The Empire sprawled so wide that travel between provinces could take months. Imperial patrols could not always guarantee the safe passage of a noblewoman along remote roads. This made the arranging of marriage alliances difficult, especially when one powerful lord weighed offers from many distant houses at once.

To overcome this, envoys were sent in each lady's stead, carrying with them a vial of her distilled essence to prove the woman's appeal. A painting, after all, was no proof of beauty. A trusted male retainer was typically chosen for the honor of safeguarding the precious vial through bandit lands and, upon arrival, commencing the delicate business of noble courtship.

The envoy was given leave to act on his lady's behalf: exchanging letters and tokens, delivering a portion of the brideprice to his lordly suitor's feet, and (in particularly sensitive cases) stripping and parading before the man or his physicians so as to demonstrate the woman's health and fertility. Once the marriage contract was sealed, the real noblewoman could begin the perilous journey herself.

But the course of pre-arranged love never did run true, of course, and there were often cases of lords falling madly in love with the envoy himself, taking him as their bride and sealing the transformation with a pregnancy. King Calivor the Wanton commited the most brazen scandal, sending out invitations to the most beautiful noblewomen in the Empire, only to imprison all two hundred of their envoys in his harem upon arrival.