Fjaltindr
A long time ago, in my homeland, there was a legendary fighter named Sigurd Helltai. He spent his whole life studying battle and dueling wherever he could, testing himself against any fighter who would take him. In the later years of his life he started a battle college that soon became the greatest of the fighting schools. His methods were undeniably effective, and his students were some of the greatest warriors of Valarion.
One, his best student, was a man named Thorson Tath, became his closest friend and most popular teacher. Helltai and Tath, though, disagreed about many points of fighting and, only a few years before Sigurd Helltai died, Tath began his own school.
Tath was a much more intellectual fighter, preferring to use his mind to prepare his instincts. His school used a number of battle-games to teach students the basics of fighting, and to give them practice in their scant off-hours. This game, which translates as "Mountain Top", is one of those.
It is based on the "belt" system of categorizing and ranking students, which Helltai developed, and which Tath and almost all the other Valarian fighter-schools use. There are four belts representing Novice, Fighter, Veteran, and Warlord. Each belt can have one to four knots, representing movement through each tier. Thus, a four-knot Novice is at the peak skill of a beginning fighter, ready to take the next step into his second belt, and become a one-knot Fighter. None are allowed to teach who have not reached their third belt.
In the game of Fjaltindr, the two fighters with the highest knots (1-16) face each other first. They spar, seeking to land acceptable hits on one another. Once one fighter has gotten 5 hits, the other goes to the back of the line of fighters and the next challenger steps up. A win means you "drop" one knot. The first player to get to 0 knots wins. Thus, a great fighter with 14 knots would have to win 14 fights to win the game. A novice, with only 2 knots, would only need to win two fights to win the game.
Once someone has won the game, in subsequent rounds, he or she begins with one additional knot. So if the 2-knot Novice wins the game, in the next round, he would have 3 knots to lose. Generally, there is an unwritten rule that those from outside the school, who have not been given a formal ranking start with 4 knots.
Losing knots and gaining knots are just for the game, they do not actually change the formal belt-ranking of the fighters in question.
A long time ago, in my homeland, there was a legendary fighter named Sigurd Helltai. He spent his whole life studying battle and dueling wherever he could, testing himself against any fighter who would take him. In the later years of his life he started a battle college that soon became the greatest of the fighting schools. His methods were undeniably effective, and his students were some of the greatest warriors of Valarion.
One, his best student, was a man named Thorson Tath, became his closest friend and most popular teacher. Helltai and Tath, though, disagreed about many points of fighting and, only a few years before Sigurd Helltai died, Tath began his own school.
Tath was a much more intellectual fighter, preferring to use his mind to prepare his instincts. His school used a number of battle-games to teach students the basics of fighting, and to give them practice in their scant off-hours. This game, which translates as "Mountain Top", is one of those.
It is based on the "belt" system of categorizing and ranking students, which Helltai developed, and which Tath and almost all the other Valarian fighter-schools use. There are four belts representing Novice, Fighter, Veteran, and Warlord. Each belt can have one to four knots, representing movement through each tier. Thus, a four-knot Novice is at the peak skill of a beginning fighter, ready to take the next step into his second belt, and become a one-knot Fighter. None are allowed to teach who have not reached their third belt.
In the game of Fjaltindr, the two fighters with the highest knots (1-16) face each other first. They spar, seeking to land acceptable hits on one another. Once one fighter has gotten 5 hits, the other goes to the back of the line of fighters and the next challenger steps up. A win means you "drop" one knot. The first player to get to 0 knots wins. Thus, a great fighter with 14 knots would have to win 14 fights to win the game. A novice, with only 2 knots, would only need to win two fights to win the game.
Once someone has won the game, in subsequent rounds, he or she begins with one additional knot. So if the 2-knot Novice wins the game, in the next round, he would have 3 knots to lose. Generally, there is an unwritten rule that those from outside the school, who have not been given a formal ranking start with 4 knots.
Losing knots and gaining knots are just for the game, they do not actually change the formal belt-ranking of the fighters in question.