04/06/2025
The Origin of Grudgeball
(The version that is not told by the Lorekeepers)
The races of the Tattered Realms had been at each other’s throats for longer than even the eldest tomes recall. The Lorekeepers tell of one version of how they brought Grudgeball to the masses in place of war.
But a legend tells of one battlefield, long ago, where it happened a little differently.
In the aftermath of a brutal clash between an Orc Marauderz–Vermarch Alliance and a coalition of Humans, Dwarves and Alfar, an argument broke out. While gathering the dead, a Dwarf and a Human squad began fighting over the rightful return of a particular head. Resolving the dispute either way would have sparked a grudge deep enough to shatter their alliance.
To avoid bloodshed, the commanders proposed an alternative: let the gods decide—through a contest of strength and skill.
Rather than literally brawling over the head, a stone was chosen, roughly the size of the disputed head, and daubed with the blood of several fallen warriors from each side. The challenge was simple: whichever squad could carry the blooded stone through the opposing squad and across a defensive line would win. Best of three.
To maintain some sense of neutrality, the Alfar were asked to send an adjudicator. They were scornful of the whole affair and dispatched Vaelion Paelquil, a quiet, low-ranking spearman who had spent the battle tending the wounded.
What the others didn’t know was that while Vaelion was a poor warrior he was a great scholar of ancient customs. When asked to officiate, he stepped forward and offered structure. He proposed that each squad raise their banner at the end of the pitch they were attacking—symbolising a journey home for their fallen. He added Alfari runes into the blooded stone and named it the rune-stone.
Though intrigued by his insight, the Humans and Dwarves took one look at the lanky, bookish Vaelion and decided he wouldn’t last two minutes if tempers flared. Each therefore put forward a champion to enforce Vaelion’s rulings:
• From the Dwarves came Bargrund Redmaul, a veteran who had saved a trapped band of knights in the preceding battle.
• From the Humans, Sir Edric of Holtmere, one of the rescued knights, eager to honour the Dwarf’s courage and keep the peace.
The match was brutal, thrilling but crucially there were no lethalities on the field of play. Though several players collapsed from their injuries, no one died. The Humans edged a win, two scores to one, with a last-minute throw.
Watching from the sidelines, a group of Orcs, who had been looting more than honouring their dead, became enthralled at the brutal spectacle. The Orc warlord, Gorag Makar, approached Vaelion and demanded a chance to play, thinking he could out muscle the humans.
Vaelion, seeing a rare opportunity to avert further war, agreed – on one condition: the loser must cede the field. To Vaelion’s surprise, Gorag accepted. The Vermarch, not to be left out, insisted on their involvement in a dispute that would affect their alliance, so Vaelion proposed a second match. This time with mixed squads from each of the alliance and the coalition.
The Human-Dwarf-Alfar leaders, weary of conflict, agreed. An Orc and a Vermarch champion were appointed to officiate alongside Vaelion, Bargrund and Sir Edric.
The second match in the history of Grudgeball was played before the five assembled armies. It ended in a 3–2 victory to the human alliance. The only casualties were overexcited spectators.
Gorag honoured the agreement and ceded the field, though he blamed the Vermarch for the loss. Bitter but impressed, he proposed a rematch: not between alliances, but race against race. Neutral ground. Equal footing. A tournament in which each team played the other. For a stake to be decided.
Vaelion and his four co-officials spent the time leading up to this tournament establishing the laws of the game and inscribing the first Lorebook of Grudges. The Lorekeepers were born.
Grudgeball spread quickly – first as a way to settle feuds, later to mark great events, and eventually as a sport played for glory and pride. Today, Lorekeepers officiate every sanctioned match. Those who defy their authority or resolve grudges by any other means risk annihilation from the Lorekeeper Legion and their allies who uphold the game.
War has therefore mostly ended in the Tattered Realms, other than in the Cursed North. That’s not to say there are not still adventures to be had and deaths by the sword. But large-scale combat is all but over in the parts of the Tattered Realms that honour the ways of Grudgeball.
It was only years later that Vaelion went to return the original head to the Human squad, only to discover it was, in fact, an unrecognisable Alfar skull. It was quietly enshrined as the first relic of the Lorekeepers.
