Nine Dragon Iron Scale Duelist
Foul creature, you will fight me! You cannot flee, and you cannot win. This shall be your final battle.
~Julia Neurin, Nine Dragon Duelist

Nine Dragon Duelists are the final authority on one-on-one combat, obsessed with personal glory and gifted beyond compare in the art of the duel. They train from the moment they choose their profession in order to be the best at dueling, believing the duel to be the ultimate test of one’s skills, with life awarded to the winner and death being the consequence for failure. Nine Dragon Duelists excel at single combat to such a degree as to preclude them from nearly any other combat role. All of their training focuses on fighting one foe at a time and rewards them for dedicating themselves to dispatching a single enemy, while hindering foes who choose to ignore them. The Nine Dragon Duelist is also a master of the Iron Scale school of martial combat, granting her enhanced access to that school’s duel-focused techniques.
An Nine Dragon Duelist is a true toe-to-toe warrior, with little room for being anything else. She focuses all her time and effort on defeating her enemies as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Nine Dragon Duelists tend to focus on melee combat with only a light emphasis on ranged combat, as many of the Iron Scale school’s specialized feats require being gifted in melee combat.

This must be stopped! This barbarian has been running around the city convincing all of our young nobles to duel him, and they have all been humiliatingly defeated. More than a few have died! The guild of fencing instructors is in an uproar, not to mention the parents of these young fools! And sending the guard after the madman has been…less than successful. We must find a way to get rid of him!
~Vizier Esserand Vimar

Nine Dragon Duelists are duelists first, and everything else comes second. They live for the fight and take great pride in it. To the Nine Dragon Duelist, nothing is so worthy a cause as fighting, and most Nine Dragon Duelists spend their lives traveling the world looking for foes worth having it out with.

Daily Life:
Nine Dragon Duelists come from a wide variety of backgrounds, which impacts their lifestyles in predictable ways. Nine Dragon Duelists with wealthy backgrounds often stay in the most elaborate accommodations, eating fancy food and keeping company with the wealthy. On the other hand, an Nine Dragon Duelist whose background was in sailing would likely spend most of his life on his ship, traveling the seas and looking for adventure. Most Nine Dragon Duelists have one thing in common, though: they like to travel.
Once they’ve defeated all their local rivals, an Nine Dragon Duelist must go out into the world in order to seek new challenges and live a fulfilling life.

Notables:
Nine Dragon Duelists occasionally achieve great notoriety. Most often, Nine Dragon Duelists achieve fame for killing lots of people and receive admiration based solely on their skill with a sword. Maximilion Scherzend is the most notable Nine Dragon Duelist of the modern age, and has achieved something of legendary status after his 100 th recorded victory in an honor duel. A mercenary who cares more about the chance to fight than what he is fighting for, Maximilion has been a terror of knights and tyrants alike throughout the world. One of his most famous exploits was when he defeated the Emperor Phasiss in single combat at the behest of Duke Trimoldi, only to challenge and subsequently slay Trimoldi two hours later at the behest of Phasiss’ widow. Perhaps the most dangerous thing about Maximilion is that the challenge of the fight can often result in him lowering his normally obscene fees, making a visit from him a nightmare for powerful fighters throughout the lands.

The founder of the Iron Scale school and first of the Nine Dragon Duelists was a man called Hans Villner, who wished for nothing less than to be the greatest swordsman of all time. He wandered many kingdoms, seeking the best warriors and challenging them to duels as a way to prove his prowess. He defeated each in turn and was soon recognized as the greatest fighter of all time, a problem which many warriors saw as a threat to their own survival. Thus, eight warriors of great skill all confronted Villner at once, and though his skill was such that he defeated four of them in turn, he was ultimately overwhelmed by their numbers and killed. Years later, his journals were found containing the secrets of his techniques, which would be compiled and learned by swordsmen around the world.

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