BuccaneerBass

Organiser: The Clearwater Family headed by Llyssandra Clearwater.

Description: The Clearwater's Spring Duel has been around for many years, at first it was just a sort of family reunion where all Clearwaters would gather in their ancestral home to drink, laugh and catch up.

During one of those reunions a young Clearwater who clearly had more than his share of drinks, proclaimed he was quite obviously the better fencer present there. Going so far as to loudly tell everyone that he could have beaten Rodrick Clearwater if he still lived.

Many were sceptic and laughed him away, telling him to find his bed and sleep it off. Others took insult to his trivialisation of Rodrick's superb skills and challenged him to back up his foolish words with deeds. Thus the first duels were held at the Clearwater Spring Reunion, the outcome has since been forgotten - perhaps on purpose- but the result was that every year since then the young men of the family had the habit of challenging each other to test their skills.

Men of other families started to join in, being invited as guests or escorting various ladies to the event. Slowly the reunion shifted from being a social gathering with duels on the side, to a spectacle of several duels going on at once that happened to have catering, music and interesting conversation.

Although there was rarely a shortage of guests it was mostly the lower nobility that attended the event, since many higher born considered it beneath themselves to fight with the lower ranking. This all changed dramatically when Llyssandra Clearwater took up the mantel of leadership of the house.

Llyssandra is, in short, a stunningly beautiful woman and has had many suitors since the day she was considered old enough to be betrothed.
Llyssandra, now in her late twenties, has never given in to any of them however, preferring instead to concentrate on her future as leader of the house. Until now that is.
Proving once again she is a cunning leader she has promised to marry whoever wins the Clearwater Spring Reunion Duels three years in a row, this caused men to flock to the event, nearly tripling the amount of guests and duellers.

Llyssandra cares little about marriage however, that still hasn't changed, instead she uses the event as a prime opportunity to find out what's going on in the other noble families. After all, men, drunk either on wine or the flush of victory, tell many things they perhaps wouldn't when sober. So far, the event and information gleaned there, has helped the Clearwater family to strengthen its position in the hierarchy of nobles.

Naturally many of the Clearwater family see to it that Llyssandra doesn't end up with someone who is "less than adequate for her" as they put it. And anyone hoping to win the Duals three years in a row will have to go through scores of Clearwater family members and the closer to victory one gets without the Clearwater family name, the rougher the competition.

There are several healers present during the duels since it is not a fight to the death. Accidents are rare but do happen, fatalities are even rarer but seem to occur more with men close to winning their third consecutive year.

Agenda: The event starts in the early afternoon with a casual walking meal and casual conversation.

Around the bell of two Llyssandra formally welcomes her guests and again states her promise to marry whomever wins the Duels three years in a row, she invites all men who think their skill great enough to partake. This is followed by the choosing of the weapons, the Duels are no longer limited to fencing, instead the duellists can chose any bladed weapon they wish, these weapons are provided by the Clearwater family and other weapons are forbidden.

Then the first duels begin in the enormous backyard of the Clearwater Manor. These duels continue as long as there are undefeated contestants left. Meanwhile food, drink and entertainment are provided for guests who do not wish to fight, or watch the fighting.

After the duels there is a grand banquet held in the name of the victor. This banquet continues into a party of sorts usually attended by the younger of the nobles.

Social crowd: The crowds can include nobles from all over the world, Llyssandra's beauty is well known throughout the noble world.
Although usually only the younger nobles partake in the fighting, many older, even married ones do too, to prove their skills and prove to the youngsters they too can still fight.