It’s as I said.

Now, there’s one big dissimilarity between Chess and a Sburb session.

A Sburb session is co-operative, though the trolls initially mistake it for a competition. Chess is a player against the other. This has to be re-interpreted in some way, such as the competition being an illusion or what else.

Some pieces, such as the Pawn, show up many times, but we assume there’s only one Page player.



For the similarities.

Chess pieces each have a name analogos to a class. Knight is already a piece and Sburb class both.

The King is analogous to Lord. Pawn is also a clear analogue to Page, who is said to become a threat in the end of the game (a reference to promotion).



We’ll look into Chess and two variants allowing 4-players.

Though most sources note that Enochian Chess is influenced by Shatranj, it’s even closer to Chaturaji as you can see.

Enochian Chess gives an attribution of elements to the boards and pieces that’s relevant, though the part where it has four boards (each with a different element likewise) because of similarity to the Enochian tablet and can be used for divination will be overlooked as it’s not to do with Homestuck.

Knight, for its leaping, is fire.

Bishop is air.

Rook is earth.

Queen is water.

King, Lord, is Spirit.



Page, pawn, is a mix of elements and spirit.

Muse, if not the queen, is too passive to participate.

As for the board, a Sburbian set can perhaps have its Angles be breath, light, time and space. Light is a good analogy for water as they both spread to all directions available to it.



Lord and the fifth element

The king is perfectly analogous to Caliborn.

It has to be checkmated, though not killed (as it’s “immortal”).

Doing so is the goal of the game. (At the least as far as we’re concerned, not knowing of a session without the Lord). We don’t know of a session where him or Page are not there.

King is Osiris in Enochian Chess. Caliborn is shown in an egyptian themed coffin in the finale.

Although it’s said that it influences the flow of the game (by Enochian Chess Qabbalists; Wherever it goeth, it commenceth and initiateth a fresh current, whence it is represented by the motion of only one square in any direction and there staying for this purpose before moving onward ) and Lord is supposed to be the most active class, its movement is small; only one square. This represents how Caliborn isn’t smart but as he’s Lord, Time revolves around him.



This is where it gets eerie in the matter of retroactive coincidences. The symbol of the fifth element, spirit, is symbolized as… that’s right. It’s the movement of the king; to all sides.



Though also the Queen. Unless the circle is meant to say only one square? Is water close to spirit? Is queen water+spirit?



In the board, this fifth element is said to be present in the movement of the pieces. Or perhaps in the rules themselves? Whenever Chess has an oddity like an assymetrical piece (not the knight, rook or bishop), checkmate rulings or en passant, it’s clear that we can also assign it to the spirit. At least I do it. I mean, why not.

The queen, however, does not have such a freedom in 4-player Chess. It tries to move in a straight line like a ray of light, but the board has been divided from 2 to 4 sides… you do the maths. Same for the Enochian bishop.

