Queen of Cards

The Queen of Cards is a non-playable character in Final Fantasy VIII. A master of Triple Triad, she controls regional rules and is part of a sidequest to obtain rare cards. Her real name is unknown.
Her father works as a painter of new Triple Triad cards in Dollet. Although first found idling near the train station in Balamb, the Queen is on the move, traveling from town to town in search of challenging opponents. Her card skills are so respected that any new rule she adopts soon spreads among the populace wherever she is playing.
==Profile==
===Appearance===
The Queen of Cards has brunette hair and blue eyes, and a blue jewel adornment over her forehead. She wears a floor-length white dress with a loose red bolero shirt with gold and green trims over it.
The Queen shares her character model with the actress from Laguna's dream sequence who plays the role of a sorceress, while Laguna plays her knight, Zefer.
===Personality===
The Queen positions herself in areas high in foot traffic, but does not approach aspirant card fanatics—they approach her. Whenever the Queen speaks, she gestures broadly, and is never seen walking. She exudes an aura of refinement, but the person behind the Queen persona is enigmatic; not even her real name is known. Though she has a son, she does not spend much time in her home town where he is being cared for by the Queen's father. However, it seems she wants to engage her family in the art of Triple Triad as well, her father being a card designer and the Queen gifting the rare cards she is after to her son.
==Gameplay==
===Card rule manipulation===
The Queen offers to pass on a new rule to a region for the price of 30,000 gil. She will also offer to combine rules when playing against her, like any other Triple Triad player. The rules that the Queen offers to spread for a fee have a specific order of priorities, which goes as follows (from the highest to the lowest priority): Open, Same, Plus, Random, Sudden Death, Same Wall, Elemental.
Getting the Queen of Cards to the Lunar Gate can make abolishing a specific rule there easier before going to the Lunar Base, which has two rare cards but tough default rules. The party cannot introduce any new rules to the region, but a rule there will be abolished after a few games; if the abolished rule was not the desired one, the party can then pay the Queen 30,000 gil to get it back and play her again, and a rule will be abolished again after a few games. Often, the player has excess money as their salary is paid at regular intervals and weapons and items are fairly cheap. The player can also farm money.
The Queen of Cards is the only one who can influence the trading rules. Each time she is played, one of the four trading rules (One, Diff, Direct, or All) is selected and the most recent trading rule used in a game with her may spread. It is not necessary to play her, as simply challenging her and then quitting at the rule screen works. Every time the player challenges someone, there is a chance of a random region's rule becoming "One", so these changes are not permanent.
Playing anyone in a region where the Queen is has a chance of asserting her rule. For example, if the Queen is in Balamb, last selected "Direct", and the rule degraded to "One", playing again in Balamb will eventually reassert "Direct" there. Additionally, playing in a region has a chance to spread that region's rule to one other region, so playing in Balamb will have a chance of spreading "Direct" to Galbadia, or Fishermans Horizon, etc.
This allows for somewhat sophisticated rule manipulation. The player can challenge the Queen of Cards, accept a game with "All", then purposely lose a rare card to send her to another region (Galbadia, for example). If she goes to the desired region, the player will be able to spread "All" to anyone who plays with Galbadian rules. Opponents do not have to be physically in the region with the Queen, they just have to play with that region's rules. In this manner, the player can set rules for regions before even arriving there.
The Queen of Cards' region and trade rule cannot be changed during the endgame. However, for trade rule change purposes, the region and trade rule associated with her will be whichever ones she had before reaching the point of no return.
===Locations===
Whenever the player wins or loses a rare card to the Queen of Cards, she will travel to a new region. Paying 30,000 gil to her prompts her to spread a new rule to the current region.
The regions and the locations of the Queen are as follows:
*Balamb Town - outside the train station.
*Dollet - Dollet Pub.
*Galbadia - Deling City Hotel.
*Fishermans Horizon - by the save point.
*Trabia - Shumi Village Inn.
*Centra - Winhill Hotel.
*Esthar - Esthar City Presidential Palace.
*"Far Away" - Lunar Gate.
The region the Queen can travel to is both random and dependent on the region she is currently in:
*Balamb → Dollet (37.5%), Deling City (62.5%).
*Deling City → Balamb (12.5%), Dollet (12.5%), Winhill (12.5%), FH (62.5%).
*Dollet → Balamb (37.5%), Deling City (62.5%).
*Shumi Village → Balamb (25%), Dollet (50%), Lunar Gate (25%).
*Winhill → Deling City (37.5%), Dollet (37.5%), FH (25%).
*FH → Dollet (12.5%), Winhill (25%), Esthar (62.5%).
*Esthar → Dollet (12.5%), Shumi Village (25%), FH (12.5%), Lunar Gate (50%).
*Lunar Gate → any other region (12.5%) (the Queen gives no hints).
===The card quest===
Although the Queen carries no rare cards herself, her father, the card painter, does. If the player is willing to lose certain coveted cards to the Queen, her father will be inspired to create a new one-of-a-kind card. To begin the sidequest, the player must first get the Queen to move to Dollet. The Queen will change locations each time the number of rare cards she holds changes; the player must either lose a rare card to her, or win one back from her. If playing with the "Direct" trade rule, winning a rare card from her while simultaneously losing another rare card to her means she will not move.
Once the Queen is in Dollet's pub, the player will be given a new option to ask about her artist father, and she will mention the card she needs to further the quest. If the player already lost the card(s) she needs prior, she will mention that her father has created new cards and that she gave the specific cards to her son, found in a house opposite the pub (he is the little boy who keeps placing a bone in the artist's painting). The new cards created by the card painter are distributed to the public and must be won from certain people.
Lose 	Gain 	Receive card at 	Image
MiniMog 	Kiros 	Deling City, held by a man in black on the shopping arcade. 	
Sacred 	Irvine 	Fishermans Horizon, held by Flo. 	
Chicobo 	Chubby Chocobo	Balamb Garden, held by the cadet sitting outside the library.	
Alexander	Doomtrain 	Timber, held by the pub owner. 	
Doomtrain	Phoenix 	Esthar City, held by the President's Aide. 	
Defeating Seifer at the Lunatic Pandora is the point of no return, ending the card quest regardless of whether the player participated.
====Strategy====
The Queen of Cards quest is considerably easier if the player can make her move only between Balamb and Dollet. This way, they will not have to chase her around the world. If she goes somewhere else, the player can reset the game and try again.
The easiest and fastest way to complete the quest is:
#Lose MiniMog, Sacred, Chicobo and Alexander cards in Balamb on trade rule "All" or "Diff".
#Ensure she travels to Dollet.
#Abolish the "Random" rule in Dollet.
#Win Doomtrain's card in Timber pub.
#Lose it to the Queen in Dollet on trade rule "One".
If the player does not want to bother with abolishing "Random" in Dollet, as accomplishing it can be tedious, they can lose another random rare card to her to make her go back to Balamb, and then lose Doomtrain to her there and have her return to Dollet, and then play her one more time there to win back the random rare card.
====The Queen at the crash site====
thumb|right|335 px
In the endgame, the Queen takes up permanent residence on the Estharian continent, just outside the southern border of the city barrier. She is found on the escape pod's crash site, which is not visible on the map, but the party can enter it by stepping on the right spot.
All the special cards from her quest that are not currently in the player's inventory are "shuffled" into her deck. The player can challenge her to win them if they have missed or modified them, but she will play them only once (i.e. if the player then loses or modifies the cards, she will not play them again). She plays with her own set of rules (which includes all rule variations except "Open") and only uses the "One" trade rule.
The left girl of the CC Diamond pair on board the Ragnarok also plays the rare cards from the Queen's sidequest if the player completed the Card Club sidequest before the point of no return.
==Gallery==
Queen of Cards at Balamb Station in FFVIII R.png|The queen at Balamb Station.
Queen of Cards in Deling City Hotel from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen at Deling City hotel.
Queen of Cards in FH from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen in FH.
Queen of Cards in Winhill from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen in Winhill.
Queen of Cards in Esthar City Palace from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen in Esthar City.
Queen of Cards at the Lunar Gate from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen at Lunar Gate.
Queen of Cards moves regions from FFVIII Remastered.png|The queen moves regions.
==Etymology==
She is named Ishtar in the French version. 
de:Card Queen
it:Regina delle carte
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Sidequests in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Triple Triad