The Path of Daggers Read-through #3: Games of Deception

By Linda

The Prologue title emphasises deceiving others, or being deceived by them.

Moridin sits meditatively re-playing a past board game. Despite his reputation and the odd spot of acting, he is not as mad as he appears. He has been too effective to be mad, but it makes the other Forsaken wary of him if they think he is. The game is not an academic or idle exercise either. He is using it to work out his strategy in the war against the Light.

Moridin tells us he is playing both sides of the board in the real game. He has seemingly been helping Rand as well as openly opposing him. Since he thinks Rand is moving to his wishes, he approves of Rand ousting Sammael from Illian and killing him – thinning out his more independent rivals - and of sending Perrin and Mat away on long-running errands. Later he will advise Rand on how to permanently remove the Forsaken and aim him at the more dispensable or troublesome ones…

Verin in this chapter is playing both sides in the name of the Light. Her compulsion weave is safe of itself; it is her manipulations that she suggests to her victims that are potentially dangerous. In her rooms at the White Tower she has cupboards and chests filled with ciphered notebooks but in The Gathering Storm she only gives one to Egwene along with her cipher key. With her compulsion, she also tries to find out the identities of Rand’s ‘secret Aes Sedai supporters’. If only Rand had told Verin that the letter offering him support had come from Alviarin…

The Sha’rah game, played on a 13 x 13 board surrounded by a goal row with 33 pieces per player (see the symbolism of 13 and 33) plus an independent bone of contention, the Fisher, is a metaphor for the struggle between the Shadow and the Light, with Rand as the Fisher. One player takes the red side, and the other player the green. It’s a fairly safe bet that Moridin likes to choose red (blood, one of his colours), not green (fertility and life), when he plays.

The Fisher has a real world equivalent, the Fisher King of Arthurian legend who guarded the Holy Grail, San Greal, as Rand did the great sa’angreal. His unhealing wound represents original sin. Rand’s wound is made from the taint that was on saidin, tainted by the Dark One for men’s pride. It is overlain by the Shadar Logoth evil, the hatred of evil that becomes evil itself; hypocrisy is a very ancient and underestimated sin. Weakened by his wound, the Fisher King could not hunt, only fish; hence his name. Since the Fisher was at one with the Land, it could not be healthy while he was wounded and because no one asked about the Fisher’s wounds, the Land wasn’t healed. Nobody really asks about Rand’s wounds either, just Delves them when he is incapacitated, and he isn’t volunteering anything. Four holy objects, the Sword (Callandor or Justice), the Spear (Seanchan sceptre or Mat’s spear), the Cauldron (Bowl of Winds) and the Crown (of Swords) are necessary to restore the Fisher’s Land and Rand.

In Sha’rah the Fisher is always hunted. The real world games that Sha’rah was based on, the Tafl family of games (see Sha’rah and Fisher King article), are considered to be hunting games rather than war games like chess. Sha’rah is more complex, being both a hunting and a war game.

Depending on his square colour, the Fisher has differing moves:

Several pieces had varying moves, but only the Fisher's attributes altered according to where it stood; on a white square, weak in attack yet agile and far-ranging in escape; on black, strong in attack but slow and vulnerable.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

On the road to Caemlyn, Rand was weak yet elusive, since he could not channel consciously, but he did elude Shadowspawn and Darkfriends. In contrast, during the cleansing of saidin, Rand attacked strongly but was slow and vulnerable. He needed all the extensive defences that Cadsuane organised, and was helpless afterwards until he recovered consciousness. The varying moves weaken the Fisher’s powers since it makes him unstable and also makes playing him or manipulating him more complicated. This symbolises Rand’s vulnerability and tendency to cause chaos, but also his strokes of luck and genius.

The Fisher changes sides repeatedly during the game and is coloured black and white to reflect this. Likewise there have been attempts to tempt Rand to the Shadow and to force him to do evil along with any good. He was been captured a couple of times and manipulated many more. Neither Rand nor the Fisher is ever safe.

We don’t know how the Fisher is forced to change sides. Perhaps it occurs when he is blocked and taken in custody by one player. In the Tafl games any piece is won by custodial capture - blocked on both sides in either a column or a row by enemy pieces - and the King is won by double custodial capture, when all four squares around him are occupied by enemy pieces, or if he is surrounded on three sides by enemy pieces and on the fourth by the throne square or the side of the board. If at this point the Fisher then becomes a piece of the player who trapped and surrounded him, his previous owner would have to separate him from these now protective pieces and try to take him back into custody.

Moridin does explain most of the ways to win the game:

When the Fisher was yours, you tried to move him to a square of your color behind your opponent's end of the board. That was victory, the easiest way, but not the only one. When your opponent held the Fisher, you attempted to leave him no choice for the Fisher but to move onto your color. Anywhere at all along the goalrow would do; holding the Fisher could be more dangerous than not. Of course, there was a third path to victory in sha'rah, if you took it before letting yourself be trapped. The game always degenerated in a bloody melee, then, victory coming only with complete annihilation of your enemy. He had tried that, once, in desperation, but the attempt had failed. Painfully.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances.

A major part of the tactics is manipulating the other player to play the Fisher where you want, not where they want. This reflects the amount of manipulation going on in the war against the Shadow. In fact, it is not possible to win in Sha’rah unless one manipulates the other player, and through them, the Fisher. Ishamael is always manipulating Rand, even when he is in the hands of other ‘players’.

Most ways to win in Sha’rah involve getting the Fisher to move onto your colour whether you hold him or not. If you hold him, you move him to the other end of board. If your opponent holds him, you leave them only legal moves which force them to score an ‘own goal’ anywhere on the goal row resulting in your victory.

There is another path to victory, not described fully, which involves being the last man standing. Since you can be trapped using this strategy, it seems to be a last resort. If a player decides to win by eliminating all their opponent’s pieces, the other player would have to do likewise for their own protection. The game would indeed “degenerate into a bloody melee” as Moridin described it, since there are so many pieces to remove. Prior to this scene, Ishamael apparently attempted this once with very painful results. Ishamael was killed in Tear, but this wasn’t a bloody melee. Nor was Falme or the Eye. Lews Therin said Dumai’s Wells was nothing compared to the battles in the War of Power, so Moridin must have been referring to the Age of Legends when he was indeed trapped on the verge of victory.

Moridin is trying to win by manipulating and constraining Rand, surrounding him on all fronts, including inside his head, or disguising his pieces as Rand’s pieces (eg Taim), or subverting Rand’s pieces. The placement of the internal link to Rand was unintentional and hasn’t been successful for manipulatory purposes either, since there is a leakage of influence from Rand to Moridin. Order burns to clear Rand’s path, and Moridin is obstructing Rand as much as possible with conflicting orders, misinformation, subverted aides, distractions (eg rebellion) and multiple enemies (eg Seanchan). Until recently he left Perrin and Mat largely alone, since they appeared to have been distracted from their original instructions, and thus were seemingly not contributing. But now he has commanded they be killed, to free up some space so he can get his own pieces in for the final blocking moves, the double custodianship, on the Fisher King.

Lord of Chaos Read-through #2 : Opening Gambit

Opening Gambit

by Linda



Lord of Chaos introduces us to more lost knowledge from the Age of Legends. A board game this time. It seems trivial, but we’ll see that games are metaphors for battles and the Great Game (of Houses), and skill at board games is a reliable indicator for generalship, politicking and problem-solving abilities. More board games will be referred to in later books and in The Path of Daggers the gamemaster Moridin will reveal that he develops his schemes not on the drawing board, but the game board.

But back to Lord of Chaos, and the Age-old game of tcheran. Semirhage doesn’t tell us much, but then she says she’s an indifferent player. From her description, tcheran has similarities with another great game of strategy and war, chess. The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time confirms that Semirhage is no great strategist, and was no great shakes as a general in the War of Power either. She is too caught up in her perversions and lusts for complex planning, too one-track minded to consider the need for alternatives. Her interrogation of Cabriana was almost aborted when she accidentally killed Cabriana’s Warder while unnecessarily torturing him to satisfy her lust for cruelty. She did not stick to her assigned task, even though it was urgent, and then let her mind wander while performing her unnecessary ‘experiment’. Some of her important parallels are with Nazi doctors and SS leaders, notorious sadists and death goddesses and these are detailed in the Semirhage essay now re-published here in the Reference Library. No wonder she ended up a captive in Knife of Dreams.

In contrast, Mat Cauthon keeps a variety of possible strategies in mind, and is not only prepared to change them at a moment’s notice; he expects to and is on the lookout for any changes in circumstances which will require this:

“Everything always changes. The best plan lasts until the first arrow leaves the bow.”

- The Fires of Heaven, Before the Arrow

So is Ituralde:

If they saw the trap, then he had another plan already laid, and another behind that. He always looked ahead, and always planned for every eventuality he could imagine…

- Knife of Dreams, Prologue

Mat is a killer at Stones, and no doubt he would be at other strategy board games if he knew them. What is known of tcheran and its similarities to chess are described in the Tcheran article now released on the Thirteenth Depository.

Arrays

By Linda

In New Spring, Siuan’s ability to assess information and analyse it for patterns is tested by a sequence of cards.

Siuan riffled through the pages too quickly for her to catch everything, but it seemed to be nothing but the names of playing cards, in no particular order she could see. The Ruler of Cups was followed by the Lord of Winds, the Ruler of Flames by the Lady of Rods, but then it was the Five of Coins followed by the Four of Cups.
"There's a game I've read about," Siuan said slowly, "a game wealthy women play with cards, called Arrays. You have to put the cards in descending order in one of a set of patterns, but only certain suits can be played on others. I think someone wrote down each card as it was played. In a winning game."

- New Spring, Entering Home

(See photo right of two of the sequences (Ruler of Flames (Swords) and Lady of Rods, Five of Coins and Four of Cups, Lo Scarabeo deck of cards).

Arrays is a pattern-making game and probably played solo (since only a solitary player could write out the order of cards as they are played without ruining the game). It is therefore derived from the real-world group of patience or solitaire games. It may in fact be the Wheel of Time generic term for patience games as well as this particular game, just as the game of Patience (or Solitaire) lent its name to the whole group of single player games.


The Cards

Playing cards appeared in Europe in the 1370s. Early cards were individually hand-made and painted, which made them expensive to produce. Similarly, Mat tells us that aristocrats play cards while the common folk prefer their faster and simpler dice games. Siuan remarked that her family were too poor to afford playing cards. (They also couldn’t afford the time to play patience for hours on end, either).

Arrays is played with the Wheel of Time five suit deck: Cups, Winds, Flames, Rods and Coins, that we first saw in a Chop (‘Poker’) game in Tear in The Shadow Rising (see Chop article). The suits are similar to those in traditional Latin (Spanish and Italian) playing card decks and in tarot decks. In fact, three of the suits are exactly the same—Cups, Coins and Rods. The fourth suit in Latin and tarot decks is Swords. Flames is probably equivalent to Swords, since the ruler of Flames stabbed Mat with a sword when the bubble of evil hit and the sword image stayed. This would make Winds the extra suit. In the fifteenth century, decks with five suits were common.

Below is a list of the Latin and Wheel of Time suits and their corresponding suits in international decks (from Wikipedia):

Latin/Wheel of Time.................International
Cups..................................................Hearts
Coins.................................................Diamonds
Rods (sometimes Batons)...................Clubs
Swords (Flames in WOT deck)............Spades

The Wheel of Time deck, of course, has the Winds suit as well.

Siuan says that only certain suits can be played on others, and from the way the cards were grouped in the quotes, it appears that Cups are placed on Coins, Winds on Cups, and Rods on Flames. Therefore probably Flames go on Winds and Coins on Rods.

From the quotes and what I know of real world patience games (and I play quite a few of them), the likely aim of the game is to construct runs of cards in rank order while following the restriction of the suit sequence described above.

Of the court cards, the Ruler is highest and can be of either gender (we know this from Chop). The next rank appears to be Lord and Lady. Some suits have one, some the other. This would fit in with Jordan’s theme of balance between the sexes. Since the Four and Five are mentioned, the suit ranks probably run from Ruler, Lord/Lady (perhaps with one or more other court card ranks) right down to One (Ace). This deck would therefore have at least one more rank in its suits than does the Chop deck.

Arrays is an appropriate name. In patience games, cards are laid out or arrayed, in decorative patterns and in certain sequences (an array in mathematical terms).

Many patience games have some restriction on suits, usually requiring runs to be in all the same suit or in alternating colour. There is only one real world patience game which has the restriction of a descending run in a particular order of suits: Following. This suit order is Heart, Club, Diamond, Spade: meaning that only a Club can be placed on a Heart, a Diamond on a Club, a Spade on a Diamond and a Heart on a Spade. As shown above, Hearts are equivalent to Cups, Clubs to Rods, Diamonds to Coins and Spades to Flames with Winds the extra suit, so the suit order of Following is not exactly the same as for Arrays. This is not surprising since Arrays has an extra suit. The method and principle of the games are the same, however.


Following

Following uses a four-suit pack of thirteen ranks (52 cards). To start, six cards are laid out in a row face up to form the tableau. Any of these cards that is the following suit of an exposed card in the tableau and one rank lower, is placed on that card in the tableau to commence a column of descending cards. Cards are turned over singly from the stock, that is the remaining cards in the player’s hand, and built on the descending columns (following the suit pattern in descending order) for first preference or filled on any empty spaces in the tableau. Cards from stock unable to be used go into the waste pile.

As the Aces occur they are placed above the tableau in the foundation row and are built on in the same suit rotation but in ascending order. This ascending sequence can be built on from the exposed cards on the tableau or the waste pile or the stock and the aim of the game is to completely build the foundation row. The photo right shows a game in progress using Latin suits. Sequences can be transferred from one column to another in the tableau provided the join follows the rule of the suit and rank order. Any vacant place in the tableau may be filled from stock, waste or tableau. Only one run through the waste pile is allowed.


Arrays

While Siuan said the aim of the game of Arrays was to form descending columns in a particular suit order, this may not be the ultimate goal. Many people would say that the aim of the real-world game called Solitaire/Patience is to form descending columns in alternating suits, and this is certainly essential to winning, but not the full story. These columns are formed in Solitaire in order to make ascending sequences of all one suit in the foundation row above the descending columns. The game is won when these are made. Likewise, the successful completion of the descending columns in the proper suit order means that the game of Following is effectively won, because they ensure that the ascending columns of the foundation row can be made correctly (so long as the player doesn’t make a mistake). We don’t know if Arrays is exactly same as Following but it would be very similar.

A five-suit deck of thirteen ranks has 65 cards and would start with either a seven or eight card tableau. After some experimentation, I found that as the mathematics would predict, using a tableau of seven cards the game was less likely to be won than the four-suit version of the game (which uses a six-card tableau). With a tableau of eight cards the odds were in favour of winning the game and it was much less challenging. My preference is for the seven-card tableau.

If there are fewer ranks in the suits, then the tableau would be decreased accordingly. A twelve-rank suit (60 cards) would use a seven-card tableau and a ten-rank suit (50 cards) would use a six-card tableau. While Chop would be an interesting game with seven to nine ranks in the five suits (35 to 45 cards), Arrays would not be. Therefore, I consider 50 cards the minimum size of the Arrays deck. It is quite possible, even likely, that Chop and Arrays use different size decks, just as happens with different real-world card games.

The photo to the right shows a late-stage game of Arrays in progress, with a seven-card tableau, that will be won. (Lovers of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books might be interested to know that the deck I used is the eight suit Fat Pack designed to play Cripple Mr Onion.) I chose Roses as the extra suit and used all thirteen ranks (sixty-five cards).

So there it is: those wealthy women that Siuan had only read of were playing a patience game.
_________________________________________

Written by Linda, April 2004 and updated June 2013

Chop

By Linda

In The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern, Mat and five Tairen lordlings play chop, a card game. They play with an expensive hand-painted and lacquered deck for high stakes. This article summarises what we know about chop and then compares the game to its closest real-world equivalents.


What We Know About Chop

The Cards

Chop is played with a deck of five suits: Cups, Rods, Coins, Winds and Flames. The suits are ranked: Cups are highest and, in Tear, at least, Flames are lowest. The highest rank in each suit is the ruler:

The rulers in a deck varied according to the land where the cards were made, with the nation’s own ruler always as Ruler of Cups, the highest suit.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

In the deck Mat played with, the Ruler of Cups is a High Lord of Tear and the Ruler of Rods is the Queen of Andor. Sometimes the First of Mayene is the Ruler of Flames in a Tairen deck. The very latest Tairen decks have Rand with dragon banner as Ruler of Cups. The identities of the Rulers of Coins and Winds are unknown.

The Ruler of Flames is:

...the Amyrlin Seat balancing a flame on her palm. However, the Tairens felt about Aes Sedai, they acknowledged the power of Tar Valon, even if Flames was the lowest suit.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

The Amyrlin was one of the rulers in decks of all countries except Amadicia.

The lowest card in each suit is the fool. In the Tairen deck, the King of Illian was the Fool of Flames, the lowest. The First of Mayene was sometimes the Fool of Cups. In Amadicia, the Fool of Flames is the Amyrlin Seat.

Apart from the Ruler and the Fool, there were ten numbered cards for each of the five suits, making sixty cards in the deck (The Wheel of Time Compannion).

In the game Mat played, six players were dealt five cards each, so at least 30 cards were required for the game. This does not mean that other card games in the Wheel of Time world don’t use a larger deck (and there are other card games, see Arrays article). Early versions of real world games similar to Chop used shortened decks of 20 cards (Old Poker, for four players) or 32 to 36 cards (Poque, for up to six players).


The Game

There were six players in the game: Mat, Reimon, Edorion, Estean, Carlomin and Baran; and each player purchased and was dealt five cards facedown.

When the scene opens, the players already have three cards and there is already money in the centre of the table:

He [Mat] tried to concentrate on the cards lying facedown in front of him and on the coins spilled in the middle of the table.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

The money may be from the purchase of one or more of the three cards each player holds, or it could have been left over from the previous hand if all players dropped out without gambling. We see the players buy their fourth and fifth cards one card at a time, adding a silver coin to pile in centre, which is referred to as the pot.

The aim of the game is to match pairs, and/or three, four or five of the one rank from the five cards dealt. The more cards of the same rank, the more likely the hand is to win. Cards of a higher rank beat cards of a lower rank. In the event of two players both having a pair of the same rank, the hand containing the highest ranked suit wins.

It is not known if other combinations such as straights (five cards of consecutive rank) or flushes (five cards of the same suit) are allowed.

Mat refrained from lifting his cards to check them again. They would not have changed. Three rulers, the highest cards in three of the five suits, were already good enough to win most hands.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

Three of the same rank (three of a kind) would be beaten by four or five of any rank or by three of a kind plus a pair (full house)—and also by a flush or a straight if these are allowed.

Five of a kind is the highest hand:

If he was dealt the fifth ruler, there was no hand in Chop could beat him.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

And five rulers is unbeatable because the rulers are the highest ranked cards in the suits. Four rulers would be beaten by five of any rank. (The photo above shows Mat's winning hand using a reproduction of a 15th century hand-painted deck published by US Games Inc.)

After buying their fifth card, players then bet if they think their hand has a reasonable chance of winning. If they assess their hand as unlikely to win, they drop out of that round:

Reimon had neatly stacked his facedown beside the pot to show he was out.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

The Betting

Naturally there is a certain amount of bluffing to keep other players guessing. Mat doesn’t want to look confident in case he scares the other players from betting against him:

He put on a small frown and puffed worriedly at his pipe, to look unsure whether his cards were good enough to go on with.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

Other players are bluffing too—Edorion, for instance:

He put in a crown and took his card, grimacing when he peeked at it. That meant nothing; going by his face, Edorion’s cards were always low and mismatched. He won more than he lost, though.

- The Shadow Rising, Whirlpools in the Pattern

Baran opens the betting with three gold coins, Estean adds six to the pot: three to see Baran’s hand and three to raise the stakes higher. Other players would have to add at least six coins to bet in this round, and this would continue until no one is prepared to raise the stakes further.

Mat expects to have to show his hand—he has no thoughts of bluffing the other players into quitting without seeing his hand once the stakes are large. Of course, Mat holds the winning hand, and we never see the betting conclude in this game.


Real-world Parallel to Chop

Poker would be the closest modern equivalent to chop. In both games, players are dealt five cards and try to match ranks or suits to make the highest hand possible. The players then bet if they think their hand is a winning hand.

In poker, there are often betting intervals following the deal of each card. In chop, cards are purchased and the betting is only done once all five cards are dealt.

There is a wide range of poker variants from which the dealer can choose to play. Chop incorporates some of these variants:

• There is no draw. Unlike in chop, there is often a draw in poker—where the players discard up to 3 cards and buy and are dealt replacements in the hope of improving their hand. Straight poker is the variant with no draw and is therefore the variant most like chop.



• Cards are dealt face down. Chop is different to stud poker in that all cards are dealt face down so each player is the only one to see their own cards.



• The highest hand wins in chop. The highest hand often wins in poker, although in some poker variants highest and lowest split the pot, or lowest wins.



• Aces are low in chop. Since the ruler is the highest ranked card in a suit, the ace (or one), if present, must be the bottom rank of the suit. The rank of individual cards in a suit in poker is usually A, K, Q, J, 10…2, unless the player has a straight running from 5, 4, 3, 2, A. If aces are low, the ranks in a suit run K, Q, J, 10…2, A. Aces low is not a common variant, but it does occur.



• There are no wild cards. Mat was certain that his rulers were the highest cards possible, therefore there were no wild cards. (Of course, Mat as Joker with his twisting of the Pattern, is a wild card himself.)



• Different deck size. The number of ranks in the suits, and therefore the deck size for chop, is different to poker’s four suits of 13 ranks. There are five suits in chop and in order for there to be a reasonable probability of high hands, there are 10 ranks in the suits, fewer ranks than in modern poker. Old Poker was played with a 20 card deck (4 players receiving 5 cards).



• The suits are ranked in chop (hearts highest and flames lowest). They aren’t ranked in poker except in Italy, where hearts is highest and spades lowest, just like in chop.

The Cards

Playing cards appeared in Europe in the 1370s. Early cards were individually hand-made and painted, which made them expensive to produce. Similarly, Mat thinks of how the card-maker in Tear has grown rich supplying the aristocrats’ demand for cards. He also notes that the common folk prefer their faster and simpler dice games.


The suits in chop are different to those of poker, which uses the international deck. The chop suits are fairly close to those in traditional Latin (Spanish and Italian, see photo of cards by Fournier) or Arabic playing card decks and in tarot decks. In fact, three of the suits are exactly the same—Cups, Coins and Rods. The fourth suit in Latin/Arabic and tarot decks is Swords. Flames is probably equivalent to Swords, since the ruler of Flames stabbed Mat with a sword and the sword image stayed. This would make Winds the extra suit. In the fifteenth century decks with five suits were common.

Below is a list of the Latin and chop suits and their corresponding suits in international decks (from Wikipedia):

Latin/Chop........................International
Cups...........................................Hearts
Coins..........................................Diamonds
Rods (sometimes Batons)...........Clubs
Swords (Flames in chop)............Spades

Chop, of course, has the Winds suit as well. The regionality in chop deck design—with the Rulers varying by nation—is typical of that in Continental Europe.

The Betting

In both poker and chop, once the players have assessed and finalised their hands, they gamble or vie with each other. The following is a description of vying in poker:

Vying consists of progressively raising the amount it costs to stay in the game, until some drop out and others will raise no further but merely pay to ‘see’ the highest raiser. If it comes to a showdown the player actually showing the best hand wins the pot (the total amount staked during play), but if all save one drop out the one left in wins the pot without showing their hand, which may in fact have been good, bad or indifferent.

- The Penguin Book of Card Games, David Parlett.

The point of poker lies in the exercise of competitive psychology, which is the essence of game-play whether in ‘real life’ or over the card table...The fact is that the consistent bluffer loses consistently, because the losing factor lies not in his bluffing, but in his consistency.

- A History of Card Games, David Parlett

We don’t see the conclusion of the betting in chop, but Mat has no thoughts of bluffing the other players into quitting without seeing his hand once the stakes are large, so he probably expects to have to show his hand. However, Mat is his usual lucky self, so he had no need to consider bluffing. He also doesn’t think of the other players bluffing in previous hands.

Mat is a newcomer to chop, yet he follows the recommended strategy for betting in poker games:

The first rule for beginners who think Poker is all chance and bluff is a hard one to abide by, but cannot be over-estimated. It is: only stay in the game if you genuinely believe you have the best hand…If you are sure of having the best hand, your next object is to make the most of it. Skill here lies in knowing exactly how to string opponents along with you.

- The Penguin Book of Card Games, David Parlett.

Mat tells a story where he is the butt of the joke in order to keep his opponents in the mood for the game. His strategy worked too, except the Dark One's timing was also perfect.


Card Games With Five Suits

As Nas is an old Persian card game with five suits that may be a forerunner of poker and is also similar to chop.

It is usually played with five players. The deck consists of 25 cards: five ranks (fives, fours, threes, twos and ones) in five suits. The suits are ranked—hearts, spades, extra suit, diamonds and clubs. The chop deck has at least 30 cards, and the suits are ranked cups highest and flames lowest.

The aim in as nas, as in chop and poker, is to match pairs and/or three, four or five of the one rank from the five cards dealt. Straights (five consecutive suits) are not recognised. Flushes (five of the same suit) are not usually recognised either. In this respect, chop is more like as nas than like poker.


The Game

Two cards are dealt to each of the five players, and then the players, in turn, starting at the dealer's left, make a bet or drop out.

Each player remaining in the game is dealt two more cards. The remaining players, in turn, starting at the dealer's left, make an additional bet or drop out.

Each remaining player gets a fifth and final card and the remaining players then bet a final time or drop out.

Those who are still in the game show their hands and the highest-ranking hand wins the wagered money.

The ratings of the hands are similar to poker although straights (5 consecutive ranks are not recognised).

The rank of hands from highest to lowest are:

Five of the same rank. (5 fives, 5 fours, 5 threes, 5 twos, 5 ones)

Four of the same rank. (4 fives, 4 fours, 4 threes, 4 twos, 4 ones)

Three of one rank and two of another rank. ("Full House")

Three of the same rank. (3 fives, 3 fours, 3 threes, 3 twos, 3 ones)

Two of the same rank. (2 fives, 2 fours, 2 threes, 2 twos, 2 ones)

If flushes (five of the same suit) are recognised, they are the highest hand, with the suits ranked in the order given above.


Conclusion

Chop is a combination of dealer’s choice straight poker and the Persian game as nas.

The game ended abruptly when the first undeniable bubble of evil animated the cards into attacking Mat. (Rand may have experienced a bubble of evil on top of the Fal Dara fortress (The Great Hunt, The Flame of Tar Valon)). Inanimate objects ‘coming to life’ is a reversal of world order, and represent:

that medieval nightmare ‘the world turned upside down’.

- David Parlett, A History of Card Games

The Dark One aims to cause chaos and anarchy in this fashion by distorting reality to weaken the Light; and it is most appropriate that this first manifestation of chaos took place during a card game. Some card games, for example Karnoffel, were banned in the 15th Century because the ranked order of cards in the game did not follow the social order of King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9...down to 3 and 2, but had threes outranking Queens, or a two or a six beating a King. Mat, too, rejects the conventional acceptance of the superiority of nobles. The symbolism in this scene is thus especially striking.

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Written by Linda, June 2004 and updated December 2015

Dice Games: It's Time to Roll the Dice!

By Linda

The most popular games in the Wheel of Time series are dice games and they are played exclusively for gambling by both humans and non-humans. Loial says:

“They play a simpler game here [Shienar], with only three dice. We use four in the stedding.”

- The Great Hunt, Friends and Enemies

This article summarises what we know of the various dice games and compares them to real world games where possible. In the interest of clarity, the names of all dice games will be capitalised in the article; although in the series, games are sometimes capitalised and sometimes not.


The Dice

The dice used in the games are of two kinds: dice with spots for most games and dice with small symbols for Crowns (The Dragon Reborn, Visitations.) In order to reduce cheating, the dice are rolled from leather dice cups. However, we know of two characters that did cheat: Dena in Cairhien in The Great Hunt, to teach Loial “a little lesson”; and Comar, who used weighted (loaded) dice in The Dragon Reborn, A Storm In Tear, to win money. Interestingly, both players died soon after cheating, which seems a drastic punishment!


The Games

In general, the dice games of the mainland are mainly of two kinds: totalling games, where the highest total number of spots wins; and combination games, where the aim is to have many faces showing the same number or symbol, or a numeric sequence. Other popular betting dice games involve throwing a particular number or numbers, and two of these games have been described. It is also possible to make side bets on whether a particular player will win a round or not. In Tar Valon, Raab, a Sea Folk man, “decided to put his wagers on Mat” and so filled his purse (The Dragon Reborn, The First Toss.)

Quite a few dice games have been mentioned in the series. In Tar Valon, Mat played many games:

He played at Crowns, and Fives and Maiden’s Ruin. He played with five dice, and with four and three and even only two.

The Dragon Reborn, The First Toss.

In Tear, Comar used loaded dice to win at Crowns, Top, Threes and Compass as the innkeeper describes:

“No less than a dozen times tonight, I have seen him [Comar] win at Crowns with three crowns and two roses. And half again as often, at Top, it has been three sixes and two fives. He tosses nothing but sixes at Threes and three sixes and a five every throw at Compass.”

“Weighted dice.” Thom said, then coughed. “When he wants to be sure of winning, he uses dice that always show the same face. He is smart enough not to have made it the highest toss—folk become suspicious if you always throw the king”—he raised an eyebrow at Mat—“just one that’s all but impossible to beat, but he cannot change that they always show the same face.”

- The Dragon Reborn, A Storm In Tear

Comar appears to have two full sets of five loaded dice, one for crowns and one with spots, no more. With such dice, Comar can only play at games where sixes are the highest, not ones (aces).

We know that ones are high in some games, because Mat threw five ones (the Dark One’s eyes) in The Dragon Reborn, Caemlyn and Basel Gill remarked that it is the best toss or the worst, depending on the game. It would be the best toss in games where the aim is to get the highest combination and aces are high, and the worst toss in games where the aim is to get the highest total of spots.


Crowns

Crowns is the most popular dice game throughout the mainland:

The spotted dice would do for a number of games, but more men seemed to play Crowns than anything else.

- The Dragon Reborn, Visitations

It is a combination game where the aim is to get the largest number of dice showing the same face.

The dice used for Crowns have symbols rather than spots—crowns, roses, rods, stars, cups and one other symbol:

Rattling the dice in the leather cup, Mat spun them out on the table. They stopped with two crowns, two stars and a cup showing. A fair toss; no better… The blue-eyed man’s toss rolled across the table, and the dice stopped showing three crowns, a rose and a rod.

- Lord of Chaos, Weaves of the Power:

The symbols are ranked, with crowns highest. Five crowns is the highest toss in the game and is called the king. The probability of rolling the king in any one throw is about 0.0000214. Mat threw the king six times in a row in Tar Valon in The Dragon Reborn, The First Toss, and the probability of doing this is 0.000000000000000000000000000097 or so. Pretty remote.

The loaded dice Comar used for Crowns showed three crowns and two roses, and was a throw that would be very unlikely to be beaten (The Dragon Reborn, A Storm In Tear). Therefore roses are probably the next ranked symbol after crowns.

The real world game Crown and Anchor also uses dice with symbols: crown, anchor and the symbols for the four playing card suits (club, heart, spade and diamond).

Speculation: Just as the dice for Crown and Anchor include four symbols from card suits, the dice for Crowns also include four symbols from card suits, only they are the Latin (Spanish and Italian) or tarot card suits. Three of these are known: cups, rods (wands) and stars (pentangles). The unknown symbol would therefore be the remaining Latin card suit, swords. This would mean that the rose has been substituted for the anchor.

While the dice for Crowns resemble those used for Crown and Anchor, the games are different. Crown and Anchor is played with three dice and the aim is to bet on the appearance of particular symbols in the next throw. Crowns is most like the real-world game Klondike (although Klondike is played with spotted dice). The aim of Klondike, like Crowns, is to get the highest-ranking combination. From highest to lowest, these are:

• Five of a kind


• Four of a kind


• Three of a kind plus a pair (Full house)


• Three of a kind


• Two pairs


• One pair

When two players have made throws of the same combination, the combination with the higher number wins. (For full houses, the throws are ranked on the triplet first, and if these are the same, then the pairs are compared.) If the throws still rank the same, they are tied.

Straights (series of five sequential numbers) are not recognized in Klondike and they are probably not recognised in Crowns either. Aces are high in Klondike.

Robert Jordan has combined two real-world games (Crown and Anchor and Klondike) to make Crowns, as he has also done with the playing card game Chop (see Chop article).


Top

Top is played with five spotted dice. Top is most likely a combination game (where the aim is to get particular combinations involving multiples or sequences), rather than a totalling game (where the number of spots thrown are added), since totalling games with five dice are rare in the real world.

Comar’s loaded dice showed three sixes and two fives for Top and was a very high throw. Therefore sixes are highest and ones (aces) are low.

If Top is a combination game, the closest real-world game would be Poker Dice. In Poker Dice, the aim is to throw the highest combinations as used in the Poker card game. The list of combinations from highest to lowest is:

• Five of a kind


• Four of a kind


• Three of a kind plus a pair (Full house)


• Straight (Five consecutive numbers)


• Three of a kind


• Two pairs


• One pair

Unlike Klondike, straights are recognised in Poker Dice. Either aces (ones) or sixes can be the highest number and this is decided before the game begins.

If more than one player rolls the same ranked combination, the combination that involved the higher number in the main feature of the combination wins. If necessary, the secondary feature of the combination can be compared. Single dice that do not contribute to the rank do not count. If the throws still rank the same, they tie.


Compass

Four dice are used for this game. For Compass, Comar’s loaded dice showed three sixes and a five, so sixes are highest. Compass could be either a total game or a combination game. In the real world, games using four dice are rare.


Piri, or Matches

This game also uses four dice. Mat played this in Maderin in Knife of Dreams and recognised it as a four dice variant of a very old two dice game from one thousand years before Artur Hawking called Piri, or Matches . The aim is to roll certain numbers and avoid rolling others.

The players place their starting bets in the centre and the shooter rolls the four dice. The numbers are totalled. The shooter rolls the four dice again. If the total is the same as the previous throw, the shooter wins the wagers and the round ends. If the shooter rolls a fourteen or a four (the Dark Ones eyes), the shooter loses and the next player becomes shooter. Judging by its real-world parallel (see below), if the total of the second throw is not a match of the first and is not a fourteen or a four, the shooter throws again and continues to do so until the shooter either throws a match (wins) or a fourteen or a four (loses). While ever the shooter wins, s/he keeps rolling the dice. If a fourteen is rolled on the shooter’s first go, that is a winning toss. The number four is a losing toss whenever it is rolled.

The game is a simplified four dice version of the real-world game Craps, which uses two dice. In Craps, the numbers seven and eleven are a winning first toss, rather than fourteen, and the numbers two (snake eyes), three and twelve are a losing first toss. If the shooter reproduces the same total as his/her first toss, the shooter wins the round. If the shooter throws a seven for the second toss, s/he loses the round. If the shooter produces a non-matching total that is not seven for the second throw, they throw again and again until they either win (match the first throw) or lose (throw a seven).


Threes

Sixes is a high throw.

Speculation: the game is called Threes because it uses three dice, since Comar only throws sixes at this game and only three of his loaded dice roll sixes. It may be a totalling game, where the number of spots is added and the highest total wins the round.


Cat’s Paw, Third Gem (Ebou Dar), Feathers Aloft (Cairhien)

Two dice are used for this game, with one person throwing them and everyone else betting on his tosses. The stakes are usually equal, but Mat waived that requirement:

"I ... don't know if we can match that," said a man with a short black beard. "M'lord," he added belatedly.
"My gold against your silver," Mat said lightly.

- The Gathering Storm, The Tipsy Gelding

Dice are thrown until a winning or losing throw is made. The winner takes all the stakes and new stakes are made for the next round. A throw of a one and a two is an instant loss. A pair of fours is “an outright-winning throw” (The Gathering Storm, The Tipsy Gelding).

The game strongly resembles Barbudi, a popular gambling game for two (although obviously onlookers can make bets among themselves) using two dice. (In Mat’s game it was him versus the clients of the inn, seeing as their pooled resources couldn’t match his own.)

In Barbudi, both players put equal stakes in the centre and then one player throws both dice. If the dice show 6–6, 5–6, 5–5 or 4–4, the player wins the stakes outright. If the dice show 1–1, 1–2, 2–2, or 3–3, the player loses and the other player takes the stakes. Any other combination rolled is indeterminate and the other player then throws the dice. The same criteria are used to determine if that throw wins, loses or is indeterminate. The two players continue rolling in this way until there is a winning or a losing throw. The winner then takes both players’ stakes. Stakes are ventured again for the next round.

The feature of the game is that:

both players have equal prospects to succeed, irrespective of which player takes the first throw.

- Reiner Knizia, Dice Games Properly Explained

In this case, seemingly equal chance to win. Mat chose a game that would normally be fair, and then exerted his luck to lose (his first toss was a 1–2, which lost, just as it would in Barbudi) until the stakes were very high, and then win (with a pair of fours, which is also a win in Barbudi). Any of the betters could have pulled out, but their greed kept them playing. Mat was relying on that and used them as ‘cat’s paws’ (hence the name of the game) to win what they wouldn’t sell: sufficient quantities of the goods he needed. Mat the ‘shady’ character pays the extra price of being attacked by a town of ‘shades,’ in this case not entirely disembodied ones. And Mat is King of the Dead (see Mat essay) as well as a shady character. Or was Mat the cat’s paw of the Pattern? Mat has complained about being a tool of the Pattern often enough.

The scene ends with Mat claiming that he won the food and drink fairly.


Koronko’s Spit

This game is played with five dice and five ones or aces is a winning toss:

Mat brought the cup down and tossed a handful of five dice.... The game was called Koronko's Spit, and hailed from Shienar.
Mat did not know the rules.
"Five ones," said the man who stank of garlic. His name was Rittle. He seemed unsettled. "That's a loss."
"No it's not," Mat said softly. Never mind that he did not know the rules. He knew he had won; he could feel it. His luck was with him.

- Towers of Midnight, Into the Void

The game appears to be a combination game like poker dice or Klondike (which were described above under Top and Crowns respectively. Aces (ones) rank highest in Klondike. In Poker Dice they may be highest or lowest and the rule books stress that it is important to determine which before joining in the game, something Mat neglected to do.

The name Koronko’s Spit was derived by Sanderson from a name drawn randomly from a WOT charity drive list:

Bryce Koronko, I named a game of dice in TofM after you.

- Brandon Sanderson on Twitter, 2010

The Dice Game in Mat’s Joke

The dice game Mat described in his joke in The Gathering Storm, On a Broken Road, is played with two dice and requires certain totals or throws: a double one, or, if the opponent player threw a six, double twos to win.

There’s not enough information to determine the goals of this game, or if there is a real-world equivalent.

The behaviour of the mythical woman in Mat’s joke does have a parallel in dice games, though. The game Liar’s Dice (and its many variants) is a bluffing dice game for a group of players where each player throws their own dice—five of them—under cover so that none but they can see what they rolled. The opening player makes a claim as to what their dice show. The next player either challenges this claim or accepts it by making a higher claim and the players after that do the same: challenge or make their own higher claim. A claim is higher than the previous one if the frequency is the same or higher and the number is higher (for example three fours is higher than three threes, which is higher than two fours). When a player challenges a claim, the dice are uncovered. If the dice are equal or higher than the claim, the challenger pays a penalty, if the dice are lower than the claim, the claimant pays a penalty.

Whatever game the man in Mat’s joke thought he was playing, the woman was obviously playing the bluffing game of Liar’s Dice. And playing it very well, so well she didn’t need to hide her dice!

The dice in the joke are blank, and are thus the opposite of loaded dice; they never show the same face, they ‘show’ whatever the thrower wants them to show!


Other Games

In Tar Valon, Mat played at least one game with two dice. This game would probably have been a simple total game like High Dice, or else a game like Craps or Meine Tante, Deine Tante, where the aim is to roll a certain number and avoid rolling certain other numbers.


Zara

One last dicing game reference: the illegal Age of Legends board game zara, in which playing pieces made from humans were used:

the zara board projecting its field of still-transparent boxes in the air; he [Sammael] had always liked the more violent games.

- Lord of Chaos, To Understand a Message

has the same name as a real-world dicing game. The dice game zara or hazard is mentioned in Dante’s Purgatory 6:1–3, which seems appropriate since the Age of Legends board game was played exclusively by the Dark One’s followers. The dicing game of zara is a gambling game played with three dice, the winner is the player whose pips added up to a number previously called.


Finally

Mat’s luck is strongest when he plays games that are random—like dice games. In many ways, dice are at the centre of his life—his money comes from dice, his horse, Pips, is named after the spots or pips on dice, and of course, he hears the dice roll in his head when vitally important, and often dangerous, events are about to occur.

_________________________________________

Written by Linda, April 2004 and updated June 2013

By Linda

Foxes and Snakes

By Linda

According to Birgitte in The Shadow Rising, To The Tower of Ghenjei, the game Foxes and Snakes is a “remembrance of old dealings” with the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. This article will deal with what we know of this game and suggest a real-life equivalent.

The game is one of unequal forces. The foxes and snakes pieces are united in chasing and capturing the two black human pieces. The fugitive human pieces aim to move from the central circle to the outer edge of the board and back, without being touched by any fox or snake pieces. It is considered “only a child’s game,” because due to the forces being so unequal, it is a game:

you would not win so long as you followed the rules.

- Lord of Chaos, Courage to Strengthen.

The game is played as a solitaire with the one player moving pieces for both sides according to the rolls of the dice.

The board is either wooden, or, as in Olver’s game, a piece of red cloth, with the web of lines drawn in black ink, and arrows showing which lines allow movement only one way and which both. The pieces consist of ten pale wooden discs each with an inked triangle (the foxes), ten pale wooden discs with a wavy line (the snakes) and two black discs (their fugitive human prey). The two black discs start in the centre and the pale discs are stacked in the corners of the web. Six dice are rolled to determine the moves of the pieces. We don’t know all the faces on the dice, but they have at least one face with a triangle (representing foxes) face and also at least one face with a wavy line (representing snakes). There is no guarantee that the faces of the dice are fair to the human pieces.

To open the game, the player makes a sign in the air of “a triangle and then a wavy line through it”, and then chants words:

“Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to daze, iron to bind,”

- Lord of Chaos, Courage to Strengthen.

Despite Olver’s fondness for playing Foxes and Snakes, Lord of Chaos, Courage to Strengthen and Knife of Dreams, A Village in Shiota are the only chapters to describe a game in detail. In Courage to Strengthen, when Mat and Olver play the game, Olver rolls the dice. Mat honourably decides not to use his luck, but even his chance-twisting presence is enough to delay the snakes and foxes from capturing their pieces.

Their two black-stained discs were nearly back to the circle in the middle of the board, but the next roll of the dice would be for the snakes and foxes. Most of the time you did not make it as far as the outer edge.

- Lord of Chaos, Courage to Strengthen

The human pieces are moved in such a way as to keep as much distance between them and the snakes and foxes as possible. On the snakes' and foxes' turn, the number of triangles rolled is the number of fox pieces moved and the number of wavy lines on the dice is the number of snake pieces moved.

This time three dice showed faces marked with a triangle, the other three wavy lines…On their turn you had to move the snakes and foxes toward your own pieces by the shortest path, and if one landed on the point you occupied…A snake touched Olver, a fox Mat and Mat could see if the rest of the pips had been played, two more snakes would have reached him.

- Lord of Chaos, Courage to Strengthen

If a fox or a snake piece touches one of the human pieces, that piece is removed. The foxes and snakes win if both pieces are removed. The human pieces win if they can reach the edge of the board and return to the central circle.

It is unknown if a player can play with a different number of human pieces.

Olver actually wins a game in Towers of Midnight just as he was on the verge of giving up on Foxes and Snakes:

[Olver] moved his piece across one more line, then froze.
His piece was on the center spot.
"I won!" he exclaimed.
Talmanes looked up, pipe lowering in his lips. He cocked his head, staring at the board. "Burn me," he muttered. "We must have counted wrong, or . . ."
"Counted wrong?"
"I mean . . ." Talmanes looked stunned. "You can't win. The game can't be won. It just can't."
That was nonsense. Why would Olver play if it could not be won? He smiled, looking over the board. The snakes and the foxes were within one toss of getting to his piece and making him lose. But this time, he'd gotten all the way to the outside ring and back. He had won.

- Towers of Midnight, Epilogue

This very unlikely event was not witnessed by anybody, so we don’t know if Olver miscounted as Talmanes suggested, or if some of Mat’s luck has rubbed off.

Amusingly, a few chapters before, Mat was rolling his dice to find the way to the bargaining chamber in the *Finn’s world as if he was playing the game of Snakes and Foxes.

"Twelve pips. Three for each doorway. If I roll a one, a two, or a three, we go straight. Four, five, or six, we take the right path, and so on."
"But Mat," Noal whispered, glancing at the sleeping Eelfinn. "The rolls won't be equal. You can't roll a one, for example, and a seven is far more likely to—"
"You don't understand, Noal," Mat said, tossing the dice to the floor. They rattled against the scale-like tiles, clacking like teeth. "It doesn't matter what is likely. Not when I'm around."

- Towers of Midnight, Gateways

He really entered into the spirit of Moiraine’s suggestion to take heed of the game when visiting the *Finns’ world to rescue her and managed to win. Just.


Real-Life Equivalent to Foxes and Snakes

The closest game is Fox and Geese, a medieval game played on a cross shaped board. It is related to the tafl games that are described in the sha’rah article. Like Foxes and Snakes, it is a game of unequal forces.


Objective

The geese cannot capture the fox but aim to use their greater numbers to hem the fox in so that he cannot move. The objective of the fox, on the other hand, is to capture so many geese that it becomes impossible for them to trap him.


Board


The game of Fox and Geese is played on a board with five squares arranged in a cross shape. Each square is bisected horizontally, vertically and on both diagonals. This results in 33 points of intersection upon which the pieces are played.

There are similar South East Asian hunt games played on triangular boards, or square boards with a triangle extension on one or more sides, which are close to the web shape of the Foxes and Snakes board. The grids of two such boards are shown below:













Pieces

Pieces consist of one black or red fox and thirteen (!) white geese. The pieces are placed on the intersection of lines.

Set-up

The geese start by occupying all six points of one arm of the cross plus the whole first adjacent row. The fox starts on the central point of the board.

Rules

1. Players toss a coin to decide who will play the fox.

2. The geese move first.

3. Players take turns to move one of their pieces to an adjacent vacant point along a line. The player of the geese can only move one goose per turn.

4. The geese can only move forwards or sideways, not backwards.

5. On the fox's turn, if a goose is adjacent to the fox with an empty point directly behind, the fox may capture that goose by hopping over it onto the empty point. The captured goose is removed from the board. Captured pieces are never replayed.

6. If the fox is surrounded by geese and can’t move (this requires at least three geese) the geese are victorious. If the fox has captured so many geese that there are only two left, the fox is victorious.

Like all unequal games, it makes sense to play an even number of games, each player alternating between playing the fox and playing the geese—balance! The player who wins the most games wins the match.

Variations

The amount of geese can be varied: 15, 17 or 19 can be tried. These extra pieces are placed symmetrically on points along the central row. For 19 geese, the fox is placed in the centre of the next vacant row.

Two foxes may be used.

The fox’s player can choose to start the fox anywhere on the board not occupied by a goose.

Limitations on movement of pieces can be tried. For example, diagonal movement can be disallowed for either or both pieces.


Differences Between The Two Games

Foxes and Snakes is played like a solitaire with dice and rules to determine movements of the two sides. Fox and Geese is played with two opposing players.

Both are games of inequality. In Fox and Geese, there are at least thirteen geese and one fox, and in Foxes and Snakes there are ten foxes and ten snakes against two fugitive human pieces. The tables have been turned because the Finns are so alien that they are dangerous to humans.

In Foxes and Snakes, the idea is for the human pieces to get to the board edge and back to the centre whilst eluding capture by the foxes and snakes. In Fox and Geese, the geese aim to trap the fox so he cannot move, while the fox aims to capture the geese.

The Foxes and Snakes game has a web-shaped board, not cross-shaped.

Both games have different restrictions in movement: in Foxes and Snakes, the pieces can only move one way on some lines, two on others; in Fox and Geese, the geese can only move forwards or sideways, not backwards.

Robert Jordan has combined a medieval game (Fox and Geese) with his alien races of Aelfinn (snakes) and Eelfinn (foxes) to form his game of Snakes and Foxes. Like a nursery rhyme, the game Snakes and Foxes is a folk memory of things it was once useful to know—in this case of the dangers of trading with the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. The rhyme that goes with the game ties the game closely with the reality of dealing with these dangerous folk, explaining why the game is unequal, without actually affecting the rules of the game. This makes the game less abstract, and more allegorical. It’s well to remember that:

Nearly all the traditional games we now regard as abstract were in their day considered representational, or at least symbolic.

- David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games

If Robert Jordan has increased the fox piece to ten snakes and ten foxes, then that means the two human prey pieces were derived from the geese. That’s appropriate, since you would be a goose indeed to step into the world of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn and provoke pursuit…

_________________________________________

Written by Linda, April 2004 and updated June 2013

Sha'rah, the Fisher King and Their Equivalents

By Linda

Sha’rah is one of four board games mentioned in the Wheel of Time books. (The other three games are stones (no’ri), tcheran, and foxes and snakes and are described in separate articles).

The only part of the series that mentions sha’rah is The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances. All quotes about sha'rah are taken from there.

What We know about Sha’rah

We know that it is a game that is no longer played on the mainland, perhaps not in the whole of the Wheel of Time world, although it was popular in the Age of Legends: “Only nine living people even remembered the game,” according to Moridin. (These nine were the nine living Forsaken at that time: Moridin/Ishamael, Graendal, Demandred, Semirhage, Mesaana, Moghedien, Osangar/Aginor, Arangar/Balthamel and Cyndane/Lanfear.)

[It is] a complex game, ancient long before the War of the Power…much more complex than tcheran and no’ri.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

Sha’rah is played on a board consisting of a black and white chequered "playing surface of thirteen squares by thirteen":

His [Moridin’s] real attention was on the game laid out before him on the table, thirty-three red pieces and thirty-three green arrayed across a playing surface of thirteen squares by thirteen…The most important piece, the Fisher, black-and-white like the playing surface…

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

Around the outside of this black and white playing surface is a "green-and-red goal-row":

The green-and-red goal-row that surrounded the playing surface could be threatened by any piece, but only the Fisher could move onto it.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

There are thirty-three red and thirty-three green pieces and the black and white Fisher (King).

One player will be red and the other green. The red player uses the red pieces and owns the red squares on the goal-row and the green player the green.

We know there are several types of pieces in the game and some of them have varying moves (perhaps similar to chess), but only the Fisher (King) is described in detail:

The (black and white) Fisher was always worked as a man, with a bandage blinding his eyes and one hand pressed to his side, a few drops of blood dripping through his fingers.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

The Fisher starts the game on the central square of the board, but we do not know the starting positions of each player’s thirty-three pieces. When the Fisher is on a white square he is “weak in attack, yet agile and far-ranging in escape”, when he is on a black square, he is “strong in attack, but slow and vulnerable”. While any piece can threaten the red and green goal-row, the Fisher is the only piece that can actually move onto it. (Due to the odd number of squares per row, the Fisher King's starting position is marked differently to the other squares as it is in the real world games from which sha'rah is devised, in this case in the Fisher's actual colours.)

The first object of the game is to capture the Fisher, and then manoeuvre him into a winning position. The Fisher can be captured and used by either player. He changes sides many times when skilled players play and is never safe.

We don’t know how the Fisher changes sides, nor how pieces are taken.

There are three ways to win the game:

Get the Fisher onto a square of your colour on the goal row at your opponent’s end of the board (the easiest victory),

Force your opponent to move the Fisher onto a square of your colour anywhere along the goal-row around the board, or

Completely annihilate your opponent (take all their pieces).


Symbolism of the Fisher

Moridin suggests that the Fisher represents Rand; or more precisely, that it was derived from the Dragon, the Creator’s surrogate soul in the eternal War against the Shadow:

Perhaps the Fisher did come from some dim remnant of a memory of Rand al’Thor, the shadow of a shadow. It did not matter. He realised he was laughing, and made no effort to stop. On the board, the Fisher stood waiting, but in the greater game, al’Thor moved already to his wishes. And soon, now... It was very hard to lose a game when you played both sides of the board

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

The Fisher is an allusion to the Fisher King of Arthurian Legend, the guardian of the Holy Grail who was wounded by a lance. He is the protector of the land, at one with the land, and cannot be healed until the land is. The Fisher playing piece in sha’rah is worked as a man with a bandage over his eyes and a wound in his side dripping blood. Similarly, Rand, the saviour of this Age, has an unhealable wound in his side that bleeds from time to time and was guarding the access keys to the Choedan Kal sa’angreal. Also, Perrin had a vision in the wolf dream of Rand with a bandage over his eyes:

Perrin thought it was Rand. He wore rags and a rough cloak, and a bandage covered his eyes.

- The Shadow Rising, To the Tower of Ghenjei

This represented Rand’s blindness to his role and what was happening to him and around him. As the Dragon, Rand is linked to the land, and his wounds represent the land's wounds as the world suffers under the threat of the Shadow. His association with the health of the Land is shown in a passage in the Karaethon cycle:

"There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he one with the land."

- A Crown of Swords, Opening prophecy

So the Fisher playing piece, the Fisher King of Arthurian legend, and Rand, the Dragon Reborn, are all linked; they have similar roles (see Rand essay). The Fisher piece is probably a memory of a Dragon figure in an earlier Age. So is the Fisher King.

As the Fisher piece in the game of sha’rah, Rand is being manipulated by many players and would-be players for the Shadow and for the Light.

Moridin’s strategy to ensure his victory in the real-life game of sha’rah currently being enacted is to play both sides of the board. He rescued Rand in Shadar Logoth and gave him useful hints on how to beat or survive Sammael (to keep Rand alive until it is time for him to die in the Last Battle); but he also has set Black Asha’man the task of killing Rand, or at least taking Rand’s objects of the power (when he thinks that Rand might be getting ahead of him in the game). Other Forsaken, under Moridin’s control and/or direction, are manipulating forces such as the Aes Sedai, the Seanchan, etc in readiness for the Last Battle. Moridin’s strategy, his ultimate goal (pun intended) is to have Rand placed exactly where he wants him—in the winning position for the Shadow.


Real World Equivalents to Sha'rah

The closest equivalent to sha’rah is the tafl family of games. These games are Norse in origin, and were very popular prior to the introduction of chess in the eleventh century. By the late sixteenth century the game was no longer played in Wales, and was gone from Lapland in the early eighteenth century. There were many variants, such as hnefatafl, tablut, gwyddbwyll, and alea evangelii, all with similar rules and styles, but played on different sized boards.

One of the tafl games, gwyddbwyll, is mentioned in three stories in the Mabinogion, a masterpiece of medieval and Arthurian literature. The Fisher King itself is another borrowing from the Arthurian literature.

The edition used is the 1974 edition of the translation by Professors Gwyn and Thomas Jones. The three stories are: The Dream of Macsen Wledig, The Dream of Rhonabwy and Peredur son of Efrawg.

From The Dream of Macsen Wledig:

And on the couch facing him he could see two auburn-haired youths playing at gwyddbwyll. A silver board he saw for the gwyddbwyll and golden pieces thereon.

From The Dream of Rhonabwy:

And Arthur seated himself upon the mantle, with Owein son of Urien standing before him.
“Owein,” said Arthur, “wilt play gwyddbwyll?”
“I will, lord,” said Owein. And the red-headed servitor brought the gwyddbwyll to Arthur and Owein: gold pieces and a board of silver. And they began to play.”

In Peredur son of Efrawg, Peredur not only saw “three bald-headed swarthy youths playing gwyddbwyll,” he also met the Lame (Fisher) King, whose wounds symbolise the strife in his land.

The translators explain gwyddbwyll in a footnote:

“Not, as hitherto translated, chess (a battle-game), but a hunt game, like the Icelandic hnefatafl. Like chess, however, it was played with board and pieces. The king, from the centre of the board, tries to break through to the safety of the outer edge; the hunting party (without a king) endeavours to pen him in and capture him.”

Objective

The king, in his central castle, is protected by his defenders and is besieged by four armies of assailants. With the aid of his defenders, he must escape the aggressors by reaching one of the four corners of the board. There are twice as many assailants as defenders, and they are divided into four armies. They must capture the king by blocking him in and preventing his movement. In the Last Battle, the Light had four armies, which the Shadow crippled, and they then fell back to one central position.

Board

The variants of the tafl family were played on boards of odd numbers of squares as small as 7 x 7 and as large as 19 x 19. The boards were usually wooden and the squares were all one colour. Most boards had the starting positions of the pieces marked to facilitate setting up.

The boards for the tafl variants are:

A 7 x 7 board was used for gwyddbwyll (Welsh), ard-ri (Scottish), and fidchell, brandubh, fitchneal or fithcheall (Irish).

A 9 x 9 board was used for tablut (Finnish) and a Lapp variant of the game.


An 11 x 11 board was used for tawlbwrdd (Welsh), and for hnefatafl, the Norse variant (see photo right). The tawlbwrdd board had three shaded rows, the fourth, sixth, and eight.




Hnefatafl was also played on a 13 x 13 board (see photo right).




A 19 x 19 board was used for alea evangelii, the Saxon variant.


Pieces

Pieces consisted of a white king, white defenders and black assailants. The king was bigger and more ornate.

For 7 x 7 and 9 x 9 boards, the white king had 8 white defenders and was opposed by 16 black assailants. Boards with more squares typically had 12 light pieces and a king facing twenty-four dark pieces.




In alea evangelii, the white king and his 24 defenders faced 48 dark attackers. The king's pieces were sometimes differentiated, with a small, elite "king's guard" of uncapturable pieces.


Set-up

The king is placed on the central square (throne), surrounded by his defenders (other white pieces). On the smaller boards, the eight defenders are placed in each of the two squares adjacent to and projecting outward to the right, left, top, and bottom of the central square to form a cross shape. On the larger boards, the extra four defenders are placed on the four diagonals adjacent to the king.

On the smaller boards, the 16 black assailants are placed in four equal groups along the four sides of the board. In each group, three assailants are centred along the outermost row and one is in the centre of the next row in, forming a T shape. For the large boards, the attacking pieces are still placed in four T shapes on the four sides of the board. Five pieces are centred along the board edge and the sixth is in the centre of the next row in.

Rules

1. Each player in turn moves only one piece. The assailants (black) move first—except in the case of alea evangelii, where the defenders (white) move first.

2. All the pieces move orthogonally any number of vacant squares (the move of the rook in chess). The square moved to must be vacant.

3. The throne and the four corner squares are off-limits to all pieces expect the king. For the smaller board variants, pieces of either colour may pass over the throne; for the larger board variants, only the king may do so.

4. A piece is captured and removed from the board when the opponent moves to occupy both adjacent squares in a row or column. This is the custodian method of capture. It is possible to capture more than one piece with a single move.

5. A piece may move safely onto an empty square between two enemy pieces without being captured.

6. The king is captured by double custodianship: that is if all four squares around him are occupied by enemy pieces; or if he is surrounded on three sides by enemy pieces and on the fourth by the throne square or the side of the board. The king can also be captured if he and no more than one defender are surrounded on all sides and incapable of moving. When the king is captured, the game is over and the assailants are victorious.

When the king is in danger of being captured on the assailants’ next move, the assailants’ player must announce "Watch your king" to the king’s player. (This is the forerunner of the prohibition against moving one's king into check in chess).

7. The king’s player wins if the king reaches any corner square, or, on the larger boards, any side square. When there is a clear route for the king to a corner square, the king’s player must warn the opposing player by saying "Raichi!" When there are two clear routes the player must say "Tuichi!" This is the equivalent of "checkmate" since it is impossible to block two directions in the same move.

8. Because the game is uneven, it is usual to play two games, switching sides. Balance—one of Robert Jordan’s most important themes in the books. Each player keeps track of how many pieces he lost or took from his opponent and this score is used to determine the ultimate winner.

Strategy

The king's forces usually possess a slight advantage, despite being outnumbered. Tactically, the defenders (king's men) must arrange for the king to escape the board. Therefore, the defenders should try to capture as many attackers as possible to clear an escape route, while not trying too hard to protect themselves, since they, too, can block the king's escape. The attacker's object is not only to prevent the king's escape, but also to capture him. The best way to do this is to avoid making captures early in the game, instead scattering the attackers to block possible escape routes.

The King, in his initial position, is blocked from reaching an edge square by three or four pieces. The king’s player:

therefore aims to do everything in his power to clear a pathway. The enemy, however, is in something of a double bind. While wishing to capture royal guards in order to render the king vulnerable, he may equally prefer to leave them be, since their continued presence, in the hands of an inexpert player, can restrict the king’s field of movement and block his passage to the edge. Between equally matched players, the royal force should normally win.

- David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games

These tactics sound familiar! Rand’s success is blocked at times by the actions, or lack of actions, of people on his own side, or at least neutral to him. And the Shadow, at the least, let it happen, or even try to set it up. Moridin left Rand’s left- and right-hand generals in place for much of the series, but said in Knife of Dreams that, with the advent of the Last Days, the time had come to clear the board of these pieces…

Variants

In some games, the king could help kill pieces and in others he could not.

In some games the throne is considered a piece (may be used to assist a capture and may only be crossed or occupied by the king piece).

Another variation is that a piece may not move to place itself in sandwich between two opposing pieces without being captured.

With the smaller boards, a different game is played if the pieces can only move one square at a time.

Experienced players may choose to complicate the play by observing two extra rules: the king may only move one square at a time and only the king may move onto squares adjacent to the corner squares.

Finally, an element of chance can be introduced by the use of dice. If the player rolls an odd number, they can move, if an even, they skip their turn. (Shades of Mat Cauthon added to the mix.)

What are the differences between sha’rah and the tafl games?

Robert Jordan has combined an ancient game with a mythological figure from Arthurian literature—the Fisher King—to form a very complex game that reflects the actual situation in his world. The wounds of the Fisher reflect the wounds of his lands in the same way that Rand’s wounds reflect his damaged world and the sacrifice he will make to Heal it.

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.

There are more pieces in sha’rah than in tafl, even considering the size of the board, because the struggle against the Shadow involves the whole world. The pieces have differing moves—many different groups are involved in the struggle and this adds to the game’s and the actual situation’s complexity. Only one of the tafl games, alea evangelii, had king’s pieces that were differentiated and that in a more simple manner.

Each side has the same number of pieces and each side can use the Fisher. This makes the game and the war against the Shadow totally even. In the tafl games, the sides were uneven, with the smaller, king’s side having the advantage.

The pieces are red and green, not black (Shadow) and white (Light), as though it is hard to tell which player is for the Light and which for the Shadow. Or even which pieces are for the Light and which for the Shadow…

The Fisher changes sides and is coloured black and white to reflect this. While we don’t know how the Fisher is forced to change sides, perhaps it occurs when he is blocked and taken in custody by one player in a similar way to the tafl games. If at this point the Fisher then becomes a piece of the player who trapped and surrounded him, his previous owner would have to separate him from these now protective pieces and try to take him back into their custody. Or else force the Fisher onto a square of their colour on the goal row.

He has differing moves depending on his square colour: on a white square, he is “weak in attack, yet agile and far-ranging in escape”, when he is on a black square, he is “strong in attack, but slow and vulnerable”. This variability weakens the Fisher’s powers, since it makes him unstable and also makes playing him more complicated. This symbolises Rand’s vulnerability and tendency to cause chaos, but also his strokes of luck and genius.

The Fisher is the target. He changes sides, as the Shadow wanted Rand to do and the Light tried to prevent. Instead of one player having the king and trying to get him to a corner of the board, and the other player trying to trap and capture the king as in tafl, in sha’rah, both players vie for the Fisher and each try to get him onto one of their goal-row squares at their opponent’s end or force their opponent to put him on one of their squares on the goal-row. Part of the tactics is manipulating the other player to play the Fisher where you want, not where they want. This reflects the amount of manipulation going on in the war against the Shadow. In fact, it is not possible to win in sha’rah unless one manipulates the other player, and through them, the Fisher.

Moridin tried to win by constraining Rand, surrounding him on all fronts, including inside his head, or disguising his pieces as Rand’s pieces (eg Taim), or subverting Rand’s pieces. Order burned to clear Rand’s path, and Moridin did all he could to get Rand’s people to hinder Rand with conflicting orders, misinformation, subverted aides, forced conversions to the Shadow, distractions (eg rebellion), multiple enemies (eg Seanchan), you name it. He let Perrin and Mat largely be while they seemed to have been distracted from their original instructions, and thus were getting in Rand’s way. But in the Last Days he commanded they be killed, to free up some space so he can get his own pieces in for the final blocking moves, the double custodianship, on the Fisher King.

If a player decides to win by eliminating all the opponent’s pieces, the other player would have to do likewise for their own protection. The game would indeed “degenerate into a bloody melee” as Moridin described it, since there are so many pieces to eliminate.

Min correctly deduced that Callandor, often called a 'fearful blade' or 'the blade of ruin' in the prophecies, would make Rand open to attack if he used it (Towers of Midnight, A Storm of Light). Rand thought that this flaw in Callandor would result in his death. However, in the game of sha’rah, when the Fisher is weak in attack, he would also be agile and far ranging in escape... So logically using Callandor might be the saving of him in some way as well as his undoing. This turned out to be the case: Moridin was trapped with Callandor’s flaw and forced to help Rand and the two women seal the Dark One away. Rand’s body and identity and Moridin’s soul died, but Rand's soul lived on in Moridin’s body. So Rand won his battle against the Dark One, but ‘died’, and yet escaped death.

Sha’rah’s Name

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.

And the winner is…


Sha’rah has been changed from tafl to make an even contest between the players. This reflected the great uncertainty over who would win the game—the Light or the Shadow.

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Written by Linda, April 2004 and updated June 2013

Contributor: Mark