Kayago

Kayago was a highly complex and immersive boardgame, played during the early Shogunate and perhaps before. It is known now only through references in Shogunate texts, which praise the game as the ultimate test of the military mind.

It is said that Mela herself created the game, and that the great generals and daimyo of the early Shogunate were all masters. The game was, however, so complex that no mortal had any hope of comprehending it. Indeed, those who have researched the historic record often come to believe even the Dragonblooded struggled to grasp its depths and nuances.

Kayago was a game tied to a specific plant, the Kaya Yew, which was used to carve the board on which it was played using carefully-carved jade pieces. In addition to texture and colour, the wood of the Kaya Yew, when properly carved, opened the mind of a player and granted an advanced understanding of the game... understanding vital to be able to play the game at all.

As the Shogunate wore on, first the Kaya Yew tree was rendered extinct, and then the surviving game boards were cannibalized so their wood could be used to produce military artifice. It was said that only two boards remained in Creation at the end of the Shogunate: one in the galleries of the Shogunal Palace and the other possessed by general Alabaster Gate of Anger. The destruction of the Shogunal capital, followed by the obliteration of general Alabaster under the banner of the Seven Tigers, meant the loss of Kayago to Creation.

Some modern writers have called Cathak Cacek's game Gateway a spiritual successor to Kayago, though there are no known links between the two.