The Athos Codex

The Scholar's Gambit

You are Theodoros, a scholar of Thessaloniki, writing a hypomnema (scholarly commentary) on how Christian thought reshaped the pagan Greek philosophers: how it widened the circle of "us" they had drawn around their own.

One source would finish it: the Forbidden Codex. But it was torn apart generations ago, fragments hidden in the libraries of each monastery on Mount Athos.

Separated, the pages were harmless. Together, they hold the lost teachings.

Your hypomnema has stalled. Every source you need is behind those gates, but they are not for you to enter.

So you enter under another man's name.

The synod meets in spring to burn the Codex. The monks are watching. Don't be discovered.

How It Plays

A rogue-like puzzle adventure. Each monastery run is a unique sequence of word-deciphering challenges — pick your path, manage the monks' suspicion, and escape with the codex fragments before spring arrives.

A WORD PUZZLE WITH STAKES

Every puzzle begins with a hidden word. You have six guesses to find it. Every wrong guess raises the monks' suspicion.

BRANCHING MONASTERY RUNS

Every monastery is a branching path through three chambers. Decide how deep to venture, when to press on, and when to slip away before suspicion overwhelms you.

TOOLS FOR THE HARDEST WORDS

Discover a scholar's tools, represented as upgradeable cards, to help decipher difficult words. The right tool at the right moment can save an entire monastery run.

EXPLORE THE REAL MOUNT ATHOS

Travel freely between the twenty real monasteries of the Holy Mountain on an authentic geographic map. See what they look like. Learn their history.

COMPLETE THE HYPOMNEMA, AND IT IS REAL

Every successful run recovers another fragment of the Codex. The chapters you unlock are drawn from The Circle We Choose — a real, published book.

Find Rest Between Battles

Seek a quiet corner when suspicion runs high. A moment of stillness can be the difference between escape and exile.

The Circle We Choose

Why People Who Share Values End Up on Opposite Sides of Society's Biggest Debates

You play Theodoros, a scholar of Thessaloniki writing a hypomnema — a scholarly commentary — on how Christian thought widened the circle of "us" the pagan Greek philosophers had drawn around themselves. His hypomnema is the precursor to The Circle We Choose, a real, published book. The medieval commentary and the modern book are one work, separated by centuries and completed across them.

The answer lies in an invisible boundary — the circle we draw around those we consider "us". Immigration, identity, fairness, responsibility: the heated debates aren't caused by a lack of compassion. They are caused by different assumptions about who belongs inside the circle. That instinct is hardwired, evolutionary, and almost impossible to see from the inside.

As you crack open monastery archives, you recover fragments of the Codex and unlock its chapters, drawn from The Circle We Choose — exploring why people who share the same values end up bitterly divided over immigration, identity, and fairness, and how the instinct to protect "our own" has driven both heroism and atrocity.

The Circle We Choose by Christoforos Akritidis is available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback.

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