I had an apprentice who had huge potential towards being a fighter. She had just gotten zmud and was learning the ins and outs, but was starting to get jumped. She came to me to say that she wanted to stay divinely protected until she sorted everything out. I mentioned duellism to her and said, \"Why be divinely protected and unable to fight save for duels when you could choose duellism and not only challenge, but also be protected and bash your health up. \"

She really liked the sound of that and became a duelist. Bless her heart, she became an alchemist not just to fight, but because she loved the idea of farming and potion mixing and all those craftsmanship ideals any good loremaster professional should possess. I urged her to challenge, gave her quests to challenge certain professions, and even offered rewards for logs, but slowly but surely, after a week, she was just commodity collecting and dreading when I'd ask her about who she challenged.

People come to Avalon for different reasons, and everyone gets different things from it, but sometimes you just don't know what Avalon could be unless you're pushed. I don't want to see duellism go, as I do feel it does have its place in Avalon, but something needs to be changed. Somehow it needs to be constructed in such a way to inherently encourage fighting rather than depending on the city or guildmaster to pressure them into it. I plied pressure, used a stick and caret, but to no avail, and I see

it happening all around Avalon, not just in my guild.

I have no answers as of yet, but I think we should open this up to discussion and see what ideas all of you, the biased few have. It would be interesting to see what deities think too, if they're willing.

With respect

Jashiri Darling, Mistress of the Alchemists

Written by my hand on the 3rd of Springflower, in the year 1211.