This ritual is not about proving superiority. It is about confrontation, defeat, and the inevitability of downfall. Each fighter must win and lose—not by choice, but by the weight imposed upon them. The fight is never fair, nor should it be.
The rule is absolute:
No one loses voluntarily.
When the time comes, an imposed burden ensures their fall.
The battle takes place under the watchful gaze of Ancient Decayed Theater. The audience does not interfere, but their presence gives weight to every moment. Strength displayed in private is fleeting—strength witnessed, and lost, is something else entirely.
This is a ritual of ego, confrontation, and loss. It does not punish arrogance, nor does it glorify failure. It only ensures that every fighter knows both sides of the battle—domination and collapse.
Characters Involved
🛠️ The Forger → Strength, discipline, endurance. He has shaped himself like steel, but even steel can break. His loss is not one of weakness, but of immovable weight.
🜆 The Abyssal → Hunger, dissolution, inevitability. He fights like a force of nature, but nature itself is unstable. His loss is one of self-destruction.
🜄 The Shambler → Adaptation, movement, escape. She flows through combat—until she is made still. Her loss is not a failure of movement, but of being forced into stillness.
Equipment
🪞 The Warped Mirror
- Positioned on stage, facing the audience, The Warped Mirror does not show truth—it shows what the battle wants to reveal.
- It distorts, fractures, elongates. The fighters see themselves within it, but never as they are.
- Those who stand undefeated look larger than they are, more imposing than reality.
- Those who are about to fall see themselves diminished, stretched thin, unbalanced.
- The audience sees all of them at once. They know before the fighters do what is about to happen.
🪝 The Hook
- The final blow is always struck with The Hook.
- It is ceremonial and absolute. It does not kill—it pulls, yanks, drags the fighter into their destined collapse.
- No one can resist it. When The Hook is used, the fight is over. It marks the inevitability of loss, the point where the struggle ceases to matter.
The Crystals
💎 Galena → The Weight of Reality (The Forger’s Burden)
- Galena is too heavy to fight against.
- At first, The Forger moves with unshaken force, the foundation of his own control. But as his fall nears, Galena’s weight increases.
- He slows, his movements become sluggish. His own endurance turns against him.
💎 Cinnabar → Unstable Transition (The Abyssal’s Burden)
- Cinnabar is alchemical, unstable, shifting.
- The Abyssal fights like a force of nature, unrelenting and consuming. But when his downfall begins, Cinnabar alters him.
- He becomes reckless, his own hunger turning into excess. He fights himself as much as his opponent—until he collapses.
💎 Obsidian → The Cutting Edge of Stillness (The Shambler’s Burden)
- Obsidian is sharp, but fragile. It does not erode—it breaks.
- The Shambler evades, escapes, moves effortlessly. But when her fall nears, Obsidian holds her in place.
- She cannot shift, cannot step away. She is struck, unable to escape—until she is shattered.
The Ritual’s Structure
🕳️ Ancient Decayed Theater
A ruined, half-collapsed stage, yet filled with an audience that will not leave. They do not act, but they remember. They do not fight, but they judge.
The structure follows three phases:
1. The First Clashes – The Illusion of Strength
- Each fighter battles without their burden, unrestrained, fully in control.
- They stand before The Warped Mirror, seeing their reflection twisted—grander, more formidable. The illusion of power is complete.
- The audience watches not just the fight, but the distortion of truth itself.
2. The Handicaps – The Unraveling
- The second round begins. Now, the crystals come into play.
- The Forger, burdened by Galena, becomes too heavy to match his opponent’s speed.
- The Abyssal, disrupted by Cinnabar, becomes erratic, his strength turning against itself.
- The Shambler, trapped by Obsidian, can no longer evade. She must stand, and she must be struck.
3. The Moment of the Fall – The Hook
- Each fighter’s defeat is inevitable.
- The final blow is delivered with The Hook—not a weapon of death, but a weapon of submission to fate.
- The audience does not cheer. They do not mourn. They only watch.
- And The Warped Mirror reflects what remains of them—no longer towering figures of dominance, no longer invincible. Only what loss has left behind.
Meaning
The Ritual of the Lost Battle is confrontation played to its inevitable conclusion.
It does not favor strength, nor does it punish failure.
It does not reward resilience, nor does it condemn collapse.
It only ensures that every fighter, no matter how powerful, knows the weight of defeat.
The Hook will always find them.
The Warped Mirror will always show them.
And the audience will always remember.