The Duels

The Duels are an entertainment venue that is part sporting event, part gladitorial combat, part narrative show, and part pure spectacle. It is based on the story of the Rescue of Toln Bakkar, which members of the Fraternity of Shadeswords claim to have been part of.
The rules are generally simple: two teams (Corps) of seven are tasked with retrieving the heir (a four-foot sandbag weighing about 125 pounds). The first team to bring the heir back to their own starting zone is given the chance to "claim glory" which means transporting the heir across the arena. The heir is enchanted during the glory round to return to the starting zone immediately if it is ever not touching a member of the team or it touches the ground. The team trying to claim glory is allowed to bolster their ranks with remaining members of the losing team, though this is a strategic choice as a successful glory claim earns the team a flat amount of Tournament points which are always divided equally among any active remaining players.

Induction and Training

Participants who are interested in competing in The Duels must inquire with the Fraternity of Shadeswords. The FoS runs regular (typically weekly, though it can vary) instances of The Gauntlet, which is an obstacle course supposedly designed to test the grit and prowess of potential combatants. Though healers are on hand, The Gauntlet is somewhat controversial as it can be extremely dangerous and even deadly which is typically frowned upon by adherents to the Song of Harmony. Potentials who pass through The Gauntlet are inducted into the FoS and move on to Duels Boot, a six-day intensive introduction to The Duels. Upon completion, inductees are assigned to their Duels Corps semi-randomly from among the recent Duels Boots graduates and other available inductees.

Duels Corps

The initial Duels Corps are sometimes called Starter Corps. Some controversy surrounds the establishment of Starter Corps as groups of inductees have tried to game the system by stacking Duels Boots with promising players or using pre-established teams. Additionally, FoS Shadeswords and Watchleaders running the Boot camps have been accused of rigging Corps by cherry-picking talented teams from deep inductee pools. However, because The Duels are frequently derided as being staged anyway, most of the accusations have failed to dampen the popularity of the spectacle.
In lower brackets, Duels Corps are discouraged from modifying their lineups, although injuries, dismissals, and departures force a lot of churn in the rosters. Once a Corps has earned enough tournament points to advance to higher brackets, Corps rosters are much more flexible, though typically at least one founding member of any given Corps must remain constant to qualify them for future tournament entry. The exception to this are the Veterans league which largely consists of players who have claimed a Grand Tournament victory or who have risen to Watchleader rank in the FoS. Veteran Corps tend to organize under traditional or particularly beloved local Corps designations (The Brutal Buccaneers in Grasmere, for example) as a show of respect to the history of The Duels.

History

Originally performed as sporting matches and demonstrations to drum up contracts for the fledgling Fraternity of Shadeswords, The Duels have gradually transformed over the past century. From humble improvisational mock combat to melodramatic soap operas with elaborately orchestrated fight sequences to the most recent trend: brutal real combat where the only limitation is actual death.
Or so the FoS would like audiences to believe. In truth, Duels are strictly regulated by local and national oversight groups and nothing is allowed in the Pits that might break the Song of Harmony (though Dueling, in its current form, is pushing the limits on what defines the limits of the Song of Harmony permits). Some of the theatrics are still employed, most Duelists develop and alter ego and stage persona to drum up support from the crowd. But fights are (supposedly) no longer staged and the occasional clever magic user will make a run at the Pit Champion title.