Abiegnus
| Abiegnus | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed by Matthew Rogers | ||
| ||
| Rosicrucian Volcano | ||
| Players: | 1 - 2 | |
| Length: | Medium | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 5 | |
| Number of colors: | 5 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Volcano board, 5 ELBs, color die | ||
| Setup time: | 5 minutes | |
| Playing time: | 5 minutes - 20 minutes (not including divination) | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | Medium | |
| Game mechanics: | eruption, divination | |
| Theme: | mystical | |
| BGG Link: | 134565 | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2012 | ||
Abiegnus is the Mystical Mountain of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. This pyramid game uses Volcano mechanics in an arrangement and manner inspired by Rosicrucian Chess.
Setup[edit | edit source]
Abiegnus is played on a 5x4 board that is set up to emulate the Tablet of Union from the system of angelic magic developed by Elizabethan adepts John Dee and Edward Kelly. The most convenient and effective way to create such a board is to start by placing 5 ELBs across a row of a Kadon Volcano board. Then set up the pyramid nests according to the elemental attributions for the Tablet of Union (black = spirit, yellow = air, blue = water, green = earth, red = fire), thus:
- Place small black pyramids down the first file of the board, yellow down the second, blue down the third, green down the fourth, and red down the fifth.
- On these, nest medium yellow pyramids across the first rank, blue across the second, green across the third, and red across the fifth.
- On these, nest large black pyramids down the first file, yellow down the second, blue down the third, green down the fourth, and red down the fifth.
- Finally, on the first file, on each of the large black pyramids place one small pyramid of these colors (and in this order): yellow, blue, green, red,
Left over and set to the side should be one large pyramid of each color, all five black medium pyramids, and one black small pyramid. They are not used in this game.
Turn Play[edit | edit source]
Play proceeds as in Volcano, capturing pyramids by means of eruptions. To erupt: Move a small pyramid ("cap") from the top of a stack (orthogonally or diagonally). Then, take the pyramid it was sitting on, and jump that pyramid in a straight line over it to land on the next square. Then the pyramid below that (if any) jumps one square farther in the same direction. Continue the process until 1) the stack is exhausted, 2) the edge of the board is reached, or 3) there is another cap in the path of the eruption. Pyramids do not erupt on to caps. Any erupted large or medium pyramid that lands on another pyramid of its own size is captured by the player taking that turn. If eruption is blocked (or there is no stack to erupt) when moving a cap, the player can continue to move the cap (or another cap of the same color) until there is an eruption -- or a cap is captured (see below, #3).
There are three important differences from ordinary Volcano:
- In Abiegnus, all small pyramids -- of whatever color -- function as caps. Whenever a small pyramid is erupted or uncovered from a nest, it enters play as a cap.
- The player must roll the color die before moving, and can only move a cap (or multiple caps, if there has been no eruption) of the indicated color. If no such cap is available (e.g. rolling black on the first turn, or rolling a color where the caps are all hemmed in by other caps), then play passes. The wild/atom face of the die allows the player to choose freely among all colors of caps.
- Any cap can be captured, if (and only if) a cap of the same color is moved (not erupted) onto the top of it. This move ends the player's turn, the way an eruption otherwise would.
Two-Player Game Finish and Scoring[edit | edit source]
As soon as all four large black pyramids have been removed from the board, the game is over.
Players receive one point for each captured pyramid (of whatever size), but double points for pyramids of any color that the other player did not capture. High score wins.
Solitaire Play[edit | edit source]
Try to capture all twenty medium pyramids before capturing
a) any non-black larges, or
b) all four black larges.
Divination Play[edit | edit source]
Divination or "fortune telling" with Abiegnus is certainly more of an art than a science. The following methods are recommended for experiment.
The Ptah[edit | edit source]
As in Rosicrucian Chess, divination with Abiengus typically requires an additional piece called the Ptah. The optimal object for this purpose is a small white pyramid. If no small Xeno or pink pyramid is available, then some non-pyramidal object small enough to fit inside a medium pyramid will serve.
Set the Ptah in place of the small pyramid nested on the square that best corresponds to the subject matter of the question, according to these correspondences for (x,y), where x is the file and y is the rank:
- (Air, Air) - philosophy, communication, news
- (Air, Water) - social solidarity and group transformation
- (Air, Earth) - leadership, business, publishing
- (Air, Fire) - new ideas, sudden disputes, passions
- (Water, Air) - intuition, mental health
- (Water, Water) - suffering, sacrifice
- (Water, Earth) - temporary appetites, ignorance, illusion
- (Water, Fire) - individual transformation, initiation
- (Earth, Air) - physical health, agriculture, labor
- (Earth, Water) - borrowing, loss, medicine
- (Earth, Earth) - real estate and property, machinery
- (Earth, Fire) - physical force, authority, energy
- (Fire, Air) - true religion, wisdom, comprehension
- (Fire, Water) - visions and dreams, procreation, creativity
- (Fire, Earth) - motivation, global transformation
- (Fire, Fire) - beginnings, inspiration, victory
The squares of the Spirit file concern ineffable relations between the querent and his or her individual genius. They are not used to place the Ptah for ordinary divinations.
The most basic divination play result concerns the exposure of the Ptah. If the Ptah can be uncovered before three black pyramids have been captured, the result is favorable. In general, the fewer black pyramids captured, the better.
The Captures[edit | edit source]
As pyramids are captured in a divination game, place them in a row. If two or more pyramids are captured in the same turn, stack them. If a turn needs to be skipped because no cap of the rolled color can be moved, leave a space in the row.
When the game is finished (i.e. when the Ptah has been exposed), read the pyramids from start to finish, based on their elemental correspondences. (The table for placing the Ptah above may help to interpret stacks, where large pyramids are x and medium pyramids are y.) This reading should "tell a story" corresponding to the likely good or ill result determined by the exposure of the Ptah.
The Letters[edit | edit source]
Each time an eruption completely clears a square from pyramids (including caps), the letter of the square should be noted. The Tablet of Union is drawn from the Black Cross of the Great Table, and is actually composed of twenty letters, as shown in the following table:
| E | X | A | R | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | C | O | M | A |
| N | A | N | T | A |
| B | I | T | O | M |
The bold letters EHNB are the Spirit file of the Tablet, where the black pyramids and initial caps are placed at the start of Abiegnus.
Having recorded the letters exposed in the course of divination play, they may be found to spell a word, name, or phrase in the Angelic language. (Several dictionaries are commercially available for such interpretation, and some are online.)
Furthermore, they may be interpreted according to the following schedule of meanings based on geomantic correspondences:
- A -- Amissio: Loss, ill omen
- B -- Puer: Rash and inconsiderate, rather good omen
- C -- Triplex Igneum: Matter subject to Will, neutral omen
- E -- Conjunctio: Union, good omen
- H -- Triplex Aerium: Matter subject to Intellect, neutral omen
- I -- Acquisitio: Success, good omen
- M -- Tristitia: Sorrow, bad omen
- N -- Rubeus: Anger and vice, bad omen
- O -- Puella: Pleasant, but ultimately not very good omen
- P -- Fortuna Major: Great fortune, very good omen
- R -- Laetitia: Joy, good omen
- T -- Caput Draconis: Threshold, good omen
- X -- Triplex Terreum: Matter in final manifestation, neutral omen
Color Variant Note for Esotericists[edit | edit source]
The colors assigned in the Abiegnus rules above are in keeping with the New Aeon revision of the color scale, with black for Spirit and green for Earth. They also have the virtue of working tidily with Rainbow Pyramid sets.
However, those who keep to the 19th-century Golden Dawn attributions for Enochian work will probably want to substitute black pyramids for all instances of green above (i.e. Earth), and white ones for all instances of black (i.e. Spirit). The Ptah can then be clear.
The problem in this case is how to use the Rainbow Color die. Recommendation: The atom burst becomes "white," and the green face of the die is wild.