The Rules & Traditions for Line Wars:

Rules:

• All people involved have a truce period of a week both to arrive unchallenged and to leave again unchallenged.

• The line war is just that, a war between lines:  a teacher, his/her students, their students, and so on.  All people on the challenger's side must be from his or her line, and all defenders must be from the same line as the party challenged.

• Starting with the primary parties (the challenger & the challenged), all fighters must give both their name at the time of their first death and the name of their line before the fighting can begin.  This is to ensure that it's truly a 'line' challenge.

• The challenger

• Determines the number of combatants (generally not many!)
• Sets the time
• Decides the order in which his people fight (with the possible exception of the last two fights)

• The challenged

• Sets the place (frequently, 'That empty meadow will do.')
• Decides who on his side opposes the person sent out
• Has the options to immediately challenge anyone from the other side who wins (right of vengeance, effectively)
• Must fight the final battle of the challenge

• Once first blood is drawn, the unwounded party may choose to let the bleeding immortal yield -- but the wounded immortal must renounce his line and be accepted by at least one sponsor in the opposing line.  If accepted, he or she must spend three years working with that new teacher.  (One year to renounce the old line, one to be found acceptable, and one to be claimed by the new line?  Or maybe they just work in threes?)  It's always been an option, but usually only extremely loyal people come to something like this.

• The Line War does not end until the challenged person is dead.  The moment he or she dies, however, whether in a rebuttal challenge or the final combat, the war is over.

• No projective weapons can be used (bow, crossbow, atlatl, sling, guns, etc) but thrown weapons (knife, axe, javelin) are acceptable.  No poison is permitted.

Tradition:

• It is tradition that the challenged party fights the challenger as the final battle of the line war, but this is only tradition.  It is not a rule.  The challenged party must, however, fight the last battle... one way or another.