Long time ago, legend says, this was how chess, the famous game today, was created:
When the first humans started to settle on the planet Ardent, they were ruled by two gods and one goddess - Magna, the god who ruled all earth and flames, Crystal, the goddess who controlled all water, and air, and lastly, Eon, the god of time and ruler of all humans. Eon was also the father of goddess Crystal and god Magna. Together they ruled Ardent.
They ruled happily for centuries. But slowly some issues were coming up regarding their roles and authority. However, they had bigger issues to handle. They noticed that the human tribes were starting to wage war against each other. Death and mayhem followed. Many of the tribes eventually became extinct. Some humans even rebelled against the gods. The gods became furious and decided to take action to stop the rebellion and anarchy.
First, they made 31 elite humans with semi-god like powers. 15 were to be known as the Black warriors as the other 15 would be signified as the White warriors. They also created one runner to send a warning to all humans.
Next they sent the runner to go and inform all the humans immediately. First he went to the city of Amber and directly went to see the king of the city, King Ambia. He was working on war tactics and ignored the runner.
The runner warned, “I am here on behalf of the three gods to stop this war. If you do not listen to me there will be great consequences.”
The king rudely replied, “I couldn’t care less. This is an opportunity to show that we are as powerful as the gods!”
“Have it your way, but I do warn you, be prepared for more than you can handle”, the runner replied with disgust and left.
He went to many cities such as Casterlm, a place where many noble warriors lived; Datogan, a place where a pack of rabid, wild humans lived; and many others. None of them showed any respect or fear for the gods, or any consequences that may come their way. In one particular rebel town, conquered by the current tribe after defeating the people who lived there before, burst into anger after the runner warned them. The leader of the tribe, Ondal, killed the poor runner.
Watching this goddess Crystal started crying; she was compassionate and very caring. Her brother and father became very angry seeing that the humans had no fear of them. They decided to launch war against humans.
They made a plan to create two separate kingdoms at two ends of the planet. One of them would contain the White warriors, and the other one the Black warriors. Then they would declare war against all the human tribes and ask them to gather in between the two kingdoms to fight the Great Battle. The White warriors would march toward the Black kingdom killing any human that come their way and vice versa. Since Eon was the supreme leader, he decided the roles. He himself would control the Black kingdom while Magna and Crystal would control the White kingdom together. The siblings were unhappy about it as they wanted their own kingdoms, and wanted to rebel but decided to keep it quiet for the time being.
In a short period, the gods created the two great kingdoms and prepared for the Great Battle – the war against humans. Their plan was to kill all humans and destroy their habitats.
Before the battle, the three gods decided to turn into human forms to help command the two armies. They got together one last time to discuss their strategy for the battle. They had total 30 warriors, each with different types of power. The power listing looked like this (for one side only) - 8 warriors with low level power, 6 with considerably more power, and 1 with supreme power. They called the low level warriors Pawns or Troops. Since they were utterly defenceless, the gods granted them the power of any warriors that they wished to get once they reached the other kingdom. They grouped the 6 warriors with more power in pairs - Bishops, Knights, and Rooks. Bishops had magic on their side, while Knights tamed horses and had very good cavalry skills. Finally Rooks were skilled warriors, good at taking enemy lines down. The one with the supreme power, the Queen, was the strongest warrior, had all the skills required for battleground. Lastly, the gods decided to take the roll of the Kings, with little power on the battleground but yet the most important. Eon became the king of the Black kingdom while Magna became the king of the White kingdom. Crystal was not very happy. After some discussion they decided that the formation would go a bit like this - the Pawns will be in the front line, the six powerful warriors would be placed behind them with the Rooks at the ends, followed by the Knights, Bishops, the Queen, and the King.
After another few weeks of preparation, finally it was time for the Great Battle. This could be the day when human race would end in Ardent. This could also be the day when the gods would lose their authority. This was the day that both humans and gods were preparing for. As the roar of millions of humans boomed throughout the land, Eon ordered his army, “CHARGE!”. Magna and Crystal also ordered their combined army to attack.
The battle was fierce, in fact, the fiercest battle through the time of Eon. The bloodshed was too much. The gods ran the battle as the Kings, ordering their warriors to move and fight as they (the Kings) saw best. The fight went on and on with both the gods and humans battling courageously. “The humans are stronger than I thought,” said Eon rather surprised. However, the humans were not only fighting the god’s armies, they were also fighting humans from other tribes. This made them weaker and eventually they lost the battle against the gods. Not too many humans survived at the end.
Magna and Crystal decided that they would take this opportunity to wage war against their father and defeat him to take the kingdom from him forever and share it between the two of them. Once the battle against the humans ended they declared war against their father Eon. They knew even though two gods were more powerful than one, Eon was no coward and wouldn’t let go without a fight. Their army contained of three Pawns, one Knight, two Rooks, and the Queen. Eon was left with his Queen, two Bishops, and only one Pawn. Magna thought as they had more power left they were in an advantageous position and could win against Eon by launching a surprise attack. Crystal agreed. The siblings asked their warriors to attack Eon’s kingdom. Eon was probably expecting something like this from his children because he wasn’t very surprised and lead his remaining troops bravely against them. Soon, all the troops were killed and only the Kings, played by the gods, remained.
They fought ferociously for a long time when something magnificent happened. It was called the Spiritual Connection. It was a divine process that could only happen among a god and his children. The process would combine the souls of them and form a new god. This process happened very rarely. It only changed the gods into a single god, the world remained the
same. The Spiritual Connection combined the spirits of Eon, Magna and Crystal and made a new god – Epoch.
Epoch worked hard to try to make the human tribes live peacefully. After many years he succeeded and at last peace came to Ardent and everybody lived together happily. Epoch also took the concept of Great Battle and introduced the board game that we know today as chess to the humans. Very soon it became one of the most popular board games ever.