Emona games

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This page is about the emona family of card games. It is not to be confused with emona, the eponymous game of the family.

Emona games are a family of card games played across the Draconic Islands, Upper Boroso, and Vaniua, originating in the Thyakw Islands of Dhwer, typically played as a form of gambling. The earliest attested game from the family - Myng Hy - originally developed in the Thyakw Islands as a hybrid of the Qonklese card game Kai and traditional Ngerupic nginural games originating in Akulanen (such as Kwąt), and was spread to other regions through commerce and the Dhweran slave trade. The object of such games is to earn more points than other players through the creation of sets with defined structures. Player interactions with the deck and their hands are dictated by the use of dice, typically an action dice and a count dice. Most emona games make use of either a standard Qonklese Maunwe deck or local sets of playing card (these often having origins in Maunwe decks themselves), and there is typically at least one type of special non-numerical card with a special effect on gameplay. In most variants, each player's hand is kept at a constant size throughout the entire game, or at least brought back up to a certain minimum size between turns.

Perhaps the most commonly played emona game is emona proper, which is considered to be the prototypical emona game. Other prolific examples include Qolturbulma (a traditional Qazan card game) and Qedref (introduced to Vaniua via Vosan).

Etymology

The term emona (or eməna) is a Dhwer language corruption of the native Bebiro name for the game, kemiŋã "wind game", itself from the elements (ke)mĩŋ "game" (derived from maunwe) and (yt)ã "wind, luck".

History

The earliest emona games were recorded on the Thyakw Islands (modern Dhwer) between the 11th and 13th Centuries CE, at the apex of Qonklese influence and power projection in the Dragon Sea. The Qonklese presence brought the game of kai to the Thyakw Islands, which local Ngerupic islanders combined with indigenous dice (nguniral) games to create a new style of game. The earliest attested ruleset of an emona game is for a game that was recorded in Middle Kwang as Myng He "wind tiles", a rendering of Ji Gwerup (buè) muíŋué hàs. Most of the identifiable traits of the wider emona family were already present in this early form; the use of the action dice to determine actions taken on a turn is more or less identical to modern emona, as are the scoring combinations (albeit with minor differences in point value). Furthermore, the devil card already had a special effect, this being to double a combination's point value and to force everyone else to draw two cards. However, the requirement that everyone reset their hands to a specific size between turns was not yet mainstream, and was only recorded as a house rule. Although the devil card already had a special effect by now, this was identical to the card's function in kai, with the effect of rerolling the action dice for every player to obey not being attested at this time.

Contact between Qonklaks and Dhwer had seen the introduction of Qonklese-style playing cards to the continent of Boroso by the onset of the 15th Century. By this time, Dhweran influence over the Thyakw Islands had increased, with the Dhweran slave trade becoming entrenched in the region. Ngerupic slaves from the Thyakw Islands brought various forms of emona with them, with the game spreading among enslaved populations as a new form of leisure, a luxury among slaves. The Dhweran slave trade saw the spread of emona games across Upper Boroso, with variants appearing in regions where slaves were traded, such as Tuanmali and Qazania. ...

In Qazania, a prototype of Qolturbulma was played following the introduction of emona games into the country around the 16th century. An early version of the Qazan cards was born as a result. Most deity cards were added between the 16th-17th century, with the final modification of the deck being the introduction of the Juulyqa card during the late 17th century when a prototype of Tisri - a game using the Qazan cards with rules that are very divergent and unalike to emona games, was being developed. The modern version of Qolturbulma was standardised around the early 18th century. Other Qazan emona games arose earlier, tracing back to the mid 16th century where the prototypes of Qandeez, another popular Qazan emona game and Hca Ur, a card game popular among modern day Qazan Kavs were created. In Eastern Qazania and the Roquto peninsula however, the Qazan card deck and certain rules from other emona games combined with local Fals culture to form Xoi - a popular game played by mostly Haral Fals, but also by many Qazans in Eastern Qazania. Simpler card games such as Sügündi, Biśleme and Lescalda which do not involve point systems and far less dice rolling than in emona games arose around the 17th century and are widely played in Qazan cafés nowadays.

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The modern ruleset for Dhweran emona was standardised by [date], ...

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The spread of the emona genre of games to Vaniua came as a result of Vosan colonialism. The game of Qedref originated from the Dhweran region of Hayldrep (the game's namesake), arriving in Vosan through its colony of Kerezh (in modern-day Taanttu) around the mid-1800s. This game would spread through Vaniu and spawn regional variants that became their own games - such as Balak Qedref and Koman Qedref - spreading the emona family far beyond its original geographic scope.

Basic structure

Special cards

Scoring

Examples

Examples of emona games include:

(† marks historical games no longer in active play)