[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Ed] The Arcade Code Duello

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

The Ultimate Guide to 
The Duel Arcane
Part Three

The following are social considerations for the Duel Arcane for Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition, adapted from various sourcebooks from Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition and game hax we have tried out before.  This has been a long time coming, especially after we had the Duel Arcane Tournament during many character's time at the Pentacle Academy.


Our changes are in different colors than the core source text so they can be used or discarded.  It's our system to make duels more dynamic and interesting.

Part One - The Traditional Duel Arcane
Part Two - Other Mystic Duels
Part Three - The Arcane Code Duello

Sources:
- Mage: The Awakening 2nd Ed corebook
- Mage: The Awakening 1st Ed corebook
- Tome of the Mysteries sourcebook for MtA1.0
- Sanctum & Sigil sourcebook for MtA1.0
- Secrets of the Ruined Temple sourcebook for MtA1.0
- The Adamantine Arrow order sourcebook for MtA1.0
- The Silver Ladder order sourcebook for MtA1.0

The Arcane Code Duello

No matter how learned or scholarly a city’s Councilors may be, initiates are known for occasionally finding their own ways to settle disputes. Before they consider forsaking one Consilium for another or turning to an Assembly of the Free Council for guidance, passionate mages resort to more immediate solutions. The Duel Arcane is the most common of these resolutions: a trial by magical combat, usually involving specified parameters of magic.  The Arcane Code Duello is the general set of rules for a one-on-one combat, or duel.  They help regulate dueling and thus help prevent vendettas between families and other social factions.  Each city and Order or faction will have its own specific rules and bi-laws for how a duel can be conducted to maximize resolution of conflict.

While mages can theoretically agree to duel in almost any fashion, the Duel Arcane is the most preeminent form because it does not demand any particular magical skills from the duelists. One mage (typically, but not necessarily a neutral judge or a second) must be able to cast Display of Power.  Mages who want a straightforward fight often prefer it, because the other forms often rely on specialized prowess that can give one participant an edge.

Duels: The Law of the Sword 
Occult knowledge is in finite supply. The Realms Supernal barely touch the Lie and leave Wise, willful prisoners hungry for more. Mages learn, compete and eventually fight for supremacy within a given territorial, ideological or occult domain. Awakened souls are too rare to squander with indiscriminate fighting and murder but too ambitious to easily surrender to external authority. Thus, the Lex Magica recognizes dueling as a legitimate way to resolve disputes.

A Consilium can try and punish wrongdoers, but mages don’t view it as an all-encompassing government in the fashion of Sleeper governments and institutions. Ideally, Consilia guarantee collective security, basic decorum and a court of last resort. Unless the prevailing culture is highly formal, mages who run to the council over every offense are usually thought to be too weak to handle their own affairs. Dueling exists to settle disputes between mages without burdening the Consilium or damaging the common courtesy of Awakened society. Nevertheless, there are those who feel that the whole affair smacks of a primitive, “gunslinging” mentality — and fight duels over delivering such slights. Why do they do it? What are the other advantages of duels?

The Duello

A combination of Western custom and Atlantean lore, the Code Duello (usually shortened to just “duello”) is a set of customs that determine what constitutes proper behavior during any kind of duel. Everything that is against Lex Magica is against the duello, but the reverse is not so; there are many legal ways to violate the duello, from mocking the loser to arriving late to fight. Some Consilia mandate strict adherence to the duello, but most do not. Even though the duello is fairly consistent across the Americas, variations enough exist to prompt travelers to inquire about what customs hold sway. The following describes elements of the duello as it exists in the Americas and most of Europe. Asian and African mages often have far different notions about how to organize ritual combat.

Even in the West, there are enough variations, local traditions and quirky laws to make a full description of the Code Duello impossible. Mages who twist the duello to their own ends are either hated or given a certain amount of grudging respect. Against expectations, the Adamantine Arrow often play fast and loose with the duello. Arrows habitually prepare for unrestricted warfare; by comparison, the average duel is a petty game and treated as such.

Binding Law

First and foremost, mages must do whatever the result of a duel compels them to do. Dueling agreements are legally binding oaths. If a mage promises to gather 10,000 pawns (points) of Mana for the winner in a year or forfeit her life, it has the force of centuries old Lex Magica behind it. If she loses and subsequently breaks her promise, the victor may slay her on a whim. Mages often sanctify dueling conditions with magical oaths (combining  Display of Power with the swearing of Oaths or a Geas), to encourage or ensure the honesty of participants. Consequently, mages should carefully agree upon the dueling conditions in front of sworn seconds. Confusion usually brings in the Consilium, which often rules against both parties to dissuade other dueling fools.

An example Dueling Oath:

I, who am called Zeno, swear this oath without arcane or mysterious compulsion. Should I be victorious according to the common codes of the Duel Arcane, my opponent, called Aurem, will relinquish the apprenticeship of the mage called Arctos to me for 90 days, transferring all solemn bonds and oaths of service. Furthermore, Arctos shall be free to become my apprentice if he wishes it, without interference from Aurem. Finally, Aurem will not entreat me to perform any service by action of thought, word or deed, for a year and a day from the date of the contest.

Should Aurem achieve victory by the Duel Arcane, I vow to pursue the Unclean magus called Angrboda, seeking his irrevocable death and thwarting his desires in all ways, until 90 days have passed, I have died, or I have delivered the head of Angrboda as an assurance of his death. I further vow that I will take the mage called Morvan as my companion and witness in this endeavor. Finally, I will not communicate with the magus Arctos or entertain communications from him for a year and a day from the date of the contest. The contest will be determined according to the common codes of the Duel Arcane, without addendum or alteration.

I acknowledge that the duel is Just, and that I may not seek the Great Right of Nemesis against any participant because of its outcome. Let all know that the oath I swear is law. If I break it, let

the Awakened inflict fair judgment upon me. 

Swift Justice

Any sizeable Consilium is so busy tracking local weirdness, territorial disputes, possible threats and political movements that they welcome duels as a way to offload a great deal of business to the honorable, angry people who want to go about it. Mages who appeal to the council about small matters may have to wait. If Boston suffers under a cannibal cult, why should its mages take time to listen to a petty argument over Mana rights? A duel settles matters then and there, with as much legal force as the Consilium itself can muster.

Privacy

By ancient law, dueling mages are never obligated to tell anyone else the cause of their quarrel. Mages fight over secret love affairs and mystical enigmas that they don’t want anyone else to know about. It’s against the duello to pry, and some Consilia consider using magic to dig up the dirt a minor crime.  Mages who duel for privacy’s sake often stipulate what they may or may not say according to different outcomes from the duel. One Mysterium scholar may silence another’s theories for a month, a year or a lifetime by winning a properly conducted duel.

Reputations

There is no quicker way to gain prestige than a duelist’s career. Most dueling forms rely on magical skill, so continual victory reflects a certain degree of proficiency in the Mysteries. All the same, the Duel Arcane does not require particularly deep knowledge. A duelist can master a few Arcana and hone his will to a fine edge that cuts through enemies without knowing a host of rotes or much about the secret history of the world. Even so, mages glorify duelists because duels are newsworthy, even glamorous. Magical duels are the closest things the Awakened have to a common sport (or less charitably, a Roman circus).

Protection from Reprisal

At the core of dueling law and custom is the idea that a duel is a final settlement. The winner is under no obligation to fight again. Furthermore, no mage may invoke the Right of Nemesis because of any event that proceeded from a properly sworn and witnessed duel. You cannot curse the man who beat your cabal-mate because he defeated her. You  might do so for some other reason, but your enemy can petition the Consilium to investigate your intentions. If the council discovers that you’ve invoked Nemesis under a bogus pretense, it punishes you accordingly. While this rule is taken very seriously, it doesn’t completely protect mages from a cycle of reprisal. Forgetting deception and Consilia corruption for a moment, it’s a fact that many duelists enjoy vendettas. A winner might not be obligated to fight again, but his enemy may insult and cajole him into accepting another duel.

Participants may enjoy protection from Nemesis, but often feel that using it is the coward’s way out. There is a significant subculture of duelists that believe that outside of their oaths, most of the legal protections shield cowards. They do not report infractions and snub mages who do. Subsequently, Consilii controlled by hardcore duelists preside over a highly fractious, violent community.

Law and Custom 
Even though sorcerers are well within their rights to just kill each other, following customs means that a mage claims the Pentacle orders as allies under the law. Cabals mark their emblems with a sword to communicate that they support the duello.

In theory, he challenge is simple: Any mage may approach any other and put forth any demand or insult. If the recipient refuses the demand or refutes the insult, the aggressor may consider it ground for a challenge. Mages who want to get right to a duel typically open with something unreasonable and/or unforgivable: “Give me that library you’ve been using to master soul-eating, you son of a bitch.” This sort of thing will sometimes happen when negotiations break down. Two mages might bargain over mutual aid, argue and end up challenging each other for services. Such duels are more common than those over simple insults, but such affairs of honor were very common at least a century ago.

The challenged party is under no obligation to accept a duel unless the local Ruling Council demands it (as they might to stave off an even more destructive conflict). In a perfect world, this might get rid of duels entirely, but a challenger can do any number of things to drive things to a duel. She could threaten to kill a mage who refuses to duel, intimate that she’ll use theft, blackmail and other forms of skullduggery, or simply ruin his reputation. When an occasion clearly demands a duel, Awakened

society labels those who refuse as cowards.

Conversely, the duello considers a mage who attacks a mage, his allies and his resources someone who has offered a duel. A beleaguered mage can put a stop to such predation by accepting the implied challenge. Of course, the type of sorcerer who simply lets loose with spells and bullets isn’t always honorable enough to move to formal dueling, either.

"When I first was given the position of Interfector in the Concilium of the Cerulean Peace, I went to the first gathering to lay down the law.  The city had dealt with some serious trouble the last couple months and the Guardians were tired of the strain it was putting on the Veil.  With my Iron Mask and concealed identity, I made sure everyone knew that further displays of vulgar magic will be met with swift justice and reprisal.  Stavros was outraged and I, not knowing any better, stood behind my threats.  He challenged me immediately to the Duel Arcane or I had to retract my decree.  Stavros threw the sun at my head.  It was not a great first impression and before the rest of the city's Awakened the Interfector was forced to back down after a crippling loss in the Duel.  I really hate that man." - Agent Jonathan Simmons, The Justicars (cabal)

Cheating:

No Cheating!

Of course, mages can and do sometimes ignore the formal rules of the Duel Arcane. They attempt to cheat in order to gain an advantage in the struggle, or lure an enemy into a duel and then spring a trap.  Cheating in a Duel Arcane essentially involves doing anything other than using magic to attack or defend in the normal fashion. So a mage who casts a spell to harm, weaken or transform an opponent, or to alter the conditions of the battlefield in some way, or who does anything else directly or indirectly to influence the outcome of the struggle forfeits the honor and protection of the duel.

The other mage is entitled to use whatever means to settle the matter from then on. Of course, proving that the other mage cheated can be a somewhat more difficult matter. If cheating can be proven or is evident to onlookers, the offender might be brought up on charges before the Consilium based on the body of law that has accrued around the Duel Arcane. Punishment varies from mild reprimands to incarceration for truly dishonorable acts.

Generally, cheating requires a mage to give up his attack for that turn of the duel in order to cast another spell or to take some other action, but some carefully planned cheats, especially involving
prepared spells or allies, may be done more subtly.

"I've never fought a Duel like the Pit Fights Aja puts on.  It's more like a brutal boxing matching, full contact magic and fists and meanwhile those Aja thugs are climbing all over the wrestling ropes and flinging spells at the two men beating each other to death in the ring.  Bribes, bets, all forms of cheating is highly encouraged and sometimes someone dies.  It's oddly addictive actually..."
- The Lamb, Boot (cabal)

Will & Wisdom: Resolution

Duels end for the following reasons:

1. One duelist meets the victory conditions. This is an ideal, unambiguous victory. The mage scores the first “touch” dueling with Space, blasts away her opponent’s Doors in the Duel Arcane and so on.

2. Both duelists meet the victory conditions. A somewhat awkward conclusion, this occurs when both duelists either score victory simultaneously (mutual “touches” in Spatial duels) or (in a poorly designed duel) both accomplish a task that only one of them was supposed to be able to achieve (binding both rulers of a spirit court without knowing that there were actually two of them). This is usually thought of as an honorable conclusion. Both sides receive the customary protection from reprisal and all non-contradictory demands unless they insist on dueling again (at which point they can renegotiate the terms from the beginning, if they wish).

3. One duelist can no longer continue. Unless the objective of the duel is to incapacitate, this is often thought of as a lesser victory — a loss that the opponent inflicted on herself. Unconsciousness, errant Paradoxes, sudden confusion and other circumstances can force a duelist to throw in the towel, so to speak.

4. Both duelists can no longer continue. This is the mark of fumblers except in the case of martial duels. In such cases, combatants often have such expert timing that they can only strike simultaneously. Japanese mages call this by the sword fighting term, aiuchi (“mutual killing”), since it might spell the deaths of both fighters. Otherwise, mages have been known to knock themselves out with clumsiness and botched magic. In this case, the duel is considered to have never happened. The duelists must make new arrangements or give up their dispute.

5. One duelist surrenders. This is an honorable defeat. According to the duello, the victor should make at least one concession to honor the loser’s good sense. One duelist forfeits by failing to attend. Not only does the no-show automatically lose, Lex Magica entitles the victor to use all necessary means to seize his agreed-upon concessions. The loser is not protected from vendetta in the slightest; the winner can use insults, property damage and assassins to harm him at will. Attempting to prevent

an enemy from showing up at a duel is cheating and against the Lex Magica.

6. There is a No Show.  If a duelist has a good excuse for his absence, it is customary (though not legally required) to reschedule the duel for a later date and to forbear from attacking the absent party. Some duelists refuse to accept such excuses, however, and what constitutes a good excuse varies from region to region. In many cities, it is excusable to miss a duel due to attack, disaster, or order from the Ruling Council. Bad scheduling and magical research are usually not valid excuses, nor is violence that the duelist instigated herself.

7. Neither Show.  If neither duelist shows, there is no formal result, but plenty of informal contempt. They have, after all, wasted the time of their seconds and made a mockery of Awakened customs.

8. The duel is halted by the Ruling Council. A Consilium’s Ruling Council can halt a duel and force a settlement, but most only do so during an emergency. Consilia have, in the past, tried to intervene in every duel, but have almost always drawn the ire of their constituents. Overruling a duel is popularly thought of as a tyrannical act.  The law normally lets duelists demand that the Ruling Council settle the conflict for them or compensate them for anything wasted in preparation for the duel.

9. One or both duelists cheat. Whoever didn’t cheat, wins and furthermore, retains right of Nemesis over the loser; she can hunt him down and kill him, if desired. Furthermore, since the cheat is effectively an oathbreaker, the winner can petition the Consilium for assistance. The Ruling Council also levies additional penalties. One common punishment is a magical oath that compels the mage to describe his crime whenever he enters into an agreement with another willworker. This lasts for at least a year and a day. Less forgiving Consilia may use mutilation, banishment and a host of other sanctions, since oathbreakers are almost universally reviled in a society where trust is so tenuous.

If both duelists cheat, then both are punished as above. The Ruling Council often resolves the dispute for the duelists by depriving them of whatever it was they were fighting over.

Ancient Precedence for Duels

One commonly found room in temples of the Time Before is easily recognized by Diamond Order mages: arenas for the Duel Arcane. Disputes and feuds were apparently frequent in the “perfect kingdom,” and Duels were common method of settling disagreements. Far more elaborate than any used today, these chambers provide each Duelist with an equal footing and entertain those watching.

Many archaeomancers speculate that such challenges also served as an art form and as entertainment in addition to their legal function. The most exquisite battles were recorded for posterity on mosaics and memory stones such as Atroxi Crystals some of which have survived to this day.

Duels and the Silver Ladder

The Duel Arcane are dominantly as Silver Ladder established concept in the Concilia where they are used.  They are minders of ancient law and tradition and the Duello was practically invented by them.

The Duel Arcane also has a special place at Convocations (gatherings of Concilia or Silver Ladder leadership) during the Day of Justice.  The Day of Justice is a time for mages to air formal grievances. The Lex Magica resolves most such disputes before they ever get to Convocation, but when Ruling Council officials, rogues and entire cabals are suspected of a crime, the Magisterium provides a higher authority whose deliberations can be scrutinized by all. Some come to a Convocation hoping for a better form of justice than they’d get from their Consilium or the Duel Arcane.

However, the Free Council of Assemblies claims this day as its own whenever its delegates bother to show up. It uses the day’s theme to challenge traditions by arguing that they violate universal principles of justice. Magisters rarely silence them out of hand but won’t tolerate filibustering or insults

Duels and the Adamantine Arrow
Despite their clear ties to the precepts of conflict, a literal embodiment of their Order, the Adamantine Arrow is divided about the worth of the Duel Arcane. Many Arrows think of it as a way for mages to posture without learning anything useful. The Duel Arcane permits combat in a completely contrived environment, bereft of the risks and chaos of real fighting. The method has its defenders, though, who think that it’s a fine arena to test combatants’ will and creativity.

Regardless of opinion, Arrows don’t  use the Duel Arcane very often. They prefer contests that apply to the wider world (see Other Mystic Duels post link above).  It has been used to test the resolve of someone who declares their desire to join their order and as part of recruitment tournaments.  They also use it as part of the Battle Stage of their training.

Adamantine Arrow Hosted Tournaments:

Mages are just as competitive as other people, and so a good match and a cheering crowd are welcome among the Awakened. The Adamantine Arrow sometimes hosts tournaments, in cities where the order has the resources to do so.

These tournaments vary greatly in their form and purpose. Some are underground, full-contact boxing matches, where mages place bets on which combatant will fall unconscious first and Moros cast spells to prevent clothes from getting bloodstained in close quarters. Others are formalized expressions of the Duel Arcane, with complex rules of propriety and challenge. The Arrow shies away from overt duels of magic for public tournaments, because of the risk of Paradox and because the order would rather incorporate some test of martial skill. Sometimes, though, the Arrow hosts contests of pure athletic skill. Races through the city, sometimes over rooftops parkour-style, are also possible.

Whatever the form the tournament takes, the Arrow invites any mage in the city (and sometimes Sleepwalkers) to qualify and compete. The point isn’t winning, at least not in spirit. The point is competition, excellence and challenge. Plus, though the Arrow never admits to it, hosting tournaments like this injects a sense that being a mage conveys benefits, that mages have an identity and a culture that goes beyond magic, and that being a mage can be fun. The Arrow finds that the best time to host such tournaments is when there are mages in the city who haven’t chosen an order but are trying to make a decision.