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He later disguises himself as Turan, a mercenary, after rescuing her from the valley of the Kaldanes, revealing his true identity at the conclusion of the tale, by which time Tara has fallen in love with his assumed identity. Gahan of Gathol: A prince of the Martian kingdom of Gathol who falls in love with Tara of Helium and is initially spurned by her when revealing his feelings.Spacecraft may appear, but are usually not central to the story. Most of the action in a planetary romance is on the surface of an alien world, usually includes sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements as telepathy rather than magic, and involves civilizations echoing those on Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly composed of kingdoms or theocratic nations. This genre is a subset of science fiction, similar to sword and sorcery, but including scientific elements. The novel can be classed as a planetary romance. He actually mentions these games with Shea in the opening pages of the novel. Burroughs, as he had done in prior Barsoom novels, cast himself as John Carter's nephew, entrusted with Carter's manuscript of another Martian tale. Burroughs was a keen chess player and played games with his assistant, John Shea, while writing the novel, which he invariably won. Of these, probably the most remarkable is his creation of Jetan, the Martian version of Chess, played with living people. While working on the piece, Burroughs created a worksheet with 70 entries relating to architecture, locations, equipment and geographical locations. It was a particularly inventive and broad piece of imagination, including many details of the traditions, beasts and characters featuring in the novel. The novel was written during 1921, from January 7 to November 12. In Manator, captives are forced to a fight to the death in the arena, in a modified version of Jetan, a popular Barsoomian board game resembling Chess the living version uses people as the game pieces on a life-sized board, with each taking of a piece being a duel to the death. Gahan ventures into the city seeking food and water, but is tricked and taken prisoner by the inhabitants. The three of them manage to reach the isolated city of Manator. In light of her earlier reaction to him, Gahan decides to keep his identity secret, and identifies himself instead as a Panthan (warrior) called Turan. Tara doesn't recognize Gahan as the prince she met earlier, as he is worn from his ordeals and no longer dressed in his fancy clothes. He stumbles upon Bantoom, realm of the Kaldanes, and manages to rescue Tara, and together with Ghek they flee in Tara's crippled flier. Gahan, who has fallen in love with Tara, sets out to find her, only to find himself caught up in the same storm, and he falls overboard while attempting to rescue one of his crew. While imprisoned, Tara manages to win over one of the Kaldanes, Ghek, with her lovely singing voice. The Kaldanes imprison Tara, intending to fatten her up, then eat her. The Kaldanes have bred a symbiotic race of headless human-like creatures called Rykors, which they can attach themselves to and ride like a horse. After landing and fleeing from a pack of ferocious Banths (Martian lions), she is captured by the horrific Kaldanes, who resemble large heads with small, crab-like legs. Later she takes her flier into a storm and loses control of the craft, and the storm carries her to an unfamiliar region of Barsoom. Tara meets Prince Gahan of Gathol, and is initially unimpressed, viewing him as something of a popinjay. Both Helium and Gathol are prominent Barsoomian city states. The heroine this time is their daughter Tara, princess of Helium, whose hand is sought by the gallant Gahan, Jed (prince) of Gathol. In this novel Burroughs focuses on a younger member of the family established by John Carter and Dejah Thoris, protagonists of the first three books in the series.