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. A third class of internal tale relates, usually in response to questions by Jorian, the histories of various places and objects of interest, such as the lost city of Culbagarh in Komilakh, the Goblin Tower in Othomae, the Tower of Kumashar in Iraz, the bathtub of Emperor Ishbahar of Penembei, and the toad god Gorgolor of Tarxia. This last is of interest in that it is told both as a direct experience of Jorian in "The Goblin Tower" and as an inset tale with Jorian's involvement edited out related by Kerin in " The Honorable Barbarian".