Putting the Jetan set up for sale!
The Jetan set is up on my Etsy!
If y'all want to link it around, that'd be awesome.
If you're on Tumblr, I posted about it here.
There's also a Burroughs-style mini essay there, detailing the origin of the artifact. I'm sticking it here under a cut as well, so I don't lose it.
A note from the panthan who made this set:
The Green Men of Barsoom do play the game of Jetan, but they play it with flat discs instead of carved and sculpted pieces. They often play outdoors on the soft, dense lichen, and flat pieces are less prone to tipping if the board shifts. The art of the Green Men is not representational in any way, so they mark the pieces with geometrical shapes. These vary region to region.
Fifteen or so years ago, I was captured by a group of Green Men as I foolishly attempted to cross the empty sea-beds of Thark territory alone. My enslavement was, naturally, dismal, but I befriended a young warrior, and in the weeks that followed we played many games of Jetan together. I eventually won my freedom, a tale for another day, but I remembered the games fondly.
After many more adventures, and one unfortunate misadventure, I found myself captive in a Warhoon gladiatorial arena with a young warrior from Ptarth. Remembering how the games with my Thark friend had eased my despair, I made a Jetan set with which to occupy myself and my cell-mate, and soon made sets for the other prisoners. So long as the light held, or if the moons were high, we could play games with one another by calling out our moves from cell to cell. I never saw the faces of many of these brave men and women, but I remember their voices well.
Betting between Green Men is often a bloody practice, and is much more complicated than I have room to delineate here. Hopefully this bare description will suffice. Small wooden betting tokens are marked with the warrior's personal sigil and a tanpi value. Warriors place their bets, using either dark tokens or light tokens depending on the side they are supporting. Once all bets have been made, the box is closed up, and the tally is made at the end, when the warrior must pay in coin or goods equivalent to the value marked on the back of the token.
I bartered for several lesser-quality betting boxes and sets of tokens, scoured them clean, and redecorated them with the black and white paint used to mark our bodies before each match.
The "boards" I painted on bits of cloth and canvas; less sturdy and stable than typical wooden boards, but they could be rolled tight and stored inside the betting boxes with the tokens, and the whole was easy to slip between bars, conceal, or carry.
I managed to take a few of these with me when I went, and others have returned to me as time passes and chance declares. This is one of them.
Naturally, the set has experienced some wear. The pieces are all present, however, and the board is without holes. The pieces and box are painted and stained skeel, and have been carefully waxed to protect them from weathering and splitting.
There is some staining to the canvas. While setting up for a game during an unpleasant journey through the Toonolian marshes, a sudden wind swept the cloth from my hand. I managed to retrieve it, but not before it had been soaked. The stains have proven impossible to eradicate. There is also a small bloodstain on one corner. My apologies.
In light of the fact that I do not have room to carry them with me, I have decided to divest myself of several of these sets. My gracious host remarked that they might hold some value for Jasoomian collectors of oddities. I find the idea rather delightful, so she will be acting as a liaison.
I do hope, though, that you play a few matches, so that you may better appreciate the art and tradition of this most Barsoomian of all games.
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