"Always make sure you have Doktor Schuller on site. Deniability? Good question. Pay her in advance, treat her with civility, and she'll turn around. Then she sees nothing until the duel is over, one way or another."
- —Blademaster Aleksandr Amblestadt's advice to his students[2a]
A Duellist is a specialist in the lethal application of sword and pistol, hiring themselves out to safeguard the honour of others, though many of their kind come from the ranks of younger nobles who duel for their own purposes. A complex legal system of formal duels was established throughout the Empire ages ago, and duellists are experts in taking advantage of this code for themselves and their clients.
Role[]
Duellists come in two varieties: happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care swashbucklers who regard their exploits as a continuous adventure, and deadly serious fighters who wear their honour on their sleeves and are very quick to take offence at any slights, imagined or otherwise.[1a]
Duellists typically get their start as apprentices to "blademasters," as the most accomplished and experienced duellists are known. Many a foolhardy apprentice has been killed or crippled in this dangerous trade. Those who survive past apprenticeship may have to supplement their income through other means. Some work as mercenaries or caravan guards, others as judicial champions -- essentially duellists in trials of combat. Other duellists travel the length and breadth of the Old World in search of masters to teach them exotic techniques.[2a]
Within the military hierarchy of the Empire's State Troops, skilled duellists may act as champions for regiments of Empire Swordsmen.[3]
Tilean Style[]
Tilean Duellists ambushing their target
Tilean duellists are top-of-the-range hired killers. Very flashy and expensive these professionals have a reputation to fight dirty, even by Tileans standards.[6a]
All the dueling instructors of Nuln taught the Tilean style, disliked particularly by sergeants of the Reiksguard in the Empire, who considered it a fitting style only for women and who preferred to hold their sword at waist height, pointed at their opponent.[5a]
The land of Tilea is famous for its numerous vendettas, as rich and poor families alike resolve their feuds with the use of duellists. They are usually equipped with a sword and a dagger, and with throwing knives for killing the enemy from the distance, yet their most notorious equipment in use by these fighters are their cloaks, used to deflect enemy attacks and to confuse them.[6a]
One of the most infamous of these hired killers are the mercenaries known as Vespero's Vendetta.[4a]
Estalian Diestros[]
Adherents of the Figueroa fighting style, known as Diestros, fight and duel across the southern land of Estalia. Some, bored with their homeland, seek excitement elsewhere, favouring Tilea and Bretonnia. The bravest travel northeast to the Empire to test their rapiers against worthy opponents, and to see a land in the front line of the struggle against Chaos.[7a]
The knights of Bretonnia and Diestros of Estalia have been known to harbour rivalries. They have very little understanding of one another's fighting styles, and this incomprehension has been responsible for much of the existing tension between the realms.[8a]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 1a: pg. 67
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roelplay 4th Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 2a: pg. 71
- 3: Warhammer Armies: The Empire (7th Edition)
- 4: Town Cryer 14
- 4a: pp. 20-26
- 5: Reiksguard (Novel) by Richard Williams
- 5a: Ch. 2
- 6: Warhammer Monthly Comic 32
- 6a: "Mordheim - City of the Damned Ch.5: Bodyguards" by Gordon Rennie
- 7: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Career Compendium (RPG)
- 7a: pg. 69
- 8: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Knights of the Grail (RPG)
- 8a: pg. 29
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