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<img src="images/featured.jpg" alt="featured" height="200" width="600" />
Unicorn Throne is a short, text-based adventure game, drawing on previous research into the role of <a href="http://www.samuelthomson.org/blog/2013/09/05/downside-unicorn-hedging/" target="_blank">unicorn horn as an asset class</a> in Medieval and Early-Modern Europe.
To play the game, simply click on the link below!
[[Start the Game!|Unicore Investment Plc]]
</div>Unicorn Thronesamuelthomson.org<div style="text-align:center">
[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_7.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Spain, 1497. You are being interrogated by Thomas de Torquemada, leader of the Spanish Inquisition. Things aren't going well, he doesn't like your tie. He shows you an amulet that hangs around his own neck, it is said to hold a piece of true unicorn horn.
[[Tell him you don't believe in unicorns]]
[[Tell him you do believe in unicorns]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_2.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Its your first week working the Commodity Futures desk at UniCore Investment Plc and the stock market is in freefall. Well they didn't hire you for nothing and its time you put that Masters thesis to work...Its so long since you've slept that you can hardly remember what degree you studied...
[[I think it was Economics|Economics]]
[[I think it was Fine Art|Fine Art]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_4.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Ah yes, Economics! Time for some rationally argued risk minimalisation. If only you can get everyone's attention above all this shouting.
[[Get up on your desk and wave your thesis at the supervisor|Supervisor]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_5.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Yes, Fine Art! Time for something your colleagues have never seen before. You walk over to the big flashing market server hub in the centre of the room. It pulsates with energy and information.
[[You plunge your fist deep into the wiring of the machine|Fist Plunge]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_3.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Your efforts raise the room to fever pitch and your supervisor sends you for lunch.
[[You go and get a coffee from the machine|Unicore Investment Plc]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_6.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Ripples of pure money pulsate up your arm. You feel yourself truly for the first time as a simultaneous store, measure and transferable unit of value. The office fades and you float through time.
[[A man in the habit of a monk hovers into view|Torquemada]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_9.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Heretic! Does the bible not mention unicorns? Yes it does! So if you don't believe in unicorns, how can you believe in the bible? Torquemada leaves you in the dungeon for a few days to think about things.
[[Best get some sleep|Torquemada]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_8.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Correct Answer! The bible tells us of unicorns, so we don't have to see one in real life to know they exist. Just like God. At least that's what Torquemada tells you with a pat on the back.
[[Ask Torquemada where he got his amulet]]
[[Ask Torquemada more about unicorns]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_10.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
He tells you he got it from a bishop in the Northern wastes of Europe, possibly Swedemark or Denway or somewhere. Anyway, the North is full of wayward barbarians who don't like the Pope very much. Venice has a number of unicorn horns in its treasury so maybe you should go there.
[[Head to the Northern Wastes]]
[[Head to Venice]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_11.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Torquemada says its all about the symbology of Christ and the virgin birth or something. Its well known that only a virgin can tame the Unicorn, and that the unicorn horn is an antidote to all kinds of poison, which bad serpents put into the world. So probably Mary's immaculate conception is recompense for Eve eating an apple. Or something.
It all sounds very problematic.
[[Ask Torquemada whether christianity is inherently misogynistic|Tell him you don't believe in unicorns]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_13.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Time moves forward as you make your way north through France. You see the unicorn horn of St Denis near Paris. At a wedding, a tapestry depicts the Hunt for the Unicorn, only a virgin can tame the wild beast. Rabelais writes about a unicorn with a very floppy horn and Conrad Gesner writes that a young man in a dress makes a perfectly good virgin if another can't be found. Its all getting a bit wierd and satirical. I guess that's the protestant critique of Catholic theology.
[[Continue heading North]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_12.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Torquemada gives you the amulet as a leaving gift. Time moves forward as you travel to Venice.
On the way you meet Olaf Magnussun, a Swedish Bishop living in exile since Sweden became Protestant. He's writing a book about the sea-unicorn and takes you to see the unicorn horn at St. Mark's Basillica, taken after the fall of Constantinople.
[[Ask if you can buy the horn]]
[[Ask if Olaf wants to buy your amulet]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_18.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Olaf thinks not. Its probably worth about 30,000 Ducats. Pope Julius III recently paid 90,000 Ecus for one. Charles V paid off his entire national debt with two. Its probably not safe to cary one around a town like Venice, particularly when dressed in a pinstripe business suit.
[[Steal the horn|Horn through Venice]]
[[Ask if you can hang with Olaf for a few more days]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_20.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Olaf would love to buy your amulet! Its probably worth about 5,000 Ducats. Pope Julius III recently paid 90,000 Ecus for a horn and Charles V paid off his entire national debt with two.
Olaf has no money but he'll swap the amulet for his spare ticket to the Council of Trent, a great meeting of Catholic priests where they're going to discuss all sorts of things including unicorns!
[[Swap the amulet for the ticket to the Council of Trent]]
[[Decline the offer|Horn through Venice]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_22.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Olaf is well pleased. I guess you're going to the Council of Trent!
[[Head to the Council of Trent|Olaf at the Steelyard]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_21.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Olaf would be happy for you to hang with him. In a few days, he's going to the Council of Trent, a meeting where all the important Catholic priests will discuss how best to respond to the rise of Protestantism in Europe. Unicorns are on the menu!
[[I guess you are going with him!|Olaf at the Steelyard]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_16.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You really shouldn't be carrying any amount of unicorn horn through a town like Venice. A sailor asks whether you have something in your pocket. There seems to be some confusion but ultimately you end up in the canal.
[[Perhaps its time you got out of Venice and headed North|Head to the Northern Wastes]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_25.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You arrive at the Council of Trent enveloped in a cloud of holy incence. The Council wants to modernise Catholic doctrine to win back some support from Protestant converts and they decide to give bishops the authority to suppress any imagery that might be too confusing, unusual, or tending to excite lascivious thoughts. Well that's unicorns out on three counts.
[[Catch a boat to Venice|Maybe its time you headed over to Venice]]
[[Catch a boat to London|Maybe its time you headed over to London]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_14.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You reach London and see the unicorn horn at Westminster Abbey and the one at St. Pauls. Each is valued at around 10,000 pounds. There's certainly alot of horn up here. You head to the docks.
[[Hitch a ride with a Danish fisherman to Iceland]]
[[Hitch a ride with an Arabian envoy to Venice]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_15.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
The fisherman tells you that the horns all come from a big fish called a Narwhal. The Catholics keep buying the horn using looted American gold. The Danish then use the gold to pay off the English. Poor old Narwhals but it stops alot of wars.
The fisherman suggests you should head to the Council of Trent, a meeting of Catholic Bishops where the trade in unicorn horn is going to be discussed. He's heading that way himself.
[[Head to the Council of Trent|Fisherman at the Steelyard]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_17.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
The envoy tells you that The Sultan of Turkey allegedly sent twelve unicorn horns as a gift to Philip II of Spain and that they probably came from an Elephant.
At Venice harbour he introduces you to Olaf Magnussun, a Swedish Bishop living in exile since Sweden became Protestant. He's writing a book about the sea-unicorn and takes you to see the unicorn horn at St. Mark's Basillica, taken after the fall of Constantinople.
[[Ask if you can buy the horn]]
[[Ask if Olaf wants to buy your amulet]]
</div><div style="text-align:center">
[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_19.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
On the way to Venice you meet Olaf Magnussun, a Swedish Bishop living in exile since Sweden became Protestant. He's writing a book about the sea-unicorn and takes you to see the unicorn horn at St. Mark's Basillica, taken after the fall of Constantinople.
[[Ask if you can buy the horn]]
[[Ask if Olaf wants to buy your amulet]]
</div><div style="text-align:center">
[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_26.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Time moves forwards as you head to Venice. At the docks a money lender tells you he's got a pile of unicorn horn for sale. There's loads on the market now that the Church is selling it all off and you can get as much as you want if you borrow just a few ducats. Did you know its a universal cure against poison?
[[Borrow some money and buy some horn]]
[[Wait, didn't you used to be a banker or something?]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_28.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Time moves forward as you head to London. At the docks you meet the explorer, Martin Frobisher, recently returned from an expedition to the Arctic with a very fine looking horn.
[[Tell him he should give it to Queen Elizabeth]]
[[Tell him it comes from a Narwhal]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_27.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Unicorn Crash! The Catholics don't want it anymore. Its pretty much blasphemy just to be carrying it. A Fisherman tells you it probably comes from Narwhals or Elephants or something. Didn't you know that already? You stand at the docks with your worthless horn.
[[Perhaps you can get back North before news of the Unicorn Crash spreads|Maybe its time you headed over to London]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_31.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Oh yes, and then you plunged your fist into a big pulsating ball of financial technology amid crashing markets. Well I guess its probably a bad idea to buy horn that no-one wants, this markets about to
[[CRAAASSHHHH!!!!]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_29.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Well obviously that was Frobisher's plan all along. The horn is handed over and valued at around 100,000 pounds. Its just about the last large-scale valuation of horn in Europe and Frobisher high-tails it back to the Arctic looking for more treasure.
[[Meanwhile you have an appointment with the Danish Ambassador|The Danish Ambassador hears you like Narwhals]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_30.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Well he knew that when he sawed the horn off the front of a dead fish. Still, the superstitious and desperate still use it as an antidote against poison don't they? The horn is handed over to Queen Elizabeth and valued at around 100,000 pounds, way above what anyone would actually pay for it.
[[The Danish Ambassador hears you like Narwhals]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_34.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You plunge your fist into the money lender's account book. You feel yourself truly for the first time as a simultaneous store, measure and transferable unit of value.
[[Feel the value]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_36.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Your colleagues look down at you with profound concern. The market server hub lies in pieces around you. You think back to your Fine Art degree and to the painting that hung in the London Steelyard -
"I have nothing to fear, because I have nothing to loose".
THE END
[[Or is it?]]
</div><div style="text-align:center">
[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_37.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
Your colleagues look down at you with profound concern. The market server hub lies in pieces around you. You think back to your Fine Art degree and to the painting that hung in the London Steelyard -
"He who lacks gold sorrows over it, he who holds gold fears it".
THE END
[[Or is it?]]
</div><div style="text-align:center">
[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_35.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
The Ambassador offers you some Rhenish wine and pickled herring. He tells you how sorry he is that the Catholics are no longer buying Danish horn. It is putting great pressure on Danish finances and plans for an Anglo-Danish alliance. The valuation of the Queen's horn was made to prop up unicorn prices and thereby build a great protestant alliance in the North.
[[Wait, didn't you used to be a banker or something?|Rhenish Banking]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_32.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You explain to the Ambassador that Narwhal Horn could never be the basis for strong international relations. Perhaps it would be better to build up diplomatic ties and look to a future of toleration between Catholics and Protestants, however difficult that may seem at the moment.
You may have just saved the Narwhal from extinction. The Ambassador thanks you for rescuing him from his own megalomaniac project, if you would like to see it?
[[Go and see the project]]
[[Go on, its worth it|Go and see the project]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_33.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
This, says the Ambassador, is the Unicorn Throne!
It is a vile vision of financial monopoly. You plunge your fist deep into the recesses of the throne and feel yourself truly for the first time as a simultaneous store, measure and transferable unit of value.
[[Feel the value]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_23.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
You catch a boat to the Council with Olaf.
On the way, he tells you of his visit to the London Steelyard, where he saw two paintings by Holbein, "The Triumph of Wealth" and The "Triumph of Poverty". The inscription on Poverty reads "I have nothing to fear because I have nothing to loose". The inscription on Wealth reads "He who lacks gold sorrows over it, he who holds gold fears it".
[[You continue the journey in silence|Council of Trent]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_24.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
The fisherman asks if you visited the Steelyard whilst in London. He tells you there are two paintings by Holbein hanging there, "The Triumph of Wealth" and The "Triumph of Poverty". The inscription on Poverty reads "I have nothing to fear because I have nothing to loose". The inscription on Wealth reads "He who lacks gold sorrows over it, he who holds gold fears it".
[[You continue the journey in silence|Council of Trent]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
<img src="images/unicorn_1.jpg" alt="unicore" height="400" width="600" />
The offices of UniCore Investment Plc fade back into view and conflicting thoughts jostle your befuddled mind for attention.
[[What happened to all that horn?]]
[[What happened to all those bishops?]]
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[[Click here at any time to Restart|Start][state.restart()]]
There are many ends, each with many beginings.
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