The Jack & The Knave

The Jack & The Knave is the name of a world-famous archery tournament held each year in Oakhollow, Elssyia. It is also the name of an elvish folk tale which tells of the supposed founding of the tournament. 
==The Legend==
Long ago (some scholars have placed the legend as far back as 2,000 years before the Common Age), there lived two friends named Jack and Knave. Jack was a wealthy and affluent elf who was also kind-hearted and used his riches to help the poor. Knave, on the other hand, was a conniving and greedy trickster who believed that Jack was wasting his money on the poor and desired it for himself. 
Knave devised a scheme to win the money for himself. He challenged Jack to an archery contest, with the winner getting a prize of his choice. Jack agreed to what he believed was a friendly wager. Knave smiled, as he had already made a deal with a local wizard to cheat at the contest. When the day of the contest came, Knave presented the target and stated the rules: whoever's arrow touches closest to the bulleye after we both shoot, wins. Jack agreed to the terms and Knave snickered with devilish glee as he strung his bow.
When Knave took his shot, the wizard's spell caused his sloppy shot to curve directly onto the bullseye. Jack saw the treachery, but could say nothing: to all other observers, Knave's arrow stuck straight out of the bullseye and he was winning fair and square. Heartbroken by his friend's cheat, Jack nevertheless took up his bow.
Jack's shot flew true, though it is disputed whether he made the shot with his own skill or was blessed by the gods of the wood. In any case, Jack's arrow split Knave's arrow directly in two down the middle and lodged itself firmly in the bullseye. Knave stood in shock as Jack laughed and declared himself the winner. As his prize, he demanded that Knave clean up his dastardly ways and become a good person.
==The Tournament==
The tournament is held each year at the Elssyian capitol of Oakhollow. The date varies but it is generally during Summerhold a few days after the Festival of the Sun. Thousands of archers gather from across Galapygos to compete in the tournament, which consists of a number of archery-related events including mounted archery, trick shots, and speed shooting. 
===The Jack & Knave Challenge===
The most famous portion of the tournament is a re-enactment of the titular legend. In this portion, two archers compete against each other, alternating between the roles of Jack and Knave. The Knave player shoots an arrow into the target, and the Jack player must attempt to break the arrow with their shot. Each successful shot earns 1 point. The players alternate roles until one player scores 4 points. 
The challenge used to require that the arrow be split, but this proved to be much too difficult. Now any kind of breakage of the opponent's arrow results in a point. 
==See Also==
*Elssyia
*The Reachlander Games
Category:Events
Category:Legends