Chess is a war game. Two armies, a king to defend, sixty-four squares where every advance costs something. The game has been played for fifteen centuries, and for fifteen centuries it has told the same story.

But the pieces stopped telling it. By dint of being simplified, they became cones and cylinders. We still call a rook what is no more than a shape.

Our themed chess sets give them a face again. The king becomes a Pharaoh, a Caesar or a demon lord. The knight becomes a sphinx, a gargoyle or a chevalier. The pawn, that scribe or legionary sacrificed without a second thought.

Depending on the universe you put on the table, it is no longer the same war being fought. Five tales, five ways to lose your king. The rules, for their part, do not change.