Age of Durek - Dawn Period

King Durek (The Tinkerer King) began the early years of his reign making micro-improvements to Battle Balt - He believed the sport had been through too many changes with the previous kings and so didn't want to dramatically alter what wasn't broken.   He setup unions to protect the balters and introduced more rules to improve safety. Fans worried he was sanitising the brutality of their sport and simply following the Queen's orders. To allay these fears Durek worked with baltsmiths to improve blade technology to create deadlier balter weapons. This, combined with minor developmental changes to increase the balts aerodynamics, meant the latest iteration of the bloody menace was the deadliest yet.

The Queen accepted Durek's changes due to a zero-death toll in the arena. Battle Balt's popularity rose generating vast increases in income for the Crown. Durek had achieved the impossible by satisfying both sides of the bloodier vs safer balt debate.   Under Durek the game followed a steady evolution rather than a dramatic revolution and Battle Balt's popularity continued to increase over the next 80 years.   But there was one powerful detractor that loomed in the background angry at Battle Balt's continued success...