The game of Truth
Long ago, in 5739 BC, in the early, cold months of the new year, a neolithic farmer tending his cattle developed an original, novel, complex board game that precipitated tremendous developments in critical thinking skills and civilization developments, and which eventually stimulated the rise of the minoan civilization many thousands of years later, by which time the game had been all but forgotten. Basic rudiments were retained in other games eventually culminating in the modern game of chess. We present to the world the resurrection of this ancient game, the rules of which are as follows:
1. The number of players is either two or four, in which case the rules are changed.
2. The game is played on a grid 17 squares wide and 18 squares long, with the 9 rows at each end belonging to each of the two named players, and with every other square starting with the second square and going from left to right and from top to bottom painted black, where the first row is 2,4,6,8, the second row is 1,3,5, etc. In the variation with four players no square is black.

   
3. The players each are given 41 pieces in the form of 20 doors, 10 lanterns, 5 linesmen, 3 sentries, 2 guardians, and 1 icon. They arrange their pieces on white squares on their side of the board, or if four players, in one of the four corners.

   
4. No piece lands on or starts on black squares. If it would, then that is an illegal move.

   
5. Each player takes turns, moving one door and one other piece, which includes the possibility of moving two doors during their turn.

   
6. Door pieces move one square diagonally when moved.

   
7. Lantern pieces move across the board as far as there are no obstructions when moved, to any diagonal unobstructed point desired by the player. Icons and Doors are obstructions and the lantern cannot move past them.

   
8. Linesmen move three places, either hopping one black and landing on the corresponding white square beyond it if moving up/down left/right, or to a point two squares away not including the linesman’s current square, or three in total, on a diagonal line, hopping over other pieces except for sentries. It is illegal for a linesman to hop over an enemy sentry.

   
9. Sentries hop over any square and land on any white unoccupied square, provided that square is, in a direct line, within 6 squares of the icon, including the icon’s current occupied square. If the square is not directly in a line from the icon, it must be within 5 counted squares of the icon.

   
10. Guardians move diagonally up to four squares, and must remain, cannot land further than 5 counted squares from the icon. 

    
11. Icons move two squares diagonally on their own half/quadrant of the board, and one square if on the opponents territory.

    
12.  If either a sentry or a guardian is further than 5 squares from the icon, as in a situation where the icon has been moved, and could not be within 5 squares of the icon(six counting the square the icon is sitting on) if moved once, then moving them is illegal and they cannot be moved.

    
13. The goal of the game is either to surround the icon on all four diagonal directions by doors, where if the doors remain for two consecutive turns without being destroyed, the icon is destroyed, or to cause one of your lanterns to touch(burn) the enemy icon. The player who loses their icon first loses the game.

    
14. Linesmen hop other pieces but only destroy lanterns. If a linesman hops an icon, it is destroyed, but the move is legal. If a linesman hops a lantern, the lantern is destroyed. A linesman cannot hop a sentry, the move is illegal.

    
15. Sentries hop other pieces and destroy any piece except an icon. If a sentry hops a guardian but the destination spot is next to where the guardian is diagonally, then the sentry is destroyed along with the guardian. 

    
16. Guardians destroy other pieces by touching them. Regardless of who moved what piece, if an enemy door, lantern, linesman, or sentry is placed next to a guardian touching it(an adjoining diagonal square) it is destroyed, but the guardian is not.  If a guardian touches the enemy icon, it is destroyed, unless all doors and lanterns were destroyed in a previous turn in which case special rules are used for the end-game outcome.

    
17. Icons do not destroy any piece except for enemy guardians.

    
18. If all of the lanterns and doors of all players are destroyed in the two player scenario, or of any one player in the four player version, the players without lanterns and doors, but in the two player scenario only if both players have no lanterns or doors, play using their sentries and linesmen gaining the properties of doors and their guardians gaining the properties of lanterns.

    
19. If a player is using their sentries or linesmen as doors, the pieces block guardians as obstruction against unlimited traversal but are destroyed if they come in contact with the guardian, but the sentries and linesmen retain their normal rules regarding movement and interaction with enemy pieces.

    
20. If a player is using their guardians as lanterns, then they move as lanterns with unlimited power to traverse the board not restrained by icon range, but behave as guardians except when contacting the enemy icon, which is destroyed by the interaction.

    
21. If four lanterns surround a door, the door is destroyed. If four doors surround a lantern, the lantern is destroyed. If a lantern or door is moved to create a scenario where this would be the case, but that piece would also be surrounded by four of the opposite kind, then all pieces surrounded by four of the opposite player’s opposite kind are destroyed immediately when this happens.

    
22. If score is being kept, destroying lanterns and doors are worth one point, sentries and linesmen 5 points, guardians 20 points, and icons 100 points, with 210 points possible. However, if guardians are acting as lanterns, they are worth 40 points.

    
23. If a game ends in a stalemate, where neither player is able to destroy the other's icon, then the winner is the player with the highest score in the round ending where the last piece able to destroy the icon was itself destroyed.

    
24. Guardians cannot destroy guardians, but if guardians are both acting as lanterns and protection for icons, then guardians moving as lanterns are not obstructed by guardians acting to protect icons unless the guardian is contacting the icon. If a guardian is next to an icon, then it gains the power of the icon to destroy guardians, and an enemy guardian acting as lantern which comes into contact or attempts to move through it is destroyed, along with the guardian defending the icon, while the icon remains unharmed.    
    
25. The shape of the door piece is six squares in the form of a door like 囯, but without the extra top and bottom lines of the chinese symbol. The shape of the lantern is six lines in the shape of a star like 🞵. The shape of the linesman is as a figure pointing across with one arm, somewhat like 上, but with legs. The shape of the sentry is as a figure with two arms extended down and away from the body at the angle of the legs, which are spread 仌. The shape of the guardian is as a hollow square without a bottom, with two smaller squares, one in the inside of each upper corner, and the bottom corners present, but nothing across the bottom, almost like 円. The shape of the icon is as a sign or a pennant or a square on a flat pedestal, somewhat like 黒.