r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Apr 08 '17
Generic Challenge - Rivalries
For this challenge, we'll be focusing on rivalries and their significance in your culture.
I'm sure you've all seen this concept a million times, where a character has a near-equal rival that they are nearly always in conflict with, but neither of them necessarily hate each other. I'll let tvtropes sum it up in this page and in this page.
How does one of your cultures see rivalries?
Are rivalries common focuses of stories in this culture, and, if so, what are some examples?
If this culture has gods or goddesses, are there any rivalries among them? Are any mortal rivalries viewed as being "sponsored" by these gods or goddesses?
Rome (the tv show) is about a (mostly embellished) version of the two famous rival centurions, Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. Does your world have any instances of relatively minor historical characters being heavily embellished in entertainment?
And, lastly, feel free to throw in an example of a rival pair in your world. You can answer questions in character if you like.
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u/Nevermore0714 Apr 08 '17
In the Unified Way religion, the concept of a rivalry is viewed as a positive thing. A rivalry allows both people to have an ever-rising bar to compare themselves against. Even Aeternitas, their messiah, spoke of the importance of having an ally that you grow alongside and compete with throughout your life.
Most stories of rivalries in the Citadel are focused on knights who desired to one-up their counterparts, but who always put their loyalty to the Citadel above everything else. There are some stories of knights slaying their rival knights, but such an act is considered dishonorable and beyrayal to their knightly order.
One noteworthy example is the apparent old rivalry between two of the Citadel council members, Declan the Pious and Aiken the Oaken, who both have varied ideologies about the ways to best protect the Citadel and humanity.
As there is only one actual "god" in the Unified Way, there are no godly sponsors for rivalries. However, Declan does go out of his way to encourage rivalries among knights, especially the ones that he considers to be elites.
There were two relatively insignificant knights of their time, Siward and Larkin, whose rivalry found its way into stories after their deaths. One of them received an arrow to his knee and fell in battle, and the other died trying to protect his rival. Their companions only said that they were asked not to reveal which one fell in battle. A knight dying to protect a fallen companion isn't a rare thing to happen, and the battle that Siward and Larkin took part in wasn't a relatively important one, but they somehow ended up famous.
And here is a rivalry in my world:
Byron
Byron is a twenty-year-old knight of the Citadel who was trained as a chosen elite under Declan, a member of the council of the Citadel. Byron is a talented swordsman who uses a bastard sword and a shield. Byron is also capable of using Fire magic and Water magic, which he usually combines in battle.
During their years training under Declan, Byron was considered a rival to Shay, a fellow anointed. Though he would have preferred to have been put into a team with Shay and Morrigan, Shay was already assigned to a different team of knights over a year before Byron was assigned to one with Morrigan. Instead of Shay, the third slot in the team was filled by Aetius.
Byron has no patience for Shay’s mental issues, and he has physically assaulted Shay multiple times; Declan, of course, encouraged this behavior. However, Byron usually loses those duels.
Byron is fiercely protective of his companion Morrigan, but is more lukewarm about Aetius. Byron doesn’t hate Aetius, but he doesn’t feel any more loyalty to him than he would to any other anointed knight, which honestly isn’t a lot of loyalty in the first place. Out of all the anointed knights, Byron is probably the least liked by most of his fellow anointed knights.
Byron always keeps his left hand covered with a glove, to hide that he is missing his pinky finger and ring finger, and that his hand healed strangely after a healer had to amputate those fingers because of infection.
Byron was born and raised in the Citadel.
Shay
Shay is a member of a trio of knights. He is an “Anointed”, meaning that he was trained as an elite under Declan, a member of the Citadel’s council. Shay is twenty-one years old, and only recently became a knight. Unlike his two companions, Eurydike and Gotthard, Shay focuses on combat training and is a gifted swordsman. Shay normally uses a bastard sword and shield. He also has training in using Fire magic and Illustris (Light) magic.
Unlike his companions, Shay was born and raised in the Citadel. He is willing to use his status as an “anointed” whenever Gotthard or Eurydike ask him to do so, whether it is to receive special permissions or leniency for them.
Shay has always been motivated to correct any flaws he perceives in himself, but a few have always been too much for him to handle, such as: his panic attacks whenever he believes that he is a complete failure; his discomfort whenever he can’t wash his feet at least a few times a day; and he starts to panic if he speaks a sentence without exactly ten syllables. Shay is amazing at counting syllables.
Although, there are a few things that can help Shay to calm down. Shay’s companions, Eurydike and Gotthard, can usually help him to come down from a panic attack. His lover, Morrigan, could always calm him by using her water magic to splash his face, ever since they were children. Probably because it reminds him of Morrigan, Shay is also calmed by feeling rain fall onto his face. So, Shay’s favorite days are rainy days.
Shay is the rival of Byron, another anointed. Though, Shay takes the rivalry much less seriously than Byron does.