#1: Tak'ma Ta'ruk (literally: to me, to you) This was always a popular game for Jaffa boys - mostly because it could be played one-on-one or entire groups together. One-on-one, it was played with a wooden stick (for the fortunate, a wooden staff-weapon), but if there were more, a rope was used. The game itself was simple - grab hold of one end and pull. Whichever side overbalanced the opponents first, won.
When the boys turned 14, and entered their warrior's training, they discovered that Tak'ma Ta'ruk was now a training-exercise - between master and apprentice - and that it was played with two staff-weapons.
#2: Do'riak (literally: hearth) The Jaffa girls played Do'riak. It was a great game, that could be varied into infinity. It could be played alone, or with a group. It required little more than an old pot and a doll at it's simplest - but could involve an entire household at it's most complex.
The girls didn't know that they were training for the day when they would be married to a warrior and be expected to run their own household, take care of their children and do it all while their husbands were away on their Gods command - sometimes for entire decades at a time. They simply imitated the adults they saw around them.
#3: Rak'il'na (literally: death by staff-weapon) This was a very popular game in the old days before all Jaffa were freed. It was especially popular among the bigger children because of the tournaments held in Rak'il'na, where the weapons-masters would come to chose their apprentices.
Rak'il'na was played anywhere children could run around unchallenged. When played in the tournaments, the game-field could be set up as a hillside, a maze, the interior of a ha'tak... only the game-master's imagination was the limit. For those without staff-weapon dummies, it was played with branches of the right length - and it was played on the contestants' honor. To call out a hit when you had not had a line of fire was dishonorable - as was denying being hit.
A hit from a distance counted two 'stones'. A hit from two staff-lengths or less counted four 'stones'. But a hit within striking distance counted eight 'stones', and took our your competitor for the rest of the game. The children didn't understand that this was a way to judge damage and how lethal a hit would be in real life - or they wouldn't, until their weapon was real.
#4: Bas'alk (literally: Moose of winter) One of the few games the Jaffa children played with members of the opposite sex. It wasn't a very complex game - but it was always played under aldult supervision. Mostly because it involved kissing.
The girls would hold their hands up against their heads, fingers spread like horns - and then they'd chase the boys, trying to trip them, catch them or touch them with their hand-antlers. The boys, for their part, had a long stick, representing a spear. If they touched the girls with the spear before she could catch them, she'd drop to the ground, and the boy would get to kiss her. If the girl caught the boy first, she'd kiss him.
The games of Bas'alk were always full of laughter and shrieking, and it was one of the games the Jaffa on rare leave would request most often.
#5: Mor'ian'tesh (literally: Steel-blades) The Mor'ian'tesh wasn't a game the Jaffa knew before they were freed. Indeed, for quite a few years after they were freed, it wasn't a game they knew. It took one retired general and a whole lot of persuasion to get the first Jaffa children to put on the Mor'ian'tesh. But once they did, the winter-frozen lakes of the Jaffa worlds were no longer safe.
In fact, within 15 years of Mor'ian'tesh being introduced, the retired Tau'ri general was invited to the opening of the first Jaffa Mor'ian'tesh'eck. Both human and Jaffa reporters recorded his immortal words as he cut the blue ribbon to officially open the building.
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Date: 2008-07-28 02:45 pm (UTC)This was always a popular game for Jaffa boys - mostly because it could be played one-on-one or entire groups together. One-on-one, it was played with a wooden stick (for the fortunate, a wooden staff-weapon), but if there were more, a rope was used. The game itself was simple - grab hold of one end and pull. Whichever side overbalanced the opponents first, won.
When the boys turned 14, and entered their warrior's training, they discovered that Tak'ma Ta'ruk was now a training-exercise - between master and apprentice - and that it was played with two staff-weapons.
#2: Do'riak (literally: hearth)
The Jaffa girls played Do'riak. It was a great game, that could be varied into infinity. It could be played alone, or with a group. It required little more than an old pot and a doll at it's simplest - but could involve an entire household at it's most complex.
The girls didn't know that they were training for the day when they would be married to a warrior and be expected to run their own household, take care of their children and do it all while their husbands were away on their Gods command - sometimes for entire decades at a time. They simply imitated the adults they saw around them.
#3: Rak'il'na (literally: death by staff-weapon)
This was a very popular game in the old days before all Jaffa were freed. It was especially popular among the bigger children because of the tournaments held in Rak'il'na, where the weapons-masters would come to chose their apprentices.
Rak'il'na was played anywhere children could run around unchallenged. When played in the tournaments, the game-field could be set up as a hillside, a maze, the interior of a ha'tak... only the game-master's imagination was the limit. For those without staff-weapon dummies, it was played with branches of the right length - and it was played on the contestants' honor. To call out a hit when you had not had a line of fire was dishonorable - as was denying being hit.
A hit from a distance counted two 'stones'. A hit from two staff-lengths or less counted four 'stones'. But a hit within striking distance counted eight 'stones', and took our your competitor for the rest of the game. The children didn't understand that this was a way to judge damage and how lethal a hit would be in real life - or they wouldn't, until their weapon was real.
#4: Bas'alk (literally: Moose of winter)
One of the few games the Jaffa children played with members of the opposite sex. It wasn't a very complex game - but it was always played under aldult supervision. Mostly because it involved kissing.
The girls would hold their hands up against their heads, fingers spread like horns - and then they'd chase the boys, trying to trip them, catch them or touch them with their hand-antlers. The boys, for their part, had a long stick, representing a spear. If they touched the girls with the spear before she could catch them, she'd drop to the ground, and the boy would get to kiss her. If the girl caught the boy first, she'd kiss him.
The games of Bas'alk were always full of laughter and shrieking, and it was one of the games the Jaffa on rare leave would request most often.
#5: Mor'ian'tesh (literally: Steel-blades)
The Mor'ian'tesh wasn't a game the Jaffa knew before they were freed. Indeed, for quite a few years after they were freed, it wasn't a game they knew. It took one retired general and a whole lot of persuasion to get the first Jaffa children to put on the Mor'ian'tesh. But once they did, the winter-frozen lakes of the Jaffa worlds were no longer safe.
In fact, within 15 years of Mor'ian'tesh being introduced, the retired Tau'ri general was invited to the opening of the first Jaffa Mor'ian'tesh'eck. Both human and Jaffa reporters recorded his immortal words as he cut the blue ribbon to officially open the building.
"Cool. Now you get to ice-skate all year round."