You know me as The Stranger.
There is a story from a time now forgotten by most, when Egypt was just a fledgling community.
A derelict ship, far larger than your simple ferries, became beached on Egypt's shores.
Inside, Pharaoh and his scientists found a great treasure; thousands of debens of a brilliant yet durable metal unknown to Egypt.
The Priests declared the bounty a gift from the Gods, sent to help Egypt build a great society.
Pharaoh asked the people to come up with uses for the metal, and when they had come to an agreement on which was the most beneficial, he would hand it over.
Egypt immediately broke into camps, squabbling over how the metal should be used.
The Architects wanted to construct huge obelisks out of the material, believing they could use it to harness the power of lightning.
The Politicians wanted to mint the metal into currency, arguing that a permanent and universal currency would usher in a new age of prosperity and trade.
The Philosophers demanded the metal be turned over to them for research, so that they could better understand the lands across the waters.
The Artists wanted the beautiful metal to mold and shape into great works of art, so that future generations would remember the Culture of the past.
The bickering went on for many months, during which alliances between the groups rose and fell, always shifting, although more often that not it was the Architects and Politicians united against the Philosophers and Artists.
As for the common people of Egypt, they went about their lives unconcerned about this controversy.
In fact, they made light of it, devising a game of cards which imitated the various groups all vying for the Pharaoh's attention, and the constantly-changing alliances.
The game was named 'Yokir,' after the name of the beached ship.
What happened to the metal, is not generally known.
But I know.
For my next challenge, I give you The Test of Yokir.
Master this challenge, and the mystery metal may be yours.
-- Gharib
There is a story from a time now forgotten by most, when Egypt was just a fledgling community. A derelict ship, far larger than our simple ferries, became beached on Egypt's shores. Inside, the Pharaoh and his scientists found a great treasure; thousands of debens of a brilliant yet durable metal unknown to Egypt. The Priests declared the bounty a gift from the Gods, sent to help Egypt build a great society. Pharaoh asked the people to come up with uses for the metal, and when they had come to an agreement on which was the most beneficial, he would hand it over.
Egypt immediately broke into camps, squabbling over how the metal should be used. The Architects wanted to construct huge obelisks out of the material, believing they could use it to harness the power of lightning. The Politicians wanted to mint the metal into currency, arguing that a permanent and universal currency would usher in a new age of prosperity and trade. The Philosophers demanded the metal be turned over to them for research, so that they could better understand the lands across the waters. The Artists wanted the beautiful metal to mold and shape into great works of art, so that future generations would remember the Culture of the past.
The bickering went on for many months, during which alliances between the groups rose and fell, always shifting, although more often that not it was the Architects and Politicians united against the Philosophers and Artists. As for the common people of Egypt, they went about their lives unconcerned about this controversy. In fact, they made light of it, devising a game of cards which imitated the various groups all vying for the Pharaoh's attention, and the constantly-changing alliances. The game was named 'Yokir,' after the name of the beached ship.
What happened to the metal, we no longer know, other than that no group was able to lay claim to it. Some say the Stranger stole it during the uproar; others believe the Pharaoh became disgusted with the arguing and cast the ship back out to sea. However, the game played by the commoners remains today. Your challenge is to master this game, and get to know it well, so that the lessons of the past are not forgotten.
This Test is the one created by the followers of the Conflict Discipline in the prior Age (Tale1) and inscribed on the Monument of Conflict found at 735 -1874. The design page from Tale1 may be found here.
The game is played on a Yokir Desk (page has construction costs), which must be built for the game and may be dismantled without cost after.
This is a three-person variation of a card game called Euchre (normally a four player game with two teams of two... reading about it online will probably help understand the variation). The deck consists of 24 cards of four suits: Architecture (a pyramid, color black), Leadership (a Pharoah's crown, color red), Art & Music (Musical notes and a paintbrush, color black) and Thought (a papyrus scroll, color red); and six ranks: Initiate, Student, Prentice, Journeyman, Scribe and Master.
To win the game, you must reach 7 points (if two players reach 7 points simultaneously, play continues until there is a single player with more points). A series of "hands" is played, with the ability to pick up zero, one, or two points per hand. (Scoring below). Here is how the hands work:
A dealer (although the computer will do the actual dealing) is randomly chosen from the three players at the start of the game, after each hand, the dealership passes down the list. The dealer deals five cards to each player, leaving a pile of 9 cards, the top of these is flipped face-up on the table, and the rest discarded for this hand. Starting on the dealer's left, each player has a chance to accept or reject the face-up card. If the card is accepted, the player takes the card into his hand and discards one of his current ones (discarded card not shown to the other players). The "trump" suit for this hand is the same suit as whatever card was picked up. If the card is rejected by all three players, then it is discarded, and the ability to call any one of the remaining three suits goes around player-by-player again . If everyone passes during this second round, all cards are discarded and everyone receives 0 points for that hand.
The player who calls up trump, either by picked up the card on the first round, or calling one of the other suits on the second round, is on his own for the hand; the other two players are on a team. If the lone player takes 0, 1, or 2 "tricks" the other two players each get 1 point. If the lone player takes 3 or 4 tricks, he gets 1 point. If the lone player takes all 5 tricks, he gets 2 points. Letting your teammate know, in any way, what cards you do or do not have is taboo.
There are 5 tricks per hand. One player leads a card, and the others must play a card of the same suit if they can; otherwise they can play any card they want. Whoever has the highest ranking card of the trump suit wins the trick, if no one has played a card of trump suit (and since you have to play the same suit as what was led, this is often the case) than the highest ranking card *of the suit lead* will win. For the first trick of the game, the player immedietly after the dealer leads. After this, the winner of the trick leads next.
One last, and potentially confusing, detail. In each hand, two of the ordinarily low-ranking Initiate cards are turned into a Sage and an Oracle card. The names appear in brackets underneath the cards' rank, after the trump suit has been chosen.
The Initiate of the trump suit is promoted to Oracle, and is the highest trump card in the hand. The Initiate of the same color suit as the trump suit is promoted to Sage of the trump suit, and is therefore the second highest-ranking card. For example, Art & Music are called trump; The Initiate of Art & Music now becomes the Oracle of Art & Music, and the Initiate of Thought now becomes the Sage of Art & Music (since Thought is the same color suit as Art & Music). The Initiate of Architecture and the Initiate of Leadership are still the same low-ranking cards they were before.
(I don't think this is how the Sage and Oracle cards work in this Telling. I believe that Sage and Oracle cards now can trump everything, aka they are higher ranked than the Trump suit Master card. What I am not sure about is which is the higher rank of the two. -- Jaella)
The card's ranks mirror the ranks in game, from Low to High the order is: Initiate, Student, Prentice, J'man, Scribe, Master, Sage, Oracle. Thus, the Oracle is the highest ranking trump card. For more information about Yokir, feel free to ask myself, Dors or any of the other Conflicters -- Al-Bilal
I rewrote the part about Sage and Oracle of the trump suit. I hope it is less confusing now. Al-Bilal, if you are emphasizing the highest ranking card you should write them from high to low. --Erika
The cards are ranked thusly from lowest to highest. Initiate, Student, Prentice, Journeyman, Scribe, Master. (with Sage, and Oracle to come after of the trump suit.)
so if player's A, B, and C are playing.
Hand one - Leadership is Trump
Player A plays the sage of Arch
Player B doesn't have any Arch cards, so he plays the Student of Leadership
Player C is still required to play an Arch card if he has one, which he doesn't, and to not waste his trump cards, plays Journeyman of Thought
Player B wins the trick and leads next hand
Hand two - Thought is Trump
Player A plays the Master of Leadership
Player B plays his the Initiate of Leadership as he cannot beat Master
Player C has no Leadership cards, he has a choice, either play a trump card, or play one of his other cards losing the hand, but saving his trumps
Player A or C wins the trick and leads next hand, depending on what choice C made
See also: Tests, Conflict, Yokir Ranking