Jelly Spear Plays

"You better talk to my opponent now, because when I'm done him you'll need a spirit loa to talk to him after I beat him nine times over. OH YEEEEAAAAH."
-Randy "The Barbarian Man" Savage

"Jelly Spear Plays" are a Scarterran genre of theater known for campy dialogue and simplistic plot relying on exciting choreographed fight scenes for the primary entertainment value.
Jelly Spear Plays derive their name from the Testers who claim to have invented the genre (and the Tester's use crossed spears as their most common symbol) and the jelly refers to frequent use of fake blood, animal blood or sometimes mortal blood (with a magical healer on hand of course). Even though quite a few Jelly Spear productions have nothing to do with Maylar's Testers or actual spears, the name has stuck.

History

Stage combat has existed as long as performance art has existed in Scarterra.
Surviving written accounts from the First Age and the Second Age suggest that stage combat was relatively unpopular. Stage combat was often an element of a theatrical productions but was rarely the centerpiece of it.
Though many in the previous age enjoyed gladiator matches, which were real fights on a stage as opposed to fake fights on a stage.
Humans seem to have a greater appetite for stage combat than elves and dragons. Humans have developed a wide variety of tournament fights and choreographed stage combat over the centuries.
Maylar's Testers believe in survival of the fittest and conflict making people stronger, but contrary to popular minion, they are not mindless bloodthirsty murders (well not all of them). The Testers engage in contests of martial and athletic prowess all the time, but they only fight to the death under extraordinary circumstances.
A lot of Tester on Tester challenge are in private, but it is pretty popular to have challenges in front of a cheering crowd. As early in the Red Era, Testers came up with the idea of public sparring matches as a recruitment tool and it worked with some limited success.
Given that the Testers are not always held in high esteem, they tend to tone down the more disasagreeable aspects of their practices and rhetoric when throwing exhibitions for general audiences. One of the most successful of these groups called themselves the Scarterra Sparring Federation.
At some point, a Tester known as Rick the Flayer, started including choreographed fake fights with lots of pre-written trash talk for intermissions between actual challenges. It turned out these fake fights were much more popular than the real fights.
They gradually switched their model so most of their shows were Jelly Spear fights, but they closed with a real sparring match (mainly for the benefit of the participants).
As this troupe of performing Testers grew in popularity, more Tester groups adapted the model. It also got picked up by secular performing troupes, and then eventually it was picked up by more Nonagon affiliates outside of the Testers. Ironically, now the Testers' traditional rivals the Guardians and Lanterns are producing more Jelly Spear plays than they are.

by me with Hero Forge

"Jelly Spear plays used to be a lot of fun, until they became commonplace and everyone started doing them. Now the egg sucking Guardians produce their own Jelly Spears plays...ruining the art forever."
-Blood Mystic Detlef, swordsmen and summoner of Maylar

Execution

Regardless of who sponors or creates them, most Jelly Spear plays have several fights, typically with their least popular matchups first and use the most coveted spectacles at the end.

"With my keen intellect, I discovered a pattern. The most popular fighter always wins....
-Brigid, theater critic among other things.

"What does it matter who wins or loses something so ridiculous? If you are going to have a fake fight, at least have a realistic fake fight."
-Sir Bendek Deorac, Adventurer and knight

Most Jelly Spear plays seek to prop up certain fighters as heroes and others villains. Religious affiliated Jelly Spear performers tend to make their religious rivals as the villains.
Sometimes this backfires, as some people think the "Bad Guys" are more interesting characters and they cheer for them over the "Good Guys." Much to the delight of the Testers, this has happened to the Guardians more than once where their heroes are booed and their villains are cheered.
More secular performing troupes will adapt their villains to resemble people or groups their audience is already predisposed to dislike rather than turn the audience against their own personal enemies. During times of war, sometimes the local lords will sponsor Jelly Spear plays and showcase jingoistic heroes beating up and humiliating strawman versions of the nation's enemies.

Components and tools

Many performers and fans alike prefer unarmed combat over weapons combat because it allows a greater flexibility of leaps, throws, and other stunts. Most Jelly Spear performances will have a mix of unarmed and armed bouts.
Most Jelly Spear performances have no magic at all or very limited magic with the limited magic most commonly seen is enchantments on the weapons from divine Wrath theurgy or the arcane school of Enchantment to make the weapons less lethal. The same effect can be achieved with blunted or padded weapons, but magically dampened weapons look much more authentic.
Admittedly, not a lot of Jelly Spear performance troupes have much access to magic. Jelly Spears are considered low brow entertainment and many arcane and divine spellcasters alike to participate in them though most Jelly Spear troupes that have magic choose to use it.
A lot of Scarterran stage combat uses illusion magic to make fake injuries look more real. Jelly Spears productions tend to avoid illusion magic and some purists claim that "proper" Jelly Spear shows use no illusion magic though this is more of a guideline than a rule.

by me with Midjourney

Not counting the aforementioned spells that reduce weapon lethality, the most popular spells for Jelly Spear performances are physical enhancments spells from divine Augmentation or arcane Transumutation to enhance the strength, agility, or general speed of participants. Of course a magic Healer is always an asset letting the performers fight with less restraint if they can get magically patched up between bouts.
Of course no Jelly Spear match is complete without gaudy costumes and lots of fake blood.

Participants

comissioned portrait of Aleesia the Satyr by Zeta Gardner

"I keep saying, the Rovers need to put on our own Jelly Spear plays! But whenever I say this, my superiors respond with "Okay, Aleesia, you can do the laundry and wash all the blood stains out of the costumes, and this shuts me up. Though if I had Purification magic...."
Aleesia the Satyr, Rover of Nami

Most full time Jelly Spear troupes are secular in nature, though religious groups dabble in producing an occasional Jelly Spear play, especially the Testers, Lanterns, and Guardians. A lot of secular Jelly Spear troops have a theurgist on their payroll, but these divine casters are acting on their own volition, not on behalf of their temples.
Some larger Jelly Spear troupes have very large teams of performers and will often have specific fights, gnome versus gnomes (though often the villain is dressed in a bad goblin costume) or women versus women fights.
Some performances will include non-fighting entertainment as interludes, but it is usually physical in nature, juggling, dancing, fake magic tricks, acrobatic stunts, etc.
Most Jelly Spear performing troupes are small with between four and ten people. They cannot afford to have too many specialists. When the "warriors" are not on stage fighting, it is common that they are rotating to serve other duties for the warriors on stage, so the other warriors will often pull double duty as prop managers, announcers, and hype men.
For instance, you might see a gnome perform most of the anouncer duties but when the announcer "suddenly" decides to become a warrior and take to the stage, a human will take up his announcer duties for the duration of the bout and possibly the next bout as the gnome catches his breath.

Primary Related Location

Scarterra