Jump to content

DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

Sha'rah (a.k.a. Moridin's game)


Paviel

Recommended Posts

Funnily enough, I was fascinated by Moridin's description of Sha'rah, and I was wondering if the game might be recreated in real life. It wouldn't be the first time a game that first appeared in a story was recreated in real life... (I know Icehouse is an example of such a game.)

 

Of course, Moridin doesn't give us many of the rules, but I thought I'd list them here:

 

-A 13 by 13 checkered black and white board surrounded on all sides by a green-and-red goal row

 

-Two players, each with 33 pieces. On Moridin's board, the pieces are red and green.

 

-One neutral piece, called the Fisher, placed in the center of the board. The first object of the game is to capture this piece, but once captured, it could be recaptured.

 

-The Fisher, unlike all other pieces in the game, has different properties depending on the color of its space. As Moridin says, "on a white square, weak in attack yet agile and far-ranging in escape; on black, strong in attack but slow and vulnerable."

 

-Three possible victories: Moving the Fisher to the goal row on the enemy's side (like a touchdown in American football); forcing the enemy to move the Fisher onto a goal-row space of your color (like checkmate in chess); or complete annihilation.

 

So my question is: Given the rules that Robert Jordan has already given us for how to play this game, how hard would it be to come up with the rest?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty hard.

 

What are the 33 pieces each player has?  What are the capabilities for each piece?  The restrictions?  Is there any provision for recovering lost pieces ala moving a pawn into your opponents home row in chess?  Is a stalemate possible? etc. etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

-Three possible victories: Moving the Fisher to the goal row on the enemy's side (like a touchdown in American football); forcing the enemy to move the Fisher onto a goal-row space of your color (like checkmate in chess); or complete annihilation.

 

Hm? Is it me, or does that part not make sense somehow?

 

-----

 

Nevermind, did some research:

 

The black and white chequered board is derived from chess. This is about the only influence from chess in Sha’rah. While the size of the board is typical of the tafl games, the Sha’rah board has an extra ‘goal row’ with red and green squares. Only the king can step onto the goal row, as is typical of the advanced rules in the tafl games.

 

However, i DID manage to find some info on wha kind of game this actually is:

 

http://wotmania.com/faqtopic.asp?ID=93

 

(same link i got the quote from btw ;))

 

Where Did The Name Sha’rah Come From?

 

Jordan probably derived the name from the ancient Persian game shatranj. It is believed that tablut (a tafl game) and shatranj were combined to create chess.

 

However, the rules for shatranj are much more similar to chess than they are to Sha’rah. Shatranj has the same size board as chess, although unchequered, and the same number of pieces. Many of the pieces are the same as in chess: the king (called the shah, and thus itself similar to sha’rah), rooks, knights and pawns all move the same. However, there is no initial two-step move or en passant capture option for the pawn. Elephants replace the bishops and they leap to the second diagonal square, never occupying the first one. Generals replace the queen and can move to the first diagonal square. Pawns arriving at the last rank are always promoted to generals. There is no castling option. A stalemate counts as a win, as does capturing all your opponent’s pieces except their king. If your own last piece is captured in the next move the game is a draw.

 

So while the name Sha’rah came from shatranj, the actual game is from tafl, with the Fisher King added to heighten the parallel between the board game Moridin is a master of, and the real game the Shadow is playing against the Light.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...