Jalak

No one knows what the word jalak means. What is known is that the pillars in the Age were called jalak pillars, and that the Age takes its name from them.

Jalak is a game Age. It was approved by the DRC and released to the public on August 2nd, 2007.

The DRC notebook next to the linking book in the Library of Ae'gura has this to say:

We still haven't figured out exactly how this place is supposed to work, and we're not sure we're ever going to. We do know that the D'ni came here for some kind of sport, and it was fairly popular. We know that audiences came and watched whatever game they played. It's the rules we don't know. We have found no rules written down by the D'ni, which means that it was such common knowledge that no one felt the need to write it down, or the game always changed. Either way, we've been having fun here, and we figured we might as well share a couple of games that we have come up with for this place. You can add your own rules, modify ours, or come up with something completely different. Maybe yours is the way the D'ni really did it. Who knows?

Quick Cubes:

Alright, so this is one of our favorites. Make sure the arena is level. That means all the pillars are at an equal height. Then bring in two of the big cubes. Make sure the wall is in place and set one cube on each corner of the arena Somebody yell go. The rules are you can only affect the pillars directly next to you. In other words, you can only lower or raise the three or four pillars that surround you. No diagonal stuff. You can move around all you want to make sure you affect other pillars, but you have to keep to the adjacent pillar rule. The objective is to get your cube from your corner into your opponent's corner before your opponent gets his or hers into yours. Play offense or play defense, but hurry.

Chess Cubes:

This one is a little slower. Those of us who are a little more into strategy prefer this one. Same idea as before. Level the field. Two cubes. One in each corner. After they are there, hit the randomize button. With this one, you can still only affect the pillars adjacent to you. In addition, you only get three pillar moves before it's you opponent's turn. Your opponent will hear the raises or lowers so don't cheat. You can move the cube all you want while your opponent is going but you can't change any pillars until it's your turn. Same thing as before: get the cube to your opponent's corner before they do.

We should add that some of the ResEngs have been using this place as a construction sandbox—you should see some of the stuff they have built. Castles and stuff. Well... wannabe castles at least.

The machinery in Jalak generates some of the most advanced force fields to be found in the D'ni universe, and I wonder if it may have originally been created at least partly as a place to develop and refine the technology. These pictures show the barrier field around the central platform activated and deactivated. Of note, there is another example of the barrier force field in the Todelmer Age. The observation pod in the ring around the planet Todelmer orbits has a spherical barrier force field surrounding it that has the same hexagonal segmenting you can see here.

Jalak

Force field up

Force field down

Here are some of the objects that can be created by means of a second type of force field using a control panel that activates in your KI when you link into the Age.

Force field objects

The center object is a three-dimensional platform divided into a five by five square grid of pillars, each of which can be raised or lowered by your KI controls. The controls can raise and lower the pillars individually or as a group, create and dismiss various force field objects, and activate or deactivate a barrier field around the platform. The pillars are marked with strange symbols on all sides, and the tops are marked with the same four symbols in each corner. The exception is that the pillars in each corner have one of the top symbols each.

The pillars are about 5' square, making the playing surface a 25' square grid, although that's not the accurate total dimension since there are gaps of several inches between the pillars.

The playing surface:

The playing surface

The symbols on the pillar tops:

Corner 1 Corner 3 Corner 4 Corner 2 Standard top

The symbols on the pillar sides:

The side symbols

Circling the platform are four free-standing walls which are thought to be seating areas for spectators. They are wider at the base than the tops, and appear to have window openings in various places. The ground around the buildings is very wet, and the bases of the walls are covered in moss. On top of each wall is a single stone bench that extends almost the entire length of the wall. It's a bit hard to judge since we cannot get up there to try, but it looks like each bench might have been able to seat between twenty to thirty spectators, if they were friendly. However, there is no obvious way to get up to the benches. There may have been a linking book for each one to get the spectators to them, but that's purely a guess.

Wall

On top of the walls are flags that are identical to those found in Minkata, and each bears a marking of the Guild of Cartographers, which could mean that the games in this Age were sponsored by them. Only four of the flags are used, the blue, yellow, green and red ones. They match the color placement of the four colored symbols on the pillar tops.

Flags

The world outside the stadium is mostly made up of rolling hills with mountains in the background. The plant life includes bluegrass, mosses, bamboo, and trees in the immediate area. In the first picture, note that the trees are spaced too regularly to be natural. They form at least two rings around the stadium, and were possibly planted by the D'ni as a windbreak or for their appearance.

Outside

The ongoing name misconception:

There are a lot of explorers who call the Age "Jalak Dador", and you can find that version of the name in many World Wide Web posts. The name is incorrect. The notebook next to the linking book in the Great Library on Ae'gura is titled "Jalak", and when you link there, your KI will have "Jalak" in the Age location field.

Richard A. Watson had this to say about it. "Ryan Miller thought is sounded like "Did you lock" all run together. So he started calling it "Jalak Dador" as in "Did you lock the door?" Apparently that stuck, even though it was meant as a joke."

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