The Tournament Theorem

You know, come to think of it there are way more tournaments in the world than makes sense. Especially when one considers how often the arena gets destroyed or the sponsor ends up being some evil cult using the blood and pain of contestants to fuel some ritual or another.

— Jasper Cameron, Leader of The Bronze Ravens

  There are several things around the world that can't really be explained. The Fae always speak the truth. The sun and moons rise in the east. Every story needs a good tournament. They aren't always gladiatorial in nature. A Battle of the Bards, a contest of wits in a game of CHARGE!, even cooking competitions, if you can believe it. They show up unexplainably often in the legends of heroes, yet at times it seems like outside of these legends they don't exist.   In fact, they show up so often in stories that they have been given a name in most bardic Colleges. It is called the Tournament Arc, and it seems the Fates have an unusual fascination with weaving that particular pattern. Maybe it is a convenient way for hidden strengths to be drawn out, or secret alliances to be revealed (and broken).   Of course, maybe it is a way or tie up massive amounts of the local economy while distracting people with the closest thing to a blood sport that civilized society allows. Not that certain tournaments aren't bloody. As mentioned previously there is a tendency for gladiatorial combat to be used by cults to perform blood sacrifices in plain site to the cheers of their victims, at least until those cheers turn into screams of terror, as was the case with the Grand Melee of Serpent's Bay.   I have my own theory, of course. Tournaments act as a filter, allowing the Fates or the Gods a convenient way to end the story of those deemed unworthy for one reason or another. It also seems to let those responsible for distributing the most powerful magical spells and artifacts put them in surprisingly worthy hands. And I do mean surprisingly worthy. How often have you heard of someone evil winning a powerful lost spell or legendary sword or bow? Almost never. Usually in such cases the prize in question turns out to be fake. Or cheating was involved and the intelligent artifact abhors such things, leading to a rather painful death for the cheater in question.