Oh duels
can go well - although you get thread waterfalls and we all get lost. But like all duels you need careful rules to make it the dance of honour - otherwise it degenerates, fools rush in, and chaos ensues.
That one was clearly for the dogs from the outset, a frothing baron who screams insults in public - and refuses all counsel for calm, openly admits to having plotted revenge (do it, but don't say it man!), can't convince his own family to stand for him (if there is any left of course), hasn't the courage to die well after living miserably - good god he might as well be
pouring the milk in first or
passing port to the right...Her first words following his statement was "Those are fighting words Baron, I demand satisfaction" and that's the actual challenge.
No, it is the response to the challenge against her honour - his words challenge and demand response - think of cause and effect, why did the SM go all noble on us (technically all Vos, but a real noble would have responded identically). As I said fairly irrelevant though - the challenged/challenger point impact depends on the code. Another way to see it is noble peasant - a peasant insults a noble, the noble thrashes the peasant. Has the noble assaulted the peasant, no, they have responded to the insult to their honour - not that anyone would likely give a damn in this case. A noble's honour is a tangible thing - which is why feuds lasted so long and duels so prevalent -
strike a man's honour and you strike the man.
Yes, instead it would seem someone saw an easy prey in the weak and hotheaded Baron and jumped at it
amusing, but very contrived - only nobles care, and none of them would ignore such a challenge. The baron could have apologised if he was the victim - but instead very clearly rejoiced in his success proving his insult deliberate (which of course it was) and his trap sprung (ditto, and proving the SM both hot tempered and ignorant of Anuire in doing so - well played both sides) - if Tshalen had then dangled the SM on his hook verbally to extract grovelling apology or some concession (accept my nephew as heir to certain lands, etc) then he'd have been the toast of the town (the minor faux pas being outweighed by the clear diplomatic victory against someone feared/disliked). As it is he threw it away by proving himself mean spirited and vindictive (one can of course be mean and vindictive, you just don't openly state it in public, and in particular you don't scream it out in public during a party when people are having fun - in public only boors lose control).
As a personal recollection of the latter, we told a noble client that they had been ripped off by a conman by 7 figures+, were going to lose their (literally) ancestral home, possibly go bankrupt, etc, their response:
how inconvenient - we of course being beneath their station should never be witness to their distress... (personal servants being quasi-furniture are excepted frequently).
Framing his entire lineage and house (albeit some time ago) would in my book qualify as "the first punch"...
Too long ago - if you let people have duels over that then everyone can duel everyone - and the whole point of official duels is to reduce bloodshed amongst the males aged 16-30 (others have grown out of it or are obsolete). That is of course why people simply re-invent the insults as Tshalen did, or simply go somewhere quiet for a grudge match - and let the survivor tell the (100% true of course) story. So the history would let him get away with provoking a duel since it indicates that other people are safe and its personal not just ambition, but he needs to renew the issue by making challenge to the SMs nobility.
Although I agree that it was a dastardly way of dealing with it, it all happened according to an unwritten(?) code of conduct. It was not the Baron who challenged, thus it is the Swordmage who brought conflict to the Sword and Crown...
If Tshalen couldn't have anticipated she would demand he apologise for his words then he'd be ok as the victim, as it is given the SMs
touchy status as a noble a severe response was
inevitable - and everyone knows that he knows it. Similarly if he'd apologised and she hadn't accepted it (and he wouldn't to say much of a sorry given the situation) then he'd be the victim - and her response would have proven his point beautifully giving him huge kudos, and the GN perfect opportunity while 'accidentally passing by' to request that he be permitted to defend the 'old and wounded man' against the 'vindictive upstart rubbishing an old man for a slip of the tongue caused by ongoing grievance'.
As it is I'm stuck with 'she had to respond - while she did so badly he clearly provoked her, clearly planned to do so, and frankly is just a broken fool bent on on squalid revenge and rather annoyingly, proving his counter through his ineptitude.'
The great thing about unwritten codes is that they can be interpreted in oh so many ways - perfect for RP (as long as when saying 'this is the law' you leave loopholes for others to leap through 'in the words of the great Fred... yes but fred was a heretic, saint anna said...'
the incident with the Green Knight is something completely different though
Well if Tshalen had had a daughter/etc marry the GN so he was a son-in-law, or some similar move he'd have been well ahead - the GN would have had a perfect right to get involved. But he didn't, so, as you put it, it was dastardly. Frankly who next? Will he start another bloody riot over being not supported by other lords? There are no end of grudges to be borne by so prominent a loser, and if Tshalen waives his magic knight every time to not merely beat, but slaughter anyone who doesn't
crawl and
beg -
and likely even then - what defense does anyone have against the rabid fool?
There is always a grievance...As for the GNs various faux pas those were fairly slight - he should have called for the SM to apologise after beating her, but that's minor and anyway she didn't call surrender either; he shouldn't have gloated about planning to enjoy killing her - indeed since she'd fought honourably and from a clear trap he should have given her a face saving way out, but then
noble doesn't mean
nice, he shouldn't have blatantly only been fighting her to hurt her brother, that's dishonourable, but then considering that a woman or mage being unworthy of treatment with honour is par for the course amongst many nobles...
As for going berserk and slaughtering wholesale, frankly, stopping that from happening is why duels have rules, and the GN wasn't even a participant in this one (Tshalen was along with the SM - GN was just Thsalen's instrument legally I think - it depends on the local laws i.e. Haelyn and Roele, and whether he is accepted as ensorcelled) so the legalities will be interesting. Technically I think that Tshalen gets the legal blame, but there is plenty to spread around...
You could say that it's the Militant Order's fault - the duel was on their grounds, they had the duty to police it... As it was the Chamberlain had to send his own troops in, but then as host of the social bash where the challenge was issued he should have overseen the duel or at least made sure that
someone did which he clearly failed to do... it's amazing who you can blame for that one if you put your mind to it... Personally I think the Chamberlain had more to do with it then any court will ever admit, he knows everyone and every grudge - I wonder how the GN and Tshalen met...
The only people to come out of this one well were the Duke of Ghieste (defended the weak against a mad men even though grossly outmatched as a true noble should -
damn him), Duke Osoer (intervened to stop someone usurping a duel - not a 2:1 fight as claimed incidentally, that one was over - but an unannounced interruption of a duel before the first was finished which is
quite improper), and that's about it. Just about everyone else lost, albeit some more than others.
The swordmage can be argued either way - basically those who dislike her will be happy, the upstart was knocked down and made to grovel, those who support her will be happy, she accepted a duel honourably in anuirean noble fashion instead of some vos vengeance brawl, she fought with honour, she accepted substitution despite clear premeditation by her challenger, she accepted weapons unfavourable to her, she fought courageously, her opponents were clearly mad/bad), those on the fence will probably continue to ignore such barbaric displays and just avoid both sides going forward as social outcasts for the next decade or two.
