Tlaeyra, or "The Game of Three Seals"

A fictional story — but, I must admit, it fits so well on this tray that you want to believe in it.

Origin

It is said that the game was born in the mountain monasteries-workshops on the border of present-day Georgia and Anatolia, about four thousand years ago. The hermit potters who lived there divided the world into three clays: green (the clay of the valleys, alive and moist), crimson (the clay of the burnt rocks, holding fire), and white (the clay of the rivers, pure and nameless).

The game appeared not as entertainment, but as a means of silent dispute. The monks took a vow of silence, but disagreements still arose: about the composition of the glaze, about the order of firing, about whose kiln would get the best wood. The disputants would sit at the tray and resolve the issue on it, without a single word.

Name

Tlaeyra in translation from the old mountain dialect means "that which is held in the palm." Later, silk merchants spread the game around the world, and in each country, it was renamed:

in Persia, it was called Guldān — "vase with pearls";
in Byzantium — Trisfragis, "Three Seals";
in Venice, where it briefly became fashionable at the Doge's court — La Perla Nostra, "our pearl."
Figures

Each figure is a base with a pearl in the center:

Round bowls are called Keepers. They move in a straight line and protect their neighbors.
Square frames are called Gates. They "lock" cells, blocking the opponent's passage.
Pearls of different colors are the Souls of the figures. The main rule: the color of the pearl may not match the color of the base, and it is this mismatch that makes the figure dangerous or vulnerable.

A white pearl in a crimson bowl, for example, was considered "a heart in fire" and was the strongest, but also the most fragile figure.

Goal of the game

Players take turns moving the figures on the tray, trying to collect a "Seal": three figures in a row, which have either the same base color, the same pearl color, or the same shape. But there is a trick: a Seal can only be collected if the pearl of the middle figure differs from the two outer ones. A uniform row was considered a "dead Seal" and was not counted.