Re: History of the Galaxy, part 1-Story Thread
2413.9
Alpha Tau, Ship Lords' Log
When I called for election nearly a year ago I assumed we'd be at war with the Praetorians within a month and I'd be far from homeworld. Instead neither side has said a thing in the conflict, indeed most all contacts are silent at this point.
The only thing keeping the warships from going berserk from boredom is constant news about undisclosed contacts within the Amon'krie, and the progress of two ships that have defected and are heading to Homeworld for a celebration and feast.
Its rare to see this many ships orbitting homeworld. Many captains and their crews have been visiting other ships, exchanging war stories and other gossip, and getting a Oom'vra championship set up. The Cue'Cappa are here as well, with a light cruiser and crew, and they plan on being the first outsiders to play Oom'vra in the championship.
Oom'vra tournaments are sporadic at best, occuring when at least 32 lords promise to play throughout the duration. Individual Oom'vra games are played frequently in any corner of Fazrah space, and Oom'vra is a game that is vastly different every time it is played.
The tokens that are used are made by the players, and they may have bizarre rules that would seem to unbalance the game. However the real fight is in the first phase of each game, where players try to get the right tokens, as each player may end up with mostly tokens brought by the opponent, or not, depending on the play. The main mark of skill in the game is to confuse your opponent, while making the Token understandable enough for the judge to allow it. (Pure gibberish and truly ambiguous tokens are not allowed)
Amateurs and outsiders often have difficulty with the odd quirks of this game, as it gives a first impression of simply being a matter of making "I WIN" tokens. An old saying goes, "The fool writes 'I win', while the master uncovers it."
I've played a bit of Oom'vra, but I'm not up to the top players. I've seen their tokens, and they manage to fit quite a bit into 100 words.
Other than the 'I win' tokens, even our Fazrah gold coin has Oom'vra token rules on the back, as it can be played as a token. It is a very broadly used token, more popular than 'I win' and all good players have to account for its rules and try to counteract them.
Oom'vra is good fun, and a good example of Fazrah ways for outsiders. It can get rowdy, with a whole gaggle watching every token played and cheering them on. We plan on showing it to the Amon'krie captains that defected. The bit of the Gold being a token gets them every time. I've also heard a few Lords banter about a new Token in play, thats been christened in my name as,
"Lord Alzene's Undo Mischief"
[A rough translation from Fazrahn of course, but the best that can be had]
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