A closer look
Ancient Indian iterations of chess originally featured a war elephant instead of the bishop, which makes vastly more sense from a historical military perspective than an armed member of the clergy charging diagonally across a battlefield. When the game migrated to medieval Europe, the Catholic Church was such a dominant political force that the elephant was swapped out for a bishop to reflect the immense strategic power of the local priesthood. This historical localization explains why a supposedly realistic game of medieval warfare features religious figures enthusiastically assassinating enemy knights and sliding across the board like heavily armored snipers. It perfectly encapsulates the violent reality of the middle ages, where a guy in a fancy hat was considered a far more terrifying offensive threat than a literal four-ton beast with tusks
