poisonous cloak: 2022

Tékumel Board Games: Ssansh

(Turncoats is a game by Matilda Simonsson. This is an imaginary adaptation of how the game might exist on Tékumel.)

Ssansh comes from the eastern lands. Some sages say it traces back to the Mihalli, but this is not known. The version below is the one known in Jakálla.

Ssansh is played on a board consisting of several discs. These often have a hole in them so they can be bundled up with a string. Traditionally the discs marked white and black below are often the lids for the whole set and are rimmed and bowl-like. They are called the King (black) and the Weather (white). They have special rules and are not "spaces" like the other discs. The red, green, and blue discs are normal spaces but are painted or are different materials. The discs are always arranged like so:

Along with the discs, there is a bag of 63 figurines: 21 each of each material matching red, green, and blue. The figurines are usually chlén beasts and are quite detailed in finer sets.

To set up the game, 2 figurines are placed on each colored space that match their colors, then the neutral (gray above) spaces are given two randomly drawn figurines each. Finally, each player (up to five may play) takes 8 figurines from the bag; these are kept hidden from other players, often in leather cups.

On a player's turn, they may Parley, which involves drawing a figurine from the bag into their hand; then the player takes any figurine from their hand, shows it to other players, and puts it back in the bag. The other option is to Act by placing a figurine from hand onto any disc.

If the disc is a normal space (i.e. not the King or Weather), the player's turn is done.
If disc is the King, the player may then pick a space, and for each same-color figurine in that space, they may remove a different-color figurine from that space to the bag.
If disc is the Weather, the player may transfer any number of same-color figurines from one space to an adjacent space.

Note again that the King and Weather are not "spaces".

The game ends when all players Parley in a row.

To determine the victor, it is first important to determine which color has dominance over each disc. This is simply the color with the most figurines on the disc. In spaces, ties are broken first by which color has dominance on the King, and further ties are broken by the Weather. If that does not break the tie, or if the disc was empty, there is no dominance on the disc by the involved colors.

The color that has dominance over the most spaces (not discs) is the "winning color", and the other two are "losing colors". The winning player is the one who has the most figurines of the winning color left in their hand, with ties being broken by who has the fewest losing color figurines, and ties there broken by whose turn was longest ago.

Tékumel Board Games: Dashigáikh

(Tak is a tile-playing board game designed by James Ernest and Patrick Rothfuss.)

The game of Dashigáikh is a Yán Koryáni game, though it originates in northwestern Tsoliyanú. It was popular among work gangs of Sakbé roads and spread out from there, but became especially popular in Yán Kór. For many years it was disdained by or unknown to high society in the other four empires, but it has grown in popularity among the higher clans. It is most popular in Ghatón, where it is played almost to the exclusion of any other kind of game, and the average level of skill at the game is highest there.

The game is played on a 5x5 grid with pieces of two colors. Each player has 21 flat pieces of their color, and one special (usually pyramidal) piece called the "overseer". The flat pieces are thick and have at least one edge flattened so that they can be stood up as a "standing" piece. The game begins with no pieces on the board, and no pieces ever leave the board. Players give each other one of their pieces to make the first placements.

(Larger and smaller grid sizes are played, with the number of flat pieces per player being roughly the number of squares, with 0 overseers on 4x4 or smaller, and 2 overseers on 7x7 or larger.)

(photo from BGG by @Hovien)

A first player is determined. To begin the game, each player in turn places one of their opponent's pieces in empty squares, and then normal play begins.

In their turn a player can make one of two moves:

Place a piece from off the board on an empty space. This can be the overseer, a flat piece played flat, or a flat piece played standing.
Move a stack of pieces, so long as a piece of your color is on top. (A single piece is a stack of one).

A stack move consists of picking up your piece and up to 4 pieces under it, then moving it in orthogonal steps. At each step, at least 1 piece off the bottom of the stack must be left behind. A stack move may not move onto an overseer. A stack move may not move onto any standing stone, except when the step is being made by your overseer, alone with no pieces under it, in which case it flattens the standing stone to flat (and finishes its turn since that must have been the end of the stack move.)

Any type of piece can make a stack move; a standing stone, a flat stone, or your overseer -- as long as it is your piece on top, it can initiate a stack move.

The game is won by making a "road" connecting any two opposite sides of the board with an orthogonal path of your pieces (on top of stacks). The road must be made up of your overseer or flat pieces, not standing pieces. Technically you can only win by road when it is the beginning or end of your turn: if you create a winning road during part of a stack move but cover it up later in the move, it does not count; or, if you finish a stack move having created winning roads for both players, you win because it is the end of your turn.

If the board is full of pieces, or a player runs out of pieces in their reserve, the game ends and the winner is the person with the most flat stones of their color on top of stacks.

Tékumel Board Games: Battle of Eighteen Heroes

(LotR:The Confrontation is a board game designed by Reiner Knizia, Eric Lang, and Christian Peterson. This is an imaginary adaptation of the game is it might appear in Tékumel.)

This game is often called Hrilghálu after the fortress at the center of the so-called Battle of Eighteen Heroes, where Princess Nraiuné escaped the siege laid by General Balangéte in 1804. The game arose out of a simple (now lost) simpler game. It is mostly played in the military of the western empires, and is formally part of officer training in Mu'ugalavyá and Tsoliyánu. In the siege depicted by the game, the Princess Nraiuné did escape and ascended to the Petal Throne as "The Iridescent Goddess" five years later

The game is played on a 5x5 board, skewed 45 degrees so that it looks like a diamond to both players. The diagonal line of 4 squares across the middle is marked differently and called the Thicket. In addition the home squares are marked as well; the Nraiuné (bottom player) one is the Tower, the Balangéte player's one is the Sákbe. Each other row of diagonal squares is named as well; from the Tower to the Sakbé it goes: Tower, Yard, Wall, Thicket, Enclosure, Camp, Sakbé.

There is an asymmetry that is often unmarked on the map. The red square on the Thicket row is called the Bridge, and the pink Camp row square is (confusingly) just called the Camp.

The number of dots in the diagram shows how many pieces may exist within the square, it's "capacity". Sometimes theses are literal peg-holes in the board but are often unmarked.

Normally pieces may only move forward in one of the two orthogonal directions, and may not move into or through a space that is already at full capacity. There are several exceptions. Some pieces may move diagonally sideways or orthogonally backwards. The Nraiuné player's pieces may move diagonally rightwards in the Enclosure as if it was a forward move. Nraiuné pieces may also move diagonally forward from the center square of the Wall to the center square of the Enclosure which is called a Sortie Move.

Each player has nine pieces, which are made to hide information to the other player. Sometimes these are well-made chlén hide tiles that are put face-down and look identical. Often they are shells covering pieces, and players may move pieces between shells in the same space to keep information scrambled.

In addition each player has 9 stones; 5 white ones with painted pips 1-5, a blue, a black, and a yellow. For the ninth stone the Nraiuné player has a red stone, while the Balangéte player has sixth white stone with 6 pips. These have understood meanings below.

Setup & Play

Each player arranges their pieces, with 4 in the home square, and the other 5 out in the five spaces of their half of the board, one per space. No piece may start on the Thicket.

The Balangéte player goes first.

On a player's turn he simply moves a piece to an orthogonally forward space, or reveals their piece if that piece can do something special. Of course note that the Sortie Move and the rightward move in the enclosure count as forward moves for the Nraiuné player.

If a piece tries to enter an occupied space that becomes an attack. The attacker picks a defending piece (essentially at random) to attack first, and must keep attacking defending pieces until it is defeated or all defending pieces are defeated and the attacking piece can advance into the space.

To do an attack, both attacker and defender are revealed. The Nrauiné player's piece executes its skill first, then the Balangéte's player piece may execute its skill. The strength of the pieces is compared.

Then each player takes up their unused stones, picks one secretly and holds it out in their hand. Both are revealed. The Balangéte player's stone is resolved first, then the Nraiuné player's. Used stones are set aside a depression on the board, visible to all. When all stones are used they all are returned to "unusued" status. Note that stones player will always be in sync; if one player plays a stone the other must, even in cases where it can have no effect.

Final strengths of the two pieces are compared. If there is a tie both lose. The loser is removed from the board. If needed, the process continues until the attack is resolved.

Play then passes to the next player.

Note that under no circumstances may a piece either move diagonally sideways in the Thicket, or enter or pass through a space that is at capacity with friendly pieces.

Winning

If a player cannot legally move a piece on their turn, they lose.

The Nraiuné player wins if they can get the Nrauiné piece to be able to move into the Sakbé space (they do not have to defeat any enemies already there). The Balangéte player wins by either defeating the Nrauiné piece, OR by having three of his pieces within the Tower.

Pieces and Stones

The Nraiuné pieces, their strengths, and skills:

Nraiuné (1). After being revealed as a defender, she can retreat diagonally.
Bodyguard (2). If in the same space as Nrauiné this piece has strength 5, and also may switch to defend instead of Nrauiné if she is attacked.
Pe Choi Emissary (1). When attacking, before stones are played, this piece may retreat a backwards orthogonal move.
Old Hero (2). Instantly defeats the Young Hero in battle before stones are played.
Great General (5). When this piece battling, the Nraiuné player picks her stone fully after the Balangéte player.
The Vriddi (4). May move to any orthogonally or diagonally adjacent space to make an attack.
Priest of Thumis (3). Instantly defeats the Assassin in battle.
Priest of Hnálla (3). Instantly defeats the Priest of Sarkú in battle.
The Betrayed (0). Instantly defeats any opponent in battle, but is eliminated. (Not quite any opponent, q.v. the Traitor).

The Balangéte pieces, their strengths, and skills:

The Shén (5). If on the Bridge (the red space on the Thicket) when a Nraiuné piece attempts a Sortie Move, may be revealed to instantly defeat that piece; this does not count as a battle.
The Prince (5). After defeating a piece in battle, if not in the Camp, this piece returns to the Camp immediately. If the space is full or has hostile pieces in it, the Prince is defeated.
The Young Hero (5). May move diagonally sideways to attack,.
Assassin (3). May move to any space to attack, if the target is a Nraiuné piece alone in a space. This is not a directional move so technically may seem to contradict the rule about never moving sideways in the Thicket.
The Priest of Vimúhla (3). May move any number of spaces forward so long as it culminates in an attack.
Balangéte (4). When this is in battle and stones are to be chosen, the Balangéte player may decide that no stones are to be played at all.
The Priest of Sarkú (3). As the attacker, on its first attack only, it will instantly defeat the piece it faces (if applicable, after their skill of course).
The Traitor (2). Negates the skill of the other piece in battle. Note that this is a special exception and goes before the Nraiuné piece, and Nraiuné will not automatically escape, the Betrayed will not instantly defeat, the Great General must choose stones normally, etc.
The N'Lüss. (9). When this is in battle, the Balangéte player's stone has no effect (but one still must be chosen and played).

The Nraiuné player's stones:

White 1-5: Have their given value added to the piece's strength.
Blue: The player immediately puts this stone in the 'used' area and replaces it with a different 'used' stone for the battle.
Black: Retreat orthogonally backwards, if possible under normal movement restrictions.
Yellow: Other player's white stones have no value this battle.
Red: Sacrifice. Both pieces are defeated if the battle is still going on.

The Balangéte player's stones:

White 1-6: Add their given value to the piece's strength.
Blue: Same as Nairuné players blue. Note that if both players pick blue, the Balangéte player must replace their blue stone first.
Black: Retreat diagonally sideways, if possible under normal movement restrictions.
Yellow: Other player's non-white stones have no effect in this battle.

Tékumel Board Games: Monyalmó of Sa’á Allaqí

(Onitama is a game designed by Shimpei Sato; this is an adaptation of it to the world of Tèkumel.)

Monyalmó is a popular game in Sa’á Allaqí and the lands north around Salarvyá. It originates from Lake Parunál and is still popular around there. It is a mark of intelligence there to be able to play the game without needing the 'wind' pieces (below), and the phrase, "to play only with names", denoting someone who is alert and competent, refers to the game this way.

It is played on a board with 5x5 grid of peg holes for the pieces. The center holes on the two players' home rows are specially marked and are called houses.

Each player has 5 pegs of two types: 4 boats and 1 barge. These are arranged on the player's back row with the elder in the middle, in that player's house.

The game also uses 16 other marked stones, the 'winds'. Each bears a different symbol that represents how they allow a piece to move, and is known by a different name (not presented here). At the beginning of the game 5 winds are chosen at random and the remaining 11 are put away. Each player gets 2 winds and the fifth is put in the middle. When playing without the wind stones, the challenging player picks two winds to start with the challengee, and then the challengee accepts by picking two winds for the challenger and a middle wind.

On a player's turn they pick one of their 2 winds. They then move one of their pieces according to that wind. These moves are also capturing moves, and any piece may capture any opponent piece.

The used wind is then swapped with the center wind. Thus, any wind played will end up in the opponent's hand.

The game is won by capturing the opponent's barge, or by moving one's own barge into the opponent's house.

Tékumel Board Games: Qál and Milúkhi of Livyánu

(Tumbleweed is a two-player strategy game by Michal Zapala. Yavalath is a two-player strategy designed by Cameron Browne.)

This Livyáni board is used for a few different games, two of which are given here. The board is a hexagonal arrangement of circular spaces, arranged in a larger hexagon. The whole hexagon may be eight to eleven spaces on a side and is used for the game Qál. The inner hexagon five spaces on a side is used for Milúkhi. The center space is usually highlighted in some way. In both cases two boxes of ~100 pieces are included, usually white and red, made of discs that can be stacked easily.

Qál

To start, the younger player sets a red piece and a white piece down on separate circles, and the other player picks which color they want to be. White goes first.

On a turn, a player picks a space on the board. The space must be 'seen' by another one of the player's pieces, in an unobstructed straight line. The player puts down a stack of pieces with height equal to how many different player stacks can see the chosen space. (So, up to a maximum height of 6.) The player may target a space occupied by an opponent's stack only if the play would build a higher stack, and the enemy pieces are replaced in this case.

The central space is assumed to have a stack of height 2 of neutral-colored pieces.

A player may choose to pass instead of play.

The game ends when both players pass or there are no more meaningful moves to make (ie moves into spaces that are not safe from capture). The winner is the player with the greater number of controlled spaces.

Milúkhi

Milúkhi is seen as a lighter game than Qál. It uses the inner 5-sided hex of spaces in the board. The center space is not special.

In Milúkhi each player takes turn placing a piece on an empty space. If four pieces are connected in a line, that player wins. If only three spaces are connected in a line, that player loses.

Tékumel Board Games: Dhéluss of Salarvyá

(Dameo is a checkers variant by Aleh Tapalnitski.)

Dhéluss is a two-player game of Salarvyá whose name means "Fleets". It is similar in some ways to Terran checkers. It is known all throughout the Five Empires, but especially in Salarvyá where most of the best players are from, and there is a sophisticated culture of competitive play.

It is played on a board with an eight-by-eight grid of intersections, typically printed on blue or green fabric and stretched over wood. Each player has 18 pieces. As in Terran checkers, two regular pieces (galleys) may be stacked to represent a promoted piece (a flagship).

A galley's regular move is always forward, diagonally or straight ahead, to an empty adjacent space. If they start adjacent to a friendly piece or line of friendly galleys (not flagships) in that direction, they may hop directly to the end if there is a free space.

Galleys capture orthogonally only, but in any direction, in simple hops over adjacent enemy pieces.

Flagships move any number of empy spaces in any direction. Like galleys, they capture orthogonally only, but they may do so via a long jump, which consists of moving any number of any spaces up to the piece, hopping over it to capture it, and then continuing to move any number of spaces desired afterwards -- all in the same direction.

All captures are mandatory, and in addition, the longest possible capture must be made. Pieces are not removed until the chain of captures are over and no piece may be hopped over twice during a capture.

Tekumel Board Games: Changakárnikh of Tsoliyánu

(Magical Athlete is a roll-and-move board game designed by Takashi Ishida. This is an adaptation of the game to the world of Tékumel.)

Changakárnikh is a race game played by from 3 to 6 players. It is popular as a casual game in many clanhouses, but in the gambling houses of the big cities it is serious endeavor, always played with 4 players, and with scheduled play times and a vigorous side-betting world, similar to other race game gambling. Entry fees can be quite high and so most players are sponsored.

The game is said to represent the progress of sages towards a holy mountain, but it is also interpreted as a game representing the striving of political parties. In many rich clan houses one can probably find an old set of this game with pieces carved in caricature of political figures long forgotten.

The game uses a board of 30 spaces, five across and six tall. The bottom row of 5 spaces are often numbered 1-5 in small numerals. The upper 5x5 area of the path is often a pattern, usually meant to highlight the center piece and corners.

The board is understood as a spiral track going along the bottom row (called the village), then entering the 5x5 space (the mountain) and spiraling in towards the central space, called the threshold.

In the most stable Jakálla version of the game there are 25 unique pieces, each with special rules. Regional variations are common, however; more than one traveler has been surprised to discover that the local rules use different pieces.

The game also employs a single six-sided die and score markers. There is usually an officiant too; even in street games a trustworthy person will be found. In clan houses the role is often given to children.

Play

A first player and player order is determined. This is usually done by dicing.

The game has two phases, a draft called the parade where players assemble a team of 5 pieces, and then the races themselves.

In the parade, starting with the first player, a piece is added to the '4' spot of the board. If there is a piece there, it is bumped down to the '3', etc. If a piece is bumped off the '1' spot, the player must take it and play passes on and another piece is drawn. Otherwise, the player has the option to 'buy' any of the pieces onto his team, paying the price of the space the piece is on. When a player has their full team they are out of the draft.

This process leaves five pieces undrafted; they are moved off the board and out of play.

The pieces are bought with "shares", each player receiving 8. Sometimes this is the buy-in money itself. Unused shares are lost or still contributed to the pot anyway; it is seen as skillful to spend exactly one's shares.

Then play proceeds in a series of 5 races, where each race is between a single piece from the team of each player. In each race the first-place winner of the previous race goes last.

At the start of each race, payers pick a piece to compete in the race and hold it out, hidden in their clasped hands, and all simultaneously reveal them. Then play goes around. In normal play, the player simply rolls the die and moves their piece that number of spaces. On a player's first turn, the piece enters play on the number space of their order entering the race (eg the 3rd player to go receives, in effect, a 2-space handicap).

Pieces move around the track. When a piece would move one space past the threshold, it finishes the race and is moved out of play (and can have no more effect on play). Play goes on until first and second place finishers have been determined. First place receives 2/3/4/5/6 points depending on which race is being run, and second place receives two fewer points than first place.

Races are repeated until the players have raced all their pieces.

At the end of the final race the pot is usually split with first place scorer getting one half, second place getting one third, and third place getting one sixth.

The Pieces

This is the Jakálla set of pieces. Those marked with (f) are considered 'female' which matters for one of the pieces.

The Assassin. After the parade but before play, this piece may name any piece. That piece is removed from play and replaced with a different dead piece.
The Elder. After being revealed as the chosen piece to play, the Elder may be swapped with another piece from the player's team.
The Matron (f). After the reveal (and the Elder's play, if any), the player of the Matron secretly names another piece in the race as their ward. This can be written down or whispered into the officiant's ear. If that named piece comes in first place the Matron automatically comes in second place.
The Aridáni (f). Instead of rolling to move this piece can simply move ahead 5 spaces.
The Consort (f). Whenever a die is rolled 6, this piece moves forward a space.
The Hundred-Times Blessed Princess (f). Advances 1 space whenever another player uses their special ability. This is said to be limited to 100 times in a game, which only matters for infinite loops.
The Glorious Princess (f). At start of turn, all pieces are moved one space towards this piece simultaneously. Only those entering the space of the socialite herself count as 'landing on' other pieces.
The Ambitious Princess (f). Any piece that lands with her or she lands on, she may make them rest their next turn.
The Widow (f). When another character overtakes her (moves from a space behind her to a space ahead of her in one turn) she can cause them to rest their next turn. She must move back 1 space after.
The Matchmaker. Whenever a female piece lands on a non-female piece, this piece advances 5 spaces.
The Ahoggyá. This piece can never share a space with another piece. If that would happen, the other pieces are placed back one space and assumed to never have landed on the Ahoggyá at all.
The Boisterous Prince. The movement dice of other players are reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1, as if that was the natural roll. This power is assumed to be used unless the player declares otherwise just before another's movement roll.
The Ill-Omened Prince. May cancel another pieces power at any time as it is used, but that piece may move ahead one space. May not be used on the Ahoggyá or the Glorious Princess.
The Pé Chói. When it moves it may skip over spaces containing other pieces.
The Adviser. When another player rolls a 1 on a movement roll, their piece does not move, and the Adviser moves 1 space instead.
The Spiteful Prince. After it moves, for each piece overtaken during the move (i.e. moved from behind to ahead) this piece may send them back 1 space.
The Philosopher. When it lands or or is landed on, this piece may demand an argument from another piece. The players both roll a die; high roll wins and ties go to the philosopher. The winning piece advances 2 spaces. No special powers 'see' the roll off dice.
The Kind-Hearted Prince. May advance the last place piece(s) ahead 2 spaces. If this is done, this piece moves ahead one space.
The Scheming Prince. Instead of rolling to move, the player may roll a die, move another piece back that many space, then advance this piece one space.
The Governor. Instead of rolling to move, may move to the square of any piece, then move that piece to this piece's previous square.
The Healthy Prince. May reroll the movement die but must take the second roll. No other piece 'sees' the first roll.
The Late-Born Prince. When it enters place, another player is named, and one of their score points is taken and transferred to this player.
The Companion. When sharing space with another piece, before that other piece rolls to move, the player may declare they are moving with that piece. Then when the other piece moves this piece moves along with them (or right after them, for purposes of who finishes first.)
The Lover. At the start of this piece's turn, it may move any other piece to its space.
The General. When this piece's player rolls a 1 or 2 on a movement roll, this piece may move 4 spaces instead.

Tékumel Board Games: Míliyal of Mu'ugalavyá

(This is an adaptation of Shōbu, a two-player abstract strategy board game designed by Manolis Vranas and Jamie Sajdak.)

This game with simple rules but deep strategy is popular among priests throughout the Five Empires, but is generally popular in the west. It is commonly popular in Mu'ugalavyá but it originated in Livyánu. In Tsoliyánu it is called Míliyal, or Stones.

The board is made of of four sub-boards, each a 4x4 grid, called a palace. Each player has 16 stones of their color; to set up, they put 4 in each palace, along the row closest to them.

This is the board set up with red player at the bottom and the black player at the top. The two palaces closer to the player are called their home palaces. Customarily red moves first.

Players move two of their stones in their turn. The first move is called the court move. The player picks a stone of theirs on one of their home palaces and moves it 1 or 2 spaces in any single direction, orthogonal or diagonal. It may not bump or hop over any other stones, nor leave the palace.

Then the player does a corresponding hard move. The player picks another of their stones in an orthogonally adjacent palace. (So: their other home palace, or the opponent's closer home palace.) The stone must move the same direction and number of spaces. This move may push a single opponent's stone, but it is invalid and cannot be made if it would push two of the opponent's stones, push one of the player's own stones, or leave the palace. Stones that are pushed out of the palace are removed from the game.

If a valid hard move cannot be found for a court move, then the court move is invalid too and must be redone.

A player wins when they remove all the opponent's stones from any palace, or if their opponent cannot make any valid court moves.

The Game of Kévuk

Background: Kévuk is a game within a game -- a dice invented by MAR Barker within his world of Tékumel. The game is detailed in "The Game of Kévuk" (DTRP link).

The game uses two asymmetric dice:

Die A: Blue 1, White 2, Silver 3, Yellow 4, Black 5, God A
Die B: Black 1, Yellow 2, Silver 3, White 4, Blue 5, God B

Blue vs. Black, and White vs. Yellow, are pairs of opposing colors. Non-oppositional colors are "neutral" to each other. Silver is special -- not neutral, not a color.

A thrower (/kevúmokoi/) is determined. The thrower picks a god and a color. Other players then around the table pick a god and a color.

Then the thrower makes a bet. Barker's writeup say a standardized bet is common, I will just call that one chip. Other players may then make a bet or pass.

There is also a treasury or kitty (/kumesukán/). Throwers may win money from this, or, apparently, directly from other players.

The thrower then throws, and the pair of dice are interpreted relative to the thrower's choice of god and color, yielding a result. These are coded with, "Own God (OG)", "Enemy God (EG)", "Own Color (OC)", "Enemy Color (EC)", "Neutral Color (NC)", and "3" for Silver 3s.

For example, if the thrower picked "God A, Yellow", and the dice came up (Black 1, Yellow 4) that is read as: "Own Color, Neutral Color" or OC-NC. The corresponding result is: the higher numbered color wins the difference times the bet, from the lower number. In this case, the yellow number is 3 higher, and it's the thrower's color, so the thrower would win 3 chips from each backer of black.

Problems With the Game, or My Misunderstandings

It's not clear where the bet money goes. Almost all results seem to win a multiple of the bet from other players so it does not seem like money put up or set aside.
Wherever it goes, in most gambling, it is expected that when one "bets" or "wagers" an amount of money, then the most one can lose in one play is exactly that amount of money. In Kévuk, however you can win or lose multiples of a bet (the thrower's bet, it seems). If you are the thrower, you can lose up to 5 times your bet per opposing colored player which is quite wild. As the non-thrower, you can lose 5 times the amount of the thrower's bet, which is also wild if they can bet anything they want.
It's not clear where the kitty comes from. Maybe it's where the bets go, which makes it more of a running pot. It can't be the house, because players may dice for what's left in it at the end of the game. (Also because: throwers are favored against the kitty! "OG-EG" wins 5 chips from the kitty, while "3-3" loses only 3 chips to the kitty.)
It's not clear how non-throwers' bets matter, especially with non-standard bets. If I am not the thrower and payouts scale only by what the thrower bets, why should I want to bet anything.
It's not totally clear that the results are only processed one time per throw, relative to the thrower. That seems the only sane way to go, but it's not clear. If you as thrower pick "God A, Yellow" and I pick "God A, White", then you roll (God A, Yellow 2), for you that's OG-OC, and you win 5 chips from me. For me, that would be OG-EC and I would win N=2 chips back from you? Surely not. And with more players at the table this would be onerous, especially since order of operations would matter -- in the previous example, if I had 1 chip to my name, would you win 1 from me (all I had), then I win 2 from you? Or would I need to scribble out an IOU for two chips? (Actually this may not be so bad; experienced players may get so good at "solving" this web of debts that inexperienced players would be utterly baffled.. But no surely not.)
If results are only taken relative to the thrower's call, then there's no point in other players picking a god.
It's not clear if players who pass on a bet are out of the game. It would seem not, but being able to "fold" in light of a thrower's high bet seems like a good option. Not that non-thrower bets seem to matter.
OG-EG ("Own god, Enemy god") says it wins "all bets from other players", which seems to be taking their betted chips, though other results will win chip(s) directly "from" other players. This "OG-EG" result also wins from the kitty which perhaps indicates bets don't go in the kitty?
The OC-EC ("Own Color, Enemy Color") result says that the higher numbered color earns the difference, but OC-EC will always be doubles, so the difference will always be zero.
OC-3 ("Own Color, 3") says it wins N x Bet from kitty, but what is N?
If you back the thrower's color (and only the thrower's result is processed), this is a pretty tepid choice, and you will only win or lose money on two rolls out of 36 possibilities.
Making my best guesses, I analyzed how things would go for backing either god with black. Assuming a 4 player game where each player backs a different color, after 36 turns expected chip total changes are:

(God A, Black) : Black -6, Yellow +3, White +1, Blue +4, Kitty -2.
(God B, Black) : Black -6, Yellow -1, White +5, Blue +4, Kitty -2.

The yellow/white asymmetry is because white is "strong" against God A: the thrower wins 2 in (OG-NC) against white but loses 4 in (EG-NC). Blue comes out ahead compared to Black because (EC-NC) is pure loss for the thrower.

Conclusion

Assuming that only the thrower's result is processed, the game can probably work as a casual game if played with a pretty big pile of chips. Ignore the whole idea of the "bet", just work multiples of 1 chip and understand that much of your stash is always in play. Maybe seed the kitty with some money like "Free Parking" in Monopoly.

Analysis of black's odds suggests if you're trying to win you should just always oppose the thrower's color -- and don't be the thrower.

If you change the EC-NC rule so that the higher pays the lower (and the thrower is not involved) then the thrower's losses disappear and they end up expected +2 over 36 plays. It's good to be the thrower, which fits to letting the highest ranked person go first and passing the throw with (3-3) feeling like a calamity.

This would bring the opposite color into parity with the thrower's color, and it makes the neutral colors closer and in balance -- either +2 or -2 depending on the thrower's god. A savvy player might know "against black God A take white" but that's more complex than just always picking the opposing color and still closer to an even game. To remove even this, the thrower could announce their color, but select their god secretly (by holding the corresponding die closed in their hand). Then after other players pick their colors, the thrower reveals their choice of god. This would be fair on average but allow for experienced players to try to guess which god the thrower has chosen and shift to the advantageous neutral color.

If the kitty is the house, they expect to be down 2 over 36 throws, but this could be recouped any number of ways. The simplest would be a fee to sit at the table, but gambling houses would probably say their Kévuk was free to play but recover the losses in some other way.