Etto the Fierce was the mercenary captain of a mercenary company called the Venators which was in service to the Tilean city-state of Miragliano. Etto challenged the Bretonnians under Baron du Bors to the Tournament of Ravola in 1425 IC due to the Bretonnian baron's arrogant and presumptuous behaviour.[1a]
The prize of the tournament was supposed to be vineyards in Tilea that the Bretonnians had tried to conquer. When the joust began, a Bretonnian herald proclaimed the rules of the joust, with the most important being that magical weapons were prohibited from use. Seeing the loophole in the rules, the Tileans distracted the too self-assured Bretonnians by ensuring that the Tilean ladies present showed more than the usual favour to the Bretonnian knights. This left them so distracted that when the jousting began, the Bretonnians did not notice that the Venator knights fought with longer lances until after their defeat.[1a]
Since the tournament was held with blunt weapons, the Bretonnians survived their shame. They claimed that it was a fraud, but since longer lances were not considered magical, as per the rules of the joust, the Bretonians had to begrudgingly admit defeat. The Baron du Bors and his peers kept their promise and gave up their claims to Tilea, but the Venators' knights have since been vilified all throughout Bretonnia for this unchivalrous deceit.[1a]
Notes[]
It is not clear whether Etto's mercenary company, the Venators, is connected to Voland's Venators, a Tilean mercenary company of armored knights with a similar name, as the two units are separated in time by a thousand years.