1. Place the game board in the middle of the table.

4 players: Use all parts.

2 or 3 players: Don't use the connecting part shown on the right (=the most narrow one).

2. Each player gets one of the 4 personal boards.

2 players: Place it on the side with the (bottom left corner)

3. Blindly shuffle the 40 knowledge tokens and place one face up on each village.

2 or 3 players: Remove the 8 tokens shown on the right from the game before the set-up: one of each type, with and without the Dragon Seal.

4. Take the 84 Bear Steles:

A. Place 1 Stele of the matching color on the first Altar of each Temple track. Put all the other steles in the Bag, then:

B. Draw 4 Steles at random and swap them with the 4 tokens showing a Bear. Then remove the tokens from the game.

C. Each player draws 3 Steles and places them near their personal board.

5. Shuffle the 16 Seal cards and place them face down near the game board.

6. Choose a starting player in any manner you like. That player takes the Golden Bear token.

You are ready to start!

See 'Gameplay Overview' for further instructions on how to play the game.