to shushes him for.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Amur, the old judge, otherwise a seemingly unassuming character, is the one responsible for the murders in the Haunted Mansion. Apparently only For the Evulz.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: It's possible to sway the members of the Sultan's Elite Guard to your side through specific actions. Do it with all 4 and the final battle against the Sultan in a rebellion route will even be skipped as they turn on and overpower him.
• Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: The Cultic God represetns Chaos and hedonism and is Obviously Evil, The Immaculate Purity represents Order and purity, to the exclusion of all else, including life on earth. Both of their followes are presented at least somewhat sympathetically, while the end goals of both gods will result in The End of the World as We Know It.
• Brother–Sister Incest:
  • The tutorial reveals that one of the Sultan's concubines is his older sister. Sure enough, you can use the Carnality card on her.
  • In subsequent runs, the player is capable of adding Arzuna, the PC's half-sister, as a follower through Fate's Ledger. And like other followers, you can use a Carnality card on her. In fact, she begins the game with one point of passion for the PC, which means the act will be consensual, and she's so discreet that you'll avoid getting a Wife's Resentment card.
• The Caligula: The Sultan. A somewhat more cunning and self-controlled example than most, but still a quick-tempered tyrant known for sexual immorality, petty cruelty, and excess warfare. Everyone walks on eggshells to avoid earning his attention - good or bad.
• Caligula's Horse: One of the unlockable perks is a cat whose ancestor was granted a noble's title by a previous Sultan, luckily for the PC - Lady Becky taking a liking to PC means they actually benefit from this.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: One of the unlockable characters, Malkina, can craft Outfits for almost every other unique character. This grants the Outfit Tag, giving Stat Buffs that last until that round of The Game concludes. But because of the Ritual that allows for this, the Seamstress never gets the chance to outfit herself, even in her personal storyline or through other roundabout means.
• Cool Horse:
  • The "Divine Steed" event can reward you with a black stallion that chooses its rider and has so far evaded everyone who seeks it. It requires help to win the toughest races, but carries its weight even in them.
  • In the full game, being on good terms with your wife nets you Jasmine, an even better horse stat-wise.
  • Helping to depose Shama's father earns the protagonist the ruler's horse, with the same tier as and comparable stats to Jasmine.
• Corrupt Church: Downplayed. The official Church itself is mostly helpful to the protagonist and a regular activity is to heal the sick and wounded and its followers are largely well-intentioned, however it can be extremely dogmatic, ruthless and secretive, and occasionally its worst aspect surfaces. The god it worships also happens to be genocidally evil, seeking to wipe humanity out altogether.
• The Corrupter: The PC is presented as a man of conscience and honor at the beginning, but the Sultan's Game can easily twist him into something much worse. It's probably part of why the Sultan chooses him to play the Game instead of just executing him, as it likely amuses him to watch an honorable man compromise his morals with often cruel and depraved acts in order to avoid execution. Depending on the player's choices, the PC in turn can go on to bring out the worst in other people, especially those who see him as a role model, such as Zaki and Faraj.
• Culture Chop Suey: The demo's disclaimer invokes this trope — it says the game's setting is only vaguely like Ancient Arabia because the developers didn't want to imply that the broken society depicted is representative of any Real Life culture. Hence the Sewer Gator and Maggie having an Anglicized Hebrew name ^note the original Hebrew version is Magda. Various elements are also based on Indian and Persian cultures.
• Deadly Game: While not every option is lethal, there is no getting around the Bloodshed card's demand for blood- and failing to break a card of any type will result in the PC's execution.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Some characters will join you after you beat them in combat, though it also requires extra steps. For example, the Hamar brothers will be imprisoned after you beat them, and will join you if you bail them out. Jabal, one of the Sultan's champions, will also join you after you beat him in specific circumstances — you first need to discover his secret and blackmail him.
• The Dreaded: The Sultan, and for good reason. He is cruel, sadistic and mercurial, having countless people killed for reasons often either petty or nonsensical.
• Driven to Suicide: Some characters will depending on the PC's choice end up committing suicide Zaki will if he's encouraged to take revenge for his father, Fardak will hang himself in guilt if you use the conquest card in 'Sultan's Prank', and if not intervened - Minal will walk off to her death after the oasis is conquered
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The Rebellion ending is extremely difficult to get perfectly, requiring much more work than is initially presented. Play all your cards right, however, and unlike simply beating the Sultan's Game, this decisively leads to a fairer and more prosperous nation after the Sultan's death, and lets you and your followers achieve relatively happy endings. Moreover, successful rebellion is a prerequisite for that the game unambigiously refers as "The best ending": setting up somebody else to rule the country in your stead and peacefully retiring alongside your wife and friends in a Cincinnatus style.
• Enemy Mine: At the end of the Immaculate Deity route, both the Sultan and Badriyyah (if she is alive) join the player's effort to bring him down, the former because taking down god seems like good fun, and the latter because you now share a common enemy.
• Erotic Asphyxiation: Breaking a Carnality card with the prostitute Junah involves her and Arzu engaging in this. It is entirely possible to die if you fail the Physique check associated with it.
• Fat and Skinny: The notorious highwaymen brothers, Hamar and Jenor. Hamar is the fat one, described as "crude, brutal and tireless", and Jenor is the skinny one, described as "cynical, forever discontent". Hamar is focused exclusively on Physique and Combat, while Jenor is less apt in them, but balances it with having a high Survival stat as well as decent Wisdom. Thus, they also form a Brains and Brawn duo.
• Fan disservice : You can have sex with several characters who are noted in-game to be exceptionally desirable, such as the Sultan’s consorts. Unfortunately, given the method with which you gain a private audience with them, it’s often presented as rape.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Achieving the best outcomes in the Rebellion route requires an enormous amount of preparations and efforts that would be extremely difficult to figure out without a walkthrough or a lot of attempts.
    • Naturally, it requires surviving the Sultan Cards, which is already an effort in itself.
    • Entering the route is simple enough, but actually starting a Rebellion in the ideal manner takes an enormous amount of effort. The easiest method is to use a Gold Conquest card, but this essentially kickstarts a rebellion with no clear plan of what happens after and is far from ideal. It can also be started by gathering a lot of Convictions of Rebellion to be combined into the Regicide Plot, which is already very difficult as they are hidden behind specific choices and not very visible stories, some of which are very obscure, and still isn't enough of a plan. THEN you need to both complete Nawfal's story (and a specific outcome of that story) as well as keep him alive throughout a parallel plot to achieve a Blueprint of Revolution, which can be combined with the aforementioned Regicide Plot into a Road Map of Revolution, which is what is required for a sufficiently planned out rebellion against the Sultan.
    • Then you actually need to win the revolution, which requires high stat checks and a fair amount of troops, which you may lack if you've made the wrong calls previously.
    • And even THEN, you can still fumble it at the last minute. The reputations you garnered throughout the game affects the direction of the new dynasty, and you need to carefully select who you elevate, who will be executed, who will be the new Sultan, who will be the new Vizier, what will be the new state religion, such that neither Traditional or Reformative value is too far above the other, and the game never tells you balance is what you should strive for. If you push too far in one or the other direction, the new Dynasty may end up unstable at best.
  • Both the Immaculate Piety and the Esoteric Church routes are extremely obtuse and provide little in the way of instructions. Justified, as it is impossible to even unlock them without one or more likely multiple playthroughs first, and the game will outright warn you of the complexity and difficulty ahead should you activate these routes.
• Hate Sink: The titular Sultan, a cruel tyrant who is the cause of the protagonist's involvement in the cruel game. Offending him or refusing to indulge his whims also result in death, so it is highly likely that he will cause more than a few Game Overs.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Lumera can read any book, regardless of its stat requirements. It sounds unimpressive, but this is a game where nearly all stat increases come from books. The Survival and Magic stats, in particular, are very useful stats very hard to develop from other sources.
• The Hedonist: While multiple characters fall under this, the Sultan is the prime example - as his desire for pleasure is the very reason he picked up the game, and so far in the demo, his only interests in ruling is focus solely on whether or not he'll get a new toy or something novel out of it.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • If you have converted all four of The Sultan's Royal Guard to your side but have not find a way to deal with The Magic Ring, you will get to skip the final fight with the Sultan and captire him alive at the cost of their lives.
  • In the Cooperative Dragonslaying route, you will be offered a last second choice be bathed in flame to destroy the cursed game at the cost of your life. If Lumerra is ascendent, she will save your life in at the cost of your memories, making it a SubvertedTrope.
  • In the Cultic God route, Lumera, if sent to oversee a ritual meant to summon an Obviously Evil God, will sabotage the ritual to destroy the Corrupter and kill everyone involved in the ritual, including herself and Villain Protagonist.
• He Who Fights Monsters: During the game, The Protagonist is allowed and encouraged to murder people for slights, seduce and rape, and pillage with reckless abandon. The narration often points how The Protagonist empathises with The Sultan on how intoxicating the unchecked power over people is if chosen to engage in one of the more vile card breaks. It reaches the logical conclusion in two of Rebellion Route endings: Dream Palace has The Protagonist become The Dreaded tyranical Sorcerous Overlord routinely torturing his opposition for any Thoughtcrime, and Land of Games has him become The Hedonist Hate Sink who wages nonstop Deadly Games throughout his country For the Evulz.
• Hidden Eyes: The Sultan's eyes are always shrouded in shadow. Normally it's due to the tall crown he wears, but even when he loses his crown after you overthrow him, his eyes will still be obscured by his long hair.
• It Amused Me: The Sultan's primary motive. He will display cruelty or mercy mostly based on whatever amuses him most in the moment. The game begins this way, even, as he presumably felt it is more amusing to force someone who criticizes his cruel game to play the game than to have him killed outright. This is also why he may not allow you to break a card in certain situations — for example, he will not allow you to break multiple Carnality cards simply by visiting the brothel, or by repeating the same kind of date. On the other hand, he may reward or protect you if you do something he considers particularly amusing.
• It's All About Me: Everything Nayla does is for the sake of her boundless vanity. The first event featuring her is called "Vanity, Vanity".
• Karmic Death: Nayla can ask the protagonist to use his Bloodshed card to kill a disobedient slave for her. If he uses a Silver or Bronze Bloodshed card instead, he leaves her alone with the slave she intended to have him kill, and she dies screaming. The slave then joins the protagonist's household instead, and is revealed to be a skilled marksman.
• Karma Houdini: The Magician is a Greater-Scope Villain responsible for the creation of the Game, and is stated to instigate them time and and time again throughout the ages seemingly For the Evulz. As a magical being of unimaginable power, she is invulneravle to almost all magical and mundane weaponry you can bring. Moreover, she is protected by the rules of the game itself. There is nothing you can do to stop her if you escape the Game. She is briefly vulnerable if you end her game by succesfully rebelling and dethroning the Sultan, but even then you are very unlikely to have a way to stop her from merely walking away. You can subvert it by obtaining a Divine weapon with the help of Mahir and expending a huge amounr of rare items and resources, including a MacGuffin of The Dragon's Eye, or via following an equally lengthy quest of Zazie to make a contract with a Star-Soul for a literal Divine Intervention. Both of these quest lines have multiple branching paths with only very specific resolutions allowing you to obrain the suitable weapon. You can also Take a Third Option to destroy the game altogehter either on purpose via a contract with a Dragon or as a lucky byproduct in either of the Godslaying routes. There is also a way to downplay it by escaping the game via Apotheosis, as the Protagonist will use his newfound powers to perpetually suspend the game and slowly drain its magic, leaving The Magician alive but unable to continue her life's work.
• Karmic Jackpot: Usually, ending the rebellion with new government score disbalanced toward Reform will result in your rule being cut short by your assination at the hands of the dissidents. However, if you used Roadmap of Revolution as your legitimacy, which means you have rebelled after following a lengthy quest chain of Nawfal to better the country for the sake of everyone, even the common men, and have an enormous Renown score of 30+, which means you have been engaging in unconditionally good deeds time and time again^note The usual benefits of Reputation scores end at 20, so it means you have had no practial reason to accumulate half as much extra, you will recieve a modifed verson of the ending, featuring a crowd of commoners miraculously saving you from death in the last moment in a heartwarming act of impulsive cooperation, allowing you to live the rest of your days in peace or even to continue your rule with the newfound support.
• Klingon Promotion:
  • Following Nawfal's questline can eventually lead to killing Abdul, the current Vizier, in retaliation for trying to have Nawfal killed. Do this and also present evidence of his misdeed, and either the protagonist or Nawfal gets promoted to Vizier.
  • The Rebellion ending can result in the protagonist killing the Sultan before ascending to becoming the next Sultan.
• Light Is Not Good: The Church of the Immaculate Piety is associated with light. If sufficiently pious, the protagonist can see the light of several individuals, which enables them to join the priesthood, as this power allows them to heal others. This isn't a good thing, as most people who do so will soon die. To an even greater degree, the light of the Immaculate Piety is pure, destructively so.
• Loophole Abuse: Some cards can be broken in unconventional ways that still fulfill the spirit of the cards, but if a player attempts the obvious one, the Sultan will not find it funny and kills the PC for it
• Love at First Sight: Fardak is immediately smitten with Lumera if the two are set up.
• Love Makes You Evil:
  • Fatuna's questline eventually reveals that she did, in fact, murder her husband. Apparently he had a child with a mistress, and Fatuna believed he would favor that child and leave her son penniless, so she drowned him before he could ever get the chance. (No word on whether she helped out the other kid once she got all the money.) Her brother-in-law knew what she'd done and sent thugs after her in revenge- at which point the PC entered the picture, trying to protect a woman who seemed like an innocent damsel in distress.
  • Some of the Prostitutes' questlines will have the PC do questionable things for their love.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Lumera begins with awful stats, which makes sense as she is only homeless girl. However, her ability to read any book means if the player acquires them in abundance, she can increase her stats very swiftly and flexibly. Depending on how her quest plays out, she also can also grant various other benefits. This is also true in the narrative sense in one particular outcome where she literally ascends to the stars and can help to bypass some of the hardest barriers to some endings in the game, though doing this does destroy her physical body and remove her as a follower.
  • To a lesser extent, Zaki. He begins with only slightly better stats than Lumera, but with very flexible and noticeable growth if the player does well in mentoring him. Depending on how and how well he is mentored, he can very quickly exceed the stats of most other characters by that point.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: The protagonist and his wife can have sex in a libary, a public bath, in the middle of a tea party (in front of everyone) or a haunted house. If this is used to break a Carnality card, the Sultan finds this behavior very amusing, especially if it harms either of them in any way.
• Mama Bear: Fatuna murders her husband for fathering a child with another woman, in fear that his other child will endanger the future of her own.
• Mechanical Horse: One of Mahir's potential inventions is the Mechanical Horse. It gives a whopping +6 Physique if equipped, and also gives you six extra dice if used for the Horse Betting event, compared to Jasmine's 5 or the Stallion's 3.
• Mirror Character: Zaki and Lumera. They are both young people that the protagonist can effectively adopt, raise and mentor, who both begin with low stats but can gain several boosts over time (Zaki because the player can mentor him with various people, and Lumera with her ability to read any book). Zaki can also end up killing his mother for murdering his father, and Lumera can end up killing her father for selling her mother into prostitution.
• Multiple Endings: On top of the many, many Bad Ends:
  • The simplest outcome is to complete the Sultan's Game and break every card. The Sultan will then promptly restart the game, making it all for naught.
    • However, if every card is broken within two in-game weeks, The Magician will be so impressed by your ruthlessness and guile she will offer you to join her as her her Dragon.
  • If the protagonist agrees with his wife to simply flee the country, he can attempt so after discovering a viable location and a method of escape.
  • The protagonist can lead an open rebellion against the Sultan. Whether this is successful, and how things pan out afterwards, depend on a great number of factors:
    • The first major fork is the legitimacy chosen to rebel. Gold Conquest card and Regicide Plan rebellions will aim at replacing The Sultan while keeping the overall power structure as is. More esoteric Testament of Bygone Oaths and Roadmap of Revolution involve conspiring with The Roaming Swordsman to return the fallen kingdom or with Nawfal to reform the country to a republic respectively. While successfully TheDragonslayer killing the dragon with the help of Adila and Jabal does not initially start as a straight rebellion, it will end up following the same pattern with the dedicated endings matching the following step.
    • Then, the prosperity and the success of the regime will depend on balancing the Tradition vs Reform gauge by promoting and demoting surviving characters, following by choosing the Sultan and the Vizier of the new regime and choosing a state religion, if any. In general, balancing the Reform with the Tradition will create a prosperous and free country, favouring Tradition will turn the Protagonist in a miserable tyrant, and favouring Reform will get the Protagonist killed for pushing too hard and too fast against powerful conservative nobility. You can also choose for the Protagonist to retire out of politics, happily or not, or to sentence himself to exile for his many sins.
  • Should the player choose to unlock and pursue the routes, the protagonist can end the game by summoning the god of either the Immaculate Piety church or the esoteric cult.
• Mundane Utility: It is referred multiple times that an ability to see stats and rarities of the cards is a real, in-universe capability granted to the player of the game. It allows you to find suitable targets for the [1], instantly identify properties of magical items, knowing in a single glance the talents of people... And to make confident educated guesses on what hound will win the dog races.
• Noodle Incident: Arzu and Narwal hate each other, much more than courtiers usually do, but why is never explained. It's even stranger because their ideals re: being nice to people and standing up to the Sultan align.
• Obviously Evil: Unlike the "harsh yet benevolent" presentation of God of Purity, the Cultic God, The Creator, is a patron of demons, ritually unclean, and uncontrolled hedonism. Worship of it includes a copious amount of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and perverted orgies. It is no surprise you aren't even required to play the "Accumulate the doubt to understand he is up to no good" minigame unlike when dealing with his counterpart to try to defy him and save the world from the total corruption. If you do bother to uncover his true face, the revelation that he is The Corruptor, a god so degraded he can only pervert the things that already exist comes off as The Un-Twist.
• Parental Substitute: The protagonist can potentially become one to Zaki (who has a mother but no father) and/or Lumera (who has a living father who left her).
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage:
  • The protagonist can have one with his wife, Maggie. From the outset, she is a steadfast ally even after they are ensnared in the Sultan's game and their marriage is a source of peace and stability, though lacking in passion. If certain choices are made, the two can have a more active sex life, possibly too active. If the player cheats on her or upsets her and neglects to make it up to her, this trope can be entirely subverted.
  • The goal of Adila's lineage is to hunt and kill a Dragon responsible for thier bloodline being cursed. Per her family tradition, she is supposed to marry before her attempt. Adila despises the idea as she would ahter die than become a housewife and is a lesbian. However, if you match her up with Jabal, they will quickly bond over their shared warrior and hunter pride and utter uninterest in any romance. They both agree to commence the marriage, and their relationship will end up as a harmonic Bromance.
• Random Power Ranking: Characters and even items are ranked by political importance, from "Stone", to "Bronze", to "Silver", to "Gold". Things like getting hired by someone of higher rank or inheriting a lot of money- or even your own effort, to a degree- can cause an increase in rank. Conversely, characters can lose rank if they're bankrupt, imprisoned, or have their titles confiscated.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Part of the conceit of the titular game - does PC kill a faithful follower to break a bloodshed card, or submit to execution. Sometimes if the Sultan is particularly annoyed at the PC, he'll add his own complications just because he can, and players can witness events where the sultan inflicts this on others.
  • If you have three Slander cards accumulated against you, the Sultan may force you to give a loved one to him or face execution.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
  • Followers will leave if mistreated.
  • Minal will leave the kingdom after realizing that whatever discovery she makes from her expeditions will simply give the Sultan another target ot pillage and plunder. If assisted by the protagonist, she discovers China and sends words back, allowing him to likewise escape if he so chooses.
  • The PC and their lover can Take a Third Option and flee to another country instead of continuing the game
• Self-Made Orphan: If the protagonist makes certain choices, Lumera and Zaki can end up killing their respective parents, Lumera her father for selling her mother into prostitution, and Zaki his mother for killing his father.
  • Both can be darkly reprised on a Cultic God route, as the Protagonist serves as a father figure for both of them. If you corrupt Zaki and Fatuna into a human sacrifice cult before foolishly agreeing on a threesome with them, they will murder you together. Lumera, if sent to oversee a ritual meant to summon an Obviously Evil God, will sabotage the ritual and perform a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Corrupter and kill everyone involved in the ritual, including the Protagonist.
• Senseless Sacrifice: When finishing the summoning of The Creator, you are offered to choose which follower will "greet" the newborn deity. Offering a mass sacrifice will result in an immediate Game Over, offering Iman, Lumerra, or Badriyyah will allow you to try to defy the god at the cost of their lives, each coming with their own poetic snippet on how their faith returns the Protagonist the will to fight back. Offering the Protagonist results in the very same opportunity to resist, without any prerequisite or penalties involved.
• Skippable Boss: There are certain combat encounters that can be avoided entirely if one passes a alternative check, such as against the White Rhino during its encounter to sneak up on him. Notably, this even applies to the Sultan if one manages to convince all 4 members of the guard to turn to your side. If you didn't pilfer his ring, however, be warned that this will result in their deaths in a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration : You can save, load, and restart games to experience all your desired endings. The ‘Ascension’ ending seems to imply that the protagonist has indeed experienced all of them, and finds himself trapped in an eternal cycle of the Sultan’s game.
• Sorcerous Overlord: The Sultan has a Magic stat of 10 and a magical ring capable of vaporizing anyone near him. Until you persuade a character to steal the ring or grow a follower's Magic stat high enough that they can neutralize it themselves, all attempts to usurp the Sultan are doomed to fail.
• Supreme Chef: Habib, whose specialty is creating feasts if he is provided the resources.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: [[Downplayed]]. You can use the Golden Conquest Card as pretense to overthrow the Sultan on what at first looks like a very outside-the-box tactic. As it turns out, however, a card from a [2] is not a solid foundation for a ruler's legitimacy, and the epilogue notes that the Protagonist's rule was mostly based on the fear and respect towards the successful conqueror, and the scope of societal changes you can implement is notably limited. It can be further Subverted by placing the protagonist as a Vizier to one of the consorts and obtaining the legitimacy via poising yourself as a Regent to an unborn Sultan's child, as these ending options are identical between Gold Conquest and Regicide Plot.
• Teen Genius: Lumera is a young, initially beggar girl (though old enough to marry during the game) who is an avid book reader and has the unique ability to read any book regardless of requirement. She absorbs knowledge very fast and if given the opportunity can write a very popular novel herself, before helping to fund similar pursuits.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Some characters will actively approach the PC to take part in the Sultan's game either because it sounds fun or to boost their social status, forgetting that Carnality or Extravagance isn't the only card that could be used on them.
  • The PC themselves can die by making some very foolish decisions. Presenting the Gold Conquest card to the Sultan at court is a bad idea which the game even warns you against — that said, it can be used in a different slot to overthrow him. Similarly, presenting him a rebellion conviction will result in your summary execution. Oh, and you'd better keep any promises you make to the Sultan, as otherwise he'll have you executed as an unfunny jester.
• Twin Switch: With enough Fate Points, the player is capable of adding a secret twin of the PC as a follower in subsequent runs. The twin is capable of doing any event that would normally require the PC to be involved with, mechanically allowing the protagonist to be in two places at once. Aside from not sharing stat gains, and the tailor's different rewards when using her, the PC and his twin are treated as the same person.
• The Vamp: Nayla. She is a scantily clad, attractive and promiscuous woman, and the very first thing she does is offer to have sex with the protagonist, a married man, to break one of his Carnality card, just to get the attention of the court. The second thing she does is offer to have the protagonist kill an obedient slave of her, to break one of his Bloodshed card, and gets more depraved from there.
• Ungrateful Bastard: A few characters are suspicious of Arzu's intentions and treat the player's kindness with contempt or even hostility Jawad will go as far as to try to have the player assassinated after being freed from jail
• Video Game Caring Potential: There are many opportunities to help others in need in this game.
  • Giving a book to a beggar thirsty for knowledge, and later taking her off the streets and raising her as a daughter.
  • Mentoring a young man and protecting his mother from thugs.
  • Supporting an inventor's experiments.
  • Rescuing an explorer on a suicide mission.
  • Cultivating a genuine love bond with your wife.
  • Rescuing a slave from his vain and bloodthirsty mistress and using a Bloodshed card to allow him to kill her without repercussion.
  • Bailing a principled and honorable courtier from jail and helping him reclaim his ancient family title, elevating him to Gold status and earning his eternal gratitude.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: While the Sultan's Game is cruel by design, unlike the Sultan you will face consequences if you are careless with your targets or neglect certain events, even if you are protected from the legal fallout.
  • Ignoring the man-eating lion for too long will result in the death of your followers until it is dealt with.
  • Ignoring certain followers' demands or using carnality cards on unwilling followers will result in the follower leaving.
  • Killing the wrong people will result in others trying to murder the PC in retaliation.
  • Keep repulsing your wife and not do anything to resolve it she will murder you in your sleep
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • You have to break Gold Carnality cards by going into court and asking the Sultan, in front of everybody, if you can have sex with one of his concubines. In any court in the world, this would probably get you killed- but it works here, because the Sultan is incredibly jaded and cares only for entertainment.
  • A possible target for the Silver Carnality card is an injured rhino.
    • Another is in a haunted house.
  • One event involves a stranger telling the PC that he has a demon inside him and offering to exorcise it by cutting open his chest. If you say yes, and pass an associated Physique check, the PC will not only survive his 'surgery' but feel much better because of it.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Many of the male characters either go shirtless or wear open vests or shirts. Most prominently the Sultan.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If the PC does more dastardly deeds to keep their head, they will get called out on it.
• Whip of Dominance: Jalila, the dominatrix prostitute, is known as the 'Queen of the Whip'.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Do some really heinous acts, the Sultan will applaud you for your creativity, while Arzu, the PC, will feel wretched.