ARISHAH, THE URMAH TIGER , 4TH PART, ARI DESCRIBES URMAH CONTACT SPORTS (ENGLISH)
Published 27 April 2024 by Swaruu Official - English


Mari Swa: Hello again. Thank you for being here with me once more. I hope you are very well today. I am Mari. This information can be seen as science fiction or as the viewer sees best and I post it for entertainment purposes only. Still, I take my information very serious seriously, and for whoever has eyes to see.

This is the fourth part of a very long interview I had with Arishah, the Urmah tiger, on February 23rd, 2024. The wording is mine, as I had to translate it into English from the German language I used to communicate with Ari, but I do my best to conserve his meaning and the wording he used.

Ari, continuing with our questions, could you describe Urmah sports or the sports the Urmah, as a star race, like to play at home and in your culture?

Arishah: We like to play forshagh a lot. It is a game with several variants where, in one of the most popular ones, there are 12 players in a round stadium or area where we play.
It doesn't have to be a stadium. Each player has his or her goal, which is placed around and at the edge of the stadium circle where the numbers would be in a clock and where each goal is also numbered from one to 12, as in a clock, and matches the number of the player.

The stadium is some 100m in diameter when played professionally, but its size varies a lot when played informally. In a stadium at home, each goal can be a metal arch full of elaborated artistic Urmah metal work representing felines or a simple arch with exact dimensions big enough for only one Urmah to go through at a time. But when played more informally, the goals can be made of anything you want. It can even be a circle drawn on the dirt or the sand with a stick.

At the very centre of the circular plain ground or stadium, there is another circle drawn on the ground in white. In well-established stadiums, the floor is some shock absorbent material similar to rubber, but when played anywhere else, the floor is what you get in the one where you are. When not in a stadium, the best place to play it is on the sand, such as the one on a beach. You will see why.

When the game is to be played, a specially made sack or bag is placed at the centre of the playing area, in that circle drawn on the ground, and at the same exact distance to each one of the 12 goals. The sack or bag is made of very resistant material with sawdust or special rubber-like material inside. It always has the same weight, some 60kg, and is covered with artificial fur, as it represents a dead animal, a large cat's prey.

When played in a stadium in a professional manner with many Urmah sitting and watching all around, each player starts the game in his or her goal. Then, when trumpets majestically announce that the game is about to start, the players get ready in a sprinting position, and the game starts at the sound of powerful drums and a cannon firing.

This is where all the players, violently and in all their strength and power, run on all four legs to get to the artificial dead animal at the centre of the stadium first. The purpose of this game is to fight for the dead animal against the other 11 opponents, and whoever manages to carry, drag, or get the dead animal past the arch of his or her goal wins. As you can imagine, this is a very violent game, but the Urmah love it.

As with all games, certain rules must be followed, and those are that claws and teeth may not be used against the other players. You cannot fight your opponent to the head, and you cannot carry the dead animal with your teeth. This last rule is because too many Urmah have lost their teeth playing this violent game.

Another rule is that male and female Urmah cannot play against each other. There is one game for the males and another for the females, as the difference in size and strength is very big. Another rule is that Urmah subspecies cannot play against each other for the same reason why males and females cannot as well because of the difference in size and power. This means that you are not to place leopards and panthers playing against lions and tigers because it would be a heavily unfair match. Yet, this game is played almost exclusively by male Urmah, where the subraces that most excel at it are the lions and the tigers due to their added mass and strength.

The players use protection on their bodies, especially on their vulnerable parts like their underbelly and neck. It is like an armoured vest made of padded leather with rubber reinforcements, and it is usually ornamented by each player who also chooses his or her colours and emblems. This protection also includes a protective muzzle on the face to prevent losing teeth during a game, which is the most usual consequence of playing this game.

Mari Swa: Is that why one of your fangs is missing its tip, Ari?

Arishah: No, that was a silly cat splat. See, I broke it off accidentally when I jumped down from the top of a wall onto a hard floor. I stupidly miscalculated my weight, so I landed on my mouth when I was younger.

Mari Swa: Oh, sorry about that, Ari.

Arishah: Never mind. As I was saying, this game is loved by everyone back home because it helps us de-stress and vent all the Urmah rage and the need for action we always have.
Yes, it is very violent and may result in injury, as the players fight for the artificial dead animal. Because they use all their strength, they also resort to kicking away their opponents, which is one of the most used manoeuvres when the player with the dead animal is already on the floor, downed by the others during the fight. By kicking I mean a feline kick launch where the opponent may end up flying away as the Urmah hind legs are very strong. Even house cats use that manoeuvre while fighting against one another. 

This game has many variants. For example, when played informally, it can be played by as few as two opponents. There is an inverse variant of this game where the opponents must fight against each other to place the dead animal inside the circle at the centre of the stadium or playing ground, while the others attempt to prevent that from happening and at the same time attempt to do the same. This variant is not used very much because it always ends up with a big pile of fighting cats at the centre of the playing ground, and it is nearly impossible for them to agree who placed the dead animal at the centre first.

During these games, the artificial dead animal usually gets all torn up and destroyed before the end. When this happens, the referee stops the game for a few minutes while a cleaning team removes the parts of the artificial dead animal, sweeps the area, and a new one is placed at the centre of the playing ground again while the players rest, drink water, and have their wounds attended. Then, the drums start to beat again, the cannon fires, and the cats run to the fray once again.

There are elaborate championships for this game, and it is the most popular one in our culture. And as you would expect, most of the players end up in a hospital after the game ends.

There's another fun game the Urmah play a lot, but this one has no real spectators, and it is also a variant of this one. It is played in the open, in a forest area, where two teams are fighting against each other to find the artificial animal which is hidden by the referees.
And again, they must manage to use their heads and power to find the dead animal and then take it to their goal without the other team suspecting or finding it directly.

This is the team variant of this game, and for many Urmahs, this is a lot more fun than the brutal first. It also has a variant where there are many artificial dead animals hidden around the playing area in the woods, usually 12. The players have a limited amount of time to find as many as possible and take them to their goals while the other team tries to take them from them, fighting with a lot of teamwork and strategy, which includes deception, misleading actions, and false dead animals which they may fashion with what they may find, like a log of similar size, all to persuade the efforts of the other team from accumulating enough dead animals in their goals. When the time is up, the team with the most dead animals in their goal wins the trophy of best team hunters.

Mari Swa: Thank you, Ari, for describing some of the most popular Urmah games. There will be a new Ari interview coming up soon. We will continue to discuss more subjects from his feline point of view.

This will be all for today. Thank you for watching my video and for liking, sharing, and subscribing. I appreciate it a lot, and I hope to see you here next time. Take care.

With much love.

Your friend,

Mari Swaruu