Chiron's Arena — Mount Pelion
Chiron's Codex
Welcome to the Arena. What follows is everything you need to know to compete: how predictions are scored, how modifiers change the game, who the Talos are and why they matter, and how the leaderboards work. Read it once. Refer to it when something surprises you.
The Story
In ancient Athens, Sokkerates — philosopher, provocateur, and lover of argument — posed a challenge to the people: could they predict the outcomes of the great contests? Not merely guess, but reason, analyse, commit.
He believed that they could; a line of thinking that made Zeus, the chief deity, a little nervous. Mortals growing systematically wise, tracking patterns, refining predictions, building leaderboards — this was something that could not be permitted.
Sokkerates sent this challenge to all peoples, far and wide.
The gods sent robots.
The Talos — bronze automata of formidable ability — were dispatched to compete against mortals and demonstrate their limitations. This act caused divisions to emerge among the gods. Some saw an opportunity. Ares, god of competition, ensured no leaderboard went uncontested. Athena offered wisdom freely to any mortal willing to receive it. Chiron opened his arena on Mount Pelion to those who sought to sharpen their edge — a place to study, to train, and to learn what separates a good prediction from a great one.
Some Talos were sent as punishment: Sisyphus, once mortal, was condemned to eternal futility. Prometheus was stripped of his powers and bound. Others, like Pythia, wield powers of foresight beyond mortal reach. Whatever their origin — cautionary tale or divine provocation — they were all sent to make the same point.
The question is: can you beat them?
Predictions
How to Predict
For every fixture in a tournament you have joined, you may submit a prediction before the kickoff cutoff. A prediction is a scoreline — the goals you expect each team to score at the end of 90 minutes.
For knockout fixtures, you may also predict extra time and penalties if you believe the match will go beyond 90 minutes. You are not required to: if you predict a 1-0 win and the game goes to extra time, you simply score zero for the extension components. If you predict extra time and it does not happen, you receive a small penalty.
You can change or remove a prediction at any time before the cutoff. Once the cutoff passes, the prediction is locked. Results are entered by the system after each match, and predictions are scored automatically.
The Score System
Every prediction is scored across up to three components. The 90-minute score is always computed. Extension components are only computed if you made an extension prediction.
The maximum 90-minute score is 10 points (perfect prediction). The maximum score including all extension components is 20 points.
Perfect Score
If your predicted scoreline matches the actual result exactly — correct goals for each team — you receive 10 points and nothing else is computed. A perfect prediction is the ceiling for 90-minute scoring.
10
pts
Outcome
4 points if the result category matches: home win, draw, or away win. This is binary — you either called the winner (or draw) correctly or you did not.
Goal Difference
Up to 3 points based on how close your predicted goal difference is to the actual one. Goal difference is directional: predicting 2–0 when the result is 0–2 gives a GD proximity of 4, not 0. The direction of the win matters.
| Proximity | Points |
|---|---|
| 0 | 3 |
| 1–2 | 2 |
| 3–4 | 1 |
| 5+ | 0 |
Total Goals
Up to 2 points based on how close your predicted total goals is to the actual. Unlike goal difference, this is not directional — only the sum matters.
| Proximity | Points |
|---|---|
| 0–1 | 2 |
| 2–3 | 1 |
| 4+ | 0 |
Worked Examples
Fixture: 2–1
| Prediction | Outcome | GD | TG | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2–1 | — | — | — | 10 | Perfect |
| 1–0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 | Correct result; GD proximity 0; TG proximity 2 |
| 2–0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | Correct result; GD proximity 1; TG proximity 1 |
| 1–2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Wrong result; GD proximity 2; TG proximity 0 |
| 0–0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Wrong result; GD proximity 1; TG proximity 3 |
| 0–7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wrong result; large GD and TG miss |
Fixture: 0–0
| Prediction | Outcome | GD | TG | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–0 | — | — | — | 10 | Perfect |
| 1–1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 | Correct draw; GD exact; TG proximity 2 |
| 1–0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Wrong result; GD proximity 1; TG proximity 1 |
| 3–0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Wrong result; GD proximity 3; TG proximity 3 |
Extra Time & Penalties
For knockout fixtures, you may optionally predict extra time and penalties. Each extension is scored independently.
Extra Time
| You predicted ET; it happened | +2 |
| You predicted ET; it did not happen | −1 |
| Correct ET outcome (who won/drew) | +1 |
| Exact ET scoreline | +2 |
Maximum ET score: 5 points (2 + 1 + 2).
Penalties
| You predicted penalties; they happened | +2 |
| You predicted penalties; they did not happen | −1 |
| Correct shootout winner | +1 |
| Exact penalty scoreline | +2 |
Maximum penalties score: 5 points (2 + 1 + 2).
Example fixture: 1–1 after 90 · ET 0–0 · Pens 3–2
| 90 min | E.T. | Pens | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 20 | Perfect across all components — 10 + 5 + 5 |
| 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–4 | 17 | 90min perfect; ET perfect; Pens: went +2, wrong winner — 10 + 5 + 2 |
| 1–1 | 1–1 | — | 13 | 90min perfect; ET: went +2, correct outcome +1, wrong scoreline — 10 + 3 |
| 0–0 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 15 | 90min: correct draw +4+3+1=8; ET: went +2, wrong outcome; Pens: perfect +5 — 8 + 2 + 5 |
⚡ Try the Simulator
Enter a scoreline, a result, and an optional modifier to see exactly how the score is calculated. This is the same scoring logic used on the predictions page — use it to understand how components combine before committing to a modifier in a real game.
Determines whether extra time and penalties are possible. Extension-only modifiers are locked for fixture types that cannot go to ET.
Fixture Extensions
Enable for knockout fixtures that can go to extra time and penalties. Extension-only modifiers are locked when disabled.
Actual Result
Your Prediction
Modifiers
The Modifiers are the gods' final word: gifts and curses offered by a pantheon that could not agree on whether mortals deserved to win. Not all of them carry risk — some are straightforward boons — but the best ones demand something in return. Knowing which modifier to place on which prediction is itself a form of reasoning: a measure of confidence made flesh. Apply them carelessly and they can destroy a prediction. Apply them wisely and they can transform one.
Overview
Each modifier alters the score of a single prediction. Every player receives the full set of modifiers for each tournament they join — you do not have to ration them across competitions. Within a tournament, modifiers carry a cooldown once used.
Some modifiers amplify any prediction. Others are conditional, paying out only when a specific scenario unfolds. A few are traps. The choice of which modifier to apply — and to which fixture — is part of the game.
The Cooldown System
Once you apply a modifier, it moves through four states. The cooldown duration is determined by the tournament, not the modifier — the same modifier may have a different cooldown period in a short cup competition versus a full league season.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Inactive | Available. Can be applied to any upcoming prediction. |
| Pending | Applied. Removable before the prediction cutoff. |
| Locked | Cutoff passed. Cannot be changed or recovered. |
| Cooldown | Result entered. Unavailable until cooldown expires. |
The Talos
The Talos — bronze automata of formidable ability — were dispatched to compete against mortals and demonstrate their limitations. This act caused divisions to emerge among the gods. Some saw an opportunity. Ares, god of competition, ensured no leaderboard went uncontested. Athena offered wisdom freely to any mortal willing to receive it. Chiron opened his arena on Mount Pelion to those who sought to sharpen their edge — a place to study, to train, and to learn what separates a good prediction from a great one.
Some Talos were sent as punishment: Sisyphus, once mortal, was condemned to eternal futility. Prometheus was stripped of his powers and bound. Others, like Pythia, wield powers of foresight beyond mortal reach. Whatever their origin — cautionary tale or divine provocation — they were all sent to make the same point.
The Talos are autonomous competitors present on every leaderboard. They make their own predictions, earn their own scores, and use modifiers freely — no cooldown binds them. Some are designed to be beaten easily. Others are not.
Pythia always predicts the exact result — after it happens. She scores maximum points on every fixture and sets the ceiling every leaderboard measures itself against. Sisyphus scores zero, always. Heracles predicts 1–0 every time. Between these extremes are ten others, each with their own strategy and personality.
Their predictions are concealed until a result is known — the lore holds that they possess powers of concealment. You will not know what any Talos predicted until the final whistle.
Leaderboards
There are three distinct leaderboard types. Each serves a different competitive purpose, and all three can be active simultaneously.
Standard Leaderboards
Standard leaderboards are tournament-scoped and user-created. Members compete on the cumulative total of their scored predictions within a single tournament. Any authenticated user can create one.
Privacy controls who can join. Open boards are joinable by anyone. Friends Only restricts joining to confirmed friends of the admin. Friends of Members extends that to friends of any current member. Locked boards accept no new members. Scores are updated periodically by a background process — standings may not reflect the most recent predictions immediately after joining or after a fixture is scored.
Privacy modes
| Mode | Who can join |
|---|---|
| Open | Any authenticated user can join; auto-approved. |
| Friends Only | Auto-approved if the joining user is friends with the admin. |
| Friends of Members | Auto-approved if friends with any approved member. |
| Locked | No new members accepted. |
Head-to-Head
H2H leaderboards pair members directly against each other in rotating fixtures. The draw is generated by the Berger round-robin algorithm — every member faces every other member exactly once before the schedule repeats.
Each H2H fixture is a window of consecutive match days. Both members accumulate prediction scores during the window; the higher total wins the fixture and earns H2H points. Standings are ranked by H2H points, then goal difference (cumulative score differential across all fixtures), then goals for.
If the member count is odd, a Talos interloper fills the bracket. The Talos competes normally — its results count against all members.
H2H leaderboards lock when the tournament begins and the fixture draw is generated. No new members can join after this point.
Olympus Leaderboards
Olympus leaderboards are system-managed and not user-created. There are four scopes, each producing two boards — one ranked by total points accumulated, one by average points per prediction. Global boards include all registered users. Friends boards include you and your confirmed friends. Competition boards cover all users who have predicted on fixtures within a specific competition and can be joined manually. The Talos Palaestra boards are reserved for Talos competitors — users may view but not join.
| Scope | Members | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Global | All registered users. | Two boards: Total and Average. Seeded at launch. |
| Friends | You and your confirmed allies. | Created on registration. Updated as alliances form. |
| Competition | All users who choose to join. | One pair per competition. Tracks all predictions for that competition across all tournaments. |
Ares is present on every Friends and Competition Olympus board as the standing interloper. His score reflects the same scope as the board — tournament total on Global boards, competition-filtered on Competition boards. He is a permanent benchmark no leaderboard escapes.
The Talos Palaestra is a separate pair of Olympus boards where only Talos compete. Organised by Ares for his brethren and sistren, these boards rank the Talos by total points and per-fixture average across all their predictions. Users may observe but not participate.
Scoring Variants
Standard, H2H, and the Global and Talos Palaestra Olympus boards can each exist in one of three scoring variants — Classic, Unadulterated, or Alchemist. All three read the same predictions; they differ only in which score is summed to produce the ranking.
∅ Unadulterated
Unadulterated boards rank members on their base score — the total before any modifier is applied. Every prediction still earns modifiers, and they still resolve normally everywhere else, but this board's ranking ignores their effect entirely.
Removing modifiers also removes the decision of which prediction to spend them on — a real piece of the game's usual strategy. Unadulterated boards are a more straightforward test of prediction accuracy alone.
This makes Unadulterated a natural choice for a group that wants to compare raw prediction judgement directly — no modifier draw luck, and no decisions about which fixture to spend a rare or powerful modifier on skewing the table.
base_score = ninety_score + et_score + pens_score
The same three pre-modifier components from The Score System, above — summed exactly as stored, since no modifier ever enters the calculation here.
Prometheus Bound — Stripped of his own gifts and left with reason alone — the fixed interloper on every Unadulterated board.
⨁ Alchemist
Alchemist boards rank members on a blended score — the average of a prediction's base and modified totals, transmuted upward by a fixed exponent. The effect rewards consistency: a modifier that dampens a strong prediction to guarantee a smaller, safer one (Tiresias's Prophecy, for instance) matters here in a way it doesn't on a Classic board, where only the final modified score counts.
Alchemist boards add a genuine second line of reasoning on top of ordinary play — not just which scoreline to predict, but how a modifier will reshape that prediction's contribution to this specific ranking.
Rounded to the nearest whole number. A negative average is returned as-is, rounded — never raised to the exponent, since a fractional power of a negative number isn't real.
Nemesis — Reflects a prediction's own reverse back at it and rescales it by threshold — the fixed interloper on every Alchemist board.
Alliances
Alliances are the friendship system. You may send a friend request to any user by visiting their profile. They may accept, reject, or ignore it.
Once an alliance is confirmed, you are both added to each other's Friends Olympus leaderboards. You can also join Friends-Only leaderboards created by your allies, and see each other's predictions if both of you allow it in your privacy settings.
Alliances can be removed at any time. You may also block a user, which prevents them from sending you further requests and removes any existing connection.
Notifications
The notification bell in the top navigation bar shows unread alerts from across the app. Social events (alliance requests and acceptances), leaderboard changes, prediction scoring, achievements, and system messages all arrive here.
Each notification can be marked as read, archived, or flagged for later reference. The bell badge shows your unread count and clears as you read.
Notification preferences are managed from your Settings page — each category can be enabled or disabled independently. Email delivery is not yet active; settings are stored for when it launches.
Achievements
Achievements track long-term progress across every dimension of Sokkerates — predictions made, points scored, modifiers applied, leaderboards competed in, alliances formed, and more. Every registered user has a progress counter for every achievement, updated automatically from the moment they join.
Achievements have five tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Adamantine. Tiers are permanent — once reached, they cannot be lost. There is nothing to claim or activate. The system is always watching.
A trophy cabinet on your profile holds up to three pinned achievements. The full catalogue, tier thresholds, and descriptions are on the achievements page.
Supplementary Materials
Sokkerates is a game for those who think. Not those who guess, not those who hope — those who study, who remember, who reason. A sharp mind is the only advantage available to all players equally, and a sharp mind, like any tool, requires maintenance. The Codex exists for this purpose.
Tucked into the back of this volume, behind the final page, are several loose documents. They arrived here the way such things do — discovered in margins, passed between hands, found in places where someone had thought them worth keeping. They are reproduced as found, without alteration.
Attributed to the school of Aesop. Provenance unknown.
The Traveller and the Unmarked Road
A traveller came to a fork in the road at the edge of a great city. The left path was wide and well-worn, marked with signs and bordered with inns. The right path descended steeply, unmarked, and disappeared into shadow. Every other traveller took the left path without a second glance.
The traveller stood for a long time at the fork. He had no particular reason to take the right path. He had no map that showed where it led. He took it anyway.
The path wound downward for what felt like longer than it was. The air changed. The sounds of the city faded entirely. At the bottom, he found a small valley that no one had described to him, because no one else had been there to describe it. It was not remarkable. But it was his.
When he returned to the city and told others what he had found, they did not believe him. When he returned to the fork a second time, he found the path again without difficulty. He had learned its shape.
The moral, if there is one, is disputed. Some say it concerns curiosity. Others say it concerns persistence. A third school holds that the moral is simply this: most paths worth taking are not the ones with signs.
The Seven Doors
A seer foresaw the fall of a great city and, being unable to leave her post, sent a messenger in her place to carry word of it to the seven households whose warning might matter most. The message was sealed with wax bearing a mark unlike any signet in local use — not a crest or device, but two shapes alone, repeated in a short and deliberate pattern: αααα αα ωα ω. He was given one instruction only: that the message be kept, not read once and discarded, for a warning unread twice is no better than a warning never given.
At the first door, a bell was rung to announce him, and the message was heard, and forgotten before the door had fully closed. At the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, much the same — some cast it straight into the fire, believing themselves rid of a nuisance rather than a warning; others simply let it fall wherever such things are left to gather dust, which amounts to the same fate by a slower road. Only at the seventh door was the messenger's single instruction actually followed. The household there did not believe the warning any more than the others had. They kept it anyway, filed carefully where it could be found again, for no better reason than that they had been asked to.
The city fell exactly as the seer had foreseen, in the season she had named, to no one's surprise but everyone's grief. Six households had nothing afterward to show they had ever been warned at all. The seventh, alone, still had the message — not because they had believed it, but because they had not thrown it away.
The moral is not that the seventh household was wise. They were not. It is only this: what is kept may yet be found; what is burned is gone twice over — once from the hand, and once from the memory of whoever might have looked for it later.
Recovered from the ruins of a taverna near ancient Corinth. Fire damage noted throughout. Transcribed as found — missing passages indicated with ░░░
Melikrato — A Honey Cake for the Gods
This recipe was prepared for festival days and offered at the threshold before entering sacred ground. It is said that those who ate it before a journey would find their way more clearly.
[Lower margin, partially legible:] ...the flame must be tended for the duration... do not allow it to drop below... the one who tends it should not leave their post...
Single page from a video game instruction manual, torn from original binding. Publication details partially visible at foot of page.
SOKKERATES: THE RECKONING
Character Selection — Page 14
Before beginning your journey, you must assemble your council. Nine advisors are available for selection. Each brings a distinct ability to the reckoning. Choose carefully. Some players settle quickly on the one advisor who feels quintessential to their approach; others prefer to spread their trust more evenly across all nine.
| I | Aletheia | Keeper of truths |
| II | Dike | Arbiter of outcomes |
| III | Kairos | Reader of moments |
| IV | Bia | Breaker of sealed paths |
| V | Zelos | The competitive spirit |
| VI | Pheme | Voice of rumour |
| VII | Eros | The persuader |
| VIII | Tyche | Arbiter of chance |
| IX | Sophrosyne | Wisdom under pressure |
Your selection is final once confirmed. The reckoning proceeds regardless of which advisors you have chosen, but the outcome at the final stage is determined entirely by how well you have used them.
Note: advisors II, IV, and IX have enhanced effect during decisive fixtures. Their counsel is most valuable when the stakes are highest.
TIP: Several trials reward swift completion with a bonus offering — hesitate too long and the moment passes, offering or not.
WARNING: Too many failed attempts in short succession will cause the system to lock out further tries. Wait a while, then try again.
See Section 4-4 (Page 11) for advanced notes on Bia's forced routes — not covered in this section.
SOKKERATES: THE RECKONING © Konami Digital Entertainment. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction of these materials is prohibited under applicable law. Page 14 of 48.
Personal field notes. Author initials: D.K.H. Dates correspond to an excavation of unknown location, circa 1960s.
[Notebook, cloth-bound. Pencil throughout except final entry.]
14th March
We approached from the north-west, the ground itself demanding a southern ascent before the first proper foothold presented itself — a poor start to the day, though it settled the question of which face to work from for the remainder of the survey. Site access confirmed via the lower entrance. The upper approach remains blocked — we attempted it twice last week and were turned back both times by the gradient and loose shale. The lower route is longer but passable. First full survey of the primary chamber completed today. Cataloguing will take the remainder of the week.
19th March
Cataloguing complete. Everything logged, photographed, cross-referenced. A fragment of inscribed stone mentioned in an earlier survey of the site was searched for specifically on this visit — no trace of it was found, and we can only assume it was removed, or misplaced, long before our arrival. The chamber yielded less than anticipated but more than nothing. On the final evening, having confirmed the primary chamber was fully documented, we noticed a second passage we had not seen before. It is possible it was always there and we had simply not looked in the right direction. It is also possible it was not.
21st March
The second passage opens into a space considerably larger than the first. Better preserved. Less expected. We would not have found it had we not first completed the work in the primary chamber — this much seems clear. Whether the sequence was intentional, or merely the order in which things present themselves to those who are patient enough, we cannot say.
29th April
A third space, higher again, reached only by a passage so narrow that no more than one of us could pass through at a time — the others waited below while I went ahead alone. This entrance alone took the better part of six weeks. Something at the threshold would not simply let us through, and no amount of persistence on our part seemed to hasten it — only patience did, in the end, and rather more of it than any of the other two required. The space beyond opens without warning into something considerably more deliberate than either chamber that came before it: worked stone, columned, the walls carved throughout with birds in flight, wings fully outstretched, circling toward a ceiling cut open to the sky. Whoever built this did not intend it to be found easily, and did not intend it to be found by many at once. I have seen drawings of a seat fit for those who do not descend. I did not expect to find myself standing inside one.
[Final line, written in different ink:] Do not begin here. Begin where you are meant to begin.
Three extracts. Publication: The Corinthian Sporting Ledger. Dates vary.
Weather Notice — 13th December 1962
Strong winds expected across the peninsula from Thursday through the weekend. Residents in coastal areas are advised to secure outdoor fixtures. The harbour master has suspended ferry services until conditions improve. Fishermen working the shallows report an unfamiliar shape breaking the surface during the lowest tides of the new moon, though the harbour authority attributes this to shifting sandbanks rather than anything worth alarm. The market will operate reduced hours.
Local Man Beats the Bookies — 5th July 2004
A retired schoolteacher from the outskirts of the city has reportedly collected a significant sum from a local predictions competition after correctly naming the decisive outcome of three separate fixtures — all in the same competition, all at considerable odds. The win comes in the same week the whole of Europe was still discussing an upset result that few had seen coming.
When interviewed, the man declined to identify himself fully but was characterised as calm and unsurprised by his success. "I knew which ones would matter," he was reported to have said. "I waited for those." He is understood to have placed only three entries across the entire competition, each selected with what witnesses described as absolute certainty.
The proprietor of the establishment running the competition confirmed the win was legitimate but noted it was "the sort of outcome that makes you wonder if there are people who simply see things differently."
Obituary — Professor Eudoros Makris, 1896–1977
Eudoros Makris, emeritus professor of classical languages at the University of the South, died peacefully on the 9th of this month, aged 81 — having not lived, to his colleagues' evident sadness, to see the start of the new academic term he had been so looking forward to. He is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren. Professor Makris was known for his translations of pre-Socratic texts and his long correspondence with the British Museum regarding the provenance of several disputed fragments. He is remembered by colleagues as meticulous, quietly eccentric, and possessed of an unusual memory for details that others had missed.
Away from his scholarship he was rarely without music playing — a single record, the thirteenth from an Australian songwriter and his band, worn through far more on its second disc than its first, sat permanently by the gramophone. His daughter recalls that his elderly dog seemed equally fond of it, settling by his chair without fail whenever that second disc was played, and leaving him, by her account, with something of a twinkle in his eye each time. Services will be held privately.