When the Duelling system was first established on the Foundation of the Second Empire by the Emperor Zarak I, Duke of Aven, in the Year 1000, all Offices (including the Lion Throne) were open to challenge by any Noble. It soon became apparent that this was too disruptive, to the Emperor in particular, and that some form of feeder system was needed. On retaking the Lion Throne in the Year 1004 after a series of challenges, Zarak I therefore established the Noble Championship; a single Duelling ladder with the Emperor as First Champion and with only the Second Champion being able to challenge for the Lion Throne, everyone else having to work their way up the ladder. Initially there were Fifty Noble Champions, with new entrants having to challenge for the Fiftieth Championship. The Noble Championship was not in those days known as the House of Aven. The term "Noble House" was used to refer to the various Noble families, of which the Duchy of Aven was the pre-eminent. At this time the Swords "Cumarel", "Asareal" and "Halamil" were wielded by the Dukes of Mastar, Tarmor and Hapral respectively; all close allies of the Emperor.
This system endured until the Year 1250, by which time the numbers of Noble Champions (up to 150) and the practice of the Emperor blocking out the Championships beneath him with loyal supporters were leading to frustration amongst the younger, stronger Noble Champions. An alternate Championship was therefore set up, based in Hapral, the Champion of which was Governor of Hapral Province and who was granted the right to challenge for the Lion Throne in addition to the Second Champion of the Valdrean Championship (as it now became known). There were initially 100 Champions of Valdran and 50 of Hapral. The Sword "Halamil" had by now been inherited by the Earls of Bavenne, who were elevated to the status of Dukes.
In the Year 1375 the powerful Decus XII, Duke of Mastar, Second Champion of Valdran, took the Lion Throne. His first act as Emperor was to establish a third Championship ladder able to challenge for the Lion Throne, which he named the Noble House of Mastrin. He decreed that the former hereditary Sword of his Duchy, "Cumarel", would become the Holy Sword of Mastrin, to be wielded by the Champion of Mastrin (who if he became Emperor would also become Champion of Valdran, passing Cumarel to the former Second Champion, now First Champion of Mastrin).
This precedent was followed by the Emperor Leo XXI, Duke of Tarmor, who on taking the Lion Throne established a fourth Championship ladder known as the Noble House of Tarm in 1392. He too decreed that his ancestral Sword would now be wielded by the Champion of the House, as "Asareal", Holy Sword of Tarm.
In the Year 1430 the Championship of Hapral was renamed as the House of Bavenne by Castor IV, Duke of Bavenne, on his taking the Lion Throne, and he too dedicated "Halamil", Holy Sword of Bavenne as the Holy Sword of his House. The Championship of Valdran was renamed the Noble House of Aven, in honour of the defeated and well-respected former Emperor, Nestor VIII, Duke of Aven, and granted the soubriquet "Oldest House", in recognition of its history stretching back to Zarak I. There was no House Sword of the House of Aven. The Ruling House was from now on known as the Imperial House, the Emperor no longer becoming Champion of Valdran. The Champion of the Imperial House wielded the Sword of the Emperors, with the House Sword being wielded by the Second Champion.
By the 1500s the rise of the Noble Houses as power bases for the Nobility was leading to the decline in importance of the old Duchies. The Duchies of Aven, Mastrin, Tarm and Bavenne had all now become titles and landed estates of (usually) pre-eminent families within the wider power base of their respective Noble Houses. Further Duchies followed suit, easing the pressure on the system as the number of Noble Champions continued to grow. The Noble House of Carrilon was founded in 1507, the Noble House of Satril in 1508 and the Noble House of Jalaskir in 1557, all by Imperial Charter.
The Noble House of Gytrasan was founded by Imperial Charter in the Year 1956, as the number of Noble Champions continued to grow. The number of Champions in each House was now stabilised at about 50, although the exact number was fixed by the Head of each House, an Office appointed by its Champion, and normally granted to an esteemed retired former Champion.
In the Year 2436 the House of Mastrin fell when a Dungeon Expedition led by Decus XXXI of Mastrin, Champion of that House and Commander of Fort Venture, was lost without trace and the House was officially disbanded by the Emperor, Narsus XIV of Aven. In place of the former House of Mastrin, the Emperor granted to Normeikl I of Bavenne, Director of the IDS, an Imperial Charter to form the new Noble House of Normeikl. The old Ox Province (Province No. 22) was renamed Normeikl Province and granted to the House of Normeikl as their Ancestral Seat. There was never a Duchy of Normeikl. By now the Provinces bearing the names of the old Duchies were ruled by Governors, which were Offices open to challenge by any Noble Champion, though by custom and practice they were normally held by Champions of the Noble House bearing their name. Noble families of the House traditionally held landed estates in their eponymous Province, but most of the old Dukedoms were by now little more than honorifics.
On Empire Day 2501 Arril I granted an Imperial Charter to the Men of Heaven (who had taken sanctuary in Valdran following the Fall of Heaven) to form a new Noble House of Heaven in reward for their service in recent wars. Kyarlin of SARAN, the new Champion of Heaven, was granted by SARAN the restored Seventh Sword, "Cumarel", now of Heaven but said to be the same Sword as Cumarel of Mastrin, lost in Decus XXXI of Mastrin's ill-fated Dungeon Expedition of 2436.
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